Summer!

Happy solstice, everybody! This is the day that Peg looks forward to every year: the most light! Hours of sunlight to help keep Peg happy and centered.

I try not to let myself contemplate too long the fact that it's all downhill from here.

malinaldarose has been griping about offices that keep the air conditioner too high. My firm does this, too, and it's irksome. But I have developed a solution: I have developed the happy habit of bringing a sarong to work every day. They are cheap, bright enough to lift the spirits, light enough that I don't feel smothered, but they really help to keep the air conditioner chill at bay.

First pass at Fantasy Matters proposal

(This is 227 words; the maximum is 250):

Flesh, Stone, or Missing Altogether:
The Heart as Embodiment of Humanity in Fantasy Literature

O had I known at early morn Tomlin would from me gone
I would have taken out his heart of flesh,
Put in a heart of stone

In the Author's Afterward to her fantasy novel, Tam Lin, Pamela Dean suggests that the book was about keeping a heart of flesh in a world that wants to put in a heart of stone, and how learning and literature can help their adherents accomplish that. The idea of a heart of flesh versus a heart of stone is a trope that has been used throughout the history of literature, a powerful metaphor which captures something essential about the experience of being engaged with the world, curious, creative, compassionate, vulnerable--in short, being human.

This paper will examine three metaphorical "states of the heart" (flesh, stone, or missing altogether) and explore why fantasy literature in particular is adept in exploring the different ranges of human experience suggested by this flexible metaphor. Examples from the work of Hans Christian Andersen ("The Snow Queen"), Barry Hughart (The Bridge of Birds) and Robin McKinley, among others, will be used to touch upon two advantages particular to the fantasy genre: 1) the illustrative contrast offered by the presence of non-human characters, and 2) the dramatic possibilities inherent in making the metaphor literal.

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Or something. Help me make it pretty? Your comments are very welcome.