Possible paper ideas

[pegkerr]

While juggling a pretty heavy work load at the office today, my back brain was quietly mulling over possible proposals I might make for the Fantasy Matters conference. A few observations:

1) the deadline is in two weeks, so I don't have much time to come up with something, but on the other hand, they only are asking for a 250 word abstract.

2) I guess I'm thinking of submitting to present a paper rather than an author's sample to do a reading; I have fiction I could present (from the ice palace book), but I don't know if I'm ever going to finish that book, and I'm not actively working on it now. It feels more honest, somehow to do a paper. I need to find out how long of a paper they want (and would it get published?); it doesn't say in the Call for Papers. They only give you fifteen minutes for your presentation (it says with five minutes for questions; is that part of the fifteen minutes or an additional five minutes?)

3) What category I'd submit it under is a bit fuzzy. I am a writing professional, although not working actively on fiction now. I have a graduate degree, but am not in a program at the moment. So which category do I submit under? This is probably a question I can send to the inquiries e-mail for clarification.

Vague idea # 1

Something about the heart of flesh/heart of stone theme I've been chewing over with such fascination for so long. I've talked about tracing this theme throughout all the fiction I've loved (including, say, Dickens and Austen, among others). Looking at the specific call for papers for this conference, what can I say about the heart of flesh/heart of stone theme specifically in fantasy literature? Is there something about the working out of this theme that is particularly distinctive in fantasy? The whole germ of my thinking about this theme, after all, came from a fantasy novel, from pameladean's Author's Afterward to Tam Lin. I'd look again at Emma Bull's essay "Why I Write Fantasy," which in turn, touches upon Tolkien's "On Fairy Stories." (Although that latter essay is such a seminal work in fantasy criticism that it is hardly necessary to thrash it out again; and anyway, in terms of the presentation, that alone would more than take up the entire time allotted.) I'd love to touch upon this using Snape's character in the HP books as an example, as I spoke about during my snapecast essay. It might be a bit difficult to pitch a proposal on this for two weeks from now, however, when final story arc about his character won't even be coming out until mid-July.

*Sigh* I am not sure that my thoughts would coalesce enough on this idea, or I would be able to develop the structure of a solid paper.

Vague idea # 2

The fantasy element of transformation, specifically of the mortal becoming a bird. I'd have a particular authority to speak on this subject, as I've written a book doing exactly that (although perhaps presenting a paper where your own fictional work is part of the subject might be viewed as rather tacky? I have no idea what academic etiquette would be here.)

kijjohnson once gave me a swan card from a sacred animal tarot deck. The notes accompanying it talked about the swan entering Dreamtime (perhaps the collective unconscious, or even Death), ushering into a time of altered states of awareness and development of intuitive abilities.

"Swan medicine people have the ability to see the future, to surrender to the power of the Great Spirit, and to accept the healing and transformation of their lives. The Swan card is telling you to accept your ability to know what lies ahead. If you are resisting your self-transformation, relax; it will be easier if you go with the flow. Pay attention to your hunches and your gut knowledge and honor your intuitive side."

Could trace these ideas through a variety of works: The Children of Lir, Grimm, The Wild Swans--my re-telling, Nicholas Stuart Gray's, Juliet Marillier's works (which I'm rather embarrassed to admit I haven't even read yet), touching even perhaps The Goose Girl or The Ugly Duckling. There are actually loads of stories using this theme, the challenge would be limiting the subject matter.

Thoughts?

Of course, I reserve the right to do neither one of these paper ideas. I even might not submit anything at all. But do either of these ideas sound faintly interesting?

Comments

[alfreda89.livejournal.com]

If you go with the second idea, find out if anyone near you has the anime series PRINCESS TUTU, about a cute little duck who becomes a girl to save a tragic prince, and eventually becomes, well...I'm only 6 shows into it. But Will and Emma loved it -- say it's about the power of Story.

I like both ideas!

[daharyn.livejournal.com]

The way I understood the CFP, it's 15 minutes for your presentation and then 5 for questions on top of that. That's fairly standard.

I may be submitting something for this myself, if I have enough mental werewithal to pull together an abstract from the paper I'd give in the next few weeks. I'm trying to decide whether or not it's the best venue for the paper in question...

[cliosfolly.livejournal.com]

I agree with the 15+5 for questions = 20 total; that's a conventional time length in my field for conference papers. What this means for the paper itself varies a little on your reading speed, but the typical length is 8 pages, where your reading speed is 2 minutes per page. If you go much faster than 1.5 minutes per page, the pace is too quick for people to follow your thoughts easily.

[mayakda.livejournal.com]

I like them both, possibly number 2 more.
The woman transforms to bird is a pretty old story, isn't it? I think I remember reading a Philippine version where the garment to transform into (I forget if its a swan or goose) is very thin and filmy (silk?). So the hunter spies a band of birds transformed to maidens bathing in a lake, and he hides one garment in his blow-pipe, thereby trapping one maiden to be his wife.