Oz the Great and Powerful: A Blog in Two Parts

Cross-posted from my academic blog.

Part One: Oz, Disney and Authenticity

Tonight I am going to (finally) see Oz the Great and Powerful. Having heard two excellent papers on Disney’s previous attempt at an ‘official’ Oz film, Return to Oz, at the Returning to Oz: The Afterlife of Dorothy conference in February, I was in no doubt that OTGAP would be a box office smash.

How the NaNoWriMo Fever Can Help You Write Your Thesis

*Cross posted from my academic wordpress blog.*

It's now officially November, and the blogosphere is buzzing with the optimism of the first few days of National Novel Writing Month, better known as NaNoWriMo.

Procrastination or There's No Such Thing as Writer's Block

From @benwhitelaw

Last year I was talking to a newly published author (let's call them NewAuthor) at a book launch dinner, and discussed with them my theory on the non-existence of writer's block. Later I found out from a friend who had also been talking to NewAuthor that they had also had a conversation about writer's block, except it had been NewAuthor telling my journalist friend (or Journo) that they were suffering badly from this thing I had insisted doesn't exist, and had moved countries in an attempt to unblock. After hearing that from Journo my first reactions were to feel guilty and tactless. I'd like to blame it on the wine with dinner, but the truth is I'm incredibly opinionated, and rarely think at the time about how my opinions will be received by others. That's normally left until something like this happens, and then I feel guilty. I've been thinking about NewAuthor and our conversation that night quite a lot this week, as I struggle with my own writing.

Confessions of a Justified Bibliofile (1)

Welcome to the first of my Confessions of a Justified Bibliophile blog features, where I discuss the authors and books which have made the biggest impact in my life and on my writing. Each will be accompnied by a 'confession' related to the author or genre of the month.

Since this is my first Confessions... post and my Blogoversary, I'm holding a little competition to win the book I'm discussing. Just fill in the form at the bottom of the post. The winner will be selcted at random on 11th March 2011. I'm using The Book Depository, so check that they ship to your country here. So what could you win?

Title: The Red Tent
Author: Anita Diamant
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Genre: Historical Fiction
Synopsis: You will have heard of Joseph, the youngest son of Jacob and the oldest son of his favourite wife Rachel, but do you remember his sister from the Bible? Dinah's story barely takes up any room in the book of Genesis and it is told from the male persepective. This novel expands Dinah's story and attempts to interact with the account in Genesis to answer some of the questions many readers face; how could the son's of Jacob slaughter an entire city? why would a Prince look to marry a woman he had raped? what happened to Dinah?

Confession #1: I love reimaginings of existing stories. Whether it's Little Red Riding Hood comic book style, a novel based on a play by Shakespeare or a funky new spin on the vampire, re-tellings have always captured my imagination. So much so that my PhD is on the rewriting of myth in contemporary literature because the best thing about doing English Lit as a subject is that I get to work with literature I love, rather than literture someone else thinks is important.

This novel was recomended to me by a friend who thought that every woman should read this book. Not only is the writing excellent, the research into the history of the red tent shows and the concept of reading between the lines of patriarchial society really griped me. In some places the word midrash is used to describe this novel, something which Diamant disagrees with. Midrash is a particular way of interpreting a biblical story which goes beyond the surface level of the text and fills in gaps in the narrative. Its also sacred, which is where Diamant disagrees, quite rightly giving the full title as The Red Tent: A Novel.

Dinah is a character who haunts the reader long after the book has been closed. She is witty and bold and flawed and hurt. She somehow manages not to come accross as bitter, but melancholy. I am not a mother, but I would like to be some day and The Red Tent along with Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty are novels which inspire me to be a good mum (hopefully) and a good writer.

You can check out Anita Diamant's blog here and her thoughts on midrash and The Red Tent here.

To enter fill in this form. All informtion supplied will be used for the puropse of the competition only and will be deleted once a winner has been selected and contacted. If you supply a shipping address which is not on The Book Depository list for shipping, your entry will be deleted, so please check first. Good luck!

More Vampires: Vegitarians, VILFs and Fang Bangers

Much to the annoyance of my Other Half, I'm going to another Vampire conference and I'm presenting a paper again. I've not yet worked out why I'm such a glutton for punishment that I insist on doing papers on topics barely related to my main research interests i.e vampire literature. On the up side, I'll be giving this paper as a fully-fledged PhD student, so when people ask me what I'm doing I have a better answer than 'looking to start my PhD soon'. I also know people from the confrenece in April and even if Splooshface from The Dust Bunnies Under the Sofa won't be there this time (boo for being in Canada :-P) it'll still be a mini vamp-reunion.

Where I've been

I've been AWOL from the blog for a while, and even ended up missing the deadline for most of the Read-A-Thon I was taking part in. Apart from the usual work comitments, I've been working on my appliction to the Univeristy of Aberdeen to study for a PhD. A few weeks ago I was at the Myth, Literature and the Unconscious conference at the University of Essex in relation to this.  My supervisor (I can say that now that I've officially accepted my offer) was giving one of the keynote lectures, as was the amazing Marina Warner. She's pretty big in the area of myth and fairytale in women's writing.

And exhale...

I've been absent from the blog for a while now due to the massive amount of my time that my job takes up around this time of the year. I work for the External Relations department at a University and last week was our biggest event - Graduation.

Breaking News...really this time

After my last blog about Stephenie Meyer's new novella and my (healthy) obsession with Vampires, the University of Hertfordshire has annouinced that it is launching a Masters Degree in Reading the Vampire at the conference I'm presenting at this weekend. Since this happened there has been surge in the press attentions, and a few sites (like Jezzebel) even mention my paper. Its got me in a bit of a spin, and added some serious pressure to a conference I was really only doing for fun, but there is now a good chance of publication afterwards so YAY!

Breaking news...

...ok, not really breaking news since most twihards will know already, but I'm working on my Twilight paper for the 'Open graves, Open Minds' conference at the University of Hertfordshire in April, I thought a blog about vampire fiction in general and Stephenie Meyer's surprise publication specifically was relevant.