Cosmological War in the Heavens: Mythcon 41Cosmological War in the Heavens: Mythcon 41

Over the weekend of July 9 – 12, Mythcon 41 happened in Dallas. I had never been to a Mythcon before but Co-Chair Randy Hoyt spoke with Willie Siros and me at ConDFW last February and asked if we would come and sell books. Willie and I have sold books together for many, many years as either Two Guys From Texas or, when we had our bookstore, Adventures in Crime and Space. Mythcon is run by the Mythopoeic Society and travels from city to city. This was its first venture into Texas.

The Mythopoeic Society is a non-profit organization devoted to the study of mythopoeic literature, particularly the works of members of the informal Oxford literary circle known as the “Inklings.” (taken from their website), So Mythcon is an academic convention devoted to fantasy literature with an emphasis on “the Inklings”, i.e. J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Charles Williams. These three had an informal group at Oxford which met to discuss many aspects of myth, legend, and writing. Individually they produced some of the finest works of fantasy seen during the 20th century.

Willie and I had our fascinations with this type of literature in the day and thought it might be fun. Especially since the author Guest of Honor was Tim Powers, a favorite of ours as well as a friend.

Academic conventions are a little different from most SF conventions. Generally there are panels and papers presented. There is a small dealer’s room. That is about it. Not quite so with Mythcon. There was a Masquerade of sorts combined with a play by Charles Williams. Several guests and presenters wore costumes. Normally there would be no filking (singing with a science fictional twist). Yet, there on the program for each night was the Bardic Circle.

The dealer’s room was small. There was a table for the Society, an academic book dealer from Wichita, KS and us. There were also various donated volumes for the silent auction. And a small eight panel art show set up in the dealer’s room.

There were a number of genre writers present, including Powers, A. Lee Martinez, Jason Henderson, Shanna Swendson, Suzanne Frank, Lou Antonelli, Valerie Frankel, M. B. Weston, and myself. The academic Guest f Honor was Janet Brennan–Croft from the University of Oklahoma, who presented a paper, entitled Psyche in New York, The Devil Wears Prada Updates the Myth.

I attended a couple of panels including What You Should know About Comics Today where I was able to hold forth on Bone and The Walking Dead and Appropriating Divinity: Gods and Other Mythological Beings in Fantasy Literature. I heard about half of this panel and it was fascinating. Willie did one called Are Fantasy and Science Fiction Social Commentary in Disguise? which I would have loved to hear since Tim Powers, Lou Antonelli, Shanna Swendson and Janet Brennan Croft completed that panel.

Following the auction there was the Khazad Dûm Book Toss. Around the bar and dealers room you could hear some fascinating conversations. People were quoting Tolkien and Lewis from memory to defend various points of view. I managed to obtain a copy of Kirk’s Works, a volume of Tim Kirk’s art. DFW fans were around the convention too. I saw and spoke with Dwight Sims, Ed Scarbrough and Neil and Cris Kaden at the show. Also, nine time Hugo winner Mike Glyer (fan writer and fanzine) was there with his wife Diana who had won a 2008 Mythopoeic Society Award for her study The Company They Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community * (Kent State University Press, 2007)

And, as always when Dallas conventions happen, there was great food. A group went to Red, Hot and Blues for fabulous Memphis style barbeque that caused more than one person to severely overeat.

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures while I was there.

I guess academic conventions have changed over the years. I had fun at this one and the people were great. If you are interested, next year’s Mythcon will be in Albuquerque, NM. Go to http://www.mythsoc.org/ for additional details.