If you are a dreamer,come in.
If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer.
If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin.
Come in! Come in!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Seattle Joseph Campbell Round Table
I'm happy to announce that I was recently asked to resume the leadership of the Seattle Joseph Campbell round table group. :) A little history...
After attending the Campbell Centenary celebration at Esalen in the spring of 2004, I was asked by Robert Walter (president of the Joseph Campbell Foundation) to start a round table group in Seattle dedicated to discussion of Campbell's work. I did so, and we had our first meetings in the summer of 2004, with membership quickly growing to 40plus members. In the fall of that year, I began work on a masters degree in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and quickly determined that I couldn't continue to run the RT and give it the attention it deserved. Luckily for me, there was a new member of the group who had lots of energy and enthusiasm for the work, and he took over the leadership role in my place.
Now, 3 years later, I've completed my work at Pacifica, and Rich has moved on from Seattle to other projects. I've happily resumed the responsibility for the RT, and I have lots of good ideas for meetings. They will be held monthly on the 3rd Thursday of the month. We had our first meeting on June 7th, on the hero's journey. Next months meeting will be on Campbell's life and times.
After attending the Campbell Centenary celebration at Esalen in the spring of 2004, I was asked by Robert Walter (president of the Joseph Campbell Foundation) to start a round table group in Seattle dedicated to discussion of Campbell's work. I did so, and we had our first meetings in the summer of 2004, with membership quickly growing to 40plus members. In the fall of that year, I began work on a masters degree in Mythological Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and quickly determined that I couldn't continue to run the RT and give it the attention it deserved. Luckily for me, there was a new member of the group who had lots of energy and enthusiasm for the work, and he took over the leadership role in my place.
Now, 3 years later, I've completed my work at Pacifica, and Rich has moved on from Seattle to other projects. I've happily resumed the responsibility for the RT, and I have lots of good ideas for meetings. They will be held monthly on the 3rd Thursday of the month. We had our first meeting on June 7th, on the hero's journey. Next months meeting will be on Campbell's life and times.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Monday, May 07, 2007
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Reality is an oil slick on the ocean of the unconscious
My characters have the ability to traverse the spirit world, or the dreamtime, or the unconscious, or the underworld, use whatever term you prefer. They are shamans, of sorts, and the ability to do this runs through their family. They gain a special level of power by being twins in that family. The family legacy has been a responsibility to maintain a certain level of order in the world (in order to keep humankind from descending into chaos) by keeping order in the collective unconscious. However, there's a problem. A member of their family has a twin level of power despite not being a twin, and no one can determine why.
More to come later.
More to come later.
Title for novel number two
I've been rereading Neil Gaiman's Sandman series recently, and I think I've got the title for my second novel (the first being "The Mythologist"). In the introduction for the second volume, written by Clive Barker, he mentions "the dream travellers", which I think would make a terrific title, given my subject matter.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
What I've been reading lately
Now that I've finished my masters at Pacifica I've had the opportunity to read with a lot more breadth than before. It's fun reading fiction again. Some recent reads are:
1. The Historian: I just finished rereading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It was a big deal when it came out a couple of years ago-the author got a $2m advance for it. I loved it, actually. I buzzed through it in 3 days-didn't get anything else done. This time around, I wanted to reread it to see what she was doing that I liked so much-what kept me going on to the next chapter, and then the next. I also was able to notice when I started skimming (somewhere around page 500 or so).
2. A Short History of Myth: I finally got around to reading Karen Armstrong's take on myth. It's a small book, only about 130 pages, part of Canongate Books "The Myths" series. She has some good insights on myth and why it's important in human culture. I've been a big fan of Ms. Armstrong's ever since I read The Battle for God a few years ago, and I was really excited to hear what she had to say about my favorite subject. I did a lot of highlighting, which is always a good sign.
3. Succubus Blues: A couple of years ago I attended a writers workshop up in Vancouver, and I met a writer named Richelle Mead there. A few months later I met her again at the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association annual conference. She was trying to find an agent for her novel Succubus Blues. I got an email from her last fall, where she told me that not only had she sold Succubus Blues, but that she has three book series under contract! Maybe there is hope for me after all. Anyway, Succubus Blues finally came out this spring, and I got it read a couple of weeks ago. I really liked it-it was a fun read, sort of a romantic/fantasy/comedy, set in Seattle. Since it's set primarily in Queen Anne, I tried to convince her to include my favorite coffee shop El Diablo in the book, but she stuck with her invented locales. Author's perogative, I suppose. :)
4. Sake and Satori: Sake and Satori is Joseph Campbell's travel journal through Japan and other parts of the Far East, from when he traveled there in the 1950's. Since Ron and I are planning a trip to Japan to visit his sister soon, I thought it would be fun to read Campbell's take on the culture. Haven't finished it yet, but I'm enjoying seeing an informal, unguarded side of Campbell through these journals.
5. Tropic of Night: I've also been rereading Tropic of Night, by Michael Gruber, another book I read a few years ago and loved, because it's about shamanism and sorcery, which is tangentially related to my book. It's also interesting to read it again now after my graduate work, especially the class on African and African Diaspora Traditions, as there is so much in it about the Yoruba, divination, Santeria, voudoun, and other cultural aspects of that part of the world. I'll tell you, he really did his research. It's an incredible read, even the second time through, but dark, very dark. Not for the faint of heart.
1. The Historian: I just finished rereading The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It was a big deal when it came out a couple of years ago-the author got a $2m advance for it. I loved it, actually. I buzzed through it in 3 days-didn't get anything else done. This time around, I wanted to reread it to see what she was doing that I liked so much-what kept me going on to the next chapter, and then the next. I also was able to notice when I started skimming (somewhere around page 500 or so).
2. A Short History of Myth: I finally got around to reading Karen Armstrong's take on myth. It's a small book, only about 130 pages, part of Canongate Books "The Myths" series. She has some good insights on myth and why it's important in human culture. I've been a big fan of Ms. Armstrong's ever since I read The Battle for God a few years ago, and I was really excited to hear what she had to say about my favorite subject. I did a lot of highlighting, which is always a good sign.
3. Succubus Blues: A couple of years ago I attended a writers workshop up in Vancouver, and I met a writer named Richelle Mead there. A few months later I met her again at the Pacific Northwest Writer's Association annual conference. She was trying to find an agent for her novel Succubus Blues. I got an email from her last fall, where she told me that not only had she sold Succubus Blues, but that she has three book series under contract! Maybe there is hope for me after all. Anyway, Succubus Blues finally came out this spring, and I got it read a couple of weeks ago. I really liked it-it was a fun read, sort of a romantic/fantasy/comedy, set in Seattle. Since it's set primarily in Queen Anne, I tried to convince her to include my favorite coffee shop El Diablo in the book, but she stuck with her invented locales. Author's perogative, I suppose. :)
4. Sake and Satori: Sake and Satori is Joseph Campbell's travel journal through Japan and other parts of the Far East, from when he traveled there in the 1950's. Since Ron and I are planning a trip to Japan to visit his sister soon, I thought it would be fun to read Campbell's take on the culture. Haven't finished it yet, but I'm enjoying seeing an informal, unguarded side of Campbell through these journals.
5. Tropic of Night: I've also been rereading Tropic of Night, by Michael Gruber, another book I read a few years ago and loved, because it's about shamanism and sorcery, which is tangentially related to my book. It's also interesting to read it again now after my graduate work, especially the class on African and African Diaspora Traditions, as there is so much in it about the Yoruba, divination, Santeria, voudoun, and other cultural aspects of that part of the world. I'll tell you, he really did his research. It's an incredible read, even the second time through, but dark, very dark. Not for the faint of heart.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Parking lot conversations about myth
An interesting day in the life of a stay at home mom with literary/mythological aspirations.
Alex was a very smiley boy all day. I love to play the game where I tickle his cheek with his toes, and he loves it too. Now he's starting to laugh before I even touch his face, which is hilarious.
Took Pepper to the vet today-she looks good, for 13 years old. He is having me put all the cats on Revolution for parasite control, rather than Advantage, in order to keep the worm situation under control, because of the baby in the house.
After the vet, we dropped Pepper off at home then headed to Costco to pick up a few things. In the parking lot, the lady parked next to us told me that she was going to check the web site on my bumper sticker. A little background-a few weeks ago, I ordered a bumpersticker from the Mythic Imagination Institute's Cafe Press page. It says: "a story can change the world", then has the website address. She told me that she's been getting interested in meditation and similar things, then asked me what it means that a story can change the world. So, I got to go into the 30 second version of my schtick.
Soon after we got home Leah came to watch Alex, so I got a few hours for the novel. I'm getting really excited about it and how it's going. I think I'll have the opportunity to really get into some of the things that I'm interested in talking about with myth and story and their importance in the world.
Alex was a very smiley boy all day. I love to play the game where I tickle his cheek with his toes, and he loves it too. Now he's starting to laugh before I even touch his face, which is hilarious.
Took Pepper to the vet today-she looks good, for 13 years old. He is having me put all the cats on Revolution for parasite control, rather than Advantage, in order to keep the worm situation under control, because of the baby in the house.
After the vet, we dropped Pepper off at home then headed to Costco to pick up a few things. In the parking lot, the lady parked next to us told me that she was going to check the web site on my bumper sticker. A little background-a few weeks ago, I ordered a bumpersticker from the Mythic Imagination Institute's Cafe Press page. It says: "a story can change the world", then has the website address. She told me that she's been getting interested in meditation and similar things, then asked me what it means that a story can change the world. So, I got to go into the 30 second version of my schtick.
Soon after we got home Leah came to watch Alex, so I got a few hours for the novel. I'm getting really excited about it and how it's going. I think I'll have the opportunity to really get into some of the things that I'm interested in talking about with myth and story and their importance in the world.
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Philip Pullman's words on myth
After many months of neglecting this blog, I thought it might be nice to finally get it started with a wonderful quote on myth from a favorite author of mine, Philip Pullman. It's a bit long, so be patient. Well worth a read through, though!
From time to time someone comes up with the idea that there are only seven stories in the world. Or only three, or only eleven, or whatever. Or else they claim to have discovered that every different story is a variant of one basic story, such as Cinderella, or the quest for the Holy Grail.
And they find no lack of listeners, because our interest in how stories work and in what sort of stories there could be is almost as powerful as our appetite to hear them told. We could argue about it forever, and our pleasure would never pall.
But what is certain is that writers and novelists and poets, people who have a visceral need to tell stories, find themselves coming back again and again to those narrative shapes and forms and structures we call myths.
There’s something sensuous about the attraction they hold, something almost physically satisfying about their shapes; we like to run them through our minds, we like to stroke their contours, we like to arrange the light so that it brings out their features and throws interesting and form-revealing shadows. A myth is intoxicating, because it is something other than just a story. In one way, it’s the very opposite of poetry. Robert Frost said that poetry is what gets lost in translation: we could say that a myth is a story that is not lost, or harmed, or diminished as it sheds the skin of one language and assumes that of another, because as C.S. Lewis pointed out, a myth is a story whose power is independent of its telling. Our first experience of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice would affect us just as strongly in whatever version we came across it, because it’s the shape of the events that contains the power, and not merely the language.
This is a fact designed to keep writers humble; the brilliance and dash of our sentences are of little importance beside the events we try to describe. It’s a reminder that most of our readers still regard our words as a window and not as a surface: they want to see through them to the great and tragic forms acting out the passionate drama of the story. The cosmic events the characters repeat in this driven and compulsive way are far more interesting than our prose style.
Nevertheless, each new writer does bring something never seen before to a story that might have been told a thousand times. It might never have been seen from quite this angle, it might never have been suffused with quite this emotional tone; the intelligence that plays over the events might never have glittered with quite this silvery wit. This is what makes the telling, and retelling, and retelling of myths such an endlessly refreshing struggle, such a demanding privilege, such a humbling joy.
Philip Pullman
Canongate Books
Edinburgh
2005
From time to time someone comes up with the idea that there are only seven stories in the world. Or only three, or only eleven, or whatever. Or else they claim to have discovered that every different story is a variant of one basic story, such as Cinderella, or the quest for the Holy Grail.
And they find no lack of listeners, because our interest in how stories work and in what sort of stories there could be is almost as powerful as our appetite to hear them told. We could argue about it forever, and our pleasure would never pall.
But what is certain is that writers and novelists and poets, people who have a visceral need to tell stories, find themselves coming back again and again to those narrative shapes and forms and structures we call myths.
There’s something sensuous about the attraction they hold, something almost physically satisfying about their shapes; we like to run them through our minds, we like to stroke their contours, we like to arrange the light so that it brings out their features and throws interesting and form-revealing shadows. A myth is intoxicating, because it is something other than just a story. In one way, it’s the very opposite of poetry. Robert Frost said that poetry is what gets lost in translation: we could say that a myth is a story that is not lost, or harmed, or diminished as it sheds the skin of one language and assumes that of another, because as C.S. Lewis pointed out, a myth is a story whose power is independent of its telling. Our first experience of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice would affect us just as strongly in whatever version we came across it, because it’s the shape of the events that contains the power, and not merely the language.
This is a fact designed to keep writers humble; the brilliance and dash of our sentences are of little importance beside the events we try to describe. It’s a reminder that most of our readers still regard our words as a window and not as a surface: they want to see through them to the great and tragic forms acting out the passionate drama of the story. The cosmic events the characters repeat in this driven and compulsive way are far more interesting than our prose style.
Nevertheless, each new writer does bring something never seen before to a story that might have been told a thousand times. It might never have been seen from quite this angle, it might never have been suffused with quite this emotional tone; the intelligence that plays over the events might never have glittered with quite this silvery wit. This is what makes the telling, and retelling, and retelling of myths such an endlessly refreshing struggle, such a demanding privilege, such a humbling joy.
Philip Pullman
Canongate Books
Edinburgh
2005
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