Mythic Journeys

[ellenkushner]

Headed to Atlanta for Mythic Journeys on Wednesday. My offer to sponsor one or two of you in a "scholarship" to this wonderful conference still stands.

Here's my schedule for Mythic Journeys, if that helps:

Friday, June 9, 2006
Performance 4pm to 5:30pm
By: E.Kushner "Thomas the Rhymer"
Ellen Kushner’s award-winning novel Thomas the Rhymer is based on Celtic folklore, myth and music. In this performance she interlaces portions of the novel with the ballads that inspired them, to create a living picture of a world where song and story intertwine, as a mortal minstrel is taken by the Queen of Elfland to serve in her perilous kingdom.

Saturday, June 10, 2006
Workshops 11am to 12:30pm
"World Building"
By: A.Greenberg, B.Bridges, D.Sherman, E.Kushner, P.Beagle
As the popularity of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and the Star Trek series reveals, a compelling world or setting is often as important as the characters and stories within it. Why do we keep coming back to these places, even when the stories are over and the characters have left the stage? This phenomenon has been given new form with the rise of massively multiplayer online “persistent worlds,” where players create their own stories within virtual environments. What do fictional worlds have to tell us about our own world and our yearning for someplace other?


Sunday, June 11, 2006
Big Conversation 11am to 12:30pm
"Tikkun Olam"
By: D.Chopra, E.Kushner, M.Nunn, S.Some
There have always been hard times, but there have also always been people to take up Tikkun Olam, the repairing of the world, across cultures and traditions. This healing is both inside and out, spiritual and worldly. It's about freeing the spark of divine light to restore the world rather than escape it. Is this just the work of saints and world leaders or is this something anyone can do in their hectic lives? How does one take up this call today, in the face of seemingly intractable social, economic and political resistance?

Workshops 2pm to 3:30pm
"Stories for a Thousand Years"
By: A.Berk, C.de Lint, C.Vess, D.Sherman, E.Kushner, H.Fenkl, M.Snyder, P.Beagle, T. Windling
Did the person who wrote Gilgamesh know that college freshman everywhere would be reading the tale 4,000 years later? What would Mallory think of a film version of his Morte d'Arthur, let alone the video game? How can anyone know which myths will stand the test of time, crossing the boundaries of time and culture to endure and inspire even now? In what is sure to be an epic adventure of speculation and debate, we will try to predict the stories of our time that might still be around in a thousand years. Make your best guess and join in the fun!

Comments

[snakey.livejournal.com]

That looks absolutely incredible and I would love to go (and/or for my girlfriend to go) - but sadly there's no way we can raise the money from a flight from the UK....

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

That is too bad - but well understood! Some speakers from UK are invited to MJ - I wonder whether they'll start doing events there sometime? Do keep an eye on their website if you can.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

I wish I could afford to go, even sponsored... *sigh* But if you need a native-ish guide around Atlanta, let me know! :)

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

The convention pretty much owns me while I'm there - but thanks for the very tempting offer! If you're in Atlanta, though, might you consider volunteering? Tell them I sent you - maybe they'll cut you a deal. I can't say (agreeing with erinpoetica, below) what a terrific bunch of folks the MJ-ers are: smart and committed and passionate and diverse and even pretty well-organized! They do a lot the rest of the year as well, both locally & online. You can get a lot from the website. So maybe I'll see you there after all!

[redcrowstudio.livejournal.com]

Like Ellen said, join up and climb on board the volunteer train for future events! Atlanta locals have no excuse not to! We don't know yet whats in store for the next time around, but you (and Adam) are certainly welcome to come help us figure it out.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Adam and I are quite desperately hoping to be living in Boston as soon as possible - we definitely won't be Atlanta locals by the next Mythic Journeys! (I was coming off a week of travel leading into Mythic Journeys, so was even more exhausted than usual - I'd not have been a credit to you guys!)

[queenbookwench.livejournal.com]

I do wish I could go--but school is winding down and I kind of need to be there...I may try to plan for next year though. When WFC was in DC I crashed in the hotel room of one of the Mythic Journeys founders--the first time we'd met in person, though we'd talked online; he was (and is, I'm sure) a really sweet guy. That was the night of the WFC "musical evening"--everybody else in my group had gone home, but I didn't want to stop singing!

Sounds like a _fabulous_ program though!