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

[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.