Posted to Maryrenaultfics under this title on March 29, 2012, 23:10.


For more than twenty years now, I have attended the annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts in the third week of March. Over the years, I have given papers on comics, SF, fantasy, genre theory, and popular culture. This year, for the first time, I spoke about our own maryrenaultfics.

You may, of course, be wondering how we qualify as an appropriate subject for such a conference: after all, Mary Renault's books may be !!!FaNtAsTiC!!!, but they hardly qualify as fantasy (or SF, either). However, our community has created the ITOWverse; and that most definitely does qualify.

Our beloved moderators have expressed interest in seeing the paper. For those among the members who are academics, I should point out, though, that it was written specifically for oral presentation. It therefore has a less formal style than would be acceptable to a journal. Indeed, people will note a number of places where emphasis or interpolation has been made explicit so that I won't forget how to read my lines—all in order to improve the "performance"! Furthermore, the paper lacks such supporting apparatus as notes and bibliography (though there were some references listed in the handout). I have, however, added a few pertinent links, so people can, if they wish, check out my sources.

I might add that the most frustrating thing about the paper is the fact that, with only twenty minutes allowed, so much had to be left out!

( So this is the paper, as I read it at the conference.... )