Dear Andrew,
I’m excited about your new novel Werewolf Cop. It looks like just the catalyst needed to start a new discussion about fantasy books and fairy tale culture. As I mentioned last week, The Wife and I have grown obsessed with the TV show Grimm on Amazon Prime. We’re almost done binge-streaming through the third season and will probably plunk down and pay for the fourth. (Amazon realizes that by providing all of a show’s first seasons for free they can addict the viewer such that we will regard it as an entirely reasonable deal to pay for a whole season’s worth of new episodes.)
Is anybody else as into the #Grimm TV show as @aprilbey_ & me lately?
A video posted by David Swindle (@daveswindlepjm) on
The show’s premise grows richer as the seasons progress: it’s a detective program except in each episode part of the mystery involves figuring out which supernatural, fairy tale creature has appeared in a real world version. The trick for doing this requires trips back to the hero’s aunt’s old trailer to begin rifling through the giant collection of antique journals written by previous generations of “Grimm” monster hunters in the centuries since the Crusades. (In the show’s mythos the original Grimms were Knights Templar…)
I guess the main reason I’ve come to like the show so much is that one can understand it in kind of a *literal* context too — that the Grimm fairy tales and folklore in general actually aren’t diversions, but instead they have ideas about culture and human nature and evil encoded in them. And that’s why they’re such powerful root stories that get remade again and again.
In the past I’ve often attacked “pop culture polytheism” — the way that many in our culture today choose to make TV and movie figures a kind of substitute pantheon of gods for them to worship. But there’s a positive side to this also — for shows like Grimm to really work they have to draw on real, historical evil and reinvent them in the show’s fantasy context. It’s hard to count the number of times in Grimm when the myth of child sacrifice has been redone in some fashion…
So as I start studying the original Grimm tales more, I’m also going to consider other “grimoires” of strange stories that might have more practical, real world application. I’ve been longing to get a handle on Alice in Wonderland for awhile, so for my fantasy-inspired video blogging, I’m going to start trying to make sense of them too:
Could this be a #secret to understand #AliceInWonderland Better?
A video posted by David Swindle (@daveswindlepjm) on
So in looking at the fantasy genre, I’m going to think about it in both past and present. On the one hand I’ll weigh the many stories of Grimm and Lewis Carroll and their hidden archetypal meanings. On the other, I’ll look at your novel Werewolf Cop, and also a very different, more female-centric fantasy, Hannah’s novel Bulfinch:
And I’ll tap several writers I have in mind to start exploring these fantasy themes with me.
(If anybody wants to join in then send me an email to DaveSwindlePJM AT Gmail.com, tweet your ideas to @DaveSwindle, or tag me in an Instagram video @DaveSwindlePJM.)
Oh, and I found your book on the doorstep yesterday after we arrived home from the art studio:
Best wishes and thanks for all your inspiration,
David
*****
Please join the discussion on Twitter. The Instragram video-letter above is the twenty-fourth in volume 2 of the cultural discussions between the writers of PJ Lifestyle and Liberty Island exploring the history of counter-cultures, the future of conservatism and the role of new, emerging counter-cultures in restoring American exceptionalism. Want to contribute? Check out the articles below, reach out, and lets brainstorm: @DaveSwindle
Volume II
- Frank J. Fleming on February 26, 2015: What Is the Future of Government? Why It Won’t Look Like Star Trek
- Aaron C. Smith on February 26, 2015: What Is the Future of Superheroes? Why They Need To Start Killing Super-Villains
- Mark Ellis on February 26, 2016: What Is the Future of Gen-X Manhood? Adam Carolla Vs Chuck Palahniuk?
- David S. Bernstein on February 26, 2015: What is the Future of Fiction? You’ll Be Shocked Who’s Fighting the New Conservative Counter-Culture
- Aaron C. Smith on March 2, 2015: The House Loses: Why Season 3 of House of Cards Utterly Disappoints
- Michael Walsh on March 2: What the Left Doesn’t Get About Robert A. Heinlein
- Frank J. Fleming on March 3: 8 Frank Rules For How Not to Tweet
- Susan L.M. Goldberg on March 4: 7 Reasons Why Backstrom Is Perfect Counter-Culture Conservative TV
- Frank J. Fleming on March 5: What Is the Future of Religion?
- Aaron C. Smith on March 5: The Future of Religion: Why Judeo-Christian Values Are More Important Than Science
- Spencer Klavan on March 5: Not Religion’s Future: ISIS and the Art of Destruction
- Chris Queen on March 7: 5 Reasons Why Big Hero 6 Belongs Among The Pantheon Of Disney Classics
- Jon Bishop on March 8: Why I Am Catholic
- Frank J. Fleming on March 11: 6 Frank Tips For Being Funny On the Internet
- Becky Graebner on March 11: 5 Things I Learned In My First 6 Months As a Small Business Owner
- Frank J. Fleming on March 12: This Is Today’s Question: What Does It Mean To Be ‘Civilized’?
- Mark Ellis on March 12: The Future of Civilized Society: One World
- Aaron C. Smith on March 12: Why Civilization Is a Gift to Bullies
- David S. Bernstein on March 12: Nihilism & Feminism for Girls: Has Judd Apatow Let Lena Dunham Self-Destruct Intentionally?
- Susan L.M. Goldberg on March 15: Why I Am Jewish
- Chris Queen on March 15: Why I Am Non-Denominational Christian
- Allston on March 16: Counter-Culture Wars, Part 1: Why the Fellow Travelers Hijacked Folk Music
- Ronald R. Cherry on March 17: How To Untangle Orwellian Doublethink: 4 Secrets To Help You Spot BS
See the first volume of articles from 2014 and January and February 2015 below:
2014 – Starting the Discussion…
- Sarah Hoyt, March 22 2014: Interview: Adam Bellow Unveils New Media Publishing Platform Liberty Island
- David S. Bernstein, June 20 2014: What Is Liberty Island?
- Adam Bellow at National Review, June 30 2014 kicking off the discussion: Let Your Right Brain Run Free
- Dave Swindle on September 7, 2014: Why Culture Warriors Should Understand the 10 Astounding Eras of Disney Animation’s Evolution
- Dave Swindle on September 9, 2014: The 50 Greatest Counter-Culture Films of All Time, Part I
- Dave Swindle on September 19, 2014: The 50 Greatest Counter-Culture Films of All Time, Part II
- David S. Bernstein on November 19, 2014: 5 Leaders of the New Conservative Counter-Culture
- Liberty Island on November 22nd, 2014: A Unique Team of 33 Creative Writers
- Dave Swindle on November 25, 2014: 7 Reasons Why Thanksgiving Will Be My Last Day on Facebook
- Kathy Shaidle on November 25, 2014: Is America Overdue for a Satanic Revival? (Part One)
- Dave Swindle on December 2, 2014: My Growing List of 65 Read-ALL-Their-Books Authors
- Kathy Shaidle on December 3, 2014: Is America Overdue for a Satanic Revival? (Part Two)
- Mark Elllis on December 9, 2014: Ozzy Osbourne and the Conservative Tent: Is He In?
- Aaron C. Smith on December 22, 2014: The Villains You Choose
January 2015 – Volume I
- Paula Bolyard on January 1, 2015: 7 New Year’s Resolutions for Conservatives
- Susan L.M. Goldberg on January 1, 2015: The Plan to Take Back Feminism in 2015
- Kathy Shaidle on January 4, 2015: Did the 1960s Really Happen? (Part One)
- Andrew Klavan on January 5, 2015: In 2015 The New Counter-Culture Needs to Be Offensive!
- Clay Waters on January 5, 2015: The Decline and Fall of Russell Brand
- Mark Ellis on January 5, 2015: How Conservatives Can Counter the Likable Liberal
- Audie Cockings on January 5, 2015: Entertainers Have Shorter Lifespans
- Aaron C. Smith on January 6, 2015: How Mario Cuomo Honestly Defined Zero-Sum Liberalism
- Stephen McDonald on January 10, 2015: Why the New Counter-Culture Should Make Strength Central to Its Identity
- Stephen McDonald on January 16, 2015: The Metaphorical War
- Kathy Shaidle on January 19, 2015: Did the 1960s Really Happen? (Part Two)
- Frank J. Fleming on January 20, 2015: What if Red Dawn Happened, But It Was Islamic Terrorists Instead of Communists?
- Mark Ellis on January 21, 2015: Adam Carolla: The Quintessential Counterculture Conservative?
- Aaron C. Smith on January 29, 2015: Objection! Why TV’s The Good Wife Isn’t Good Law
February 2015
- David Solway on February 2, 2015: For a Song To Be Good, Must It Tell The Truth?
- Mark Ellis on February 6, 2015: President Me: Adam Carolla Vs. the Scourge of Narcissism
- David Solway on February 6, 2015: ‘Imagine’ a World Without the Brotherhood
- Kathy Shaidle on February 9, 2015: Was Rod McKuen the Secret Godfather of Punk Rock?
- Aaron C. Smith on February 10, 2015: Kick NBC While It’s Down: Use The Williams Scandal to Set the Terms of the 2016 Debates
- Spencer Klavan on February 12, 2015: How to Apologize for Your Thought Crimes
- Kathy Shaidle on February 16, 2015: David Byrne: Creepy Liberal Hypocrite
- David P. Goldman on February 18, 2015: Understanding This Bloody Truth About the Bible Will Save Your Life
- Lisa De Pasquale on February 20, 2015: Why American Sniper Is a Much Better Love Story Than Fifty Shades of Grey
- Spencer Klavan on February 24, 2015: How Bad Ideology Destroys Good TV: Why Glee Crashed and Burned
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