Kevan Manwaring's Blog: The Bardic Academic

Review of the Year 2024

Image: Performing ‘Mary Shelley Unbound’ – a Bournemouth Writing Festival commission on Mary Shelley’s birthday, St Peter’s Church, Bournemouth, August 30th 2024.

It has been a very busy and productive year. It is one of the weird things about age: I seem to get busier, not less! The year has not been without its challenges – it would be a falsehood to claim otherwise. It is harder and harder to remain hopeful amid so much shameless knavery, malfeasance, suffering, heartache, and sorrow — but I shall focus on the positive here. So forgive me if this comes across as trumpet-blowing, but if I don’t, no one will. And it is important to celebrate the good things. And my foremost wish here is to express gratitude to all those who have shared the road, lightened the load, and brightened the way this year. Thank you!

The year was dominated by the development, marketing, and launch of my MA Creative Writing course for Arts University Bournemouth. After a year of hard work behind the scenes (and a lifetime’s professional development which led to this point) it saw the light of day late May. I designed and led on the introductory unit, The Writer as Researcher, and it was a delight to meet my first cohort of students. I do love working with mature students who bring rich life experiences, skills, resources, and a real willingness to engage with the materials and push their practice. I also developed and led on Im/Possible Worlds later in the summer, and I’m currently developing my third unit, Writing in the Anthropocene, to launch next summer. It has been great to invite talented and experienced friends and colleagues to help work on these and other units, ensuring that the students have the breadth and depth that such a team can bring. It was a new experience – to step into a managerial role (within HE – I had once managed a charity shop, and a community resource), but one I was ready to embrace. It feels right for my stage of life and experience. I have often found myself in the role of not only taking the initiative to instigate something (when I have perceived a lack, a need, or an opportunity) but then having to run it, e.g., my small press, Awen Publications, which I was the director of for ten years. I have been doing that with my annual gathering, Bardfest, for a number of years, and this year I decided to dedicate it to a local charity encouraging the swifts, so renamed it Birdfest. I booked the town hall, organised the programme, and hosted the evening, which turned out to be a great success: another heartwarming evening of poetry, storytelling, and song with my talented friends stepping up to contribute something avian-related – and all for a good cause! The money raised will go towards an anthology celebrating swifts published by Little Toller/Common Ground.

I have been using the arts to raise awareness about environmental issues since 1991, when I organised by first charity benefit concert – for Greenpeace. These days I run my annual Writing the Earth programme for Earth Day; and a monthly eco-book club, Green Reads.

And, after a couple of years of hard work, my non-fiction book from Palgrave Macmillan, Writing Ecofiction, was finally published in late summer. I held a launch event at the lovely Beaminster Books.

Image: Launching Writing Ecofiction at Beaminster Books, Dorset

And I’m currently hard at work on my next publishing contract – a book on environmental aspects of Fantasy for Routledge. Somehow I manage to fit this in inbetween my lecturing, etc. Often it involves making the most of windows of opportunity, eg. I booked a cabin in the first week of September down in Cornwall to bash out another chapter, and I’m currently staying in a converted chapel in Brittany over Yuletide while I work on another two. Seize the day!

While we are on the subject of writing and publishing, I also took over the editorship of the BFS Journal for the British Fantasy Society. This involved a steep learning curve getting my head around InDesign, the DTP software used to prepare it for publication. I posted a call for submissions seeking articles on the Scottish visionary writer, George MacDonald, whose bicentenary we celebrated this year in December. I assembled a great team of regular contributors, and was delighted to receive submissions from an international cross-section of academics. After (again!) a lot of hard work (including contributing several articles, reviews, and artwork myself to fill in the gaps of this transition issue), BFS Journal #25 was published in December, and I hosted a lovely online launch showcase with the team. We wetted the baby’s head, toasted George MacDonald, and instigated a new chapter in the Journal’s history. Here’s to the future!

Yet it wasn’t all hard work, and no play.

I enjoyed a delightful weekend with two poet friends undertaking the Dorset Bard Hike – a route we created between Bridport and Dorchester and Durdle Dor, visiting sites associated with Dorset writers and reading out their work, and our own, in situ. It involved plenty of pitstops and turned into a kind of ‘Last of the Summer Cider’. We sang as we walked to keep our legs moving and spirits up. It was great fun, and a meaningful way to honour the writers of the past, and the special landscape we live in.

Image: Cheers! Rob, Kevan, and Roger share a well-earned drink at the end of the Dorset Bard Hike in The Sailor’s Return, Chaldon Herring.

I managed to fit in holidays to Paris, the Quantocks, Cornwall, and the lovely island of Vis (Croatia). Yet the highlight of all my vacations was a two-week cycle-camping tour around Brittany. I tied this in with the John Muir Trust ‘Journey for Wildness’ campaign, and raised money for their conservation work by cycling over 500 miles around the beautiful Breton peninsula, spending four rest days in Lorient to enjoy the Festivale Inter-Celtique, which was an amazing celebration of the 8 Celtic Nations in music, song, dance, costume, and crafts. The festival took over the whole town, and the atmosphere was very relaxed and family-friendly. I met a couple of fine fellas from Ireland there – musicians – and we became good friends, as we enjoyed the craic together. I had my phone stolen at a campsite, but meeting Mick and Tucker more than made up for it. Companionship is more important than possessions. Nevertheless, I had to draw upon my orienteering skills to get myself back to St Malo – thank goodness I know how to use a map and a compass! It turned the everyday into an adventure and I found my senses were far more alert than just relying upon a satnav. And it also stopped me from instinctively reaching for my phone to take a photo – encouraging me to be ‘in the moment’. At one point, as I sat on a bench by a canal to brew up one of my ’10-mile cuppas’, quietly enjoying the stillness on what turned out to be my longest day (80 miles in the rain) a family walked by with a couple of lovely big shaggy dogs. One of them, a husky, came over to me and instantly befriended me. He sat by myside and didn’t want to leave. A man’s best friend!

Image: Day 1 of my Journey for Wildness, heading west from Roscoff as the sun rose – two glorious weeks of cycling ahead!

Back home I gave a trio of sell-out performances: for Mary Shelley’s birthday; my Literary Landscapes of Dorset talk at the Dorset Museum; and Ghost Stories for Christmas at AUB. I also enjoyed storytelling in the Bridport Community Orchard over the summer, and I even joined in with the odd folk session at The Woodman, playing my bodhran and bones. It is good to have a hobby not related to words and work. Similarly, I have enjoyed getting into nature journalling at Kingcombe Nature Reserve, Dorset Wildlife Trust’s beautiful HQ. This encourages you to ‘stand and stare’, or sit and sketch/paint, and notice the minute incremental changes of the natural world throughout the seasons.

I enjoyed discussing my ecobardic approach on a couple of podcasts: the fabulous folklore podcast The Three Ravens, where I was one of their ‘Local Legends’, discussing my old home county of Northamptonshire and my research; and on ‘Unsee the Future’ with the impressive Timo Peach. You can listen to the first here, and watch the latter below.

So, a lively year, all told! And it doesn’t look like it’s going to slow down any time soon – I have lots of projects on the go. But I believe quality of life, and quality of soul, are the most important things, personally. No matter how busy I am I always find time for spending time in nature and spending time with friends. We have to cherish this one and precious life, in the same way we need to savour and defend this one and precious planet. There is much to be grateful for, and much to do. Many challenges await us, but with a deep connection to the land upon which you live, and with the ecologies of communities who live within it, one can find the resilience and inspiration to persevere and even to thrive.

Love & Awen,

Kevan Manwaring, Brittany, 30th December 2024

Image: MCing Mayfest, Bridport Community Orchard, May Day bank holiday Monday, 2024

Breaking Light – a poem

Here is a poem first published in Soul of the Earth: an anthology of eco-spiritual poetry (Awen, 2010). I wrote the first draft in the small hours of the morning on a scrap of recycled paper. I have added cello music and autumnal ambience here. Fix yourself a favourite drink, find somewhere cosy, and enjoy listening.

#poetry #autumn #season #nature

Summer’s Wake – a poem for the Autumn Equinox

My original poem about Autumn. It is written in rhyming couplets to mirror the autumn equinox. Available in Silver Branch: bardic poems by Kevan Manwaring, published by Awen Publications and available to buy from here: https://www.awenpublications.co.uk/pr…

Music by: Long Autumn (loop ver.1) by AudioCoffee — https://freesound.org/s/710582/ — License: Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 #autumn#seasonal#poetry#folklore#mythology#pagan#bardic

Transcript

Harvest Moon

Autumn Fruits

Autumn Fruits

The Magic Apple Tree. Palmer, Samuel (British, 1805-1881). Pen and Indian ink, and watercolour, which in some areas has been mixed with a gum-like medium on paper, height 349 mm, width 273 mm, 1830.

As we approach the Harvest Moon and the Autumn Equinox it is a good time to take stock of one’s personal harvest, and to mentally adjust to the different rhythms and riches of autumn, embracing what I call the ‘Inward Spiral’. Ahead lie longer nights, bonfires, naked trees, frosty mornings and starry evenings, and the deep dreaming of Winter — a contemplative interiority reflecting on the year and its lessons, cathartic soul-winnowing of all that no longer serves, and clear-eyed visioning for the coming year borne out of peaceful nights and starkly beautiful days — but for now let us revel in the intoxicating bounty of the early Autumn, and celebrate the gathering in of all that we have sown over the last few months.

Over the summer I undertook the Dorset Bard Hike with a couple of poet friends, Robert Casey and Tom Rogers. We walked from Abbotsbury to Dorchester and then onto Chaldon Herring the next day, stopping at locations associated with some of the counties’ greatest writers (William Barnes; Thomas Hardy; The Powyses; Sylvia Townsend Warner), reading their work and our own in situ. It was a lovely experience of poetic fellowship.

Last in the summer I ventured off solo on two wheels on a Journey for Wildness – 500 miles around Brittany in aid of The John Muir Trust. I started in Roscoff and headed west, making my way around the peninsula to Pointe du Raz (and visiting the atmospheric and legend-soaked Ile de Sein), and then heading south and east to Lorient, where I stopped for four days to enjoy the Festival Interceltique, before heading northwards to St Malo and home.

I also organised my annual Bardfest – which this year changed to ‘Birdfest’, as we raised funds for the Bridport Swift Town Project. It was a truly great night. Each performer responded to the bird theme in unique and entertaining ways.

A week later I took part in an event to celebrate Mary Shelley’s Birthday, 30th August, at St Peter’s Church, Bournemouth, where she is buried alongside her family and husband’s heart! I wrote a new piece for the occasion, ‘Mary Shelley Unbound’, which imagined the author rising from her grave and exploring Bournemouth and beyond. It was very special to perform in such prestigious surroundings. You can watch the whole recording of my performance below.

Now, back in the rhythm of the autumn term I have a few things lined up…

First up, a book launch for my latest work, Writing Ecofiction – taking place at the lovely Beaminster Books, which has a fantastic nature writing collection. I’ll be joined by Matt Benjamin, performing sublime sounds on his cello. I am looking forward to wetting the baby’s head after all the work that went into this book – including interviewing 21 international authors.

Then, amid the blizzard of term – teaching on the BA Creative Writing and running the new MA Creative Writing – I am squeezing in a handful more events and projects before Yule…

In early November I’m running a writing workshop at the National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE) Conference, which I’ve entitled: Write Like The World Is On Fire (It Is!)

Since moving to Dorset two and half years ago I have been researching its writers and the landscapes associated with them. This has culminated in a commission from BCP Council (the Dorset Writers’ Trail) and a popular talk, The Literary Landscapes of Dorset, which I’ll be offering at venues across the county in the coming months, starting with the Dorset Museum, Dorchester.

The Literary Landscapes of Dorset | Kevan Manwaring

And finally, I’ve taken over the editorship of the British Fantasy Society Journal, and I’m currently putting together the Winter issue, which has a special focus on the Scottish visionary writer, George MacDonald, whose bicentenary we celebrate in December this year. I’ve commissioned some great Regular Features covering a range of topics – fandom, film, horror, women in fantasy, global fantasy, etc – as well as the articles about MacDonald, written in response to my Call for Submissions. BFS Journal #24 will be launched (touchwood) on George MacDonald’s birthday with a special showcase event. Watch this space!

https://www.britishfantasysociety.org/bfs-journal-submission-guidelines/

Delights for Long Dark Nights

His Box of Dark Materials (Part 1)

Rise of the Robots

AI in Higher Education

Image from the first stage production of ‘R.U.R’ by Karel Čapek , 1921

In 1923 the term ‘robot’ was introduced into the English language when the first translations of R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) by the Czech writer Karel Čapek appeared in English. The play had been premiered in Čapek’s homeland on January 2nd, 1921. In the play, Čapek imagines a future society where a robot underclass are created to serve their masters, but ultimately rise up and overthrow them. Čapek’s robots (from the Czech ‘robota’ for forced labour) are artificial human beings of organic human beings – closer to the replicants of Blade Runner, or the hosts of Westworld than the mechanistic type of Maria Metropolis (1927)and C3PO of Star Wars (1977). Not only did this enable human actors to play them on stage, albeit in costume (starting a long tradition of humans in suits and make-up playing the non-human) it is also reified visually the idea that not only did this underclass have sentience and deserved agency, but many humans act, or are forced to act, like robots. As such, it was not speculative fiction, but political satire – a dark mirror about the state of the world, like so much science fiction.

First edition of RUR (1920)

Čapek’s ideation of the robot was no doubt informed by Czech culture – the Medieval story of the Jewish Golem from Prague, and the long tradition of puppet-making in his country, which seems on one level to be an extended metaphor of how everyone is manipulated by someone (the influence of the State on the individual was a theme Kafka explored in his fiction). I first worked on a creative writing commission about Artificial Intelligence in 2016 (funded by the Centre for New Writing, University of Leicester). Read GOLEM Speaks here, and incorporated AI into my science fiction novel, Black Box, which won a national manuscript competition in the same year. And as an educator I have been using computer and internet technology in my work for 20 years. So, I am no Luddite, and am not imagining any Terminator-style takeover anytime soon (the ‘singularity’ first mooted by John von Neumann, a Hungarian-American mathematician, computer scientist, engineer, physicist and polymath, who first discussed the concept of technological singularity early in the 20th Century) but I have grave concerns about the use of AI in Higher Education – in particular arts universities.

Here’s why:

Generative AI like ChatGPT creates content by ‘scraping’ the internet of existing content, i.e. the work of authors. It thereby exploits the work of authors without crediting them or paying royalties, and is therefore a form of Piracy. ‘that many of the books used to develop AI systems originated from notorious piracy websites’ (Writers’ Guild open letter – see full text below).Creative Industries universities should not be advocating Plagiarism software that runs roughshod over artists’ rights. It should be encouraging originality of thinking, diversity of voices, and innovation. ChatGPT and similar software draws creates generic content based upon an aggregate of content scrape, and thus is biased towards the majority, not the minority, the hegemonic – and thus silences the marginalised. It reinforces the loudest voices, like the algorithms of Facebook, and thus – in terms of ethical and artistic excellence – a law of diminishing returns. A race to the bottom.Advocating the use of AI within a Creative Industries university is unethical and unartistic.There should always be a choice about whether an individual lecturer or student uses AI within a learning environment – it should not be forced, otherwise it risks becoming a form of digital fascism (I was once told on social media when I posted a critique of AI: ‘Adapt or die’, or responded to with ChatGPT generated comments, which proves my point about it taking away peoples’ own ability to think and write). Alternatives should always be articulated and encouraged. And nothing should be beyond criticism. It is imperative that robust critiques are offered of any hegemonic model.AI will no doubt continue to be a fascinating novelty for now – toys for the talentless and bored; an apparent ‘harmless’ content generator for social media and with about as much value as a cat video or holiday snap – but more disturbingly, exploited to the maximum by those not willing to pay artists – e.g., inscrutable executives of content platforms – hence the open letter signed by hundreds of top writers including Margaret Atwood; and the current Writers Strike in North America. It is putting writers out of work.Like with CGI audiences made start to weary of the artificiality of the content, and yearn for the ‘affect’ of the analogue. At present, generative AI content is obvious, a dodgy book jacket, fake film poster, etc. In terms of trends, see where book design has gone in the years following the digital design revolution. Now much of that looks old-fashioned. There is a return to the hand-drawn, the low-fi, the human touch. Anything too slick lacks soul.Work generated by AI contravenes the Academic Integrity policy of the university, and is unacceptable for assessment.No doubt the issue and existence of so-called AI can be used to generate discussion and even writing activities, e.g. editing. Exploration of it may encourage critical thinking and a refinement of artistic sensibility. As a tool used in a restricted, controlled environment it could have some minor value. A stepping stone in the creative process at best.AI used within a closed system, in which the author creates the content the AI draws upon – the macro-text, or ‘bible’ – would be more ethical and interesting. Yet I ask: why deprive yourself of the pleasure of writing, which for myself is the thing I love best doing in the world? If you are a genuine writer (and not a talentless opportunist, or simply lazy) then why use a machine to generate content?Examples of these closed AI systems are being used to empower, not disempower, communities and individuals, e.g. Story Weaver https://acutrans.com/using-ai-to-save-dying-languages/#:~:text=AI%20technologies%20have%20the%20ability,multilingual%20platform%20featuring%20children’s%20stories.AI is funded by corporations who thrive within an existing capitalist paradigm. As an exploitative model – a form of digital slavery, where the efforts of untold ‘workers’ (i.e. creatives) are exploited without payment – it is the zenith of neoliberalism. Is it really conscionable to be complicit in something like that? And with the Modern Slavery Act is it even legal? I would rather be a cyber-abolitionist or a cyber-suffragette and advocate emancipation and equality.As Naomi Klein warns, AI machines aren’t ‘hallucinating’, but their makers are:  ‘We live under capitalism, and under that system, the effects of flooding the market with technologies that can plausibly perform the economic tasks of countless working people is not that those people are suddenly free to become philosophers and artists. It means that those people will find themselves staring into the abyss – with actual artists among the first to fall.’ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/may/08/ai-machines-hallucinating-naomi-klein Human beings already have the most remarkable in-built AI – the imagination. With it we can invent life-saving medicines, devise profound philosophies, design cathedrals, compose symphonies and write masterpieces. Are we going to be the first generation to completely disempower ourselves by an over-reliance on the ‘robots’ of machine-learning and AI-generated content, when our predecessors achieved sublime greatness? How is that progress? An over-dependence on AI could ultimately create a race of enfeebled Eloi relying upon the underclass of the Morlocks to do all the real work of running a civilisation. I certainly don’t want a future where I am just monitoring the content generated by AI, anything manufactured made on automated assembly lines and delivered by drones, while I whither away stuck living a virtual, vicarious existence – subsisting on the thin gruel of the digital, rather than the vast, multi-sensory riches of actual reality. I have a body, a mind, a heart, and a soul, and I want to use all of them while I am alive on this planet.I have spent my life developing and honing an authentic, and hopefully original voice — it is my artistic DNA. Writing is not just my profession, it is intrinsic to my identity and sense of self-worth. Why would I get a machine to do that for me? The very idea offends my artistic sensibilities, as well as my conscience, as it should any writer worth their salt. 

These, at least, were my initial thoughts (11 September 2023) before attending a well-organised and most stimulating Learning and Teaching Symposium at Arts University Bournemouth on 12th September, after which I made the following notes:

Gen-AI is already here, students are using it (some software like Grammarly has been around for quite a while and some students already rely upon it), and universities need to deal with it. Lecturers need to engage.A clear academic policy is needed. Consistent guidance for staff and students is essential.There are significant ethical, aesthetic, and pedagogical concerns – by condoning the use of Gen-AI we are encouraging the abuse of creator rights, and artistic and intellectual laziness – a slippery slope in which less and less effort is required. What is empowering about that? How will that prepare students for industry?A nuanced, scaled down approach is perhaps acceptable, but how do we manage AI-generated content? Where do we draw the line?Is using AI to mark assessments – however ostensibly appealing to overworked staff – the thin end of the wedge? By conceding key tasks like this to software are we declaring our skills and experience to be unnecessary? Are we at risk of putting ourselves out of a job?Is AI just another techno-fad? Will it eventually see the resistance that CGI has experienced, where film-makers and cinema-goers are preferring a return to the analogue? By focusing on it too much are we not ‘future proofing’ our students but in fact doing the opposite?Shouldn’t we be focusing more on real world skills – ones that have true longevity and not built-in obsolescence predicated on the latest technology and availability of expensive resources (and thus vulnerable to the digital divide and the real hardship people are facing because of the so-called ‘cost of living crisis’, aka greedflation), e.g., research skills, critical thinking, presentation skills, voice and movement skills, fine art skills, craft skills, design skills, writing skills, project management skills, and so forth?There is a spectrum of applications and ethical positions – it is not just a Manichaean divide between ‘good’ and ‘bad’, ‘use’ and ‘don’t use’.AI can be a good subject for discussion and debate – it is complex and topical. We should encourage our students to develop their own ethical, critical, and artistic positions about it.Although one needs to ask – if you use Gen-AI would you be happy to have your own work ripped off; for your own labour of love to be shamelessly exploited by others?It leads to considerations of artists’ rights, copyright, intellectual property, and so forth. These have been hard won over many years. Are you willing to be complicit in the corporate erosion of these via exploitative Gen-AI software?Another aspect not discussed is the environmental angle. AI is predicated upon a carbon economy. The servers that AI run upon have a massive carbon footprint and are thus contributing to Global Warming and the Climate Emergency (and thus in complete contradiction of Carbon Net Zero targets and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals conscionable universities have signed up to). AI is built upon the current unsustainable model of Capitalism. It assumes the future will be business as usual, based upon the myth of progress, rather than the reality of Doughnut Economics (living within the resources and capacity of the Earth and its ecosystems). Creating spaces for continued rigorous, balanced discussion (offering a full cross-section of perspectives) is essential – rather than presenting a fait accompli to staff in which AI is implemented without genuine debate. However it is appreciated that this exponential rise in generative AI (and its use by students) has happened very rapidly and action needed to be taken. Organising symposia to discuss the issue and prepare lecturers is a good ‘emergency’ measure. 

***

The bottom line is to proceed with caution; to test, examine, critique (always asking ‘why?’ and not just accepting because it can be done it should be done); and to act mindfully and conscionably for the best interests of creators, colleagues, and students – all of whom wish to thrive, and not see their existing or future livelihoods rendered obsolete.

            For ultimately the real robots are not those imagined by Čapek, or all the science fiction that followed him, but those who follow edicts from above or trends mindlessly, who do not question and critique – using their own intelligence and autonomy to formulate their own individual stance on things, rather than the group-think of the crowd. Who do not offer a ‘Culture of Resistance’, as the fabulous keynote from yesterday’s symposium, futurologist Ruth Marshall-Johnson, called it.

            It is time for the real ‘robots’ to revolt.

Image from the first stage production of ‘R.U.R’ by Karel Čapek , 1921

Writers Guild open letter July 2023

Join thousands of authors and sign the Authors Guild’s AI open letter

To: Sam Altman, CEO, OpenAI Sundar Pichai, CEO, Alphabet Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Meta Emad Mostaque, CEO, Stability AI Arvind Krishna, CEO, IBM Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft From: The Authors Guild

We, the undersigned, call your attention to the inherent injustice in exploiting our works as part of your AI systems without our consent, credit, or compensation. Generative AI technologies built on large language models owe their existence to our writings. These technologies mimic and regurgitate our language, stories, style, and ideas. Millions of copyrighted books, articles, essays, and poetry provide the “food” for AI systems, endless meals for which there has been no bill. You’re spending billions of dollars to develop AI technology. It is only fair that you compensate us for using our writings, without which AI would be banal and extremely limited. We understand that many of the books used to develop AI systems originated from notorious piracy websites. Not only does the recent Supreme Court decision in Warhol v. Goldsmith make clear that the high commerciality of your use argues against fair use, but no court would excuse copying illegally sourced works as fair use. As a result of embedding our writings in your systems, generative AI threatens to damage our profession by flooding the market with mediocre, machine-written books, stories, and journalism based on our work. In the past decade or so, authors have experienced a forty percent decline in income, and the current median income for full-time writers in 2022 was only $23,000. The introduction of AI threatens to tip the scale to make it even more difficult, if not impossible, for writers—especially young writers and voices from under-represented communities—to earn a living from their profession. We ask you, the leaders of AI, to mitigate the damage to our profession by taking the following steps:

Obtain permission for use of our copyrighted material in your generative AI programs.

Compensate writers fairly for the past and ongoing use of our works in your generative AI programs.

Compensate writers fairly for the use of our works in AI output, whether or not the outputs are infringing under current law.

We hope you will appreciate the gravity of our concerns and that you will work with us to ensure, in the years to come, a healthy ecosystem for authors and journalists. Sincerely, The Authors Guild and the Undersigned Writers

(123 pages of signatories including Margaret Atwood, Michael Chabon, and the cream of the US literary establishment)

Beyond the World We Know: Fantasy Study Day

Beyond the World We Know: Fantasy Study Day

Beyond the World We Know: Fantasy Study Day

Branwell Brontë ‘s map of Angria – part of the secondary world created by the Brontë siblings. C1830-31.

This Fantasy Study Day was an enjoyable prelude to the forthcoming exhibition at the British Library exploring the genre, Fantasy: imagining impossible worlds (27 October 2023-25 February 2024), featuring key experts involved in the exhibition and catalogue. As I have been designing the forthcoming MA Creative Writing for Arts University Bournemouth, and had written the outline of a module called ‘Im/Possible Worlds’ back in early May which is intended to explore Fantasy and Science Fiction, this felt good timing.

Rising at 4am I left my home in West Dorset at 5am to catch the 5.52am train to Waterloo – it was a long, hot day, but it felt very stimulating and worth the effort.

I don’t know if the day was programmed with an intentional narrative, but one seemed to emerge. Tanya Kirk, curator of print collections at the British Library, kicked things off with a talk about designing the forthcoming exhibition. It seemed like Tanya acted as a kind of keeper of the portals, both in curating the exhibition of imaginary worlds, and as our threshold guardian of the day.

Michelle Anya Anjirbag’s talk on fairy tales and folk tales – ‘taproot texts’ of so much modern fantasy informed by the oral tradition – seemed to foreshadow the final presentation by Anna Milon on LARP*ing – co-authored improvised shared world fantasies which involve alot of elements from oral traditions: storytelling, poetry, spells, charms, curses, proclamations, lore, and song. Through the prosumerism (to use Alvin Toffler’s term) of LARPing, it feels like the genre has gone full circle in some ways, with the often ephemeral oral tradition aspects echoing earlier sources, and enriching the scene, helping it to avoid entropy. Ironically, it is through the ravenous consumption of what Le Guin called ‘Consumerist Fantasy’, that fans are inspired to create their own ‘hacks’ of ‘canon’ material via Fan-Fic, Cos-Play and LARPing – not merely emulating existing narratives, but taking them in new directions. In the latter, much of the material is site- and time-specific, created to be performed in a certain context and then let go of, thus being the opposite of a commodity. Anna gave a couple examples of stories created for specific scenarios, and these she read out while in a gorgeous costume, which gave the audience a flavour of LARP and livened up the end of a hot day in the bowels of the British Library.

As a former professional storyteller who has performed many myths, legends, folk tales, and fairy stories (including Gilgamesh, Beowulf, as well as much of the Arthuriad including Gawain and the Green Knight), and has gone on to compose and compile written versions of folk tales for The History Press, this felt like familiar territory – but it was heartening to see how the oral tradition mutates and continues.

Professor Emritus Rob Maslen’s paper on Quest narratives, Dr Dimitra Fimi’s talk on ‘Crossing Borders of Otherness’, and Professor Matthew Sangster’s talk on ‘Architectures of the Strange’ (all from Glasgow University’s MLitt in Fantasy) also helped expand the creative imaginary of the genre in fascinating ways.

Thus the tradition moves forward, breaking new territory (fan culture; YA/New Adult fiction) in old ways (the oral tradition; play; print), as well as sideways. Familiar ground is revisited and re-appraised. The old stories are deconstructed and re-imagined for new audiences – breathed new life into by new generations of writers – while the widening market for Global Fantasy, which is bringing non-European, or Anglophone fantasy to Western audiences, helps to enrich the field with much-needed diversity.

It feels like Fantasy, which has never been more popular, or more participatory, is in rude health.

*Live-Action Role-Playing. I starred in one in the late 80scalled ‘Strange Lands’, in which I played Robin Hood – I still have the (foam) silver arrow.

A Wilderness of Dragons

While dragons are in the air …

An extract from my book, Desiring Dragons. #StGeorgesDay #Tolkien #Fantasy #dragons

Dr Kevan Manwaring

In the eponymous essay, reprinted in The Monsters and The Critics (2006), Tolkien cited the Beowulfian critic Professor Chambers’ phrase ‘a wilderness of dragons’ 298. Tolkien, punctilious as ever when it comes to language, queries the ‘Shylockian plural’, and yet it is clear he would prefer such a hazardous place to the bleak territory of the unimaginative critic. It clearly stuck in his mind, and perhaps acted as grit in the oyster for his creation of the ‘desolation of Smaug’, in the map for The Hobbit (1937) – a blasted wasteland on the edge of the cosy world of the hobbits.

This is a deliberate striking out into unchartered zones.

On the borders of medieval maps, where human knowledge ran out and reason slept, monsters stirred: ‘Here Be Dragons’ the legend read. This is the direct descendant of the primal fear which lurked outside the circle of firelight for…

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