Category Archives: pop culture

The Otherkin: Fantastic Texts, Pop Culture, and Neo-Religiosity

September 17th, 2008 | Posted in Adam Possamai, cultures, fantasy, hyper-real spiritualities (or fiction-based), Jediism, Matrixism, myths, Neo-Paganism, occulture, Otherkin, pop culture

At times the lines between fact and fiction are blurred when it comes to the fantastic in popular culture and identification with the various characters and creatures that inhabit it. At times the lines are not so much blurred as they are dissolved. Christopher Partridge speaks of “fact-fiction reversals” that exist, and that as a result […]

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Cinematic Extraterrestrials: Call for Papers

August 11th, 2008 | Posted in archetypes, call for papers, pop culture, science fiction

       2008 Film & History Conference “Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond,” October 30-November 2, 2008, Chicago, Illinois, www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory Second-Round Deadline: September 1, 2008 Area: Cinematic Extraterrestrials As film made its way into 20th-century popular culture, depictions of extraterrestrial aliens became more prolific and specialized, eventually becoming fixed in the imagination as cultural archetypes, […]

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Zombie CSU: New twist on exploration of top horror icon in pop culture

August 6th, 2008 | Posted in horror, pop culture, zombie

It’s no surprise that zombies have become the horror icon of late modernity/postmodernity. As a result, pop culture is filled with various explorations of these flesh eating, social alter egos. One of the forthcoming expressions of this pop culture phenomenon is the book Zombie CSU: The Forensics of the Living Dead (Citadel Press) by Jonathan Maberry, a […]

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Pop Culture Explores the Apocalypse

February 11th, 2008 | Posted in apocalypticism, pop culture

The January 28, 2008 issue of TIME magazine includes an interesting article in its Arts section title “Apocalypse New” by Lev Grossman. The article can also be found online here. The article is worthy of reflection in that it notes the continued exploration of the end of human life and dominance on this planet through […]

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Sith, Slayers, Stargates and Cyborgs: Modern Mythology in the New Millennium

February 6th, 2008 | Posted in Joseph Campbell, myths, pop culture, science fiction

The Popular Culture Association continues to be a great source for addressing fascinating aspects at the intersection between the fantastic and culture. Yesterday I received an announcement concerning a call for papers dealing with the topic of mythology and the new millennium for a volume that is viewed as a logical extension of a new […]

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The Monster Show: Horror, Ritual and Pilgrimage

January 31st, 2008 | Posted in Gothic horror, pop culture, ritual

One of the books I have been reading in my spare time is one that I received as a Christmas gift, David J. Skal, The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror, rev. ed (New York: Faber and Faber, 2001). This book does a nice job of bringing together various elements of approach to the […]

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Anime and Popular Culture: Interview with Bill Ellis

September 24th, 2007 | Posted in anime, Bill Ellis, Buddhism, pop culture, Shinto

Bill Ellis is Associate Professor English and American Studies at Penn State. He is well known for his contribution to folklore studies, in particular his books that include Aliens, Ghosts, and Cults: Legends We Live (University Press of Mississippi, 2003), Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media (University Press of Kentucky, 2000), and […]

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B. J. Oropeza: Comics, Archetypes, and Superheroes

February 25th, 2007 | Posted in archetypes, comics, pop culture, superheroes

In my recent readings in religion and popular culture I checked the endnote references for an article and noted the name of B. J. Oropeza. This was somewhat surprising in that I was familiar with his work in the areas of theology and apologetics, but was unfamiliar (and pleasantly surprised) with his interests and work […]

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Comic Books, Theology and Religion

February 2nd, 2007 | Posted in comics, Paganism, pop culture, superheroes

I have been interested in comic books for quite a while. I still remember walking home from grammar school and stopping by the local market to read through the latest issue of MAD magazine, and to see if the new issues of my favorite comics had hit the stand yet. My brother is a comic […]

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Gospel of the Living Dead

January 31st, 2007 | Posted in horror, Paffenroth, pop culture, zombie

I purchase and read a lot of books for my seminary studies and ministry research. As a result, I am on a lot of mailing lists for book publishers. Most of the catalogs don’t include titles that interest me, but today I received a promotional postcard for a new book from Baylor press that’s right […]

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