- Series Of Old Magic Spells Discovered In Serbia – these 2000 year old spells engraved on tiny silver and gold scrolls are delicate and beautiful but translation is incomplete as of yet.
- How Witchcraft On Facebook Is Helping People Grieve – spells cast through Facebook Live. The author found her online ritual unsatisfying but allows that others may find solace in online pagan communities.
- A Huddersfield witchcraft shop has banned Harry Potter fans because wands aren’t toys – originally I thought the shopkeeper a snob but then had it pointed out to me that wands are the ritual objects of a genuine faith. Thoughts?
- Bad Witch Workout Is Where Squats and Spells Go Hand in Hand – while some parts I don’t get (makeup while working out??) the bit about “so many exercise classes…feel alienating if you’re a weirdo or a goth or a punk-rock kid or a riot girl or a feminist” does sound familiar. Workouts for the weird with a dose of spirituality can’t be a bad thing.
Category: pop culture
biweekly links 7-13-2016
- Author Anna Kaling found me through Twitter and we twitted about our mutual love for the strange and unknown. She invited me to guest blog about Nessie, my great childhood love and how could I say no? Her WIP takes place at Loch Ness and I can’t wait to see how it turns out!
- Cosplaying 16th century Holy Roman Emperor Charles V is a thing – at least during the Ommegang parade, held yearly in Brussels to commemorate his 1549 visit. Part of the larger Carolus V Festival, the parade appears to show dragons, stilt-walkers, and all manner of medieval-ish costume.
- Hamilton is fanfic, and its historical critics are totally missing the point – I finally listened to the “Hamilton” soundtrack. I’m not “Greatest. Thing. EVAR!!!!” fervent, but I enjoyed it. Ear wormy songs make things like the Federalist Papers and John Adams election memorable and fun. This article frames the musical as fan fiction of canonical history and I can see the argument. Thoughts?
- How acceptable is artistic licence in history entertainment? – ask this question and you’ll get a million different answers. I’m always tickled when correct details reveal research as thorough (pedantic?) as my own. At the same time historians have biases and new information is discovered all the time, making “historical accuracy” a constantly moving target. Still, I’d weep if something as over-the-top as The Tudors tried to pass itself off as a quasi-documentary.
Pop culture roundup
Whenever I tell people I’m writing about John Dee and Edward Kelley, they tend to say:
“Who?”
I’m surprised how often I hear this – they’re “B-list” historical figures but I’m not the first to fictionalize them. A friend suggested I whip ’round the Web to see if they ever showed up in the more accessible worlds of tv/movies/video games and I found a few examples:
Dee may be the inspiration behind white-bearded wizards Gandalf and Dumbledore but seems to be more of a niche/”alternative” character on his own. Director Derek Jarman and author Alan Moore were/are fans; it cracks me up that Richard O’Brien played Dee in Jarman’s punk film “Jubilee”.
Edward Kelley was harder to find; he’s better known in the Czech Republic than in the English-speaking world due to his gold transmuting feats (“feats?”) in Prague. Still, he turned up in the (now defunct) Facebook game Assassin’s Creed: Project Legacy. The designers clearly did their homework: they included Kelley’s stepdaughter Elizabeth Jane Weston and together with Dee they do alchemy and look at mysterious books.
And of course, “Supernatural” introduced the Enochian angel language to a wide tv audience.
I found other brief references: Dee in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age“; an Edward Kelley costume for rent (but only in the Czech Republic). There’s more at their respective Wikipedia pages, but most of the references are literary.
Feel free to include other examples in the comments!