Hello, dear readers. I set blogging aside for a while for two reasons: I had an injury that made it physically impossible to sit and write for several months; and with how much that injury held up my dissertation work, since then, I've put 100% of writing effort into finishing in-progress chapters. I'm happy to... Continue Reading →
After spending the past two days researching the Christmas carol "Gaudete," two things are clear: 1) This is a really popular carol, and 2) Everyone thinks it's medieval. Well, I Kathryn of Jersey, First of My Name, Mother of Hound Dogs, Burster of Bubbles, am here to disappoint you. "Gaudete" is solidly Early Modern. Many... Continue Reading →
We left off before the holidays with some background on how medieval fantasy suddenly became mainstream in the '60s. There were also some other semi unintentional mirrorings of the values of the Victorian medieval revivals, where a previously fringe elements advocating for pre-industrial communal lifestyles also became more mainstream. With these cultural threads established, let's... Continue Reading →
In my last post, I tried to begin answering why medieval fantasy suddenly begins to flourish in the midst of the Space Age (which encompasses the end of WWII to about the mid-60s), in terms of some of the basic facts—namely, a bunch of medievalist fantasy sagas came out in the '50s, which were written... Continue Reading →
Since successfully defending my dissertation prospectus, life has been such that I've had little interest in blogging. I can hardly believe that the last post was in December. Time moves entirely too quickly. However, I find that working through ideas informally here is beneficial, and I'd like to maintain this here blog as a way... Continue Reading →
While I wait to have a good idea for a new Music 101 post—and remember, ask me your questions about music and I'll answer them!—it seems a good time to start getting into some of the preliminary research I'm doing for my dissertation. I'm in the proposal stage, so what I'm doing now is reviewing... Continue Reading →
Katarina von Sporken
Violent Brain Fever 