Horror/SF/Fantasy & Humor
You are invited to submit a proposal in either the Humor or the Horror/SF/Fantasy area for the Midwest Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association annual meetings. This year they’re being held in Cincinnati, OH, at the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati, from Thursday through Sunday, October 10-13, 2019.
More details about the conference, membership, travel matters, the hotel and its rates, and the “Queen City” itself are found at the MPCA/ACA website <http://mpcaaca.org/>. The whole enchilada is explained here: <http://mpcaaca.org/info/conference/>. Please send submissions to <http://submissions.mpcaaca.org> (not me). The deadline for submission is April 30, 2019.
Remember, nothing good is off-limits — “going too far” in these genres may be considered a fine starting point. NOTE: while not required, I am particularly interested in works blending moments of humor-horror in a smart/fresh way; I call it “sLaughter” (pronounced SLAWF-ter). Media doesn’t matter; sticking to our genre does.
We are clearly experiencing an embarrassment of riches in these (sub)genres. Black Mirror. The Good Place. Russian Doll. BoJack Horseman. Better Call Saul. Killing Eve. Lucifer. The Americans. Barry. The Terror. Santa Clarita Diet. What We Do in the Shadows. (That’s just Netflix, but don’t forget American Gods or Handmaid’s Tale or a ton of others.) Meanwhile, has good ol’ Chuck Palahniuk simply tapped out? Carl Hiaasen? Skipp & Spector? Poppy Z Brite? The MCU or DCEU? Was The Cabin in the Woods a “smart horror” film, or was it just a prequel for the reboot/retcon of Evil Dead? How about the brilliant reboot/retcon of The Haunting of Hill House? What of neu-wave and “mumblegore”? How about the writings of “humanistic humorists of the horrifying,” such as Kurt Vonnegut, Christopher Moore, or this new kid, Josh Malerman? What about others (like Twain or H. L. Mencken … or even Will Rogers) in the subgenres? Why is Thomas Ligotti so darned funny? (He’s funny, right?) Are humor and horror getting more humanistic? (Correct answer is yes. Or no.) What can an “Americanist perspective” gain from the mad genius of Giallo or Theatre du Grand-Guignol or, for that matter, Alan Moore, Glen Duncan, Florence Foresti, Eddie Izzard, Peter Jackson, Aldous Huxley, or Ricky Gervais? Beyond the obvious, that is. What of the classic scary humorists/ironists such as HH Munro, Washington Irving, Roald Dahl, or Dorothy Parker? Contemporary ones in stand-up, such as Amy Schumer, Hannah Gadsby, or Anthony Jeselnik? You certainly don’t have to limit yourself to the humor/horror mashup if it’s just not your thing. Has “web2.0” (Twitter, YouTube/ Vimeo, indie web movies, vBlogs, that stuff) significantly changed the way humor or horror/SF/fantasy gets distributed or consumed in some way that’s not just dead obvious? Anyway, what else ya got? I’m all ears.
So submit. Don’t resist.
You know you want to….