Thirsty for a Fresh Take on All Things True Blood?

WELCOME! Thirsty for a fresh take on all things True Blood? Pull up a virtual barstool at the Pierced Pomegranate Tavern where sisters Rachel and Rebecca are serving up juicy feminist analysis with a twist and opening a vein of thoughtful sociocultural dialogue on HBO's hit series.

Like the epic literary salons of eras past - theaters for conversation and debate which were, incidentally, started and run by women; where the spirited debate about the issues of the day ran as copiously as the actual spirits did - but updated for the digital age, the Pierced Pomegranate Tavern is a fun forum for exploring questions ripe for discourse about the human condition & today's most crucial social issues through the medium of True Blood.

Your salonnières are not peddling liquor per se, but they are offering up new and alternative ideas informed by such diverse influences as pop culture, art, music, cultural history, Goddess studies, transformative theory, literature and poetry, and archaeomythology, filtered through the sieve of their own lived experiences as feminist women of a particular age, background, and culture.

This is a space where you - patrons and passersby alike - can view and engage with these perspectives through the lens of True Blood and contribute your own thoughts. So, no matter if you're a Truebie or a more casual viewer of True Blood, or your drink of choice is a pomegranate martini - one of Rachel's favorite cocktails to drink and Rebecca's to mix - an herbal tea, a frothy double mocha latte, or a can of Fresca (wink, wink) you're invited to join the conversation on the show's complexities in a way that can spark transformation.

Hopefully you'll find something to sink your teeth...err...straw, into! PLEASE ENJOY RESPONSIBLY ;-)

YOU'VE BEEN SERVED (A WARNING)...

The Pierced Pomegranate Tavern is dedicated to exploring social issues and more through the lens of True Blood. As such, you may encounter:

*SPOILERS
*TRIGGERS
related to the often provocative and adult themes presented by the show

If you choose to enter and participate in this virtual salon, please be prepared to do so in a thoughtful, respectful, and mature fashion with the above in mind. Click here to check out our comment policy. Thanks!

Disclaimer

No copyright infringement is intended, all rights to True Blood belong to HBO, credit is ascribed to sites where images appearing here were originally found.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

...tough time syncing up the paper and PowerPoint from the PCA/ACA conference? Here's the two married - paper, image-dense PowerPoint, teaser & credits reel...user-friendly, easy to follow, and ALL IN ONE!

You've all seen the disclaimer; as wikipedia points out, to announce a film's modification, a format screen will state: "This film has been modified from its original version. It has been formatted to fit this screen." Depending on content and time, the disclaimer will add: "...to run in the time allotted and for content.", or, "...and to run in the time allotted", or, "...and edited for content"

 

The same applies here. This presentation has been modified from its original version; it was FIRST given as a visual, multimodal, experiential talk at the PCA/ACA & Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association joint conference as part of the Science Fiction & Fantasy: Special Area: True Blood panel on feminism and femininity. 

 

It's the very same presentation I posted a few days back in two, no, actually three parts (because the reference page that appears just below this post corresponds to the presentation as it's formatted here), only better. Better because it's all-in-one. No more inconvenient shifting back and forth between paper, to PowerPoint, back to paper, etc. to follow along with the content.  

 

This new-and-improved version is as close to the original as I can get using the Blogger platform since it integrates the paper and PowerPoint content in a way that flows just about as seamlessly - albeit in completely written as opposed to verbally delivered form - as it did at the conference. 


So, if you're thirsty for a fresh, feminist spin on scenes from Seasons 1 & 3 of True Blood exploring:

 

...a world where Bon Temps is the setting for a modern day epiphany of the Demeter-Persephone myth in which we viscerally encounter its characters & themes “like they are real, not just an archetype or a symbol, but a psychic force still making their way in the world today” (Ward, 2006, p. 146) in two sexual story arcs – one centering on Tara Thornton, the other on Sookie Stackhouse - both culminating in scenes featuring a white nightgown reminiscent of a wedding dress......

...each bearing both similarities and marked differences & resonating in different ways with the classic story of descent, death and rebirth from 7th-5th century BCE (Austen, 1990); both versions of it...

...the well-known patriarchal Greek version of Persephone's abduction and rape (Austen, 1990) and the feminist reimagining of the original pre-Olympian sacred story in which the Goddess had a joyous and free sexuality (Gadon, 1989).


LOOK NO FURTHER!
Cycling between True Blood and the mythology it enlivens, the presentation below looks at a few standout elements of both carnal encounters &  explores the charged concepts and themes of sex and sexuality they illuminate: 
  • virginity
  • sex-roles & stereotypes
  • pleasure
  • initiation
  • the erotic
  • violence, dominance and rape
  • attitudes toward sexually autonomous women
  • the sacred sexual
Persephone’s mysteries confront us with the divide between Goddess and patriarchal consciousness.
Drawing upon 800,000 years of art; a collection of the world’s images of the sacred feminine – both archaic & contemporary - and myth, histories, and poetry; prose, chants, guided meditations & ritual to help you experience this talk inwardly & respond with feelings and imagination, it will:
  • introduce you to woman and sex-positive cultures
  • contextualize modern notions about sex & gender revealed in True Blood within the shift from egalitarian to dominator societal structure
  • identify models for sexual and body sacrality – both female and male
IT'S GOT HIGH-IMPACT IMAGES & CUSTOM ANIMATION!
IT'S GOT SHARP ANALYSIS & CREATIVE SYNTHESIS!
IT'S GOT WIT AND TRUEBIE HUMOR!
IT DOESN'T (UNFORTUNATELY) HAVE THE BILLY IDOL SONG - WHITE WEDDING - THAT ORIGINALLY PLAYED OVER MY RIFF ON TRUE BLOOD'S OPENING CREDITS WITH-A-TWIST (BOO, HISS)

So without further ado...

powerpoint and paper married for blogger


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