What the Shadow Knows (WisCon 31 panel)
Sunday, 8:30-9:45 a.m.
Reading, Viewing, and Critiquing SF&F•Caucus Room• Sunday, 8:30-9:45 a.m.
In her essay “The Child and the Shadow,” Ursula K. Le Guin claims that “most of the great works of fantasy are about that journey [the journey to self-knowledge that only the shadow can guide us in]; and that fantasy is the medium best suited to a description of that journey.” Shadow, according to Carl Jung, is the person we have no wish to be, the denied and repressed parts of the psyche. LeGuin says “The shadow is the other side of our psyche, the dark brother of the conscious mind. It is Cain, Caliban, Frankenstein’s monster, Mr. Hyde. It is Vergil, who guided Dante through hell, Gilgamesh’s friend Enkidu, Frodo’s enemy Gollum.” Let’s talk about how shadow works in fantasy and science fiction, how shadow is more subtle than a simplistic “good vs. evil,” who our “favorite” villains are and why they bring so much energy to fiction, how much darkness and dark moments are enough, and find out what else the shadow knows.
M: David Lenander, Rosanne M Bane, Margaret Ronald, Georgie L. Schnobrich