About My Qualifications

 

Sorry. Not Sorry.

 

What, you may ask, is a folklorist? And where do you get off calling yourself one? Is it just a title you made up because it sounded cool and esoteric? No, but I can see why you might think that, it does sound cool as hell. Occupationally, it is someone who protects and collects oral and physical artifacts of culture. It isn’t just sitting around on a leather armchair smoking cigars and pondering Cinderella’s Mommy issues. Though, I have done that sort of thing. No cigar was involved, and the armchair was pleather. Nor is Folklore just a word that means fairy tales (or more correctly “Marchen”), it is a widely spanning discipline that incorporates elements from Literature, Art, Dance, Architecture, Linguistics, and perhaps most importantly, Anthropology. The study of Folklore is sometimes called Cultural Studies, which is more self-explanatory. Also, some find the term “Folk” to be derogatory, but that’s another post J

Though I do not collect Folklore as my occupation (I collect dust as my occupation…I’m unemployed), I still have the right to the title by virtue of my Master’s Degree in the field. I checked with my Graduate Advisor, and he said I am a Folklorist 4 lyfe. My degree took two and a half years to complete, during which time I lived in leafy Eugene, Oregon. I got fat on grass-fed meats and artisanal cheeses. I got drunk on microbrews and infused vodkas. Not a bad place to park it for a few years, though it was the sort of town where one would occasionally get a contact high just walking down the street. Good times.

 

 Damn, I miss Eugene now. Look at that foliage, damn! Damn.

 

I had two main focuses (foci?) in Grad School. First, I did a project about the discrepancy between literary and folkloric vampires, which led to other blood-sucking projects. Often Grad School itself sucks out your blood. You just have to replace it with caffeine and alcohol. Eventually, alcohol also replaces your self-esteem. After I took my Vampire studies to their conclusion, I branched out into other areas of Pop Culture, eventually focusing on Science Fiction for my thesis project “Folklore and Liminality on Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who.” At some point, I realized, I was a scholar of sex and death and how people have rationalized their fear of those two things through culture.

 

Which is really fitting when you thing about it, because I am basically a huge perv who is terrified of everything (but seriously, I’m not scared of butterflies anymore) (still scared of sharks though). Folklore appealed to me because it seemed like the study of every instance of "deep magic" or "old ways" from the fantasy novels I loved. FYI, only one or two sported a glow-in-the-dark dragon. Of course, now I can tease these things out of almost any genre, to the annoyance of anyone who hangs out with me. With BSG and Who, it was pretty easy. We could probably categorize them more correctly as "Science Fantasy," even though, aesthetically it pioneered realism in science fiction, according to many. Ironic, if you have seen original BSG.

 

I want to use this blog to talk about some of those things, to focus on what is really cool, rather than super scholarly. But it's odds on that most of my content will be about making mug cakes, and having weird dating experiences, and the afternoon I spent walking around the National Portrait Gallery, listening to "No Diggity" on a loop. I may have danced a little more than is socially acceptable, but I'm sure everyone would have been cool with it if they knew I was listening to Blackstreet. And I didn't get kicked out, so score.

 

Victorian Tunnel of Tombs at Highgate Cemetery. Majestic and a little creepy, like I hope my blog will be. Or something.