So, I’m in Milwaukee for the Film & History conference where I gave a talk on Nina Paley’s film, Sita Sings the Blues and her ongoing Seder-Masochism project. Vince Tomasso, one of the other attendees, has been tweeting the conference, and there was a nice response from Paley herself! Woot!

As a classicist, it is so rare to hear back from an artist you’re writing about …

Postscript. So I ended up sending Nina Paley my paper, which she seems to have read right away.  The last part of what I had written reads,

If her work seems blasphemous, though, I will tell that of the many, many people whom I have forced to watch clips like “This Land is Mine” or “Tabernaculous!,” most have ended up at some point putting their hands to their mouth to say, “Oh my God!”

Her response, edited:

“Oh my god!” I love it. It is amazing and flattering and encouraging to see my work written about like that. Thanks! {there follow a few corrections, and additions} Thank you again, my cockles are warmed for the week.–Nina

So how cool is that!? I’m not sure that I will do much more with this paper, at least not until all of Seder-Masochism is out and until I’ve made substantial progress on my Pilate book. But it is nice to know that I’m not dead wrong in my initial read of these two fine cartoons.