Vivian Asimos

The Taylor Swift Mythos How Taylor Swift's discography is a mythology

"Actively, we have a single song working as a myth, a larger album as a complex making a mythology, and her discography creating a larger complex of these mythologies - a mythos."

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Nice little writing day at a cafe I haven't been to for some time. Wrote a nice amount, and this novel is changing incredibly quickly with each writing session - in a good way, I hope.

Love starting a new book

Pan's Labyrinth is one of my favourite films, and for this year's Spooky Season, I wanted to give a deep dive look into its greatest, most memorable monster: the Pale Man. The Pale Man's structure… The Meaning of the Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth

Another Spooky Season throwback. This one is to one of my favourite monsters in pop culture: the Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth.

Watch again or watch for the first time now!

This week has not been an easy pull, but we're trying. Hitting that point in a draft where I hate everything, combined with being just generally tired means this rough draft is going to be ROUGH! But… Getting through a rough draft | Project Submarine and Cheesecake

This week has not been an easy pull, but we're trying. Hitting that point in a draft where I hate everything, combined with being just generally tired means this rough draft is going to be ROUGH! But we're getting through it, because that's what being a writer is.

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Monsters are important facets of storytelling. They typically stand on the outside, showing us what a society or culture fears most: what categories do we daren't cross? What separations from these… The Meaning of the Amphibian Man | The Monster in Shape of Water

This month's video essay is all about what happens when we romance the monster. And what better way to look at that than through Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water.

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This month's video essay is all about what happens when we romance the monster. And what better way to look at that than through Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water.

Watch now:
buff.ly/BPmjMl8

I mentioned my personal curriculum in my last vlog, so today I'm explaining what I'm doing in my Fall 2025 term for my Personal Curriculum. I also do a bit of advice on how I picked my topics, what I… My Personal Curriculum | Chat, Advice, and How Much of a Nerd I Am

This quarter, I'm also digging into a very detailed Personal Curriculum, so I thought I'd share a bit about what it is, how I've put it together, and give some tips if you're thinking of putting one together, too.

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Today, I wanted to take a step back from specific studies of something to look at monsters more generally. Monsters are, of course, one of my favourite subjects to talk about, and because I'm… The Meaning of Monsters

A throwback post, if I may be so bold. In honour of Spooky Season, I'm reminding you of a video essay I did all about the meaning of monsters!

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Another writing session at a cafe. The draft of Project Submarine is going well, and I'm getting excited every time I sit down to work on another chapter. I keep coming up with new ideas and new ways of expressing things, and it makes me feel just so happy to be writing.

Today, I'm back at work after a few weeks break for the new quarter. A new quarter, for me, is a new schedule and I'm giving this one a try... for now. This gives us a nice chunk of time in the… New Schedule, Nonfiction Planning, and Brief Cafe Fiction

A new quarter, for me, is a new schedule and I'm giving this one a try... for now. This gives us a nice chunk of time in the morning to devote to the nonfiction Taylor Swift and Myth book, and we finallly get a nice (and very sizable) outline!

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The Meaning of Monsters How monsters come to represent us...

The first of the monster posts over on Incidental Mythology's substack is alive and well. Go read about the meaning of monsters now:
buff.ly/flGGQ9K

How we perform belief in pop culture from cosplay to fan conventions to memes, we perform our belief in the stories we love

New substack post about the way we perform belief in pop culture

Read it now:
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It's currently my reset week, my time between quarters to rest and reset myself for the quarter to come. But I can't stop writing - my mind just won't let me. In honor of my old project, I had a Caramel Latte while I did my writing today.

Cosplay, Conventions, and Collective Imagination Welcome to another post in our series reflecting on Cosplay and the Dressing of Identity, my book which is an anthropological study of the art of cosplay. So far, we’ve reflected on the year of…

This week's substack is all about conventions. How do they function as space and as actualised places of imagination?

Read about it now:
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Spent a bit of the morning at one of my typical cafes with a caramel latte, cream topping, and a blondie. And, of course, a bit of writing work. Video essay was the topic for the day, as I wrote up the script for the next video for Incidental Mythology.

Today, I needed a relaxing and fun writing day to start off my week. So I do a nice writing day - starting slow with some laundry, baking, and calm getting ready. We write at a cafe, and an… A Cosy Writing Day at Home | Project Submarine Writing Vlog

Today, I needed a relaxing and fun writing day to start off my week, so I do a nice writing day. We write at a cafe, and an at-home-makeshift-cafe to try and fool my system into writing, and somehow manage just over 3000 words!

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What is Cosplay? Its a lot more complicated than you may think...

As part of my series over on substack celebrating one year since my book Cosplay and the Dressing of Identity came out, I've got a nice little piece asking what appears to be a simple question: What is Cosplay?

Read it now:
buff.ly/BfnDkLI

Sony's K-Pop Demon Hunters is a massive success, and follows the trials of girl K-pop group Huntr/x who double as demon hunters, using their voices and songs to heal the rift which keep demons at… Fandom, Love and Connections | K-Pop Demon Hunters

This month's video essay is an exploration of fandom, love, and what it means to be obsessed with a celebrity through the lens of K-Pop Demon Hunters.
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Enjoying the very first pumpkin spice latte of the autumn season! And doing it while writing a submarine ghost story - getting close to Spooky Season

After recording the chat episode of Fan of That podcast, I was inspired to do some of Taylor Swift research while rewatching the 2005 Pride and Prejudice. Did I think researching the Slender Man would ever lead me to this collection of booktok girly interests? I did not. But I'm enjoying it!

I may be going through it a bit this morning, but we're powering through it and getting into some more writing. It's been awhile since I've let you check in on Project Submarine (in my time, not vlog… Chill Coffee Morning Writing | Project Submarine

This week's witing vlog is just a chill morning writing at a coffee shop. This day, I only had the morning to write, so we hopped over to one of my less visited cafes to do some work on Project Submarine.

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May have been very randomly inspired for a video essay, so guess what I'm doing instead of literally everything else?

So... remember that short story I'm writing this quarter? Well, I sure didn't! But we're back at it today, after a month break from working on the project. Today is all about writing a rough draft,… Finally Writing the Rough Draft | Academic Article Pt 2

So... remember that short story I'm writing this quarter? Well, I sure didn't! But we're back at it today, after a month break from working on the project.

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Cosplay and the Dressing of Identity | Reaktion Books Cosplay, born from the fusion of ‘costume’ and ‘play’, transcends mere dress-up by transforming enthusiasts of TV shows, movies, books or video games into living embodiments of their cherished…

In celebration of one year since the publication of Cosplay and the Dressing of Identity, the book is currently on sale, 25% off, but only if you order through my publisher, Reaktion Books.

Use code COSPLAY25 at checkout to get your 25% off

Order here:

Been awhile since I posted one of my journal spreads. I've been rather lazy with them. But this month accidentally turned out really fun! It was supposed to be another super lazy one, but I'm actually really proud of September - and the beginning of autumn vibes are definitely coming through.

So... I'm surprisingly about two months ahead of schedule. This is for a lot of different reasons, but one of those reasons is that I'm just so darn excited about this book. I finished my spreadsheet… Starting a Rough Draft | New Novel Writing Vlog

I finished my spreadsheet of scenes and am ready to write, so I just decided to get right into it. I wanted to start the rough draft strong, and therefore took the day to do a mini-writing retreat of cafe hopping. And in the end, we have the first 5000 words of our draft!

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New books for fiction research. Have I mentioned Project Submarine is part horror? Love me some ghosts.

Another round of writing on Project Submarine. So far, the words are flowing fast and easy - let's hope the luck stays with us. I just passed 13000 words, and have passed the end of Act 1! Accompanying me today was a latte and a cinnamon cookie

The background research on Taylor Swift studies has been so much fun to dig into. I have so much more to go, but am loving beginning to slowly find my own place in such a discipline. Hope y'all will have me!