Profs and Pints Meetup-Metro DC

Profs and Pints DC presents: “The Life of Frankenstein,” on the birth, evolution and impact of a tale of man-made monstrosity, with Bernard Welt, an emeritus professor of arts and humanities at George Washington University who frequently lectures on Frankenstein in literature, cinema, and culture.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-life-of-frankenstein .]

Guillermo del Toro’s lush and lovingly produced film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is just the latest of many iterations of the story to capture the public’s imagination. People have watched Victor Frankenstein give life to his monster in numerous films, on television, and on stage, and even perform “Putting on the Ritz” with him thanks to the comic genius of Mel Brooks.

Mary Shelley did not just tell a tale. She spawned the modern genre of speculative fiction and gave rise to a myth that would crop up in debates over nature versus nurture and other matters. Even today it stokes anxieties over the potential impacts of robotics, artificial intelligence, and genetic engineering, by evoking the image of a monster turning on its progenitor.

Come gain a new appreciation of Mary Shelley’s creation with the help of Dr. Bernard Welt, who has studied the relationship between nightmares and the horror genre and is the author of Mythomania: Fantasies, Fables, and Sheer Lies in Contemporary American Popular Art.

Dr. Welt will start by telling a literary origin story almost as famous as Frankenstein itself, of how an 18-year-old, then Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, started writing Frankenstein in 1816 while staying in a villa on Lake Geneva with two of her era’s leading poets, Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, her lover. Housebound by foul weather, the three read Gothic tales of ghosts and monsters and challenged each other to produce something even more terrifying. Mary dreamed up a story of a man who defied death by creating a living being out of scraps of deceased men harvested from graveyards and anatomy labs.

The resulting novel, Frankenstein, published anonymously in 1818, would by that century’s end become a touchstone in philosophical discourse on the nature of humanity and in political discussions of imperialism and populism. By the 21st century, Mary Shelley (as she became) had earned a more significant place in the literary canon than either her husband or Lord Byron.

We will examine how this grisly tale became a landmark of modern thought and look at the part played by numerous film adaptations from the first years of cinema to the present day. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: From a Theodor von Holst engraving in an 1831 edition of Frankenstein published by Colburn and Bentley of London.

Profs and Pints Northern Virginia presents: “The Road to Pearl Harbor,” on the events leading up to a Japanese attack on U.S. soil, with Richard Thornton, professor emeritus of history and international affairs at George Washington University and president of the Institute for the Study of Strategy and Politics, and James Perry, Institute co-director.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nv-pearl-harbor .]

Virtually all historical accounts of the deadly December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor focus on tensions and conflict between the U.S. and Japan while failing to examine the broader chain of world events surrounding Japan’s decision.

Come to Crooked Run Fermentation on Pearl Harbor Day to gain a much richer understanding of the attack as driven by strategic considerations related to places as distant as Manchuria, Siberia, and Moscow.

The speakers, historians and international affairs experts Richard Thornton and James Perry, will describe how the Pearl Harbor attack stemmed from the Axis effort to construct a global alliance before World War II. Germany and Japan, which had begun collaborating in 1936, wanted to jointly conquer the Soviet Union and saw the need to secure a defense perimeter before doing so. The United States got in the way of that effort.

Dr. Thornton and Dr. Perry will jointly take you through the events that led to Pearl Harbor and discuss the U.S. counterattack in 1942. Their talk will greatly enhance your understanding of a date that will live in infamy. (Door: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

Image: Burning and sinking ships in the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack (U.S. Navy photo / National Archies.)

Profs and Pints DC presents: “How the Nutcracker Came to Life,” on the roots of a classic holiday story, with Brittany Warman, former instructor at Ohio State University and co-founder of The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-nutcracker-came-to-life .]

We’ve been telling versions of the story of “The Nutcracker” for more than 200 years, and our cultural attachment to it hasn’t wavered. But many who watch it performed on stage or screen, or hear it played by a symphony, don’t really know much about how the story was originally told or how it came into being.

Let Profs and Pints take you on your own magical journey to learn about the origins of “The Nutcracker” and its characters. Your guide on this scholarly adventure will be Brittany Warman, whose fantastic talks on folklore, myths, and legends have earned her a big following among Profs and Pints fans.

She’ll begin by looking at the life and work of E.T.A. Hoffmann, the writer who started it all with his Christmas fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King.” We’ll examine what inspired him to write the story, as well as how he tapped into fragments of existing folklore, the spirit of German Romanticism, and a sense of the uncanny to create the tale’s sugar plum fairies and clockwork castles.

The tale begins on Christmas eve with an extravagant spread of gifts, including a nutcracker. A young girl named Marie, enchanted with the doll, begins an adventure where toys come to life, an evil Mouse King must be defeated, and good and love triumph. Christmas is a time for magic and wonder, and the story that became known simply as “The Nutcracker” joined other holiday stories that have endured in capturing a sense of imagination and whimsy. Like many of the season’s other beloved tales, it also bore a hint of danger.

Brittany will explore the history of nutcrackers and the fascination—and, sometimes, fear—that dolls inspire. She’ll show you how “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” ties into Hoffmann’s other works, and she’ll lead you through some of the adaptations of the story, from theater to film to fashion.

In a season when “The Nutcracker” is performed everywhere, her talk will help you derive much more enjoyment from the show. (Door: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

An 1840 Peter Karl Geissler illustration for the fairy tale "The Nutcracker." (Wikimedia Commons.)

Profs and Pints DC presents: “How Nativity Scenes Were Born,” a look at the origins and evolution of the ubiquitous depiction of the first Christmas, with Vanessa R. Corcoran, advising dean and adjunct professor of history at Georgetown University and scholar of medieval and religious history.

[Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/dc-nativity-scenes. ]

The Christmas season brings forth an abundance of Nativity scenes, nearly all depicting the same thing: A small manger containing the baby Jesus and surrounded by his parents, shepherds, the Three Wise Men, and an assortment of barnyard animals.

It’s a scene that Mary and Joseph actually might find unfamiliar. The truth is that its origins are not entirely biblical, and a fair amount of creative license played a role in its evolution into what we see displayed today. The first Nativity scene—a living one—did not appear until more than 1200 years after the birth of Christ, being the creation of St. Francis of Assisi. Many common motifs of the scenes, such as barnyard animals, did not show up until the middle ages.

Oh come all ye faithful—as well as those who aren’t—and learn the fascinating history of today’s manger scenes and creches from Professor Vanessa Corcoran, who has extensively studied how Mary and various saints were venerated over time.

Dr. Corcoran, who also has given excellent Profs and Pints talks on the Vatican, will examine in depth how our Christmas imagery and beliefs evolved away from what historically actually happened. She’ll describe how Francis of Assisi and church leaders got involved in the process, and how our image of the nativity was shaped by famous paintings and frescoes, including works by Giotto, Botticelli, and Leonardo da Vinci.

She’ll also look at debates over Nativity scenes and the politicization of them. The placement of Nativity scenes in public spaces like courthouses and at the National Christmas Tree display in front of the White House has led to a series of civic lawsuits regarding the separation of church and state and continues to be a matter of contention. Some churches have been placing cages around Jesus, Mary and Joseph as a call for immigrant justice, while others responded to the pandemic by having the Three Wise Men wear masks or carry vaccination cards.

You’ll get a sense of much our Christmas “traditions” actually are dynamic, with new being layered on top of old. It’s a talk that will be full of Christmas surprises. (Door: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. The talk starts 30 minutes later.)

A creche by the French potter Gérard Mosser. (Photo by Claude Truong-Ngoc / Wikimedia Commons.)