Excerpt from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 22, 2000:

Themes universal

Because Hawaii myths grew in isolation, how similar are they to other cultures?

"The same basic issues affect people everywhere," said Wisniewski. "Like Jung said about myth -- it's our collective unconscious at work."

"Frankly, for me it's an escape, when you get right down to it," said Heather Hollmann, an Aiea mom and secretary who brought her family to the convention. As a bookish, haole kid growing up in Waianae, escape was often on her mind. "The magic is the idea of getting away, of leaving. When I moved here as child, my neighbors told me the menehunes would get me, and that was scary."

"Menehunes?" said U'i Goldsberry, Steve Goldsberry's wife and frequent co-author. "I've noticed that folks here have strong preferences for certain magical creatures, like a totem. Elves, sorcerers, lions ..."

U'i had created a stir Friday by declaring during a panel discussion on female heroes that she really liked Cinderella. "Oh, what a feminist hot-button!" she said. "The rhetoric started to fly! Six or seven women came right out of the closet on that one, admitting they liked Cinderella too. It's interesting, defending something that's not politically correct, but hey, think about it -- Cinderella's abusers were women."

Steve Goldsberry had also delivered a talk Friday, examining the sexual nature of Hawaiian mythology, and then led an expedition Saturday to Kapokohelele Cave, where the pahoehoe had frozen in a gigantic, anatomically correct rendition of a woman's vagina. At a banquet later that night, he spoke a few words about Pele coming to the islands as a haole, and then sat down, fretting that the talk wasn't long enough.

He was promptly rewarded with a "food sculpture" of table scraps, in the anatomically correct image of a Hawaiian male god. These sculptures, by California songwriter Lynn Maudlin, are a MythCon tradition. "Oh, my work has been displayed in McDonald's and Carl's Jr. all over!" she laughed.

The Not-Ready-For-Mythcon Players then presented a skit called "Evil in Paradise, Or, Ring Around the Caldera," which appeared to be a fusion of "Hawaii Five-O" and "The Hobbit." One of the characters was named Steve McGandalf (played by Jack LordOfTheRings), and it concluded by announcing "Book 'em, Frodo!"

"Author! Author" cried the audience, but it sounded suspiciously like "Awful! Awful!"

Half the audience then took the stage for a "reading play" of dialogue taken from C.S. Lewis, a dozen single-spaced pages dealing with reality and perception. The members proved to be forceful and passionate readers, and it was heavy, thoughtful going.

In the back of the theater, the Goldsberrys seemed to be nodding off. At the sound of applause, Steve jerked his head up. "I didn't miss anything, did I?" he said. "I don't want to miss anything."

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