Worley, Alec 1974–

PERSONAL:

Born May 11, 1974, in Portsmouth, England; son of Kathleen Sprague (a retail assistant); married Lisa (an educator), October 31, 1997. Ethnicity: "Caucasian."

ADDRESSES:

Home— London, England.

CAREER:

Writer. Freelance writer and film journalist, London, England, 2003—.

WRITINGS:

Empires of the Imagination: A Critical Survey of Fantasy Cinema from Georges Méliès to the "Lord of the Rings," foreword by Brian Sibley, McFarland (Jefferson, NC), 2005.

Contributor to periodicals and fiction Web sites, including Sight & Sound, SFSite, and ScreenOnline. Also author of a column for Judge Dredd magazine. Author of comic strips for "2000AD."

SIDELIGHTS:

Alec Worley is a writer based in London. In 2005 he published Empires of the Imagination: A Critical Survey of Fantasy Cinema from Georges Méliès to the "Lord of the Rings." In it he covers the history of fantasy cinema and how technology and imaginative freedom have expanded the genre's place in international film industries. Worley also discusses the genre in terms of its relationship to other genres and its use of political and sometimes satirical themes. When John Kenneth Muir asked him about his definition of fantasy in an interview for the John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Film/TV blog, Worley replied: "My definition of fantasy has always been that magic has to be responsible for all the weird stuff in a story as opposed to science. I really don't mean to be glib, but it's always seemed obvious to me, ever since I was a kid. It was the difference between Jason and the Argonauts and Godzilla. The moment you introduce science into what is essentially a fantasy story you change its entire outlook."

Reviewing Empires of the Imagination, a contributor to Reference & Research Book News remarked upon Worley's eye for detail, adding that he is "sensitive to ‘subconscious’ cultural issues" hidden in fantasy stories. The same reviewer also noted that "Worley's comments are often ingenious and unexpected." Reed Andrus reviewed Worley's book on the Web site Thunder Child. Andrus reported: "To his credit, Worley steeps his fantastic brew in literature, providing a wealth of background information for most, if not all, of the films he uses as examples in this survey. He contributes solid material that will be of value not just to film fans and/or academic wannabes, but also to students of fairy tale, ancient mythologies, pulp fiction, and Joseph Campbell/J.R.R. Tolkien mythic interpretation." Acknowledging its usefulness to a large number of potential readers, Andrus continued: "While this book does not tip completely into the realm of academe replete with arcane footnotes, the author does provide a small bibliography from which interested readers can delve, and perhaps most important, an extensive index that allows immediate access to specific films. In addition, he pays serious homage to technological advancement in film-making—he is no enemy of Computer Graphic Imaging (CGI) that infests films of recent vintage—including discussion of the use of puppetry, Muppetry, stop-motion animation, roto-scoping, and outright animation." Reviewing the book in Prehistoric Times, Mike Fredericks found Empires of the Imagination to be "meticulously researched" and "very original." Fredericks concluded that "from the money-making classics to little-known art house films, this richly illustrated work covers every aspect of fantasy film."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, April, 2006, R. Blackwood, review of Empires of the Imagination: A Critical Survey of Fantasy Cinema from Georges Méliès to the "Lord of the Rings," p. 1412.

Prehistoric Times, May-June, 2006, Mike Fredericks, review of Empires of the Imagination.

Reference & Research Book News, February, 2006, review of Empires of the Imagination.

ONLINE

John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Film/TV,http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/ (December 1, 2005), John Kenneth Muir, author interview.

Thunder Child,http://www.thunderchild.com/ (November 28, 2007), Reed Andrus, review of Empires of the Imagination.