I always wanted to write one of these.

Hello, weary internet traveller. Welcome to The Culture Coven, a cosy corner of the information superhighway that is now the proud home of my thoughts, theories and theses about pop culture. I’m Sian, a first-class English & Film graduate and former Television Editor who really needed a new outlet.

I’ve been completely immersed in all things pop culture pretty much since the day my dad sat me in front of A New Hope as a young child. Before that, before I can even remember, there is an oft-repeated anecdote about me as a toddler, sat enraptured in front of the television and quietly crying at Monsters Inc. Two decades later, not much has changed – especially not the Pixar-induced tears. There is no other feeling like becoming completely immersed in another world. Art like television, film, music, literature and games are how we learn about ourselves and others, how we process difficult emotions, fears, and desires. The mortifying ordeal – and excruciating joy – of feeling known, of experiencing uninhibited laughter, or being moved to tears.

Pop culture has this unique ability to evoke such intense emotions and truly bring people together. I’ve always been fascinated by fandom culture, having participated in it myself for the best part of a decade. It inspires, in a truly varied number of ways. I have been compelled to write reams of fanfiction and draw mediocre fanart. Conversely, in 2021, I watched an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that made me so viscerally furious that it singlehandedly fuelled my 12,000-word dissertation. Inspiration is a hell of a drug. I think it’s one of the most important things that makes pop culture so enticing and addictive.

Lately, I have been inspired to write about film and television again – but as a busy graduate no longer writing for my beloved student paper, Redbrick, I decided to create my own little space for any musings, reviews and comment pieces on the subject, and I called it The Culture Coven. A coven is best known as an assembly of witches. Given my love of telefantasy and affection for two of Buffy’s witches in particular, I thought it seemed appropriate. Imagine a gathering of witches around a water cooler, chatting about last night’s episode of The Last Of Us or the new Paramore album. That’s the general vibe I want this blog to have.

Safe travels; I’ll see you at the movies.

-Sian