Take Two, Knightly

[caper_est]

Over in the LJ version of the comments to this fine article by Zeborah, the author raises the spectre of 'Lancelot as Frensshe troubadour's Arthurian Marty Stu' - a spectre which makes such wicked sense, I'm not sure I shall ever be able to banish it.

Worse thoughts are following in its train.

If Arthurian fandom busied itself with creating stroke-for-stroke renditions of duels between knightly pairings who failed to fight in the source material, would that be 'hack-and-slash fiction'?

The Damosel of the Tourmaline Tower by nim4balin - Lamorak/Alisander (mtd, ft, skill<>, angst, magic, implied woman)...

AAAAAAAGH! Makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop!

Oh, and what we should make all of those tournament scenes in Malory...

Comments

[julesjones]

I so did not need that visit from Mr Mental Image Fairy. You are a bad, bad goat.

[caper_est]

Butt, butt, butt I meant well!

[zeborah]

I am so glad to be able to inspire such terrible, terrible thoughts.

Are you planning to write it?

...I'm now pondering 14th century fandom: what flights of fancy and what feuds would have arisen among the pretty maidens with their embroidery, and how such would have been scorned by wiser heads, yet what influence they might have had on the course of literature...

[caper_est]

It's almost tempting to find an excuse to write it, but no. Not planning. Though actually, "Describing the most ridiculous story on a theme I can think of, and then writing it by accident," is a technique with a remarkable good track-record for me - that's where my IPSTP novella this year came from, for instance.

Not sure whether this particular tale would really have been written by the nim4balin of my fancy - though her signature Nimue/Balin thing could have turned out very good or bad! - or any of her sisterhood. The Malorian take suggested by the metadata often reminds me of a more male-dominated pastime, namely fantasy football.

As to what tales and threads have perished with those embroideries, or been passed off under other names, who's to say? The lady whose handle was marie@france hints: they may have had quite a large influence indeed.