The Original Fandom?

[unclehyena.livejournal.com]

A couple of weeks ago, I posted the following in my main journal:

"Mary Sue Lancelot?
A few people have responded to my thought that there is a really good Arthurian movie still waiting to be made; while responding to them, I realized that Lancelot is a Mary Sue. Think about it: Chretien de Troyes took an existing popular story, and grafted his own character into it, making him better than anyone else. Pure Mary Sue. It's grinworthy, at least..."

Since then, I have given the idea a bit of thought, and while I realize this is not likely to be a new idea, it is new to me: ALL of Arthurian Romance is FanFic, every last bit of it. In the of EVERY existing work, the writer took established stories, tweaked and edited them to taste, and cut or added new characters at whim.

The distinction is that there IS no original, core work on which everything else is based. It has ALL been fans writing for other fans, for nearly nine hundred years.

Yeah, it is a grinworthy idea, but it is also rather wonderful...

Uncle Hyena