I haven't done much of any writing since I reformatted, due to my writings being safely tucked away in my Gmail account. I have, though, been reading quite a bit. The book of the hour is TH White's The Once and Future King. I realized that it was just kind of, I dunno, wrong for someone who loves the broad scope of the Arthurian legend as much as myself to not actually have read all that much of anything, besides adaptations and condensations for children (Oh, and the films Camelot, Lancelot Du Lac, The Sword In the Stone, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Quest For Camelot and A Kid in King Arthur's Court, but I think only the first three count. The middle one, sorta, and the last two... no no noooo.)
It's gotten me thinking the impact certain stories and characters have on culture. Probably more so than any character in western literature (Next to his fellow Brits Robin Hood and the relative youngster Sherlock Holmes,) Arthur has inspired thousands of adaptations, expansions, derivations, deconstructions and parody. The reasons for this, I think, are obvious; he's the quintessential tragic hero. He is noble, chivalrous, proud and trusting, almost all to a fault. The fellow players in his legend are just as iconic; the mysterious, wise mentor magician Merlyn, the valiant yet lecherous and slightly psychotic Lancelot, and the treacherous Mordred to name a few. All of them have formed the bases for characters and character types that still evolve.
Will this kind of thing continue? We already see it happening to an extent with certain comic book characters, but how far will it go? Will the relatively recent concepts of copyright and "intellectual property" hamper the development of mythii, characters and new concepts? And where do I, an amateur and relatively inexperienced writer, fit into all of this?
Alright, I'm done. Good to know I'm still good at making rambly posts.
No comments:
Post a Comment