Lancelot

[osprey_archer]

I know I've linked T. H. White's character notes on Lancelot before, but littlerhymes just sent me a version which included not just White's numbered list but also some extra thoughts he appended, not least of which is a sub-list of People Lancelot Is Like... which includes T. H. White himself. There it is! He just came out and said it! Glad to see the self-awareness, buddy.

On the other hand, at the end T. H. White muses about what Lancelot considered his big flaw, his fundamental lack. "On first inspection one would be inclined to link it up with no 17 ["Homosexual? Can a person be ambi-sexual - bisexual or whatever?"], but I don’t understand about bisexuality, so can’t write about it," White wrote... then proceeded to write Lancelot as a classic disaster bi. Absolutely flawless depiction of a completely catastrophic bisexual. No notes!

***

I've finished revisions on A Garter as a Lesser Gift, and have been contemplating (due largely to the enthusiastic boosterism of skygiants, who is already responsible for the fact that the Gawain retelling has become a reality) a companion Art/Lancelot/Gwen story. If this comes to pass there will ABSOLUTELY be a scene where Lancelot asks plaintively, "Can a person be ambi-sexual - bisexual or whatever?" Probably of Gwen, possibly while they're in bed together.

My hesitation about this project arises from the fact that I couldn't lift the plot wholesale as I did from "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." There are Lancelot and Guenever stories that don't immediately end in the fall of Camelot, but the basic structure seems to be Guenever is ACCUSED and then Lancelot has to CHAMPION HER because Arthur as king cannot... I don't know, maybe if I switched it around and Lancelot was ACCUSED and Guenever has to CHAMPION HIM, in a less literal sense as people were not doing trial by combat in World War II.

Or I could just plot something myself, but at some point doesn't it stop being an Arthurian retelling and become an OT3 with some Arthurian names attached for decorative purposes? Also, let's be real, part of the point of a retelling is that I don't have to plot the story myself.

I have been thinking that I should, perhaps, give this esoteric thing called "outlining" a try. I have worried in the past that this would constrain my spontaneity (insert tragic musings about smudging a butterfly's wing and destroying one's literary gifts), but there was really a lot to be said for knowing the exact outlines of the story in A Garter as a Lesser Gift, and just having to color it in. Does anyone have an outlining process they particularly like?

Comments

[sovay]

I don't know, maybe if I switched it around and Lancelot was ACCUSED and Guenever has to CHAMPION HIM, in a less literal sense as people were not doing trial by combat in World War II.

I like that. My first thought is private detection, although by the 1940's Barrister Guenevere is not beyond the historical pale.

Does anyone have an outlining process they particularly like?

Unfortunately, I do not outline.

[osprey_archer]

I may end up deciding that outlining is Not for Me after all, but I figured I might as well give it a try just this once...

[asakiyume]

To get hung up on the butterfly analogy, I too thought touching a butterfly's wing risked damaging it irreparably, and while that's no doubt true for some ways of touching it, apparently it's not for others, because they tag butterflies on the wing! ... Now how that folds into your musings about trying outlining, I'm not sure, but probably it means there are ways of doing it that wouldn't destroy your creativity.

[osprey_archer]

I have always been a bit leery of meddling with my Process because in the days of my youth I suspected that I would someday lose the ability to write poetry and I was right! ...but perhaps after this many novels I can stop worrying about the same thing happening to my novel-writing ability and risk a little experimentation...

[asakiyume]

With the poetry, was it that you tried to alter how you approached writing to it (if so, how)?

[osprey_archer]

Trying to remember... this was all so long ago now... it was near the end of high school, and I don't think it was so much an alteration in approach as just becoming too self-conscious to write it. It's hard to explain, because it wasn't exactly that I was worried about the quality; I'd just lost the self-forgetfulness to write it.

[asakiyume]

*nodding*
"self-forgetfulness" is a great word, very expressive, a nice complement to "self-consciousness.

[skygiants]

I AM GOING TO CONTINUE TO ENTHUSIASTICALLY BOOSTER

[osprey_archer]

A good influence!!! We may have to discuss the possibilities while I am in MA.

[ethelmay]

I have forgotten the exact context, and she may have meant something rather different, but it's always cracked me up the way Sylvia Townsend Warner remarks in a letter to Valentine Ackland, "How nice that we are bi-sexual."

[osprey_archer]

Hahaha oh gosh. It's a pity White and Warner never actually met, because perhaps she could have explained!

[troisoiseaux]

I don't know, maybe if I switched it around and Lancelot was ACCUSED and Guenever has to CHAMPION HIM, in a less literal sense as people were not doing trial by combat in World War II.

If it's still strictly WWII/RAF-based, court-martial? Otherwise, I second the recommendation of Guenever, Private Detective.

[osprey_archer]

Upon reflection, a FALSELY ACCUSED plot sounds like WAY too much effort, so perhaps I will go back to the drawing board on this one. Maybe Lancelot can... kill someone in a pavilion again... okay not sure that one is translatable to 20th century England either.

[luzula]

I do not outline, and have an aversion to trying it out! When writing novel-length, I start with having the general shape of the story in my head, and filling it in as I go.

[osprey_archer]

Yes, that's generally what I've done so far. The difficulty (for me) is that sometimes I'll have an idea for a story, but it just won't develop into a story-shape, and I was thinking perhaps outlining might kick-start that process... however it is also possible that if the idea won't develop into a story-shape on its own, it's just not meant to be.

[luzula]

Hmm. What takes me from idea to story-shape is generally a sort of day-dreaming process? And brainstorming with beta-readers helps me, too.

But yeah, sometimes it's just not meant to be. I have a FotH/Flemington crossover idea which has not gelled yet...I suppose I'll wait and see.