Tales of a Wicked Stepgrader

[rymenhild]

The icon, created by yuki_onna, includes a quote from Sir Thomas Malory regarding Morgan le Fay. Let us all proclaim the doctrine of the True (that is, Not Taken From Marion Zimmer Bradley) Morgan.

Very late CONGRATULATIONS!!!! to strange_selkie for completing the first draft of her MFA thesis, and relatively-on-time CONGRATULATIONS!!!! to gramarye1971 for earning highest honours on her thesis. In honor of both achievements, I have decided to pass on Selkie's meme,

If my MA thesis were a fanfic...

• the priest/nobleman subtext would no longer be subtextual
  
• Geoffrey Chaucer would be descended from the bastard son of Margaret, Countess of Winchester, and a Leicester Jew
  
• Such crossover potential...
  
• Aziraphale and Crowley would definitely be influencing Jewish-Christian relations in England - but I'm not quite sure who would be on whose side!
  
• Margaret of Winchester would have been a Hogwarts graduate...
  
• and Simon de Montfort was clearly a Squib.
  
  

If my senior thesis were a fanfic...

• Geoffrey of Monmouth/Mary Sue. Enough said.
  

Meanwhile, a new stack of papers have arrived at my door. The undergrads are currently writing about fairy tales and ballads, and far too many of them seem to believe that because the reading assignments are easy the research projects can be lazy. The undergrads are wrong in this assumption.



Yes, it's time for more student gems.

• Throughout oral and written literatures, the theme of sibling rivalry has always been a reoccurring and lasting element of storytelling.
  
• With each variation the story of Cinderella is always equated with a shoe, into which only one person can fit.
  
• Jack from the Bean Tree version seems much like a Tom Sawyer character than Jack in the other versions, very independent and priggish manner.
  
• Sleeping Beauty is a fairytale, reflective upon life's many facets and an utmost important filial relationship.
  
• While this ballad appears to be only about sibling rivalry, it is actually quite deeper when one sees that it is a tale, which explores the ideas of power and powerlessness for different people in society.
  
• If something was not meant to be yours, however hard you toil to get there you may end up like the many princes who died on the briars.
  
  
  And one last meme, adapted from cataptromancer et cetera: Post a memory of me - something that did happen, something that could very well have happened but did not, or something completely improbable. You may base it on something that happened, or make it up out of whole cloth. Be as specific and detailed as possible.
  
  Edited for small typo correction.

Comments

[bluesbell.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I dozed off at some point- I guess you didn't notice. The pony wasn't so bad once I got to know him, although he did run off in the end and leave me to hitch a ride in the middle of a desert...

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I did notice but people usually fall asleep when I'm pontificating, so I rather expect it.

Is that what happened to the pony? I saw his picture on America's Most Wanted and had wondered whether you were wanted along with him.