#canterbury tales fanfiction

[postalninja]

The second of my two fanfic final projects for university this semester! Luckily my professor is cool and gave us a creative project option for the assignment, because if I'd had to write another research paper I would have lost my goddamned mind The Clerk's Tale from Griselda's perspective, in an attempt to humanize her character and figure out her thoughts and feelings. I wrote it in two days and it could definitely use some polishing, but I don't want to spend any more time on it, so too bad! XD

[evilasiangenius]

It's still the 14th century, and will this blasted century ever end?!

A sad, wet, and cold Crowley in the rain is picked up off the side of the road by the knightly Sir Aziraphale who is on his own pilgrimage of sorts. Medieval shenanigans ensue.

And of course, mistakes were made...

[alsofullofflies]

I’d like to bring this to the attention of Tumblr- it’s very funny and very interesting (official academic research into fandom and fanfiction!)

Love You’re Dead To Me, and was very excited when this episode came out! There’s more episodes about literally anything you could want as well!

[seventailedwolf72-blog]

[annabelle--cane]

I understand the argument that while transformative and derivative works have always existed, "fanfiction" as a medium is inherently connected to the concept of IP law and thus is a specifically contemporary art/craft movement, I get it I really do, but also twenty years after the canterbury tales were finished an english monk wrote his own additional chapter and added himself as a character, and I'm sorry but that man should have been on wattpad

[ovidiomedes]

idk if its just the fact that im 22 and a much different person than i was when i first got into fandom and shipping culture when i was 12 but i genuinely think im tired of shipping.

like when i was 12 and into shit like percabeth, or tenrose, fucking destiel. when i was 14-15 shipping things like tsukkiyama, or fuckin' makoharu. i was consuming the content on the basis of the fan content.

i was watching these animes and reading these books because i liked shipping and fanfiction. i liked reading fics of these characters getting together and the media itself was more of a vehicle to consume more fan content, rather than enjoying the original content for what it was.

but now. ive studied english literature in college. I've become obsessed with genuinely good books and literature that were good not bc of the characters and the shipping, but bc of the content and stories being told.

the iliad, paradise lost, the picture of dorian gray, lolita, utopia, the canterbury tales, the tempest, etcetera!

i loved these books not bc of the shipping, but because they were genuinely intriguing stories that had a lot to analyze and say.

then we have danganronpa. a series of videogames that arguably have the same kind of shipping focused culture that a lot of anime's do.

i liked shipping in DR! i like naegiri and naegami! i think there's a lot of fun in the mindless shipping you can get from that, but I don't think its for me anymore.

the most enjoyment i get out of danganronpa is when the world building, the story, the morals of the characters, the themes of hope and despair, etc are at the forefront of discussions about it.

shipping is fine! but its almost annoying how every single discussion regarding the game's has to be about shipping and shipping discourse when the games themselves have a gorgeous dystopian narrative built into them.

[therainbowwillow]

Seeing people remain interested in literature and art created hundreds of years ago makes me so happy. There is still fanart for the Canterbury Tales. There are recent fanfictions for most of Shakespeare’s plays (hell, I’ve written some myself!) We still love these characters, flaws and all. We still see ourselves in them. That overwhelms me with joy.

[deadhamlets]

several of the other english tutors at osu, specifically the ones who were all in the same chaucer class with me this semester, are attending a new years eve party at the head tutors house tomorrow and i have been invited for weeks but never agreed to go due to the whole “ed recovery i look disgusting please dont look at me or take pictures of me” thing but i decided i should probably like leave the house for something other than work this month so i told her i was gonna go if that was still okay and she said “yeah sure! i maybe forgot to mention though the entry fee is you have to bring a piece of the quarry fanfiction that contains ‘senteance and solace’ we’re having a canterbury tales -esque contest” fucking what. okay sure. i love you guys.

[saucerfulofsins]

I think part of this is entirely based on genre and expectations. For one, I fully believe that fic is its own genre (which I’ve written on here).

In other words: we expect books to be a certain thing. As a society, we ascribe certain rules to how a story works (which is true for a story in film or in books, although the rules are somewhat different, and the rules also will differ per culture).

Now, the rules of fic as a genre are applied to books. A romance book written according to scifi rules won’t be just a romance book anymore; the same goes for a scifi book written according to the principles of a murder mystery. Yet, these genres can go together perfectly well. Not all readers of romance books or scifi books will enjoy the mashup, but plenty of people will--which in part depends on which genres they’ve been exposed to and enjoy.

So absolutely, there are elements you’ll find in traditional romance and which will be left out of (most but not all) fanfic. I don’t think that makes it not a book, however, it just makes it a different genre of book--indeed, a crossover between romance and fic--and not everyone will enjoy that kind of writing. 

Then again, it’s not like the conventions of what goes into books aren’t constantly changing. Look at Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales; it’s all in rhyme. If you were to publish a book written like that now, people would be very confused because they’re not used to the convention, and thus they may be inclined to call it a poem rather than a book. Look at Dickens’ work, or any Victorian book that was published in newspapers initially; they use all these details you’ll rarely find in modern work unless you’re reading a deliberately neo-Victorian novel. Look at James Joyce's Ulysses. Similarly, scifi and fantasy rely heavily on world building, while you’ll find much less of this in a typical romance.

I personally enjoy a bit of world building. However, I understand why people who are used to reading fanfiction want to read books that have a similar pacing. I also don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. After all, it all comes down to definition--and besides worldbuilding being something you’re used to and familiar with in stories, it is absolutely not a requirement to develop a character. That is just something we think, again, because it is what we are used to.

So actually, when something feels like it isn’t a certain thing (in this case the fic/published romance novel crossover), I don’t think that means it automatically isn’t (a book) or will never be considered that thing (a book). It just means it falls outside the bounds of what we currently perceive to be the conventions of the genre, and in this case, it is something we recognize as the conventions of a different genre. 

Yes, there are reasons fic is this fast-paced (i.e. familiarity with the world), but plenty of people read fics of pairings they don’t know the canon lore of/haven’t seen the media for/etc. They are reading fic because it fulfills a different reason for reading: they want the fast pace with the big revelations, because that is what they enjoy reading. Besides, the lack of written world building allows for more creativity on the reader’s side; this is simply a different type of engagement.

In other words: There is no problem. This group of published authors could change their work to align more with the pre-established rules of romance but I doubt it will truly improve their work. It really just makes the work different by applying a different set of rules without a true qualitative difference. (Unless, of course, you would only look at the world building, but that seems to me unfair as it’s simply not part of the broader ficcish convention. After all, you likely wouldn't call the conventions of different genres, or the crossovers of these genres, "problems" eithers).

this comment on that vulture article about the "fanfic-to-romance novel pipeline" is very interesting and not something i've seen articulated...much to think about...

[22degreehalo]

Like LotR is a bit of a sore spot for me because. I tried to read it when I was 15 or so. And I just didn't really like it!!!!!!

Admittedly, I was already overdosed on fantasy novels and losing interest in it as a genre. But just as a solo reading experience, I sort of found it continually Unenjoyable.

And I felt so... Stupid for that?? Because /obviously/, LOTR is good. I had friends and family who were into it. And it's just Objective Fact. As an example, we watched the Director's commentary of the movie for school and I vividly remember a guy talking about how obviously 'bad writing' it is that we find out what happened with Merry and Pippin and the Ents unceremoniously, and then only slowly get all the 'suspense raising' stuff when we already know the end. "But it works!" the man crowed, as though that were a foregone conclusion, like no more needed to be said.

I admitted one time, online, to having bounced off it. And I got a response that to this day I struggle to parse: that it's okay, because people enjoy different themes in stories, and they personally would rank their interests Characters first, World second, and Plot last, and that's why they enjoyed LotR, but if someone valued things differently, they might not!

And... That just sounded so /reasonable/, so I felt like it had to be true. Even though I felt kinda - stupid? Because, 'plot' isn't what you normally associate with deep thinkers, right? That's more the domain of flashy action movies, right?

But. LotR. Is SO, SO PLOTTY. Almost everything revolves around external Problems the characters have to Solve!!!!!!! The LotR movies ARE flashy action movies!!!!!!! And, sure, World? LotR has it, yeah!!! Often in the form of 'here are the Bad People and what Historical People did to stop the Bad People', but like - linguistics. Folk tales. That counts for a lot!!

But. It's not for nothing that GRR Martin asked about Aragon's tax policy. LotR is very much based in a mythic world - it's not all that interested in how the kingdoms actually function. Which is fine!!! Most fantasy novels aren't!!! But it's a part of worldbuilding that I tend to be especially interested in - or more specifically, what goes on when there aren't any evil overlords or armies to muster? LotR has some of that!! But it's not the focus.

And... Characters??? Like I said - LotR is a mythic world. It doesn't explore how or why Aragorn and Arwen fell in love - them being on love is simply part of their characters. Personality is single-note and psychology is minimal, because the story isn't about the complex interlockings of these characters. It's about selfishness and greed and good and evil.

But, like. I am an exclusive (oneshot) (mostly shippy) fanfiction writer. Obviously characters are my greatest interest.

If I had to say one thing I've discovered about my reading preferences, it's that my primary need is emotion. I need stories that can put me in a character's metaphorical shoes, or at the least take me on a specific, defined emotional journey. That's why LotR fell so flat for me, I think: everything from the writing style to the overall structure of the story just felt so dry, like even the author was just dully typing out What Happens Next in some interminable history textbook nobody but him was ever supposed to read.

It felt... To be sacrilegious, here? To really say something I cannot take back? It felt a bit like AI writing. No particular message (Tolkien has repeatedly denied there being any real-world applicability to the story), and no sense of thought process as to how the reader would experience the story. Everything's just... Spat out at you. This happens. Now we're doing a Canterbury Tales style folk song. Now we're somewhere that was never brought up in the first 100 pages and will never matter again but by gosh we'll spend a whole chapter here because That's What's There in the world and the only thing that actually matters is cohesion to these pre-written facts!!!

I'm exaggerating... A little. I really did have this experience of reading it, I think; it was a long time ago now. But the commenter from above was right about people valuing different things; likely, my particular preferences are uncommon and thus irrelevant. But even if they are... I really don't think my critiques of the writing in LotR are entirely 100% subjective? I think there is some vein of truth to them, that the books could have been Better if he had written them in some ways differently?

Idk. This is a pointless rant; it's not like the guy in the commentary was being wilfully ignorant or something. The structure worked all right on him and on everyone else he knows, so what else can you say except 'it works'? Besides, I liked Harry Potter, so. Obviously my sense of taste is abominable and I have no right to speak on fiction - especially fantasy - ever. So that's that.

[thetriboulet]

'Imagine if classic authors published their books unfinished like fanfiction authors who abandon their works'

'imagine', my gaping axe wound, The Canterbury Tales is literally right there

[introversiontherapy]

I should be prepping my lunch right now but I have to say this first --

In the centuries after Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales, there were numerous scribs writing down their own versions of his story, telling Chaucer's tales alongside their own. So each version would be a variation on the original Canterbury Tales. No two were alike. Yes, it was the beginning of fanfiction. His writing was so beloved that people felt the need to put their own spin on it, to reimagine it, to change it, to make it their own. Fanfiction has been around for ages, literally. The pull to add to a creative work that was already famous on its own is not a modern invention. It happened in the years after Chaucer's death. We could only do this to something we love.

[bubacorn]

my teacher brought examples of fanfiction written about The Canterbury tales and two other people in the room were dying on the inside (and outside) with me

also, gotta love how there's little to no street lights around my school, so as i was stumbling towards the bus stop and started playing Dark Signs i felt really clever that i accidentally hit the vibe on the head. (although i was not raised here it's fucking dark and it's a hazard)

[i-am-an-entity]

Grendel’s Demonic Meadhall

Work Title: Grendel’s Demonic Meadhall Fandoms: Beowulf, Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, Canterbury Tales, 1984 Summary: For a school project, we had to write a fanfiction. So, I thought I'd post it here. Written in May 2019.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Archive Warning: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Category: Gen Genre: Humor Word Count: 692 Characters: Grendel, Horatio, Jane Bennet, Wife of Bath, O'Brien Additional Tags: Crack, Comedy Violence

Language: English

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20559245

[midnightspunisher]

never feel bad about your self-insert fanfiction because geoffrey chaucer has a self-insert character in the canterbury tales and that is a major part of english literature now