Shakespeare at Fanlore

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Hello. I hope this isn't off-topic here (if so please delete), but in my ongoing attempt to spread the rarelit love, I've created an article on the Shakespeare fandom over at Fanlore. I'm woefully aware that my perspective on the fandom is limited, and in particular I don't know the history plays at all. If any of you kind folks would care to wade in and provide a few examples from the history plays for the article that would be superb! Or just let me know which the (two or three) key works are -- I'm particularly trying to find influential early works or works that illustrate common tropes in the fandom. Also any other communities (other than here & yuletide) where you hang out. Thanks for your help!

Comments

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

Well, as far as influential works go, commodorified's "With No Less Terror than the Elements" (http://community.livejournal.com/shaksper_random/7157.html) is probably the earliest piece in histories-fandom-as-we-know-it. And lareinenoire's "An Exchange of Favours" (http://yuletidetreasure.org/archive/83/anexchange.html) really kicked off the AU trend, which is still going quite strong... :)

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'd seen "With No Less Terror than the Elements" chez stultiloquentia's recs, but hadn't realised it was the earliest.

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

It's not the first histories fic ever written -- well, it's the first Richard II fic I know of, but there were a few Henry V fics written for Yuletide before that. I think this was the first non-Yuletide one, and it did establish a lot of the themes/tropes that tend to crop up in histories fics.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the clarification! On closer inspection it looks like there's a little histories fic on ff.net dated as early as 2004, which probably pre-dates the earliest Yuletide stories -- though works only published on ff.net don't often tend to be influential in the wider fannish universe (indeed I've been reading in the Shakespeare fandom since 2000 and hadn't even realised there was a huge Shakespeare section over there).

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

Hi - thanks for the shout out in your article...(though I'm still trying to figure out how you got a noir feel out of my comedic The Pirate and the Puritan!)

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

Also? Great work writing that article.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It was one of the most highly requested Fanlore ones, but it scared the hell out of me tackling it.

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

You are brave!

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

More the understated comedy of some of the hardboiled writers, than the overall dark atmosphere? Hardboiled might be a better description.

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

I get it, really I do. The narration is terse and coarse and the humor sardonic. And "hardboiled" pleases me muchly. Thanks again for mentioning the story.

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

Another comm you might want to check out is shaksper_random

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'd caught that one but it's good to know it's one people do frequent.