Filk-Haters (was: Snape's Task, etc)

[Caius Marcius]

No: HPFGUIDX 15560

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., irbohlen at e... wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I've been reading this list for a week now and want to say how
> pleasant and thoughtful you all are! Great comments and questions!
> I appreciate  the subject tags, too, as I am highly allergic to 
filk 


The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night
And his affections dark as Erebus:
Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.

  - Merchant of Venice, V,i


> and fanfic.;)


If one were to examine the surviving works of the great Greek 
tragedians, we would be at a loss to discover a single original story 
among them.  Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides based their immortal 
theatrical dramatizations on the pre-fabricated creations of their 
culture's mythology. In other words: FANFIC!!!!!

And the same is true of Shakespeare, who has at best two original 
stories (i.e., The Tempest and Love's Labours Lost) among his entire 
37-play (give or take) output. As Max Beerbohm wrote (while 
impersonating George Bernard Shaw) in A Christmas Garland, "You don't 
suppose that Shakespeare was so vacant in the upper story that there 
was nothing for it but to rummage through cinquecento romances, 
Townley Mysteries,and such-like insanitary rubbish-heaps, in order 
that he might fish out enough scraps for his artistic fangs to fasten 
on. Depend on it, there were plenty of decent original notions 
seeting behind yon marble brow. Why didn't our William use them? He 
was too lazy. And so am I. It is easier to give a new twist to 
somebody else's story that you take readymade than to perform that 
highly specialized form of skilled labor which consists of giving 
artistic coherence to a story that you have conceived roughly for 
yourself.....In so far as I am an artist, I am a loafer. And if you 
expect me, in that line, to do anything but loaf, you will get the 
shock your romantic folly deserves."

On behalf of my fellow HP4GU loafers, 


   - CMC