This Is Not Serious Business: My First Paper at Kalamazoo, Part 1

[lily_handmaiden]

This bit of catch-up news actually begins about a year ago. In fact, this story was in development over the course of last fall and winter, while I was still posting, but I was so afraid and half convinced that something would prevent it from actually going through that I decided not to mention it until after the event had taken place.

At the beginning of fall semester last year, the Call For Papers for the International Medieval Studies Congress at Kalamazoo went out. And, like every year, I ignored it. The beginning of the semester is always a busy time, and while I had declared at the previous year's Kalamazoo that I would seriously consider submitting to this one, I couldn't spare many brain cells to think about it. I didn't have a seminar paper that I'd want to present. And besides, I had decided for myself quite some time ago that I wanted my first paper at Kalamazoo to be a fun one. It's a big conference, and I hate giving papers and public speaking, so I figured it would ease the pressure on me and ease me in to academia, basically, if the first paper I gave at Kalamazoo was at a session dedicated to something not terribly serious-- something like Arthurian film, where it's okay to have fun.

In fact, since the previous year I'd been wanting specifically to do a paper on Arthurian film so that I could present the premise: "The BBC's Merlin: Not As Bad As You Think It Is." I'd seen only one paper about it at Kalamazoo-- which had surprised me a little, since it had by them finished its second season-- and that paper had kind of infuriated me by being a little bit racist, not very well researched as to the basic facts of the show's universe (No, the Great Dragon's name is not actually "Sparky"), and really condescending about the whole thing. It's one thing to acknowledge that Merlin is not a perfect show, and that yes, it is a bit silly. But that's not to say it has nothing to offer to the conversation, especially when the conversation includes equally silly things like the musical Camelot and A Kid in King Arthur's Court. I mean, really. Give Merlin credit where it's due, because it does know what it's doing. To be perfectly frank about it, I've honestly come to believe that Merlin is the best thing to happen to the Arthurian legend in 20 years, but that's perhaps another entry for another time. The point is, basically, that I really wanted to rebut that paper.

So, I sort of held on to that level of pickiness about my first Kzoo session as my excuse, up until the interdepartmental medievalist get-together, where people started discussing the CFP and how the deadline to submit abstracts for most sessions was that day or the next. I gave my excuse, but then I got home and decided that since I hadn't actually looked at the CFP at all, I might as well glance it over to confirm that there was nothing for me. Just in case.

The first session on the first page was on Arthurian film adaptation. And it was exactly what I would have wanted, had I had any kind of concrete idea for a paper, which I didn't, so that was that. For about five minutes. Then I started having ideas, and one main idea in particular, and it would be do-able, I was almost certain, and suddenly I really, really wanted to do it.

So I ran over to my friend Jill's apartment, which is conveniently located down the hall, and begged her to teach me how to write a conference abstract. I'd never done one before. She was very nice and gave me some examples and advice like, "Half the battle is having an intriguing title." She may even have read over a draft for me. I put all my other work on hold (and almost forgot to electronically submit a Latin assignment, after which I sent an embarrassing, undergrad-y apology to my Latin teacher) and worked my ass off on this abstract. I don't want to get the file out of Dropbox to check, but I feel like it ended up being somewhere between 300-500 words (Okay, I checked. It was 299.), and it took hours to do. Hours. I didn't start until around 8 p.m. Maybe later. I submitted it at the very last  minute, the day of the deadline, having just written it and shown it to no one, in an email that I'm sure was entirely incorrectly addressed. But I got a very nice response that it has been received, so that was that.

For something like two months I didn't hear anything more about it. Most of my friends who had submitted had heard, so I just assumed that nothing was going to come of it, and I was pretty fine with that. But then, one day in I think November (maybe October?), I woke up to find an acceptance in my inbox. An acceptance that even seemed enthusiastic. And I proceeded to spazz out. I think I just sat there going, "Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, I'm presenting. At Kalamazoo. I'm presenting a Kalamazoo, OH MY GOD!" over and over again.

I was presenting my first paper at Kalamazoo on how Merlin adapts elements of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Glorious or what? It was like my dream of academia. Someone was letting me do this. This was actually part of my career. That was probably the point of the entire last year when I most felt like my life was working out okay.

So that was all going on, and I DIDN'T WANT TO TELL YOU and jinx it. This has been a prelude to my next entry, which will be about the conference itself.

Comments

[inafadinglight.livejournal.com]

Hey there! I've been away, so we haven't chatted in a while (and I'm just catching up with S4 Merlin). But this is so exciting! Congratulations! As silly as Merlin can sometimes be, I actually think it's a really great entry in the Arthurian literature world, and if it's going to be one of our generation's big contributions, I'm proud of it. So I think it's fantastic you are helping it to be viewed more seriously. Would love to hear more about the conference. :)

Also, I was hoping you could help me a bit. I've read a smattering of Arthurian literature but would love to round out my knowledge. I'm just not sure what to read next. Le Morte d'Artur? The Once and Future King? Idylls of the King? (which I've started a little) Just thought you'd maybe be able to recommend a book or two. :) And I'd love to read your paper if you'd be willing to share it!

Hope you're well!

[lily-handmaiden.livejournal.com]

Hi! Welcome back!

The entry on the conference is coming probably tomorrow. :) I'm not really giving out copies of the paper at the moment because I may still end up article-izing it, but I will talk about it a bit then.

As far as Arthurian lit recs go... I would consider the Big Three of the "modern" Arthurian adaptations to be The Once and Future King, The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy (The Crystal Cave, The Hollow Hills, and The Last Enchantment).

I don't know if you've read any of those, but if not, Mists is about Morgan le Fay, primarily; the Merlin trilogy is of course about Merlin. Some people hate Mists and some people love it, and I think a lot of that depends on where you are in life when you read it... Mary Stewart is great all the time always, and a very smart writer who has clearly done her background research. The Wicked Day, her book about Mordred, is also great. If you want a book about Guenevere, my favorite that I've read is Queen of Camelot by Nancy McKenzie. She basically borrows the universe Mary Stewart sets up, and she makes Guenevere very sympathetic. The Once and Future King is also great. The style of narration in it is very witty, and in places it's actually very moving. Some of the gags get funnier after you've read Le Morte D'Arthur, although I'm not necessarily saying to read Le Morte first unless you want to.

There's a whole kind of subset of books that try to keep the setting and plot as historically realistic as possible, and of those, Sword at Sunset by Rosemary Sutcliffe is the pioneer. There is also a trilogy by Bernard Cornwell-- The Winter King, Enemy of God, and Excalibur-- which are pretty good, but if you go this route, be prepared for a moderate amount of gore and grossness.

Also surprisingly good is John Steinbeck's The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Nights. He meant it to be an adaptation of Malory, but each section he completed is in a slightly different style as he figured out what he wanted to do with it. The version of the Pelleas and Nimue story in this is my favorite. Steinbeck died before he really finished or polished this book, but it gets published with all of the letters he wrote about writing it in the back, and they are well worth reading, too.

Idylls of the King can be kind of a slog in places, especially if you're not used to long poetry, but worth it because it's beautifully written, and because Tennyson has a way of creating images that just stay with you. My favorite idylls are "The Coming of Arthur," "The Death of Arthur," (which I think might be called "The Passing of Arthur" sometimes?) and "Merlin and Vivien."

Le Morte D'Arthur can take some getting used to, style-wise, but once you are used to it I think it's actually surprisingly easy to read, and the more I come back to it the more beautiful and moving I find it. There are some sections that drag, like battle and tournament scenes, and also some of the Tristan stuff. But you can really tell that Malory loved what he was writing about. And some parts are pretty funny, not necessarily on purpose. This is long, but it's not necessary to read it all at once if you need to take a break. It's pretty neatly divided into books and sections. I'm afraid I undersell this work sometimes because I know that it can be intimidating, but the truth is I love it like crazy and think it's worth at least a good try.

The other medieval Arthurian work I'd really recommend for a non-scholarly reader is Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. This is short, and JRR Tolkien did a good translation of it that's pretty easy to find because Tolkien did it.

Sorry, that was really long! Definitely more than a book or two, oops. :/ But I hope it's helpful!

[inafadinglight.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, no problem! I suppose I could've made it easier by outlining what I've already read and what in particular I'm looking for. ;) I feel like I've been reading a lot of more modern adaptations, and I wanted some more foundational stuff.

Thank you for all of your suggestions! They were super helpful. I'm a big reader, so you can bet I'll be getting to most of these (if not right away, eventually). I actually read Green Knight a few years ago, the Borroff translation, based on my professor's rec. Really loved it and that's when I started getting into Arthurian stuff. So far I'm reading The Round Table section of Idylls, though I've only gotten to Geraint and Enid. I enjoy it, but like you said, long poetry takes a while to get used to and it's not something I can read straight through. I've also read the first two books of Mary Stewart's Merlin series and absolutely LOVE it. (Her style's just so earthy and gorgeous, isn't it?) The reason I took a break from that one was that I came home, where I've got access to real books instead of a kindle. I wanted to actually hold some books, but I've only got that in kindle version. :)

So I've read a bit, but this was basically like, "Well, I've got Idylls, Le Morte, and Once and Future sitting in my library. Which should I really dig into next?" Lol. But then I ended up going to a used bookstore last night, and I came back with: The Mists of Avalon, The Last Enchantment (so I've got it in hard copy!), and Mercedes Lackey's Gwenhwyfar. So I've got a good selection; it's just a matter of choosing! Based on your suggestions, I will probably work on The Once and Future King. (Though I tend to read a number of books at one time, so I'll probably read a few lighter ones simultaneously.)

As for your paper, I took a look at the post date from this entry, and I was like, "Oh, uh . . . I wonder if she's still planning on writing up that report of the conference." Haha, like I said, I'd love to read about it. And I'll just check for updates about publishing your article and then look for it in the proper journal soon. :) Good luck with everything!

One last question: Armed only with the knowledge that you've been to Kalamazoo for a medieval conference, have you been to the medieval manuscript library at UMich? A classmate and I wanted to take a trip out there our senior year of undergrad, but it didn't happen because of time issues, and I'm wondering if it's worth checking out on my own someday soon.

Anyways, thanks for putting up with my curiosity! Hope you're enjoying the holiday season. :)

[lily-handmaiden.livejournal.com]

Yay! You're working up a well-stocked Arthurian library! Something else foundational you might like to look at eventually if you liked Green Knight is Chretien de Troyes's Arthurian romances. There's a Penguin collection of them, and they don't deal so much with Arthur as with individual knights' quests, but they're fun. Sorry, I'll stop recommending stuff.

Yeah, I meant to finish the conference write-up soon after I started posting it, and life just got in the way. I'm trying my best to post more now.

I've never been to the manuscript library at UMich, so I don't really know whether to recommend it or not. However, looking at medieval manuscripts is fun, and if you happen to be in the vicinity of a place that has some, it might be worth checking out. But, I mean, I speak as kind of a manuscript geek. The UIUC library's copies of the Prose Brut and I developed a very close relationship over the course of the last two semesters. ;)

I hope you're enjoying the holiday season, too! It's good to have you back online! :)

[inafadinglight.livejournal.com]

Oh, my . . . I need to stop going to bookstores. In the past two weeks, I've gotten enough books to last me MONTHS! I'm pretty sure I've got the de Troyes's Arthurian romances on my kindle, but I'll have to check. I think I need to make a reading chart, lol. Thanks again for all your suggestions. I'm pretty much set for the next couple months of my reading life!

Happy holidays to you! Hope you're well. :)