Anonymous: What draws you to RPF? Do you only like super super old times RPF?
It’s partially because of that old saying: “Truth is stranger than fiction!” I think what drew me to my Medieval RPFs in particular was at first being into say, fantasy dynastic stories, but then learning about REAL dynastic families from the past. There are many all around the world, but for me it was the Plantagenets. You realize what inspired the tropes that inspired the stories that are written today. Even in their own time, they captured the imagination of the people around them, who used the events of their lives to create moral narratives and connect to symbolism. I find there’s a kind of specificity to real life history that you can’t find in fiction, since in real life things happen due to so many factors, including the factor of randomness, that is hard to get in fiction. Fiction must, must, by paradoxical nature, be a lot more structured and neat to be believable, as opposed to real life, where everything takes place in the same cinematic Universe that you and I live in.
People’s lives, especially public figures such as celebrities, politicians, monarchs, artists, etc, are fascinating to the general public and always have. Because they aren’t just living their own lives, they also come to represent certain concepts or character traits that are beyond themselves as individuals. People can and WILL make up assumptions and stories about them in their own minds based on their own relationships, whether or not they admit to themselves that it is a fiction.
I think this is a very natural and human impulse, and you see manifestations of this all over--in historical fiction, in tabloids, in one-off posts on the internet parasocially creating grand narratives about people you and I will never ever meet or be close to. But I have observed that somehow it becomes “weird” if you directly acknowledge it as fantasy and start working in that creative space as a self indulgence. There’s a weird assumption that it’s okay to make up wild stories in your head about public or famous figures if it’s under the guise of criticism or joking irony, but if you acknowledge your active participation in it, it becomes awkward.
For me, I prefer Old Timey Medieval Historical RPF because it is more distanced from modern, living people, but because also in a way it’s more of a “challenge.” The 12th century is a very unique era in that it’s not quite “ancient” and yet it’s right at the beginning of what maybe people culturally consider to be “medieval.” It was a time that was already legendary in its own moment, and became the “medieval” legend even to people in later medieval centuries. Richard the Lionheart, King John, etc and other figures become known to the populace due more to their roles in legends and stories rather than because of their historicity. And I find it neat to dig into the actual history and recorded facts of their existence and relationships because it’s a bit of a demystifying exercise. There’s both a lot more documentation than you would think, and yet there’s a lot of gaps and distance that leaves a lot of room, in my opinion, for creativity. (And for inserting the YAOI delusions).
The practice of research is also exciting because at times you feel like you’re in conversation with the different historians or different sources you read about people. Especially for contemporary sources, they often disagree and have their own agendas, so piecing together the fragments of information into a type of character that feels true to you is a neat project in and of itself. I’ve referred to it before as kind of putting together a “dolly” based on information that you can then use to play with in different scenarios, AUs, etc. Everyone kind of has a different “dolly” since we kind of are drawn to different core features and aspects of characters and figures, and some specific things will be necessity need to be completely made up headcanons to fill gaps. It's a work of research, but also a work of creativity at the same time, since as non-scholars we are not beholden to the same rigor, and because of the inherent gap of time and culture that lies between ourselves and the subjects of our affection and attention, we inevitably bring modern biases and constructions into the creation of our "dollies."
I like the challenge of trying to see what aspects from that time period I as a modern person can connect to. It's an era with specific alienating cultural aspects, but there is still a human core that can be found when poring over documents and research. Like another famous and much more talented RPFer before me (James Goldman of The Lion in Winter fame), sometimes the characters just start to feel very real even through that historical distance and you do feel a connection with them. Even if that connection is maybe more built upon a mix of historical evidence and your own tastes and preferences in fiction. It’s all very fun!
I do not at this point (who knows lol. Never say Never) have any interest in like, current real life people like celebritiess and musicians or sportsmen etc because it feels too volatile to me. Even without the RPF aspect Ive never enjoyed “stanning” people who are alive, or even from the last century…it feels very exhausting. I try not to think about their lives as much as I can since it feels too “close” in proximity. And also because this is an age of information, it’s almost like we can know TOO much about each other–theres very little room for mystery and speculation if every interview, every photo, every social media post is available to consume I think. I enjoy the innovation necessary that comes from the limitations of my era, the cultural restrictions and differences that can be both disturbing and interestingly kinky to work with in a creative way.