So, when I was doing my thesis on whether or not fanfiction should be considered a legitimate genre of literature, my advising professor asked me for examples. I gave him the generic ones, of course - “Pride & Prejudice and Zombies” is a horror fanfic of “Pride & Prejudice”, “50 Shades of Grey” is an erotica fic of “Twilight" - and that seemed to make him understand what fanfiction is, but not how it’s useful. So I thought about it, and, after about a minute, I said, “Paradise Lost is basically a fanfiction of the Book of Genesis. And The Divine Comedy is an epic self-insertion fic for Catholic doctrine. So, basically, you were teaching us fanfiction last semester.” I had never before seen a grown man’s eyes widen with such fear, incomprehension, disgust, awe, and understanding.
#does that mean the renaissance was almost entirely fan art?
Yes. Yes it does. All ur classic favs had the Renaissance version of DeviantArt.
l i s t e n
If you really want to drop that guy down the rabbit hole, ask him which Arthurian legend is canon and which are the AUs.
and, of course, lest we forget the immortal words of neil gaiman
