Not starting with Castiglione’s Courtier as I’ve seen asserted, but farther back, and at the inspiration of a very strong woman: Eleanor of Acquitaine, who worked so hard to wrench the war hungry drive of feudalism into a semblance of the chivalric ideal because she got tired of stinking, sweaty men tromping with filthy boots into her fine rooms, blabbing exclusively of killing unruly barons and damned Saracens, to the exclusion of wit, history, song, and about anything else worth listening to. In the hands of a great writer this character serves to show what humans could be, and as such he has a venerable history.

Leading off down a different path is the idealized protagonist, which could be termed the Beau Ideal. The very far end of the spectrum is the so-called Mary Sue story, wherein the protagonist is the center of the universe just because the narrative voice tells us the protag is a special snowflake. Rereading this book caused me to clarify some of my muddy thinking with respect to wish-fulfillment characters and stories and those that try to present the world as it should be, could be, might be with a little imagination and grace. Going in unprepared, I might have given up, which is unfortunate. Quite possibly, reading that post to begin with is what allowed me to love this book so much.

'This is a sneaky, sneaky book: a blood-soaked medieval fantasy an elegant historical AU a bleak, gritty political thriller a witty Shakespeare fanfic an intricate meta game full of buried jokes about Star Wars and Dracula and a deeply serious and mature story about human damage (whether trauma or “chronic conditions”) and how we bear it, about suffering and grace.' I was convinced to read this book by this post, really, which says a lot of what I want to say - and in a wondrously unspoiler-ish manner, too. The theme that touched me most deeply was that of trauma, and the Byzantine colonialism's comparisons to sexual assault - it was very interesting to me that several key characters were Welsh and Scottish, given that theme and 'real world' history. I don't know how to say all the things I think and feel about this book without simply quoting other people. I can understand resenting all the work the reader has to do, though for me the need to work is what made me love this book so much. It's a subtle, deeply allusive book, requiring both knowledge (of history and other literary texts) and skill with interpretation (of logical implications and emotional ones).

I read it with the Draco Concordans (a fan-written concordance for the book) at my fingertips, all the while conscious that I'm gonna have to read it again to understand it all. The Dragon Waiting is hard work: I can totally understand why some people disliked it.

The dragon waiting john ford