potentialities

I got an idea for NaNoWriMo this year from an article that I saw the title of when it was posted on Medievalists.net, so naturally I had to go back to find it again as November swiftly approaches. The articles section on Medievalists.net is extremely dangerous, like if TV Tropes and Cracked had a baby who specialized in medievalism and had significantly higher standards for citations, so I ended up with the article I was looking for, dozens of other articles that are more or less pertinent to saga-era Iceland, and still more articles that are completely irrelevant to my current project but that I want to read anyway.

And then there was the article that I downloaded and read immediately, entitled "Murder, Mayhem and a Very Small Penis: Motives for Revenge in the 1375 Murder of William Cantilupe, Great-great Nephew of St. Thomas of Hereford". The first part of the paper is actually a great medieval murder mystery, although I skimmed it this part heavily on my first reading as I was looking to see where the very small penis came in, so to speak. And it did not disappoint. (Well, it did not disappoint me.)

Prior to being murdered, this William Cantilupe had an older brother, Nicholas, who married one Katherine Paynel, only to have her abandon him and return to her confused family five days later, alleging that her new husband completely lacked genitalia and that she would be burned at the stake if it could be proved otherwise. Naturally, Katherine's father blamed her for the problem, saying that "she was stupid and she knew not what she should do," but she continued to pursue her legal options, including being sent back to live with him twice for periods of two years each in an attempt to fulfill one of the requirements to receive an annulment for impotence.

The ensuing court case was messy. Nicholas was supposed to undergo a physical examination to determine the status of his penis. He "strenuously resisted" this, instead opting instead to coerce an oath from his wife attesting to his manhood by showing her the wall he intended to chain her to if she didn't swear it. The court was not particularly impressed by this maneuver and granted the annulment in the absence of Nicholas and his alleged penis, but oddly enough, the fact that he had managed to dodge the physical examination gave him sufficient grounds to receive permission to appeal his case to the pope, although it is unclear what he thought he would accomplish there, given that presumably the pope would also demand to see his penis, it being the crux of the matter.

His appeal came to an end when he died en route to Avignon, and nothing further was ever discovered regarding his penis. I know! After all that! The author hypothesizes that he may have had congenital adrenal hyperplasia. I mean, he was clearly hiding something.

What I've been reading

I read Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century, a collection of short stories, each paired with a critical essay, edited by Justine Larbalestier. I think this is a great way to set up an anthology; it's like after you finish each story, someone is waiting eagerly to discuss it with you, which is awesome. (I got so mad at the essay about Karen Joy Fowler's "What I Didn't See", though. The author has a really bizarre reading where one offhand line is the true theme of the entire story, and also if you even acknowledge that it's possible to read it as 'literary fiction' you are a filthy collaborator and not, like, someone who's capable of seeing ambiguity in a without compulsively resolving it with a sledgehammer.)

I reread Death at the Bar, which is to Alleyn and Fox as The Adventure of the Three Garridebs is to Holmes and Watson. All the Holmes/Watson shippers (or, for that matter, platonic hurt/comfort fans, I guess) know exactly what I'm talking about. Although, unlike Holmes/Watson, no one on the internet seems to actually ship Alleyn/Fox. Including me. I mean, I wouldn't mind shipping it just to annoy Ngaio Marsh's homophobic ghost, but I just can't see my way to it. I'll have to settle for shipping Alleyn with Nigel Bathgate in the early books.

I read The Literature of Hope in the Middle Ages and Today: Connections in Medieval Romance, Modern Fantasy, and Science Fiction, which is a book I turned up doing a subject search at my library for either Science Fiction — Criticism or Fantasy — Criticism. I'm sympathetic to its thesis, which is essentially [thing that I love to read] has many things in common with [other thing that I love to read], but it's not exactly a deep or substantial analysis of the topic. Nice cover, though.

I read Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was, and loved loved loved it. It's deceptively episodic at first, and hilarious, but everything comes together in a big way at the end and ♥

What I'm reading now

I just started rereading Surfeit of Lampreys. I remember the Lampreys being one of my absolute favorite fictional families. I can't believe they retitled it Death of a Peer when it was published in the U.S.; first of all, that is a pretty boring title, even not in comparison with Surfeit of Lampreys, and second of all how could you possibly pass up that surfeit of lampreys joke, I mean really.

What I'm reading next

I have the other two Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, among other things.