And now, randomly, the history of the fantasy novel in English

Reading and enjoying the second book of The Dark is Rising series has got me thinking about fantasy lit, and about its weird place in the canon -- as far as English literature courses are concerned, the stuff does not exist.

(Even science-fiction has begun to break through the barrier of "canon," but fantasy has been cast into the outer darkness along with erotica and a few other despised genres.)

This is strange, because the fantasy novel is now almost 250 years old. It can be traced back to a man named Horace Walpole -- son of Britain's famous (or infamous) first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole.

( The story of the first fantasy novel )

(no subject)

And I've updated my queer history blog.

I'm always fascinated about the peripheral stuff I have to look up for the blog. Today it was the Canadian Secret Service -- the dangerously paranoid, little-known spy organization that eventually got merged into CSIS.

Otherwise, it's been a very productive day. I finished my fifth draft of my novel, and now I'll be subjecting it to some heavy edits for a couple of weeks before it's ready to show anyone. I also fixed my computer's power source, and baked banana bread.