The Interstitial Arts Foundation is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the study, support, and promotion of interstitial art: literature, music, visual and performance art found in between categories and genres – art that crosses borders. 
Interfictions Zero co-editor Helen Pilinovsky writes:
Our latest essay, “Don’t Let It Be Forgot: The Once and Future Story,” written by Kat Howard, is now up at these addresses (the first takes you to the front-page and synopsis, the second is a direct link):
http://www.interstitialarts.org/projects/interfictions0.php
http://www.interstitialarts.org/projects/interfictions0_dontletitbeforgot.php
This month, Kat Howard gives us a fascinating meditation on the nature of legend, specifically, the legend of King Arthur, and all the connotations that he bears. “The Once and Future King,” a term from Malory interpreted somewhat … literally … by T.H. White, is a figure who is now nigh-on impossible to consider at a single point on his continuum. Arthur implies Camelot implies its Fall, in what’s thus far been an endless circle … albeit one that, paradoxically, promises a resolution. Kat Howard of Stony Brook University, critic and author (her communal blog, Fantasy Matters, tackles fascinating topic after fascinating topic, and her story “A Life in Fictions” is just out in the recently published Stories, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio), does full justice to the topic in the cleverly titled “The Once and Future Story.”
REMINDER: Interfictions Zero essays appear monthly on this site. We’re accepting rolling submissions for IF0, so if you have an idea for one, please go here for Submissions Guidelines.
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July 11th, 2011 at 10:18 pm
I would love this essay just for the proper use of ‘eucatastrophe’ alone, but of course there’s far more–one of the significant questions about what we call the Arthurian legend is when/why/how Arthur slides out of the center of his own history to the liminal shades on the edges and becomes “the empty places that can be filled.” That’s one of the big issues my students wrestle with when I teach a course in the Arthurian Tradition, and I’ve bookmarked this thoughtful essay to share with them when they do. I think Ms Howard is right when she says that “Even though we know the ending, because we know the ending, we keep hoping to find the magical gap in the story – the between place that might crack wide enough to let new words in.” In 30 years of college teaching, I haven’t seen the interest in Arthur diminish–and I suspect that she has put her finger on one of the reasons why the story continues to be potent and relevant, especially in an age where we’ve been forced to consider and redefine leadership and heroism. Thanks, Ms Howard (and thanks to Ellen Kushner for steering me to this essay!)
July 12th, 2011 at 2:27 am
This was great. I devoured the Arthur stories as a child, reading The Once and Future King countless times then and maybe a few more as an adult. It’s probably been ten years or so since I last picked up the book, though. Maybe it’s time again.