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D&D's Origins in Gothic Fiction
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<blockquote data-quote="Mark CMG" data-source="post: 6026004" data-attributes="member: 10479"><p>That doesn't feel familiar with my own recollection of <em>The Castle of Otronto</em>. IIRC, there were a couple of underground chambers and a trapdoor (that needed a key and had a complex latch) leading to a tunnel that allowed for escape from the castle off to a monastery or some such. The "iceberg principle" is not something I recall at all. Perhaps I should dig it out and have another look. As to the rest, more along the lines of mid-Twentieth Century horror than D&D. So, too, <em>Dracula</em> and <em>Frankenstein</em>.</p><p></p><p>In undergrad, we took the text of <em>Dracula</em> and between two playwrights and many editors, constructed a scene-for-scene stage play which started as a five hour script and was pared down over a couple of months rehearsal to a taut (nearly <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> ) three hour production (I scored the titular role! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /> ). The multiple styles used for the narrative, not so unlike <em>Frankenstein</em>, made for a rather cumbersome and awkward story and we wound up scrapping many of the scenes and backstory, discovering that much of what is found in the classic movie versions is really most of the action worth recreating for an live audience.</p><p></p><p>In grad school, as in many MFA programs from what I understand, we had a full course on <em>Frankenstein</em> and came at the text from many angles. We used it primarily as a way to highlight various styles of Literary Criticism, some of which weren't really a good fit, but that's really an aside to this discussion. The creature is much more compelling than that which most people would find familiar from film versions. Even De Niro's turn as the monster falls short of the depth that the original text imbues. It's definitely a more interesting read than the other two aforementioned novels but clunky in parts where it coasts along on journal-like exposition.</p><p></p><p>In any event, I suspect much of what might have been gleaned from such novels for early gaming structure (or "tropes") is minimal and more along the lines of snagging merely the seeds of ideas here and there and morphing them into something else entirely rather than grabbing large swaths of material and transposing it to fit the Medieval Fantasy setting/genre we've come to know from D&D and similar RPGs. As someone familiar with those texts, it doesn't quite ring true.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mark CMG, post: 6026004, member: 10479"] That doesn't feel familiar with my own recollection of [i]The Castle of Otronto[/i]. IIRC, there were a couple of underground chambers and a trapdoor (that needed a key and had a complex latch) leading to a tunnel that allowed for escape from the castle off to a monastery or some such. The "iceberg principle" is not something I recall at all. Perhaps I should dig it out and have another look. As to the rest, more along the lines of mid-Twentieth Century horror than D&D. So, too, [i]Dracula[/i] and [i]Frankenstein[/i]. In undergrad, we took the text of [i]Dracula[/i] and between two playwrights and many editors, constructed a scene-for-scene stage play which started as a five hour script and was pared down over a couple of months rehearsal to a taut (nearly ;) ) three hour production (I scored the titular role! :D ). The multiple styles used for the narrative, not so unlike [i]Frankenstein[/i], made for a rather cumbersome and awkward story and we wound up scrapping many of the scenes and backstory, discovering that much of what is found in the classic movie versions is really most of the action worth recreating for an live audience. In grad school, as in many MFA programs from what I understand, we had a full course on [i]Frankenstein[/i] and came at the text from many angles. We used it primarily as a way to highlight various styles of Literary Criticism, some of which weren't really a good fit, but that's really an aside to this discussion. The creature is much more compelling than that which most people would find familiar from film versions. Even De Niro's turn as the monster falls short of the depth that the original text imbues. It's definitely a more interesting read than the other two aforementioned novels but clunky in parts where it coasts along on journal-like exposition. In any event, I suspect much of what might have been gleaned from such novels for early gaming structure (or "tropes") is minimal and more along the lines of snagging merely the seeds of ideas here and there and morphing them into something else entirely rather than grabbing large swaths of material and transposing it to fit the Medieval Fantasy setting/genre we've come to know from D&D and similar RPGs. As someone familiar with those texts, it doesn't quite ring true. [/QUOTE]
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