Of Restoration Poets and other Immortals (and plot bunnies involving same)

Back in my flat after two pretty exhausting days. In a good way exhausting, though. They started of by a one of my former professors, who turned 60, getting a volume of essays written for him by his former students, including myself, as a surprise gift. It has been so many years, and there we were, in the same class room, which hadn't changed a bit, sitting as we used to in his seminars. (And what does it say about a bunch of mid-thirties that they all remember where they sat in class?)

On that same day, I had to travel to Erfurt and met Germany's most popular (living) fantasy/horror author, Wolfgang Hohlbein, only to have a heated debate about RotK with him. (He's one of those people who dislikes the ending. Not just PJs', mind you, but Tolkien's. He thinks good old JRTT should have stopped after Aragorn's coronation. 'Twas a fiery battle, my friends.

Today, it was back from Erfurt via Bamberg (hometown) to Munich and catching up with my mail and the net. Which brought several welcome discoveries. Firstly, melymbrosia mentions that the play The Libertine, which is about Rochester (as in John, Earl of, one of the most colourful Restoration poets) is going to get filmed with Johnny Depp in the title role. If there ever was an excuse to faint without a corset...

Mind you, as far as I recall from seeing the play a couple of years ago in London, the most explicit bits of Rochester's poetry won't make it to the screen, but it does give a good impression of the man without sanatizing him into a loveable rogue. And the characterisations of Charles II and Elizabeth Barry were equally good. One of the key scenes is Rochester getting his portrait painted with a monkey (his idea); the anger and frustration behind the sex and drinking and the witty barbs are constant undercurrents.

Last year in summer I sang the praises of Aphra Behn, another fascinating Restoration poet, the first professional female writer in English, and this news made me wonder when we'll get an Aphra biopic. So much of her life is obscure or a guess, but we still have more facts on her than we ever got on William Shakespeare, endless volumes of biography on the Bard notwithstanding. Plus all those gaps in her bio should be even more encouraging to scriptwriters. What exactly happened during her time as a spy? What was it like to write for the stage, as a woman, and suddenly able to write for women as well (women as actresses were a custom Charles II. brought back from France)?

Though with the luck female artists have, an Aphra Behn biopic would probably be all about her love affair with someone or the other, and very occasionally we'd get a mention she also writes. Meanwhile, we do have a highly entertaining mystery novel by Molly Brown, Invitation to a Funeral, starring Aphra as the unwilling detective and Nell Gwynn (actress, mistress of Charles II) as her sidekick. There's a wonderful site about the historical background of this novel which offers a tour through Restoration London here.

Lastly, a plot bunny offered for free which came to me while corresponding with kathyh: A Pirates of the Carribean/Highlander crossover. You see, Elizabeth actually did drown at the start of the movie, but she's a Highlander-style Immortal, and this was her first death. Jack Sparrow is another unwitting Immie (I'd love to make him a knowing one, but that doesn't work given his scars), who died his actual first death when Barbossa stabbed him during the duel. Once the curse was settled, that counted again. So, about a year or so after the movie, Elizabeth starts to notice that a) she doesn't get pregnant, and b) has cuts on her finger by every day occasions magically dissappear. She assumes it might be some lingering effect of the Pirate Curse. Meanwhile, Jack does get killed in some enterprise and wakes up alive. His first thought is that dratted curse as well. Somehow, they team up; Elizabeth uses this excuse to get out of the married life and to run away to the sea; Will, if alive runs after her, but I'd recommend killing him off at the start. A K'immie (for non-HL fans: evil Immortal, because most of those had names starting with K) can do the deed which gives Elizabeth a reason to go after him, especially once she discovers what she is. Which she does through an encounter with either Methos or Amanda or both. Or, Amanda and Duncan. (Remember you can't use Duncan and Methos together in this period.) Given a scenario where most of the characters have a ruthless "me first" attitude, not to mention a fondness for double crosses and switching allies, this in the right hand could work pretty well...