Envie De Voyager

Guilty Pleasures

We all have that one guilty pleasure that we will always indulge in even when we know that partaking in such would be self-destructive behaviour. For example, my father loved seafood, especially shrimp—even though he gets mild allergic reactions when he consumes large amounts of shrimp. My uncle frequently finds himself immersed in mobile games, to the point where he would "postpone sleep" to get past a single level. A friend of mine is well aware that listening to One Direction would tarnish his reputation as the "Hardcore Metalhead" of his school, but he does anyway.

To be honest, when it comes to guilty pleasures, I have several. I like to engage on athletic abilities even when my doctor says my lungs shouldn't be pushed to such extremes. I enjoy the feeling of wind slamming against my face whenever I extend my upper body out of the car window. I frequently drink chocolate milk even though I get terrible bathroom breaks when I have too much dairy. I keep trying to spindle more stories regardless of time, place, or situation.

But this is about that one guilty pleasure that keeps coming back in the strangest of times.

As a child, I barely read any nursery rhymes and fairy tales. In fact, I encountered most of those in first grade. I hadn't even heard of Santa Claus until the second. My childhood stories were verbally told to me by my father, and we would have designated times—3PM to 3:30PM, and 11:00PM to 11:30PM. Systematic, yes. He was always like that. But what made these more strange was the fact that he hardly ever told me stories that were "for kids". At such a young age, I was exposed to myths, legends, and even short stories of two characters he had created (These characters' adventures were inspired by stories of heroes, which my father twisted and reworked to make into a new tale. That often results in regret and/or loss.) While I have no personal favourites, I find myself always drawing from one particular collection of stories whenever I create stories.

Arthurian Legend.

Yes, I am a geek for the set of stories responsible for proliferating the concept of a "Knight In Shining Armour" and popularising the pulling of "Legendary Swords" from stones, pedestals, or other places where a sword can be inserted in. And I don't confine myself to just the versions that were made by Malory and Geoffrey. I've collected information and read versions made by others. I have even watched the Fate series in a bid to know all the different iterations the King of Knights had gotten over the years.

Sometimes, I think about Arthurian stories right before examinations. And then I delve into research. Connecting Celtic myths to Arthurian Legend, and more. I even went so far as to get the Irish gods and connect them to the fairies of Avalon that made the famed Excalibur. The only thing I had yet to do was make my own version of the Arthurian Legend, and a version that would try to combine various elements across multiple authors.

And that is where I stand now.

I am writing with one thought in mind: The story of Arthur is not as you think. This is my motto as I try to spindle a new set of Arthurian Legends. A little bit of the French, a little bit of the Welsh, a little bit of the English, and then a little bit of my personal venom. A concoction that will attempt to make an Arthurian Legend that many will recognise, yet will still manage to surprise them. Taking the common themes of its predecessors, descendants, and those of its own to make it essentially timeless. After all, who is to say that King Arthur's story was definitively told by one author?

So I guess that's that. My current writing project, that made my interests tunnel. A different take on the Arthurian Legend with a classic feeling. I wonder how it would go? I already have some thoughts in my mind, some ideas, but overall, I'm still unsure of how to step into it. Unlike my other stories that would relay themselves to me quite smoothly, this one was filled with uncertainties. Mostly because of my insistence on turning things upside down whenever it feels far too similar to the originals.

But I guess it just has to be done. Judging is to come afterwards. Tally Ho into the unknown.