The PFP Prevailing Fictional Presence

I am NOT a Ghost! I am a PFP – a Prevailing Fictional Presence.

What is the difference you ask?

I thought it would be obvious.

To become a Ghost, one must have been a real living person.

To become a Prevailing Fictional Presence, one must have been a reality living vividly in imagination.

I am Malory Tennyson, the chief Prevailing Fictional Presence here at Malory Tennyson’s Cloudbank Cabin for Arthurian Studies.

Cloudbank Cabin sits above the Fog Lake, in the shadow of the Many Mooded Mountain.

In the Fog Lake, the Prevailing Fictional Presences of all the characters from Arthurian myths and legends reenact their stories in continuous loops (referred to as Iterations), like a long running stage play.

I do not have any sense of how long I have inhabited Cloudbank Cabin. It is probably hundreds of years. It is definitely hundreds of Iterations.

The ARC Arthurian Readers Club has always been the custodian of the cabin.

The role of President of the ARC is a hereditary title, being passed down the Penman family. The current President is Arthur Penman, whose main interest seems to be searching for evidence of the historical King Arthur.

Fortunately for myself and the characters in the Fog Lake, his wife Regina has a greater appreciation of the myths and legends and is able to communicate effectively with us.

And the current Artisan in Residence in the cabin is Little Plump Jo, who has five canine writing companions, the Dabrowski Dogs, and is also able to communicate with us.

Not all the Artisans in Residence who have worked here had that ability.

Over the years I have seen many Artisans working in the cabin. They all brought different media and styles of expression – operas, paintings, poetry, prose, drama, musical plays and films. There was the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of painters and poets and The Inklings, C.S. Lewis and his friends. And the Monty Python team – they were good for a laugh!

There is an understanding that the work of the Artisans who stay here will be in accordance with the versions of the legends as written under my pen names, Sir Thomas Malory and Lord Alfred Tennyson.

However some of them do not seem to have completely understood that clause in the agreement.

As an example, I have very firm ideas about the physical descriptions of the main characters. King Arthur has grey eyes and a mane of red gold hair. Sir Lancelot du Lac has coal black curls and very dark eyes (like myself). This may seem like a minor quibble to you; but it is of vital importance to me. That description of Sir Lancelot which I penned as Tennyson was a key part of his portrayal as the goodliest man who ever amongst ladies ate in hall.

So, imagine my disgust when T.H. White decided to make his Lancelot ugly! That flew in the face of centuries of fine description. And it led to many works which were based on T. H. White, continuing the ‘ugly Lancelot image’. Most however conceded that he had beautiful eyes. Fortunately, the stage musical versions and the screen play based on the book did not follow the ‘ugly Lancelot image’. I was able to watch those without cringing!

T.H. White spent over twenty years writing the four books of The Once and Future King. I yelled at him the whole time. But he turned to dark moods and alcohol and took no notice of me. If only he had been able to communicate with me, maybe the atmosphere would have been more pleasant. Who knows?

Sometimes it is easier to interact with animals than with the people.

I have sent a few Artisans, who did not please me, packing by terrifying their dogs. There was Mimosa Minipas. She insisted on depicting Sir Lancelot as a fairy creature with spiky pink hair, cartoonishly big blue eyes, and what she described as ‘the darlingest little wings’ sprouting from his back. I very soon sent her and her yappy little handbag dog screaming off into the night.

However, being able to communicate with the Artisans in Residence does not always ensure things will go smoothly.

Take the current Artisan, Little Plump Jo, as an example. I can connect effectively with her and, even more so, with her five Dabrowski Dogs, Intellectual, Psycho Motor, Sensual, Emotional, and Imaginational.

But Jo is not a strong author. She does see the characters as I see them. She tries to adhere to working in accordance with my versions of the legends. And she tries to go by the principle of recording what she sees the characters in the Fog lake reenacting, rather than inventing her own plot lines.

But she is not strong enough to handle the characters when they wish to depart from the script.

First, it was Elaine.

Elaine the Fair, Elaine the Lovely, the Lily Maid of Astolat decided that she did not want to continue to nurse Sir Lancelot du Lac for months on end and then die of unrequited love for him. She would not be making her iconic post-mortem barge journey to Camelot with her lily and her final letter to Sir Lancelot in her hand.

She would now be known as Lady Charlotte-Elaine, Lady of Shalott, Entrepreneur owner of Charlotte’s Web Weaving, Patron of the Arts and founder of the not-for-profit charitable organization, Scarlet Sleeve Care Provider Services.

Other characters followed. Dagonet, the Jester, was angling for the role of over all narrator of her story.  Unnamed bit part characters were insisting that they should have names and backstories. They even held a protest march demanding the same rights as legitimate, named, canon characters. And some characters appeared that I had never encountered before, such as Portly Scribe Aforementioned and Thurifer Dwarf the Exwyrminator.

The situation hit its nadir when Sir Lancelot du Lac tried to avoid his role in the final chapters of the Morte d’Arthur, hoping to avoid being banished, so that he would be able to bring the full forces of Benoic to aid King Arthur, in his final battle against Sir Mordred at Camlann. He only succeeded in nearly getting himself killed and still did not arrive in time to aid Arthur. I could have told him that some aspects of the legend are fixed in time and cannot be altered.

Most people date the disastrous Glitch in the Fog Lake from the Trial by Combat in which Sir Lancelot departed from the script. But there had been signs of The Glitch before that day. The Glitch affected the climate (not always Camelot-perfect all the year any more), the landscape (landslides causing boulders to block many traditional paths) and even the sequence of events.

I date all those effects to Elaine, the Lily Maid of Astolat changing her destiny.

And who allowed that to happen? Little Plump Jo, of course. Elaine’s rebellion happened under her watch!

I suppose you wonder why I have not already treated Little Plump Jo to a powerful enforcement of my Prevailing Fictional Presence.

Why have I not ejected her forcibly from Cloudbank Cabin in the same manner as I ejected Mimosa Minipas? Believe me, I have been sorely tempted to do just that.

However, Jo does have some points in her favor. She depicts the characters physical attributes accurately. She does demonstrate understanding of most of the characters and situations.

And since I consider that she is the one responsible for The Glitch in the Fog Lake, I intend to exercise all my influence as Prevailing Fictional Presence, to keep her here in the cabin, until she can provide the solution and remediation of the situation.