How Ludwig II’s love for Wagner inspired the world’s greatest work of fan art | Hacker News Reader

How Ludwig II’s love for Wagner inspired the world’s greatest work of fan art

laphamsquarterly.org

32 pointstintinnabula11 comments

Ludwig is memorable to me because he stands out as the essential Nerd long, long before it was OK to be a nerd.

Ludwig’s life was tragic largely because he was so far from society’s norms and expectations. Gay, uninterested in his family’s court, definitely not neurotypical (his brother was likely schizophrenic) and unquestionably nerdy; in the early 1800s, he defied basically every expectation society had of him and paid the price by being deeply unhappy, getting overthrown, and dying in his 30s. He’s a patron saint and martyr of Nerd-dom, almost, although of course the history is more nuanced than that.

His story serves as a reminder of how good us nerds (and anyone outside the “norm”) have it now. Being obsessed with art, opera, science, or computers just makes you a super-fan — there’s a website, subreddit, and convention just for people like you. Computers and the Internet made nerds like Bill Gates cool, and enabled all of us outside of societal norms to find and accept each other. I’m sorry Ludwig never got to post at wagner-fan-forums.com. He would have liked it there.

The greatest work of fan art? How about the Aeneid? :)

Or Dante's Inferno

I guess Paradise Lost is another contender, while we're at it.

I'm not sure "fan art" has an exact definition, but I think the term only applies to art inspired by fictional creations, not art based on history or mythology.

The Aeneid is clearly inspired by and derivative of Homer.

Yeah but Homer was considered history or mythology, not fiction. Homer didn't invent the characters or story line. I guess it is rather grey area, but I consider "fan art" art that is derivative of a specific artistic expression. E.g. if i draw Robin Hood as a vampire, it is not fan art, but if I draw Disneys Robin Hood as a vampire, it is fan art. Don't know if that makes sense?

He outright has pastiches on scenes in Homer, so I think it still works.

That's what I was thinking of as well.

Gabriel Knight 2, one of the last full motion video adventure games of the 1990s, used Neuschwanstein, King Ludwig, and a fictional lost Wagner opera as central elements in its plot. I can't look at Neuschwanstein without thinking of the atmosphere it lent to that game.

I didn't expect Lapham's Quarterly to show up in a Hacker News thread. Good magazine. Worth the subscription.

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