by chickens strips September 20, 2017
Get the Raahul mug.Term to describe irritating practice where writers of historical novels invent characters and place them at the very centre of real events....they know all the important characters, "just happen" to be in the right place at the right time so that we can see key events through their eyes....
Basically the Ranulfistic character is an indulgence on the part of the writer, allowing them to "play God" and insert a made-up individual into the heart of real events.
This partly excuses them from the real work of historical fiction i.e. breathing life into REAL historical characters and dramatising the facts of their lives by weaving said facts with "best guesses" / imaginations of what their lives must have been like, why they did the things they did etc.
In many cases historical fact is far more interesting than fiction. Ranulfism is a cop-out if you are writing about interesting characters and events.
Basically the Ranulfistic character is an indulgence on the part of the writer, allowing them to "play God" and insert a made-up individual into the heart of real events.
This partly excuses them from the real work of historical fiction i.e. breathing life into REAL historical characters and dramatising the facts of their lives by weaving said facts with "best guesses" / imaginations of what their lives must have been like, why they did the things they did etc.
In many cases historical fact is far more interesting than fiction. Ranulfism is a cop-out if you are writing about interesting characters and events.
Ranulfism is named after Sharon Penman's invented character Ranulf, an imagined illegitimate son of Henry I of England (she reasoned that Henry had so many illegitimate children, what harm would one more do? What harm indeed...)
Ranulf first appears in "When Christ and his saints slept" as a small boy, a much younger half-sibling of the Empress Matilda/Maude.
He proceeds to nose his way into nearly every major event in this book and its sequels, even to the detriment of such characters as Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine!
Ranulf's life manages to be intertwined with Penman's other obsession - Wales. Even where Wales is highly peripheral to the main action of the story, somehow Penman manages to include it - and making the invented Ranulf half-Welsh, and having him end up with a Welsh woman (his cousin...who also happens to be blind..) ensures its place at the centre of the story, though it is ostensibly meant to be about the royal family of England.
The main characters of the HBO / BBC drama "Rome" are further prime examples of Ranulfism. Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo are fictional characters, yet they manage to be involved at the highest possible level in the great events of the story and as confidantes/tutors/friends of the most central characters - including possibly the zenith of Ranulfism, where we are supposed to believe that Titus Pullo, and not Caesar, is the real father of Cleopatra's son Caesarion.
This takes Ranulfism to new heights, where the writer changes history in order to better accommodate and glorify fictional characters. There is no need in terms of plot to make Caesarion Titus Pullo's son. The writer wants to weave him into the fabric of history, elevating him to a position that a fictonal character simply cannot occupy.
Wikipedia point out that a man with Titus Pullo's background actually could not have been a legionary as he was the son of a slave.
This is an example of the desire to write romantic fiction taking precedence over the responsibilities a writer of historical fiction has to the characters, events and culture he is portraying.
Ranulf first appears in "When Christ and his saints slept" as a small boy, a much younger half-sibling of the Empress Matilda/Maude.
He proceeds to nose his way into nearly every major event in this book and its sequels, even to the detriment of such characters as Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine!
Ranulf's life manages to be intertwined with Penman's other obsession - Wales. Even where Wales is highly peripheral to the main action of the story, somehow Penman manages to include it - and making the invented Ranulf half-Welsh, and having him end up with a Welsh woman (his cousin...who also happens to be blind..) ensures its place at the centre of the story, though it is ostensibly meant to be about the royal family of England.
The main characters of the HBO / BBC drama "Rome" are further prime examples of Ranulfism. Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo are fictional characters, yet they manage to be involved at the highest possible level in the great events of the story and as confidantes/tutors/friends of the most central characters - including possibly the zenith of Ranulfism, where we are supposed to believe that Titus Pullo, and not Caesar, is the real father of Cleopatra's son Caesarion.
This takes Ranulfism to new heights, where the writer changes history in order to better accommodate and glorify fictional characters. There is no need in terms of plot to make Caesarion Titus Pullo's son. The writer wants to weave him into the fabric of history, elevating him to a position that a fictonal character simply cannot occupy.
Wikipedia point out that a man with Titus Pullo's background actually could not have been a legionary as he was the son of a slave.
This is an example of the desire to write romantic fiction taking precedence over the responsibilities a writer of historical fiction has to the characters, events and culture he is portraying.
by Michelle Murphy November 22, 2007
Get the Ranulfism mug.Verb or Noun. climbing bumbly unable to ascend shallowest granite slopes; brings parents to crag; assists other climbers by getting rope stuck; typically of Namibian descent. one can equate a ramnut with a dweeb or a loser or a retard or a dork or a tool but it is subtly distinct for several palpable reasons.
we couldn't get up there cos I had a ramnut for a partner!
Ramnut got the rope stuck!
Don't be such a ramnut, just do it!
Ramnut got the rope stuck!
Don't be such a ramnut, just do it!
by JohnSteed April 9, 2008
Get the ramnut mug.A male with aspirations of power and respect only achieved by city manager or council type positions-a dickweed basically.
"I never thought my brother Ray would turn out to be such a raynus !" "Not that he ever had a choice,but still..."
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An RAAUS pilot is some body who can’t fly for shit they generally kiss their sisters and always call turning wide base
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