Well you have to think about things from the point of view of european aristocrats; There were people who wanted to have sex with you (many of whom you wanted to have sex with in return), and then there was those other people you married and who you had to have sex with whether you wanted to or not, because if you didn't produce an heir apparent soon a vast trans-continental network of political alliances would collapse and plunge everything into war because for some reason all the countries in europe had decided to use an aristocratic-baby based monetary standard to handle extra-national market transactions.
So obviously the idea that people could express love by running a long long way away from their love interest and hopefully dying nobly on a mountain somewhere without ever having to deal with those people you had to have sex with was fairly attractive to the gentry who acted as patrons for medieval writers.
Thus "high" literature avoided the S-issue, while "low" literature for public performances and tavern songs and the consumptions of other scribes was more able to deal with vaguely human interpersonal relationships without having to have genitalia represented metaphorically by firebreathing dragons or hordes of trojan saracens to be defeated by rhythmically sticking swords and spears into them out of a sense of duty to your kingdom.
And then the victorian and later middle classes wandered in and ruined everything by competing amongst themselves to ape the silly quirks of the gentry while doing that weird consumerist cargo cult of success thing they're always doing.
At least that's my theory and I'm sticking with ;^)
no subject
Date: 2015-04-09 09:31 pm (UTC)So obviously the idea that people could express love by running a long long way away from their love interest and hopefully dying nobly on a mountain somewhere without ever having to deal with those people you had to have sex with was fairly attractive to the gentry who acted as patrons for medieval writers.
Thus "high" literature avoided the S-issue, while "low" literature for public performances and tavern songs and the consumptions of other scribes was more able to deal with vaguely human interpersonal relationships without having to have genitalia represented metaphorically by firebreathing dragons or hordes of trojan saracens to be defeated by rhythmically sticking swords and spears into them out of a sense of duty to your kingdom.
And then the victorian and later middle classes wandered in and ruined everything by competing amongst themselves to ape the silly quirks of the gentry while doing that weird consumerist cargo cult of success thing they're always doing.
At least that's my theory and I'm sticking with ;^)