Because it's boring for everyone to say "I'm thankful for my family
and friends." Here are some Dicks I'm thankful for 24-7, 365.
Real Richards
As you might have noticed, this fine blog does not limit itself to
discussing actual, flesh-and-blood dudes named Richard; it also covers
fictional, ink-and-paper dudes named Richard. But I’ll give the real
people their due first, since, after all, they were real.
One: Richard III. I know it’s pretty messed up to be thankful for a
usurping, murdering medieval king (not that Richard III was the only
usurping, murdering medieval king), but that’s just how things go.
Richard III’s existence has noticeably enriched my life – in both a
figurative and monetary sense. The controversy surrounding Richard III
(was he a murdering, hunch-backed monster or a pretty cool guy?)
introduced me to the interpretative aspect of history – in other words,
it showed me what real history is. History is NOT (contrary to what high
school suggests) a bunch of names, dates, and facts. History is the
gathering of evidence, the careful interpretation of evidence, and the
use of that evidence to construct a reasonable, well-supported
hypothesis about how people lived in the past. If you branch out beyond
textbooks, you realize that our understanding of history is always
changing, being modified as new evidence is found or as new scholars
tackle new questions with new perspectives. High-school history is
oversimplified, often boring, and sometimes incorrect. Real history is
more of a detective adventure. It is way more awesome than what you get
in school.
Propaganda aside, Richard III made me want
to be a historian. Richard III, as a topic of conversation, also served
as a point of common interest between me and a local professor, who was a
sort-of mentor for me when I was in high school. Furthermore, Richard
III gave me a great hook when writing my graduate school application
essays. Recently, a society devoted to clearing the name of Richard III
gave me money to do some research, so I owe the man a “thank-you” for
some cold, hard cash. Not to mention Richard’s life has been a fertile
field for sowing the seeds of historical fiction. Although many of these
books are rubbish, some are pretty good, and all of them provide hours
of wonderful entertainment. To sum up: Richard III has inspired my
career path, helped me win money, and given me entertainment fodder.
Richard, I owe you one, man. Thank you for existing, as your life has
benefited me.
Two: Richard II. Not only did this
king’s pathos-filled downfall inspire one of Shakespeare’s better
history plays, his failure to have children gave me a dissertation
topic.
Actually, Richard II is also a fascinating king to
study when it comes to the interpretative aspects of history. There are
some historians who have claimed he had a mental illness, while others
contend he just sucked. But it's much more complicated than that, and
Richard's reign deserves further study.
Plus, Richard really loved his wife Anne of Bohemia, and she was awesome.
Fictional Richards
This blog does not discriminate against the fictional. If you are named
Richard, this blog will attempt to do you justice. Physical existence
not required!
One: Dick Grayson. The original Robin,
with his green short pants and pixie boots, will always hold a place in
my heart. He is such a diggity dank character. Courtesy of his numerous
appearances, which span the realms of comics, movies, television,
cartoons, fan fiction, novels, and video games, I’m quite confident
there are enough portrayals of Dick Grayson out there to entertain me
for a lifetime. According to the comic vine website (http://www.comicvine.com/characters/),
Dick has made over four thousand comic book appearances! And while that
pales in comparison to the over nine thousand Batman has made, Dick
outranks Wonder Woman (but only by about one hundred). So thank you,
Dick, for making sure that whenever I’m bored, there will be a
comic/story/movie/tv episode featuring you out there to entertain me.
Two: Richard Lander. This Richard is a main character in the first two
novels of the Ann Rinaldi Quilt Trilogy (the two books being A Stitch in Time and Broken Days). When I was in middle school, I loved the heck out of these young-adult books.
Three: the Richards from The Black Arrow.
This book was written by “Holy Robert Louis Stevenson,” and is one of
his minor works. The protagonist, however, is named Richard Shelton,
which means this work is aces in my book. The Black Arrow is
the story of said Richard Shelton realizing that his father was murdered
by his current guardian, and his adventures to avoid getting murdered
himself and reclaim his birthright. He is helped along the way by the
“Fellowship of the Black Arrow,” a group of outlaw dudes whose leader
(the awesomely-named Ellis Duckworth) was a good buddy of Richard’s
father. (So yeah, the book has obvious debts to Robin Hood, but
Stevenson didn’t need to reinvent the wheel, he just needed to put food
on the table). This book is made even more diggity dank by taking place
during the Wars of the Roses, which means Richard III makes an
appearance! Richard III appears in his full-hunchbacked glory, but isn’t
really portrayed as a terrible guy. He is, however, considerably older
than he was in actuality; pre-king Richard III leads men in battle
during the book, but in real life he was just a kid. There’s also some
romance thrown in and it has a happy ending, so it’s an all-around
feel-good story. My main complaint is that the 1948 black-and-white
movie version of this book is terrible! I mean, it sucks balls, people.
They have swordfights in which people are killed yet miraculously shed
no blood and the main character is supposed to be seventeen but is
played by a forty-year-old man (who looks old). It’s a disgrace. The Wishbone
episode on this book (which is, incidentally, how I found out about
this novel in the first place) is a hundred times better – and Richard
Shelton is a dog in that. But check the book out – it’s free on Kindle!
I would also like to take this moment to express my gratitude to the Oxford English Dictionary and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
You are two of the finest databases out there. If you are a
college/university student reading this, check your library’s website.
You should have free access to these electronic resources – use them.
They are epic.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
