[Ads-l] ADS-L Digest - 18 Oct 2026 to 19 Oct 2026 (#2026-289)

[Amy West]

On 10/20/26 00:00, ADS-L automatic digest system wrote:

> Date:    Mon, 19 Oct 2026 11:28:53 -0400
> From:    Jonathan Lighter<wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Re: place (and more)
>
> I think "locus" and "site" are just too close to "place" itself to be
> illuminating.

I think "place" is being used as a synonym in a piece for a general 
audience to replace the more scholarly "locus" or "site".

Now, the medieval lais can definitely be a source for the modern 
romantasy genre, but when we're talking about medieval women and the 
lais, the lais are definitely a site/locus/place for the medieval 
women's "explora[tion of] . . .desires, free from the idea that they 
should be chaste."

I think you're conflating the author's discussion of medieval women and 
their stories, and modern women and the romantasy genre.

>
> The important thing, to me, is not the existence of the notion of a "place/
> space/ location" but what that "place" is useful for and wished for. So I
> stick with "source," metaphorical as it may sound.
>
> I don't recall "shadow daddy" from Med Lit, NYU 1971.  If anything, the
> term might have been "demon from Hell."
>
> JL

"Shadow daddy" is a modern term for the figure in the contemporary 
romantasy genre. They're just drawing a line from their precursors in 
medieval lit.

You might hear a young scholar use the term in a conference 
presentation, but otherwise, yeah, no, not scholarly. It's probably all 
over popular fiction social media.

---Amy West

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