Okay, this is approximately the way Diana told it.
Once upon a time there was a scholar who lived in an ivory tower. And in that tower lived many other scholars, who spent their time reading books and writing papers about what some other scholar had said another scholar had said *another* scholar had said they used to do in the Middle Ages.
But the scholar of whom I speak was more fortunate than the rest, for she used to escape from the tower from time to time and go down into the town, where she met many interesting people. And some of these folk belonged to a tribe called “fandom,” and they too read many books and wrote many papers, and they published them in loose journals printed on coarse wood-pulp paper. And the scholar, who had some skill as an artist, drew pictures of knights and ladies and elves and dragons, and these appeared in the wood-pulp paper journals.
And in this tribe were two young men with whom the scholar became acquainted; and they were beautiful young men, one dark and one fair, and both with eyes the color of summer heaven. And on a day the scholar went to visit the young men in their home, and she saw hanging on the wall two bright swords and two well-wrought shields emblazoned with devices of heraldry. And she said, “What do you do with those?”
And the young men replied, “WE FIGHT WITH THEM.” (more…)