![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
psalm_onethirtyoneSo. Arthuriana.
The thing I noticed while reading Mr. Morris, Ms. Springer, and Ms. Sutcliff is that Ms. Sutcliff totally is the best. >_> Mr. Morris is awesome and a great deal insane, and has a ridiculous sense of humour that sometimes eclipses the more serious side of the stories, and Ms. Springer--oh, dear God, she's a PIT of DESPAIR.
The most notable thing about I am Mordred is that she took Agravain, divided him into two people she called Gawain and Garet, and then set about to make them as hateful as possible. Instead of an insanely confused Gaheris killing his mother, we get Garet doing it. Which. Abba. Wibba. Is. Brainbreaking. Also, Mordred falls in love with a girl called Lynet(te), and when I stop laughing I'll tell you what I think about that. >_> But she also has a really terrible ending, sort of overwhelmingly tragic, which makes up for some of the other things in the books.
Mr. Morris' books are shiny as goodness. Also, Dinadan describes the court of Camelot as a bunch of hedgehogs in The Ballad of Sir Dinadan, which is pretty much LOVE right there. Also Mr. Morris tends to tie things together in ways you wouldn't believe possible--you read a book and then you do a tiny bit of research and just how wackily put-together is that? you find yourself saying. Like in The Lioness and Her Knight, which stars Gaheris and Lynet's crazy daughter Luneta, who hangs out with Ywain, the knight of the lion; there's actually an legend about a girl named Lunete who was companion to Ywain. And then he also goes around filling in holes in the old legends and making them make a bit more sense. And Dinadan is Tristan's younger brother. And Gareth gets made fun of A Lot, and that's how it should be.
But Ms. Sutcliff hits this middle balance between the shiny and bouncy and the angst, and she has a wonderful writing style; it's very tradition, and then all of sudden she puts in poetry, the most beautiful language, and it's starting and amazing and extremely wonderful. She's much nicer to Gareth than either Ms. Springer or Mr. Morris; she shifts the mocking to Kay.
Yes. :D A tonne, a metric tonne of Kay-mocking happens in The Sword and the Circle. But at the same time she tempers it with something; at one point Arthur says, "He was an unhappy boy, and he shall be an unhappy man," and you know, you know how true it must be. Unfortunately, Lance takes that as his cue to be an ass, but that's another story.
I am in love with her Gawain, and her details; her Arthur exiles Gaheris after the Morgause-and-Lamorack killing, saying that he can't interfere with blood feuds but he's still disappointed. Her Merlin is far-seeing and almost not obnoxious, and her Lancelot has a bizarre kind of charm. Her telling of Geraint and Enid is glorious.
Ms. Springer's I am Morgan le Fay is much better than I am Mordred; not great, but much better. Also there is lots of Other People things, and it's fairly cool. There's the whole Morgause Characterisation Issue, but still. It's also not as much a PIT of DESPAIR as I am Mordred.
Mr. Morris' Savage Damsel and the Dwarf is probably his best book, and as soon as I type that I realise I can't say so, because there's something utterly fantastic in all his books, but no, it is the best one. I also realise that I'm getting incoherent and stupid as I go on, and I decide to wrap things up with something brief and explanatory and try not to make it a jumble of squee.
...
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE ALL THESE ARTHURIAN WRITERS I WANT MORE YES I DOES. ^______________________^!
The thing I noticed while reading Mr. Morris, Ms. Springer, and Ms. Sutcliff is that Ms. Sutcliff totally is the best. >_> Mr. Morris is awesome and a great deal insane, and has a ridiculous sense of humour that sometimes eclipses the more serious side of the stories, and Ms. Springer--oh, dear God, she's a PIT of DESPAIR.
The most notable thing about I am Mordred is that she took Agravain, divided him into two people she called Gawain and Garet, and then set about to make them as hateful as possible. Instead of an insanely confused Gaheris killing his mother, we get Garet doing it. Which. Abba. Wibba. Is. Brainbreaking. Also, Mordred falls in love with a girl called Lynet(te), and when I stop laughing I'll tell you what I think about that. >_> But she also has a really terrible ending, sort of overwhelmingly tragic, which makes up for some of the other things in the books.
Mr. Morris' books are shiny as goodness. Also, Dinadan describes the court of Camelot as a bunch of hedgehogs in The Ballad of Sir Dinadan, which is pretty much LOVE right there. Also Mr. Morris tends to tie things together in ways you wouldn't believe possible--you read a book and then you do a tiny bit of research and just how wackily put-together is that? you find yourself saying. Like in The Lioness and Her Knight, which stars Gaheris and Lynet's crazy daughter Luneta, who hangs out with Ywain, the knight of the lion; there's actually an legend about a girl named Lunete who was companion to Ywain. And then he also goes around filling in holes in the old legends and making them make a bit more sense. And Dinadan is Tristan's younger brother. And Gareth gets made fun of A Lot, and that's how it should be.
But Ms. Sutcliff hits this middle balance between the shiny and bouncy and the angst, and she has a wonderful writing style; it's very tradition, and then all of sudden she puts in poetry, the most beautiful language, and it's starting and amazing and extremely wonderful. She's much nicer to Gareth than either Ms. Springer or Mr. Morris; she shifts the mocking to Kay.
Yes. :D A tonne, a metric tonne of Kay-mocking happens in The Sword and the Circle. But at the same time she tempers it with something; at one point Arthur says, "He was an unhappy boy, and he shall be an unhappy man," and you know, you know how true it must be. Unfortunately, Lance takes that as his cue to be an ass, but that's another story.
I am in love with her Gawain, and her details; her Arthur exiles Gaheris after the Morgause-and-Lamorack killing, saying that he can't interfere with blood feuds but he's still disappointed. Her Merlin is far-seeing and almost not obnoxious, and her Lancelot has a bizarre kind of charm. Her telling of Geraint and Enid is glorious.
Ms. Springer's I am Morgan le Fay is much better than I am Mordred; not great, but much better. Also there is lots of Other People things, and it's fairly cool. There's the whole Morgause Characterisation Issue, but still. It's also not as much a PIT of DESPAIR as I am Mordred.
Mr. Morris' Savage Damsel and the Dwarf is probably his best book, and as soon as I type that I realise I can't say so, because there's something utterly fantastic in all his books, but no, it is the best one. I also realise that I'm getting incoherent and stupid as I go on, and I decide to wrap things up with something brief and explanatory and try not to make it a jumble of squee.
...
SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE ALL THESE ARTHURIAN WRITERS I WANT MORE YES I DOES. ^______________________^!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 04:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 04:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 04:57 am (UTC)HamletRichard Burton as King Arthur! :D You might also want to find the script - there's a lot that you don't get from the music. There's a movie, but it's not very good. And now there's a DVD of a revival, but I don't know how that is.(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 05:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 05:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 05:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 05:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 05:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 02:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 05:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 10:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-26 01:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-26 01:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 06:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 02:23 pm (UTC)*may or may not have a bootleg, ahem*(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 04:52 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 04:53 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 05:43 am (UTC)It really is. Personally, I think the books have gone a bit downhill ever since he started focusing on the second generation.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 05:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 06:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 05:45 pm (UTC)It made Gary curl up in a ball and go 'squeak'.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 09:53 pm (UTC)Damned pervy typists.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 06:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 05:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 09:49 pm (UTC)Should make you read Mary Stewart. And
(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-26 01:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 09:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-26 01:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-26 01:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-25 09:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-26 01:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-26 09:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-04-28 02:38 am (UTC)