The Mists of Avalon is one of the more creative retellings of the Arthurian tales, introducing two great innovations. The first was telling the story The Mists of Avalon is one of the more creative retellings of the Arthurian tales, introducing two great innovations. The first was telling the story from the female perspective. Igraine (Arthur’s mother) Viviane (The Lady of the Lake) Morgaine (Morgan le Fay) and Gwenhwyfar (Queen Guinevere) become the focus of the story, giving their own context and perspective to the familiar tales, utterly reshaping them. Igraine and The Lady of the Lake were mere ciphers in the traditional tales, there only to advance Arthur’s story, then off stage without any further consideration. Morgan le Fay had a larger role, as villainess and femme fatale, but without any real explanation of her motivations or the roots of her conflict with Arthur — she was a female heavy without any explanation given. Bradley changed all of this, reshaping the tales to let these neglected females tell their stories.
Which brings us to the book’s second innovation. Bradley introduced the idea of a surviving British Paganism in conflict with the new Christian faith. Viviane, The Lady of the Lake is the high priestess of this ancient cult. Igraine is her sister, doing her bidding by bringing a prophesied hero king into the world. Morgaine is Viviane’s heir, becoming The Lady, high priestess after her. The conflict which arises between Morgaine and Arthur’s Court is explain as the opposition of the high priestess of the Old Faith when Arthur forsakes its ways in favor of the exclusive support demanded by the New Faith. With this innovation, the roles of all the females makes sense, and a whole different spin is given to the familiar old cycle.
It’s because of these brilliant innovations that I’m giving The Mist of Avalon three stars. They make it worth your while to consider reading it. Unfortunately, I discovered upon this attempt to reread it after four decades that the writing is ponderous and turgid. I reread about a quarter of this long book, completing its first major section, The Mistress of Magic, only to find that the pacing remained molasses slow all the way through. I ran out of patience and abandoned my reread. While I admire the brilliance of this creative reimagining of the tales, I can’t say the same for the writing....more
I was excited to begin a reread of The Mists of Avalon, which I last read some forty years ago. It impressed me at that time. I found the inclusion ofI was excited to begin a reread of The Mists of Avalon, which I last read some forty years ago. It impressed me at that time. I found the inclusion of a surviving British Paganism within the Arthurian tales fascinating, setting up a clash between the Old Ways and the new Christian faith as a major plot point. Telling the tale from the perspectives of the story’s female characters was also a great innovation. These are the memories that remained after four decades.
The Mist of Avalon was broken up into four audio books, the first of which is this one, Mistress of Magic. My reread will stop here. While I remembered the book’s innovations, I had forgotten the molasses slow pacing, the ponderous passages, the often turgid prose. I’m assuming that the story picks up somewhat as it goes along, but after wading through thirteen hours of this first of four audio books, I’ve run out of patience to continue....more
From the moment the hulking Green Knight rides into King Arthur’s Christmas banquet hall, axe in one hand, holly bough in the other, this tale has an From the moment the hulking Green Knight rides into King Arthur’s Christmas banquet hall, axe in one hand, holly bough in the other, this tale has an eldritch, fey feeling — a haunting sense of otherworldliness. That haunted atmosphere is perfectly captured in Simon Armitage’s brilliant translation (from the original Middle English) of this late 14th century English poem. Armitage’s beautiful, descriptive poetry weaves a trance-like spell around this weird wonder tale that is far more powerful and evocative than the scholarly Tolkien translation that I read some forty years ago.
As for the tale, you could analyze it, attempt to delve its meaning and moral to its original 14th century audience. You could try to unweave its separate elements — Christian mythology, Welsh, Irish, and English folktales, pagan roots, French chivalric tradition. You could break it down using a modern feminist perspective, critiquing the trope of woman as temptress and the conniving Morgan le Fay as femme fatale villain. Or, like me, you could immerse yourself in this wonderfully weird and strange tale of quests, magic and illusion. ...more
The Four Branches of the Mabinogi collect some of the strangest, most otherworldly myths you are likely to encounter. These are tales of a land where The Four Branches of the Mabinogi collect some of the strangest, most otherworldly myths you are likely to encounter. These are tales of a land where the boundaries between worlds are thin, and where the line between heroes and gods is not easily distinguishable. Here illusion magic is strong, magic cauldrons transform dead warriors into savage, undead killers, beautiful maidens are fashioned from flowers, entire kingdoms are depopulated by fell magics, errant brothers are punished with transformation into mating beasts, and giant kings stride across the sea alongside their ships.
Evangeline Walton took these wonderful, eldritch myths and transformed them into this amazing tetralogy of novels. She wove a magical tapestry of language perfectly suited to the otherworldly feel of these myths. While remaining true to the outline of the original Mabinogi, she added material, expanding the tales and filling them out as proper, modern novels in the high fantasy tradition. She removed the Christian elements that were likely added when the myths were first recorded during the Medieval era, and restored her version of a lost, Pagan past that originally spawned these tales. While this occasionally smacks of New Age Paganism, it more often works within the context of the story, rarely seeming anachronistic or distracting.
This work is all too obscure for how brilliant it is. It deserve a place in the top ranks of fantasy writing. If you enjoy fantasy or mythology, you owe it to yourself to read this strange and wonderful work. ...more
”Sad and good had become the same thing” (The Photograph)
The Roddy Doyle novels that I’m familiar with are dialogue driven. His first novel, The Commit”Sad and good had become the same thing” (The Photograph)
The Roddy Doyle novels that I’m familiar with are dialogue driven. His first novel, The Commitments, was little but dialogue — sharp, funny, profane, and coming at you rapid paced. Not so these short stories. These stories contain more internal monologue than dialogue. Most stories aren’t big on plot, and the characters are variations on a theme — Irish blokes from early middle age to well past their prime.
Each story is a bit of life — raising kids, growing old with your wife, or growing apart, watching friends die from cancer, getting cancer, seeing your kids grow away from you — all bits of mundane magic. Each tale is a kind of mid life koan, meditations on middle age, small revelations realized:
”I never owned a pair of slippers in me life. Now I fuckin’ need ‘em. Their all right, their grand, but I never wanted ‘em, I never fuckin’ wanted ‘em. I never wanted to be a man who wore slippers. I always like the feel of the house under me feet. Get into a pair of slippers and you’re fucked, your life is over. That’s what I’ve always felt since I was a teenager and me father got a pair from our granny and he put them on, sat down in his chair in the corner and he never got up again.”
Fully appreciating this book takes some living. If you’ve reached that age where your body has begun to betray you in ways small or large, if you’ve begun to realize that you’ve said goodbye to some things for perhaps the last time, well then you’ve reached the appropriate age. These small, unpretentious gems are for you....more
Jimmy Rabbitte, the enterprising, young music aficionados from Roddy Doyle’s first novel, The Commitments, is back. He’s now forty-seven, married withJimmy Rabbitte, the enterprising, young music aficionados from Roddy Doyle’s first novel, The Commitments, is back. He’s now forty-seven, married with kids and bowl cancer. Great set-up for a comic novel, eh? But seriously, The Guts is a funny book. Like the Commitments it’s dialogue driven, heavy on Dublin slang, and moves at a frenetic pace.
Jimmy is grand, just ask him. Everything’s grand, he’ll tell you. Humor and wit become weapons to fight off the fear of the cancer in his guts, and tools to keep his music business afloat in a recession. But he has to learn to lay these aside to connect with his family as they too struggle with the fear of losing him.
The Guts is warm hearted without being maudlin or sentimental. Its story of aging and facing its complications while face to face with one’s own mortality is softened by its humor, but still packs a bite. As Jimmy would say, this book is grand!...more
This book is brilliant craic! So these fellas and young ones from working class North Dublin are shaped into a band by manager Jimmy Rabbitte (music afThis book is brilliant craic! So these fellas and young ones from working class North Dublin are shaped into a band by manager Jimmy Rabbitte (music aficionado extraordinaire) and Joey The Lips Fagan (veteran Soul sideman) to create...Dublin Soul.
Joey The Lips smiles. — We are bringing Soul to Dublin, Brother, he said. — We are bringing the music, the Soul, back to the people. —-The proletariat. —-That’s p,r,o,l,e,t,a,r,i,a,t. —-My friend, said Joey The Lips, we are the Guerrillas Of Soul.
Driven by high octane, wicked profane dialogue of working class Dublin slang, and infused with the rhythms of Soul, this is a powerful and exhilarating novel. It will sweep you along from the inception of The Commitments through their inevitable, premature break up — brilliant craic, all the way....more
Thorfinn/Macbeth, the composite character created by Dorothy Dunnett is absolutely compelling. She introduces him as an ill formed, unsympathetic boy,Thorfinn/Macbeth, the composite character created by Dorothy Dunnett is absolutely compelling. She introduces him as an ill formed, unsympathetic boy, then reveals him to us slowly, through the eyes of others. We grow fascinated with his intensity and determination. Subtly, almost without realizing it, we start to sympathize with him, and finally end by loving the intense, strong and strange man he becomes. While several of her other characters are significant and well formed, all revolve around her one great central character — serving as our eyes and ears in discovering his greatness. What Dunnett has done with him is simply masterful.
The choice to combine Thorfinn the Mighty of the Orkneyinga Saga with Macbeth, King of Alba as a single, composite character was pivotal. It enabled Dunnett to explore the twilight territory between the emerging new faith of Christianity as it uncomfortably existing along side the old pagan ways. The combined character had a foot in each world, and allowed us to see the dangers and complications of navigating in that mixed world. The way she melded the two legends into one was practically seamless, and was done while honoring the histories of both men. It was a bold choice, and central to the success of the novel.
The writing is outstanding, the dialogue sharp, compelling, and witty, the action captivating. Her research of the period and presentation of history is impressive. Dunnett perhaps put too much of her research into the novel, but that is a quibble, King Hereafter is a masterpiece....more
Ain’t you a fine lad with a great savagery to destroy your Da.
My first time through Playboy of the Western World I read its script from a traditional Ain’t you a fine lad with a great savagery to destroy your Da.
My first time through Playboy of the Western World I read its script from a traditional book. Read from the page, the lyricism of its language overwhelmed me. The lilting beauty of its English rendered in the grammatical structure of Irish entranced me, and was the basis of my original 5 star rating. The plot of the play, on that first time through struck me as powerfully eccentric and far-fetched, but it disappeared into the background as merely the delivery device for the word play I was so enjoying.
This time I listened to the LA Theatre Works production of the play. Listing to a full production of the play brought its absolutely farcical nature to the forefront. Don’t let it’s classic reputation fool you — this play is a full on farce, and a mean spirited one at that. It caused riots in Ireland when originally staged, and I think I now understand why. Sure, it is powerfully funny that a bunch of villagers make a hero of a young stranger because they believe he was desperate and savage enough to commit patricide — that the men stand in respectful awe and all the young women and widows compete for his attention. It’s also amazing that these farcical stereotypes of the Irish have such a long history. I now understand how this play is both a jewel of Irish literature and an outrage to Irish sensibilities. And for all that, it’s still 5 star quality and if ye haven’t yet experienced it you should get to it....more
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