(no subject)
A while back, avariel_wings mailed me a copy of Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy all the way from England (which is dedication) and after a shamefully long time I have finally gotten around to reading it!
I should be honest: I tried to read The Crystal Cave a few times a kid and I never could get through the beginning few chapters of Merlin-as-a-kid. Once I got to the parts about Ambrosius, though, the story really picked up for me, and I think the second half of The Crystal Cave and the Baby Arthur parts of The Hollow Hills have been my favorite parts of the series so far. (Kate also sent me The Wicked Day, which I think is the finale of the series, so I will be reading that at some point too.) I really like some of the ways that Mary Stewart pieces together the myths, and re-interprets them, and I like how she is careful to show how stories spread. All that is very cool! I like less the focus on Arthur in the last book to the exclusion of much of the other characters of the legend (I am sorry, I just could not love this Arthur as much as T.H. White's Arthur - he was formative for me!) and how unambiguously evil Morgause and to a certain extent Morgan are, because Ladies' Power Means Using Sexuality For Evil, Duh.
I am not quite sure how I feel about this Merlin; Merlin has never been the most interesting part of the story for me. Sometimes I think I quite like him, especially when he is young and kind of arrogant and being sarcastic and clever! Other times I am frustrated by him and how content he is to give up agency to Divine Power and how little he morally questions that. (Other times I just want him to stop going on about how pretty the hillside is because sometimes my attention span is short.)
Anyway, pretty much everyone knows the Arthur stories and everyone sees them in a different way, and I am very curious about everybody's favorite Arthurs. I asked this question before when I reread The Once and Future King, but it is different now because there are new people on my flist! Also, because it is in the form of a POLL, and that makes it officially shinier.
Poll
I should be honest: I tried to read The Crystal Cave a few times a kid and I never could get through the beginning few chapters of Merlin-as-a-kid. Once I got to the parts about Ambrosius, though, the story really picked up for me, and I think the second half of The Crystal Cave and the Baby Arthur parts of The Hollow Hills have been my favorite parts of the series so far. (Kate also sent me The Wicked Day, which I think is the finale of the series, so I will be reading that at some point too.) I really like some of the ways that Mary Stewart pieces together the myths, and re-interprets them, and I like how she is careful to show how stories spread. All that is very cool! I like less the focus on Arthur in the last book to the exclusion of much of the other characters of the legend (I am sorry, I just could not love this Arthur as much as T.H. White's Arthur - he was formative for me!) and how unambiguously evil Morgause and to a certain extent Morgan are, because Ladies' Power Means Using Sexuality For Evil, Duh.
I am not quite sure how I feel about this Merlin; Merlin has never been the most interesting part of the story for me. Sometimes I think I quite like him, especially when he is young and kind of arrogant and being sarcastic and clever! Other times I am frustrated by him and how content he is to give up agency to Divine Power and how little he morally questions that. (Other times I just want him to stop going on about how pretty the hillside is because sometimes my attention span is short.)
Anyway, pretty much everyone knows the Arthur stories and everyone sees them in a different way, and I am very curious about everybody's favorite Arthurs. I asked this question before when I reread The Once and Future King, but it is different now because there are new people on my flist! Also, because it is in the form of a POLL, and that makes it officially shinier.
Poll