Rise, King Arthur
Has anyone read The Once and Future King by TH White? Wiki has a review, and it's meant to be good arthurian fantasy with political WWII overtones. However, it was written in 1958, so it may not be as exciting and fast moving as harry potter. I've only noticed it because it was used in X Men 2, Magneto reads it in his prison cell, and professor x teaches with it in the last scene. X Men 3 is filming now, and I hope I'm not the only geek who is looking forward to the V for Vendetta film, even though I know in my heart of hearts it will not be half as good as the book.
posted by wyjunkie at 7:44 am
4 Comments:
tried reading this 1st in pri 6 and again last year but were both times unsuccessful. tried reading it again today and i finally realised that it's chapter 2 you have to endeavour to get past(chapter 1 is fine). the language is ok, not convoluted, the prose slightly more crisp than LOTR. but like LOTR, it's storytelling in the epic grand style. so none of that starting in medias res and then being propelled forward relentlessly to some dramatic denoument. you start with arthur as a young child and alot of detail is given (setting, characterisation). you get the sense that you're listening to a very committed storyteller who loves his craft and who is in no hurry at all. so the pace is leisurely (so far anyway, i haven't got very far into the book) but that doesn't detract from the reading pleasure. the narrator is actually quite obtrusive so you always have the sense that it is a story being told. at the same time, you also get these switches in narrative perspectives that are very interesting. and there is alot of humour and wit. it's like a precursor of harry potter in a way. i wouldn't be surprised if neville's grandmother with her vulture hat was inspired by the 1st description of merlin in the book. arthur's 1st encounter with merlin is actually very moving. merlin in the book moves backwards in time while everyone else, like normal people, move forwards. when arthur tells him they've only met half hour ago, merlin exclaims "so little time to pass?" and a tear ran down his face.
guess i should clarify that i mean "precursor" in very broad terms - the humorous writing, student-tutor relationship...and i only brought in harry potter because it was mentioned in wy's original post. i'm not suggesting that you can find lots of plot parallels, aside from certain general plot structures of this genre.
i've only ever read one arthurian fantasy series and that's by stephen lawhead. those were very very good. i suspect i wont like TH White very much after having read oblomov's description!
TH White's THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING is very highly regarded so it's no small discomfort to me that you feel disinclined towards it because of a bad review you've had the misfortune of reading, especially since i wrote that review. it comprises 5 books actually and the first - THE SWORD IN THE STONE - is devoted to arthur's boyhood till the time he acquires Excalibur. haven't had time to go further in my reading since yesterday but so far it's been quite fun. er, i don't want to be responsible for you not ever reading TH white. will lend you the book when you're back. you just need to read enough (ie at least a little past the accursed chp.2) to determine for yourself if you'll ever get down to reading it one day. you must not decline - i will ply you with alcohol.
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