Avalon High never should had been a movie

     I had wanted to wait till the class had finished discussing the entire book before I did my typical rants to prevent any spoilers.  I believe that Meg Cabot was cleaver in her attempt to interest the younger reader – hormonal teenage girls.
     Coming from a high school that closely resembles the activities of Avalon High, including the crazy guy who wants to kill someone, I find the book disturbing.  I don't agree with some things that she assimilates with stereotypes.  One in particular that if you have piercings, tattoos, it automatically makes someone a drug addict.  All though, I find it would be financially beneficial for the government to legalize weed, I am not a drug addict.  I also fit into that "jock" stereotype in high school and I was a bit confused by the football game scene.  Was Lance substituted in for the play Will was leveled?  Or was he so lost in Jenny’s eyes he walked off the field before the play even started, but then how did no one notice he was missing, especially will.  Either or, speaking from experience, if that would ever to happen, and if Lance was still on the team the next practice, he would be put through the work out of his life.  I don't think that she fully understood the game of football to accurately describe a play in which Lance is not on the field.
     While reading this book I tried to read this as if I was still in grade school and even in my younger mind, I still would have thought Elaine running in the storm of the century was odd.  There had to have been at least one person that was driving by or even looking out their window as she ran by and though "hmmmm high school girl, running in the rain, with no rain coat, except the only one trying to conceal something.  That is a little odd".  My biggest fear is thunder storms, so my skin was crawling with the idea someone is so idiotic to be running two miles in a storm with a lighting conductor.  I was hoping she would be struck and that's how the book ended to be honest.
     As I said in class, Marco should had shot will and Elaine seconds after showing he had a gun.  This type of a bad guy to spill the entire plan to the potential victims, then turn it around and the victims defeat the bad guy is very cliché.  Even in my high school mind, I wanted Marco to be done with it.  I just did not like the transition between Marco pulling out the gun, Elaine throwing the sword, and then Marco giving up.
      In my last blog I talked about the potential sword vs. gun scenario.  So as it is quite obvious I am a bit agitated that a sword was brought to a gun fight, and actually won.  I would have to admit though that through all the reasons for me to be upset, Meg Cabot did what I believe she wanted to do.  She wanted to talk about the Arthur story in a way that people today can relate to.  
     I did enjoy the partially factual stuff in the back of the book, but I do not know how many kids would actually turn the pages to actually read this part of the book.  I thought maybe she should have put this in the beginning of the book, but kids skip that part too.  At first I didn't pick up on The Lady of Shallot in the beginning of each chapter, but once Dr. MB pointed it out it still didn't make a difference.  I had read them, and then proceeded to read the chapter and completely forgetting what part of the poem she thought was related to the text.  It might have behooved her to write parts of the poem and a chapter title, not just part of the poem. 
    

"A Knight Life at Avalon High" By King Gary

Last week was very stressful and trying to get to the blog was the least of my worries (my bad).  I wanted to first share my thoughts on “Knight Life” before I head into thoughts on Avalon High. With “Knight Life”, I did enjoy the take on Arthur coming to terms with the modern times and seeing the familiar characters from previous readings.  I wasn’t into the political aspect of the story even though it did give the story a new twist on the Arthurian legend.  I did like the topics the reporters gave Arthur, including abortions and gun control.  I felt, like we discussed in class, that Arthur was honest with regards to his answers to those topics, even though the reporters thought his opinion as controversial.  I liked this outspoken Arthur, because he wasn’t afraid to speak his mind, even if it wasn’t appropriate.  I really enjoyed the fight scene between Arthur and the waiter.  It brought back that sense of the heroic Arthur who fought the waiter/demon.  After reading these excerpts and discussing the author, Peter David, I did some further research and found out that he was actually in charge of running Marvel’s Incredible Hulk.  More relatively, David did a sequel to “Knight Life” and made “One Knight Only” which depicts Arthur Penn as President.  I would think this would be another interesting read to future classes…perhaps.

http://images.barnesandnoble.com/images/7450000/7451572.jpg 

On a side note, I was watching a movie this weekend that had a scene relevant to King Arthur.  If anyone has heard of the movie, The World’s End, there was once scene where the main character, Gary (also refers himself as King Gary…actual name is Gary King) gets mad because one of his friends won’t drink beer.  He makes fun of him by asking if King Arthur asked for water after he fought in countless battles. I wish I could find a clip of this scene.  It is harder to explain because it’s funnier when the whole scene is played through.   Check it out if you want, it’s a great film either way.

http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/the-worlds-end-bathroom-fight-slice.jpg
 

                As for Avalon High…I feel like this was the most interesting read from this class.  Don’t get me wrong, I did like the epic Grail Quest and the tale of Arthur’s youth, but this interpretation was actually a guilty pleasure.  I enjoyed all the drama and seeing the characters as high school students (and Merlin as a teacher) I would definitely keep this as a future read for other classes.  Even though some parts were a bit cheesy or over dramatic, it’s a teen drama, which means the audience is going to be people of that demographic who thrive off that stuff.  The story overall was very different than what I expected.  It was like King Arthurian times met any typical high school movie. However, I would have very much read this book than watching the movie on Disney.  After hearing all the reviews, I’m glad I missed out on such a terrible film adaptation. Enjoy the photo.

https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/5639407616/h39A6630F/

 

-JH

 

Avalon High

           Reading Meg Cabot's Avalon High sent me into a complete and utterly déja vu moment. This moment in particular sent me right back to middle school, where I must admit I spent so much time in the school library that all the librarians came to know me on a first name basis. As poisonous as this was to my reputation, I found that I just didn't care. It was probably this moment that I should have realized that I was destined to be an English major. This was one of the first books I had read about any Arthurian legend, so you can imagine how confused I was until I did a little bit of research.

            What I liked best about this book in middle school was the ending. Not because it meant that the book was finally over, but because it fueled my want for a 'Happily Ever After'.  Ever since I was little, and I am sure that I am not alone in this, I have been a hopeless romantic looking for the elusive 'One'. Cabot fulfilled all of my romantic hope that Elle and Will would end up together, no matter what the evil Marco did. To bad it never came with a disclaimer reading: "WARNING: This does not actually happen in real life".  Anyway, what I honestly liked best about the book after I read again for class was that portions of Tennyson's poem were put on the beginning of each chapter (that way, at least, there is an inkling of intelligence in the 'book').  

            One thing that really rubbed me the wrong way about the book was how much Elle stereotyped people. For example: When Elle assumes things about people based on how they look. Just because a person has tattoos doesn't mean that they do drugs. I myself am a prime example of this. I do have a tattoo, and I somehow manage to not do drugs. It can be done.

            Though there are only a few things in common throughout the many, many texts on Arthurian legend, the single thing that I consistently abhor is the affair between Gwen and Lance. It is hard for me to describe in polite words how I truly feel about the entire thing, and had I been Arthur, I would have beheaded them both and put their heads on stakes at the gates of Camelot... I guess it's a good thing that I was never destined to have an ancient kings past intertwined with my modern day life. 

(2/5)

How I don't miss the drama from high school

After finally getting through the reading of Avalon High, I really enjoyed reading the second half of the book because it was a lot less annoying. I could not stand the fact that Elle was so star struck the first time she saw Will in the woods. She also acted really cheesy towards him when he showed up at her house. I thought that was kind of weird though how Will just showed up at the house not even knowing who Elle was. I felt like he was being a stalker. It was also weird how Will acted towards Elle when she asked about his girlfriend Gwen. It is obvious that there relationship is not all happiness and roses. Will came off strange to me when he was standing beside the pool and he went off into his own little world. Weirdo !! It was cheesy when the sword came into the picture. I had like a funny anime fight pictured in my head when this happened.
  Something goofy like this . I guess I would have to say that in some ways this book was great because it did capture the normal drama that happens in high school. I also feel this book was bad because it was just very cheesy and it was made for high school students, not college students so that may be another reason I did not care for the book.
5 of 5

Avalon High

Okay...seriously, how did no one remember that there were two Elaines in Arthurian legend? There's a lot of Arthur obsessed people in this book and NO ONE remembers the Lady of the Lake. Really?


   

I mean I know the ladies can look alike (especially when there is no one specific image that either one is clarified to be) but they are pretty separate people. So why did all these brilliant hard-core Arthurian scholars (I mean the Order of the Bear, not Ellie's parents) completely disregard the Lady of the Lake? It is one beauty of a plot hole for Meg Cabot to not even try to explain away.

As for the rest of it, maybe it's because High School was a hellish experience for me, but god did I find everything so shallow. Jen is once again the most annoying person around. Can her character never catch a break? Of all the adaptations of Gwen there is one that I think I could stand to have a conversation with. This is not that Gwen. Jen in this book reminds me of all the popular cheerleader types (as she is meant to) who made my life hell for six years. I know she's meant to be disliked (maybe not detested) but something about her just makes me angry.

Lance is a moron. So many levels of dumb right there. I can't actually form sentences that describe how boring and predictable he is as a character.

Will is just every bit of perfection that could be fit into a character (particularly a representation of King Arthur). He has his faults but even they aren't really faults. He thinks too much and doesn't want to be a soldier. Wow...what downsides.

Ellie is the only bearable part of this to me. Of course she was so much more bearable in 2005 when these mystical teen romance novels weren't quite so over done. She's a typical love sick teenage girl through a lot of the book and badass through the rest. Now it's kind of overplayed but at the time (especially to twelve year old me) it was pretty chill. She's a smart, awkward, athletic, outsider, who still gets the guy (and a badass lineage). To awkward middle school girls everywhere she is a dream of a better future. What's not to love about that?

And the movie? Do I even want to start on that?                                          
 How does this:                                      Turn into this?

Just how? 

And now I'm done. Sorry this is so long. 

High school and the strange people you meet

The struggle is real.

I finally made it through reading all of Avalon High and all I have to say is that the second half was much less annoying to read than the first. Something about having less to do with a teenage girl being all mushy towards a teenage guy and more of an actual plot seemed to make it much easier to read.

Also, at this point I'd hope everyone has gotten done with the book, if not, this post may contain spoilers and should be read at your own risk.

After listening to Dr. MB about the bits of the poem at the beginning of each chapter I decided to pay closer attention to them and tried to actually tie them to what was going on in the chapter. Really the only one that I ended up caring about was for chapter 26. My mind has a habit of thinking about possibly outcomes before they happen and after reading that I was like "Great! I just read this entire book about this love struck girl for her to die and all that." I was not at all thinking that it was just going to break her out of the role she was thrust into, even though she denied it for pretty much the entire book, and be the Lady of the Lake instead. I wasn't expecting that at all, though it did make for a much more happy ending than I had predicted. Maybe I'm just a pessimist or something?

As for the whole Mr. Morton being Merlin thing, as soon as he said he was going to Tahiti I just thought about The Sword in the Stone and Merlin going to Bermuda.

That's really all I've got on that subject.

All the other characters being who they were seems pretty obvious and not need to be talked about (other than Elaine, but if you read the book you know who she is, too).

Having not gone to a traditional high school at all, and getting to skip over most of the drama that comes with it. Much of this book that I feel like I should have related to just wasn't there for me. Maybe that contributed to my struggle to get through it?

Well, the reading is done, discussion will help, and then on to more Arthur!

Post 3 of 5

TARDIS

Avalon High is my first foray into the genre of teen romance.  I have read young adult fiction, but never “YA-romance.”  Avalon High is a fun, light read—but I would not cast a modern Arthur in Annapolis, MD.  Neither would I have Arthur running for mayor in New York City.  Last Monday, Dr. MB told the class to think about a modern Arthur story we might like to see.  How would I like to see a modern Arthur? 

 I have several story lines I would like to see developed.  First, I think it might be an interesting bit of time travel for Dr. Who.  Perhaps King Arthur and his Camelot could have some alien circumstances—and Avalon and Excalibur could be anything in the Dr. Who universe.

Another Arthur I might like to see would be more of an espionage- action/thriller novel or mini- series set in the British SIS (MI6) or MI5 agency. “Merlin” might be a data collection/artificial intelligence. Excalibur could be some high tech weapon system.  Arthur and his knights become a special task force of agents in secret intelligence or in national security—I am not thinking of kings and reincarnation.

 The UK does have an interesting radio-telescope array used for astronomical observations called e-Merlin—With the right treatment, this might be the opening of a science fiction story.  

What kind of Arthur story would you like to see?

Happy blogging!