Farewell, King Arthur! But not forever

Guys, we are in the home stretch! We are almost finished our course on King Arthur (save the final). We have learned about Arthur as a tall, huge, amazing, studly man, as well as Arthur as the small, scrawny, yet inquisitive boy, Wart. And of course, let's not forget the Arthur in Knight Life, a character I imagine being played by Paul Hogan, Crocodile Dundee style.

Replace the knife with Excalibur and you're good to go. I dunno, it just seems like the whole "outsider dropped into the city" type thing is similar to Crocodile Dundee, a movie that came out just before Knight Life was published.

 Who was my favorite Arthur? Definitely the endearing Wart, willing to learn and reminiscent of anyone's childhood, when everything was fresh and new.Who was yours? Was Arthur even your favorite character?

 Call it strange, but while I found Arthur from Once and Future King perfectly endearing, Morgaine from The Mists of Avalon was a close second when it came to favorite characters! I found myself constantly relating to her. She is strong, and perfectly capable of being powerful on her own, but she has flaws as well. The Mists of Avalon was enjoyable to read in the fact that the women were powerful in their own feminine positions, instead of being is masculine positions.

Image from http://dravite.wordpress.com/tag/morgaine/

I also loved The Lady of Shalott. She is such an enigma, and is symbolic for many emotions that women (and men) have felt in history: temptation, the desire to be noticed, loved, appreciated in one's community.

By John Atkinson...how very funny that the skyline looks Victorian! *hint hint*

Why is Arthur still enjoyable to read about today? What do you think? Is it because everyone needs a hero to look up to: that strong Arthur that looked down at the tallest man anyone would know,the Arthur who killed many men with a whack of his sword, the military leader, the fair diplomat, the friend? Is it because people need to know that seemingly untouchable figures have their own crutches: the nervous Arthur who always consults Merlin, Arthur, a man whose in denial that his best friend is sleeping with his wife? Arthur, the uncle and father (need I say more), who brings his own downfall by having a bastard son. Arthur is a character with many sides...he's been painted as a god in old writings, but his crutches, physical and mental, have been brought out in later texts. Perhaps we can pity him, love him, learn from his wisdom and his mistakes. Perhaps we can ponder on the question he asks upon his death, "Are people truly good?" Arthur is special because he makes people yearn for an age that never existed, an age of knights in shining armor, spells, strength, and insurmountable glory.   

Umm...

So, the readings this week have been very interesting. The first reading, which I missed the class discussion on, was pretty intriguing to me. I thought that it was interesting that even though Morgaine is a woman she very strong to be able to compete and win against Lancelet. Through out the first text the feminist point of view can be seen. This is most prevalent in the belief that before religion came to Avalon the fairies ruled and their leader was a woman. The fact that the fairy leader was a woman was pretty cool just because you always here of men being the ruler not the woman. Also, this made me think too. I'm not to religious but what if the god that christians pray to is not a man as so assumed by the use of male pronouns. What if God is a female? That would completely turn our male normative society on it's head and cause a strife. Overall, it was really nice to read something that offered a different point of view and challenged the standard of how we read King Arthur.

"I'm No Superman"

How many times have we found ourselves saying, "I totally wouldn't do that" or "Well, it's different for me because...?" It's easy for us to criticize things when we are on the outside looking in, and then find it quite humbling when we are in a similar situation. Many people have found Morgaine's behavior in The Mists of Avalon less than admirable. What happened to that strong, athletic girl who kicked Lancelot's butt at hiking and won our hearts for it? How come the girl who shamelessly showed off her legs is now yearning to cover them...and all because of a guy? What happened to our heroine? A girl worth admiring should be tough, ruthless, and too confident take any negativity from anybody. Right?

Wrong. Girls have feelings. People having feelings, and Morgaine knows it. Consider the passage at the very beginning of the section,

"Anger was mixed with affection, to neither of which she was allowed to give voice, and it did strange things to her mind. She wondered at herself, because she had been taught to control her emotions as she controlled her words and even her thoughts."

Morgaine knew she was imperfect. She felt anger, she felt conflicted, and in this way it makes me love her more when she has her moments of confidence. Morgaine is a real woman, and in this way I feel that the story is more feminist than if she was written as an untouchable, godly figure. Similar to many girls, including me (especially me...) she is smart, skilled, and special, but resorts to self loathing when the man she likes rejects her for somebody...prettier.

The Ugly Duckling

I don't know about many of you, but my mind immediately went to middle and high school during this part of the story. (Time to recall blocked out memories...yay!) How many of us have been given attention by that special person? How many of us have skipped home from the bus stop because the cutest person in the world looked in our direction, smiled at us, asked to be our partner for a project? And how many of us have ran home crying when that person has chosen someone else over us, especially when we feel that their new sweetheart is better than who we could ever be?

Luckily, not all guys are like this

 There's a complete change in emotions when this happens. One day you feel like you're walking on air, and the next you're noticing every flaw you have...the zit on your nose, your awkward hair, your extra fat, or lack of. Our self image, which should be dependent on ourselves, is dependent on the other person. And while this is wrong, while we look back at our younger selves and laugh, many of us are prone to doing it even today. I'm not calling us Hood College Arthurians needy, whiny people, I'm just saying we are human. And that when Morgaine is filled with sorrow, she is being human too.

It's this human side in characters that I love. It was brought out in Morgaine's flirtiness, her desires, her dreams, and in her shame. It was brought out in a fallen Arthur, asking the million dollar question, "Are people truly good?"  

“Leggo my Ego,” said Lancelet.

If the first excerpt from The Mists of Avalon were a music video, it would basically be for the song called The Worst by Jhene Aiko (not my typical choice, but Pandora plays it). Essentially, in the song (for those of you that don’t know it), the female singer is fighting an internal battle about loving a dude that she shouldn’t love. She repeats that she doesn’t need him, but admits that she wants him anyway, which kind of shines a light on the feminist/not-so-feminist scenes we highlighted in class. Although this song probably isn’t focusing on the empowerment of women and being independent from men, it’s still the song that came to mind while I was reading.

            I don’t really identify as a feminist, but I do appreciate reading about a sharp-tongued woman who socks it to an arrogant guy. Guys, don’t get offended; I’m sorry other dudes before you pushed an egotistical predisposition on you, but it’s awesome when a woman proves a narcissistic man wrong, especially when they prove to be more physically capable. You go ahead Morgaine with your bare legs and muscular endurance.

            I have a problem with how Morgaine handles herself in this passage, though. She’s supposed to be a strong, independent priestess who doesn’t need a man to complete her. But wait, she’ll completely lose her shit when Gwenhwyfar creates some competition for the man she shouldn’t even be in love with. She needs to hike up those skirts to fight that war going on in her head. I do feel bad for Morgaine, but I don’t. She’s all about saving herself for when the time is right, but she entertained the thought of ruining that for a guy that doesn’t even see her as an equal. I’m glad Gwenhwyfar came along because that moment brought Morgaine back to reality and her original morals of being a priestess. I guess everyone deserves a little temptation and false hope.

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