Silk and Potatoes: Contemporary Arthurian FantasyThis study constitutes the first to analyse the remarkable surge in popularity of Arthurian literature and art in the modern period from a broad range of instances of cultural production. More novels with Arthurian themes have been published since the war than in any previous period, and Silk and Potatoesprovides detailed readings of some of the most famous, including works by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anthony Burgess, C.J. Cherryh, Guy Gavriel Kay, Mary Stewart, Jack Vance and T.H. White. In addition to examining Arthurian fiction (with chapters on the general novel, Historical fiction and Science Fiction), this study examines the key cinematic examples of Arthuriana (Boorman's Excalibur, Bresson's Lancelot du Lac, Rohmer's Perceval Le Galloisand Monthy Python and the Holy Grail). A further chapter goes on to look at the myriad other forms of cultural production based on Arthurian themes; from Bugs Bunny to Pop Music, from the Camelot of JFK to the British National Lottery. This is a study that touches on many aspects of Arthuriana whilst developing two connected arguments about (on the one hand) the necessary anachronism of any modern Arthurian Literature, and (on the other) the aesthetic-political implications of this literature's success. The whole, whilst rooted in the scholarly debates on the enduring appeal of King Arthur, is written in an accessible and entertaining style. It will be of interest to students and teachers of Arthurian literature, film and popular culture. |
Contents
Arthurian SF and Arthurian Fantasy | 67 |
Arthurian Comedy | 132 |
The Cultural Consumption of Arthur | 154 |
Bibliography | 175 |
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Common terms and phrases
actually aesthetic alien anachronism archetypes armour Arthurian legends Arthurian myth Arthurian novels Attanasio's authenticity battle beauty becomes Book of Merlyn Bradley Bradley's Bresson Camelot castle Celt Celtic characters Christian cinematic colour comedy comic contemporary Arthurian fantasy Crystal Cave cultural Darkover Dhrun dragon English epic escape evil Excalibur fact fairy fascism figure film Fionavar Future King gender genre Guinevere Holy Grail imaginative instance Irish Jungian Kay's Keltiad King Arthur knights Last Enchantment literally lives Lyonesse magic Malory Matter of Britain medieval Merlin mirror Mists of Avalon modern Modred Morgaine movie Mythago Wood mythic narrative narrator nation Ninian Once and Future peasants Perceval perhaps perspective political Port Eternity potatoes Python quest reality realm Rohmer scene Science Fiction sense sexual silk sort Stewart's story surface sword T. H. White theme Tolkien tradition trilogy Unicorn Uther Vance's Welsh White wizard woman writers
Popular passages
Page 22 - But when the vision appeared, and it came sailing into the midst of this bleeding darkness that was Sam's consciousness, healing everything, changing everything, each detail of what he saw he saw with a clearness that branded it forever upon his brain. He saw a globular chalice that had two circular handles. The substance it was made of was clearer than crystal ; and within it there was dark water streaked with blood, and within the water was a shining fish.
Page 151 - Listen mate, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical acquatic ceremony. ARTHUR: Be quiet! PEASANT i: You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at you.
Page 24 - It is because great myths are not invented stories but objectivizations of images and situations that lie very deep in the human spirit; a poet may make a great embodiment of a myth, but it is the mass of humanity that knows the myth to be a spiritual truth, and that is why they cherish his poem.
Page 23 - What haunting?" asked Camilla. "How something we may call Britain is always haunted by something we may call Logres. Haven't you noticed that we are two countries? After every Arthur, a Mordred; behind every Milton, a Cromwell: a nation of poets, a nation of shopkeepers; the home of Sidney — and of Cecil Rhodes. Is it any wonder they call us hypocrites? But what they mistake for hypocrisy is really the struggle between Logres and Britain.
Page 135 - It will end on the night before the last battle, with Arthur absolutely wretched. And after that I am going to add a new 5th volume, in which Arthur rejoins Merlyn underground (it turns out to be the badger's sett of vol. 1) and the animals come back again, mainly ants and wild geese. Don't squirm. The inspiration is godsent. You see, I have suddenly discovered that (1) the central theme of Morte d...
Page 103 - ... another child. There is no group therapy or psychiatry or community social services for the child who must cope with the thing under the bed or in the cellar every night, the thing which leers and capers and threatens just beyond the point where vision will reach. The same lonely battle must be fought night after night and the only cure is the eventual ossification of the imaginary faculties, and this is called adulthood.
Page 68 - Sea and arrive not at Glastonbury of the monks, but at the Holy Isle of Avalon; for at that time the gates between the worlds drifted within the mists, and were open, one to another, as the traveller thought and willed.
Page 26 - ... marvellously groomed little man who is pinning a hero's medal on me because some of his forebears were Alfred the Great, and Charles the First, and even King Arthur, for anything I know to the contrary. But I shouldn't be surprised if inside he feels as puzzled about the fate that brings him here as I. We are public icons, we two: he an icon of kingship, and I an icon of heroism, unreal yet very necessary; we have obligations above what is merely personal, and to let personal feelings obscure...
Page 25 - ... his fate as he lay stretched on a dunghill; he laughed at the foppish young man who was making a great fuss about choosing a pair of shoes. He laughed because he knew that deep in the dunghill was a golden cup that would have made the beggar a rich man; he laughed because he knew that the pernickety young man would be stabbed in a quarrel before the soles of his new shoes were soiled. He laughed because he knew what was coming next.