Mists of Avalon

[mamaofthree]

i have tried to read this book a couple times over the years and i finally plowed thru it. am i the only one who felt that this was not a feminist version of the king arthor story. the women where back stabbing and bitter and underhanded. i think the only person who came out better (and i use that term loosely) was morgaine, but all the other women were just as bad or worse. i think the men still came out looking better and being nicer truer people. the only good thing was a bit of the goddess worship which was a fun twist, but the goddess was just as cruel as god.
then i watched the movie (tnt miniseries) and it was worse then the book. omg! what is the appeal?

h

[Monarchgrrl]

Ugh, the movie was horrible!!! I read the book years ago and probably didn't put that much feminist theory or thought into it, so I really liked it. The story held my attention and I was entertained. It's probably up there in my top 20 favorite books.

[laohaire]

I saw the miniseries once but don't remember the details. I remember the book better since I've read it several times.

I think it's a mixture. It's feminist in the sense that it's a telling of the woman's story. The King Arthur stories I've heard otherwise are strictly from the male point of view; their wars, their adventures. The women were barely present in those stories and reduced to archetypes - "good" Guinevere and "bad" Morgan le Fay.

In Mists of Avalon, women are complex people. And POWERFUL people. I'm not so sure that the men were really let off the hook either. Sure, Morgause was selfish and plotting - but then there was Lot, her husband, who was the same and encouraged it in her. Lancelet and Arthur were not shown to be any more blameless than Gwnhwyfer (sorry, might have forgotton spelling on that).

[holyhelianthus]

Originally Posted by laohaire

I saw the miniseries once but don't remember the details. I remember the book better since I've read it several times.

I think it's a mixture. It's feminist in the sense that it's a telling of the woman's story. The King Arthur stories I've heard otherwise are strictly from the male point of view; their wars, their adventures. The women were barely present in those stories and reduced to archetypes - "good" Guinevere and "bad" Morgan le Fay.

In Mists of Avalon, women are complex people. And POWERFUL people. I'm not so sure that the men were really let off the hook either. Sure, Morgause was selfish and plotting - but then there was Lot, her husband, who was the same and encouraged it in her. Lancelet and Arthur were not shown to be any more blameless than Gwnhwyfer (sorry, might have forgotton spelling on that).

:

The women may have not all been the best but that's life. I don't think that feminist stories always have to be all strong good women and empowerment.

[zinemama]

While I really liked the premise of this, telling the Arthur story from the women's pov, and some of it was interesting, I found the book on the whole to be extremely repetitive and somewhat didactic.

A more recent - and far better - retelling of a classic from the woman's pov is Ursula le Guin's Lavinia. Virgil gave her only a few lines in The Aneid but Le Guin's novel totally brings her to life and is a pretty devastating indictment of the violence in the original. Plus, she's such an excellent storyteller.

[DaughterOfKali]

I didn't like the book or the movie.

I do admit that I'm enjoying the tv series Merlin, though.

H(mamaofthree)- Remind me to pm you about Arthur. I think you'll like this.

[theretohere]

I've only read the book, but I really liked it. I liked the retelling of the sotry from a woman's perspective.

[jeca]

I liked the book when I read it back in high school but I've never put any feminist ties to it. Didn't really like the tv movie they made for it. I think they should give it another real movie go.

[JamieCatheryn]

A close friend of mine made the chainmail armor for that stupid TV movie. Funny to see it brought up.

[mamaofthree]

i loved the costumes. lol
one of my beefs with the movie was that they left out any of the things that actually were good about the book (IMHO) like the fact the merline fathered all those women and that merline is a title. they left out kevin completely and morgaines relationship with her husbands son. and her 5 years with the fairies.

h

[holyhelianthus]

Originally Posted by mamaofthree

i loved the costumes. lol
one of my beefs with the movie was that they left out any of the things that actually were good about the book (IMHO) like the fact the merline fathered all those women and that merline is a title. they left out kevin completely and morgaines relationship with her husbands son. and her 5 years with the fairies.

h

I agree.

Though I have to admit to watching the movie again and again because the life on Avalon just was so awesome. All that fresh fruit lying around and the architecture and pretty environment.

[journeymom]

I loved the book when I read it 20 years ago. I loved the goddess/feminine vs. Christianity/masculine theme and liked that they needed each other.

But I tried reading it again and just couldn't. Repetitive is right.


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Edited to add, speaking of Merlin, I started a thread about the TV series over in the the TV forum. Got a question maybe you gals can answer.