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A review by baldwinme40
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
350 pages in, and I am Giving Up. I hate that I'm not finishing a book, just on principle, and like... Arthurian legends told from the perspective of the ladies??? how could that not be amazing? But, it wasn't.
My major complaints:
- This is a monotonous book in that there is literally one tone, which is Somber. Very little excitement or action or joy.
- Too wordy. This is coming from someone who enjoyed LotR, Les Miserables, and Crime and Punishment. Stfu with the internal monologues and the descriptions of pretty boys. I started skipping paragraphs and then pages and found that I was missing little important info.
- Apparently the reason nobody's told the story of the women before is because the stories of the women are dreadfully boring. They pine and lust after men, spend extraordinary amounts of time thinking about babies (but no actual parent-child relationships are developed, just like... having babies as a concept) and they gossip and they spin wool and provide support to their manfolk. I'm sure this book passes the Bechdel test in individual moments but it seems like the overarching theme is that it does not. In Igraine's story this is sort of portrayed as Society Traps Women type thing but also it's just??? ?? nobody's gonna bother bending any stereotypes? ok then.
- The Saxons are invading! Oh no! That's why we're going to mention them once every hundred pages with a shudder about the innocent women and children they've killed, none of whom we ever met or cared about.
More minor complaints:
- Religious bias towards paganism. I'm tempted to be lenient bc hey, Christianity is a dominant/oppressor religion in the given era, and still is to a lesser degree today. You don't have to sugarcoat it but you could also like... acknowledge that you can be a Christian and be a good person who's not a grouchy, spluttering bigot who keeps losing arguments with Morgaine, or you could be pagan and be a bad person. But so far I've met 0 of those types in this book. I mean, there's power dynamics here but these characters keep having the same debate OVER and OVER and I value a less obvious author bias in my literature.
- Everyone is so goshdarned heterosexual. Plenty of sexual deviancy from social norms, 0 gays/lesbians/ace/trans people. Ok, published in 1982, but I think I'm still allowed to have standards.
- WHY IS MORGAINE'S STORY ENTIRELY ABOUT THE MEN IN HER LIFE. PLEASE. SHE'S A COOL PRIESTESS WITCH LADY OF THE LAKE BADASS WHY IS ALL THIS TIME WASTED ON "I WANT LANCELOT TO THINK I'M PRETTY." I find her insecurity about physical appearance obnoxious. Like, damn girl, you can see the future and do witchy magics. Who cares?
- Speaking of appearances, everybody is Super Special. Blond, red hair, dark hair. These are your options. Brown hair??? Never heard of it, not once. Not in 350 pages. this sorta BS messed me up when I was a kid.
- internalized misogyny in Morgaine is not addressed, "other women" are portrayed as petty and wimpy and dull
- explicit sexual content is entirely a personal preference thing, but seeing as how this is my review, there's too goshdarned much of it.
Good things.
Uhh....
Many people are described as having dark skin and that's not something every author would try to do in an Arthur story?
Complexities of being a women in medieval times, moral dilemmas, deeply fleshed out character arcs for Morgaine, Igraine.
Anyway. I thought I loved Arthurian legend enough to get through this, but I guess not. I'll hold onto it looking for a day when I have more patience, because I feel like there's a lot of good things in this book that I'm missing. But for now I got no time for a book this long that is bringing me no joy. Off to the library!
My major complaints:
- This is a monotonous book in that there is literally one tone, which is Somber. Very little excitement or action or joy.
- Too wordy. This is coming from someone who enjoyed LotR, Les Miserables, and Crime and Punishment. Stfu with the internal monologues and the descriptions of pretty boys. I started skipping paragraphs and then pages and found that I was missing little important info.
- Apparently the reason nobody's told the story of the women before is because the stories of the women are dreadfully boring. They pine and lust after men, spend extraordinary amounts of time thinking about babies (but no actual parent-child relationships are developed, just like... having babies as a concept) and they gossip and they spin wool and provide support to their manfolk. I'm sure this book passes the Bechdel test in individual moments but it seems like the overarching theme is that it does not. In Igraine's story this is sort of portrayed as Society Traps Women type thing but also it's just??? ?? nobody's gonna bother bending any stereotypes? ok then.
- The Saxons are invading! Oh no! That's why we're going to mention them once every hundred pages with a shudder about the innocent women and children they've killed, none of whom we ever met or cared about.
More minor complaints:
- Religious bias towards paganism. I'm tempted to be lenient bc hey, Christianity is a dominant/oppressor religion in the given era, and still is to a lesser degree today. You don't have to sugarcoat it but you could also like... acknowledge that you can be a Christian and be a good person who's not a grouchy, spluttering bigot who keeps losing arguments with Morgaine, or you could be pagan and be a bad person. But so far I've met 0 of those types in this book. I mean, there's power dynamics here but these characters keep having the same debate OVER and OVER and I value a less obvious author bias in my literature.
- Everyone is so goshdarned heterosexual. Plenty of sexual deviancy from social norms, 0 gays/lesbians/ace/trans people. Ok, published in 1982, but I think I'm still allowed to have standards.
- WHY IS MORGAINE'S STORY ENTIRELY ABOUT THE MEN IN HER LIFE. PLEASE. SHE'S A COOL PRIESTESS WITCH LADY OF THE LAKE BADASS WHY IS ALL THIS TIME WASTED ON "I WANT LANCELOT TO THINK I'M PRETTY." I find her insecurity about physical appearance obnoxious. Like, damn girl, you can see the future and do witchy magics. Who cares?
- Speaking of appearances, everybody is Super Special. Blond, red hair, dark hair. These are your options. Brown hair??? Never heard of it, not once. Not in 350 pages. this sorta BS messed me up when I was a kid.
- internalized misogyny in Morgaine is not addressed, "other women" are portrayed as petty and wimpy and dull
- explicit sexual content is entirely a personal preference thing, but seeing as how this is my review, there's too goshdarned much of it.
Good things.
Uhh....
Many people are described as having dark skin and that's not something every author would try to do in an Arthur story?
Complexities of being a women in medieval times, moral dilemmas, deeply fleshed out character arcs for Morgaine, Igraine.
Anyway. I thought I loved Arthurian legend enough to get through this, but I guess not. I'll hold onto it looking for a day when I have more patience, because I feel like there's a lot of good things in this book that I'm missing. But for now I got no time for a book this long that is bringing me no joy. Off to the library!