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On the whole, a mediocre Arthurian novel is more disappointing than an outright bad one, as the bad one is at least funny. Gil Kane and John Jakes' Excalibur is Bad. It is funny. It prompted me to walk over to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
redbird when we were working at ACM, and ask her, "How many bosoms do I have?"
Without batting an eye, she said, "One, dear. And two breasts."
"So, why does Guenevere get two bosoms?" I asked.
Now, it's true that "bosom" was probably used to mean "breast" at some point, but not, I think, at the point at which Excalibur was published.
The sentence it was one uttered by Guenevere: "My bosoms are too big".
There were other things wrong with the book as well, although there were some not unreasonable moments. And there was a grandeur about it, or at least about what it was trying to do.
Then, there are the Mary Sues. Courtney Jones' trilogy has three of them, one for each volume, all of whom could outfight Lancelot and would have if they hadn't been prevented. Again, not the only problem. I've a vague memory of Morgan Le Fay destroying a smelt works or something like it because of the pollution it caused. This was in Camelot, and I wondered what Arthur would say. Both Arthur and Guenevere were delighted, as the place was making an awful stench. Um. Anyone not see why I had a problem with this?
And there was some book whose title I forget and don't wish to look up which had a bunch of young characters as the meddlesome, interefering kids who save the day -- one was Vivian, so Pelleas may have been another. It was either him or Percival.
The problem with this kind of a Mary Sue plot, asacrobatty pointed out, is that Arthur -is- a Mary Sue. That works. Adding other Mary Sues -- well, technically, that's what knight after knight who joined the round table is (are?), but it's still a problem.
And then there's Persia Woolley's trilogy, which I am sure many people like, but which I found just dull. OTOH, I thought the made for tv movie based on it did it a serious injustice, but I think I said that already.
Books like Henry Treece's The Great Captains or David Drake's Dragon Lord are nasty, brutal, and just fine by me. They have a different take on Arthur, one that isn't my favorite, but by the gods, it's not a sugar water Mary Sue take.
redbird when we were working at ACM, and ask her, "How many bosoms do I have?"Without batting an eye, she said, "One, dear. And two breasts."
"So, why does Guenevere get two bosoms?" I asked.
Now, it's true that "bosom" was probably used to mean "breast" at some point, but not, I think, at the point at which Excalibur was published.
The sentence it was one uttered by Guenevere: "My bosoms are too big".
There were other things wrong with the book as well, although there were some not unreasonable moments. And there was a grandeur about it, or at least about what it was trying to do.
Then, there are the Mary Sues. Courtney Jones' trilogy has three of them, one for each volume, all of whom could outfight Lancelot and would have if they hadn't been prevented. Again, not the only problem. I've a vague memory of Morgan Le Fay destroying a smelt works or something like it because of the pollution it caused. This was in Camelot, and I wondered what Arthur would say. Both Arthur and Guenevere were delighted, as the place was making an awful stench. Um. Anyone not see why I had a problem with this?
And there was some book whose title I forget and don't wish to look up which had a bunch of young characters as the meddlesome, interefering kids who save the day -- one was Vivian, so Pelleas may have been another. It was either him or Percival.
The problem with this kind of a Mary Sue plot, as
acrobatty pointed out, is that Arthur -is- a Mary Sue. That works. Adding other Mary Sues -- well, technically, that's what knight after knight who joined the round table is (are?), but it's still a problem.And then there's Persia Woolley's trilogy, which I am sure many people like, but which I found just dull. OTOH, I thought the made for tv movie based on it did it a serious injustice, but I think I said that already.
Books like Henry Treece's The Great Captains or David Drake's Dragon Lord are nasty, brutal, and just fine by me. They have a different take on Arthur, one that isn't my favorite, but by the gods, it's not a sugar water Mary Sue take.