Mists of Avalon: A Rant

[mizarchivist]

When I was a teenager, I absolutely loved The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. LOVED. I read it through at least once then 3/4 of the way another 2 times between the ages of 14 and 17. So, when it came around, all 50-million hours of it, on Audible for under 6 dollars? Sure, why not. I really like Davina Porter as a narrator in books past.

Except let me tell you about how much this whole thing sucks. The premise is all about the Arthurian legend told from a female perspective, sympathetic to Druids over Christians. OK, fine- that's great except for so many things.

Agency. Or the lack thereof. None of the characters have shown much in the way of proper self-awareness and ownership of their actions. Even if they're all just pawns to fate, there's still a fair bit of elbow room in the day-to-day to act like a fucking adult and own your shit. Morgaine's absolutely the worst on this, surprised by her feelings constantly; failing to put 2 and 2 together until some dramatic moment, like: hey, "I just fucked my brother at Beltaine and it's been 2 months and I've not had my period yet." Let me tell you, after I lost my virginity, I was watching the calendar like a hawk until I knew I wasn't pregnant, and thence pretty much every month for years after til I trusted my system.  Not that Morgaine's the only one who acts surprised by things, but since it's primarily from her POV, we get it most from her.

Sex-Negative, much? I realize that certain factors must be included in order to stay true to the original legend, but in the meantime, sex is generally considered to be something to endured. The few occasions where it's OK to good, the way in which it's described, our author clearly was not writing from experience. But sex is clearly a chore here.

We hate men club. That's pretty self-explanatory. Eh? Fine.

Make up your mind: do you like Christianity, do you like Druids? So, clearly we're supposed to be rooting for the Druids, but it's like there's a narrational self-loathing going on, because MZB is constantly slagging on the primitiveness, slagging on the magic, the characters are constantly equating the druids with fairies, but they really aren't the same thing. Oh, and of course fairies are BAD, so being called a fairy is an insult. So, I feel like MZB has decided that Christianity being on the "Winning" side of history is therefore superior even if she actually doesn't like them at all.
So you'll get a scene like Gwen getting introduced to the plot: she's lost in a bog and gets rescued by Lance and Morgaine. She's all helpless and blonde and purty, looks good when she cries and when she gets her slippers dirty. She calls a perfect-stranger and older woman "little and ugly" and fairy-people... and instead of laying the smack down, what does Morgaine do? Shrivel up and feel sorry for herself, feel ashamed of who she is, that she's not the pretty, Christian cheerleader. OMFG, woman, you are a priestess of the goddess and not to be trifled with, what do you care what some ignorant chit of a girl thinks about your appearance? OWN it and tell her she's inappropriate and rude.

Body-shame- There's that bullshit about blonde and tall = awesome and little and dark = inferior that's constant. Hi, Aryan Nation, I didn't expect to see you in my feminist literature! Then there's the shit around Kevin the Bard, who has physical disabilities and constantly called grotesque and lesser, but he's the chosen of Merlin to follow Taliesin as Merlin when his time comes, he's a kick-ass musician, and super-smart. Seeeriously, guys. Get over it.

Igraine- What the hell, lady. You were born of Avalon, a daughter of the Lady and goddess-born. You may have had a rough 4 years upon leaving your home, but in the end, what do you get? THE KING OF ALL BRITONS and 2 great kids who adore you. Her self-loathing and Druid-loathing is obnoxious. She acts ignorant about the ways of Avalon and insults her heritage and her child when she clings to her Christianity. Uther was never described as a particularly good Christian, Igraine spent most of her time being luke-warm to hostile to it during the first half of the book, then because of the trauma of the transition when Gorlois was killed and she hooked up with Uther. It certainly wasn't ideal, but Gorlois was a crazy man who was so insecure he broke his oath to his king in order to "protect" Igraine (from her fate.) So, I fail to see a lasting reason to feel all icky about how they got there. Magic and druids are fine when it's convenient but not when it's day-to-day. Then we slack the shit out of it. Pbbbbthtththtttth.

Get an Editor... and a stronger writing style. So much passive voice, so much repetition. UGH. I guess passive voice helps with the "no agency" thing.

I suspect that I'm going to bail out of this marathon soon, given I have this rage build up every time I start listening again. 

Comments

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

I kept meaning to read that...

[mizarchivist]

I do need to say: I am glad I read it when I did. It was very important as my growth as a feminist and non-Christian. A starting point. I walked down that path from there and I need binoculars and GPS to recall exactly where I was in my development. Happily, I don't have to revisit this book, in fact maybe best to leave it in my memory as a formerly awesome thing.

While I can't recommend it as a good read, I am happy to loan it to you if you want to see what it's all about for yourself.

[woodwardiocom.livejournal.com]

My "to-read" stack is very large, and not shrinking, so if I take you up on that offer, it will likely be after we've seen Roo and Crime Fighter off to college...

[mizarchivist]

Well, the offer stands.

[coraline]

yeah, definitely one of those "formative moments" books, that were somehow visited by the suck fairy in the years after i read them since they surely couldn't have been THAT bad then, right?

[mizarchivist]

And yet!! We really have grown so much individually and I want to believe culturally.

A matter of perspective

[drwex]

I got so turned off by the awful writing that I bailed out the first time on page 17. I was told years later that I ought to read it (and had read other MZB by then) so I tried again. Got to page 25, I think, and set the thing down. Could not see myself slogging through that much muck.

Re: A matter of perspective

[mizarchivist]

From the writing style alone... Yep.

Re: A matter of perspective

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

I've only tried getting through this once, and failed. The writing was just too appalling. It so put me off MZB that I've never touched anything else of hers. She's a better writer elsewhere?

Re: A matter of perspective

[mizarchivist]

I have vague memories of the Darkover series being better here and there. caulay or randysmith would be better people to ask, though, as I've not read any of 'em in easily 20+ years.

[dreda.livejournal.com]

You do know not to read any of the related books, right? Forest House and whatnot? They limbo right under this low bar.

(Again, I have great respect for the existence of the book and the author and it is a Big Deal Book. But ... oh, it could have been so much better...)

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

See, and I am willing to keep a copy of Lady of Avalon, because the stories might be bad but they're at least SHORT.

[minkrose]

I remember loving it when I was younger, too -- but I was definitely surprised when you told me you were re-reading it! I know I revisited them in college and then read two other books from the series (The Forest House, Lady of Avalon) and I could tell I wasn't going to enjoy them again later. Andy owns a TON of MZB that is not Avalon related, and I've been planning to read that soon. We *finally* merged our book collections this year, and as I unpacked the boxes, I realised how much MZB is available to me!

Did you ever watch the TV series? I'm sure it's still problematic but I remember enjoying it... But I seriously heart Michael Vartan in anything.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mists_of_Avalon_(TV_miniseries)

[randysmith]

I've never read MoA (somewhat to my sorrow--it's very much the "kind" of book I think of myself as liking a lot--but this post isn't making it any likelier that I'm going to get to it) but my experience of MZB in general is *wow* the quality varies. Just within the Darkover series, there were awesome books, and there were terrible books. So I'm not actually surprised :-J.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Some fond memories are best left undisturbed. :)

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

(See also: hey, remember how awesome Piers Anthony was when we were 12? Funny story about that: turns out 12-year olds have terrible taste in, basically, everything.)

[mizarchivist]

So so so true. Again, that's OK. You have to start somewhere. And as Mr. Wheaton says: it's not what you love, but how you love it.

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

I've written and deleted a dozen things, so I'll settle in with: Word, sister.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

AGREED. With pretty much everything you said. I love love loved the book when I first read it (a 3-some with Arthur and Lance? OH HOLY COW that was big stuff) and the next I read it, maybe a year later, all the glaring issues came out to me. I can't even remember how old I was; maybe mid-late teens? I was a late bloomer.

But my biggest peeve? Gwen. What a whiny sniveling little idiot. And I really had some trouble with the idea that Christianity conquered England merely because Gwen was near-sighted. Being near-sighted to the point of legally blind myself, I took great umbrage at this.

Seriously, the most self-loathing misogynistic book I've read, ever.

(Some day, I'll tell you about the time I met MZB.)

[mizarchivist]

See, I'm quitting (because why torture myself further at this point) before Gwen shows up for real. I forgot about the 3-some. See, if I knew where that was... well, no. Because it'd still be written horribly with again more sex-negative self-loathing. So... yeah. I'll just pretend like that would happen in my head and it'll be better.