The Bright Sword - Hannah

Thoughts after just finishing The Night Office (chp. 36)

My prevailing thought while reading and listening to this book is that Lev Grossman is vindicating all of the women from Arthur's story. I wonder if he read Mists or Avalon and was just as crushed as the rest of us to learn what a monster MZB and her horrible husband were. No one can re write Mists, obviously, but Grossman goes to real lengths to treat the various "whores" of this story with such care. Acknowledging Guenevere's intelligence, savvy, and her loyalty. Morgan continuing to offer chance after chance for humanity after they've all cast her as the devil. Nimue and her love for children and those who are less powerful being the root of all of her strength. 

I *love* the recasting of Merlin and Lancelot as the villains. In many versions of the story, Nimue is Merlin's lover and that never felt right to me. A powerful sorceress who trapped him under a hill so she could keep him for a while because he was a workaholic? Boring. The story Grossman suggests is much better. 

There is a part of me that grieves a little because I love magic and have grown up loving Merlin but after reading The Once and Future King you realize that Merlin is the one caping for nationalism all along. He convinces Arthur that that is the best way, to conquer Britain completely, to flatten it in the name of "unity". And of course, this leads to Arthur's eventual downfall. It makes sense that he would have done this to ensure that he is the only one who still remains the power of the "old ways" and to make himself indispensable. A man who facilitates a rape, banishes the child of said rape, only to use him when it's convenient and EVEN THEN keeps so many secrets about his life from him is obviously a villain. How could he be anything but that!

It's normal to still love the magic and the old ways. Grossman obviously does as well and gives us so many opportunities to celebrate those various sprites, deities, gods, spirits, witches, fairies, and others. I appreciate that addition and filling out of that world. Not to mention, he makes Morgan so funny.

I was struggling throughout the first third, half, maybe more, of the book with the idea that Arthur is a colonizer. I felt a little bit like when I was rooting for Cam/Gideon when they are fighting Cytherea, why am I rooting for the bad guys?? I am firmly on the side of the Picts and everyone else he is trying to conquer and yet I'm also rooting for Arthur the man because I love him? Why would I want him to come back, or Camelot to continue, or for the Old Ways to disappear completely? I love that Grossman lets Arthur finally acknowledge that he belongs in the Old World and that he was wrong about God. "We were whole the entire time" reduced me to tears! People are complex! Belief systems are complex! The problem is the binary! Grossman gives us so many examples of living outside of that, Nimue and her faith, Morgan and her love for Arthur while never forgiving him, Collum's parentage, Dinadan, Palomides choosing to stay in Britain despite loving Iraq and his own faith/upbringing,Scipio and his understanding of empire, and countless others. The real dangers are the zealots (see what I did there?) the Lancelots. The Merlins.