The Sword In The Stone

[poliphilo]

I read The Sword in the Stone as a child. In fact I read it twice- because there are two versions- the larky kiddies' book it started out as- and the rather more adult thing it became when White retrospectively incorporated it in his Arthurian cycle The Once and Future King.

I remember being dismayed by the second version. White had scrubbed my favourite chapter- which had a giant in it and gave full range to the zany humour of King Pellinore-  and replaced it with some high-minded, didactic stuff about migrating geese.  It's the second version I'm re-reading now- and, though I haven't yet come to the geese, I suspect the chapter they replaced was just too silly to live.

I loved King Pellinore- so much so that I later stole him for use in a narrative poem of my own- but that's fair, because White had already stolen him from Lewis Carroll. There's a lot of Carroll in The Sword in the Stone- and even more Kipling (equal measures of the Jungle Books and Puck of Pook's Hill).  I like Pellinore less than I did. He and Grummore and Ector- with their public school honour code and their verbal mannerisms- rather date the book. Anachronism is fun as long as the misplaced thing remains au courant, but that's never for long- and these Blimps- representatives of a completely extinct type- intrude quaintly into the ambient timelessness. 

Of course Merlyn is my favourite character now.

We'll pass over the film in silence. It was a travesty. I hate it. Like most of the texts that Disney has trashed in its quest for world domination The Sword in the Stone is an English book about the experience of being English.

Comments

[upasaka.livejournal.com]

With you on all of that, except that being the young brainiac I was, I read the second version first and didn't miss the geese at all when I got to the other version. I still adore Pellinore, but I see what you mean about the public school bit.

[sovay]

I like Pellinore less than I did. He and Grummore and Ector- with their public school honour code and their verbal mannerisms- rather date the book.

Do you still like your version of Pellinore?

(I like your new default icon.)

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

I loved "The Once and Future King", which I read long before Disney butchered "The Sword in the Stone". Disney studios has a way of doing that, rewriting the old and loved fairy tales and other stories, such as the "Tales of Uncle Remus" by Joel Chandler Harris.
Tha antics of Pellinore and Sir Grummore amused me then and amuse me again each year when I reread the book.
I have about ten books that I reread each year, and as long as I continue to enjoy them I will continue to reread them.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The secod version is a bit preachy, I think. I've just read the chapter about the ants. that's second version too, isn't it? Anyway, I don't like it much.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I do. My Pellinore was a partial self-portrait. I gave him my nerves and my indecisiveness.

(Thanks.)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I detest Disney- though I reserve the right to enjoy Pirates of the Caribbean.

What she said (pointing upwards)

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

I, too, read several books once a year and "The Once and Future King" is always first on my list.

[sovay]

I do. My Pellinore was a partial self-portrait. I gave him my nerves and my indecisiveness.

Post? (if you are comfortable)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

OK. Why not? :)

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I absolutely loved the film, because I was a small person of limited critical faculty. I especially adored the duel with Mim (possibly the least-changed bit, in fact).

I can see now that it's bobbins, but without it my eye would not have been caught, years later, by the book, and I'll always be grateful to Disney for that.

I've only read the rest of 'The Once and Future King' once; it's well-written, of course, but I found it just too solemn and sad. Let's not even go into the cat-boiling...

Re: What she said (pointing upwards)

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

And that is another thing we have in common, Jubal!

Re: What she said (pointing upwards)

[jubal51394.livejournal.com]

That's the only reason I posted that comment.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The duel with Mim was excised from White's second version of the book- the one I'm reading. The revised book has a very uneven tone- veering from the larky and proto-Pythonesque to the solemn and preachy.

I'll probably plough on through the rest of The Once and Future King. When I first read it I was far too young, and hardly understood a word.

[silverhawkdruid.livejournal.com]

I love Disney's Sword in the Stone. Sorry. :-) I would maybe feel different had I read the book first, but I was a kid who loved cartoons and it really appealed to me, and still does.

I'm only now reading the books of The Once and Future King actually, and still working my way through the first one in fact. Wart is being a goose at the moment.

Hugs,
Lex xxx

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I've just finished The Queen of Air and Darkness. I didn't like it at first, but it has grown on me.