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MERLIN
Nov 6, 2009 15:46:55 GMT -1
Post by Heron on Nov 6, 2009 15:46:55 GMT -1
No sooner had I finished doing my current blog on Merlin when this arrived : (Synchronicity?) Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages by Stephen Knight www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=5462Would I like to review it? Would I! Although published by an American Uni Press, Knight is in the English Dept. at Cardiff and his previous ‘Mythic Biography’ of Robin Hood presumably set the tone for this work in taking a ‘cultural studies’ approach to surveying the presentation of Merlin all the way from The Black Book of Carmarthen to a dozen or so lines on the “banality” of the current TV series. Looks like I’m going to enjoy it. I’ll post a link to the review when it is eventually published.
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MERLIN
Nov 6, 2009 23:49:50 GMT -1
Post by megli on Nov 6, 2009 23:49:50 GMT -1
He did a very interesting pilot artilcle in CMCS (Cambrian Medieval celtic Studies) about two years ago.
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MERLIN
Nov 28, 2009 21:45:27 GMT -1
Post by Heron on Nov 28, 2009 21:45:27 GMT -1
I watched this earlier this evening: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00ny2zxIt was DIRE I think it was broadcast only on BBC2 in Wales and featured the two actors who play Merlin and Arthur in the TV series in a journey across Wales to find the real Arthur and Merlin. What a wasted opportunity! OK what they were looking for would never actually be found, but a good and informative story could have been told. Instead they drove across Wales arriving at two of their destinations ( I presume deliberately) after dark and, in the case of Camlann (near Dinas Mawddwy) only to walk around in the dark with renowned nutter Lawrence Main holding dowsing rods trying to pick up a Ley Line. At Caerleon they stood there to be told that no round table had been found during the excavations. O really! Although they were looking for the Welsh Arthur, scarce mention was made of any of the early Welsh texts and the whole thing was presented at the level of a couple of idiots on an idiotic quest. I didn't expect much but even so ...
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MERLIN
Nov 29, 2009 10:01:12 GMT -1
Post by Adam on Nov 29, 2009 10:01:12 GMT -1
I've got it on replay... I think I'll give it a miss then
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MERLIN
Nov 29, 2009 10:46:26 GMT -1
Post by megli on Nov 29, 2009 10:46:26 GMT -1
Mundus senescit.
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MERLIN
Feb 24, 2010 9:43:46 GMT -1
Post by Adam on Feb 24, 2010 9:43:46 GMT -1
No sooner had I finished doing my current blog on Merlin when this arrived : (Synchronicity?) Merlin: Knowledge and Power through the Ages by Stephen Knight www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=5462Would I like to review it? Would I! Although published by an American Uni Press, Knight is in the English Dept. at Cardiff and his previous ‘Mythic Biography’ of Robin Hood presumably set the tone for this work in taking a ‘cultural studies’ approach to surveying the presentation of Merlin all the way from The Black Book of Carmarthen to a dozen or so lines on the “banality” of the current TV series. Looks like I’m going to enjoy it. I’ll post a link to the review when it is eventually published. Just came across a copy of this in Waterstones... lightened my wallet <g> I like the way he disagrees with Foucault within two pages of his introduction ;D
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MERLIN
Feb 24, 2010 10:33:37 GMT -1
Post by megli on Feb 24, 2010 10:33:37 GMT -1
Quite right too: that serpent's coils have wound around academia for too long already.
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MERLIN
Feb 24, 2010 19:07:48 GMT -1
Post by Heron on Feb 24, 2010 19:07:48 GMT -1
Yes I mention that in my review which annoyingly did not appear in the recent edition of the quarterly journal that commissioned it. So I'll have to wait another three months for it to appear. But he does, of course, steal the 'knowledge and power' idea from Foucault even if he somewhat subverts it.
I must say though, it opened my eyes to a wealth of Arthurian material from the late Middle Ages that I didn't know much about. He has certainly done his research well with exhaustive coverage of even some quite minor stuff. The general thesis - Merlin as a figure representing the different ways in which those with knowledge are used, or ignored, by those in power, and the different extents to which those who have knowledge are enabled to wield it powerfully - is instructive for our own age. But what he tells us is that there is nothing new in this.
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