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by 0xDEADFED5 583 days ago
What's your favorite film or book on the topic?
4 comments

Given the usual vainglorious soup of mythical names, claims, swains and dames, I think the one film to recommend remains... Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

“I mean, if I went 'round saying I was an emperor, just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!”

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071853/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python_and_the_Holy_Grai...

it is painful to see Monty Python anti-story of comic relief drawn up to stand alone without understanding.. the psychological and historical themes in Aurthur speak to worlds that are gone today. Comic relief specifically mocks and deflates many important aspects of the myth. By saying "oh that is the ONE for me" it basically flushes a lot of content into ludicrous, and yes funny, cheap theater.
> many important aspects of the myth

I am of course open to hear what these aspects are. But let's be clear that lucid understanding and humour are the best parts of civilisation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Once_and_Future_King

is funny and serious in the right moments.

I loved The Sword in The Stone as a child, and should probably re-read it someday. However, I found the later books were nowhere near as interesting, with characters going into long monologues that were just White propounding his own theories through his characters mouths.
Thomas Berger's Arthur Rex is even more wittier.
If I have a comfy chair, nice music, and an afternoon to relax, probably Le Morte d'Arthur. Or if I'm looking to forget the world, Mists of Avalon.

For more historical diving, Oxford maintains a list of books and papers written on the matter.

Now with extra oppression of the masses by supreme executive power derived from a farcical electoral ceremony.