DOCUMENT RESUME ED 026 387 TE 001 225 By-Fletcher, Paul F. "The Once and Future King." Pub Date Oct 68 Note- 5p. Journal Cit-Educators Guide to Media & Methods; v5 n2 p54-7 Oct 1968 EDRS Price MF -$0.25 HC-$0.35 Descriptors-Adolescence, *English Instruction, Fables, Fiction, Individual Development. *Legends, Literary Conventions, Literary Genres. Literature, *Literature Appreciation, Mythology. *Novels, Secondary Education. Teaching Techniques, *Twentieth Century Literature Identifiers-*The Once and Future King T.H. White's "Once and Future King" provides an antidote of humor for the pessimism found in many modern literary works. As the title implies, many of the book's themes are timelessthe fruitless quest, the eternal triangle, the conflict of desire and morality, and the opposition of good and evil. Other themes--the fall of the leader and the unifying of diverse elements into political unity--are as timely as a news broadcast. The 20th century, despite its scientific and technological advances, has been dominated by myth; and White's book, with its suffering and aexistential squirm," "is a veritable bellwether for our time." (Suggested teaching activities for a unit on the quest motif are listed. (LH) EMBUICZLIETZIODS

Editor FRANK McLAUGHLIN Managing Editor CHARLES FAUCHER Art Director PETER B. RENICH Design RICHARD CLIFF Production Manager R. KENNETH BAXTER Subscription Manager MARY CLAFFEY Motion Pictures JOHN CULKIN Television NED HOOPES Tapes & Records KIRBY JUDD Paperbacks FRANK ROSS Publisher ROGER DAMIO Marketing Director W. BRYCE SMITH 405 Lexington Ave. New York, N.Y. 10017 (212) MU 7-8458 ADVISORY BOARD Barry K. Beyer, Ass't. Prof. of History, Carnegie- Mellon University, Pittsburgh Max Bogart, Ass't. Dir., Div. of Curriculum & in- struction, State Dept. ot Ed., N.J. Charlotte Brooks, Sup. Dir. of English, Wash., D.C. Public Schools John Cu ikin, 8.J., Director, Center for Communi- cations, Fordham U., New York City Daniel Fader, Project Dir., Dept. of English, Uni- versity of Michigan at Ann Arbor Sidney Forman, Prof. of Education and Librarian, Teachers College, Columbia U. Morris Gall, Social Studies Head, Norwalk Public Schools, Conn. Donald Kiemer, Supt. of Schools, Winchester, Massachusetts Peter Kontos, Ass't. Dir., Social Science Program, Greater Cleveland Philip Lewis, President, instructional Dynamics, Chicago, Illinois Marshall McLuhan, Dir., Center for Cultureand Technology, University of Toronto Joseph Mersand, Chairman Eng. Dept.,Jamaica High School, New York City William B. Sanborn, Dir.,Div. of Instructional Materials, San Francisco Schools Bertram Siegel, Dir. of Science, Westport(Conn.) Public Schools M. Jerry Weiss, Chm. English Dept., JerseyState College, New Jersey Educators Guide to MEDIA AND METHODSis published nine times per year, Septemberthrough May, by Media and Methods Institute,Inc., divi- sionof North American Publ:shing Co.I.J. Borowsky,president.FrankL.Nemeyer, vice president. Roger Damio, vice president.Publish- ing offices: 134 N. 13th St.,Philadelphia, Pa. 19107. Phone: (215) 564-5170. Subscription:$6.00 per year, 86.00 in Canada. $4.00each for ten or more to one school address.Single copy 75$ 0 Copyright,Media and Methods Institute, Inc., 1968. Printed in U.S.A. by World Color Press. Con- irtrolled circulation paid at Sparta, .r'tote 0+ Illinois. T EINCE AND FUTU EKING

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH,EDUCATION & WELFARE FLETCHER. The Onceand Future King is OFFICE OF EDUCATION BY PAUL F. deserves, a bookthat is not gettingnearly the attention it for it is a book, asits title suggests,for our time, for past time, and surely forall time. EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE fascinating interpretationsof THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRODUCED White's is one of the most POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS King Arthur and ofman's eternal search.Nowadays, it PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT. people are beingexposed to various STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENTOFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDUCATION seems to me, young most of these literary treatmentsof the quest motif, yet POSITION OR POLICY. pessimistic and tragicwithout the redeem- treatments are life. ing grace of thecomic, or at leastthe tragicomic, in Chrestien de Troyesand Layamon andMalory, and later Spenser, up to thatfinal pat answer tothe dilemmas posed of the VictorianCompromise, Tennyson by the conundrum I must "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCETHIS certainly all of thesemake interesting reading. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEENGRANTED confess that as a ladI myself wassomewhat amused by it a BY Tennyson's romantic treatment,and I always thought it,41 the office. After A-set iitzt./tHLL,Zmattita,. pity that Arthurdid spend all that time at Robert Goulet much too OPERATING all, he did leaveGwen alone with TO 'ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS Tenny- UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THEU.S. OFFICE OF much. 0, well, themagnificent cuckold! Of course, it this wayhe isnothing if not elegaic EDUCATION. FURTHER REPRODUCTIONOUTSIDE son never presents old Beo- PERMISSION OF and Arthur accepts hisfate as inevitable. Like poor THE ERIC SYSTEM REQUIRES gold-wreathed smoke THE COPYRIGHT OWNER." wulf, he goes downlike the sunset in a the Idylls so boringin of ruin. Perhapsthis is why I found high school, and in a wayonly a little interestingin col- high school; snide lege: standardsaccharine treatment in Nowadays; youngpeople areweaned on commentary by aknow-it-all professor incollege. Maybe teeth on the students of todaywould prefer T. H. "Lord of the Flies,"cut their this is also why with it White's version of theArthurian legend. White's "A SeparatePeace" and/or(depending more, atleast for our time.White knows the score. will bear) White makes Arthur noinviolable GeorgeWashington what thelocal censors Table. We first seeArthur as a boy: prop- into of the Round shifting of time refer- finally matriculate erly named Wart.And with all the "Catcher," and the fourteenth centuryedition of "Playboy." encesMerlin consults apply the the world ofPinter and/or the EncyclopaediaBritannicathe reader can "The various happenings to our owntime, for Arthur istruly a As an antidote tothis solemnity, once andfuture king. King" is a kindof (with accent on thisword for many) Once and Future All the characters Gawain basi- are in thebook: Gawaine, hardlythe Green Knight happy book, withsadness too, but here; indeed a lot lessstupid than that fellow, yethumanly with a nice measureof speaking, often a lot morestupid; Lancelot is noRobert cally a happy book Goulet here. Actuallyhe is ugly likeClegg in Muriel and grace thatadds up I was always grimness, gaiety Spark's MandelbautnGate. In my salad days, rather incensed atGawaine's behavior (orlack of it) with to reality. the complaisant ladyin the Green Knight.The Anglo-

54 /MEDIA & METHODS Well maybe it isn't exactlyclear who Arthur was, or what or where Camelot was. Butimagine Richard Burton or Richard Harris singing: Camelford, Camelford! orAs I was wandering in the dusk of Caerlon-upon-Usk. orElain, the lily maid of Queen'sCamel Yet, perhaps in his time compressionsT. H. White might have had Lancelot hurryingback to Guinevere offering: I'd walk a mile for a Queen'sCamel or Am I sinning more now and enjoying it less? You see, it's the book that'sdone this to me. I would be as bad, I fear, asWalt Disneyindeed closer toTerry- toons. Lyrical License of Lerner and Lowe?Well, as Kenneth Tynan points out, in My FairLady Lerner made Shaw's fanatically grammatical Professor'enry 'iggins commit two syntactical errors, separatedby a split infinitive, within the space of three lines. Well, whoever Arthur was,modern scholarship seems to think there really was anArthur and archeological dig- gings seem to indicate there was areal Camelot. off with Wart's early Saxon eunuchthen along cameLancelot du LacGallic The Once and Future King starts question in my mind being "eddication" as Cockney Sir Ectorcalls it, and the reader equating it with spice: The infinite variety of characters: like always which one did the manlything could be a mighty is introduced early to an the governess with red hairwho had a wound on her sit- good an tidote. Sir Ector: An acquaintance of minerecently remarked that there down that she offered to show to nowadays. had hysterics and was sent away.They found out after- were very few"happy books" students studied lunatic hospital for three culpa, the change wards that she had been in a Everything is the tragic vision, the felix years. (p. 9) of Philomel so rudely forced. Sir Grummore is always questingfor the Questin' Beast. Twit, twit, twit The jumbling of timelikeStetson among the ships at Jug, jug, jug Mylae, but much more funincludesrunning an ad for a Tereu tutor in the HumberlandNewsman and Cardoile Advertiser. Conflict is everywhere. Man inconflict with himself; There are some excellent descriptionsof the dark woods man in conflictwith others, man in conflictwith the forces, in the area and the man who gothis nose bit off and how usually malevolent, around him. he haunts the woods, andWart's being shot at by an un- White has a little fun, and itwould seem to me that known assailant. The boy gets lost inthe woods and falls The Once and Future King is akind of happy book, with asleep. The writing is exquisite: sadness too, but basically a happybook with a nice meas- The boy slept well in thewoodland nest where he had gaiety, and grace that adds up toreality. laid himself down, in thatkind of thin but refreshing ure of grimness, they begin to lie out of Nowadays young people areweaned on Lord of the Flies, sleep which people have when Separate Peace and/or (depending on doors. At first, he only dippedbelow the surface of sleep, cut their teeth on A and skimmed along like asalmon in shallow water, so what the local censors willbear) Catcher, and finally fancied hini3cif in the. air. and/or Playboy. Well, close to the surface that he matriculate into the world of Pinter He thought himself awakewhen he was already asleep. White's book does, I maintain, rejuvenatethe flaccid mus- He saw the stars above hisface, whirling on their silent cle of romance and comes up not withritual but with and sleepless axis, and theleaves of the trees rustling wistful, even fey kind of quality.Well, Camelot was a against them, and he heard smallchanges in the grass. wonderful idea anyhow. These little noises of footstepsand soft-fringed wing- beats and stealthy bellies drawn overthe grass blades or Let it not be forgot rattling against the bracken atfirst frightened or inter- That once there was a spot, ested him, so that he moved to seewhat they were (but For one brief, shining moment, never saw), thensoothed him, so that he no longer cared That was known as Camelot. to see what they werebut trusted them to be themselves, he swam down deeper Yes, I know, Rogers and Hammersteinand Walt Disney and finally left him altogether as and deeper, nuzzling into the scentedturf, into the warm and John Kennedygot into the act, andI guess that's the earth. (p. 27) all right. The only thing that bothers meabout Disney is ground, into the unending waters under White, Treas- Merlyn is Wart's teacher and thebric-a-brac is right out that kids think he wrote everythingSnow including "a complete set of ure Island, Bambi,Pinocchioand that is a little sad. of a time machine gone wild King Arthur asks cigarette cards depicting wild fowlby Peter Scott," and all In the book, just before the last battle ample as nuns' pockets. a young mannamed Thomas Malory to pass on the tale. the wonders in Merlyn's old hat as King Arthur Merlyn took a dead mouse out of hisskull cap. "I always Malory did his best, considering that he and keep them there, and worms too, forfishing." were separated by twocenturies. _ Merlyn initiates Wart into theworld of nature, including Encyclopaedia Britannica gives various identifications ultimately changes the for Camelot (wherever it was): Caerlon-upon-Usk inMon- "a peek at neurotic roaches" and in boy into different animals.The climax of all of this occurs mouthshire, Queen's Camel in Somerset, Camelford hawk and puts him in Cornwall and Winchester. when Merlyn changes the boy into a

OCTOBER 1968/ 55 are quitestartling Gawaine andGaharis and Agravaine with other assortedhawks, including one culturally deprivedand depraved aswell. a hawk coop specimens of the real evil. One that is psychotic: There is evil here.Magical, yet compelling, of the room whichhad been net- The dour, lusty,fighting, rascally, Only in the far corner can feelit. Wart felt it. the North felt it too. ted off for Cully,they could hear afaint muttering from scurrilous and yetlikable boys from (the mad hawk). with their mother,Mor- the choleric infantryof Colonel, They knew somethingwas wrong "Damned niggers," he wasmumbling. "Damnedadmin- attempted to hide itfrom tl:cm- "Damned Bol- gause. Yk:tthey always istration, DamnedDamned Politicians." psychological stuff here.It drove them to sheviks." (p. 78) selves. Modern hawks try to get ourhero to stand murder. deep but And when the other Some of the sexualsymbolism is not only near the madhawk: beautiful. The Orkneyboys will come to do that, 1 almost disturbingly ulti- Oh no! no yourladyship. I beg of you not ambivalent attitudetoward Arthur and damned villain, yourladyship, that I do not to have an Mordred's plots to am such a Spare the poor boy, your mately an effect inunwittingly abetting answer for theconsequences. dream of thePeaceable Kingdom.But ladyship, and lead us notinto temptation. (p. 82) destroy Arthur's where they cavort strand of sanity in they have their momentsof fun at home There is poignantwarning in this last men they are. hawk. (Maybe Swiftshould have used like the carefree young the poor demented of cell is nearbyand he is another one hawks and not MenippeanHouyhnhnms). The element St. Toirdealbhach's St. Some- gripping, it has akind of con- of the zanies that appear.Imagine a walking horror in this scene is so lonely, and theirmother neglects Marat/Sade quality: theprobable impossible body! But the boys are temporary them. So they oftentalk with this oldhermit. making the reader'shair stand on end. I be wanting long" the boy'sadventures with his "Could you tell us astory?" "What would So "all the sun of for, and me in myheresies? 'Tis forty his funning, andthe horrors too, to tell you a story battle and not a oneof me fbster brother Kay, incredible but at the years since Ifought a natural growing up are here,all in the most colleen all that time.""You could situations. Merlyn toohas his looking upon a white it." "And same timehighly believable tell us a story without anycolleens or battle in horrors, horrors forcertain, for he can seethe future and good of that then, now ...What make a damn foolof what would be the puzzle." he knows thateventually he will would I want to be asaint for at all, is my Nymph Nimue shuthim up in a tree himself and let the (p. 251) witch, and the boysin their own forever. He tells them about a "It must be Now, just as the menof this book are men,the women ignorance of theirmother's true state, say, fairies, or queens, for a mother." Later are women, notjust airy sorceresses or dreadful to have a witch where-have-you. Take Queen the door withoutsurprise, waiting or lilymaids of Astolat or The boys sat round in their and Orkney. Arthurdidas a young for something else tohappen. They considered Morgause of Lothian Mordred. But her sons, of wells, witches, andthe practices man, andof this encounter came minds the questions of mothers. (p. 253) Then there is theepisode of the Ir_intfor the unicorn, tapestry with one of the mostbeautiful in the book, part and as fresh and new asAnthony old primordial yearnings the catch-in- West's Ferret Fancier.For truly, puberty is the-throat time of life,and early, exploratory sex(contrary be the most beau- to HoldenCaulfield's experiences), can tiful if the mostephemeralsex of all. from St. Toirdealbhach."There was They get a Bestiary horn in of a virgin holdingthe poor creature's a picture spearmenwith the one handwhile she beckoned some other." be bait and They secure a ratherreluctant maid Meg to symbolism is obvi- boyishly threaten herwith spears. Thi, "This girl," saidAgravaine, "is mymother. ous enough. yesterday. And I This is what ourMammy was at doing be Sir Grummore."Violent Agravaine isfirst am going to reminiscent of the to attack the poorbeast and the scene is pig hunt in Lord ofthe Flies. But with adifference. The treatment here is morepoetic. There are at least twoaspects of the questin the book. The search for theGrail is one. But alsothere is the search for the Questin' Beast.Pellinore, really a of King Pellinore Gawainc has good sort, is sleepingwith Morgause, and nearly killed hisbrother, Agravaine, forsuggesting what and his two friends,Sir Grum- they all know. Pellinore with a little of more and SirPalomides are Kipling types in. They arehappy-go-lucky-stiff- Mark Twain thrown hurt the upper-lip sorts. AndPellinore would have never boys for all theworld. just that theold woman was so willin' and all that sortof thing. Well, notonly the boys friends. The only way are concerned.So are Pellinore's his senses is to gethim to go after they can bring him to beast is dead, the Questin' Beast andsince they believe the and its the dragon in question.It took For all its scientific and technological advances they ciibguse themselves as do it in rejection (or maybe only seeming rejection) ofsupersti- them a week to makethe costume. They had to myth- them. tion and the supernatural, the twentieth century is a secret withoutPellinore's getting wise to and-legend haunted century. Consider the Greek tragedies "You write poems,Pellinore" they told him "or goand in a new light, A.F. (After Freud), and rememberhow sigh on the cliffs, there is agood fellow." (p. 268) the Teutonic myths shook the world in the secondGreat "Now, carefully this time.We must walk in step." War. The Arthurian legend may seem a bitmarginal to "Left, right! Left, right." comin' down." the great issues, yet a late corner T. S.Eliot used the theme "I think my haunches are consider in our time the Iptest ver . "If you let go of yourstruly's waist, we shall comein in The Wasteland and half." (p. 269) sionthe young leader married to abeautiful wife, work- and a peaceful world struck down So Grummore andPalomides get themselves out onthe ing for civilized values to attract notPellinore, in his flowering by maliceand madness at the height of his cold hills one night and manage ask whether the new Camelot will have but, you've guessed it,the real Questin' Beast,which career. One might Malory, and whether therewill be a world to listen. immed-jetly becomes smittenwith them, or it. a new When we first meet Lancelotin the Third book of the Yes, the book is a veritablebellwether for our times. An trilogywe realize at oncethe ill-made-knight is acharac- the ingredients aretherethe suffering, the existential with pain. ter who will bedeep. squirm. In short, a promise, yet The boy thought that there wassomething wrong with SUGGESTED ACTIVITIESThe teacher may wish to develop him. All through his lifeand evenwhen he was a great a unit on theQuest Motif. Once you start youwill be amazed man with the world athis feethe was to feel this gap: to find how rich thefield is. I have found the following group- something at the bottom of hisheart of which he was ings useful. aware, and ashamed,which he did not understand. (p. 1. Gawaine in theArthurian legend and Gawaine andthe 315) Green Knight, (PenguinInfocard 55). It is interesting to trace He had just returned fromEngland where his father had the various knights in thedifferent versions. Note how prissy Arthur had told the young Galahad is in White's version. helped the new King Arthur. in Graham knight he would have a placefor him at Camelot. And in 2. Compare Lancelotwith the whiskey priest Greene's Power and the Glory(BantamInfocard 56). When I truth, Arthur's dream was akind of United Nations dream when I was is troubled by dreams. was young I was soinnocent and so unendurable; in microcosm. Lancelot, too, seemed to understand. Games People Play. Arthur says older I was so corrupt yet I There is even a bit of 3. Compare the themeof innocent suffering withJack Bur- people ought to behave.They should not commit the (BantamInfocard, 57). everything had become sportman- den in Ali the King's Men. atrocities they do. Now 4. Compare Wart withPhineas and Gene in Knowles'A ship. Like some of the excessesof the New Frontier, Infocard 58) or with the growing best, Separate Peace (Bantam everyone was trying tobeat everyone else at being the pains of the boy in AnthonyWest's The Ferret Fancier. Table. This and making a sham ofthe ideals of the Round 5. Compare the Orkneylads with Alex and his crew in early U.N. isn't working out. Anthony Burgess' A ClockworkOrange (BallantineInfocard Lancelot became more and moreinvolved with Guine- 60). vere. Adultery wasinevitable and it came. Thenthere was 6. Lancelot and Arthurshrank from giving pain. Yet like the episode with Elaine.Ironically, out of this liaison came Odysseus (literally, "giver of pain")activism seems to require Galahad, who emerges here as akind of sanctimonious giving pain. Hanging aroundwith Circe or the Lotus Eaters, or character. But, as time goes on,and the kingdom is run- Guinevere is no way to get ajourney rolling or a Camelot. ning down, something else isrequired to keep people Anything here? going. In this case, it is notPhineas' blitzball in A Separate 7. Compare some of Arthur'f-reasonable devices to getting The search for the Holy people to live in harmony, w:ih thekingdoms in Swift's Gulli- Peace, but rather another game. Consider Camelot as Utopia. Grail. The thing is done tonguein cheek, but also with a ver's Travels or More'. Utopia. for man's eternal quest. All See Helen Felt Ty la's Agr, ofFerment on American Utopias kind of reverent irreverence Infocard 59). the abuses of a gold rush are on.But there's a God there (Harper Torchbook 8. Arthur has a kindof fatal flawis it pity?How is too. characters (in one sense) or like "an Arthur like Graham Greene's The characters aredeftly sketched. Mordred is (FawcettInfocard 61)? palely azure in their faded The Centaur by Updike albino with eyes so blue, so 9. Read some other books onthe quest: Donleavey's ASin- depths that you could not sr-:in them." He and theOrk- (DellInfo- Lamorak "for gular Man (DellInfocard 62), Bellow's Herzog ney boysbutchered Pellinore's young son card 63), Farrell's Studs Lonigan(Pocket BooksInfocard 64) being seduced by theirmother, who was three times 85 or Bellow'sAdventures of Augie March(FawcettInfocard old as he was." 65). The whole problem ingeometrythe eternal triangle-- 10. Compare White'sbook with Twain's A Connecticut is handled with greatunderstanding and a touch of wry Yankee in King Arthur's Court. humor. Why didn't Lancelot at oncelay seige to Guine- 1 1 .Do you note a certain sympathywith the Roman Cath- vere, and takeoff with her? olic Church rather refreshing for amodern writer? Somehow I Friday One reason for the dilemma wasthat he Ws a Chris- have the feeling this book isfar more ecumenical than a tian. The modern world is apt toforget that several night parish supper for priests,rabbis and ministers. Any com- people were Christians in the remote past,and in Lance- ments? Good luck! lot's time there were no Protestants exceptJohn Scotus All quotations are from theBerkley Medallion paperback, Erigenia. His Church .. . directlyforbade him to seduce The Once and Future King by T.H. White (N1320, 950. his friend's wife. (p. 367) For more info, check Infocard66). Here the student is exposed to tone,and if he is tone deaf students equate with the hide- Paul Fletcher has published inEnglish journal, Clearing (and many college-bound his ideas at Bristol Com- bound), an introduction to the subtleapproaches of this House, etc.; he regularly peddles find his sense of humor. A munity College in Fall River,Mass. This is his first appear- book might help the student Methods. little sad sense of humor, yet oneall the same. ance in Media and OCTOBER 1968/ 57