The Joy of Erudition > Recent Status Updates

A lot of the cast of The Black Cauldron is in this one particular story! There's the aforementioned Fflewddur Fflam, plus Taran, Gurgi (as Gwrgi Severi), and the witches Orwen and Orddu. There are also a number of little pigs that have names, but none of them are Hen Wen.

"...and Edeyrn the son of Nudd, and Gadwy [71c] the son of Geraint, and Prince Fflewddur Fflam, and Ruawn Pebyr the son of Dorath..."

Oh, okay! So that's where Lloyd Alexander got that name!

And Geraint went to the empty chair, and sat down therein.

“Ah! chieftain,” said the maiden, “I would not counsel thee to sit in that chair.”

“Wherefore?” said Geraint.

“The man to whom that chair belongs has never suffered another to sit in it.”

“I care not,” said Geraint, “though it displease him that I sit in the chair.”

---
Geraint acting like a boorish thug as usual. Knightly courtesy at its best.

This is the story of the suspicious, abusive husband and the faithful wife.

“Thus will it be best to do,” said Arthur, “let this man have medical care until it be known whether he may live. And if he live, he shall do such satisfaction as shall be judged best by the men of the Court; and take thou sureties to that effect. And if he die, too much will be the death of such a youth as Edeyrn for an insult to a maiden.”

“This pleases me,” said Gwenhwyvar.

“Chieftain,” said he, “behold the maiden for whom thou didst challenge at the tournament, I bestow her upon thee.”

“She shall go with me,” said Geraint, “to the Court of Arthur; and Arthur and Gwenhwyvar, they shall dispose of her as they will.”

And the next day they proceeded to Arthur’s Court. So far concerning Geraint.

Making sense out of Peredur's story is almost impossible with all of its tangents and dropped plotlines, but at least it gives an actual resolution to the Percival and the Holy Grail story.

The story of Peredur, a naive, untrained knight wannabe who proves to be unbeatable for no reason, who has at least 3 "ladies he loves above all others" yet never marries or spends time with them, is a strange alternate version of the story I knew from de Troyes, about Percival, the Fisher King, and the Holy Grail. Almost the same, but many differences. Which came first? Also, Gawain is Gwalchmai.

"And if thou see meat and drink, and hast need of them, and none have the kindness or the courtesy to give them to thee, take them thyself. If thou see a fair woman, pay thy court to her, whether she will or no; for thus thou wilt render thyself a better and more esteemed man than thou wast before."

This was Peredur's mother telling him how to act like a knight. Steal stuff and force yourself on women.

Everything in these stories is the biggest, the best, the most beautiful, the most delicious, the most courteous, or most whatever, in the whole world.

So now I've seen the introductions of both the famous Rhiannon and the famous bard/wizard Gwydion. And I guess the giant Bendigeid Vran/Bran the Blessed is relatively famous, too. The rest of the characters were unknown to me. Also, the Black Cauldron showed up, resurrecting the dead! Unfortunately, Annwn has so far been portrayed as just any other mundane country.

Oh, and then he and Nadara go out on the ocean again in the canoe, and they get picked up by some pirates who just happen to have ALSO captured Waldo's parents! The main characters must all be wearing super-powerful magnets to make sure they always end up back together despite floating aimlessly across the gigantic ocean.

Coincidences for the convenience of the plot are standard procedure for Burroughs, but this one is the most unbelievable I've seen yet! He believes Nadara has been taken back to the US, so he builds a CANOE and tries to sail the OCEAN with it, with no experience on the sea and no map or instruments. He's about to die of thirst when a storm casts him on another island where Nadara just HAPPENS to have landed herself!

Back to the plot from the first book of each party searching for the other, and no one staying in one place.

Meeting the 'rents goes about as well as you'd expect.

Now he's suddenly infantilising his mate.
"Do not worry, little one," said Thandar. "The Great Nagoola will have to grumble louder and struggle more fiercely before ever he may dislodge the two mountains. Even now he is quiet again, so run to your cave, sweetheart, nor bother your pretty head with useless worries—it is time that all good people were asleep," and he stooped and kissed her as she turned to go.

Now Waldo is tormenting his "mate" Nadara with months of forced celibacy, hoping to bring her back to Boston because he considers Western weddings to be the only valid ones, and at the same time he's taking control of the whole tribe and trying to completely change the native culture to fit his Western sensibilities.

This book still sucks, but I had some time to read yesterday.

One thing I don't like about Burroughs' work is the frequent emotional whiplash of characters loving each other then hating each other, sometimes on a whim, and never communicating. Happens a lot in this one.
This volume contains the first book and its sequel. It looks like it's following the Tarzan formula, as they're returning to civilisation at the beginning of this one, and there's a long-lost heir.

He spends 6 months training alone to become worthy of her, and even refuses a place on a rescue ship, with absolutely no contact or news of her in the meantime, so he doesn't even know if she's alive.

I don't think the book is technically a comedy, but it's still funny how Waldo keeps lucking out with his terrified actions being mistaken for bravery, and how Nadara keeps believing the flimsy excuses he makes about why he won't hunt the monstrous panther ("I've killed so many panthers I'm bored of them!") or why they shouldn't travel at night ("If it hadn't been so dark, the panther wouldn't have gotten away!")

Burroughs seems to be trying something different in this one, by casting a skinny, unimaginative, sickly young man named Waldo as the main character, who was raised to disdain anything macho or masculine, rather than the competent and practical heroes he usually uses.

"Christus Apollo": A poem.

"The Lost City of Mars": A full novelette. We're introduced to a larger cast of characters than in his short stories: the captain, a poet and his wife, 2 actors, a maid, and a hunter. They seek, and find, an ancient lost Martian city of doom, automated and still functional, and they immediately split up to explore it separately. Each one is presented with their heart's desire, which for some is deadly.

"Henry the Ninth": In some backward future in which the world is getting colder, everyone leaves England because it's too cold, except for the one man who values its history. This story sets the record for the most numerous fond references to "summer" in all of them yet. Bradbury really, really loved summer, and must not have grown up where summers were hot.

"Heavy-Set": A frustrated musclebound manchild alternately seeks and avoids socialising.

"The Man in the Rorschach Shirt": A psychiatrist has to change his career after getting glasses that improve both his vision and his hearing, to the point where he realises that he's been mishearing and thus misdiagnosing his patients for decades.

"Any Friend of Nicholas Nickleby's Is a Friend of Mine": Starts out as a story about a boy who wants a new name, but when a man calling himself Charles Dickens shows up and gives him the name Pip, there's no further character development for the boy, and it's all about the Dickens impersonator and his attempt to reinvent himself.

"The Tombling Day": By far the WEIRDEST of the stories so far. An old woman digs up the body of her betrothed who died before they could marry. His body is untouched by decay, and she laments that he's still young and unchanged, while she's old and withered. [Spoilers] In response, his body ages before her eyes until he's older than her. She dances and cheers in joy. He remains dead. The end.