Are you the Arthur to my Lancelot?

[strangetomato]

Following a little discussion on ménage à trois/threesomes in books and movies on simsecret, which mentioned The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, I finally picked up a copy to read. I'm enjoying the book as a whole, but I'll admit I'm mostly in it for the ménage (and I'll also admit to skipping ahead to find details on the threesome scene - after doing so, it was easier to just relax and enjoy the book without wondering about it). It has a very similar structure to the relationship between JRO, with one official couple and then the lover who is granted permission to love his dear friend's wife. There's a lot of protocol around Arthur being King and the customs of the times are quite different, but it's quite a similar setup in a number of ways (maybe even some I can't talk about just yet). It'll be very interesting to read all the ins and outs of it and the consequences and such.

But who's Arthur and who's Lancelot? ;) Well, it's not at all a perfect parallel, but one of them is the King and the other adores him beyond what's reasonable, and maybe even beyond what he feels for the lady they share. I can't help but make some comparisons.

Also, the height difference in this pic is something like I imagine their actual height difference to be, ignoring the fact that Ripp's hunched over. I place Ripp somewhere around the 5'10-11" range, while Johnny is somewhere around 6'2". Ophelia is probably a whole foot shorter than Johnny.

In story update news, I'm not going to be around at all this week, because I'll be out of town. That's going to delay my progress on the next update (I was out of town for the Victoria Day weekend too), but I'm anxious to get back into it. I'm hoping to find some time to work on it this upcoming weekend.

Comments

[ownsimscorner.livejournal.com]

OPh, you know which is which. ;)

I used to love Mists when I was about twelve and first read it, now I`m not quite sure what to think about it. There`s too much "those evol Christians" and pseudo feminism for my taste.

If I recall both Arthur, Lancelot and Gwen are not portrayed very positively in the book, specially Gwen who`s painted as a hyper religious hypocrite. *shrug*

I think I may know what the similar setup is. ;)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you're right. I do. ;)

You're the second person that mentioned reading it at a young age. I feel very late to the party here. I even went through a bit of a fantasy stage in high school, but didn't get aorund to reading it (and I should have - I read some pretty filmsy stuff instead).

I don't mind the anti-Chritianity slant, because it makes sense for the dominant points of view in the story (and I think it's good for a little criticism, quite frankly). It also doesn't seem to be that negatively portrayed to me (though maybe I'll change my mind by the end of the book).

Why do you consider the feminist slant to be "pseudo"? Because it wouldn't have existed as such in that era? It comes off as genuine enough to me (with the goddess worship and all), and I suppose I probably wouldn't mind either way.

I love that they're all portrayed with flaws that way. It makes them far more appealing to me, and more like real people.

Shhhh. Don't tell, okay? ;)