Western Tradition Compendium: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Introduction

The period between the Romans and the Crusades in Europe was focused inwardly. A peasant’s understanding of life was not much different from a king’s – the life hereafter was more important.  The human life predominately was a test of virtue; which, if passed, led to eternal paradise. With such a mindset, as we’ve seen in Beowulf, society had begun to deteriorate into small isolated communities with limited communication.

            Yet, by the 1300s, the time of “Sir Gawain,” the picture had changed greatly. The Crusades, while of very questionable foundation, served to unify a variety of kingdoms and princedoms throughout Europe. The results of this were felt in a variety of ways (to be considered later) from peasant revolts to the Renaissance. Starting in the 1100s, building to last had begun anew. In 1033, one thousand years after the calculated death of Jesus, since he had not returned, new works were begun; not surprisingly, these were the first Gothic cathedrals. So we have transitioned from the “Dark Ages” of the 900s to the High Middle Ages and the court of King Arthur.

            Most European regions have heroic kings. Why then, Arthur of Britain? The answer is two-fold. First, due to historical factors of Britain’s history and later empire, Arthurian legend has become recognized the world over. This is in contrast, say, to the great Polish King Krakus, of whom most have likely not heard. Arthur’s specifics do not differ considerably from these other legendary monarchs, and therefore he is a good example to consider.

Second to consider is the text itself. Quality work of the High Middle Ages is rare. Drama, for example, ebbed into simplistic, compelling morality plays. Arguably the two finest works of literature, both anonymous, are “Gawain” and “The Song of Roland”. Why I chose the former has already been elaborated.

            Arthur’s mythos is fundamentally tragic and romantic (depending on the interpretation). This particular story concerns one of the knights of the famous round table, Sir Gawain, who was known for his purity. Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot, hardly play a role. Yet the themes explored are as central as those in the stories of Guinevere and Lancelot, or the Grail Quest. Sir Gawain deals with forbidden love, spirituality, and is perhaps the best example of chivalry.

            Chivalry then was rather distinct from our 21^st Century notions. Rape and murder of peasants were perfectly acceptable. The stratified code of conduct applied only to the knights and nobles. Over the centuries, as the stories changed, the conduct of the nobility became more refined.  Arthur’s round table is perhaps the epitome of this change. One of the requirements of pure chivalry was unrequited love.  The story of Sir Gawain and the mysterious Green Knight relates this most intensely emotional facet.

            Many heroes, such as Robin Hood, are pure figments of imagination. Yet there is still rigorous debate on Arthur. If he was king it certainly was not during the period he was portrayed. The best suggestion is of a warlord during the late Roman Empire’s presence in Britain. Regardless of whether the mythology persisted or was invented during the Middle Ages the role of Arthur in British history was cemented as an ideal monarchy. It is worth remembering that, as in all societies, these stories of nobility, kings and refined society were representative of a tiny percentage of society. But for the European peasantry such stories were well-known entertainment.

            That we have the story of “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is by the slimmest chance and great luck – only one copy of the story survived and was discovered by happy accident. The following is the story, with some abridgments. For those who enjoy the story and are interested in literature of the High Middle Ages there are numerous Arthurian tales to consider, as well as other great romances. The story of Eliduc is a well-known French romance with similar elements. From a historical perspective, the famed romance of Abelard and Heloise has been preserved in their remarkable letters from the 1100s. As the age came to an end, upward mobility returned through trade and the rise of cities. Trappings of the feudal system persisted for some time, but by the time Sir Gawain’s encounter was recorded (in 1380), the Renaissance artists in Florence were discovering artistic perspective. The golden age of knights was now in decline and would slowly die out over the next two hundred years.

Compendium Continued: Introductions

Just about a year ago I revisited my compendium project. Perhaps it's something about January, but at the start of this year I decided to revisit the old back-burner project.

I have now only 11 entries to finish (Aquinas, Archimedes, Boyle, Carson, Dante, De Beauvoir, Gibbon, Heisenberg, Pizan, Sophocles, Viete). The main work now lies in composing the personal sections, the introductions.

Compiling the work has been a pain of formatting, editing, and correcting. Each 20 page section often took a couple of hours. But the sections on their own are no good without an introduction - the context, the author, the themes to note. As such these one page intros are quite time consuming. They tie the whole project together and lend coherence to the aim of the work, as a primer for understanding western civilization.

So far I've completed and edited 34 of these little intros. As a spur to completing more I figured I might post some of these as a mans of elucidating the work's style. My list compulsion may move me to finish them as I do the series. Maybe not.

Often, while writing, I hear a British stuffiness come through, but hopefully this hasn't marred the texts. With regard to their manner it strikes me as something between David Landes and Kenneth Clark. Maybe they are stuffy...I leave the judgement to you, faithful reader(s).

Do note: they will not be presented in anything like chronological order.

New Year and Music

So it's an even-numbered year, and for the blog that means a favorite movie and television update in March. I may even write something on Gormenghast in the near future.

In the meantime, here are the best and worst of my music collection. Couple of things to note:

1. The grades are not standard American grades, thank you I know.

2. This is a very flawed system. I go through an album, and decide if I like a track or not, and then grade it. A good example of how this system is flawed would be a hiphop album with a lot of skits. Over all, the skits maybe make up a couple minutes of the total running time. But if they're poor, they'd skew the appreciation of the album down, due to counting as a track. Likewise some albums only have a couple tracks, and this too skews, for it's more difficult to judge if a 30 minute instrumental track is simply good or not.

Anyways, here they are:

 Best

Worst

2013 in Books

Here is my year end list, as part of the bloghop from http://johnwiswell.blogspot.com/

Nonfiction

The Wealth and Poverty of Nations by David Landes.

Technically I read this at the very end of last year. It stands as a counter-point to Jared Diamond’s theories but suffers a little from ‘aren’t I smart’ syndrome.

Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan.

A basic primer to economic theory and terms, I decided this year to begin seriously studying economics. This text was a nice introduction.

The Ten-Day M.B.A by Steven Silbiger.

Pure nonsense, even for basic definitions. The edition had almost nothing on ethics, and came out before the recession…

Invisible Hands by Kim Phillips-Fein.

A more historical approach to economics, charting the developments in the US economy from FDR to Reagan. Fascinating, worthwhile read.

How Markets Fail by John Cassidy.

Another great economic history, dealing beyond the US with economists and research that defines modern economics. I would highly reccomend.

Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72 by Hunter S. Thompson.

My focus shifted towards politics. This was the first longer work by Thompson I’d read, and I was surprised by the coherence, given his reputation. The story of talking football with Nixon was worth it alone.

Empire by Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri.

I began reading this work on the theory and logic of empire way back in 2006, I think. Took me long enough to finish it – of interest to those who wonder if the US is an empire.

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs by Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman with Julie Sussman

Not light reading – using LISP this gives a theoretical, and at times philosophical account of programing, but also has exercises and review problems.

The Unwinding by George Packer

“And the Award for Most Underrated Book of the Year goes to this great work, which chronicles decades of social and economic unravelling in this country through novelesque narration and stories.” So I wrote before it justly was awarded the National Book Award for Nonfiction.

Phenomenology of the Mind by GWF Hegel

The last book I had to read for St. John’s Reading List of the great books of  the Western World. I didn’t like Hegel going in, and I didn’t like him coming out, but I certainly respected him more. Not all of his ideas are terrible.

Fiction

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

I don’t really like Dickens for his repetitiveness (a young boy on the down and outs makes good: Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Great Expectations). I was glad for the change, and that the story went by quickly.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller.

Recommended from a friend, this was a solid piece of innovative sci-fi, with deeper themes on human culture and civilization I often ruminate on.

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison.

My pick for National Novel Reading Month, I was slightly disappointed with Ellison’s story. Potentially if I hadn’t read the forward I’d have enjoyed it more.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.

Recipient of this year’s Best Last Line Award, I didn’t know what I was expecting when I got into the book, but whatever it was I got out I sort of liked it. My previous comparison was The Old Man and the Sea, and I think this may be better.

Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind.

This was a pleasant surprise, although I found the quality of the writing to be less than I expected, I got more out of the reading than I expected. To explain: the themes and plot were so well developed that the language almost felt in the way.

The Great Enigma by Tomas Transtromer

Transtromer won the Nobel in 2011, and his small output of Scandinavian poetry shows incredible attention to tone and feeling. Nice for anyone with a poetic interest.

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Oh, the racism. Tarzan was far more of a gentleman than I’d expected, however.

Le Mort D’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory, ed. R.M. Lumiansky

Puzzling, this work that mashes together a number of different tales and traditions. Certain quests seemed quite repetitive, while others I typically don’t associate with Arthur (Tristan and Isolde, for example.) Also: needs more Merlin.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Blegch. A ‘classic’ I’d been meaning to read, but didn’t want to. In retrospect it was a waste of time to read, only of value for the historian any more.

Five Plays by Lope de Vega

Revenge and romance mix in these works of the Spanish Golden Age. De Vega was prolific, and these represent the best he had to offer, which is worrisome. All in all, though, they aren’t poorly written.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Quite possibly the first piece of fiction I’ve read of this century. Not a bad choice to start with, as a sort of soft sci-fi approach to very dark themes. Certainly worth a read.

Death and the King’s Horseman by Wole Soyinka

A tremendous work by the Nobel winning Nigerian author, that has interested me in finding more of his plays. There seems to be some scholarly debate as to what his themes and messages are, which rather than being a drawback, is positive endorsement for the richness it provides.

A Dance of Death and A Dream Play by August Strindberg

Strindberg’s plays are nearly as unlikeable as his main character in ‘Dance of Death’. Of course that’s the point. ‘A Dream Play’ is certainly better, but still of limited interest to theater aficionados.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

The last forty pages or so just kill any life the work had. Likewise I felt a strong connection to a friend’s complaint about authors just being unfair to their characters.

Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo

An unexpected read, insisted on by a friend, this work of magical realism shows the dark side of magic. Absolutely mesmerizing, potentially required reading.

The Yellow Heart by Pablo Neruda

Neruda’s poems take a turn for the jaundiced and bitter, with a sickly element of sweetness. Late-life and degenerate at times, probably not the best starting point for one encountering his work for the first time.

Life is a Dream by Calderon La Barca

Another Spanish Golden Age play. A classic of waking and dreaming and big questions about life, interesting on the page writing that I can only imagine would be diminished on the stage.

Eagle or Sun? by Octavio Paz

A remarkable collection, unlike anything I’d ever encountered in poetry. Stylistically it’s prose poems that at times feel like short stories. Highly recommended.

A Tale of Two Gardens by Octavio Paz

Following off my interest in ‘Eagle or Sun?’ I found this work, almost necessarily, to be not as good, but the collection, dealing exclusively with India, shows Paz’s deep enrichment in the culture.

Poet in New York by Federico Garcia Lorca

Lorca was a fitting capstone to my year-long exploration of Spanish-language literature. Lorca’s dark, perceptive study on New York after the Great Depression should be considered one of the masterpieces of twentieth century poetry.

Betrayal by Harold Pinter

As dark as would be expected, all the more disturbing due to its banality without being glib or pretentiously juxtaposed. This was my first encounter with Pinter, and I’d like to read more.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Long overdue, I’d read Vonnegut’s short stories previously. I was stilled surprised by just how personal and “meta” the work was, without veering off into affectation, helped largely by the extraordinary.

A Dance to the Music of Time, First Movement by Anthony Powell

My first-ever book on tape (although that’s now anachronistic). Powell peculiarly tells a life only through social interactions, with us having to piece together his job, love life, and other matters from these encounters. I want to know what happens in the next three movements.

Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume

For some unknowable reason this work was included in Time Magazine’s 100 Best Novels. Fine, I suppose, for YA.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

My second Thompson encounter this year, I’d seen the movie beforehand, and was surprised by how little of the book it covered. The style, accompanied by Steadman’s crucial illustrations, makes me think this will be read well into the next century.

Selected Poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Picked up on a whim, Yevtushenko was a ‘loyal oppositionist’ of the Soviets. As such his work walks a thin line between denouncing the society while still feeling nostalgic for his home town in Siberia.

Graphic Novels/Comics

Miracleman: The Golden Years by Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham.

Gaiman’s incredible premise, inherited by Alan Moore who wrote the character before Gaiman picked him up, deals with what might actually happen if there were gods on earth. Dystopian? Hard to say.

Six Graphic Novels by Lynd Ward.

Along with two Europeans, Ward helped invent the graphic novel in the early 1900s with woodblock prints and wordless stories. Stylistically borrowing from the art deco cubism of the era, most of these works are gorgeous tragedies.

The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics.

A comprehensive guide to American newspaper comics in the first half of the century, featuring beautiful full-page Krazy Kat and Little Nemo, amongst many others. Worthwhile to anyone with an interest in comics, visual media, or illustration.

Batman: Haunted Knight and The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

Over a vacation I riffled through a friend’s Batman collection. These two works I found to be amongst the more interesting, in terms of story and character development.

Batman: Year One by Frank Miller and David Mazzuchelli

Not a bad telling of his origin, but doesn’t live up to Miller’s ‘The Dark Knight Returns’.

Batman: Dark Victory by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

This continues with the earlier Loeb work, and likewise is somewhat interesting. The particular rogues gallery I found to be intriguing, if the plot was pure Agatha Christie.

Top Five

The Unwinding

Pedro Paramo

Eagle or Sun?

Spring Awakening

Miracleman: The Golden Years

Google Doodle Crossword Answers

This was bugging me that I couldn't find this anywhere. Here you go, internet.

My Most Important Movies From…

From my sister’s blog (http://feedmeacat.blogspot.com/2013/11/my-most-important-movies-from.html) a neat concept: The most important film every fifth year of your life. As the rules are a little unclear, I’m going to go ahead and do the most important movie in my life that was released that year.

Age 5 (1991): Hook. This was my first serious Disney movie. There was death and sadness and it wasn’t animated! It must’ve been one of the first movies I saw in theaters, at that. Rufio was the antithesis of everything I thought was good at that age – the fact he could be tragic was new to me.

Special guest star: Glenn Close! As a pirate. Also gets my vote as scariest scene.

Age 10 (1996): James and the Giant Peach. …And the first Disney movie I felt too old for. I was very conflicted about wanting to like it, and liking certain parts of the film, but overall thinking it was lame. Also the spider was disturbing since she wasn’t disturbing.

Special guest star: Pete Postlethwaite! Forget the voice actors.

Age 15 (2001): Moulin Rouge! What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On. I didn’t know a movie could do that. And the songs! Why the hell is Nirvana playing in the 1800s? This was one of the first films I saw that I started to think was in a different class – something more.

Special guest star: John Leguizamo! As Toulouse Lautrec, who I already was interested in at a young age.

Age 20 (2006): V for Vendetta. Didn’t you just want to take to the streets? I had hated the Bush administration since day one. It was such a relief to see my concern mirrored in the media, beyond reading Boondocks in the papers. I didn’t feel like a lonely voice railing helplessly.

Special guest star: Ben Miles! From my favorite British sitcom, Coupling.

Age 25 (2011): Midnight in Paris. The experience of seeing this film is what so struck me. I went with a friend whom I was visiting in Portland to a small private theater, where you could buy drinks and dinner while watching the movie from a small patio table set up in the preserved historic theater. The whole thing was so ‘hip’ and 2011 – and the movie was a perfect fit.

Special guest star: Adrien Brody! As Salvador Dali, one of my favorite artists as a kid (along with Lautrec.) 

Maybe I'll update this in three years. Until then...

How About a Medium-Sized Government?

In an age of anorexia and obesity, the middle ground remains the healthiest. It’s true for the human body and it’s true for our government.

Liberals and conservatives can agree, privacy is important. Neither wants the NSA snooping on them.

Conservatives and liberals can agree, toes don’t belong in meat. Neither wants a total lack of government.

Both sides are too fearful of the other. A website, reformgovernmentsurveillance.com, has recently been launched, with tech giants AOL, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Twitter and Yahoo banding together to take a stand against government’s role in internet spying and data collection.

Free-market types should like this. Hippies should like this.

Conservatives are afraid of government being too big, and so they go to extremes in the opposite direction, trying to “gut” programs. But certain social safety nets are important, and as the GOP is increasingly over 50, if someone tried to get rid of their government-provided Medicare and Medicaid the furor it would cause shows that government, by definition, is there to provide services.

Liberals are afraid of government being too small, often finding it difficult to cut back where and when needed. But waste, bureaucracy, and spiraling costs are all negatives, often cited as the worst elements of their opposition’s administrations; ask a liberal about Reagan’s White House and hear the scathing remarks about ‘out of control spending on wasteful projects’.

Extremes aren’t useful, most of the time. That’s the difference between ideology and reason. Ideology tends to the extreme, whereas reason can see the other side of the issue, and the benefit in compromise. The polarization on Congress is due to extremes in ideology. The following chart makes that divide pretty clear:

We may not end the debate on many of their differences today, but we should be prioritizing an end to the debate of big government versus small. Neither, in ideological extremes, is healthy. Middle ground, admittedly, is hard. Compromise, often, leaves both parties somewhat dissatisfied. It requires a balance to keep the government where it should be: eating the right things to keep up energy, and shedding pounds through exercise. We can run a small debt, but not starve ourselves to weakness. We can add departments and programs, so long as 'Big Brother' isn’t an indication of obesity.

Hopefully this new website, and what it represents, will be a check to that. Big Brother needs a diet right about now: lay off the secrets. Can the tech firms be the physician that gets them healthy again?