The Curse of Problematic Authors: The Mists of Avalon

For this episode, Paige chose a classic feminist retelling of King Arthur: The Mists of Avalon. However, on closer inspection of the author we found some information that casts the novel in a very different light.

Mythology & Folklore: the legend of King Arthur

Resources Paige used for the folklore surrounding King Arthur:

• Britannica articles on King Arthur, Arthurian Legend, and Culhwch and Olwen.

Paige Presents Fun with Comics: This week Jennifer talked about one of her new favorite Webtoons: The Strongest Florist.

The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

• To learn more about the author, check out her Wikipedia page.
• To learn more about the book, check out the Wikipedia page. For reasons mentioned in the episode, we do not feel it is appropriate to profit off sales of Bradley’s work, and therefore you will not find this book on our Bookshop site as usual.

Creative’s Corner: Jennifer presents the Spooky Science Sisters! An awesome podcast debunking some supernatural stuff with science. They create amazing and entertaining social media content as well. You can find them on Instagram (and other social media) and you can listen to the pod almost anywhere podcasts live.

Discussion Questions

• What did you think of Mists of Avalon when you read it?
• Let’s talk about Bradley’s questionable legacy. Also, why do we have to have this discussion every other episode?
  • The Book that Made Me a Feminist Was Written By An Abuser, by Jessica Jernigan
  • SFF Community Reeling After Marion Zimmer Bradley's Daughter Accuses Her of Abuse, by Alison Flood
  • Deirdre Saoirse Moen has shared several blog posts on how the accusations unfolded.
• What’s your favorite piece of Arthurian based media?

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