The Seven Songs of Merlin
It can be difficult to read someone else's favorite book. Especially if you end up not liking that book. I'd like to be diplomatic and say that I just encountered this book at the wrong time in my life. And maybe that's true. I'm too accustomed to these tropes to feel any suspense or surprise. The book was clearly written for a younger audience.
At the same time, I'm tempted to say that this book is just objectively bad. Merlin is an arrogant, foolish boy who makes nonsensical decisions in order to advance the plot. He fucks everything up, but manages to right it all in the end because he's going to be a great wizard and we can't let him actually kill his mother. He gains wisdom and humility far too easily because they are distilled to seven lessons that can be expressed as cheerful platitudes, like "Love is the strongest bond" and "Every life is precious".
Worse, the author doesn't trust the reader to remember simple details or make connections on their own. The text beats you over the head with the idea that hubris is Merlin's fatal flaw, then cures him of it by book's end. Plot points are repeated over and over every time they might be slightly relevant, and the foreshadowing is clumsy at best and downright offensive at worst.
I suppose an argument could be made that it's a children's book, but the best children's books I've read trust their readers to put the pieces together on their own. The themes and morals may be made more obvious, but they tend not to be highlighted in nearly every chapter. And the characters are at least human, realistically flawed by internally logical. Merlin here is merely a shadow of what everyone knows he will become, and the book twists quite a bit to force him down his path. Then again, there are probably people out there who would say the same thing about Into the Land of the Unicorns
At the same time, I'm tempted to say that this book is just objectively bad. Merlin is an arrogant, foolish boy who makes nonsensical decisions in order to advance the plot. He fucks everything up, but manages to right it all in the end because he's going to be a great wizard and we can't let him actually kill his mother. He gains wisdom and humility far too easily because they are distilled to seven lessons that can be expressed as cheerful platitudes, like "Love is the strongest bond" and "Every life is precious".
Worse, the author doesn't trust the reader to remember simple details or make connections on their own. The text beats you over the head with the idea that hubris is Merlin's fatal flaw, then cures him of it by book's end. Plot points are repeated over and over every time they might be slightly relevant, and the foreshadowing is clumsy at best and downright offensive at worst.
I suppose an argument could be made that it's a children's book, but the best children's books I've read trust their readers to put the pieces together on their own. The themes and morals may be made more obvious, but they tend not to be highlighted in nearly every chapter. And the characters are at least human, realistically flawed by internally logical. Merlin here is merely a shadow of what everyone knows he will become, and the book twists quite a bit to force him down his path. Then again, there are probably people out there who would say the same thing about Into the Land of the Unicorns
Comments
Post a Comment