Sunday, September 1, 2024

The Shadow Library: Misty Memory

 

It wasn't until I was gathering some of my Arthurian materials that I remembered I had briefly owned a copy of The Mists of Avalon (1983) by Marion Zimmer Bradley, One of the many books I got by accident through the Science Fiction Book Club. I tried to give it a read, but could not choke it down and sold it soon after. I understand a lot of people consider it a classic and they even made a TV series of it in 2001, kind of sliding in on the wave of Fantasy films of the time. Reaction to it was 'somewhat positive' but it was 'hampered by cheesiness'.

I never particularly cared for Bradley, her opinions, or her writing, although she was one of the co-founders of the Society for Creative Anachronism. Still it surprises me that since her death in 1999 "... her reputation was posthumously marred when in 2014 it was revealed by her children, daughter Moira Greyland and son Mark Greyland, that she was guilty of child sexual abuse, and for allegedly assisting her second husband, convicted child abuser Walter Breen, in sexually abusing multiple unrelated children. Bradley's daughter Moira Greyland said that Bradley had not only been aware of Breen's child molestation activities but also sexually abused her. Many science fiction authors have since publicly condemned Bradley." - Wikipedia. Should her artistic work be cancelled or condemned? Maybe not, but it might be approached with caution.

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