There is a place where altercations rarely end with bouts of fearsome violence. A place where relations tend to be friendly and forward-looking. A place where even when one is lost, they operate under the auspices that they will be missed and help is on the way. Unlike its sibling Science Fiction, Fantasy (on the surface and at its inception) creates a world where nature, friendship, and even work provide camaraderie and a connection toward adventure.
T.H. White originally began his writing career with several disaster-based forays into Science Fiction. However, he found he enjoyed writing the stories of the survivors of these natural calamities than the actions that result from the Earth ceasing to turn. So White immersed himself in the history of Fantasy, most notably Sir Thomas Malory's "Le Morte D'Arthur."
There was a moment in time when Fantasy was likely written as Myth. All characters communicate freely with everyone, including their animals. These works were both the embodiment of the culture of their day and a continuation of legends and tales passed down through oral traditions. To subvert this tradition of a story belonging to everyone, Myth became "personalized" and the elements of what we call today "world building" fell into the hands and imagination of a single writer.
With a known quantity of a tale such as the Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf (which existed in both oral form and written form from the Nowell Codex,) belief was built into the structure because the others around you knew the story as well. By the Enlightenment, scientific thought and individualism challenged readers and belief was to be questioned. As Newton says, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Those who rebelled against the Enlightenment leading to a more industrialized world that obliterated the bucolic countryside and its long-standing traditions embraced Romanticism. Readers dug into the past and tales such as the mythic childhood of King Arthur provided not only an escape but a way to surmise what was important about preserving certain traditions that promoted connection.
Malory's text was one of the first books printed in England. Pressed in 1485, it continued to be revised and revisited to the point that the 1934 discovery of a manuscript by a teacher was newsworthy. While it never pretends to be correct, White's "The Once and Future King" is historical fiction that actually plays with the fact that this retelling could be wrong (through numerous anachronisms, namely for comic purposes) and writes Malory into the story.
While there are damsels, knights in shining armor, and a castle resplendent in Medieval glory, "The Once and Future King" is primarily the education of the child known as Wart. In White's retelling of the familiar tale - nothing is meant to be familiar. He purposely drops us into this world where we follow Kay, the future heir of the estate and a slightly petulant youth who knows that one day he will be Sir. His foster brother, the Wart, seems to be along for the ride as his liege and as we know from Literature - everyone does well with a companion.
They reside in the castle of Sir Ector, and a world (hint hint) is built around this man and his industry. Outside of the castle grounds (which are protected by not one, but two drawbridges,) the common folk live in "wattle and daub" huts that seem destined to be burned down following the slightest invasion from rivals. (It must be noted, dragons are here as well although they are no bigger than a rock.) The working class of Sir Ector are a happy, prosperous people, who strangely know that they exist in two worlds.
Sir Ector's home was called The Castle of The Forest Sauvage. It was more like a town or village than any one man's home. For this reason it was not worthwhile to have a village church...The villagers went to church in the chapel of the castle. They wore their best clothes and trooped up the street with their most respectable gait on Sundays...and on week-days they came to Mass and vespers, in their ordinary clothes, walking much more cheerfully.
Part of Kay's instruction is in hawking (shared with the author as well.) One day, Kay and the Wart take their goshawk from the mews out for a flight, and to perhaps catch a rabbit. Even as White introduces us to this world, he only provides detail and maintains all the words of the time without explanation. After they take the bird out, "undo the leash and swivel from the jesses," the boys see a rabbit and let the hawk go.
Now, you know what is going to happen here. Cully, the tiercel goshawk, misses the rabbit and soars up to a branch high in the trees to recover. The boys are disappointed and slightly panicked. Kay wanders back to the castle to face the music for taking it out, and hopefully get help to bring it back. The Wart stays behind, camped on beneath a tree waiting for Cully to fall asleep so that he could climb up and take him back. Modern day storytelling, a child in the dense woods as the sun is going down is the stuff of horror. The mind conjures ghosts, nocturnal beasts on the prowl, and insects crawling all over you as you try to relax. In White's world, the Wart finds comfort and provides for us a preternatural sense of suppressing his fear with ingenuity.
White's mixture of childlike wonder and a less mechanical linking of events makes this night out in the woods more thrilling than a sword battle or any of those seminal actions you associate with Medieval Romance. It is not that it could or could not happen today, it is more that White instills you with the ability to almost will it to happen. When the Wart leaves the woods and finds a strange house belonging to the wizard Merlyn, we are the first to realize that they belong together. Moreover, White moves the conflict of the novel to their relationship and drives at the real education of "The Once and Future King." With fanciful, but dare I say believable incidents, Merlyn (and his trusty owl Archimedes) are a quick study in how much we all have to learn from each other.
Published in parts starting in 1938, White's series of tales grew to embrace the news of the day in offhand ways. The transformation that takes place within these pages over all the years until its completed publication in 1958 proved to be immensely popular with a portion being translated into the Broadway musical "Camelot" in 1960 and Disney's "The Sword In The Stone" in 1963. Oddly enough, Fantasy as the label for this style of Literature would not be utilized until a Science Fiction magazine added it to their masthead in 1949.
NEW MUSIC THIS WEEK
STEPHEN WILSON, JR. - Blankets [LP](Big Loud)
Singer/songwriter Stephen Wilson, Jr. is now far more widely known for his emotional Rock-based Country thanks to the enlightening "Son of Dad." The album's most famous song oddly enough is a revamp of "Stand By Me" - a cover. Wilson gathers four of his most formative favorite songs and takes them down wildly different paths. Nirvana's droning "Something In The Way" becomes far more driving, Temple of the Dog's anthemic "Hunger Strike" stays mainly on the Vedder parts, but his emotion-drenched cover of "Tonight, Tonight" reconstructs the wistful classic in his vocabulary (showing Corgan to be quite the wordsmith) without losing any of the sentiment from the original.
STARSET - Silos [INDIE LP/CD](Fearless)
Science Fiction/Futurist Alt. Rock with a clever nod to the past (the cover of "Shattered Dreams" done with all the Active Rock radio trickery) and a spacey, darkly emotional parting shot ("Ad Astra.") When they fade out saying "Don't forget me when I'm gone," makes you wonder if this is their proper goodbye.
ALTER BRIDGE [GREEN 2LP/SPECIAL CD](Napalm)
Time has not worn away too much of the chunky riff-meets-soaring vocal thrust of Alter Bridge. All together from their solo ventures, their eighth album reaches for the earlier anthemic fences ("Playing Aces") and comes out tougher and rejuvenated ("Silent Divide.")
ANCIENT INFINITY ORCHESTRA - It's Always About Love [LP](Gondwana UK)
So much of the Jazz we hear is rooted in the swing/BeBop/Free/Funk underpinnings that we forget about its relationship with Classical music. In the Free Jazz realm especially, the art of improvisation was tooled to achieve through playing another state of consciousness. Ancient Infinity Orchestra is a large Jazz/Orchestral group from the North of England who construct a big sound with a light touch. Like the higher-plane moments of Pharoah Sanders or the simple melodicism of Beverly Glenn-Copeland, AIO are eager to travel down familiar roads (the vocal group-meets-Brazilian rhythms on "Chant For Don Cherry') and yet when they introduce strange harmony ("Joy of a Natural World,") they know exactly how to complement it with a charming violin solo and trilling flutes.
HAYSOP [LP](Cornelius Chapel)
CRABBER - Sweet Crediblity [LP](Jigsaw)
There are probably at least 100 bands like Alabama's Haysop riding the muddy roads of this state (and its neighbors) with a passel of jangly, Rock-spiked guitar music for everyone. With their lo-fi aesthetic, Jameson Hubbard's high and lonesome vocals get beautifully hung in the rumbling mix that is occasionally set afire by a solo ("Give All That You Can" cuts through nicely.) The narcotic effect Haysop thrusts upon you is one of sweet familiarity (the slow Blues strut of "Cut Me Open") and Southern Soul ("Keep Your Arms Around Me.") With labelmate Janet Simpson as the Exene to Hubbard's more adenoidal John Doe, the swishy "Let Down" is a brilliant single in wait.
The Pacific Northwest's version of Cornelius Chapel is the Record Store label Jigsaw. Crabber has all the naive appeal that you associate with jangly guitar Pop. However, they point out that beneath their buzzy layers, The Buzzcocks are Power Pop too (Crabber even quotes them to drive the point home.) On their own, they mix in charming Belle & Sebastian style trumpet, a little C86 homemade organ, and another duet ("Just a Whistle In The Dark") before tearing the roof off with a clarion call guitar line ("Vow of Silence.") Promising.
UNCLE ACID & THE DEADBEATS - Blood Lust [LP](Rise Above)
KADAVAR - Kids Abandoning Destiny Among Vanity and Ruin [BLUE LP](Clouds Hill)
From the dark streets of Cambridge, Kevin Storrs and Uncle Acid emerged from the Doom/Seventies metal womb around the same time as the now mighty Ghost. Uncle Acid stayed on their disturbing Psychedelic mixture of Sabbath riffage and woozy nightmarish imagery. "Blood Lust" wreaks of their original lo-fi ideas (the first album was released to ..MySpace) but carries you away with Leslie-affected vocals, haunting melodies, and the resurrection of the apocalyptic feelings that early Doom brought with it.
If Uncle Acid brought one aspect with it to Doom, it was the ability to channel the essence of early ur-Heavy Metal/Hard Rock and use it to expand the sound with modern ideas. German band Kadavar has long employed the hard-panned/dry drum/swollen guitar trickery but never with so much depth. The chiming (?) "Heartache" hides a Pop song beneath its martial grind, while "Stick It" could be a missing Queens of the Stone Age jam. Kadavar proves that after over 15 years, they are really willing to grow into a more accessible Metal band, and not change their rudimental core.
THY CATAFALQUE - Rengeteg [LP/CD](Season of Mist)
HEDONIST - Scapulimancy [LP/CD](Southern Lord)
Beneath the bashing drums ("Fekete mezok") and hidden Black Metal guitars, Hungary's Tamas Katai has a more Avant-Garde vision of Metal. Overdriven and given a hint of Symphonic Metal, Thy Catafalque are closest to Gothenburg styled organization. However, Katai in doing it all on their 2011 debut to the world at large managed to include those squeaks and squeals that will soon be familiar to Gojira fans and hints of Hungarian Folk. "Kel Keleti Szel" throws back to Eighties Metal, "Holdkomp" calls into Industrial and the album concludes with its most Black Metal romp.
Canada's Hedonist are among the most dangerous new bands we found in 2025. Their Southern Lord album finally sees the light of day. While it is absolutely brutal ("Execution Wheel" as an opener rivals the great Cryptopsy,) there is a blast called "Parasitic Realm" that amps up its Thrash influences before spiraling into classic late Eighties/early Nineties Death Metal. When it does slow down, for a moment on the closer "Hidden Corpse," it is only to sneak in a guitar solo that you have to squint to hear - so that when they return to double-time chaos, it is their final eye-opening surprise.
Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
