The Once and Future King : T H White

As I read through this book, I was thinking about the these questions: were people generally evil, or good, what was humankind capable of, and what relevance does the book still have? I started listing some things that I thought were relevant, and could help me prove my point.

Good or Evil:

• Dark magic.
• White magic (Merlyn).
• Adultery/lying/cheating/stealing/jealousy.
• Enjoyment of causing others pain?
• Chivalry.
• Love, friendship.

Capabilities:

• Magic.
• Love.
• Courage.
• Imagination.

Relevance:

• Kay is a trouble maker but is favored over Wart (Kay is Sir Ector's Son).
• Ghost stories.
• Love.
• Adultery.
• Growing to adulthood.
• Peace (Lyo-lyok).
• Belief in magic?
• Heroes.
• Loss of friendship.
• War.

Impressions:

• Use of words and way of speaking.
• Tales of courage never go out of fashion.

Good Or Evil?

Dark magic shows up a lot in this book, from the beginning when Merlyn is suspected of being a dark sorcerer, to Morgan le Faye, the evil faerie that haunts Robin Woods's forest. You could also consider lying, cheating, stealing and jealousy to be another kind of Dark magic that takes place in this book. Lancelot, Arthur's best friends and trusted knight became very jealous of his queen, Guenever. They had an affair together, breaking the trust and friendship between Arthur and Lancelot.
Knights in this book also seem to enjoy causing each other pain. Whether it's jousting, or battling to the death, they just seem to like shedding blood... and it makes me wonder.

What magic, chivalry, friendship and love are some of the things that counteract the evil in this book. Just like Art and Kay were good friends since childhood, Mariam and Robin were lovers, and Merlyn and Nimue were as well. Merlyn cast white magic to help stem the flow of darkness, and help train his beloved Art to be King.

Capabilities:

Even though the scientific and engineering capabilities of the medieval people were not anywhere near as advanced as they are today, they had something: belief. They believed in magic, that magic could build castles of food, in fairies, in questing beasts, and phoenixes. They also had courage, and friendship, which in my opinion is far better than any technological capability we have today.

Relevance:

Kay is favored over Wart because he is royalty. I think there are a lot of people who have experienced at least something like this in their lives, even if its not because they are not the son of a Sir.

If you turn on the tv at night, or go to the movie store, you're bound to see movies with ghosts in them. People just enjoy wondering whether ghosts are real. Its the question, "what happens to you when you die?" that has haunted people from the beginning of time.

Love is ageless, and is a human emotion everyone is bound to feel at least once in their lifetime. In this book, love helps bind people together, and it also breaks apart friendships.

Every person on this earth has been a child, and in the first part of this novel, Malory lets Art and Kay experience the changing from a boy to a man.

America has experienced several wars - including the one our youth is growing up with now, the War on Terror. Boys graduate from high-school, to go on to basic training, and then are deployed off to war to serve their countries. Some of them die, leaving behind, family, friends, and loved ones. Others come back with horrible stores, and are changed for life. War and fighting is an ageless problem. The solution to War has never been solved; only dreamt of. I think, that as long as we are humans and posses human nature (greed, hate) that there will always be war. Lyo-lyok's world is beyond greed and hate; what is hers is everyone else's.

Even though belief in magic is no where near as strong as it used to be during medieval times, there are still people that believe in magic and consider it to be real. There are fortune tellers, and magicians. People also consider emotions such as love to be a kind of magic.

Whether it's Spiderman or Superman, Harriet Tubman, or Joe DiMaggio, America, and the world loves heroes. They make us believe that we can do the impossible, or make us happy when we're down, and give us hope when we have none. Heroes, whether they're from two thousand years ago, to modern times are ageless.

I think everyone has experienced losing a friend, and can connect to Arthur, whether it be to lies, disagreement, or time.

Impressions:

The way the characters speak in this book is rather odd, like the way they say 'edducation', instead of 'education'. Or is that just because Sir Ector is drinking at the time? Anyway, you can tell that the novel has been written quite a long time ago by the way sentences are worded.
For example, I was reading about when Art is sent off by Merlyn to visit the Badger. He had this conversation, which struck me as odd.

"Come out of that, thou tramp, prepare to meet thy doom."
"Measter Brock," implored the unfortunate pig, "come now, doan't 'ee be okkerd, sweet Measter Brock, my duck. Hearken to an urchin's prayer! Grant the dear boon of life to this mosst uncommon tiggy, lordly measter, and she shall sing to thee in numbers sweet or teach 'ee how to suck cow's milk in the pearly dew."

~

"Stop singing," said the Wart, "for Heaven's sake. Un-curl. I won't do you any harm. Come, you silly little urchin, and tell me where you learned these songs."
"Uncurl is one word," answered the porpentine tremblingly - it did not feel in the least fretful at the moment - "but curling up is still another! If 'ee was to see my liddle naked nose, measter, at this dispicuous moment, 'ee might feel a twitching in thy white toothsomes;"

I just find it curious and funny because the way we would have said it is "No way, I'm not coming out... you'd just eat me!"

The World is Flat : Thomas Friedman

The flattening of the world effects everyone, or at least Friedman says it does. I think it only effects the countires which have middle class to extremely wealthy economies ( which are being leveled out.) I think that the extremely poor, poverty stricken countries are being left in the dirt, because they don't have, or barely have an economy to begin with. But, also, the flattening of the world is effecting the younger generation (me, and my classmates) who are going to go on and be incorporated with all these new ways of doing business which were never used before. This generation is supposed to be used to doing things electronically, a way our parents never imagined.
What do you need from our parents, teachers, and peers? I think just being brought up in a world that is used to doing business in a "flat world", and being properly educated about what we will need to do to make a living. I'm not sure whether a flat world is a good thing or not - I suppose some of the things are an advantage (fast communications, cheap labor), but there are also downfalls to outsourcing all your business. The quality goes down, and you are relying on outside the country for necessities. Like it or not, it's happening, and like Friedman said, its nearly unstoppable.

The World is Flat : Thomas Friedman

Chapter Four : The Great Sorting Out

digitalized sales

I was always used to thinking that, the more likable, the more charismatic you are, the farther ahead you will get when it comes to business. I suppose it must be true when you actually do meet with the person, as in being a car dealer. But even today, I'm not even sure if you need to meet with one to buy a car. Would you even need to go to the lot? You could take a virtual tour of the car, if you wanted, most likely.
What I'm saying is; everything is digitalized, you don't need character to be a good salesman. You need a degree and a computer.

The World is Flat : Thomas Friedman

Chapter Four : The Great Sorting Out

death of the operator

Its kind of stupid, I think. The way friction is meant to be reduced, yet, only more is created. Like the way Friedman described how he called directory and a machine picked up. He had to keep asking over and over again for the name, but the machine wasn't adept enough to be able to understand him. You have to speak in a slow, clear tone, and maybe after the third try you'll get through. It's meant to be easy, to make things go quicker. It kind of reminds me of the visa commercial, with everyone rushing through and the guy decides to use cash instead, and it completely throws off the balanced routine they had going. Except what Friedman describes is on a much bigger scale. But anyway, what I'm saying is if there was a human on the other line, it would be quicker, easier, and more satisfying.

The World is Flat : Thomas Friedman

Chapter Four : The Great Sorting Out

who's top dog?

So now the people who were once considered to be the poorer, second - class citizens (to Americans) are the ones who are being given a chance to use their knowledge and their intelligence, instead of getting a job driving a taxi or something paying just as low. Plus, since the world is being 'flattened' their companies are getting the chance to trump the ones in America when it comes to bidding. So you begin to wonder, who is really top dog now? Is it India, with all the manufacturing with the population of a billion plus, or is it America, who relies on outsourcing to places like India for all its goods and services?

The World is Flat : Thomas Friedman

Chapter Four : The Great Sorting Out

frictionless is bad?

"from the telegraph to the Internet, every new communications technology has promised to shrink the distance between people, to increase access to information, and to bring us ever closer to the dream of a perfectly efficient, frictionless global market ... Some sources are worth protecting, even in the face of a global economy that threatens to flatten them."

So, after all this talk about how a 'frictionless, flat' market would be a great thing to have, now he says we should preserve some of the friction? What does he mean by that? - that he doesn't think that manpower should be eliminated completely, if it were means to make the economy smoother? I don't know; I'm not an economist.

The World is Flat : Thomas Friedman

Chapter Two : The Ten Forces That Flattened the World

the internet

Friedman is right - by using MSN or google search, if the information is there you could find just about anything about a person. People don't realize how much information they put out on the internet about themselves. If you post on a forum, or have a myspace account, anything you say there is public and can be viewed, no matter if your page is set to private or not. All it takes is a conversation and that person would probably be able to look up a lot about you. If I told someone my age, my name was Christine and what state I lived in, it wouldn't be hard to find out what highschool I go to. The Internet can be dangerous, but it can be very helpful too.