Reading Notes: King Arthur, Part A

King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table, by Andrew Lang. Link to reading here.

I am somewhat tempted by the loose similarities between the beginning of King Arthur's story and Cinderella. Both of them were raised by someone other than their parents and later become royalty. Of course, Arthur's comes from his true right to the throne and Cinderella's comes from her marriage to a Prince, but the relationship is interesting and might be worth exploring all the same.

I like the story of Tor, the boy who desired to be a knight. He bids his father to bring him before King Arthur to ask to be knighted. I think telling Tor's back story could be an interesting way to go with this Storytelling post. I would describe all of this other family members, and their role within the family (his father says in the story that all of Tor's brothers work in the field, yet he can't make Tor do anything but practice fighting). Arthur is such a benevolent king that he makes Tor a knight almost immediately. My first thought is to change this ending, but I think that wouldn't do King Arthur any justice.

Arthur's immediate love for Guenevere is another interesting story to be told. In the story, it dedicates barely a sentence to the idea that Arthur sees Guenevere for the first time and is immediately taken by her. I think basing an entire Storytelling post on the time Arthur first met or saw Guenevere all the way up until their marriage would be nice to write.

Telling the story of Merlin's death by the hands of that dreadful maiden in a completely different setting. I am imagining a family vacation and, instead of a woman and a man (who is infatuated with the woman), it would be a brother and sister combination. They are on a trip together and one quickly gets annoyed with the other and does something that she will regret.

(King Arthur, web source: Wikimedia)

Introduction to (hopefully) a future attorney

Just a little about me, I'm a Political Science and Letters: Constitutional Studies senior at OU. I am also a part of the Accelerated MPA program in the Political Science department, so I will graduate in May 2018 (taking 5 years) with my Bachelor's and Master's degrees.

After I graduate, my plan is to go to law school. My dream school is Boston University in Massachusetts. I'm a huge U.S. history buff, so somewhere like Boston that's enveloped in history would be perfect. The school itself also has incredible programs that I'm looking for and is a well-ranked school, so win-win.

(Boston University School of Law, web source: Wikimedia)

Besides going to classes and studying for the LSAT, I don't do much. I enjoy Netflix, of course. My favorite TV show that I have been making my way through for the 9th time this summer is the West Wing. It's a fictional show about the inner workings of the White House and the executive staff that works out of the West Wing of the White House. It's one of the greatest shows that has ever been on the air, and I can't recommend it enough. It features young Rob Lowe and Allison Janney, what could be better?

In addition to my Netflix habit, I have gotten really into reading historical novels. I just read two out of a series of three over the summer and now I'm really hooked on the genre. The two I read were books that constructed a narrative from many different characters' viewpoints. The first book took us through the lead-up and the duration of WWI. The second one did the same through WWII. These books were called Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, respectively.

                     (Fall of Giants, web source: Flickr)          (Winter of the World, web source: Flickr)

When it comes to music, I'm kind of all of over the place. Some of my favorite artists are Bear's Den, Frank Ocean, One Direction, Drake, Sara Barielles, etc. To go along with the pseudo-theme of this post, however, one of my favorite things to listen to right now is the Broadway musical Hamilton soundtrack. I mean, it combines all of my favorite things: American history and musicals. I've also been listening to the Chernow biography on audiobook that inspired the musical. All of it is amazing. Alexander Hamilton is certainly (well, maybe not now thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda) a forgotten yet influential figure in our nation's history. My dream, which is quite literally impossible now, was to see Hamilton on Broadway with the original cast. Alas, many of their contracts were up this summer and are now undoubtedly off to bigger and brighter things.