"A dark age indeed. Age of inconvenience. No plumbing, no electricity, no nothing. Hang it all!"
He's Merlin, so I guess he gets to know about electricity already. I'm reminded that Merlin pops up as a child in The Books of Magic, the comic miniseries by Neil Gaiman (boo hiss) which was clearly an inspiration to Jo Rowling's Harry Potter and which was pretty important to me for a while, I must admit, although I didn't take much lasting interest in the comic series which DC spun off the Gaiman book. I liked the original Books of Magic for what it was, a fairly self-contained story about a kid who collides with the world of magic and learns from John Constantine (an old drinking buddy of mine practically! ah, the awkward kinship imposed by alcoholism) and some other folks about how the world of magic is complicated and dangerous and not exactly fun and games. Say what you will about Gaiman's iffy and appropriative writing…at least he's a zillion times more compelling and convincing at depicting magic than Jo Rowling.
Anyway Tim Hunter, the protagonist of The Books of Magic, meets Merlin when he's still a boy, and Merlin's already got existential regret for what he's destined to become; he speaks dolefully of things he hasn't even done yet, like losing his head over Nimuë, but welp that's life innit? fulla laughs.
#merlin #the-sword-in-the-stone #the-books-of-magic #neil-gaiman