Comments on: “A Tincture of Grandness in Simplicity”: T. H. White, The Once and Future King

By: Rohan Maitzen

Rohan Maitzen — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:37:53 +0000

What a great connection to make, Pykk. Mind you, his implicit curriculum is way broader than I at least have enjoyed! But you’re exactly right that there’s a kind of comfortable expertise and a real desire for engagement, both qualities that make for great teachers.

By: Pykk

Pykk — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 21:18:57 +0000

I read this when I saw you recommending it, and liked it a lot, especially that tone: “How can something so elevated also be so colloquial? ” I wondered, while I was reading, if this was how White the Teacher sounded when he spoke to his class, since it seems to be the tone a teacher might use; a teacher might explain his ideas through the medium of sportsmen to keep the students comprehending (“the batsman Hobbs”), and wake them up sometimes with a joke — Merlin dressed for a twentieth-century holiday — and he knows that everyone in the group has enjoyed roughly the same curriculum; he can refer casually to Polonius or King James and assume that everyone in the group will understand. “I trust you,” he says by implication, “we know the same people.”

By: Rohan

Rohan — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 23:41:17 +0000

That is interesting, Alex; it’s a funny way of showing timelessness, perhaps, that something is always somehow timely. Thanks for your comment, not least because it put me through to your blog, which I can tell I will enjoy following.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 19:37:40 +0000

It’s many years since I read this and a reissue sounds like a very good reason for going back to it. I did however see a stage version of the Mallory last year in which emphasis was put on the parallels between the world about which Mallory was writing and that in which he was living. It’s interesting, I think, that whenever this story is told both teller and audience feels compelled to explore it in respect of their own existence.