ABSTRACT

The Book of Merlin : T H White’s Anti-War Dream

Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D.
Harvard Medical School

Deirdre Barrett, Ph.D., teaches at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of The Committee of Sleep: How Artists, Scientists, and Athletes Use their Dreams for Creative Problem Solving--And How You Can, Too. (Crown/Random House, 2001), The Pregnant Man: And Other Cases from A Hypnotherapist's Couch (Times/Random House, 1998) and editor of the book, Trauma and Dreams (Harvard University Press, 1996).  She is a Past President of ASD and Editor-in-Chief of its international journal Dreaming.

Contact: Deirdre_Barrett@hms.harvard.edu

SUMMARY OF PRESENTATION.

White’s fifth volume of his Camelot series, The Book of Merlin, related one long dream of Arthur’s. Merlin appeared to tell the King--and reader--that violence always begets violence and war is never justified. White’s publishers refused to publish it. This talk will explore the role of dreams in this fascinating little volume.

Learning Objectives

• To know what The Book of Merlin is

• To be familiar with the role of dreams in The Book of Merlin.

• To be familiar with the controversy surrounding The Book of Merlin’s delayed publication.

Evaluation Questions

• Who wrote The Book of Merlin?

• What is the role of dreams in The Book of Merlin?

• What controversial issue delayed publication of The Book of Merlin for decades?

Abstract

"Merlin," said the king, "It makes no difference whether you are a dream or not, so long as you are here. . . . Tell me the reason for your visit. Talk. Say you have come to save us from this war." (T H White, 1977)

White intended that one brief shining moment that was known as Camelot to denote something very different from what emerged in the published version of his Once and Future King series or the musical and film it spawned. And dreaming-literal nighttime dreaming--was to have played a central role. White’s fifth and concluding volume The Book of Merlin, related one long dream of Arthur’s—a problem solving one. On the eve of impending war with his son Mordred, Merlin had indeed come to ‘save them from this war.’ Arthur’s dream takes him through surreal night landscapes where he gets advice from talking animals and from Merlin. He sees a potential, post-war future. He hears lawyers arguing the cases for, and against, war.

White used dreaming partially as plot device, of course—to let magic happen unquestioned and to let events unfold which could be erased when Arthur woke up. However, Arthur’s dream also serves some functions that a real dream can—to entertain innovative modes of behavior which one would be discarded pro forma awake and actually to rehearse possible futures. There is also some discussion of the classic issue of how one knows if one is dreaming or awake.

But the main point is to discuss war. White was an ardent pacifist. Merlin is there to tell the King--and reader--that violence always begets violence and war is never justified. The animals have other means to resolve conflict, the post-war future is a disaster, and the pro-war case consists of cynical arguments that it is the only method humans will practice for birth control and that it gives an outlet for violence which reduces the need for child abuse, soccer audience violence, or overenthusiastic dentistry.

Arthur awakens from his dream and offers Mordred half his Kingdom. "Mordred accepted but Arthur had been prepared to give him all if he'd refused."

White’s publishers had a different response to the pacifist message. They refused to publish it-despite the incredible response the early volumes were already enjoying. It was 1940, Hitler’s army was expanding across Europe, and England was about to enter the fray. Evil felt real and identifiable; and good powers were obligated to fight wars with it. The press omitted The Book of Merlin as they published the rest of "The Once and Future King" series, borrowing just enough bits into the fourth book to make the series conclude coherently. This left the impression that the ultimate ideal was The Round Table-–formulated with its absolute abstract principles and laws which could be enforced by execution and could ignore extenuating human situations (high-level in Kohlberg’s moral schema and distinctly male-biased in Gilligan’s). White’s alternate, dream-based view was published forty years later by a small academic press. This talk will explore the way dreaming is utilized in this fascinating little book.

References

White, T.H. 1977 The Book of Merlin. Austin: University of Texas Press.

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