A widespread taste for pornography means that nature is alerting us to some threat of extinction.
— J.G. Ballard
In Robert Nye's version of Arthurian Legend, Guinevere is a stutterer, Arthur suffers from pathological sadism, and the devil prefers choir boys to virgins.
It contains refined allusions to medieval theology and alchemy, makes an eye to the readers of Milton, Dante and Malory, has dialogues in Latin and metafictional interludes. It presents a theory of conspiracy staying behind the Arthurian legend, at the same time offering a satirical interpretation of medieval culture based on Freudian psychoanalysis. Somehow, all this is done almost exclusively by the means of dialogues and pornography (and no, it really cannot be called erotica).
Not to be somehow confused with Mad Merlin by J. Robert King, the first of a trilogy.
Merlin provides examples of:
- Character Narrator: The titular Merlin, also an Unreliable Narrator who admits he is telling this story while completely mad.
- Genre-Busting: While it is undisputedly a fantasy novel, at times it has much more in common with fantasies than with fantasy.
- Unreliable Narrator: Character Narrator Merlin, who admits he is telling this story while completely mad. One chapter involves Merlin facilitating Arthur and Morgana's relationship. The next chapter has him explain that it never happened, he just induced a hallucination in Arthur (and himself, hence the Exact Words "If this is a dream, lord, it is one I share with you") ... and then immediately reveals that this is what he thought happened, but Morgana had other ideas. There are a few other moments when Merlin hides what's going on, thinks he knows what is going on but doesn't, or both simultaneously. He has, after all, gone mad and is telling this story to a pig.
