Chival-oution

"Chivalry Is Dead!" It's a proclamation I hear frequently (as you might imagine) from parents and teachers bemoaning the lack of what they perceive as "chivalrous manners" in today's young folks. With Mother's Day just past, there were several articles and blogs lamenting the fact that young men are falling down on the chivalry job by not pulling out chairs, bringing flowers or opening doors for their mommies - and therefore, by extension, not being prepared to offer this sort of treatment to their prospective dating partners and spouses.

It's true - we want to (and need to) teach good, respectful manners to kids. That is (as those ignorant, illiterate medieval knights knew) a way of getting children to look outside themselves and see the rewards of doing something nice for others. It is the antidote to the "it's all about me" mentality.

But just because young men don't stand when a lady enters the room, tip their hats or walk on the outside of the road, does that mean chivalry is dead? Actually ... I think not. All that really means is that the social etiquette from another generation is falling by the wayside. Standing when a lady enters the room might have been practical when social gatherings took place in parlor rooms, or even when families entertained callers in their living rooms in the 50s and 60s. But today - how are you going to stand when a lady enters the room at a crowded Starbucks, or in an office full of cubicles?

The fact is - chivalry isn't dead, it's just changing to meet today's needs. You can still find plenty of chivalry on the freeway, for example, when a driver lets another car merge graciously; in the supermarket, when a shopper finishes a cell phone conversation before speaking with the check-out clerk; or in the office, when someone stands to greet a client or visitor. (Yes, there are plenty of people who don't do any or all of those - that doesn't mean chivalry is dead ... it just means people still aren't perfect. That hasn't changed since the Middle Ages.)

If you look for chivalry in the social customs of 50 years ago (or more) it will seem as dead as rotary phones, vinyl records and cars with tailfins. Chivalry evolves with the times.

Girly Sportsmanship

I recently posted a blog piece (on May 8) about Sara Tulchosky and a very notable incident in a college softball playoff game - an act so definitively "sportsmanlike" or "chivalrous" that it was picked up by pretty much every national media source you can imagine. With so much focus on a simple act of decent behavior, it seemed like a good indication of just how hungry the public is for an uplifting story from the world of sports - rather than another "police blotter" piece about the latest athlete to get arrested for rape, drug possession or animal cruelty.

Still, even as this story was being covered in papers from the LA Times to the NY Times, there were plenty of people scoffing that this wasn't a real sports story - because something like this could only happen in a girls' league, and only girls would be soft enough actually do something nice for an opponent.

Stephen Colbert gave us a great satire of this sort of attitude when he claimed that girls' softball, with its inherent decency and chivalry, was the fourth largest threat to national security in his regular "Threatdown" on Monday, May 12. (Of course, "bears" were number one.) Take a listen to the audio of Colbert's Threatdown.

It was a marvelous comedic jab at the ridiculous notion that only little girls are capable of being decent to each other on the playing field.

Visit the Colbert Report Website to enjoy more of his biting satire!

Iron Clad Chivalry

I got to see the new movie Iron Man this weekend. It's a fun show - and, in many ways, just another example (in my opinion) of how some of the best storytelling venues these days are packaged as "kid's stuff." (Although this - like a lot of the recent comic-book hero movies - isn't really appropriate for young children.)

Apart from the usual themes of adventure and the hero's journey, Iron Man did bring one interesting element to the screen: It highlighted the fact that a hero has to have a greater purpose beyond merely making war.

In some ways, the movie's protagonist was reminiscent of a medieval knight in the fact that "he never met a war he didn't like." From the writings of the period, it's clear that many knights of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries saw battle as a noble cause in its own right, and romanticized the practice of warfare. While the doctrine of "just war" had been established in the 11th century, the concept had yet to be fully realized by warriors and rulers of the period - and much damage (physical, social, economic) was done due to the aristocracy's eagerness to go to war as proof of their dominance, or virility, or (ironically) piety. The Crusades, the Hundred Years War, the Wars of the Roses ... etc.

While Iron Man was certainly full of FX and comic book violence (exactly how did that millimeter-thin suit protect Tony Stark from 20mm cannons, missile explosions and hitting the ground at mach 2?), it did present an intriguing message about the fact that it takes more than violence to make someone a knight in shining armor - or a hero in a gold and red suit.

Tragedy, Leadership and Chivalry

One of the basic tenets of chivalry is to provide help for the needy and to protect those in peril.

With that in mind, news reports indicating that the government in Myanmar is denying aid for a quarter-million people left homeless and hungry due to national disaster seemed appalling enough. Even worse - according to today's news - is that the government is taking food, medicine and water provided by international relief efforts and "redirecting" it - so that it will appear to the people of the country that the help is coming from the military government.

Using tragedy and suffering to score political points seems about as far from the ideals of chivalry as you can get.

But it's worth remembering, whenever we think that chivalry is obsolete or unnecessary in today's world, that there are still leaders who'll do such things.

Read more here: Military Junta Hands Out Aid in Myanmar

Pushing The Pram A Lot

Yesterday I had the opportunity to give a presentation for students at CSU Long Beach on a delightful subject: Arthurian legend and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. (The on-campus branch of the SCA [a historical reenactment club] was hosting a screening of the movie.)

Not wanting to get in the way of the movie ('cuz MP is far more enjoyable and entertaining than me) I tried to keep my comments brief - I just talked (mainly) about the symbolism in one scene of the movie: the famous "black knight" skit.

In the movie, King Arthur comes to a bridge, and is challenged by an anonymous Black Knight to a duel in order to cross the bridge. A common enough occurrence in most traditional Arthurian myths - but THG isn't about "tradition" ... it's focus is on deconstructing and undermining the traditional themes of Arthurian legends, as a way of deconstructing and undermining the symbols and presumptions of traditional politics and social values. In this regard, THG is very much a product and a reflection of its time period - the early 70s, when Watergate and Vietnam were still very much "current events."

So - back to the Black Knight. In traditional Arthurian narrative, the Round Table hero (in this case, Arthur) would have fought the challenger, dealt him a "grievous wound," and knelt down and prayed for his recovery - and as a result the Black Knight would have been beholden to King Arthur, and might even have subsequently been dubbed as a Knight of the Round Table. In this regard, Arthur would have demonstrated the rightness of his cause (chivalric virtue) through military might (the duel) and indoctrinated an otherwise violent interloper (the Black Knight) into his civilized court (Camelot/the Round Table).

But not in Monty Python ...

Here, after delivering a grievous wound ("I've cut your bloody leg off" ... "no you haven't!"), Arthur kneels down to pray, but the knight continues taunting and physically assaulting the king. Arthur proceeds to chop away at every other appendage, but none of these wounds seem to have any effect on the Black Knight's ability to continue fighting. Even when the Black Knight is nothing but a limbless torso, he continues to tell Arthur he'll "bite (his) kneecaps off" as the king shakes his head and trots away.

A uniquely hilarious scene, to be sure, but the comedy becomes all the more brilliant when you look at this as a metaphor for the American experience in Vietnam. A superior military force deals a series of debilitating wounds to its adversary, but becomes increasingly frustrated and baffled when the enemy won't quit the field. Finally the "winning" force tromps away in confusion, not quite sure how they could be successful in every engagement, and still have victory essentially denied to them.

There are lots of other wonderful metaphors in the film - Bedevere as a critique of the assumption that science and technology can solve every problem; Zoot and the damsels of Castle Anthrax as an emblem of the sexual revolution - but at its heart, THG brings to light a new approach to assumptions about established authority. It's no coincidence that this movie is a product of a time period that rattled long-held beliefs about the benevolent intentions of unchecked authority. More than three decades later, pretty much everyone has come to believe that even the most noble and honest leaders need oversight and transparency in order to achieve trust and respect.

And in that regard, the humor of Monty Python and the Holy Grail helped to add a new chapter and a deeper understanding to the value of chivalry today.

Look for more on this topic in a future edition of our podcast, when Prof. Gary Hardcastle, editor of the book "Monty Python and Philosophy" joins us to talk about the Pythonian take on the Code of Chivalry.

Chivalry Rounds the Bases

When I suggest that "chivalry" can be used in (and might actually improve) athletic competition, I often hear snickers. But a recent event demonstrates, I think, the power that real chivalry can have - the power to elevate competition above a simple contest for trophies or titles, to something that touches our hearts and raises our spirits.

Here's what happened: When a player in an otherwise-routine girls' college softball game sustained a debilitating knee blow-out during a home-run lap and collapsed on the baseline, the officials told her team members that an article of the rules stated her run would be invalidated if anyone from her own team made contact with her before she completed the run. Noting that the umpire didn't say anything about the opposing team's members, the first-baseman and the shortstop picked her up, and carried her around the field to score her run.

The story must have hit a nerve. It was picked up by CNN, The New York Times, ESPN, the Associated Press, and darned near every major print and broadcast media source in the country.

There has been debate as to whether this was a real act of athletic excellence, or just a nice little oddity that would never have occurred at the level of professional sports. (And, predictably, there were several comments implying that this might be something that would only happen in girls' sports - that guys (the "real athletes" - grrr!) would never be so naive or sentimental as to let honor and respect get in the way of winning a game. ... sigh ... )

In my opinion, however, this act of chivalry, and the tidal wave of coverage it set off, really speaks to the hunger we have to see this sort of thing. Would the "majors" have done such a thing in a World Series playoff game? Maybe not. If a professional player did do something like this in a nationally televised playoff game, would it go down, not just in the record books, but in the history books? You bet! That's what sports are all about, and that's what makes the difference between a winning season and a memorable career - too bad many coaches and athletes lose sight of that.

I'm hoping to cover this incident in more depth in a future article on the website, or possibly even get one of the players as an interview on the podcast.

Read the report about the Sara Tulchosky incident in the April 30 edition of the New York Times.

Prince Caspian & Chivalry - Podcast 21

Greetings,

Episode 21 is now available on the website (and through Apple iTunes and other services). In it, I have a wonderful interview with Prof. Devin Brown, author of "Inside Narnia" and "Inside Prince Caspian" about the ideals of knighthood and chivalry inside the writing of CS Lewis. Of course, we talked a lot about Prince Caspian - that being an upcoming summer blockbuster and all! Most interesting to me was his thoughts on the Order of the Lion and the Order of the Table - the two Narinian orders of chivalry mentioned by Lewis in Prince Caspian. But he also had some interesting views on why Lewis (a combat veteran from the trenches of WWI) saw chivalry as a necessary military principle - and how Lewis's ideal of chivalry can (and - ahem - should) still be employed in military doctrine today. I don't think CS Lewis would have had any question about whether or not torture or terrorism should be considered "acceptable" means of winning a war.

Also, I had a great talk with Jennifer Lynn Jordan (who - for some odd reason - I keep trying to call Jennifer Lynn Jones ... ) about some very enjoyable graduate-study projects she's done using sock puppet theater (just like you remember from first grade!) to bring authentic romances of chivalry to modern audiences. You can see versions of Yvain and Aucassin et Nicolette in "sock puppet theater" format on the website!

What's upcoming? Well, I'm working on a post-event report on the American Sword of Chivalry tournament - an ESPN style sports report about a real jousting tournament. (I've even got a locker-room interview with Arne Koets, the winner of the tournament!)

For future productions - I'm hoping to do a report focusing on Monty Python's take on King Arthur and the Code of Chivalry. Not just "Holy Grail," but also "The Fisher King" (done by Terry Gilliam - one of the Python alum) and "Spamalot." I think it might give some interesting insights on how these ancient legends are viewed today.

Also ... I'm thinking about doing something about "chivalry in the opera." Did you know there's an opera about King Arthur? Not just that, but of course, many of those Wagnerian operas involve Round Table knights and the Grail Quest. Right now, I'm looking for an expert in the field of opera and Arthurian legend. Anyone with any ideas? ... feel free to contact me.