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Lord0fHats t1_jclwufw wrote

Reply to comment by Eeeegah in Do you ever look up the authors you're reading to get to know them better? by justkeepbreathing94

Bradley became infamous when her daughter accused her and her husband of sex abuse and molestation. This compounded darkly with Bradley's writing in Mists of Avalon, where sex was a big theme in the story (and not just sex, but incest as well as parental abuse). Prior to the scandal, the themes were light enough to be written off as part of the fantasy.

'Different time, different place, different moral scruples.'

After her daughter's accusations, it becomes hard not to know about the scandal and not see Mists as an expression of Bradley's outlook on sex. And given the accusation that outlook is most politely summed up as 'pretty damn fucked up.'

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WritingJedi t1_jclydbv wrote

Let's clarify this a little: she was married to Walter Breen, noted pedophile and high ranking member of NAMBLA. She most definitely was a pedophile as well.

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HeleneSedai t1_jcmsikx wrote

Also going to expand on u/writingjedi response below, Bradley's daughter claimed that she told her aunt what happened back when she was still a child. When the aunt was deposed during Walter Breen's case, the aunt brought up the daughter's claims about MZB, although the police didn't pursue it further. It's on record that the daughter made those claims years before she later made them public.

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WritingJedi t1_jcmuy7i wrote

Absolutely. I won't ever be able to return to Mists of Avalon. Not knowing that what's in it isn't supposed to be commentary. It's propaganda.

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DConstructed t1_jcnh0ca wrote

Her work IMO also started getting weirder. She definitely had a creepy side.

Which was a pity because I felt that some of her explorations into gender roles and non heterosexual relationships were a bit ahead of their time.

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Eeeegah t1_jcmbf4r wrote

I didn't know this and I can see how it colors the interpretation of Avalon.

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