Chapter 5.4 - A Knights Tale, Parody, and Fate

Alicia and Sarah return to a classic from their teen years and young adulthood, A Knight’s Tale. They discuss the connections to The Canterbury Tales and Chaucer as well as the modern connections to fighting our fate and finding hope when all hope seems lost. At the end of this week’s discussion, they talk about the things they've been reading, watching, and analyzing outside of the classroom.

Literary terms of the week: Parody, Fate

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Music by Craig Harmann

Cover art by Matt Holman

• Parody of The Canterbury Tales

  • “Where I come from, we believe all sorts of things that aren’t true. We call it history.”

  • The winners write history.

• Fate: “A man can change his stars.”

  • “Star-crossed lovers”

• Wealth: “We're the sons of peasants. Glory, and riches, and stars are beyond our grasps. But a full stomach, that dream can come true”

  • Status vs comfort

  • Diversity in story vs the monomyth (power in narrative)

• Love

  • Jocelyn: Damn your pride, William. It is you, and only you, that will not see you run.

  • William: My pride is the only thing that they can't take from me.

  • Jocelyn: They can take it away from you; they can, and they will. Oh, they will. But love they cannot take.

  • Ownership

  • Equality (sight)

• Alicia: Younger (Netflix), Children of Blood and Bone (Tomi Adeyemi)

• Sarah: The Husbands (Holly Gramazio), Modern Family (Hulu)