Things I Learned From The Iliad, Part One
Jun 4th, 2007 by Lynne
I’m still in a bad reading slump, at least as far as modern fiction is concerned. The AQ book I bought the other night was an entirely serviceable piece of fiction, but it didn’t grab me like her older books did. Again, it could be a matter of my reading tastes changing, but I suspect the current market trends are also a factor. In the old days, the romantic tension between AQ heroes and heroines had at least a few chapters to build before things got seriously physical, but these two hopped in the sack almost immediately. Ah, well. I’m hearing from a number of sources that this is the vogue now, but like anything else, this pendulum will inevitably swing the other way.
Until the market corrects itself, I’ll read other stuff, which brings me to the topic of this blog. I somehow managed to get through four years of high school and five years of college without reading any Homer — a sad oversight which I am correcting as we speak.
A few random thoughts:
- I now have definitive evidence that mullets predate the Camaro. From lines 632 through 635 of Book Two in the Robert Fagles translation: “The sprinting Abantes followed hard at his heels, their forelocks cropped, hair grown long at the back, troops nerved to lunge with their tough ashen spears and slash the enemies’ breastplates round their chests.”
- By my count, there were 1,196 ships, not the thousand we always hear about. Homer takes almost 300 lines to tell us all the details. This part, though fascinating in some ways, started to remind me of those “begat” chapters in the Bible.
- The Greek gods were a meddling lot, to say the least. And mean, too! The best a mortal could hope for is that the gods would take no notice of him at all.
- If a character still leaps off the page thousands of years later, the writer has done his job. I’m not a big fan of Achilles so far, but my GOD, is this guy ever intense! His anger at Agamemnon jumps out at you and grabs you by the throat.
One point one nine six times ten to the sixth millihelens. That’s a lot of beauty.
Or testosterone, more likely.
LOL!
Oh, there’s plenty of THAT going around, for sure! Homer spends an awful lot of time on just which body parts the spear cut through and what the exit wound was like.
I never was able to develop an appreciation for Homer. He needed some hobbits or a dwarf character and I probably would have been sold.
As far as romance novels go, I long ago realized I didn’t read them for plot or characters. I read them for the good parts. Although this current trend of the “love” scenes happening earlier in the book is disturbing. In the older Harlequin days, you could flip to the middle of the book (you know, the part with the hard paper insert advertising their book publisher) and go a couple of pages to the left or right and have the big love scene right there and skip all of that annoying character development. *grin*
I just asked in your last blog whether you liked the AQ book, and now I have my answer. *g* I don’t remember how I felt about Second Sight. It must’ve been okay. You should read Jennifer Estep’s Karma Girl if you want something different. It’s like a comic book come to life. Fun!
Ooooh. Your (forgive me) reading odyssey just reminded me of the *best* books I’ve read in a while: Rick Riordan’s YA series about Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Laughed myself to death and was vastly entertained. I randomly happened to choose the books for my 9 year old (who is hard to find books for in the “required reading range” that drives me batty), and while he loved them too, mom’s the definite addict in the family.
Hi, Mel! All those creatures would’ve been right at home, with all the gods popping in and out and rearranging reality. Come to think of it, there was mention of some centaurs, but that was probably it on fantasy creatures.
Hi, Edie! Yeah, Second Sight was basically okay, nothing howl-worthy going on, but it just didn’t grab me, for whatever reason.
I’ve been meaning to check out KG. My TBR pile runneth over. :-)
I’ve heard great things about Riordan, Chris. I really should buy some of his books, particularly that Olympians series you mentioned.
With all the books that keep getting added to my TBR, though, I really do need to hurry up and install that new speed reading software I just bought. :-)