“The Guide says that there is an art to flying...or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Life, the Universe and Everything
Phew! It's been awhile since my last post. Labor Day weekend was wonderfully busy, and included an enormously successful surprise party for one of the coolest cat's in Austin, TX: Lance Schriner.
In the meantime, I've been reading up a storm.
What have I read?
The Odyssey (The Samuel Butler Prose Translation)
Theogony and Works and Days (Oxford World's Classics)
And
Life, the Universe and Everything
Let's start with The Odyssey shall we?
The first thing I noticed about this work as compared to The Iliad was that it is a more mature work. Both the storytelling and the presented culture have developed beyond the brute force of the first text.
We see the main hero revered not due to his physical prowess (though this is in no way lacking), but rather his cunning and wisdom. I don't mean to say physical prowess has no place, rather that it is most useful when guided by sound reason and intellect.
We also see a more focused story that is significantly easier to read. The focus has narrowed from the epic sweep of the siege of Troy to a single family's reunion. Instead of flitting all over the battlefied from one line to the next, we are led through the story by three main characters: Odysseus, Telemachus, and Penelope. I suspect this narrowed focus, along with the fantastical monsters and adventures, has much to do with The Odyssey's popularity over The Iliad. That, and the darn battle scenes would drag on and on in the latter.
Much like The Epic of Gilgamesh , The Odyssey tells the tale of one man's journey through the underworld and back to life. Early in the book, after the introduction of Telemachus, we see Odysseus arrive in Scherie. Scherie acts as a sort of purgatory between the underworld, where Odysseus has been having his wild adventures, and the world of the living.
Odysseus' recounting of his adventures is similar to the Egyptian questioning of the dead. If his account pleases the Phaeacians, he will return to Ithaca and his family. If it does not...
The undertone that rang throughout the entire work was the Joseph Campbell monomyth of a hero's journey through the underworld followed by his return to the "real" world where he is a savior. Obviously, Campbell would have analyzed The Odyssey in the formulation of his theories, so this makes sense.
Theogony and Works and Days is a very different work. Dare I say, a less entertaining one?
Okay, so what's up with that?
Theogony is the formal documentation of the origin of the God's and this world which they created.It comes down to a long series of begats interspersed with wonderful little tales.
For a quick run down: there are three generations of god's. The First generation is Chaos, Earth, Sky, etc. The basics of the world.
The second generation is more commonly known as the Titans. The Titans did not really get along so well with the first generation.
And the third generation is the gods we know and love from Hercules, Fantasia,and other childhood whimsies (Kevin Sorbo & Lucy Lawless anyone?)
Okay, okay, I didn't like Theogony or Works and Days (a sort of handbook to daily life and pleasing the gods), but there must be something to take away from it, right?
There are two messages that I took from these works.
The first is that out beyond what humans experience, there is a world of order. This world we experience is all part of a very intentional plan. In other words, life is not meaningless. (This is something that I suspect humans have struggled with since the dawn of time, all the way up to when I was trying to wake up this morning).
The second is that though there is this divine order to the world, humans are inherently incapable of witnessing the plan, much less comprehending it. Yes, the gods are anthropomorphic. But they are not human. They are pure; they are better than human. They are the freaking gods!
I'm going to forgo quotes this time around. I think perhaps they are arbitrarily lengthening these entries without adding any real substance. If you want them to come back (they're in my kindle), then please leave a comment. If they're helpful to anyone, then I'll certainly post them up.
Up next, we've got selections from the Hebrew Bible. I only speak English at the moment, but in keeping with the classic literature motif, I'm going to go with: The Holy Bible: Authorized King James Version.
I have never read the bible, and I will not be reading it for any religious purposes. We're going to be looking at it from a purely literary perspective. Hopefully we find some interesting stuff; and hopefully we can keep the religion part of it in perspective.
Until next time...
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