laocoon, an intellectual: we shouldn’t take in this giant wooden horse because it’s obviously a trap and we can literally hear the men moving around inside of it
me, a trojan dumbass: but hes an Absolute Fucking Unit
FIRST LINES FROM NEW BOOKS OUT TODAY: SEPTEMBER 10, 2012
“The first to die was Protesilaus A focused man who hurried to darkness With forty black ships leaving the land behind Men sailed with him from those flower-lit cliffs Where the grass gives growth to everything Pyrasus Iton Pteleus Antron He died in mid-air jumping to be first ashore There was his house half-built His wife rushed out clawing her face Podarcus his altogether less impressive brother Took over command but that was long ago He’s been in the black earth now for thousands of year.” Memorial: A Version of Homer’s Iliad by Alice Oswald
A “version” of the Iliad in which Oswald translates every death—and only the deaths—so that the poem becomes what the poem is. Oswald has stated she wants to translates the poem’s enargeia, what she calls “the bright unbearable reality” of the Iliad. This is not the poem that starts “μῆνιν ἄειδε, θεὰ”. Menis is not the key word to this poem; the rage of Achilles passes by like a ghost. The gods and goddesses keep to the margins. What remains, then, is the song, and the list of the dead.
I WANT THIS LIKE BURNING
I have wanted this book for at least a year since I heard about it, oh god
This is SO GOOD. She came to my school and did a ~45 minute reading from it (after reciting a prayer to the Muse!). First of all, she’s a captivating reader. Hearing this was the only time I’ve ever felt like I was experiencing oral epic as it’s supposed to be experienced—didn’t think that could happen in English. Anyway, it’s absolutely amazing. Read it, and if you get to hear her do a reading, do it.
Avelera 