August 29, 2006
no more gods
Zeus would not approve. In Wolfgang Petersen's 2004 movie ``Troy" and now in ``An Iliad" (Knopf), the new novelization of Homer's epic by the bestselling Italian author Alessandro Baricco, we find no gods -- none. No Hera or Aphrodite; no limping Hephaestus or weed-bearded Poseidon; the whole fractious, horny, and meddlesome crew is simply...not there.The omissions in ``Troy" we can probably forgive; a swords-and-sandals blockbuster like that, swirling in money and policed no doubt by militant producers, might just not have had room for visions or divine entries. But the godlessness of Baricco's ``An Iliad" is more considered and programmatic: Homer's Olympians ``are probably the aspect of the poem most extraneous to a modern sensibility and often break up the narrative, diffusing a momentum that should rightly be palpable," he writes in an introductory note. ``I wouldn't have removed them if I'd been convinced they were necessary."
more from Boston Globe Ideas here.
Posted by Morgan Meis at 05:20 PM | Permalink
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Comments
Interesting. I wonder how the Bible would read with its god removed. Surely someone has attempted that by now?
Posted by: beajerry | Aug 30, 2006 9:09:58 AM
The Bible has little if any literary merit. I've encountered several people who consider the KJV literary, but I suspect it's only because the archaisms remind them of Shakespeare.
Posted by: Alon Levy | Aug 30, 2006 10:18:43 AM
"I wouldn't have removed them if I'd been convinced they were necessary"
That's Italian for "I can't read."
Posted by: Steve Hughes | Aug 30, 2006 4:30:24 PM
Two observations:
1) TROY has a brief scene in which Achilles' mother, the goddess Thetis, appears, played by Julie Christie.
2) Prompted by Alon Levy's astonishing comment, I offer this, from the Book of Job in the King James Version, ch. 38:
"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
If you can't detect some literary merit here, you're dead above the neck.
Posted by: C. Schuyler | Aug 30, 2006 9:44:57 PM
All I can detect is a bad translation. First, let's disabuse ourselves of the notion that there's anything special about archaisms. So in English that people actually use, it becomes,
"Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you understand. Who has laid its measures, if you know? Or who has stretched the line upon it? Where are its foundations fastened? or who laid its corner stone; when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
Beyond the fact that it's still a mistranslation, there's the fact that this is stiff and stereotypical, once you remove the "Oh, it's like Shakespeare" connotation.
Posted by: Alon Levy | Aug 31, 2006 5:04:16 AM
I don't see how shedding the archaisms impairs the effect of the language. If you aren't moved by "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?" what are you moved by? And why should your opinion on the subject matter to me?
Posted by: C. Schuyler | Aug 31, 2006 5:48:03 PM
I apologize to Alon Levy for the snarky tone of my previous posting. I've noticed that gratuitous verbal nastiness is far too easy to commit in online discussions. (This blindingly obvious fact was re-confirmed for me recently when the always charming Abiola Lapite accused me of racism when I called him on one of his fact-lite imputations of evil motives.) Here, I should just have said De gustibus, and left the matter at that.
Posted by: C. Schuyler | Sep 4, 2006 11:36:18 AM
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