It’s Sunday and the sun is finally shining around here. The Swiss man and I went for a run (we’re training for a race at the end of April) and then settled into the garden to finish our books. It’s been quite some time since we had an entire Sunday to do nothing but read and in the sunshine no less – a beautiful day!
So sitting out in that lovely sunshine, I finished up The Iliad – oh, poor Hector! The third to last chapter of The Iliad is pretty intense as Achilles and Hector finally duel it out to the death. It’s what the whole epic has been gearing up for and it’s bloody and tragic and well, it’s epic. The last two chapters then wrap things up with funeral games for Patroclus and King Priam coming to Achilles to ransom Hector’s body.
I know that the overall theme of The Iliad is rage – the rage of Achilles and what that rage produces but I don’t think there is a single chapter that doesn’t also deal with grief. If I think back over the story, the transformative power of grief is the impression that remains with me. There’s an interesting tension between the glory and tragedy of war in The Iliad to which I find myself nodding approval. I don’t approve of war and I don’t often accept its necessity but I recognize that once war is already on the table, people are most easily caught up in the idea of glory. Interestingly, The Iliad never once lets us forget how destructive and horrendous war actually is. No death, even small ones occurring in the heat of battle, is presented as a glory-giving act alone, there is always the balancing story of who (parents, wives, friends) will be brought to a terrible grief as a result. That balance is what made the story meaningful for me.
And while we’re on the subject of grief, I also finished Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein this afternoon. What an unforgettable story. So sad, really. Dr. Frankenstein made me really angry, which surprised me. I wasn’t expecting to have that reaction. The story in itself is remarkable. So many questions and ideas about science and ethics and whether humans are inherently good. I want to sit on this book for a few days and work out my notes – which I scribbled left and right as I was reading – before I post anything.
After all that I need a dose of something a bit less heavy. Unfortunately, none of the other books I’ve got going at the moment are much of a help (The Hours, Madame Bovary and Gordimer’s A Guest of Honour) so I wandered over to the shelves and picked up A Short History of Tractor’s in Ukranian which tells me it is “Extremely Funny”. I plan on starting this when we get back from dinner out tonight and hope it will do the trick!
8 responses so far ↓
Logophile // April 14, 2008 at 12:25 am |
What a lovely day! I loved Frankenstein, so much going on to savour. And my mother was praising A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian again tonight, which she assures me is laugh out loud funny – enjoy!
Deborah // April 14, 2008 at 2:57 am |
I’m not surprised you felt anger at Dr. Frankenstein and that the novel raised for you what we think of as political questions. My goodness! Shelley didn’t just live in creative ferment with her husband et al., but in political ferment. Her mother Mary Wollenstonecraft, as you know, was the famous feminist: and her father William Godwin’s novel Caleb Williams rivals Hugo’s Les Miserables in intensity (but not as literature) as a scathing attack on the haves vs. the have-nots and society’s and institutions culpability in turning good “men” evil.
Percy Shelley himself wrote scads and scads of stuff on the subject, especially on the arrogance of science. It’s often said that Mary Shelley eschewed the political after her husband died. But in a novel called The Last Man (a precursor to the science fiction writing of H.G. Wells, etc.) , she takes up the issue of science vs. humanity again with no less scathing an indictment. What a woman! What a mind! What a read!
Oops. Forgive me for going on so. I love Mary Shelley and have spent lots of time with her!
So glad you loved the book.
Litlove // April 14, 2008 at 9:29 am |
I think you write so well about the Iliad, verbivore. I found the scenes with Hector heart-breaking, too. And I very much enjoyed the Tractors book – good light relief!
Dorothy W. // April 14, 2008 at 1:58 pm |
I’m looking forward to your thoughts on Frankenstein — what a moving book it is! How lovely to get out for a run in the nice weather!
Trish // April 15, 2008 at 1:47 am |
I look forward to your thoughts on Frankenstein. Sounds like a beautiful day–I love it when it is perfect to read outside.
verbivore // April 15, 2008 at 7:19 am |
Logophile – well I got started on Tractors and it does look pretty funny, I think I will enjoy it!
Deborah – Thank you for all that info on Mary Shelley, it puts a lot of the books questions into perspective. what an incredible life. I’d be very interested to read some of her later work when she goes back to these same ideas. How fascinating that you’ve studied her!
Litlove – thank you, and I was surprised to see how much real sympathy I had for the characters as I read it. You’d think my already knowing about the story and the characters would prevent me from having that instantaneous reader-reaction, but no, I was really moved by much of the story.
Dorothy – we’ll see if I can put something together this week. I certainly haven’t studied the novel the way you did so we’ll see what I come up with!
Trish – Isn’t that the best. Of course the rain came back today and its seems we’ll have it for the rest of the week, but oh well – one lovely day will have to be good enough
Ann Darnton // April 16, 2008 at 6:07 pm |
It is so interesting the extent to which readers differ in what we enjoy. I’m really looking forward to reading ‘Frankenstein’ later this year for a course. But, against everyone else I know I loathed ‘The Tractors’ book . I didn’t find it funny, just cruel. I haven’t been able to pick up her second book at all.
verbivore // April 17, 2008 at 7:43 am |
Ann – I started Tractors and I suspect I will end up agreeing with you. I don’t find it funny yet at all.