The opening of Gilgamesh states that it is an old story “About a man who loved and lost a friend to death.” This statement also holds true for the Iliad; friendship and its loss represent both a motivating force and an important source for a happy life in both epics. Both Achilles and Gilgamesh lose their respective friends, Patroclus and Enkidu, through actions that they themselves precipitated. And once the heroes lose their soul mates they are victims of despair which cannot be alleviated by other distractions, even women.
Archive | October, 1997
Healthy Blasphemy: Dissenting Discourses in Rushdie and Bulgakov
Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses and Makhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita share a similar concern: the role of the artist in society. Rushdie and Bulgakov see the artist as one who disrupts the quotidian. Without the occasional contention, a society, or any institution—be it collective or individual—may become complacent and prone to tyranny. Rushdie [...]
