Book VI of Homer’s Iliad shows the contention in the heart of Hector, Ilium’s champion, but also a husband and new father: he is torn between his responsibilities as a hero to his people and as a the head of the household. Like so many soldiers going off to battle today, Hector is a new father who must risk his life to maintain his people’s way of life.
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Ophelia
Sir John Everett Millais’ 1852 painting “Ophelia” might be subtitled “Western Literature’s Woman.” It seems to me that the history of Western Literature has prescribed this role for its women: the drowned suicide of men’s struggles for power and control. Ophelia is the metaphor for a real world of patriarchal desire for control. Ophelia is [...]
L.A. as Hell
Thanks to Thom for sending me the link to Dante’s Inferno Illustrated by Sandow Birk. These illustrations translate Doré’s original engravings to offer “a re-translation of Dante’s seminal work into the images and street language of today. This opens the poem to audiences both familiar with Dante and the audience that would never encounter the [...]
Online Literature: A Response
I recently received a letter from a colleague that asks some pertinent questions concerning my difficulties with teaching literature online. I have been sloth in responding, but answering his questions might help and encourage me to think about these issues a bit more. I will quote parts of the letter and make responses. As I [...]
SF Writers Answer
Following a hint from Slashdot and Scribblingwoman, I found Locus Online‘s article by John Shirley that asks several sf writers several questions. Here are some excerpts: In response to the question “In the past you’ve written science-fictionally about the social future. What’s changed in your estimate of the social future since then? Do you have [...]
Sf Over?
An interesting thread on Slashdot addresses a Globe and Mail article that speculates that sf might be coming to an unceremonious end like other historically situated literary genres. I would agree that golden age sf is perhaps on the decline, slowly being replaced by the likes of fantasy disguised as sf (Star Trek, Star Wars, [...]
Fighting Beyond Their Fates
Book 16 of the Iliad epitomizes the height of the chaotic struggle between the Achaeans and the Trojans as each try desperately to gain the upper hand. Lost in the rage of battle and spurred on by Zeus, Patroclus gains the upper hand after killing Sarpedon, the adopted son of Troy, yet only to be taken down by Apollo, then killed by Hector.