In this post, I aim to identify a brief summary of the book Circe, by Madeline Miller, as well as an overall explanation of her as author. Circe, the daughter of the Sun God, Helios, and Perse, an Oceanid nymph, lacks the skills that her siblings acquire and is essentially shunned. She eventually falls in love with a mortal and she begins to experiment with witchcraft since she knows mortals die that but she will not. Throughout the book we find that Circe stands alone as a woman in a man’s world, finding herself in danger, drawing wrath from both men and gods, ultimately leading her to decide if she belongs with those that she was born from, the gods, or the mortals who she has come to love so fondly. http://madelinemiller.com/circe/ The author of this modern masterpiece, Madeline Miller, grew up in Manhattan. Miller eventually moved to Philadelphia where she met her Latin teacher who taught her Homeric Greek, and she became obsessed with the stories. This new found love for Greek literature lead her teacher to introduce her to the Illiad. The Iliad, along with Homer’s Odyssey; Ovid, Argonautica, and the Telegony formed her story Circe into what we know it as today. https://www.publicbooks.org/madeline-miller-on-circe-mythological-realism-and-literary-correctives/. Madeline selected pieces, themes, and ideas from each of these readings to formulate the story line, as well as incorporating the use of her imagination for character creation and analysis. Miller’s selections show that she has carefully cultivated ideas from these books, which normally portray Circe as conniving and responsible for death and misfortune, whereas her modern take depicts Circe as a woman who is aware of the hostility that she faces and that she is essentially a woman in a mans world. As a woman herself, I imagine instances like these have occurred in her life as well, which is likely why she places such an emphasis on creating the storyline in the way that she does. https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/madeline-millers-circe-reimagines-the-greek-goddess-as-a-women-aware-of-the-hostilities-she-faces/Content?oid=16127886
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In this post, I aim to explain a brief summary of the book The lost books of the Odyssey, by Zachary Mason and summarize his impact as an author.
In this article, https://harvardreview.org/book-review/the-lost-books-of-the-odyssey/ , we read about the voyage back to Ithaca from Troy, interwoven with flashbacks from the Trojan War and Mason’s spin on the classic story of the hero Odysseus’s long journey home after the fall of Troy. In his version of the classic story, he offers an alternative view that provides us with new perspectives than that of the original telling of the story. Mason brings light to ancient greek gender norms, especially with that of women and how they have been portrayed in the past https://diotima-doctafemina.org/reviews/literature-review/the-lost-books-of-the-odyssey-by-z-mason/ . Zachary is a computer scientist artificial-intelligence expert, https://www.berkeleyside.org/2017/05/03/zachary-mason-uses-skills-artificial-intelligence-expert-new-novel , which I believe is a lot of why he brings such a modern spin to a classic story. Zachary graduated with his doctorate from Brandeis University and now works for Silicon Valley Startup http://santamaddalena.org/zachary-mason/ . In this post, my goal is to explain an overall summary of the book, House of Names and its author, Colm Tóibín. Colm, an Irishman who began writing shortly after the death of his father, at the age of 12 according to, https://www.chipublib.org/colm-toibin-biography/. He spent some time in Barcelona, but returned to Ireland where his career as a travel writer and journalist took off according to https://www.britannica.com/biography/Colm-Toibin.
In 2017, he wrote The House of Names, which is a retelling of the ancient Greek play,The Oresteia. In this article, https://www.supersummary.com/house-of-names/summary/, we see that Colm tells the story of Agamemnon and the curse followed by the family but with a modern twist to it. Although Tóibín makes this his own version, the theme of female struggle and desire to be heard is still very prominent according to https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/House-of-Names/Colm-Toibin/9781501140228. Though she was previously on the hunt for vengeance, in the House of Names, Clytemnestra is a distraught and grieving mother in Colm’s version of the story. Through readings of https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/may/27/house-of-names-colm-toibin-review,we learn about Tóibín’s modern take on this book still holds true to the storyline from the Aeschylus play. This is done in order for Clytemnestra to tell her story as she awaits for Agamemnon's return from Troy so that she can murder him. A very intense storyline, in my opinion. Through research, I also found that Tóibín’s works often depict similar themes including the depiction of Irish Society, and the preservation of personal identity. These themes are prominent in his work and probably impactful to him as an openly gay man and as an Irish man. In the House of Names, Tóibín further demonstrates the use of these commonly used themes by giving Clytemnestra the opportunity to really show her personal identity and to tell her story, according to, https://www.litlovers.com/reading-guides/fiction/10975-house-of-names-toibin?start=3 . In this post, I aim to explain a brief summary of the book Cassandra by Christa Wolf as well as briefly summarizing her impact as an author. In this article, https://spartacus-educational.com/Christa_Wolf.htm we read about Christa Wolf's background and her life in Nazi Germany, which I feel greatly contributes to her writing style and stories. Her experiences certainly impact what and how she writes. https://thebookbindersdaughter.com/2016/12/07/review-cassandra-by-christa-wolf/ Through the above article, we learn about the gift of prophecy which is what has made Cassandra so popular and well known in Greek mythology. This novel by Wolf is "an ambitious novel" as it tries to cover the entirety of the Trojan epic cycle. This article also gives us more insight about the other as a "committed socialist" and discusses awards she has received for her work over the years. According to the article, the jury praised her life's work for "critically questioning hopes and errors of her time and portraying them with deep moral seriousness and narrative power". It is clear that Christa Wolf had a great impact on the world through her work. |
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November 2021
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