Literature and the gods
Calasso, Roberto (, 1941-)
Literature and the gods / Roberto Calasso ; translated from the Italian by Tim Parks - 1st American ed. - New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House , 2001. - 212 p. ; 20 cm.
Based on the Weidenfeld lectures, Oxford, May 2000--Jkt.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-208) and index.
Anyone who has read Ka or The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony knows that one cannot speed-read Calasso. Like all his other works, this latest by the Italian historian and publisher, based on his Weidenfeld Lectures of May 2000 at Oxford, speaks to an erudite audience. It is not for the easily daunted; to appreciate it, one must know Baudelaire, Nietzsche, Holderlin, Lautramont, Mallarme, and several other important writers and be acquainted with Greco-Roman and Vedic myth. This is not really prose but rather edited oratory, and it comes across that way; you must listen to it more than read it. If you do and put what you hear in the context of 19th- and 20th-century European history and culture, you will understand that the ancient Gods are no longer dead but were reborn to live in our novels and poetry. Here Calasso describes how that came about.
9780375411380
2001275881
Mythology, Classical
Gods in literature
PN56.M95 / C3513 2001
809.9 CAL
Literature and the gods / Roberto Calasso ; translated from the Italian by Tim Parks - 1st American ed. - New York : Knopf : Distributed by Random House , 2001. - 212 p. ; 20 cm.
Based on the Weidenfeld lectures, Oxford, May 2000--Jkt.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 195-208) and index.
Anyone who has read Ka or The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony knows that one cannot speed-read Calasso. Like all his other works, this latest by the Italian historian and publisher, based on his Weidenfeld Lectures of May 2000 at Oxford, speaks to an erudite audience. It is not for the easily daunted; to appreciate it, one must know Baudelaire, Nietzsche, Holderlin, Lautramont, Mallarme, and several other important writers and be acquainted with Greco-Roman and Vedic myth. This is not really prose but rather edited oratory, and it comes across that way; you must listen to it more than read it. If you do and put what you hear in the context of 19th- and 20th-century European history and culture, you will understand that the ancient Gods are no longer dead but were reborn to live in our novels and poetry. Here Calasso describes how that came about.
9780375411380
2001275881
Mythology, Classical
Gods in literature
PN56.M95 / C3513 2001
809.9 CAL
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