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If you thought this was interesting, you might also like Margret Atwood's "The Penelopiad" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17645.The_Penelopiad
Yes, Penelope's maids come to a bad end. I think a lot of critics misread this as misogyny on Homer's part. However, it is meant to be balanced with the death of the suitors and also Odysseus' shipmates, leaving only the marriage at the end.
This is ridiculous. The word "Odyssey" means journey. The way the author conflates it with sexism and privilege seems like she's just trolling for clicks. It's a story about a man trying to get home, and a woman staying faithful in the face of uncertainty. Anything else is reading too much into it. Just like if you're not yet confirmed dead in a war, your parents keep your room the way it was. (EDIT: re: keeping the…
That's the story as summarized in a potential entry for a 'most trite message board comment' competition of some sort. The actual story is another story. Either that or people have been doing it wrong and reading too much into it for a couple of thousand years.
If you thought this was interesting, you might also like Margret Atwood's "The Penelopiad" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17645.The_Penelopiad
> her twelve hanged maids Yes, Penelope's maids come to a bad end. I think a lot of critics misread this as misogyny on Homer's part. However, it is meant to be balanced with the death of the suitors and also Odysseus' shipmates, leaving only the marriage at the end.
> But many students, scholars, and general readers want even more from this literary character: they want her to fit the ideal of an empowered woman. It is comforting to subscribe to the notion—as Daniel Mendelsohn does in his recently published memoir, “An Odyssey,” and as Robert Fagles does, in his translation of the poem—that the marriage between Odysseus and Penelope is a partnership of intellectual equals, based…
Is it any different from any other time? Things that are constant at any generation throughout history: the young always appear selfish and without morals; the past is not treated with enough respect; the overall culture is surely in decline. Athenians under Pericles were convinced of these, as were Romans under Augustus.
> But many students, scholars, and general readers want even more from this literary character: they want her to fit the ideal of an empowered woman. It is comforting to subscribe to the notion—as Daniel Mendelsohn does in his recently published memoir, “An Odyssey,” and as Robert Fagles does, in his translation of the poem—that the marriage between Odysseus and Penelope is a partnership of intellectual equals, based…
> The modern impulse to impose its cultural norms upon the past is deeply upsetting. It's not a modern impulse, it's pretty much an invariant aspect of culture. Of course, so is the tendency to perceive invariant aspects of culture as both unique to the present culture and signs of decline.
What are you trying to say here? Invariant is not a verb, and it's definition of "never changing" doesn't make sense in the way you used it.
This is ridiculous. The word "Odyssey" means journey. The way the author conflates it with sexism and privilege seems like she's just trolling for clicks. It's a story about a man trying to get home, and a woman staying faithful in the face of uncertainty. Anything else is reading too much into it. Just like if you're not yet confirmed dead in a war, your parents keep your room the way it was. (EDIT: re: keeping the…
It's a story about a man trying to get home, and a woman staying faithful in the face of uncertainty. Anything else is reading too much into it. That's the story as summarized in a potential entry for a 'most trite message board comment' competition of some sort. The actual story is another story. Either that or people have been doing it wrong and reading too much into it for a couple of thousand years.
You wanna argue with Tolstoy?
I might refer you to TVtropes. All stories are the same eventually.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The modern impulse to impose its cultural norms upon the past is deeply upsetting. It's not a modern impulse, it's pretty much an invariant aspect of culture. Of course, so is the tendency to perceive invariant aspects of culture as both unique to the present culture and signs of decline.
> so is the tendency to invariant aspects of culture as ..... What are you trying to say here? Invariant is not a verb, and it's definition of "never changing" doesn't make sense in the way you used it. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/invariant
On the topic of female gender & the Odyssey, here's a thesis 'Inhuman and Heroic Women: Femininity in the Odyssey and the Arthurian Vulgate' which includes reference to the original Greek text https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/4157
You a found graduate student's college paper with the Odyssey in the title.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a story about a man trying to get home, and a woman staying faithful in the face of uncertainty. Anything else is reading too much into it. That's the story as summarized in a potential entry for a 'most trite message board comment' competition of some sort. The actual story is another story. Either that or people have been doing it wrong and reading too much into it for a couple of thousand years.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/57886-all-great-literature-... You wanna argue with Tolstoy? I might refer you to TVtropes. All stories are the same eventually.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> her twelve hanged maids Yes, Penelope's maids come to a bad end. I think a lot of critics misread this as misogyny on Homer's part. However, it is meant to be balanced with the death of the suitors and also Odysseus' shipmates, leaving only the marriage at the end.
Hmm, that's an interesting take I had not considered before. I can totally see where our modern sense of sexuality/morality could get in the way of some of Homer's subtler themes.