what are you reading now?
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
If you want Homer in English it has to be the Arthur Golding translations imo. I haven't read his Odyssey yet but I thought the Iliad was brilliant. I've had a quick look at other translations to compare, including the more modern ones, and they're nowhere near as exciting or fun to read.
version
Well-known member
The E. V. Rieu translation Penguin are currently going with is a bit of a slog. I read up until the return to Ithaca then ditched it.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
I've got the Rouse prose translation too and that's supposed to be really good, but I'd try the Golding before that one.
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
Soz, I mean chapman not Golding, getting mixed up
I've read a couple, but T.E. Lawrence's was the most enjoyably heroic. Could not get on with Watson's at all.
jenks
thread death
In a Flat Place by Masud looks at various flat landscapes, including the Fens. It’s very good on these places from all kinds of personal and theoretical levels. This is her going to Orkney https://granta.com/a-flat-place/
sufi
lala
so are you reading it on a device?
I was reading a thick russion novel on paper and had to download an electronic version so i could search up the characters cos i kept forgetting who was who - like hybrid on/offline reading or something
Benny Bunter
Well-known member
I've taken wuthering heights on holiday with me, haven't read it since I was at school. I like the contrast of lying on a Spanish beach reading about the wild and windy moors of Yorkshire.
Corpsey
bandz ahoy
Zero tension, overpowered protagonist, snobby nobles, everyone who isn't of noble blood is a bum, the noble villains are given a slap on the wrist while the Caliban, Stephano, and Trinculo are hunted down like animals and tortured. Both of them were ghastly, yet only the non-nobles were punished.
For God's sakes, Sebastian almost committed fratricide! Antonio too, and then he almost killed Alonso. Prospero doesn't tell Alonso about this and gives up his powers, meaning Sebastian and Antonio could just do another attempt and no one could stop them.
Caliban at least had a motive for his attempted murder of Prospero. He was a slave for 12 years! What he attempted to do to Miranda was a crime, but he was almost definitely not educated on morality at the time, and his 12 years of slavery would have warped them further.
Also the characters are 1-dimensional, stupid and as funny as Amy Schumer.
For God's sakes, Sebastian almost committed fratricide! Antonio too, and then he almost killed Alonso. Prospero doesn't tell Alonso about this and gives up his powers, meaning Sebastian and Antonio could just do another attempt and no one could stop them.
Caliban at least had a motive for his attempted murder of Prospero. He was a slave for 12 years! What he attempted to do to Miranda was a crime, but he was almost definitely not educated on morality at the time, and his 12 years of slavery would have warped them further.
Also the characters are 1-dimensional, stupid and as funny as Amy Schumer.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
I'm on the third book of T. H. White's The Once and Future King, which is a very funny but also very beautiful send-up of mediaeval Arthuriana, especially Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur. It's deliberately and madly anachronistic, though no more so than its source material, being set in a completely fictionalized version of the 13th century. I think it might be the most beautifully written book I've ever read - might find some choice passages to quote tomorrow, but I'd be very hard pressed to find a favourite bit because it's all just so great.
jenks
thread death
I remember loving it in the same way I loved Infinite Jest and Rick Moody and a lot of those other clever, pomo American men. I wonder if it has stood the test of time about 25 years on.
IdleRich
IdleRich
It's very similar to some of tye DFW stuff but I was thinking more like the short stories thar I didn't enjoy nearly as much as IJ.
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
It goes down much more easily if you get ChatGPT to translate it into Geordie first.
jenks
thread death
It really helps if you can see it. There was a great RSC version with an all black cast about twelve years ago which really lifted that second half. As I’ve said on here before, reading a play is like reading a musical score - it’s good but it’s only part of the experience- a play needs performance.
