Monday, December 26, 2005

Scriptrix

Jag ska, någongång, sluta att ständigt plocka grejor från de fantastiska Review-a-day mailen, men detta förtjänar uppmärksamhet, och är särdeles klassiskt:

"Canongate books launched an ambitious publishing project thisfall with the release of three titles, A Short History of Myth by Karen Armstrong, Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles byJeanette Winterson, and The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood. TheMyths series will continue releasing these retold myths -- fromauthors like Chinua Achebe, Donna Tartt, David Grossman, and A.S. Byatt -- at the rate of a couple a year, for many years. Theyare slim, alluringly small volumes, about two-thirds the sizeof the average hardcover novel, and about 200 pages. The coverart slips around the spine seamlessly, with no vacuous blurbsto disrupt the minimal but intensely pleasing illustrations. Imention the aesthetic qualities of the books because I feel theywere intended to be part of the experience of the books in a moreintegral way than your average novel: the uniform, complimentarybeauty of these three volumes suggests that all subsequent volumeswill be equally delicious, and thus stimulate the appetites ofbook collectors."

Lovvärt!
Och ack så klassiskt att återbreätta och omstrukturera Homeros:

"Readers of Margaret Atwood will not be surprisedthat she chose this myth to retell -- and refocus, with modernlens pointed squarely at an act ancients would not have considereda crime: the murder of Penelope's twelve maids by Odysseus andTelemachus. [...]
Penelope unravels the tangled tale of Odysseus's long absence, the rumors of his adventures, the suitors who wanted to replace him, and how she directed her most trusted maids to spy on the suitors and keep her informed. When Odysseus returns, he believes the maids havebeen in league with the suitors all along, and after slaughtering the men, instructs the maids to take care of the bodies and scrub the blood from the floors. Then, Telemachus hangs them "all in a row from the ship's hawser," all while Penelope slept."

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