and I have assloads to read before I sleep

[thehefner]

My Amazon.com Wish List has become a deeply disturbing collection of nutball survivalist booklets and post-apocalyptic fiction. The things I do in the name of research for my novels.

God, I wish my local library carried these. Am I seriously going to have to buy the complete works of Rangar Benson and Boston T. Parry's BOSTON'S GUN BIBLE? This list has likely already put me on another list or two, keeping an eye on that ticking time bomb that is John Hefner, ready to start up his own guerrilla militia of intolerant geeks and snobs, declaring "JUNO is thoroughly overrated, but it's still pretty damn good! Just not that good! Rrrargh!"*.

Remember, I looking for story research and stuff that'll provoke ideas, not necessarily a practical guide written by a sane person.

To make matters worse, I also have to do an assload of research into Herakles and greek myth in general. I've purchased BULLFINCH'S MYTHOLOGY, which should hopefully ease me into everything, and from there I might go to Robert Graves' volumes (I've heard good and bad things) as well as whatever classics I can find, hopefully good translations that aren't dryer than Johnny Go's Evaporated MartinisTM.

Speaking of translations... so Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, the husband-wife team of Russian translators who made me fall absolutely head-over-heels in love with Dostoevsky*, have come out with their version of WAR AND PEACE? I haven't even cracked Tolstoy yet, and what's that, they've also done ANNA KARARARENENAREA? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

Clearly, this is the books' revenge for my not being a reader all my life. Then I discover that reading tons of stuff is the very best form of research and inspiration, and the books of the world go, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the movie geek! Who's the tough guy now, eh??"



*I've reevaluated my opinions on JUNO. See next entry.

**I still haven't gotten through CRIME AND PUNISHMENT yet. I love love love BROTHERS K and THE IDIOT, but so far, CRIME AND PUNISHMENT feels like the latter. I keep hearing that if you can endure the first quarter, it greatly improves. Here's bloody hoping. Shit, I also have to finish my copy of DEMONS!

Comments

[kagome654.livejournal.com]

I find Robert Graves is great for research assignments or anything where you want to find specific references without slogging through a lot of flowery exposition. The footnotes included at the end of each chapter are usually pretty interesting as well. I bought the complete edition years ago and it was a lifesaver during certain courses. It is a little dry though and often reads like a textbook. Edith Hamilton's 'Mythology' or even W.H.D Rouse's 'Gods, Heroes and Men on Ancient Greece' are a little more fun to read but don't explore the stories in as much detail.

I think it would be worthwhile to look at things like Euripides' Alcestis or Aristophanes' The Frogs if you haven't already. Herakles doesn't have a big role in either (being a deus ex machina in the former and strictly a comedic character in the latter) but they're fun reads.

My sister is a huge Dostoevsky fan. I bought her a copy of 'Crime and Punishment' for her last birthday which she preferred it to 'The Idiot' but I believe 'The Brothers Karamazov' remains her favourite. I never finished reading the Brothers K myself (I misplaced the book when I was about a third of the way through it) but I did see a stage version at Stratford...which isn't the same thing, obviously, but was interesting all the same.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

A review on Amazon.com tore the Graves book a new one as being too interested in telling its own mythology rather than the Greeks', if that makes any sense. It was a long and (surprisingly) well-written and thought-out argument for why the Graves books are crap. But for my purposes, researching the various perspectives on Herakles and of the nature of myth and heroism, it might still be good. If you dug 'em, then yeah, I think I'll definitely check them out at some point.

Yeah, I get the impression that the Hamilton and Rouse books are rather like the Bullfinch collection. But hey, as I'm new to it all, a couple overall guides could only help. What scares me most, frankly, is keeping track of all the names, places, and relations.

It's why I couldn't read THE SILMARILLION, for one thing, and it's really only thanks to Pevear and Volokhonsky's translations that I was able to keep up with all the Russian names in Dostoevsky.

And hey, I sympathize on that last point. The main reason I checked out Dostoevsky in the first place was because I saw an off-off-off Broadway production of THE IDIOT, which moved me so much that I had to get the book. And adapt a script adaptation of IDIOT myself. I had a lot of free time on my hands, clearly. I don't love the whole of that book, but major chunks of it moved me immeasurably.

But yeah, BROTHERS KARAMAZOV is one of my desert island books. Well worth the rereading, if you ever get the inclination... but I push only the Pevear and Volokhonsky translations. The few others I've tried... guhh, that's why so many people hate and fear Russian literature.

[kagome654.livejournal.com]

I think the reviewer (assuming it's the same one) makes a good point as far as the interpretive notes included with the text go, but the biases he speaks of, especially as far as relating Classical mythology to the Judaeo-Christian tradition go, are not something I consider a huge detriment to the book as a whole. Such things are largely restricted to the author's notes and while there is little doubt that it influenced which tales he included and which he placed the most emphasis on, he never (as far as I can recall) editorialized in the actual text. It should be approached as a sort of primer to mythology, it has more value as a source of basic information than as a source for understanding the nature of the myths themselves. The reviewer seemed to expect more from Graves than what the writer originally set out to do.

I have other problems with the review (specifically the implication that mythology is static and singular in origin and interpretation) but I'm far too lazy to do anything productive about it.

If you want the same basic thing as Graves' 'The Greek Myths' but without any sort of agenda 'Cassell's Dictionary of Classical Mythology' works. It includes family trees, maps and and an index of place names. It may prove helpful when it comes to keeping names straight.

You wrote your own adaptation of 'The Idiot'? That's pretty awesome.

I think my sister has a copy of the Brothers Karamazov (or maybe it's the one I thought I lost) and I'll probably pick it up next time I visit. I have no idea who the translator is.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Good, thanks for the insight! I'll definitely check out Graves then, keeping in mind to read plenty of other sources as well.

Static in interpretation? He/she implies that? Yeah, even I who hasn't read a ton of mythology thinks that's bullcrap.

Oh, great, I'll totally track down Cassell as well. Family trees and maps will come very, very, very handy.

And yeah, I actually just unearthed my IDIOT script yesterday! I wrote it when I was nineteen, with the intention to produce it with my local theatre troupe. I should reread it, see if it holds up. Again, I had no life and no friends, so that's where my free time went.

I don't pretend to be any kind of scholar or connousieur of Russian literature, but in my limited experience, these latest translations have made all the difference between "book you're forced to read in school" and "a damn good book one can read for pleasure." If it's the husband-wife team, then I say "hell yes." Unless you hear a compelling argument otherwise, of course. In which case, please let me know. :)

[heleneotroy.livejournal.com]

I adore Tolstoy!

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

And I look forward to reading him (for the next year or two)!

[heleneotroy.livejournal.com]

You know, men who read Russian literature are awfully sexy. . .

[swimpenguin.livejournal.com]

I've read some of their translations of Notes from the Underground and Anna Karenina, which were great. Alas I haven't finished either because I have a weird thing lately with stopping great books to start other great books.