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| Translations of the Odyssey that are being avidly read as people anticipate the new movie. I read the one by Emily Wilson — see this blog post on my reading: The Odyssey |
The New York Times this morning reports: “So far this year, sales of the ‘Odyssey’ rose by 76 percent compared with last year, according to Circana BookScan, a book industry sales tracker.” (source)
Do you find it amazing that this ancient epic apparently has so much to say to modern readers? Have you been reading (or rereading) it? Or just waiting for the movie? Are you convinced, along with various pundits, that people have stopped reading and switched to short-attention-span videos? Besides reading about writers’ views of Homer’s poem, I also just read a long article that says we are post-literate, so I guess it doesn’t matter —
Pessimism from The Atlantic (link)
3 comments:
I've read both The Iliad and The Odyssey in the past, but now that (thanks to you) I've learned of Emily Wilson's new translations, I intend to buy and read her versions right away! Apparently she is the first woman to have translated these epics (at least, translations accepted for publication). I have long been fascinated by these particular Greek myths.
Well, so far this month I've read over 2,000 pages -- none of which are Homer!
I like it that people are buying these old stories again! Will they actually read them?
Yes, people do not read like they used to. A shame really but I understand it. There have been times in my life when I could not relax into a book, and I was a librarian! Life was too stressful and hectic, too many demands on my time, too much grief, too much everything sometimes.
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