quote:
Originally posted by Mad_Lear:
I'm probably being a little eggheaded here, but anyone here ever read the Iliad by Homer?
Yep, it's pretty good. But not great. Worth reading but not worth writing a term paper on. Too formalized and unrealistic for my tastes. Homer's Favorites go around killing dozens at a time, and no one on either side has the brains/guts to gang up on them. Of course, that's a stock device in fantasy/myth stories, but authors like Tolkien do a better job of describing how the hero/villian strikes terror into the hearts of his foes, so that no one can stand before him except a comparable villain/hero. The other problem with the Iliad is that almost always the guys getting killed are described briefly (to establish that the hero isn't just killing a bunch of nobodies), and that gets tiresome after a while. It doesn't impress me after 3 or 4 millenia that the guy Achilles is about to spear is the son of some king of a dinky island in the Aegean and some tree sprite. I think it's more like a martial arts movie than pro wrestling, but poetically done. Although come to think of it, there's a lot of childish boasting and ego stuff, and fighting over women, and managers/refs (gods) fixing the matches. The fight scenes are suitably gory, but too brief. You read a whole paragraph about Leomates and then his fight with Achilles is just "brave Achilles's mighty arm shoved a broad spear into his stomach and his intestines spilled out, like thick spaghetti with chunky Ragu."
However, if you skim the boring stuff, the overall effect of the work is very moving.
Re: And now for something Totally off topic :)
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