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9. How Like a God by Brenda Clough - I guess the problem with interpretations and re-interpretations of classic texts is the fact that no one sees the same work in exactly the same way. This can be thrilling when it comes to the multiple ways that Shakespeare is staged and interpreted (Iago is sly, Iago is trying to fuck Othello, Iago isn't even a factor and his plotting only brought out what was already there) and kind of a drag when the interpretation seems utterly off-base (like Orson Scott Card making Hamlet into a platform for his homophobia. Then there are points where an interpretation almost takes over the original text, such as Christian fan fiction about Satan taking over the Bible or Shakespeare's portrayal of Achilles as a whiny little bitch in Troilus & Cressida affecting the way that I read the Iliad up until I had to write a paper about martial standards and saw that as far as the Iliad was concerned, Achilles was perfectly within his rights to withhold his army from the conflict.
This book is about Gilgamesh but it takes a much different approach to the epic than I would. I saw this epic as almost a parody of other epics in which a really awful king meets a companion (lover?) who needs to be tamed by a prostitute and after the requisite superhero fight before getting along, they go off an kill Humbaba. They don't have to kill Humbaba; they just do it because Humbaba is a monster and that's what you do with monsters. They learn too late that it was an empty quest. Then Enkidu dies and Gilgamesh vainly attempts to find eternal life complete with stories of the Flood and Gilgamesh not able to find a flower without it getting stolen or stay away for more than a few days. And the ultimate message is that death is inevitable even for the most extreme people (2/3 god) so admitting that it ends adds value. It's a beautiful and sad poem that was one of the most popular epics of the Bronze Age.
So this one is about mind control. I don't remember Gilgamesh being able to control anyone through mind control, but the rest of it kind of makes sense. The main character is a family man who first learns that he can control people almost by accident but the power grows so much that he comes to fear it. His wife wants to use it. The people around him start to get weird. There's a great deal of unintended consequences like when he makes everyone believe that he's in the office, only to come back and see it burning down and a fire fighter dying to save him when he's not there.
There's a great deal of naturalism in the book which kind of undercuts the fact that the protagonist goes through the Gilgamesh journey from all powerful scumbag to hero because he makes a friend. There's even a rape scene. That's a weird bit and it dates the book since there was this era in fantasy when we accepted heroes as fantasy heroes even when the raped people (Thomas Covenant being the most obvious) and even though this hero pulls back and feels bad from his raping (mind control raping) and then forces the l4 year old daughter of the hippies he's staying with (yikes) to go into English literature or something, it's still a turd in a punch bowl at least for me.
When the book gets to the Gilgamesh stuff it becomes slightly better. He makes a friend and he starts trying to do good. And then Gilgamesh shows up because Gilgamesh is immortal. Like I said, everyone reads these epics differently. So where I see an epic that needs to end on a bittersweet note of the protagonist accepting death after struggle, this author sees a lonely monster who keeps going and keeps trying to find a companion.
I can't say this wasn't entertaining, but I don't know if I'm going to remember it in a few months. Even with the Gilgamesh tropes and the rape this seems more like the kind of book you read for fun and forget about. THe author is cool and I met her on Facebook and it's cool that she's still writing so I'll probably buy a couple more books.
This book is about Gilgamesh but it takes a much different approach to the epic than I would. I saw this epic as almost a parody of other epics in which a really awful king meets a companion (lover?) who needs to be tamed by a prostitute and after the requisite superhero fight before getting along, they go off an kill Humbaba. They don't have to kill Humbaba; they just do it because Humbaba is a monster and that's what you do with monsters. They learn too late that it was an empty quest. Then Enkidu dies and Gilgamesh vainly attempts to find eternal life complete with stories of the Flood and Gilgamesh not able to find a flower without it getting stolen or stay away for more than a few days. And the ultimate message is that death is inevitable even for the most extreme people (2/3 god) so admitting that it ends adds value. It's a beautiful and sad poem that was one of the most popular epics of the Bronze Age.
So this one is about mind control. I don't remember Gilgamesh being able to control anyone through mind control, but the rest of it kind of makes sense. The main character is a family man who first learns that he can control people almost by accident but the power grows so much that he comes to fear it. His wife wants to use it. The people around him start to get weird. There's a great deal of unintended consequences like when he makes everyone believe that he's in the office, only to come back and see it burning down and a fire fighter dying to save him when he's not there.
There's a great deal of naturalism in the book which kind of undercuts the fact that the protagonist goes through the Gilgamesh journey from all powerful scumbag to hero because he makes a friend. There's even a rape scene. That's a weird bit and it dates the book since there was this era in fantasy when we accepted heroes as fantasy heroes even when the raped people (Thomas Covenant being the most obvious) and even though this hero pulls back and feels bad from his raping (mind control raping) and then forces the l4 year old daughter of the hippies he's staying with (yikes) to go into English literature or something, it's still a turd in a punch bowl at least for me.
When the book gets to the Gilgamesh stuff it becomes slightly better. He makes a friend and he starts trying to do good. And then Gilgamesh shows up because Gilgamesh is immortal. Like I said, everyone reads these epics differently. So where I see an epic that needs to end on a bittersweet note of the protagonist accepting death after struggle, this author sees a lonely monster who keeps going and keeps trying to find a companion.
I can't say this wasn't entertaining, but I don't know if I'm going to remember it in a few months. Even with the Gilgamesh tropes and the rape this seems more like the kind of book you read for fun and forget about. THe author is cool and I met her on Facebook and it's cool that she's still writing so I'll probably buy a couple more books.
