felis_ultharus: The Pardoner from the Canterbury Tales (Default)
I finished Apuleius's The Golden Ass just now on my lunch break at work -- now increasingly translated as Metamorphosis perhaps to avoid the misconception that it's ancient Roman porn. Of course, with Metamorphosis for a title, it could easily be confused with Franz Kafka, or with Ovid (who actually was writing ancient Roman porn).

So it's an 1800-year-plus-old book about a man who decides it'd be a great idea to dabble in witchcraft and accidentally turns himself into a donkey. Like most pre-modern novels, it's more a serial set of adventures -- like a D&D game -- than a single novel. In the end of it, he's saved by the Goddess, in her guise as Isis.

Some thoughts:

Review continues )

I've now moved on to Margaret Atwood's Payback, her lectures about debt as a cultural and religious and moral phenomenon (as opposed to a purely economic one).
felis_ultharus: The Pardoner from the Canterbury Tales (Default)
I woke up very late this morning since I spent half the night reading Headhunter. I'd gotten to a scene I just couldn't put down -- Marlow's conversation with Austin Purvis, two-thirds of the way through, for those who've read it.

The novel has gotten quite disturbing, but in a good way. Cathartic may be the better word. Part of his argument is that a good novel can be a form therapy, and it does feel oddly therapeutic to read Headhunter. But Aristotle knew more than 2000 years ago that pity and horror can purge an audience of its own inner demons. It's as much true now as it was then.

In a much lighter vein, this is the second time I've seen this virtual Thanksgiving card from American Greetings -- the strangest card in any format I've ever known.

I can only conclude from it that either American Greetings has been infilitrated by vegetarians hoping to put an end to the annual turkey-slaughter, or that the company is trying to corner that small but vital niche market made up of people who desire to feast on the flesh of Gloria Gaynor.

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felis_ultharus: The Pardoner from the Canterbury Tales (Default)
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September 2011

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