The Lost Books of The Odyssey: A Novel

The Lost Books of The Odyssey: A Novel by Zachary Mason

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is a beautiful collection of tone poems and evocative scenes inspired by the Odyssey. Those looking for a through-composed novel will be disappointed. The collection of stories explores Odysseus and a multitude of other characters and events from both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Author, Mason, demonstrates a deep love for and knowledge of these old stories, both the tales in the "official" version we all read in high school, and those apocryphal tales that survived many generations of oral and written tradition. The overall effect of the book is a haunting, poetic interpretation of a classic that has deep roots in Western culture.



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A Memory of Wind

A Memory of Wind by Rachel Swirsky
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Poetic retelling of Iphigenia at Aulis.  The vivid sensory detail fades as the novella progresses, but that may be less an inability to sustain, and more intentional depiction of flesh and blood girl dissolving into spirit wind.  Swirsky circles back again and again to two key familial moments in Iphigenia's life, fleshing out the memories a little at a time to emotionally coincide with the story's climax.

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Roan Stallion

I am considered the member of our household least likely to appreciate reading or writing poetry. I find the position rather ironic, as the first thing I ever wrote was a poem, and throughout most of my childhood and adolescence I wrote far more poetry than fiction. A few hot, summer nights ago, we sat down to read the icy, Christmas-time poem, "Roan Stallion," from a book of selected poems by Robinson Jeffers.

The poem is a beautiful epic. Its heroine, California, embodies her dual heritage (and the poet's love of the West Coast) with only her evocative name. Although the poem was written in 1925, California's quest is so easy for the modern reader to grasp. I loved the scene in which she gathers her daughter's Christmas toys to keep them from getting wet (perhaps because, if I'd been in her place, I, too, would have been more worried about the gifts than drowning or freezing). The mystical scene which follows this is a vivid mix of naturalism and Christian mythology, again reflecting California's dual heritage. And the end of the poem was a strong union of spirituality and animal nature, in which California once more embodies two different natures.

The experience of reading "Roan Stallion" has me wondering our small town, composing impromptu poems on the voice recorder of my iPhone. Fortunately no one has come after me with a straitjacket, yet

The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell

Several nights ago I had a nightmare. I was moving, but could only carry an armful of possessions if I meant to make it out of the apartment alive- because the apartment kept morphing as did the house in the House of Leaves. The part of the nightmare I found most interesting was that, on several occasions, my husband tried to telephone me. As I attempted to slide the bar on my iPhone to answer his call, the slider began to swirl and wriggle around on the screen. No matter how my finger chased it, the sliding bar kept eluding me, and I could not make contact with him.

If he were still alive, I think Joseph Campbell would have gotten a kick out of the way my subconscious brought together my modern, daily experience and mythic archetype.

The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell is a collection of interviews conducted toward the end of Campbell's life by Michael Toms. As Campbell, himself, points out, Toms does an excellent job of asking questions, of providing a springboard from which Campbell can really get to the essence of what he'd learned during a lifetime of studying mythology.

During the interviews Campbell explains why humans need mythology- that is, to provide a way to connect to the spiritual, to bring the spiritual in accord with nature, to bring the spiritual in accord with society, and to guide the individual through the stages of his life.

Campbell posits that the mythic link between the spiritual and society has been broken. Myths were once culture-specific, geographic-specific stories that defined an in-group and the way the individual related to his in-group. In our modern world in which the in-group is becoming the entire world, there is no universal mythology which binds all of humanity together- at least, not yet.

So the individual is left with two problems. First, he has to find some way to relate to his in-group. This identification can be accomplished by the old-fashioned method of defining an "us" and a "them," or it can be accomplished by a realization of spiritual unity, the idea that all of humanity is in the same boat. Campbell obviously believes that the latter method is the healthier, more indicative of maturity in human evolution. Even if the individual manages to identify with the vast and overwhelming everything and everyone, he is still left with the problem of finding a mythology- a symbolic link to the spiritual- that has meaning to him, personally, and can help guide him through the stages of his own life.

Much of Campbell's life work consisted of comparing and contrasting the different forms which different cultures assign to the same myths. During one interview, he discussed a Buddhist myth in which the future Buddha has an encounter with a monster called "Sticky Hair." As Campbell proceeds to tell the tale, it becomes clear that this ancient, oriental story is quite similar to Br'er Rabbit and the Tar Baby. Through study we can learn that the myths of many cultures tell one story, that they address the spiritual needs we all share. But if the individual is no longer tied to the stories of his tribe, his country, or his local religion, where will he find the symbols and stories that link him to the spiritual?

Campbell notes that occasionally an artist, such as Picasso, James Joyce, or T.S. Eliot can help the individual begin to forge those connections. Yet Campbell insists that the ultimate solution to finding a symbolic system of links to the spiritual, is for each individual to create a personal mythology, appropriate to himself, alone.

I find the juxtaposition of these seemingly disparate ideas- the need to identify with humanity as one community, one spirit- and at the same time, for each individual to create his own, unique mythology- a problem as sticky as the Tar Baby.

Campbell also mentions that, when established mythic symbols fail to define a connection to spirituality for the individual, and that individual has not yet built a link of his own, the result is frequently nightmares. In dream the subconscious tries to construct a mythology of its own.

This insight brought me back to my dream involving the slider bar on the iPhone. In the nightmare my subconscious started with mythic symbols established in the book House of Leaves (morphing architecture), then went on to feverishly invent its own version of a chasing myth using the iPhone.

There are lots of chasing myths involving lovers, in which a man smitten by love begins a fruitless chase for a woman. The most obvious example is Daphne's flight from Apollo. Countless other cultures have personified astronomical bodies, so that man chases woman, wronged, eternally across the sky. Even the story of Pecos Bill and Slue-foot Sue addresses this idea of one lover chasing the other (hopelessly) when Slue-foot Sue bounces endlessly from the earth to the moon, and back again. The fact that my subconscious recreated this myth, referencing iPhone touch screen technology instead of the natural world, indicates one way in which I might attempt to build my own, personal link to the spiritual.

Just as Michael Toms knew exactly what questions to ask Joseph Campbell during the interviews, Joseph Campbell knows just the questions to bring up in his listener's mind. Do you belong to a group? Who are they- what defines them? Do you have some way to connect to something greater than yourself? How do you forge that connection? What has influenced your symbolic links to the spiritual, and what can you do to make those symbolic links really mean something to you?

If any of these questions interest you, I highly recommend listening to "The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell."

Transformations of King Arthur Through Time

This week I finished Joseph Campbell's Transformations of Myth Through Time. Campbell takes on the daunting task of explaining the Western individual's cultural and spiritual heritage, beginning with the dawn of human consciousness, and discussing the major Eastern and Western civilizations whose stories make up our heritage. He also attempts to answer the question "How do I connect with the magic of the universe?" for those who come from Judeo-Christian traditions, and provides an explanation of Oriental philosophy and spirituality to the Westerner, including how these traditions influenced our own.

The final three chapters are a special treat for fantasy fans like me. Campbell delves deep into the tradition of the troubadours, and unearths the dawn of such legends as King Arthur, The Search for the Holy Grail, and Tristan and Isolde.

I had read several accounts of historical leaders named Arthur who may or may not have been the source of the Arthur stories. Campbell suggests Arthur was "originally a Celtic god, and the place where we find him revered is in the Pyrenees." Campbell explains that the name Arthur is related to several ancient deities, including Artus (Roman) and Artemis (Greek). In all these cases, the deity is identified with the bear. Joseph Campbell fans will know that the bear is the "oldest worshiped deity in the world...going back to Neanderthal times." There's a really cool photograph accompanying this text, a tombstone from first century A.D. in St. Pé, France. The inscription reads, "Lexiia, the daughter of Odan, has gained merit through her vows to Artehe." Campbell finds it easy to make the leap from "Artehe" to "Arthur" (you will, too, if you speak both words out loud), and uses this monument as evidence that Arthur was still a deity in Roman times.

Campbell does an excellent job of connecting tales from distant lands and distant times to the swarm of stories we all have swimming deep inside our brains. His tone is conversational, and laced with humor, the weight of a lifetime of mythological study, and love for these stories.