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World's top writers recruited to rewrite ancient tales

ions

ions

New Member
CBC Source

The story of Penelope, as imagined by Margaret Atwood, is among the first titles to be released in an international series of books that retell ancient myths.

Publishers from around the world are collaborating on the open-ended series, in one of the most ambitious projects undertaken by the industry.

The first five books of the series were released at the Frankfurt Book Fair Friday. Prominent writers from around the world have been recruited to write for the series.

The Penelopiad: The Myth of Penelope and Odysseus by Atwood is a retelling of Homer's story from Penelope's point of view.
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Whoa... very interesting. I'm actually very interested to know who and what Donna Tartt is going to write about in this series... :)

ds
 
I would have picked up Atwoods contribution already, The Penelopiad, but it's quite tiny for $25. I'll wait till next year when it's a $6.99 remainder.
 
Stewart said:
What does its size matter?
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Put simply, I'm poor. I try to buy books that are going to last me a while. I can't easily justify paying that much for something I'm going to read in a single sitting.
 
I wouldn't describe 210 pages as 'tiny' unless by comparison to Fatwood's usual epic tomes. I was keen to find the Jeanette Winterson one from this series, Weight, which retells the myth of Atlas and Heracles, but they didn't have it in my local Waterstone's even though they did have the Atwood.
 
The pages are not very large and the margins and spacing are generous. Regardless of page count it's short. Library is possible but unlikely. The only location close to me is a satelite library to a central one and their selection is poor. New books there? Forget about it. Could probably be ordered to be sent from Central but I'm not usually inclined to do that. If I happen to see it at the library between now and when it becomes available as a remainder I will borrow it and save myself the small remainder cost.

A 'remainder' is not a paperback but the very same hardcover. When a bookstore(probably chains mostly) decides they're not going to sell any more hardcovers at full price they send them back to the publisher. The publisher collects all these returns and auctions the lots off. The chains bid on them, say 10,000 pieces for $10,000 bucks as an example. They then plunk these books on a bargain table at $9.99. Customers say "ohhhh what a deal! This was originally four times that! I'm gonna buy it!" Remainders. The whole process takes about a year depending on how well the book sells. If people keep buying at full price why bother right? I expect a book like this new Atwood to be too esoteric to sell consistently at full price and will likely be a remainder in about a year.

Is this enough justification yet? :p
 
Ooh, thanks for the heads-up, ions! I'm extremely interested in Greek Myths, and can't wait to got my hands on some of these new releases. I'm currently a big fan of Atwood, too, after reading Oryx and Crake :D
 
I've been hooked on retellings since I was little and watched The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. Fractured Fairytales was one of my favorite segments.
Have any of you seen The Jolly Postman and Other People's Letters? It is a children's book that has letters written by various storybook characters. They are actually in envelopes, and are very funny. For example, Goldilocks sends a letter of apology to The Three Bears...fun.
 
I requested Penelopiad at the library and as of today, I'm 34th on the 'holds' list.

It's currently on sale at Chapters.ca (ions, are you reading this?) for $13.75 CAD, so I may break down and buy it 'cause the library copy's not coming anytime soon. :(
 
I read the Jeanette Winterson one last week, Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles. At 150 pages of very well-spaced print, it took little over an hour. Some nice stuff in the vein of Winterson's typical allegorical, playful approach:

My father was Poseidon. My mother was the Earth.

My father loved the strong outlines of my mother's body. He loved her demarcations and her boundaries. He knew where he stood with her. She was solid, certain, shaped and material.

My mother loved my father because he recognised no boundaries. His ambitions were tidal. He swept, he sank, he flooded, he re-formed. Poseidon was a deluge of a man. Power flowed off him. He was deep, sometimes calm, but never still.

My mother and father teemed with life. They were life. Creation depended on them and had done so before there was air or fire. They sustained so much. They were so much. To each other they were irresistible.

Both were volatile. My father obviously so, my mother more alarmingly. She was serene as a rock but volcano'd with anger. She was quiet as a desert but tectonically challenged. When my mother threw a plate across the room, the whole world felt the crash. My father could be whipped into a storm in moments. My mother grumbled and growled and shook for days or weeks or months until her rage fissured and crumpled entire cities or forced humankind into lava-like submission.

Humankind... They never could see it coming. Look at Pompeii. There they are in the bathhouses, sitting in their chairs, wearing skeletal looks of charred surprise.

When my father wooed my mother she lapped it up. He was playful, he was warm, he waited for her in the bright blue shallows and came a little closer, then drew back, and his pull was to leave a little gift on her shore; a piece of coral, mother of pearl, a shell as spiralled as a dream.

Sometimes he was a long way out and she missed him and the beached fishes gasped for breath. Then he was all over her again, and they were mermaids together, because there was always something feminine about my father, for all his power. Earth and water are the same kind, just as fire and air are their opposites.
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Overall it's a bit thin though, with rather too many twittish cock-jokes for my tastes (when Winterson casts the quintessentially masculine Heracles as a sort of modern lout), but with some good writing as you might expect. I'll hold my fire on the others in the series unless they're by people I'm really interested in.
 
Ell said:
I requested Penelopiad at the library and as of today, I'm 34th on the 'holds' list.

It's currently on sale at Chapters.ca (ions, are you reading this?) for $13.75 CAD, so I may break down and buy it 'cause the library copy's not coming anytime soon. :(
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It is?! I work there and haven't noticed. :eek: I think it's got 30% off stickers on it. Plus the 10% for iRewards so I guess it'd be down to $13.75. I would like to read [i[The Odyssey[/i] first for both perspective on this and Ulysses which I'd like to get to soon. I'm in no rush for The Penelopiad.
 
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