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Indlæser... Ragnarok: The End of the Gods (2011)af A.S. Byatt
Indlæser...
Bliv medlem af LibraryThing for at finde ud af, om du vil kunne lide denne bog. Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog. From the author's afterword, this seems to be part of a publisher series of retold myths. The author decided to stick to the mythical element and used a framing device of a young child discovering the myths through reading them. It's noticeable how very violent this is, and how it doesn't end well for anyone. The afterword was very interesting in itself. ( ) This retelling struck me as abstract and dry. I know some readers always find Byatt abstract and dry, but the intellectual quality of her writing is one of the characteristics I usually find most appealing. Here, however, it wasn’t effective—it sucked all the vibrancy out of what I find is an earthy mythos. Unlike others in the Canongate's The Myths series that I’ve read, Byatt didn’t “retell” the myth, but simply told the myth literally, under a thin veneer of a girl who, during World War II in the UK, likes to read Norse mythology. I’ve recently read Neal Gaiman’s Norse Mythology, and frankly it was far more enjoyable, if far less academic. I had really high hopes for this book, but while it was interesting in a vague sort of way it fell quite short of being memorable. Byatt sets herself up with a dual storyline - contrasting the events of WWII with those leading up to the mythological Ragnarok, but her protagonist draws her parallels from the English countryside (where her family has been evacuated to) rather than from the global conflicts of the war. Clearly Byatt has drawn on her own experiences and the story is meant to be semi-autobiographical, but the lack of a real conflict in half of the story made the entire book fall flat. Not to mythologize (or romanticize) the horrors of WWII, but there was so much more that she could have drawn on to truely create a unique narrative which blended myth and reality.
Ragnarök is een sympathiek boek (met een verhelderend nawoord), maar tegelijkertijd is het wat taai, omdat Byatt de mythen meer aandacht geeft dan de belevenissen van het kind. Al die mythische passages krijgen op den duur iets eentonigs, omdat ze worden verteld in plechtstatig, ronkend proza waarin clichés en bijvoeglijke naamwoorden niet worden geschuwd. In dat geval mis je wel iets, want als je dit proza hardop aan jezelf voorleest, blijkt het opeens toch diepte en meeslependheid te bezitten. Geen wonder – die mythen waren bedoeld om te worden voorgedragen, niet om stilletjes in een hoekje te worden gelezen. De lezer die zijn schaamte overwint en zijn stem verheft, wint er een dimensie bij. What she has made in this case – thanks to a rare fusion of imagination and intellect, sensual poetry and cerebral prose, youthful joy and elderly wisdom – is an entire world, compressed but energetically alive in all its details. When we have artists like this, who needs gods HæderspriserNotable Lists
As the bombs of the Blitz rain down on Britain, one young girl is evacuated to the countryside. She is struggling to make sense of her new wartime life. Then she is given a copy of Asgard and the Gods -- a book of ancient Norse myths -- and her inner and outer worlds are transformed. Ingen biblioteksbeskrivelser fundet. |
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Google Books — Indlæser... GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit:
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