Posted by guillermo maynez
on 28/11/2011, 12:14:15, in reply to "Re: Recent Reading"
189.178.234.130
Well, this exchange is very motivating to the reading of Nordic / Germanic sagas. I've never read any of them. My recent reading includes nonfiction: "Monsoon" by Robert D. Kaplan, an excellent geostrategic analysis of the Indian Ocean basin, and I'm beginning to read Geoffrey Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales". I have read the fragments included in Bloom's "Best Poems of the English Language", and found out that it would be easier to read them in translation, since there is no great loss, certainly no grammatical one, and only ortographic changes. So I'm reading a Penguin Classics edition. Any suggestions about translations? I'm quite satisfied with the one I'm reading (I don't have the book with me right now and don't remember the translator's name).
I also read Chilean author Jorge Edwards's "The Ne'er-do-well of the Family" (my translation of "El Inútil de la Familia").
I have finished "Omensetter's Luck" and will post my comments on the corresponding thread.
--Previous Message--
: I neglected to mention the most telling parallel in Star
: Wars as Parzival: At the beginning of both tales,
: Luke/Parzival is being raised in remote seclusion on a
: farm in the hopes he won't learn his father's true
: nature and want to follow in his footsteps as a [Jedi]
: knight. Nonetheless a chance encounter leads to his
: running off to try to become a knight.
:
: --Previous Message--
: Doing Wagner as a non-operatic film is an interesting
: idea. I had similar thoughts about Parzival while
: reading it.
:
: It's fascinating also to speculate how much influence
: these epics have actually had on films that, at first
: glance, are unrelated. "Star Wars," for
: example, has elements of both the Ring and Parzival.
:
: Star Wars as the Ring: Luke is Siegmund, princess
: Leia, his twin sister, is Sieglinde. They fall in
: love, not knowing that they are related. Luke/Siegmund
: has a magic sword and uses it to fight against his
: father Vader/Wotan. There is cutting off of hands.
:
: Star Wars as Parzival: Luke is Parzival, Han Solo is
: Gawan. They take separate paths on a similar quest.
: Luke/Parzival is on a spiritual quest and, along the
: way, learns the true identity of his father. He makes
: two visits, deep in the forest, to a reclusive
: ex-knight who becomes his tutor. Han/Gawan's goals are
: more secular and material, first involving a private
: feud. He is cocky and very direct in his approach to
: the ladies.
:
: There is also a wonderful episode in Parzival where
: Gawan seduces a beautiful and shapely young woman with
: a single kiss, immediately turning her against her own
: family. When they are surprised in their lovemaking by
: Gawan's enemies, she leads him to a tower where they
: defend themselves using an oversized chessboard as a
: shield and chess pieces as missiles. I immediately
: thought of all the James Bond movies where similar
: scenes have been played out.
:
:
:
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