Books During "Wartime"

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In the "Kabul Attacked" thread, I mentioned that I have been thinking about, and reread, Aeschylus's Eumenides (in English, The Furies) in the past few weeks after the WTC bombing. For those unfamiliar with this ancient Greek drama, the Furies haunt and torment Orestes for murdering his mother Clytaemestra (the subject of Choephoroe [The Libation-Bearers]). Orestes pleads for the goddess Athene to intervene, which she does by convening a jury of twelve Athenians and presiding over Orestes' trial. The Eumenides, acting as prosecutors, present their case against Orestes, who in turn is defended by Apollo. After the jury splits its verdict, Athene herself decides for Orestes. The Eumenides are outraged, but Athene offers to make them protectors of the city, a role they eventually accept.

Eumenides has been on my mind because of its central theme of the seeming conflict between vengeance and law. Aeschylus's conclusion is that the two have to be balanced -- without law and its attendant processes, vengeance spins out of control and is utterly destructive; yet, without the emotional sense that provokes vengeance, law becomes sterile and formalistic and antithetical to justice. I believe that this is very pertinent in considering the aftermath of September 11th, not because Eumenides poses any easy answers (it doesn't) but because it describes quite aptly where we are now as we try to figure out what to do in response to that day's events.

Any other thoughts or recommendations? If mine is too high-falutin', anyone whose been reading lots of Tom Clancy is also welcome to pipe up :-)

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Sunday, 7 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

for some reason, after hearing about the attack today, i picked up my kafka collection and re-read "a hunger artist." not a hundred percent sure why, but it was the first thing i instinctively gravitated towards.

― jess, Sunday, 7 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

gah, coupled with my other thread, this makes me look like a monomaniacal loony. tonite i'm planning on breaking out the big book of krazy kat strips. there's something so perfectly dovetail zen about herriman's little world that it always sends me away with nice dreams. i think i need them right now.

― jess, Sunday, 7 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ginsberg's America.

― Geoff, Sunday, 7 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

for some reason, after hearing about the attack today, i picked up my kafka collection and re-read "a hunger artist."

I love that story, a good choice. I keep meaning to reread Candide...not that it exactly provides any answers, but I find it comforting in an odd sort of way.

― Nicole, Sunday, 7 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I keep meaning to reread Candide...not that it exactly provides any answers, but I find it comforting in an odd sort of way.

Interesting that you would bring up that book, since Voltaire wrote it in the aftermath of an enormous earthquake in Lisbon, Portugal. It isn't being hyperbolic that the Lisbon earthquake had as much of an impact upon eighteenth century Europeans that September 11th has had thusfar (hell, the impact was probably worse). It really shook a lot of people's faith in the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment (Momus, you around)?

Long way of saying that I've thought about Candide a bit these past few weeks myself, though I haven't re-read it. Next on the list, perhaps :-)

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Harlot's Ghost', Norman Mailer. I remember on 9/11 thinking, "I'm glad I read that, it seems to have equipped me to better preserve my equilibrium", though I couldn't put my finger on why.

― dave q, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i find it really diffcult to continue the tim drum and snodgrass will never be the same , so i pulled down some WCW and Edna St Vincent Milay

― anthony, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Has anyone read the new bio on Edna St. Vincent Millay? If so, is it any good?

― Nicole, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i actually seemed unable to get away from anything related to the bombings. london fields has the crisis with the end of the world looming and the middle east threatening. but the creepiest "allusion" was in rushdie's the moor's last sigh where a character said these lines: "new buildings will rise. the city will survive. better days will come."

(and, of course, there's delillo's underworld whose ghostly spine, a photo of the twin towers, stared back at me from the bookshelf.)

― fred solinger, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No it isnt.
She is one of my favorite poets but this book and Zelda ( which she also wrote) concentrate on scandal and fail to tell us anything new about the writing itself.

― anthony, Monday, 8 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm still reading Montaigne (I will be reading him for the next 5 years at this rate). Topics covered so far have been about half innocuous - thoughts on lying and memory - and half relevant - when to negotiate in war, when to be merciful, how to behave with regard to one's own death. He has a distanced, vaguely donnish style which is quite comforting.

― Tom, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Roth -- Sabbath's Theater. No relation at all. The Battle Cry Of Freedom, about the Civil War. Again, little relation.

― Sterling Clover, Tuesday, 9 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i too am in the middle of sabbath's theater, and i can back sterling's claim. though roth's treatment of women, particularly in this book, calls to mind the taliban. it also happens to be the funniest thing i've read by him; i wonder if the two go together (i certainly hope not!).

― fred solinger, Thursday, 11 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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