Jazzy D's Soul Notes

M.I. Finley "The World Of Odysseus" (Penguin)






Ah, for the golden age of academic writing. Is it beautiful? No. But it is clear, concise, and argumentative. No 'pointing out a problem' stuff here; Finley just gives you the answers as he sees them. You'll be in no doubt as to what he thinks at any stage in your reading. For instance, "the historian of ideas and values has no more Satanic seducer to guard against than the man on the Clapham omnibus."
But this isn't popular history by any means, for good or bad. There are no catchy anecdotes, no sex, and murder stories. It's just a solid suggestion of what a world looked like, in this case, the 'Dark Ages' in the eastern Mediterranean, after the Mycenaeans and before the time the Homeric poems were coming together. Basically, not very attractive.

From Wikipedia, I discovered that -
"He taught at Columbia University and City College of New York, where he was influenced by members of the Frankfurt School who were working in exile in America. In 1952, during the Red Scare, Finley was fired from his teaching job at Rutgers University; in 1954, he was summoned by the United States Senate Internal Security Subcommittee and asked whether he had ever been a member of the Communist Party USA. He invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer."

He was fired at the end of the year and could never work in the U.S. again. A political martyr who ended up becoming a British citizen and getting knighted, after hanging out with the Frankfurters in New York? That's my kind of man.

Neil Gaiman "Norse Mythology" (Bloomsbury)




In Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman retells the Norse stories about the forming of the world, the creation of Yggdrasil and the Nine Worlds, how Odin lost his eye, how the gods got their treasures, Loki's children, Thor's journey to the land of the giants, the death of Balder, Ragnarok, and more. Gaiman previously adapted the Norse stories in some of his other works, like American Gods and The Sandman comics, but here he tells the stories in their own setting. Like any storyteller, he's updated the language a bit, except where older vernacular adds weight and focuses on certain elements over others, but the major points of the stories hold true. Gaiman's update demonstrates why these stories remain relevant and continue to enthral us. Fans of Thor, Odin, and Loki will find plenty to enjoy and younger readers wanting to know more about the characters they read about in comics or see in movies, much like Gaiman first learned of Thor from Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's stories, will learn to love the original tales from this retelling. Based on his previous work, Gaiman appears to have been working toward this for a while and he doesn't disappoint.