Parse with me

[radiantfracture]

If you were to read the following two sentences, the subject being Gilgamesh and its effect on the English literary tradition:

Into a canon based in the Bible and the Greek and Latin classics, a religious and a secular canon with a highly developed culture of reception and interpretation grown up around it, entered a new text that belonged, as it were, in both currents and in neither. It was millennia older than either, with elements in common with each, which unsettled our understanding and gave us a sense of the extending, shadowy backstories of our traditions. (Schmidt 4)

--would you say that "both currents" refers to the Bible and the Greek/Latin tradition?

{rf}

Comments

[radiantfracture]

although the suggestion that the classical tradition is where we get the secular part of the Western canon strikes me as nope.

Well, precisely -- and in no sense do I think of Greek and Roman studies as being carried out in a secular -- spirit? -- for most of the history of English literature.

Have you read Martin West's The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth (1997)?

Best to assume I haven't read anything. Then nobody is disappointed.

I think you have mentioned it, though, and maybe pointed me to the archive.org link.

(Reads a bit)

...I like that he calls it a "little book" that ends up 700 pages long.

(Reads a bit more)

He's very wry!

This looks pretty wonderful. Thank you. I wonder if I can read it using the voice reader.

(Tries)

Well, it's oddly melodic.

I still have on my hard drive 4000 unfinished words entitled "Gilgamesh, Malcolm, Achilles,"

That sounds gorgeous. (Is the title a reference to Rilke's "Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes"?)

Your unfinished / transformed work also chimes in a wonderful way with a play I will mention in my Next Post.

I think I have not read "Kouros," but I have ordered the book.

[sovay]

Well, precisely -- and in no sense do I think of Greek and Roman studies as being carried out in a secular -- spirit? -- for most of the history of English literature.

Non-Christian ≠ secular! I want Richard Dawkins, I'll read Richard Dawkins. (I won't read Richard Dawkins.)

Best to assume I haven't read anything. Then nobody is disappointed.

I am hardly disappointed. I worry all the time about telling people things they already know.

Well, it's oddly melodic.

I hope that's the same as comprehensible.

That sounds gorgeous. (Is the title a reference to Rilke's "Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes"?)

Not consciously: I was just bracketing the character with the culture heroes. I did discover and love Rilke in college. This fragment remains one of my favorites.

Your unfinished / transformed work also chimes in a wonderful way with a play I will mention in my Next Post.

I shall check it out!

I think I have not read "Kouros," but I have ordered the book.

Thank you. I hope you will enjoy it. I will also send you things if you want!