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ABC Radio National's The Book Show had interview with Ursula LeGuin yesterday, mostly talking about her new novel Lavinia, which retells the events of the last six books of the Aeneid from the point of view of Lavinia. Lavinia doesn't really get much to do in the Aeneid - she basically gets fought over by the men and then gets to go off and found Rome with Aeneas after the book is over.
LeGuin seems to give her rather more to do - among other things, she meets the ghost of Virgil from the future.
I think I've got to read this book - as much as the Aeneid has long been an important book for me, the last six books always pretty much made me go "Huh?" (When I was a freshman in college, I pestered my lit professor with so many questions about, "What does this bit mean? Isn't this bizarre? Did the Romans really read this as an unambiguous work of jingoistic patriotism, because it seems much more ambivalent to me?" that the dear fellow finally turned to me and essentially said, "Miss Shaffer, why don't you major in Comparative Literature and do your senior thesis with me, and we'll see if we can answer some of these questions?" And there's a part of me (a very tiny part) that still regrets not taking him up on it.)
LeGuin seems to give her rather more to do - among other things, she meets the ghost of Virgil from the future.
I think I've got to read this book - as much as the Aeneid has long been an important book for me, the last six books always pretty much made me go "Huh?" (When I was a freshman in college, I pestered my lit professor with so many questions about, "What does this bit mean? Isn't this bizarre? Did the Romans really read this as an unambiguous work of jingoistic patriotism, because it seems much more ambivalent to me?" that the dear fellow finally turned to me and essentially said, "Miss Shaffer, why don't you major in Comparative Literature and do your senior thesis with me, and we'll see if we can answer some of these questions?" And there's a part of me (a very tiny part) that still regrets not taking him up on it.)
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