Radio War Nerd EP #107 — The War Nerd Iliad
In this episode, the War Nerd talks about his new translation of Homer's war epic, "Rage" or "The Iliad": Why he chose that book, how he approached the translation, and what makes Rage (or "The Iliad") such a wild, funny and frightening book for the ages, reading favorite passages and selections...
Afterwards, the War Nerd and Ames look at Catalonia separatism, Pakistan blasphemy-punishers, Kenya elections & ethnic violence, & the Kurdistan disaster...Lastly, Ames says a few words on the latest moral panic & smear campaign over The eXile...
Buy the War Nerd Iliad!
Total time: 2:25:15
Comments (12)
Hearing John read his opening to the Iliad is wonderful
Bear in mind that the Iliad is likely much closer to its original "form" than the Hebrew Bible available to us today! The current version can be described as a sort of abridged version of Jewish myths and traditions, summarised by boring priests for practical reasons, and therefore perhaps stripped of popular/humoristic nuance. Many of the stories in Genesis are seemingly meant to be funny and have a campy feel to them (such as when Abraham tricks people into thinking his wife is his sister), and others are profoundly philosophical and complex (basically everything up until Noah). The Norse and Celtic mythologies went through the same thing. Relatively boring functionaries (the classics guild of their age) summarised complex traditions in a limited time, stripping them of much of that intense immediacy we sense in the Greek stuff
Hey, Comrades! It's our birthday! Where's the party... the workers' party that is? Haha.
Oh my gods! Kosemen who did the cover is the guy who did All Tomorrows. I love that book. Great choice of artist.
+1 to MS - Would also buy a second, signed copy
Love the book. Would double-dip if you sold signed copies.
GREAT Episode.
Getting the book for Christmas!
Casus trolli is my new favorite word.
Oh sweet, it's on Kindle now too! I don't have to wait until I go home for Christmas.
The book is also in the Google Play store. I realized that my Google account had a discount offer for any book so I bought the Iliad for 33% off.
I'm loving the book! Looking forward to giving this episode a listen