Homer Whole by Eric Larsen

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Homer Whole by Eric Larsen

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Homer Whole by Eric Larsen

The Iliad is one of the most misinterpreted--and thereby maligned--books ever

composed, recited, or written. Eric Larsen's Homer Whole sets out to correct this misreading

of the great epic, to move it out of the caves of primitivism current readers

consign it to and raise it to its proper place as the central foundational work of modern

literary art.

Generalizations like Homer glorifies war, Homer's highest value is violence, or

honor in Homer is gained only through pillage, slaughter, and war are heard too

often to be suffered easily, and they are also incorrect, being half-truths no less false

than girls are bad at math or Frenchmen are arrogant.

Reading the Iliad with an open rather than a pre-judging or pre-selecting mind--that

is, reading it whole--brings to light psychological elements, philosophic dimensions,

emotional nuances, and myriad dramatic subtleties that remain forever locked in darkness

for those who assume, believe, or have been taught that the poem is primitive, that it

comes from an age of barbarism, extoling only pillage, greed, and violence.

The Iliad has in it much blood, gore, suffering, and death; but it also, in Blake's great

phrase, holds much Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love. To emphasize one side of the poem

over the other; to assume one to be good and the other bad; one barbaric and the

other civilized--this is to read the Iliad with one eye closed and the poem reduced to

one-dimensionality, the poem's aesthetic, emotional, and philosophical textures and

depths--the essence of its modernity--unseen and unknown.

Homer Whole describes and elucidates the real reasons why the Iliad has survived as the

seminal classic that it is, reasons unknown to most readers, both inside academia and out.

Eric Larsen has skied to both the geographic North Pole and South Pole, twice. He was also the first person to reach both poles under human power, and the summit of Mount Everest in a single calendar year. He has raced in the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, summited Mount McKinley, and biked across the United States. A filmmaker, Larsen created Melting: Last Race to the Pole, a documentary about his Save the Poles expedition, which premiered on Animal Planet in December 2015. Larsen gives motivational and educational lectures to schools, universities, non-profits, and corporations around the world. A frequent media commentator, he has been featured in the New York Times, Time magazine, Outside magazine, National Geographic, The Guardian, and Men's Journal, as well as on CNN, NBC News, CBS News, and BBC News, among other outlets. He lives in Boulder, Colorado. Hudson Lindenberger is a Boulder-based adventure writer. His work has been published in Men's Journal, Skiing, 5280, Women's Running, Elevation Outdoors, and Story.
SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780988334328
ISBN 10 0988334321
Title Homer Whole
Author Eric Larsen
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher Oliver Arts and Open Press
Year published 2017-04-28
Number of pages 192
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable