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[angharadd]

I'm reading The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (this year's Orange prize winner, no less), and I cannot quite shake the feeling that it is a text of distinct fandom provenance. Where else would a smattering of added romance be accepted as a lofty reinterpretation of a source text? (I'm at chapter 8 at the moment, so she might yet add something

Comments

[olympia_m]

the 'in our day' way of speaking makes sense when you get to the end of the book (as far as I remember

[angharadd]

Overblown expectations might be part of my problem with the book: it is a very readable romance, but whether it should be lauded as a "text that would have made Homer proud" (which was, I believe, the official jurors' verdict) is up to much debate.

I think she's trying to do a re-telling/synopsis of the Iliad for people who've never read it (and for those who have, make the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus explicitly erotic).I do have problems with her treatment of the Iliad: she randomly modernizes some parts of the characters' mentalities (all the characters suddenly become more feminist than they were, etc.), while leaving other parts unexplanably intact (like their ideas of gods freely mingling in the mortals' affairs: I mean, either one goes for basically modern psychology with random archaic imagery as markers of the era, in which case one probably should revise such basic differences, or else one should be more sparing with anachronisms). And the reading of Achiless and Patroclus relationship as erotic has not been

[olympia_m]

It don't know if it would hav emad eHomer proud - I suspect he'd be upset that someone focused on a small aspect of his work and ignored everything else... :) but lowering of expectations certainly makes it a more enjoyable read

[angharadd]

I suspect that Homer wouldn't care either way: the notions of creativity of the day of yore probably were not that conducive to the authors clutching their characters to their bosoms and wailing "my baaaabies, they are hurting my literary baaaabies!.."

The way she frames her idea (planting the modern-sounding romance narrative upon these two's biographies) is prob. not that new either; I believe that there has to be a twist, either in the idea or in its execution; here, I see neither. However, her style is pleasant, as long as she is not rhapsodizing about their romance. (And I should probably finish the book before making any pronuncements of this kind: I'm already past its middle, and unspoiled for any possible finale twists, except for the obvious "everybody dies".)

Wow, much knowledge about the era must bring about many woes XD The props from different eras must cause much unintentional hilarity in the crowds of the cognoscenti. And, yeah, surprise!Poseidon/Athena seems like somebody has gone a bit too far when spicing things up

[valmora]

To people who know nothing about fandom, works created heavily in the fannish tradition probably seem "thematically and stylistically original". Like any other genre, much of fanfiction follows in-community tacit codes in the writing, but because that community is under the radar of most literary types, they're not familiar enough to see when a work is heavily steeped in fanfiction modes of writing.

(This will probably no longer be true in fifteen years.)

[angharadd]

To people who know nothing about fandom, works created heavily in the fannish tradition probably seem "thematically and stylistically original".

That is interesting; however, I am not quite sure if the predominant fannish generic and/or stylistic conventions differ all that much in any significant way from the conventions of "mainstream" romance novels? I mean, yes, there must be some peculiarities that often make fandom-influenced texts recognizable, but I'm not sure if the differences are fundamental enough to make these texts seem original to lay public. (However, what Song of Achilles (and, probably, 50shades, although through different means?) offers is an opportunity to revel in the romance goodness while maintaining the image of being a literary connoisseur or whatever: serious cover, allusions to Homer, all that jazz. The disconnect between the context it is placed into (high-brow literary staff) and the fandom context that I perceive to be more relevant causes me much facepalming:))

[valmora]

differ all that much in any significant way from the conventions of "mainstream" romance novels?
I don't read romance novels so I have no idea.

disconnect between the context it is placed into (high-brow literary staff) and the fandom context that I perceive to be more relevant
I'm not sure that fanworks, or works in a fan tradition, can't be literature. I mean, a number of Shakespeare's plays are rewrites of other people's stories, just done very well. And I won't believe for an instant that shukyo (s2b2)'s works aren't of literary merit, even if they do include boyporn and aren't for money.

[angharadd]

Oh yes they can be wonderful, and creative, and whatnot! It's just that this particular representative of the fannish tradition is not as ground-breaking as it is made out to be in many media.