Thursday, September 27, 2018
The Epic of Gilgamesh
translated by N. K. Sandars
In my formative years, a good chunk of my cultural literacy came from comic books. Writers would mine history and classic literature for plots and characters, or would inject interesting little facts into their stories. I soaked it up, as kids are wont to do, and ended up with a lot of second hand trivia in my head. Over the years I've slowly caught up, reading the books that inspired my favorite comic stories. The most recent is The Epic of Gilgamesh. It's a collection of tales about the king of Uruk in ancient Mesopotamia--tales of adventures, loss, and a quest for immortality. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. The original tale character is so much better than his comic derivatives, and Ms. Sanders has produced a quite readable translation.
Keeping it on my shelf.
LibraryThing link
In my formative years, a good chunk of my cultural literacy came from comic books. Writers would mine history and classic literature for plots and characters, or would inject interesting little facts into their stories. I soaked it up, as kids are wont to do, and ended up with a lot of second hand trivia in my head. Over the years I've slowly caught up, reading the books that inspired my favorite comic stories. The most recent is The Epic of Gilgamesh. It's a collection of tales about the king of Uruk in ancient Mesopotamia--tales of adventures, loss, and a quest for immortality. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. The original tale character is so much better than his comic derivatives, and Ms. Sanders has produced a quite readable translation.
Keeping it on my shelf.
LibraryThing link
Labels: OnMyShelf
// posted by John @ 6:01 PM 
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