false 15046 22 "When I was asked to choose a myth to write about, I realized I had chosen already. The story of Atlas holding up the world was in my mind before the telephone call had ended. If the call had not come, perhaps I would never have written the story, but when the call did come, that story was waiting to be written. Rewritten. The recurring language motif of <i>Weight</i> is &#8216;I want to tell the story again.&#8217; My work is full of cover versions. I like to take stories we think we know and record them differently. In the retelling comes a new emphasis or bias, and the new arrangement of the key elements demands that fresh material be injected into the existing text. <i>Weight</i> moves far away from the simple story of Atlas&#8217;s punishment and his temporary relief when Heracles takes the world off his shoulders. I wanted to explore loneliness, isolation, responsibility, burden, and freedom, too, because my version has a very particular end not found elsewhere.&#8221; -- from Jeanette Winterson&#8217;s Foreword to <i>Weight</i></div> 2270630 2005 Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles (Canongate Myths) total:840|5:243|4:313|3:199|2:69|1:16| 840 3218 1206 125 5 6 false false Tue Jul 24 22:24:20 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 24 22:26:23 -0700 2007
Have you ever read someone you're a fan of and thought; there's no way to do it better than this? For me it's Jeanette Winterson, her lyricism, her wide flung know...more...]]> 4 5 false false Sun Jul 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Dec 04 20:01:11 -0800 2008 Tue Jul 28 05:48:13 -0700 2009 1 gin and tonic or vodka and tonic? Today, I felt weighted. Today I wondered if I all this --stuff-- is really worth it. And today I finished this book.

Jeanette Winterson...more...]]> 4 2 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 04 10:34:47 -0800 2007 Fri Jan 18 22:01:33 -0800 2008
she did not let me down. it wasn't fabulous (i could have done without all the scenes of heracles' prick dripping) but the story itself . . . there were line...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Feb 07 11:54:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 07 12:02:51 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Mar 25 13:53:17 -0700 2007 Sat Jun 09 07:30:08 -0700 2007
The author wants to tell the story of Heracles and Atlas. Cool. Apparently she thinks she's the first person to make to connection between this ancient tale and the story of Jesus, insofar as interrupting the story with an entire chapter explaining the whole "...more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jan 09 10:04:00 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 09 10:11:06 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 09 08:25:21 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 09 08:35:07 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Apr 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 22 11:31:21 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 25 07:34:01 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jun 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 18:48:24 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 28 14:37:36 -0700 2009 1.5 The Penelopiad, and started to read it then, but put it down halfway. (I almost never do that!)

This time around I liked it perfectly ok. It is kind of rambly, but often pretty. Eventually I took away one whole star for all the times I had to read about H...more...]]> 2 1 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 06 11:13:01 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 04 05:57:57 -0800 2007 The Penelopiad, I learned that it was part of a series of modern reworkings of myths, and of course I was interested in reading the others. The problem is that I picked up this book thinking of Margaret Atwood, and it was not written by Margaret Atwood. I had troubl...more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Apr 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 28 16:55:29 -0700 2008 Mon Apr 28 16:58:43 -0700 2008
winterson is my dream of communication, with myself and others. and, i really liked her vulgar depiction of mythology.]]> 3 1 false false Mon May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2006 Sun Jul 29 19:38:34 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 29 19:39:01 -0700 2007 http://trebro.livejournal.com/239529.htm...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Aug 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 16 12:02:15 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 16 12:08:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Mar 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Feb 07 19:37:30 -0800 2009 Thu Jun 04 18:27:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Oct 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 17 14:58:44 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 27 06:36:51 -0700 2008 1 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Sep 24 12:24:28 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 25 14:22:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 12 21:25:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 12 22:32:06 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Nov 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Sun Jun 01 21:39:06 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 01 21:39:20 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 20 23:43:06 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 23 01:06:04 -0700 2007
The short story here is that Atlas as one of the original r...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Dec 13 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 13:59:53 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 14 14:02:39 -0800 2008 1 more...]]>