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matthew_whiteman's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
head still spinning but i wasn't as swept up in this as something like autobio of red or beauty of the husband. interesting reading carson in full academic weapon mode. even then, there's still a kind of a lyrical beauty to much of this, and the verses of sappho, et al. are so embedded in the text it often did feel like reading poetry in any case.
do i now know what/who eros is? kind of? but i think the fact that i can't say i do with much certainty is nothing against carson. its more a testament to the maverick and ephemeral quality of eros, and to my pea brain. would love to have my own copy to come back to.
do i now know what/who eros is? kind of? but i think the fact that i can't say i do with much certainty is nothing against carson. its more a testament to the maverick and ephemeral quality of eros, and to my pea brain. would love to have my own copy to come back to.
rachelselene's review
3.0
this book left me in a daze and i'm still not sure how i feel about it.
i have a degree in classical studies and i've read a decent amount of classical poetry. i have no doubt that this background knowledge helped me immensely as i made my way through this book. this is not a light read - honestly, i think i would have given up quite quickly if i didn't already know a bit about ancient greek culture and literature. carson tries to be poetic with her language and there are some truly exquisite passages, but this book is aimed at academics first and pleasure readers second. it is extremely dense and very technical, and i frequently found myself reading sentences a few times over to make sure that i understood. however, i also found myself looking up from the pages to collect myself after being struck by a particularly beautiful phrase. one of my favorites:
"if we follow the trajectory of eros we consistently find it tracing out the same route: it moves out from the lover toward the beloved, then ricochets back to the lover himself and the hole in him, unnoticed before. who is the real subject of most love poems? not the beloved. it is that hole."
it's a well-crafted and thought-provoking study to be sure, but my interest waned as i went along, then rose again near the conclusion. i think "baffled" is the word that best describes how i feel at the end of it all. did i like it or did i not? i think i did. but i also think a reread might be needed to help me reach a final decision.
i have a degree in classical studies and i've read a decent amount of classical poetry. i have no doubt that this background knowledge helped me immensely as i made my way through this book. this is not a light read - honestly, i think i would have given up quite quickly if i didn't already know a bit about ancient greek culture and literature. carson tries to be poetic with her language and there are some truly exquisite passages, but this book is aimed at academics first and pleasure readers second. it is extremely dense and very technical, and i frequently found myself reading sentences a few times over to make sure that i understood. however, i also found myself looking up from the pages to collect myself after being struck by a particularly beautiful phrase. one of my favorites:
"if we follow the trajectory of eros we consistently find it tracing out the same route: it moves out from the lover toward the beloved, then ricochets back to the lover himself and the hole in him, unnoticed before. who is the real subject of most love poems? not the beloved. it is that hole."
it's a well-crafted and thought-provoking study to be sure, but my interest waned as i went along, then rose again near the conclusion. i think "baffled" is the word that best describes how i feel at the end of it all. did i like it or did i not? i think i did. but i also think a reread might be needed to help me reach a final decision.
isachu's review
5.0
IT ONLY TOOK ME A MILLION YEARS TO READ THIS but just breathtaking and so so intelligent. Her work on yearning, obsession, and desire is just so precise and beautiful. I loved what she wrote about the paradox of desire and getting what is desired thus erasing that desire, the attention she pays to Greek poetry in order to make that point is amazing.
logantmartin's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Read this because Contrapoints told me to
valabirna's review
5.0
she did it again.... ..
held ég hafi aldrei lesið bók jafn hægt bara til að leyfa mér að skilja og velta mér upp úr öllum hugmyndunum sem hún leggur fram.
kaflinn þar sem hún líkir óendurgoldinni ást við að staðsetja sig í las meninas eftir velazquez sannar að hún er mmm klárari en við öll.
p.s. takk hugi fyrir að hlusta á öll óumbeðnu tldr frá mér eftir hvern kafla
held ég hafi aldrei lesið bók jafn hægt bara til að leyfa mér að skilja og velta mér upp úr öllum hugmyndunum sem hún leggur fram.
kaflinn þar sem hún líkir óendurgoldinni ást við að staðsetja sig í las meninas eftir velazquez sannar að hún er mmm klárari en við öll.
„The moment when we understand these things – when we see what we are projected on a screen of what we could be – is invariably a moment of wrench and arrest. We love that moment, and we hate it. We have to keep going back to it, after all, if we wish to maintain contact with the possible. But this also entails watching it disappear."(haallooo???)
p.s. takk hugi fyrir að hlusta á öll óumbeðnu tldr frá mér eftir hvern kafla