I read a book.

[tehta]

I suspect that I am the very last person in this corner of fandom to hear about The Song of Achilles, last year's Orange-prize-winning novel about, well, Achilles. And Patroclus, who, in this interpretation, is NOT his cousin. If you know what I mean. And most of you do.

Anyway, I have finally heard of it, and moreover, purchased it and read it. And now I feel compelled to share my thoughts on it with the internet. So, here goes:

• I did enjoy it.
  
• It is well-written. Not brilliant, but reasonably impressive.
  
• But I cannot help thinking of it as fanfiction for the Illiad. (Hilariously, the review I linked to above says the same thing -- citing Sam and Frodo!)
  
• And, if I judge it by the same standards I apply to fanfiction... it falls short. I can think of several fics I find more compelling, and just as well-written.
  
• I guess I feel that it lacks a certain edge. I think this is VERY related to some discussions I have been having with wulfila lately, about the ideal of the noble, beautiful hero, and the question of whether we should be writing them. One of the claims I made was that the most popular heroes fall far from this ideal, and I gave the examples of Lancelot, Maedhros -- and Achilles. A different claim I forgot to make was that actual idealized heroes would be boring to read about. Well, I feel like this book idealizes Achilles so much that it makes him boring. (It does keep Odysseus interesting -- but then an author would have to be truly incompetent to mess up such a great character.)
  
• I guess I also feel that it is overshadowed by the Iliad. Shocking, I know. But it's like the Iliad is painted in a wide range of colours, vivid and muted, light and dark, and this book is a small pale study in pastels.
  
• Anyway, the specifics of The Song of Achilles aside -- the whole experience of reading something so lauded, and so comparable to fanfiction, really made me realize just how rich our playground is, here, and how lucky I am to have found it. Go fandom!
  

And now that I have bored everyone, I would like to draw people's attention to the gay claymation version of the Iliad. I know I have linked to it before, but it remains fabulous and awesome.

Comments

[moetushie]

Re: actual idealized heroes and how boring they are -- that is exactly how I feel about Mary Renault's Alexander. The most beautiful prose in the world can't hold my interest over how clear and wonderful Alexander's complexion is or how grey his eyes are.

[tehta.livejournal.com]

I don't mean just idealized beauty, but also idealized virtue. Achilles in the Song is still full of hubris, but somehow he comes across as less pissy and glory-seeking and more compassionate than other Achilles' of my acquaintance. But hey, maybe it's all in the POV? He's being viewed by spoony Patroclus. And Renault's Alexander gets pretty good press from Bagoas.

Incidentally, do you know who else has grey eyes and a great complexion? NEARLY EVERY NOLDO EVER.

And I totally harp on this in my stories. Which might be why Wulfila brought it up...

[moetushie]

A less pissy Achilles just isn't Achilles, in my book. He's a glorious brat! Isn't that canon? Although you're right that a biased POV might be to blame. If you're hot for the Noble Hero, of course he'll seem quite perfect.

HEY NOW, THEY CAN'T HELP THEIR PERFECT GENETICS. Although now I'm thinking of how much it would suck to go through eternity with acne scars. (Maybe Caranthir's ruddy complexion and generally surly attitude indicates a prolonged adolescence on his part?)

I don't know if I do that -- although I'm of the belief that the elves I write pick their noses and scratch their behinds as much as anyone... When no one is looking, of course. (Maybe not Maedhros though.)

[tehta.livejournal.com]

A biased POV can still be unreliable, and to show both that the narrator finds the hero perfect, and that he is wrong to do so. In fact, I love that sort of thing!

I don't know about nose-picking. Maybe Elves don't produce much mucus? And don't their scars fade faster than ours? Sigh. But they totally scratch, and belch, and go to the loo. Ecthelion could tell you much more on the latter subject, since he's in charge of Gondolin's toilets.

[wulfila.livejournal.com]

No, I hadn't heard of that book, but if Achilles is idealized enough to be boring in it, I am not certain if I want to read it, especially not if it reads like fanfiction falling short of the work it is based on. (I don't want to trigger any sort of "Argh! Flattery!" reaction again, so I will just wisely state that there are ... certain fanfics that don't make me feel that way at all, because they have their own depth and charm). I like your painting analogy, by the way.

But speaking of Iliad fanfiction, have you read Eric Shanower's comic series Age of Bronze? Agreed, it is unfinished, and it does have its flaws (for example, my friend S. is right to claim that one wouldn't be able to tell Priam's sons apart if they didn't wear different headbands), but it does a good job with many of the characters, including Achilles and Patroclus (not limited to a panel based on that famous vase painting you did a Fingon/Maedhros version of ages ago). But above all, it comes across as very well researched in the archeology/prehistory department, and that would make it really fun even if the story wasn't interesting in itself.

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the rec! I will try to hunt it down. I love good historical works.

And I do feel like there are many fanfics that do justice to (or even exceed) the original material -- although the Iiad is a pretty tough benchmark! I guess that a lot of the time it has to do with the fanfic author taking the story in directions the original author ignored. Which I suppose this story tries to do...

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how you can idealize Achilles, he's an all round git. If you took that away, would anything be left? I want to see something that idealizes Patroclus, because he doesn't get the good press he deserves.

[tehta.livejournal.com]

In this book, he is a lover (and healer), not a fighter, and described as "the best of the Myrmidons". (He also bores me a bit...)

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

I can see 'the best of the Myrmidons' if 'best' is defined as 'biggest killing machine.' But I thought the entire plot of the Iliad was Achilles having a temper tantrum and leaving all his friends to die because someone else got to rape his prisoner first. But having said all that, he's a monster, but he's at least not boring.

And Patroclus always struck me as the erastes of that relationship - an older man who knew what he was getting into, knew he would probably die for the hubris of pretending to be Achilles, but did it anyway because he knew it would work. So I don't buy him as all starry eyed and awestruck. I think he was the grown up out of the two of them.

Obviously I'm the only one who thinks Patroclus is the real hero of the Iliad ;) (Although Odysseus comes close too.)

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I meant Patroclus! In this book, he's a little younger than Achilles (less than a year, though) and very kind-hearted. He never really fights until the armour incident, and spends all his time hanging out with all the women Achilles claims as booty (and never sleeps with, being totally gay.) The whole fuss over Briseis is more about pride than anything.

[wulfila.livejournal.com]

Hm, so I guess this incident never happened, then, or is a major source of angst for Healer!Patroclus?

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

Heh, right. So what she's saying is that he must be the 'woman' of the relationship because Achilles clearly can't be. Pah! I spit on her heteronormativity ;)

[eveiya.livejournal.com]

I read The Song of Achilles quite recently and found it pretty disappointing, flat and inexplicably unsatisfying. I thought nearly all the characters were boring and somewhat fuzzy; they didn't really engage me at all and I wasn't invested in anything that happened to them. I didn't even like the writing much, I found it dull, too, and thought it read like overly-American young adult fiction.

Oddly, about the one thing that didn't bug me to some extent was over-idealised Achilles, because I understood that as Patroclus' over-idealisation, with him being utterly spellbound and almost worshipping Achilles from the get-go.

I did finish the novel and didn't hate it or even dislike it especially, but it just left me feeling kind of meh. I certainly didn't get what the all fuss was about, and yes, I've read really quite a lot of Tolkien (and other) fanfiction I found far richer, more engaging and moving, and generally more entertaining.

I feel like The Song of Achilles came close to but somehow just missed being a certain kind of novel that I generally really do like or love - probably epitomised by some of Ursula Le Guin's fiction - hence my disappointment. I think I was always looking and hoping for a depth and complexity I just never found in it.

I might try reading the book again sometime to see if it grows on me at all, and to make sure I gave it a fair chance, but no rush there...

[tehta.livejournal.com]

Eh. Plenty of other stuff to read out there. Much of it free.

I do get that we're seeing Achilles through Patroclus' starry-eyed POV, but that doesn't make things any less boring, for me. Mostly because we don't get much evidence that Patroclus is misjudging anything, except perhaps near the end... So there's none of the fun of a real unreliable narrator, plus all the flatness of a boring ideal character.

And their relationship! So lacking in tension! I can't help contrasting it not just with the Iliad (not a fair comparison; the two works have different goals) but with stories like, say, The Captive Prince (which has a similar goal, I think.) In CP, the characters have sparks even when they are essentially agreeing; here, I have no idea what they see in each other except for teh pretty on one side, and uncomplicated devotion on the other. And the same goes for the plot... I did want to keep reading, but I think that was because I knew what was coming and wanted to see how she'd interpret it, not because I felt any dramatic tension.