There are nine poems of Muse, the daughter of Zeus or some people say Apollo, and Titaness, Mnenosyne, the goddess of memory, past and future. Among the nine, the most important is Kalliope, her cute voice, and the epic muse; in my opinion, Hesiod and others think she is the most important muse. In other words, the epic is the greatest expression of poetry we can achieve. It is so great and so difficult, and the evidence for this assertion is that we have not returned a large number of epics. In the Western tradition there are Homer, Virgil, Dante and Milton; there may be some. Spencer may be eligible; Goethe and some others. But really, not much. However, when we arrived in modern times, we suddenly found too many poets who claimed to be epic poets; this is a very big proposition. Personally, I think Moses might feel it in front of the burning Bush - it's too big, too holy, too much for me to think and even claim that I can enter that noble and select company. To say that a person is a poet is a big enough assertion, but to become an epic poet, then this is a different order.
A keen comment reader may remember that I have commented on Frederick Glasser's "Poet Council", which claims to be an epic episode [I thought about it, but I think it's only a matter of time] . Now, Frederick Turner appears in his "Apocalypse." Claiming to be an epic poet, and it is "Apocalypse" [Apocalypse' an epic. Is it possible? Is it possible that we are in the golden age of a poem, two epics appear within two years of each other, and Before we have to wait a thousand years to nominate two worthy reasonable candidates?
There are many things to praise in Turner's Revelation. First, through the purely learned science of writing. If a person is a visitor from Mars and wants to give an overview of human history and combine the arguments for current and current technology - and also predict the next 50 years - it will be your book. It is full of mysterious facts, democratic language and brand, which have a very strong influence on the current situation, and these trends may lead to 50 to 100 years of development. time. In fact, this reminds me that this book is prophetic: an epic sci-fi film that will be destroyed by the rising tides on Earth, then smashing, a black star that destroys us, and how humans respond to these crisis. Then, a pure information scan can consider how Turner deploys our available resources.
Second, and even more impressive is that Turner's epic - unlike Glaysher's [this instrument is everywhere] - has a pretty magical blank verse on the wrist. This leads to excellent, eloquent phrases that are significantly citable and sometimes seasoned with wisdom. E.g:
"Is the brain a robot with a muse?"
"Crisis is a terrible thing to waste," or
"The poet is the key to all this."
Pay attention to strong emotions. This also extends to a good couplet:
"Democracy doesn't matter now:
Celebrity beauty contest. "
But not only that, Turner created some beautiful and exquisite lyrics in the best of circumstances:
"I took him from the elbow and withdrew him.
Enter the lovely electric night
a place where the Milky Way rotates
In the darkest hollow, everyone shoots with light."
Isn't that great writing? Reminds me of Dante's fascination with the stars and its significance in writing.
Third, Turner has consistently interviewed and adopted a consistent tone. He doesn't seem to have a logo. This is what you get in many long poems: the poet seems to be bored before you work hard! Therefore, this work has been cultivated and developed for a long time, and is full of love, many of whom are poets; the poet is knowledgeable, technically superior in technology, and has a clear vision and fantasy of the future of mankind.
Is this a great epic?
Unfortunately, no. Although I can list a lot of happiness, although I completely think that Turner is a good poet, I can't think of him as an epic poet because the shortcomings of work far exceed the beauty.
First of all, this is not an epic, because there is no hero. Yes, there are dozens of personalities, one of which we care about; and I think the only one that the author actually feels is the advanced computer program. I have to say, as far as I am concerned, I find that the author's attitude towards technology is creepy - it seems that someone has changed the normal love of a normal person. But this is not the point. All great epics are about one person: Gilgamesh, Achilles, Odysseus, Aeneas, Pilgrims - Dante, Milton almost escaped with two people, Adam and opponent, Satan. But the point is: epics are about personal regeneration, redemption, fate [or some of these words], and we care about that person passionately. We follow them every time we twist and turn and don't have that focus. What's there?
Well, as it happened, Turner answered this, in the late ninth volume [in his epic 10 books], when he said:
"There is no time to save your precious soul;
We have a planet we want to save"
This is wrong. A great epic will never be mistaken for saving a planet more important than saving an individual soul; something of the soul; we can do this without a collective soul, as if it sounds contradictory. As Stalin observed, a death is a tragedy, but a million deaths are a statistic [referenced in this memory!]. To some extent, Turner's business should not try to use his raw materials, but rather a great science fiction novel; and he can still put one of these amazing ideas together.
But this led me to the second point: no real transcendence means that this is pure humanism or secular epic. Therefore, its value is entirely egoistic, although they are consistent with much of what the scientific community now believes and believes. But let us be clear: they are completely subjective; there is no science to prove or verify values. In fact, logic itself cannot be proved by logic; we all begin with axioms and beliefs. Great epic fights with the gods or God: one person [I say this is a historical point] pays attention to the gods we care about or some cruel fate they struggle with, and has endured great in that struggle - and the whole At the same time being restricted, the potential of the person is realized. So far, the gods said, and there is no further. As the Hawks sang in California a long time ago: one brought it to the limit!
The trouble with Turner's long-term vision is that it will motivate Google, Apple and NASA employees; they will recognize their fabulous self-importance in epic. They will be at the forefront - saving the world - using their own technical soaps that are confusing and delusional, but no one can actually explain anyone else. The saved person is just a bunch of passwords, and the VIP is morally congratulated: see what we do for everyone.
On a sidebar issue, I don't actually think of Turner's vision of the future [the world seems to have become a fragmented extension of the EU, by the way, "good" encourages joint operations, and oligarchs and riches rule - um A strange similarity to the current situation] may be remote prophecy. Remember, two great predictions of the twentieth century, HG Wells and George Bernard Shaw, have three things in common: First, they are secularists, and they are very wrong on almost all important issues. They have a common friendship with the Catholic convert GK Chesterton. Curiously, Chesterton refused to describe himself, even the writer, not to mention the prophet, and always referred to himself as merely a journalist; but he accurately predicted the twentieth century and twenty Many key trends of the first century. We think we know a lot. As John Gray said, in his wonderful book, "heremonism": "For many people, the promise of religion lacks credibility; but the fear that motivates them has not disappeared, and the secular thinkers have turned to faith and anything. Compared with religious mythology, it is further separated from the basic facts of human life. This is the epic of Turner - "the basic facts of human life."
This triggered my third criticism of this epic, which is the most decisive for me. Charles Williams' Our work between Milton's "Paradise Lost" and his remnant poem "Heavenly Regained". Williams said, "We have given up on regaining the paradise, but we cannot let go of paradise." That's right; the story of "lost paradise" is so striking that it's hard to stop reading. why is it like this? In memory, Dr. Johnson [although he doesn't like Milton very much] observes people who fly so high for so long? ' "The word I am looking for here, I hope that the default position of any poem called "Epic" is the word sublime. Its sublimity makes the hair rise behind our neck. Sublime. Or Let Longinus listen to his words and read the first version of Genesis Chapter 1, then - & #39; and have light, & #39;, we have more sublimity.
The lofty complete arrest motion; we fear it. Awe is what it creates. When we reach the text of the text disclosure, we hold our breath. This epic is essential. It is more efficient than any technology. I suspect that the poet and Tennyson, the king's Ippels, or as good as Hayward's Longfellow, thought they were writing a script. I like these poems and read them when I was young, but they are not exalted because of all their interests and all their skills.
Orignal From: Comment: Apocalypse by Frederick Turner, Ilium Press, 2016
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