I really do like the Penelopiad by Atwood, indeed I went to see Atwood discussing the book and the importance of mythos in modernism whilst she visited Dublin soon after its publication. I considered Penelope to be an irritating busybody who must have really grated on the writer’s nerves but mostly I view her with affection now.
The irritating and clingy know-it-all in the audience did not quite spoil the evening; but nonetheless I considered that he dampened all our spirits..,
it was demeaning all of it- to have to materialise in
a chalk circle or a velvet upholstered parlour just because
someone wanted to gape at you- but it did allow us to keep
up with what was going on among the still-alive. I was very
interested in the invention of the light bulb for instance,
and in the matter-into-energy theories of the Twentieth Century.
More recently, some of us have been able to infiltrate the new
ethereral-wave system that now encircles the globe, and to
travel around that way, looking out at the world through the
flat, illuminated surfaces that serve as domestic shrines…
If it were not childish, I would add a smiley in here but it always throws the text off because they tend to emerge rather bright yellow. Poethead is about the Penelopiad, the Harem and the community of women. There are a few Atwood links peppered onto the site with interesting names and associations, be it in conjunction with Julian of Norwich or the suicide angel (cf Ágnes Nemes Nagy). I will add in those links later for readers who might now like to extend themselves to a search engine facility, in the meantime:
Chris Murray 