You can use this post to comment on any general discussion topics that came up at the meeting or that you didn't have a chance to discuss. If a specific idea or topic seems to merit it I will create a separate "thread" for that discussion by posting a newly titled post and will inform everyone of the intent.
To start things off, since I will unfortunately not be able to attend the meeting tomorrow here is a link to something I wrote up about the book for my own blog.
ReplyDeletehttp://proseisphora.blogspot.com/2012/12/book-review-nemesis-by-philip-roth.html
When we read the Odyssey I made a comment that I find in just about every story and novel I read elements even a sort of retelling in part of the Iliad and/or Odyssey. So I thought I'd mention here some of those connections I found in Nemesis:
ReplyDeleteFirst, the games! The hero as the athlete the idea that part of the responsibility of being a man is to maintain you're body and practice at using it in a way that demonstrates to others not only your physical prowess but your moral foundation. And like in Homer's stories the descriptions of athletics are descriptions of physical poetry.
Then I recognized echos of the Odyssey in the character of Marcia. Like Penelope she deeply loves her man, respects his prowess, she wants him not to return home but to return to her to safety.
And like Odysseus, Bucky leaves his aging mother and his 'sons'.
And finally there is Horace. It is Horace that I really hoped to discuss with the group today because I feel there is something very important about Horace that I'm not seeing very clearly. Is he the 'old king', chaos, some figure of foreshadowing? He never does get sick yet he's the lowest in the social order?