Satyricon and Soldier

Adam Thornton18 Aug 2006, 21:15

I assume this has been mentioned before, but, uh, everyone's aware of how much the Latro books read like The Satyricon--the damaged Latin- speaking hero on a quest throughout the Roman world to appease his god--right? It's just that the holes in Latro's story come from the hole in his head, rather than the holes in a text passed down less-than- faithfully for two millennia. I'm rereading The Satyricon as research for a project I'm working on, and I was struck by how familiar a lot of it felt. Adam

Russell Wodell18 Aug 2006, 21:41

↳ in reply to Adam Thornton

Hmmm...that begs that question whether Wolfe ever saw Federico Fellini's remarkable 1969 film version of Sayricon, in which the bold leaps across the narrative gaps are memorably disorienting, if you will excuse the pun. There might just possibly be a structural influence. ... even though there are many centuries between pre-classic Greece and Petronius. Or could that have inspired the future-influencing-the-past structure of Book of the New Sun? (Just kidding.) Actually, the film that springs to mind re: Latro would be the classic Ray Harryhausen version of Jason and the Argonauts. ----- Original Message -----

12 quoted lines

From: "Adam Thornton" <adam at io.com> To: "The Urth Mailing List" <urth at lists.urth.net> Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 2:15 PM Subject: (urth) Satyricon and Soldier I assume this has been mentioned before, but, uh, everyone's aware of how much the Latro books read like The Satyricon--the damaged Latin- speaking hero on a quest throughout the Roman world to appease his god--right? It's just that the holes in Latro's story come from the hole in his head, rather than the holes in a text passed down less-than- faithfully for two millennia. I'm rereading The Satyricon as research for a project I'm working on, and I was struck by how familiar a lot of it felt. Adam _______________________________________________

Jonathon McKitrick18 Aug 2006, 23:16

↳ in reply to Russell Wodell

On Fri, Aug 18, 2006 at 02:41:46PM -0700, Russell Wodell wrote: : Hmmm...that begs that question whether Wolfe ever saw Federico Fellini's : remarkable 1969 film version of Sayricon, in which the bold leaps across the : narrative gaps are memorably disorienting, if you will excuse the pun. There : might just possibly be a structural influence. ... even though there are : many centuries between pre-classic Greece and Petronius. : : Or could that have inspired the future-influencing-the-past structure of : Book of the New Sun? (Just kidding.) : : Actually, the film that springs to mind re: Latro would be the classic Ray : Harryhausen version of Jason and the Argonauts. I was thinking of Doc Brown and Marty McFly, myself. Jonathon McKitrick

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