Flaubert's _The Temptation of Saint Anthony_ as influence on_New Sun_?

David Duffy · 16 Apr 2013, 08:59 · from 2013-April.txt.gz

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From: David.Duffy at qimr.edu.au (David Duffy)
Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 18:59:38 +1000
Subject: (urth) Flaubert's _The Temptation of Saint Anthony_ as
 influence on_New Sun_?
In-Reply-To: <96BCFE08-BFAA-4A51-BF01-51EE9025FB64 at gmail.com>
References: <96BCFE08-BFAA-4A51-BF01-51EE9025FB64 at gmail.com>
Message-ID: <alpine.LMD.2.00.1304161841280.25458 at orpheus.qimr.edu.au>

On Tue, 16 Apr 2013, Darth Ed wrote:

> My Wolfe reading group has been re-reading _The Book of the New Sun_ 
> lately. For about half the group, this is our third or fourth time 
> reading it. For the remainder, it is our second time.
>
> One of our members remarked that he had recently read Gustave Flaubert's 
> _The Temptation of Saint Anthony_ [*] and he was struck by how many 
> words from _New Sun_'s antiquated vocabulary were used in _The 
> Temptation of Saint Anthony_.

Well that will depend on the translation, of course.  Looking through the 
gutenberg.org one (Dunne 1904).  Yes, we see "Erebus", "cynocephali", etc. 
But most of the story is taken up by visions of Death, Lust, the medieval 
bestiary, the Queen of Sheba, Roman, Egyptian, Buddhist, Hindu pantheons, 
Gnosticism, and space, guided by Hilarion/the Devil.  They don't seem 
particularly close to Wolfe's vision.  Specifically, Typhon doesn't 
resemble either Flaubert's Devil or the Emperor Constantine.

Just 2c, David Duffy.

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