Ecstasy and Terror [eBook - NC Digital Library] : From the Greeks to Game of Thrones

“The role of the critic,” Daniel Mendelsohn writes, “is to mediate intelligently and stylishly between a work and its audience; to educate and edify in an engaging and, preferably, entertaining way.” His latest collection exemplifies the range, depth, and erudition that have made him “required reading for anyone interested in dissecting culture” ( The Daily Beast ). In Ecstasy and Terror , Mendelsohn once again casts an eye at literature, film, television, and the personal essay, filtering his insights through his training as a scholar of classical antiquity in illuminating and sometimes surprising ways. Many of these essays look with fresh eyes at our culture’s Greek and Roman models: some find an arresting modernity in canonical works ( Bacchae , the Aeneid ), while others detect a “Greek DNA” in our responses to national traumas such as the Boston Marathon bombings and the assassination of JFK. There are pieces on contemporary literature, from the “aesthetics of victimhood” in Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life to the uncomfortable mixture of art and autobiography in novels by Henry Roth, Ingmar Bergman, and Karl Ove Knausgård. Mendelsohn considers pop culture, too, in essays on the feminism of Game of Thrones and on recent films about artificial intelligence—a subject, he reminds us, that was already of interest to Homer. This collection also brings together for the first time a number of the award-winning memoirist’s personal essays, including his “critic’s manifesto” and a touching reminiscence of his boyhood correspondence with the historical novelist Mary Renault, who inspired him to study the Classics. Ancients. Girl, Interrupted: How Gay Was Sappho? -- How Gay Was Sappho? -- Deep Frieze: What Does The Parthenon Mean? -- Ecstasy And Terror: The Modernity Of Euripides' Bacchae -- Unburied: Tamerlan Tsarnaev And The Lessons Of Antigone -- Jfk, Tragedy, Myth: Classical Paradigms And National Trauma -- Epic Fail?: Reading The Aeneid In The Twenty-first Century -- As Good As Great Poetry Gets: Cavafy Between Poetry And History -- Moderns. The Last Minstrel: Henry Roth's Tormented Life And Work -- Brideshead, Revisited: Getting Waugh Wrong -- Hail, Augustus!: History And Character In John Williams' Fiction -- Weaving New Patterns: The Autobiographical Novels Of Ingmar Bergman -- The End Of The Road: Patrick Leigh Fermor's Final Journey -- The Women And The Thrones: George R. R. Martin's Feminist Epic On Tv -- The Robots Are Winning!: Homer, Ex Machina, And Her -- A Whole Lotta Pain: Hanya Yanagihara And The Aesthetics Of Victimhood -- I, Knausgaard: Fact, Fiction, And The Fuhrer -- Personals. The American Boy: An Author, A Young Reader And A Life-changing Correspondence -- Stopping In Vilna: Stendhal Meets The Holocaust In Eastern Europe -- The Countess And The Schoolboy: Coming Of Age In Charlottesville -- A Critic's Manifesto. Daniel Mendelsohn. Includes Bibliographical References. "In Ecstasy and Terror, Mendelsohn once again casts an eye at literature, film, television, and the personal essay, filtering his insights through his training as a scholar of classical antiquity in illuminating and sometimes surprising ways. Many of these essays look with fresh eyes at our culture's Greek and Roman models: some find an arresting modernity in canonical works (Bacchae, the Aeneid), while others detect a "Greek DNA" in our responses to national traumas such as the Boston Marathon bombings and the assassination of JFK. There are pieces on contemporary literature, from the "aesthetics of victimhood" in Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life to the uncomfortable mixture of art and autobiography in novels by Henry Roth, Ingmar Bergman, and Karl Ove Knausgard. Mendelsohn considers pop culture, too, in essays on the feminism of Game of Thrones and on recent films about artificial intelligence--a subject, he reminds us, that was already of interest to Homer. This collection also brings together for the first time a number of the award-winning memoirist's personal essays, including his "critic's manifesto" and a touching reminiscence of his boyhood correspondence with the historical novelist Mary Renault, who inspired him to study the Classics."-- Provided by publisher "In Ecstasy and Terror, Mendelsohn once again casts an eye at literature, film, television, and the personal essay, filtering his insights through his training as a scholar of classical antiquity in illuminating and sometimes surprising ways. Many of these essays look with fresh eyes at our culture's Greek and Roman models: some find an arresting modernity in canonical works (Bacchae, the Aeneid), while others detect a "Greek DNA" in our responses to national traumas such as the Boston Marathon bombings and the assassination of JFK. There are pieces on contemporary literature, from the "aesthetics of victimhood" in Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life to the uncomfortable mixture of art and autobiography in novels by Henry Roth, Ingmar Bergman, and Karl Ove Knausgard. Mendelsohn considers pop culture, too, in essays on the feminism of Game of Thrones and on recent films about artificial intelligence--a subject, he reminds us, that was already of interest to Homer. This collection also brings together for the first time a number of the award-winning memoirist's personal essays, including his "critic's manifesto" and a touching reminiscence of his boyhood correspondence with the historical novelist Mary Renault, who inspired him to study the Classics."-- Información editorial This collection of essays exemplifies the range, depth, and erudition that have made Daniel Mendelsohn "required reading for anyone interested in dissecting culture" (The Daily Beast). Here Mendelsohn once again casts an eye at literature, film, television, and the personal essay, filtering his insights through his training as a scholar of classical antiquity in surprising and illuminating ways. Many of these essays examine how we continue to look to the Greeks and Romans as models: some argue for the surprising modernity of canonical works (Bacchae, the aeneid), while others detect a "Greek DNA" in our responses to the Boston Marathon bombings and the assassination of JFK. Modern topics are treated, too, from the "aesthetics of victimhood" in Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life to the novels of Karl Ove Knausgaard, and from Game of Thrones to recent films about artificial intelligence-a subject, Mendelsohn reminds us, that was already of interest to Homer. The collection also brings together for the first time a number of Mendelsohn's personal essays, including his "critic's manifesto" and a touching memoir of his boyhood correspondence with the historical novelist Mary Renault