praise for 'Lord of Emperors'!
Creoso 79
and after that, out of all whooping!
Whew! just got it and read it, and this entire post is just one big 'Lord of
Emperors' praise!!
Of course, I am a big Guy Gavriel Kay fan, with "Lions of Al-Rassan" and "Song
of Arbonne" warring for first place, followed closely by "Tigana", but I didn't
really get into "Sailing to Sarantium" and kind of discarded it at the time.
However, after reading LOE, now I shall have to go back and read it and see
what I was missing. GGK just writes beautiful, delicate relationships between
people, with amazing subtlety; there is just so much quality in his work.
Oh, Spoilers follow, Caution:
s
p
o
i
l
e
r
s
p
a
c
e
well that should do it. I was a mess when Leontes was telling Crispin his work
had to come down. (an artist by trade myself, it was like a blow!) but the
final touch at the end, his dual mosaics in Varena of the past and present
Emperors, was staggering. I wished that it existed. (and wonderfully balanced,
offsetting the malicious historical account of that Pertennius) it was a
beautiful image. So, go read it, (or, since you have read the 'spoiler', go
read it again).
Well done! Eglerio! Hennaid evyr, Mr.
Kay,
RKingman
Kate Nepveu
> Oh, Spoilers follow, Caution:
> well that should do it. I was a mess when Leontes was telling Crispin his work
> had to come down. (an artist by trade myself, it was like a blow!) but the
> final touch at the end, his dual mosaics in Varena of the past and present
> Emperors, was staggering. I wished that it existed.
Yes, the real mosaics in Ravenna are neat but nowhere near as
wonderful in my mind as Crispin's.
(Those, in case you haven't seen them, are Justinian & court on one
side and Theodixa & court on the other. They're in, among other
places I'm sure, _A Short History of Byzantium_.)
Kate
--
http://lynx.neu.edu/k/knepveu/ -- The Paired Reading Page; Reviews
"I want peace on earth and goodwill toward men."
"*We are the United States Government*. We don't _do_ that sort of
thing." --_Sneakers_
John Dierdorf
>Oh, Spoilers follow, Caution:
>
>s
>p
>o
>i
>l
>e
>r
>
>s
>p
>a
>c
>e
>
>well that should do it. I was a mess when Leontes was telling Crispin his work
>had to come down. (an artist by trade myself, it was like a blow!) but the
>final touch at the end, his dual mosaics in Varena of the past and present
>Emperors, was staggering. I wished that it existed. (and wonderfully balanced,
>offsetting the malicious historical account of that Pertennius) it was a
>beautiful image. So, go read it, (or, since you have read the 'spoiler', go
>read it again).
>
The dual mosaics do exist, of course. Half the enjoyment of The
Sarantine Mosaic is missed unless the reader is very familiar with
Byzantine political and art history. He will follow Procopius -- the
"straight" version, not the "Secret History" -- almost word for word
for pages (for example, the Nike riot and its aftermath in StoS), and
then suddenly turn everything around. I actually yelled (at the
obvious point in LofE) "THAT DIDN'T HAPPEN, DAMMIT!"
I highly recommend reading the chapters on Justinian, Theodora,
Belisarius, Narses, Procopius, etc. in Norwich's "Byzantium: The Early
Centuries." THEN go back and re-read Kay's set of variations. From
my point of view, GGK rewrote that period of history more to my liking
- e.g., the "real" Belisarius and Amalasuntha (the young Ostrogothic
queen, Theodoric's daughter) vs. Kay's pseudo-fictional treatment of
them.
(BTW, the cover of "Byzantium, The Early Centuries" is THE portrait of
Justinian, looking just like an accountant with a crown, from the
Ravenna dual mosaics.)
If you're REALLY interested in the situation in Italy, I can also
recommend "A History of the Ostrogoths" by Burns.
Kate Nepveu
> I highly recommend reading the chapters on Justinian, Theodora,
> Belisarius, Narses, Procopius, etc. in Norwich's "Byzantium: The Early
> Centuries."
I found reading Britannica's online articles sufficient, really, to
get a decent idea of what was going on at first, and that's rather
more accessible...
Chad R. Orzel
wrote:
>John Dierdorf <dier...@io.com> wrote:
>> I highly recommend reading the chapters on Justinian, Theodora,
>> Belisarius, Narses, Procopius, etc. in Norwich's "Byzantium: The Early
>> Centuries."
>I found reading Britannica's online articles sufficient, really, to
>get a decent idea of what was going on at first, and that's rather
>more accessible...
Well, Norwich is pretty accessible- I assume _The Early Centuries_ is
volume one of the three-volume history, yes? The one-volume
condensation is very readable, and expansion to the larger format
would probably only improve the story-telling.
Though, of course, that doesn't mean any randomly chosen reader can
get hold of a copy, which _is_ the case for Britannica Online...
Later,
OilCan
John Dierdorf
wrote:
Right. The other two volumes are "The Apogee" and "The Decline and
Fall." I cannot remember when I've enjoyed any work of history as
much as Norwich's Byzantium books. His writing style is very
entertaining - something one would think impossible in covering over
1100 years of political intrigue, triumph, and catastrophe.
Any library will have them, and at least the first two are still in
print.
BTW, the book cover of "The Early Centuries" at Amazon (from the
Ravenna mosaics, as I mentioned) is the best image of "Justinian the
Middle-Aged Accountant" I can find. This URL should work:
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0394537785.01.LZZZZZZZ.gif
--
John Dierdorf <dier...@io.com> Austin TX
http://www/io.com/~dierdorf
Stevie Gamble
<kate....@yale.edu> writes:
>John Dierdorf <dier...@io.com> wrote:
>
>> I highly recommend reading the chapters on Justinian, Theodora,
>> Belisarius, Narses, Procopius, etc. in Norwich's "Byzantium: The Early
>> Centuries."
>
>I found reading Britannica's online articles sufficient, really, to
>get a decent idea of what was going on at first, and that's rather
>more accessible...
But not nearly as funny ...
--
Stevie Gamble
"But however entrancing it is to wander
unchecked through a garden of bright images,
are we not enticing your mind from another
subject of almost equal importance?"
Kate Nepveu
> On Sat, 29 Jul 2000 00:20:19 -0400, Kate Nepveu <kate....@yale.edu>
> wrote:
> >> I highly recommend reading the chapters on Justinian, Theodora,
> >> Belisarius, Narses, Procopius, etc. in Norwich's "Byzantium: The Early
> >> Centuries."
> >I found reading Britannica's online articles sufficient, really, to
> >get a decent idea of what was going on at first, and that's rather
> >more accessible...
[...]
> Though, of course, that doesn't mean any randomly chosen reader can
> get hold of a copy, which _is_ the case for Britannica Online...
Which is the sense of "accessible" I meant (which could've been
clearer).
kenn...@nortelnetworks.com
[discussion of John Julius Norwich's Byzantium history]
> But not nearly as funny ...
I think my favourite line in the condensed version is the
one about er, whoever moved the capital back to Italy [1]
being killed in the bath by a enuch in a fit of homesickness.[2]
[1] The problem with the omnibus is that too much happens.
Much as I enjoyed it I retained only a grand overview and
one or two exceptionally interesting characters.
[2] I thought I remembered the exact line until I tried
to quote it. Trust me, the exact wording is hilarious.
Really.
--
David Kennedy, | kenn...@nortelnetworks.com
Northern Ireland Telecommunications | ESN: 6 751 2678
Engineering Centre (NITEC), | Phone: 01232 362678
Nortel Networks | Fax: 01232 363170
Stevie Gamble
writes:
>Stevie Gamble <smg...@aol.com> wrote:
>[of the online Brittanica's articles on Byzantium by comparison with John
Julius Norwich's Byzantium history]
>> But not nearly as funny ...
>
>I think my favourite line in the condensed version is the
>one about er, whoever moved the capital back to Italy [1]
>being killed in the bath by a enuch in a fit of homesickness.[2]
>
>[1] The problem with the omnibus is that too much happens.
>Much as I enjoyed it I retained only a grand overview and
>one or two exceptionally interesting characters.
>[2] I thought I remembered the exact line until I tried
>to quote it. Trust me, the exact wording is hilarious.
>Really.
Indeed; we can link ourselves into the Bloom/Potter thread. I get rather P'd
off with people asserting that anything enjoyable or even, Horror of Horrors,
funny must by definition be lightweight. John Julius Norwich was
extraordinarily erudite (in your dreams, Mr Bloom, in your dreams) and yet
wrote extrordinarily witty prose. Inflicting suffering on the reader is not a
requirement of the canon.