Thanks for alerting us to this, Max. Uzis in there too I notice and the
enjoyment of plugging into 'Greekoid scum'!
Bill
On Saturday, 27 February 2016, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/28/books/review/war-music-by-christopher-logue.html?emc=edit_bk_20160226&nl=bookreview&nlid=22180501&ref=headline&_r=0
>
> Review begins:
>
> On Mount Olympus the gods are at it again. Bickering, back-stabbing.
> Thetis implores Zeus, on behalf of her son, the Greek hero Achilles. Hera,
> the wife and sister of Zeus (you know how families can be), demands that he
> back her favorites. Far below, on the plains stretching from Troy to the
> sea, mere mortals fight and suffer in a war that has gone on far too long
> and will be sung forever. But for now, all-powerful Zeus has had enough.
> And he lets Hera and the others know it with a threat that shuts them up
> and silences the world. Then, we read:
>
> It was so quiet in Heaven that you could hear
> The north wind pluck a chicken in Australia.
>
> Wait. What? A chicken plucked by the north wind? In Australia? In the
> “Iliad”? Put the book down, as I did years ago when I first read those
> lines, laugh out loud, stop, look into the distance, and just imagine —
> here in your home, there on the battlefield, high in wherever you believe
> Heaven to be — that kind of silence.
>
> etc
>
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