Resources
Cassandra:
The book is all about Cassandra's point of view of her main life events. They talk about how she was imprisoned and condemned and later how she was raped. They also describe many of her feelings and her love life, ultimately leading to her murder. This describes the plot more in detail. www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U1xGn6lHP8 One of the quotes in the book is "She does not see the world how it is. She's a bit up in the clouds. She does not fit in". This quote is important because it is relatable to modern day times. People often pretend to see the world with a better perspective than it is because they think it's easier to think everything's going to be okay. However, sometimes people do need to see the world isn't always good or they won't be prepared for the bad. Another thing that applies to today's world is one of her major themes in this book. She discusses the issues of marginalization, specifically with women. This really felt like a feministic story. The fact that women are still not being treated equal to men proves that she went through the same things we do, just on a much more severe level.
Christa Wolf:
Christa Wolf was a German novelist. She was said to be one of the best-known writes from Eastern Germany. She grew up under Nazism, which is partially what inspired her to write with such purity and sensitivity. She has won many awards for her writing including: Germany's national literary prize and the Heinrich Mann prize. She has a lot of famous quotes and saying like "You can only fight sorrow when you look it in the eye". - Christa Wolf. These quotes and the books and novels she wrote have inspired many people around the world. There was something about how raw and real her stories were that made people connect to them easily, which is why her books are read internationally. This link will show you a video talking about one of her books and how it she was bold enough to be the first author to write about the German division. www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3DpRlVqxdc She was truly an inspiration to many and continues to be to this day. Even though she sadly passed away in 2011, her legacy and novels will live on.
The Lost Books of the Odyssey: The Lost Books of the Odyssey re-tell the story of Odysseu's voyage back from Ithica from Troy. It shows many different versions of this story and includes flashbacks from the Trojan War. It shows perspective change and talks about perseverance. www.youtube.com/watch?v=brqis2fURro. The link is a video that explains the different books or versions of the story throughout the Odyssey. Even though it is a retelling, the author is original and creative in the way he re-wrote it. Zachary Mason: The Lost Books of the Odyssey is a book Zachary Mason wrote that has snippets of Homer's Odyssey that he found on a papyrus that contained versions of the story that didn't make it into Homer's version. Zachary is actually a computer scientist and this was his first novel. The novel was also a New York Times best seller. People think he wrote it because he found the versions on the papyrus, but he hasn't actually said why he wrote it exactly. He also wrote two other books, one of which also received the title of New York Best Seller. He wrote the versions of Odyssey in a very elegant way and some of the versions were not as complicated or hard to understand. Discussion Questions: 1. Which of the versions do you find the most interesting? Most haunting? 2. What is unique about Zachary Mason's retelling of the story? What was the same as the original? 3. How did Agamemnon's rule of king compare to our political and military leaders today? 4. How does the patriarchy from back then compare to the one still in place? How have we grown over time as a society? 5. What is a recurring struggle found in throughout multiple of the stories? Circe: Circe is a book about the abuse and violence that power causes. When every one is trying to have power over one another chaos ensues. Circe was tested many times throughout the novel and her choice in the end gave her the most fulfillment. When she decided to give up her powers and become mortal she actually got to start helping people and didn't have to worry about the burden of her powers and how they affected her and others. Madeline Miller: Madeline Miller is an American novelist and inspiration. She worked many years as a Latin and Greek teacher while writing her books. She wanted to write Circe because she wanted to write about someone that was born into an abused and dysfunctional family but wanted to escape and build herself when she had nothing to build on. She wanted to inspire others that had grown up with a similar experience of a broken family. Madeline has won several awards and is getting one of her books turned into a TV show as well. She has been a New York Times Bestseller a few times and has wrote essays that were featured in magazines. This is a video of her answering questions about the book Circe. www.pbs.org/newshour/show/circe-author-madeline-miller-answers-your-questions. Her writing is liked by many people and her books have become inspirations. |