Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse
1 journaler for this copy...
This is the next selection of the Davis Square Book Circle. I'm just getting started, and so far it's fantastic!
There was a lot of discussion about whether this was or was not a novel.
Here are a few interesting bits of info I found while googling names from "Autobiography of Red":
[the last line of the book is: "S: That's three"]
... and "you do not even know Stesichorus's three" passed into a proverbial expression for unpardonable ignorance (unless the words simply mean, "you do not even know three lines, or poems, of Stesichorus").
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stesichorus
[at the end of the book, Herakles, Geryon, and Ancash stand side by side with arms touching]
It is said that Geryon was the strongest man alive, having three bodies joined at the waist, three heads and six arms and hands.
http://webhome.idirect.com/~donlong/monsters/Html/Geryon.htm
[the volcano that they go to at the end is named Icchantikas]
A contraversial theory Tao-sheng advocated at this time concerned the question of whether the icchantikas, regarded traditionally as outcasts from the path of enlightenment, were also Buddha-natured. Tao-sheng decided they were while reading an incomplete version of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, a complete version of which was still to come. The absolute universality of the Buddha-nature was the logical conclusion he reached by inference from the first part of the sutra, even though it contained an explicit statement excepting the icchantikas. This bold new interpretation, amounting to a challenge of an accepted channel of the Buddha's doctrines, brought about his expulsion from the Buddhist community sometime between 428 and 429.
http://campross.crosswinds.net/books/NirvanaSutra12.html
Here are a few interesting bits of info I found while googling names from "Autobiography of Red":
[the last line of the book is: "S: That's three"]
... and "you do not even know Stesichorus's three" passed into a proverbial expression for unpardonable ignorance (unless the words simply mean, "you do not even know three lines, or poems, of Stesichorus").
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stesichorus
[at the end of the book, Herakles, Geryon, and Ancash stand side by side with arms touching]
It is said that Geryon was the strongest man alive, having three bodies joined at the waist, three heads and six arms and hands.
http://webhome.idirect.com/~donlong/monsters/Html/Geryon.htm
[the volcano that they go to at the end is named Icchantikas]
A contraversial theory Tao-sheng advocated at this time concerned the question of whether the icchantikas, regarded traditionally as outcasts from the path of enlightenment, were also Buddha-natured. Tao-sheng decided they were while reading an incomplete version of the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, a complete version of which was still to come. The absolute universality of the Buddha-nature was the logical conclusion he reached by inference from the first part of the sutra, even though it contained an explicit statement excepting the icchantikas. This bold new interpretation, amounting to a challenge of an accepted channel of the Buddha's doctrines, brought about his expulsion from the Buddhist community sometime between 428 and 429.
http://campross.crosswinds.net/books/NirvanaSutra12.html