Someone just gave me a new modern translation of an old Arthurian story known as the Alliterative Morte Arthure. This is not related to the far better known Thomas Malory Morte d'Arthur. This twelfth-century work, anonymous I think, is one I read years ago for my college honors thesis on Sir Gawain. It's a marvelous story, and I'm eager to read it again. I read it (with much labor!) in the original Early Middle English when I studied it in college, but this time I'll be reading the revved-up version that should speed me through.
Was the translation by JRRT?
Now, I'd like to read it too, would you have an amazon link, pretty please! Even if translation was not by JRRT (I think he stuck to completing it rather than merely translating it, plus his translations from Middle English were Gawain, Perle, Sir Orfeo, perhaps one more).
Read ... all the way through.
I hope Private Peaceful was good. I found out I enjoy reading exciting things all through, even when I disapprove of them.
It was good. Definitely not what I was expecting, but I enjoyed it for sure.
Currently reading A Wind in the Door (the sequel to A Wrinkle in Time) - I thought the first book was weird...this one is at least 10x weirder. I'm not sure what to expect from the remaining books in the series.
The next two are weird too.
Read a little more than half of All Quiet on the Western Front today. After having read Private Peat, it's quite the contrast. Peat had me sorta-convinced that he made it through with mainly good memories and little-to-no PTSD. All Quiet? Well, I'm wondering if Peat was suppressing a whole lot more than he let on. There are some content issues, though, so I will put that disclaimer on it.
I suppose PTSD is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
I also suppose how much you get of that depends on how you are living the war, which also depends on if you get a kick out of it or not. Which is not totally a bad thing. At least if you have to fight one anyway.
Madeleine l'Engle was kind of weird, but especially this detective work on which of the two Madoc/Madog someone descended from ... is this too much of a spoiler?
Nevertheless, I enjoyed them.
Ariel, again, you seem to collect war stories. Private Peat and Private Peaceful are not the same book! Since Private Peat was written by a couple, the wife of them also wrote one Mrs Private Peat, which you might enjoy. Private Peaceful is a much later novel. I first though either one of the titles was a misspelling on my part or "Peaceful" was a nickname for Mr Peat. Oh, no, two different books and all!
I'd like to read Hans Carossa ... "Im Ersten Weltkrieg war Carossa 1916 bis 1918 als Bataillonsarzt im bayerischen Reserveinfanterieregiment 19 an der rumänischen Front und der Westfront tätig. In Rumänien entstand das tagebuchartige Werk Rumänisches Tagebuch."
Roumanian front was probably very different from the West Front, and much more like the epic wars, say like Helm's Deep or things like that in LotR.
About this book: "Trotz des Unheils und Leids auf der Welt hält er am Glauben an eine ordnende Schöpfung Gottes fest und fordert Ehrfurcht vor dem Mitmenschen und von den Geheimnissen des Lebens. Den Krieg selbst stellt Carossa nicht in Frage."
Despite all miseries and suffering in the world, he clings to the faith in an ordering creation by God and demands respect for fellow men and for the secrets of life. As to war itself, Carossa is not questioning the concept.
He was a medical doctor in the field.
There is also Carl August Gottlob Otto. He wrote Im Osten nichts Neues, nearly same title as Remarque, but East Front. It's conclusions about German War veterans, according to wiki, are basically parallel to what is better known about Nam vets. Internationally, that is.
Not that I have read these.
Honestly, my recent wadings into WWI books are thanks to Elanorelle, who has a much greater passion for it and has thus got me interested. 😀
Oh, definitely, Private Peat and Private Peaceful are separate books. The former is autobiographical and written by a Canadian; the latter is fiction and features British characters. As for Mrs Private Peat, I had found it on Amazon quite by accident, but alas! my library system does not have it. Pity, because now I'm curious as to what's in it!
Hmm, that Carossa one, is that Doctor Gion? It's the only one my library system has, and that in German. Bummer, you got me curious! haha
Meanwhile, I've picked up a a few new books... to add to the still-unread books that I have. And All Quiet on the Western Front still to finish!
Doctor Gion? Bingo:
Die Optik des Arztes ist aus dem Werk Carossas nicht wegzudenken, wie auch in Der Arzt Gion (1931) und Tagebuch eines jungen Arztes (1955).
My favourite medical novel is - so far, and diary is a better word - the series by James Herriott, the guy who was with Siegfried and Tristan Farnon. OK, novelised diary.
Saw them as TV series, a bit like Emmerdale Farm to us Swedes (British countryside on TV? Not for everyone, for me and granny, yes!). Then I bought the actual books or some of them (Swedish translation, I think) while doing military service.
Der Arzt Gion is of course Doctor Gion. The other book mentioned is Diary of a young doctor, if such a title is extant in English translation.
As I'm still on a WWI kick, I picked up The First World War by John Keegan. So far so good.
Finished All Quiet on the Western Front over the weekend. I might just have to add that to my amazon wishlist....
I was reading an essay on CMI this morning, about Jesus being the Creator (and therefore knowing the time frame etc), and I was - if I may mention it - writing a failed attempt, recognised as such, to make a table for mounting C14 content in atmosphere between Flood and c. 500 B.C.
That Göbekli Tepe was still around in the lifetime of Abraham may be acceptable, but cramming in Achenaten in the centuries between 500 and 300 BC is hardly so. But if course I cannot link to it, and it is in French.
Anyone who is interested may mail me in a pm, link will be given privately.
I'm reading Screwtape Letters. Again. 😛 This is getting to be almost a problem. But It's a wonderful problem. 🙂
Screwtape reading is a good problem. 😀
Indeed.
So I'm on House of Hades and am experiencing Percy Jackson-induced withdrawals. I have a problem.
