The Lost Books of The Lost Books of the Odyssey

I originally included Yasuko Taoka’s paper “A Liar’s Yarn: Storytelling in The Lost Books of the Odyssey” as an update to my post on the book. Now that I have a copy of the first edition from Starcherone Books I realize both the paper and the first edition of the book deserve their own post. Taoka’s paper, adapted from a speech she made, provides a lot of material on the differences between the two editions, focusing on the parts of the first edition that adds to the overall structure and meaning of the book.

The second edition of the book, published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, made some major changes from the first edition. Taoko’s second footnote covers the bulk of the modifications:

Changes include the addition of two chapters (“No Man’s Wife” and “Epigraph”), the deletion of the Introduction, Appendix, and three chapters (“After Coming Home,” Fox,” and “Endless City”), and the transposition of three chapters (“Sad Revelation,” “Fireworks,” and “Record of a Game”). In general the second edition creates more continuity between chapters, and eliminates the mathematical superstructure borrowed from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities.

Also included at the end of the book’s first edition, along with the typesetting information, is the Author Biography:

Zachary Mason was educated at Trinity College, the University of Michigan, and the Sorbonne. He is currently the John Shade Professor of Archaeocryptography and Paleomathmematics at Magdalen College, Osford. He divides his time between Oxford and the Greek island Ogygia. He lives with his cats, Talleyrand and Penthesilia.

If the Nabokov reference doesn’t bring a smile to your face, this book isn’t for you. In the paper Taoka spends a lot of time explaining how the final chapter, “Endless City,” works, both from the organizational standpoint (encapsulating previous chapters while continuing the narrative) and the looping, Mobius-strip like framework. It’s a helpful explanation that shows how the chapter should be read.

Taoka also touches on the imagery in the book that graphically depicts what Mason does narratively in the book. The introduction goes into detail on how the lost books were translated using a combination of keys—Taoka ties the names used in titles to chapters of Calvino’s Invisible Cities as decoding keys (see footnote 12). There is so much wonderful stuff going on in these books that it’s helpful to have a guide. I highly recommend the paper and the original edition of the book, especially for anyone that enjoyed the FS&G edition.

Audiobooks

I finally finished listening to How to Live, or A life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer and thoroughly enjoyed it. A mix of Montaigne's biography and review of his works, it made my commute much more pleasurable. Now the only question is what version of the Essays to start with. See the link for a series of posts by the author on her book.

While at the library I saw an audiobook version of Zachary Mason's The Lost Books of the Odyssey. I enjoyed reading it (see this post for more detail and links) and wanted something short (4 discs) and sweet. It was both. Since the book contains purported missing chapters or versions of the Odyssey, many of them self-contradictory, I'm not sure how well this works in audiobook format. The same could be said for the book, though. Some people will enjoy it straight through while others may want to take a chapter or two at a time. I'm happy to say that it was well worth the re-visit, which is why I'm mentioning it.

Speaking of short (2 hours) and sweet (OK, this one is closer to bitter), I also checked out the L.A. Theatre Works production of Friedrich Schiller's Mary Stuart. It turns out to be a very good production of the emblematic (but not necessarily historical) play. Since the play is focusing on a critique and contrast of ideas, it lends itself well to an audio-only version. The text of the play can be found at Project Gutenberg.

The Lost Books of the Odyssey discussion

The Lost Books of the Odyssey by Zachary Mason
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 240 pages, $24.00
ISBN: 9780374192150

Steven Riddle at A Momentary Taste of Being gave this book a high recommendation and since I re-read The Odyssey lately (or so it seems to me) I thought I would check this book out from the library when it became available. I’m glad I did.

The Lost Books of the Odyssey purports to be just as the name implies—books or fragments that did not make it into the final version of The Odyssey. A chapter may have one item changed and the reader sees the cascading effect emanating from that change. Or the chapter may be told from the perspective of a different character in the epic, with or without changes. Or it may be a complete re-imagining of what “really” took place and how the epic we now read came into being. The scope isn’t limited to The Odyssey since many scenes from The Iliad and other mythic tales are included, but they usually come back to how the alternate version impacts Odysseus.

Like Mr. Riddle, I resisted the book at first. My wife asked, when I was starting the second chapter, what I was reading. “Einstein’s Dreams meets Homer,” was the easiest way for me to describe it (although I could have just as easily said Borges or Gaiman). Which it is, but at the same time it is so much more. Following what was common and contradictory between the different scenarios intrigued me and I, like Mr. Riddle, was won over by the sheer cleverness of the scenarios. My favorite chapter was The Iliad of Odysseus, a re-imagining of the Trojan War if Odysseus was a reluctant leader and warrior, yearning rather to be a bard. He gets his wish after taking matters into his own hands regarding Helen and sets the deciding conflict into motion. After performing as a bard for ten years around the Mediterranean, shaping the stories that became The Odyssey (becoming Homer in a sense), he returns home to Ithaca and enjoys hearing other bards sing of his alleged exploits. While these stories mock what really occurred, Odysseus rationalizes “What good is the truth when those who were there are dead or scattered?”, completely undermining the concept of kleos.

Zachary Mason, a computer scientist and mathematician here in Silicon Valley, has created alternate worlds where “Every event is the cause of myriad effects”. While written in prose, the economy of language and descriptive vocabulary can make the chapters feel like poetry at times. As Mr. Riddle points out, you can read this as deeply or lightly as you like, either way will provide much enjoyment.

For some quotes from the appendix of the first version of the book (the current publication by FSG could be called version 2.0), see the Math Fiction Site. Most reviews of the book, such as this one contain a history of the odyssey of the book’s publication. Whichever version is available to you, I recommend it.

Update: For a more detailed look at the book, see the review by biblioklept.

Update (5 Nov 2012): For more on the novel, different versions of the book, and excised chapters in the FS&G version read A Liar's Yarn: Storytelling in the Lost Books of the Odyssey by Yasuko Taoka. Highly recommended.