Ironically, we learn more about Christian Brannock's birth period when he converses with Laurinda in emulation than in the chapters when he was alive. See:
The last Montalbano novel by Andrea Camilerri contains a surreal passage in which the capitalized "Author" converses with the character. This reminded me of Brian Aldiss' Frankenstein Unbound in which Mary Shelley and Victor Frankenstein, together with his Monster, coexist. This decided me to reread Aldiss' novel which has been on a shelf upstairs all these years. This in turn is relevant to Poul Anderson Appreciation. After the literary precursors, Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus and Prometheus Unbound by Percy Shelley, the science fiction Frankensteinian tradition comprises, together with perhaps lesser works:
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley
R.U. R. by Karel Capek, which introduced the word, "robot"
the Frankenstein Complex in Isaac Asimov's Robot stories
Frankenstein Unbound by Brian Aldiss
Genesis by Poul Anderson
Since I am rereading Genesis, have borrowed seven Montalbano books from the Library and am doing other things, like a day trip to London on Saturday, I am not sure when this extra reading will be done but I hope to live for at least another twenty years.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I'm a slow reader, and cervical myelopathy surgery, with a lengthy recovery, slowed me even more. But I did manage to reread THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. And I've started reading Volume 3 of Solzhenitsyn's huge novel MARCH 1917. The grim and horrendous drama of the catastrophic Russian Revolution is much on my mind.
Ad astra! Sean
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