{"product_id":"9780988334328","title":"Homer Whole: A Reading of the Iliad","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eIliad \u003c\/em\u003eis one of the most misinterpreted—and thereby maligned—books ever\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecomposed, recited, or written. Eric Larsen’s \u003cem\u003eHomer Whole \u003c\/em\u003esets out to correct this misreading\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof the great epic, to move it out of the caves of primitivism current readers\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003econsign it to and raise it to its proper place as the central foundational work of modern\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eliterary art.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eGeneralizations like “Homer glorifies war,” “Homer’s highest value is violence,” or\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“honor in Homer is gained only through pillage, slaughter, and war” are heard too\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eoften to be suffered easily, and they are also incorrect, being half-truths no less false\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethan “girls are bad at math” or “Frenchmen are arrogant.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eReading the \u003cem\u003eIliad \u003c\/em\u003ewith an open rather than a pre-judging or pre-selecting mind—that\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eis, reading it “whole”—brings to light psychological elements, philosophic dimensions,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eemotional nuances, and myriad dramatic subtleties that remain forever locked in darkness\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efor those who assume, believe, or have been taught that the poem is “primitive,” that it\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecomes from “an age of barbarism,” extoling only pillage, greed, and violence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe \u003cem\u003eIliad \u003c\/em\u003ehas in it much blood, gore, suffering, and death; but it also, in Blake’s great\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ephrase, holds much “Mercy, Pity, Peace, and Love.” To emphasize one side of the poem\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eover the other; to assume one to be “good” and the other “bad”; one “barbaric” and the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eother “civilized”—this is to read the \u003cem\u003eIliad \u003c\/em\u003ewith one eye closed and the poem reduced to\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eone-dimensionality, the poem’s aesthetic, emotional, and philosophical textures and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edepths—the essence of its modernity—unseen and unknown.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHomer Whole \u003c\/em\u003edescribes and elucidates the real reasons why the \u003cem\u003eIliad \u003c\/em\u003ehas survived as the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eseminal classic that it is, reasons unknown to most readers, both inside academia and out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"THE OLIVER ARTS AND OPEN PRESS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47035939782896,"sku":"9780988334328","price":12.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780988334328_p0.jpg?v=1763893292","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780988334328","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}