Ragnarok: Twilight of the Reader
While the others in the Cannongate series re-imagined the stories, Byatt reread it. And then told the tale of reading it. Underwhelming? To an extent, yes. But, the Norse myths are magnificent enough to come alive of themselves even when the author decides to color them distant.
Byatt gives her reasoning for this approach in the end – saying that she believes myths should not be humanized and the experience of imbibing the story of a myth, of how the story permeates the life, of how myth shapes an individuals and then a society’s internal life is what gives a myth its true meaning.
She wanted to mythologize this process – of how a myth can shape a life. And through her Thin Child, she might have done this to an extent, though she let me down on my expectations of a fun and thrilling adventure in the frigid, intimidating and exhilarating strangeness of the Norse landscapes.
Related articles
- The Canongate Myth Series (laurajanssensmaster.wordpress.com)
- Mythology: A Few Lesser Myths & An Intro to Norse Mythology (danitorres.typepad.com)
- Seeking Answers Through the Myths: by Brad Cameron (crimsonleague.com)
- Ragnarok (2012story366.com)
- Possession: a Romance by A.S. Byatt (charlotte-booklog.typepad.com)
- Vintage Byatt by A.S. Byatt (2004) (readramble.typepad.com)
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