As I've been slowly reacquainting myself with literature over the past several months, I've started to have a growing desire in me to be more educated. I've had this general sense since graduating college that I've no longer been getting smarter. Which isn't to say that I haven't learned things. That's abjectly false. But there's just a clear difference of feeling while I was being schooled from Kindergarten to college, and then the period afterward. So I've had this idea that, if I'm returning to reading, I should really go through the classics. As a sort of restart or return to form. Not as the only thing I'll be reading, but for example, I enjoyed reading Robinson Crusoe. Why not continue that theme and go farther back. In this case all the way back...

In particular this idea comes from something I've heard called the "Western canon". The concept of "what books and poems serve as the background for modern writing of the western world". There's a number of lists out there that cover such things so I'm not adhering too tightly to any one such list I've seen. Mostly going wherever my fancy takes me. I have no doubt that I'm gonna try reading some of these old stories and just completely bounce off of them. But the last time I really gave some of these sorts of stories a chance was back in high school. High school me is not current me. That bitch was season 2 me and we're on like season 7 by now. So I have left room that my tastes may have in fact changed and that there are classic books that I may enjoy that I wouldn't have once upon a time.

Reading Notes

Just started reading (the Andrew George translation FYI). I'm still on the intro bits before we get to the actual Epic itself. Though one particular comment from the author stood out to me. He was talking about how the Epic is very incomplete in a number of areas. And he made a comment how as new discoveries are made and tablets already in museums are catalogued we will fill in our gaps in knowledge. I thought that was rather sad. Obviously, unfortunate that there may well be gaps that are never filled. But specifically the idea that we have in our possession right now tablets that do have the missing info on them. And it's simply a lack of resources or manpower that they haven't been catalogued and identified.

Finished the first tablet (ha!) and I am surprisingly not pushed away. The repeating of lines feels kind of annoying to read, but it's interesting hearing some mythology that I've never heard before.

The repeating lines is becoming quite annoying. I wanna summon a Mesopotamian in front of me and demand they explain. "Does this shit sound good to you? Repeating the same thing 5 or more times in a row? What purpose does that serve?" Joking aside, I'm not minding it all thus far. It is interesting seeing how many gaps there are everywhere. Having to skip whole sections of the story because it just ain't there.

Gilgamesh and Enkidu are cute, holding hands as they travel everywhere. I found the whole exchange between Gilgamesh and Ishtar funny. Weirdly meta there. When he dresses her down pointing out everyone that she diddles ends up cursed or dead. And that he wants nothing to do with her. Don't know if it was meant to be a comedic beat, but that's how it came across to me. We're telling a goddess to get bent...

Review

Alright, let's just say we've got room to improve. There's good bones, but I gotta say some of this shit got annoying. I demand the Mesopotamian come up to me and explain why exactly they've chosen to repeat themselves over and over. Seemingly just to get to their teacher's demanded word count. Because I don't know what else we're doing here. There was some real phoning it in. Did you know that Humbaba's voice is the Deluge, his mouth is fire, his breath is death? I know that. How could I not, when I have been told it 17 times? Or when Gilgamesh gets terrible dementia and so repeats why he is depressed after his friend (lover) Enkidu's death to like three separate people saying exactly the same phrases every time? Instead of perhaps truncating his spiel a bit? Brevity is the soul of wit, love. I am sure we were upping the font size on the cuneiform as well.

There's some interest here, though. I find Gilgamesh and Enkidu an interesting pair. There's some homoeroticism in the background. I'm just sayin' they did "wrestle" when Gilgamesh was about to deep dick that one lady. After, Gilgamesh's sexual hungers are completely satisfied, and the two immediately became lifelong friends. They do also frequently hold hands as they travel together and occasionally kiss. It was enough that it stood out. My lil bi's out there...if you're looking for representation, you'll be happy to know that one of humanity's oldest stories has your back. Our two male leads slay puss on the reg and dick each other down on the weekends.

In addition, I think we've got some interesting setup I'd like to see more detail on. There were legitimately places where I was vibing, enjoying what I was reading and then lo! [The rest of the tablet has not been recovered] Balderdash! (A reminder that we are working in tablets here, not chapters. Also that notable portions of the story simply are not known.) I am always a fan of remote places, so the idea of traveling beyond the world's ocean to find the one immortal human is pretty cool. I liked that plot. Pretty uncool of the Bible people to blatantly pass off previous writers' work as their own. I get that we all riffed off each other back then, but the whole Deluge story section we get from that immortal is really dire. Noah found dead in a fucking ditch. We're dealing with full on "filed off the serial numbers" here and I didn't realize it was that bad.

We also got some, what I will interpret to be, genuine comedic bits. Gilgamesh telling Ishtar/Inanna/Aphrodite/Venus to piss off when she wants to diddle him because every other hero she's bedded has ended up horribly cursed or dead is quite good. Was unexpectedly meta given this is starting the meta. Imagine some Greek hoplite fella saying no to Aphrodite when she comes knocking at his chamber doors...straight to Tartarus within seconds.

So not bad, in general, but I think we can do better.