I am glad to see you wrote about Kazantzakis. I read The Last Temptation of Christ as a 19 year old at university -- for some reason I recall having read this during my Junior year study abroad program in Japan -- but never did read Zorba the Greek (or see the movie). As I recall, Last Temptation has Jesus as a VERY human guy, subject to all the usual human frailties -- including a normal adult male sex drive, along with self-doubt and existential questioning as to why HE had to fulfill his heavenly father's mission on earth, which of course was to end with his crucifixion. Along the way, though, there were many temptations -- let's just say that in 1st century Judea, Jewish prophets were kind of like ROck Stars, and they attracted groupies. We'll leave it at that.
Some months after reading the book, I visited Greece on my way back to the States, and stayed for a week in a cheap hotel (The Phaedra - also the name of a film starring Melina Mercouri), which for the equivalent of 5 bucks US a night, ans leaning out over the balcony slightly more than was recommended, could give you a free view of the Son et Lumiere show playing on the Acropolis. The hotel was adjacent to a nameless tavern which had a juke box (this was the '60's) whose 3 or 4 records included the well-known theme from the 1960 film, Never on a Sunday (also starring Melina Mercouri). I don't recommend that you try clicking thru to the theme song on Youtube: it is veritable ear-worm material.
To continue to bore you with my recollections from a half-century ago, a month after Greece I was in England with my then-GF and visiting her various family members on a get-acquainted tour (this was in preparation for us getting married the following year). One distant relation was a rather elderly Anglican cleric who was a professor of comparative religion at Cambridge. I was eager to make a good impression and let on that I had read Kazantzakis' Last Temptation of Christ -- which was quite controversial and banned in Greece by the conservative military Junta of the day --and over lunch at a Cambridge watering hole gave him a blow by blow synopsis of all the most shocking bits.
The good Reverend was sufficiently broad-minded to not be alarmed at the prospect of having such a Free Thinker joining the family that he agreed to conduct our wedding the following year.
Earlier today I wrote a nifty reply, but it vanished into the electricity, alas. I said something along the lines of I didn't read sci-fi when I was a young dude and, presumably, the target audience--my nose was in the air. But then in my late 20s I read STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND and some other stuff, and my appetite has grown and grown over time. Mostly reading post-apoc and clif-fi these days--so many good books! But I probably should read Wyndham on general principles. Also wanted to tell you about a book that appeared in the post on Persephone Books [Bath, U.K.] and in Birth Year 1939: THE HOPKINS MANUSCRIPT by R. C. Sherriff. I believe it was his only sci-fi book, the others being mid-century English realism. Moon crashes into Earth, narrated by a rather snobby local bloke (raises prize chickens) and that angle of narration somehow works.
Thanks for the note. [I love "gateway drug"--I used it a while back to describe a YouTuber named Katey Lumsden whose irrepressible enthusiasm was my gateway drug to the practice known as Victober . . . and now I've read nine Trollopes, a bunch of Elizabeth Gaskell and a whole slew of others.]
I am glad to see you wrote about Kazantzakis. I read The Last Temptation of Christ as a 19 year old at university -- for some reason I recall having read this during my Junior year study abroad program in Japan -- but never did read Zorba the Greek (or see the movie). As I recall, Last Temptation has Jesus as a VERY human guy, subject to all the usual human frailties -- including a normal adult male sex drive, along with self-doubt and existential questioning as to why HE had to fulfill his heavenly father's mission on earth, which of course was to end with his crucifixion. Along the way, though, there were many temptations -- let's just say that in 1st century Judea, Jewish prophets were kind of like ROck Stars, and they attracted groupies. We'll leave it at that.
Some months after reading the book, I visited Greece on my way back to the States, and stayed for a week in a cheap hotel (The Phaedra - also the name of a film starring Melina Mercouri), which for the equivalent of 5 bucks US a night, ans leaning out over the balcony slightly more than was recommended, could give you a free view of the Son et Lumiere show playing on the Acropolis. The hotel was adjacent to a nameless tavern which had a juke box (this was the '60's) whose 3 or 4 records included the well-known theme from the 1960 film, Never on a Sunday (also starring Melina Mercouri). I don't recommend that you try clicking thru to the theme song on Youtube: it is veritable ear-worm material.
To continue to bore you with my recollections from a half-century ago, a month after Greece I was in England with my then-GF and visiting her various family members on a get-acquainted tour (this was in preparation for us getting married the following year). One distant relation was a rather elderly Anglican cleric who was a professor of comparative religion at Cambridge. I was eager to make a good impression and let on that I had read Kazantzakis' Last Temptation of Christ -- which was quite controversial and banned in Greece by the conservative military Junta of the day --and over lunch at a Cambridge watering hole gave him a blow by blow synopsis of all the most shocking bits.
The good Reverend was sufficiently broad-minded to not be alarmed at the prospect of having such a Free Thinker joining the family that he agreed to conduct our wedding the following year.
On Wyndham, The Chrysalids was the first of his I read, the gateway drug. Some SciFi doesn’t age well but his has - at least I think so.
Earlier today I wrote a nifty reply, but it vanished into the electricity, alas. I said something along the lines of I didn't read sci-fi when I was a young dude and, presumably, the target audience--my nose was in the air. But then in my late 20s I read STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND and some other stuff, and my appetite has grown and grown over time. Mostly reading post-apoc and clif-fi these days--so many good books! But I probably should read Wyndham on general principles. Also wanted to tell you about a book that appeared in the post on Persephone Books [Bath, U.K.] and in Birth Year 1939: THE HOPKINS MANUSCRIPT by R. C. Sherriff. I believe it was his only sci-fi book, the others being mid-century English realism. Moon crashes into Earth, narrated by a rather snobby local bloke (raises prize chickens) and that angle of narration somehow works.
Thanks for the note. [I love "gateway drug"--I used it a while back to describe a YouTuber named Katey Lumsden whose irrepressible enthusiasm was my gateway drug to the practice known as Victober . . . and now I've read nine Trollopes, a bunch of Elizabeth Gaskell and a whole slew of others.]
If you are into post-apoc/CliFi this is a good Wyndham for you!! All the Post