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Bezig met laden... Als de walvissen vertrekken (1975)door Yuri Rytkheu
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. This book seems sort of metamythic because part 1 is a creation myth and then the rest of the book is about how people engage with that myth (while its subject is still living!) and eventually become myths themselves. It makes you wonder, in reading this, will it make you part of the story? Probably, because of how universally applicable this story is, and considering how this predates the “Tragedy of the Commons” by a few millennia. Instead of the typical Western hopelessness, When the Whales Leave is a cautionary tale that has hope for humanity even though the ending is quite bleak. That being said, it doesn’t feel like it was written for a white audience, it’ll meet you halfway but won’t spoon feed you or guide you through understanding. Rytkeu talks a lot about the difference between ancestor worship and the gods, with Nau being the living embodiment humanity’s earliest ancestors (she’s a really old lady who lives through like at least 5 generations). The escalation from the first few generations doubting her story to the last guy who just totally starts fucking up everything seems really drastic, but maybe that slippery slope is realistic. At first the misogyny was bothering me but I dont think that depiction of something is necessarily an avowal of it, and that perhaps the patriarchal society that develops is just another symptom of human hubris. But that’s the thing, this book is so deceptively simple but it won’t give you a straight answer on anything and will linger with you for a lot longer than it takes to actually read it. The translator's note and introduction are definitely interesting, but read them after you read the story because both spoil it and it's a lot better to go in with no idea of what's coming next. I thought the prose in this was so easy to read and yet so flowery, in the translator's note Rytkheu says, "Write it like a song. Like you could sing it if you wanted to." which is honestly the best way anyone could put it. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)
"Nau cannot remember a time when she was not one with the world around her: with the fast breeze, the green grass, the high clouds, and the endless blue sky above the Shingled Spit. But her greatest joy is to visit the sea, where whales gather every morning to gaily spout rainbows. Then, one day, she finds a man in the mist where a whale should be: Reu, who has taken human form out of his Great Love for her. Together these first humans become parents to two whales, and then to mankind. Even after Reu dies, Nau continues on, sharing her story of brotherhood between the two species. But as these origins grow more distant, the old woman's tales are subsumed into myth-and her descendants turn increasingly bent on parading their dominance over the natural world. Buoyantly translated into English for the first time by Ilona Yazhbin Chavasse, this new entry in the Seedbank series is at once a vibrant retelling of the origin story of the Chukchi, a timely parable about the destructive power of human ego-and another unforgettable work of fiction from Yuri Rytkheu, "arguably the foremost writer to emerge from the minority peoples of Russia's far north" (New York Review of Books)"-- Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)891.73Literature Literature of other languages Literature of east Indo-European and Celtic languages Russian and East Slavic languages Russian fictionLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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I never know how to rate a book like this. It was wildly effective, vivid, beautiful. But acutely painful. ( )