Present Books In Pursuance Of The Flight of Icarus
| Original Title: | Le Vol d'Icare |
| ISBN: | 0811204839 (ISBN13: 9780811204835) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Raymond Queneau
Paperback | Pages: 191 pages Rating: 3.98 | 531 Users | 68 Reviews
Describe About Books The Flight of Icarus
| Title | : | The Flight of Icarus |
| Author | : | Raymond Queneau |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | First Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 191 pages |
| Published | : | January 17th 1973 by New Directions (first published 1968) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Cultural. France. Literature. 20th Century |
Commentary To Books The Flight of Icarus
”Ah! Icarus! Icarus! why try to elude the fate for which I had destined you? Where have you landed, in attempting to try out your wings? I await your return, whether voluntary or involuntary. In the meantime, all I can do is stare, dry-eyed, at that hard, forgotten lake which, under the hoar-frost, is haunted by the absence of a character. What a fate- that of a novelist without characters! Perhaps that is how it will be for all of us, one day. We won’t have any more characters. We shall be authors in search of characters. The novel will perhaps not be dead, but it won’t have characters in it any more. Difficult to imagine, a novel without characters. But isn’t all progress, if progress exists, difficult to imagine?”Another masterpiece from Queneau, who again and again gives proof as to why when someone asks me “Who are your favorite writers?” my response is almost always “James Joyce and Raymond Queneau...” (so there, now you know something about ME!)... This 1968 novel in the form of a play (and translated here by the unstoppably badass Queneau translator par excellence Barbara Wright) takes the conceit from such works as At Swim-Two-Birds and Mulligan Stew, that fictional characters have their own autonomous lives and existences independent from the works in which they were created, and are somewhat free to roam about the wide world on their own merry way. Queaneau employs that idea in a madcap parody of Pirandello's Theater of the Absurd when Icarus takes leave of Hubert Lubert’s novel and wanders 1890’s Paris, its absinthe bars, wide boulevards, and mauve parks(?)- all the while pursued by bewildered authors, an incompetent private detective, and ladies lusting after his Icarian je nais se quoi. Icarus’s eventual interest in all things to do with mechanical PROGRESS and the play's setting at the heart and capital of fin-de-siecle Europe can be seen as something of metaphor making on Queneau’s part (blind faith in industry and machinery taking us ever closer to that enigmatic and unreachable SUN which just melts our wings okay!) and comments, in almost-asides in the dialogue, on the limits of space and time and progress make this truly hilarious comedy into something more along the lines of a work of farcical philosophizing. (And is not farce a philosophy of its own?) Anyway, this’ll take you about 2 hours to read, and it’s brilliant and hilarious, so do it.
Rating About Books The Flight of Icarus
Ratings: 3.98 From 531 Users | 68 ReviewsCritique About Books The Flight of Icarus
For me the story was well made with important features and details given by the author.This story talks about a father called Daedalus and his son Icarus that were trapped on a prison ruled by King Minos.On the attempt to esacpe the prision flying through the air,Icarus dies and Daedalus cant deal with that much pain of lossing a son,he could barely fly to land.This story catches the readers attention by wanting to know what happens next.The message the author wants to us from this story for meThe Flight of Icarus is a playful and loose adaptation of the cautionary tale of Greek mythology; it is quintessential Queneau: witty, clever, engaging and thoroughly and surprisingly enjoyable. A Parisian author named Hubert has a peculiar and troublesome quandary when the main character of his new novel, takes flight from the page and disappears into the hubbub of the capital. Hubert employs a disreputable detective in order to find his errant protagonist. Farcical episodes ensue as the
One of the strangest things I have ever read.
The Flight of Icarus is a short story or myth that I didn't understand very well.There is a father (Deadalus) and his son (Icarus).They were trapped and wanted to escape.So they recollected feathers and sticked them with wax.Deadalus tought Icarus how to fly and told him not to fly too high or too low.Icarus felt free and forgot what his father had told him. He flew up to the sun. Then the wax started melting, and Icarus fell to the ocean and died.Deadalus buried his son and called the place
The Flight of Icarus fulfilled me with joy and wonder of such achievement of accomplishing the first human flight...But later those feelings went away vanishing by the death of Icarus. Such courage of risking his life to achieve it. The story goes throughout the code of honor, his father named the area where he died Icaria, in honor of Icarus.This riveting and inspiring story let my brain think for a while and told me that life is too short to waste, take risks for your loved ones and live life
For those that dont know, Raymond Queneau was the co-founder of the Oulipo group/movement (lazily quoting Wikipedia: Ouvroir de littérature potentielle; roughly translated: "workshop of potential literature"). His most famous works are likely Exercises in Style (in which a short story is told 99 different times, each in a different style); Cent Mille Milliards de Poèmes; translated to Hundred Thousand Billion Poems (a book of ten sonnets, but each page is cut into 14 strips for each line of the
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