Dear Obsequious Readers in the Fellowship of the Speckled Axe, 9/23/1995 PAUL18

Some great club letters have come my way lately. Really interesting reviews; especially in BRENT6, MIKE RUHL2, and KIETH8. Keep it up guys.

I must say this, but I'll keep it brief. Most of you know by heart what happens if you don't write. If you don't write a letter in 1995 then you're not in the club in 1996. Simple. But enough of that.

Now I have to share something of great shame. I'm not making a judgement of others here, only myself. The club has been together since 1988 and I've only managed to produce 19 letters (including PAUL2.5). It makes me feel that I certainly can't comment on those who only write once a year when I haven't produced much myself. So those of you who only write once a year are off the hook for now.

I should move on finally to the books that I want to share, and oh, they are such treasures.

The first is The Merry Wives of Windsor; one of Shakespeare's lesser-known comedies. I went to go see an outdoor performance of this play with some friends a couple months ago, Afterwards I also read it to get a clearer idea of what I missed in the performance. Because it is Shakespeare, some of the parts will always be over my head, no matter how many times I see it preformed or read the footnotes. However, the greater proportion that I did understand was very funny, and makes me appreciate Shakespeare all the more.

If you are unfamiliar with this play, here's an overview. John Falstaff, who is a common Shakespearian character, sends two of the same letter to two Windsor wives asking them to cheat on their husbands and have an affair with him. He figures one is bound to reply to his request, but he doesn't figure on the two being such great friends that they would confide in each other about the letters. They discover Falstaff's polygamistic endeavor and plot to teach a lesson to the fat lecher. Jealous husbands and the twisted marriage plans of a daughter adds great subplots to round out a thoroughly funny play.

The next book, Coyote Waits, by Tony Hillerman, was my favorite of those that I read for this time. I have a special liking for Hillerman as most of you know. I don't know what it is about his books really. I think it is how he tries to make the world more aware of his culture by permeating his writing with legends and folklore. For instance, the title Coyote Waits refers to the mythical Coyote who is always waiting for prey and always hungry. The legend is made into a clever analogy to the story line.

Other things I like about Hillerman are how he subtly reveals his own knowledge as a writer/reader/researcher/American Indian by making his characters intelligent, well read and culturally aware.

Ironic side note here: Janet (defense attorney is looking through police officer Chee's bookshelf and sees, among other famous works, The Way To Rainy Mountain, by Scott Momaday. I'd be surprised if you didn't know who Momaday was. He is known worldwide for his bold insights to the American Indians' constant struggle under a white man's government. He tells it like it is. He lives in Tucson and teaches in the English department at the U of A. I've had the pleasure of meeting him (*name-dropping*) and helping him with some computer problems (even though he's a Mac user!). Weird that I came across his name in the Hillerman book, but not really. He is very famous.

Getting back -- I was once again really pleased with Hillerman's writing. I recommend it to those of you who like the Southwest and its legends.

Book three is Gilgamesh The King by Robert Silverberg. When I saw that the major science-fiction writer had chosen to write about the legendary god-king of Sumaria, I had to read it. And boy, was it good!

The story line follows most of the known legends of Gilgamesh with heavy emphasis on the sex and violence of course. In the Afterward, Silverberg boasts that he had done some extensive research on texts about Gilgamesh and the ancient Sumerian culture. The book reflects it. He takes you there. Very cool read.

Interesting point about Silverberg's retelling is that he makes all the "magic" and "monsters" into things that could be explained by natural occurring phenomenon, but are taken to mean something else by a highly superstitious/ignorant culture. A forest demon in the form of an earthquake and smoke geyser is squelched by Gilgamesh and his companion, Enkidu, by diverting a river into the crack in the ground. Thus heroes are made and legends are born. Interesting how Silverberg points out that heroes are made in the eyes of the beholder.

Well, I thought that I'd finally read the real Epic of Gilgamesh and see how much damage Silverberg did in the retelling.Surprisingly enough, he kept very close to the original epic, but adds some "color" to the characters, of course. In the Penguin Classics' version, edited by N. K. Sanders, I found so many neat facts. Hopefully, you'll think so too, because I'm about to tell you about them. The Epic of Gilgamesh could have been lost to our age if it weren't for a few men. (((*double side track here* Have you seen Cleopatra with Liz Taylor? When Alexandria's library is burning, one of the high-priests or whoever says, "The last copy of Aristotle's Second Book Of Comedies, lost." Ironically, some claim the last copy of Aristotle's mysterious work was lost in Europe during the 12th century, as the producers of The Name Of The Rose try to portray.))) Bringing it back, the recovery of The Epic Of Gilgamesh goes like this:

In 1839, an Englishman named Austin Henry Layard, set off with a friend to Ceylon, but was delayed in Mesopotamia. The delay of weeks turned into years because of their involvement of an excavation in Nineveh and Nimrud. Layard found a buried library in Nineveh that contained over 25,000 broken tablets that were later assembled and translated in the British Museum. Among other ancient writings, a copy of Gilgamesh was recovered, which, as a complete story, they estimate might have been out of circulation for over a thousand years!!!! These men didn't know what they had found at the time, but 20 years later someone mentioned to the Society of Biblical Archaeology that he had come across some Assyrian tablets at the British Museum that contained an account of the flood (tablet 11 of the Assyrian recension of the epic of Gilgamesh). Money was soon gathered to have the missing tablet fragments excavated. And that is how close we came to losing this great epic. Of course there are poems and fragments of stories mentioning Gilgamesh all around the world - no complete work though.

Here's my last bit of irony. Gilgamesh, as it's told, searched for eternal life after his companion Enkidu died, because Gilgamesh had become afraid of death. However, the god Enlil (Sumerian god of earth, wind and universal air - equivalent to the Greek god Zeus) wouldn't grant him eternal life, but did degree that of all man-kind, none would leave a monument comparable to Gilgamesh's. This is acheieved to some extent if you consider how Gilgamesh will be known throughout history. If you finally accept that you're going to die, it's no small consolation to receive everlasting fame. Huh?

I want to introduce yet another member to our humble little group. She reads a lot - that I know, but whether she wants to tell us about them we have yet to see. Her name is Maria Barr. I added her to the updated address list. Corcoran's address was wrong, so throw that old list away.

Hope to hear from all of you soon!

Paul