and such) as if written by an adolescent barely familiar with the CliffNotes version of the original play. She meets his autocracy with insolence, as if to say: this breed of extremism can only be met with extremes. With the translucent pages, the art and words nearly obfuscate one another, juxtaposing the tale with nearly incongruous symbols superimposed, much like the way various symbolic interpretations of the text and characters have existed almost independently of the original story. She later offers an overview of Antigone's childhood – "we got her the bike we got her a therapist".

A timeless classic that is frighteningly relevant as ever: the dispute between religious and secular laws, authoritarianism and its depredation on culture and faith, and the perils any type of extremism brings.

That comment does not seek to denigrate the text in any way, since this brief rendering of the original is wonderful, it is just that I have missed out on an additional experience and feel annoyed with myself for being a cheapskate. We readers know from the beginning, of course, that Kreon's speech is just empty words, and that he will soon discover this for himself. In contrast to Grief Lessons and Carson’s Oresteia translation, this one is far less literal, pulling in contemporary language and references to contemporary authors who have commented on Antigone. So it isn't an account of Stone's choices, Carson's collaboration, or the particular images and specific words in the text. This is less a translation of Sophocles' Antigone than a separate poetic drama inspired by the ancient Greek.

It shows how the book fits into the world and speaks to the society of the time, and how translating requires deciding on word choices that must navigate how you feel best respects the work while still acknowledging it as a piece being told in the present but written long in the past. She is a heroine who has been interpreted by critics in myriad ways: for Hegel, she represents the ethical value of the family against the state; for George Eliot, the strength of intellect against society; for Anouilh, during the French resistance, the rejection of authority. Carson is nothing less than brilliant—unfalteringly sharp indiction, audacious, and judicious in taking liberties. I see the GR reviews admiring passages like these but wonder whether most of them read Sophocles or adaptations like the one by Brecht. Her testament that “I am born for love not hatred” is a response to his “Enemy is always enemy, alive or dead.Recommendation: if this book were the standard text of the play alone, I'd probably give it four stars, and I'd recommend it for the text to people interested in ancient drama in modern translation.

Besides writing poetry Bianca is a visual artist, often combining verse and image, for which she was a 2011 NYFA fellow. When her brother Polynices declares war on Thebes, the city is defended by her other brother Eteocles. A beautiful, bewildering book, wondrous and a bit scary to behold, that gives a reader much to think about without making it clear how she should feel.Sophokles’ luminous and disturbing tragedy is here given an entirely fresh language and presentation: it will provoke poetry readers, classical scholars, theatre people and comic-book aficionados. The more pervasive and permanent threat involves the precedents set by an autocratic culture, the lack of tolerance and respect for human rights and civil discourse that imperils the future of a free republic. In Sophokles’s version (as per the 1939 translation by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald), Antigone is respectful in her speech, willing to argue her case.