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My sister slept with the light on until she was 27. She rightfully blames me. I would leap out of closets with my hands made into claws. I would... Continue »
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The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur (Myths)

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The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur (Myths) Cover

ISBN13: 9781841959122
ISBN10: 184195912x
Condition: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Synopsis:

Victor Pelevin, the iconoclastic and wildly interesting contemporary Russian novelist who The New Yorker named one of the Best European Writers Under 35, upends any conventional notions of what mythology must be with his unique take on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. By creating a mesmerizing world where the surreal and the hyperreal collide, The Helmet of Horror is a radical retelling of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur set in an Internet chat room. They have never met, they have been assigned strange pseudonyms, they inhabit identical rooms that open out onto very different landscapes, and they have entered a dialogue they cannot escape — a discourse defined and destroyed by the Helmet of Horror. Its wearer is the dominant force they call Asterisk, a force for good and ill in which the Minotaur is forever present and Theseus is the great unknown. The Helmet of Horror is structured according to the way we communicate in the twenty-first century — using the Internet — yet instilled with the figures and narratives of classical mythology. It is a labyrinthine examination of epistemological uncertainty that radically reinvents this myth for an age where information is abundant but knowledge ultimately unattainable.
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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
downindenver, March 8, 2008 (view all comments by downindenver)
Pelevin's entry into the Canongate Myth Series is dark and disturbing. If the brain is a computer, as Pelevin writes in the introduction, is mythology the shell program? Have we as a species gotten so old that we can't remember how to fix the shell program? Pelevin's characters (and the reader) are caught in a labyrinth of chat room dialog. They can't see each other, can't find each other, can't touch or know each other. They have names that someone else has assigned to them. No one knows who Theseus is or who the minotaur is. Maybe Pelevin, as the author of the book, is a little bit of both?
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781841959122
Author:
Pelevin, Victor
Publisher:
Canongate Books
Translator:
Bromfield, Andrew
Author:
Bromfield, Andrew
Subject:
Folklore
Subject:
Fairy Tales, Folklore & Mythology
Subject:
Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology
Subject:
Mythology-Folklore and Storytelling
Copyright:
2007
Edition Description:
First Trade Paper Edition
Series:
Myths, The
Publication Date:
20070431
Binding:
TRADE PAPER
Language:
English
Pages:
288
Dimensions:
7.75 x 5 in 10 oz
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Related Subjects

Fiction and Poetry » Literature » A to Z
Fiction and Poetry » Science Fiction and Fantasy » A to Z
Humanities » Mythology » Folklore and Storytelling

The Helmet of Horror: The Myth of Theseus and the Minotaur (Myths) Used Trade Paper
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Product details 288 pages Canongate U.S. - English 9781841959122 Reviews:
"Synopsis" by ,
Victor Pelevin, the iconoclastic and wildly interesting contemporary Russian novelist who The New Yorker named one of the Best European Writers Under 35, upends any conventional notions of what mythology must be with his unique take on the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. By creating a mesmerizing world where the surreal and the hyperreal collide, The Helmet of Horror is a radical retelling of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur set in an Internet chat room. They have never met, they have been assigned strange pseudonyms, they inhabit identical rooms that open out onto very different landscapes, and they have entered a dialogue they cannot escape — a discourse defined and destroyed by the Helmet of Horror. Its wearer is the dominant force they call Asterisk, a force for good and ill in which the Minotaur is forever present and Theseus is the great unknown. The Helmet of Horror is structured according to the way we communicate in the twenty-first century — using the Internet — yet instilled with the figures and narratives of classical mythology. It is a labyrinthine examination of epistemological uncertainty that radically reinvents this myth for an age where information is abundant but knowledge ultimately unattainable.
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