Favorite National Epic?

[Razgovory]

Illiad.  I suppose the Bible could be the the Western Epic.  For the US, there is always the Song of Hiawatha.  Though I've never read it.

[fhdz]

It's a huge tossup for me.  I love national epics as a "genre".

[grumbler]

The US epic is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

This isn't even a subject of debate.

I'd say it is probably best if we split up the US; New England would get Moby-Dick, the South would get Huck Finn, etc......

True, and if we split Greece we can have both the Iliad and the Odyssey :woot:

[Savonarola]

Well there's not really a King Arthur that tells the story of Arthur as we know it.  Malory's books are largely a reinterpretation of existing French texts  But I think maybe the last book could count as a sort of national epic.  Things fall apart.

"National Myth" might be a better term for King Arthur as nearly every generation retells the story in a new and different way.  The Greeks did the same with the Oresteia.

[Queequeg]

The US epic is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

This isn't even a subject of debate.

I'd say it is probably best if we split up the US; New England would get Moby-Dick, the South would get Huck Finn, etc......

True, and if we split Greece we can have both the Iliad and the Odyssey :woot:

Trouble is that the exact same Greece (and supposedly the exact same poet) produced both the Iliad and the Odyssey, while there are obviously huge differences between Huck Finn and Moby-Dick. 

But yeah, I probably should have cut out the Tain and put in Huck Finn for the South and Moby-Dick for the North. 

[The Brain]

there are obviously huge differences both in setting and author between Huck Finn and Moby-Dick. 

[Sheilbh]

What's the translation you are reading?  I'd love to read it, though I think I might end up studying Persian so hopefully I will one day read (if not all of, than maybe the first 20,000 pages) of it.

I've an old Edwardian translation (and abridgement) I found in a second hand bookstore.  I never got past 20 pages.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shahnameh-Persian-Penguin-Classics-Editions/dp/0143104934/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238010198&sr=8-1
This is on my wishlist.  Largely because I suspect it'll be like the Odyssey, which I first tried to read in Edwardian translation.  Then I read it by a modern writer and enjoyed it.

[Admiral Yi]

I don't get Moby Dick and Huck Finn (and Don Quixote for that matter).  To qualify as an epic, doesn't the main character need to do something, you know...epic?

[jimmy olsen]

I don't get Moby Dick and Huck Finn (and Don Quixote for that matter).  To qualify as an epic, doesn't the main character need to do something, you know...epic?

Huck Finn goes on an Epic journey down the Mississippi river where he deals with all kinds of assorted scum.

[Queequeg]

What's the translation you are reading?  I'd love to read it, though I think I might end up studying Persian so hopefully I will one day read (if not all of, than maybe the first 20,000 pages) of it.

I've an old Edwardian translation (and abridgement) I found in a second hand bookstore.  I never got past 20 pages.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shahnameh-Persian-Penguin-Classics-Editions/dp/0143104934/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1238010198&sr=8-1
This is on my wishlist.  Largely because I suspect it'll be like the Odyssey, which I first tried to read in Edwardian translation.  Then I read it by a modern writer and enjoyed it.

This looks amazing.  I'd recommend reading My Name is Red if you are interested in reading the Shahnameh; its about Ottoman miniaturists, first time I realized just how influential the Shahnameh was.  Also made me decide  to name my firstborn son Rostam, as it goes well with my last name.  Pamuk is a very, very interesting writer.

[Queequeg]

I don't get Moby Dick and Huck Finn (and Don Quixote for that matter).  To qualify as an epic, doesn't the main character need to do something, you know...epic?

I can't think of anything more epic than chasing the largest vertebrate that has ever existed on this planet until all of your friends die and you survive by hanging onto your gay lover's coffin.   

[jimmy olsen]

While male sperm whales were significantly larger before whalers culled their population, even if Moby Dick was as large as a sperm whale ever got he would not qualify for the largest vertebrate ever, at only 85 feet.

[Admiral Yi]

I can't think of anything more epic than chasing the largest vertebrate that has ever existed on this planet until all of your friends die and you survive by hanging onto your gay lover's coffin.

It was an industrial activity.  Except the part about the gay lover's coffin.

[Malthus]

The US epic is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

This isn't even a subject of debate.

I'm reading this to my wife right now. It is very much not what she expected.

[Queequeg]

I can't think of anything more epic than chasing the largest vertebrate that has ever existed on this planet until all of your friends die and you survive by hanging onto your gay lover's coffin.

It was an industrial activity.  Except the part about the gay lover's coffin.

Have you read the final chapters?  Ahab drops his pipe and screams "FROM HELL'S HEART, I STAB AT THEE!"  Somehow I doubt Ford ever said that on a production line.

Timmy, fine, the largest vertebrate that wasn't a blue whale ever.