Thursday 1 December 2016

Pharaonic Fictions

Our texts for "Pharaonic Fictions" are:

"Ozymandias" by Percy Shelley;
"Son of the Sword" by Poul Anderson;
On The Oceans Of Eternity, Chapter Fifteen, by SM Stirling.

"Ozymandias" was a Greek name for Ramesses II, who appears in Chapter Fifteen of On The Oceans..., whereas "Son of the Sword" is set during the reign of another famous Pharaoh. See here. Anderson also discusses Akhnaton in a non-fiction work,"The Discovery Of The Past." (For discussion of that work, although not its reference to Akhnaton, see here.)

"Ozymandias" became the code-name for one of Alan Moore's Watchmen.

In On The Oceans..., it is good to see McAndrews breaking away from Walker. He does this by trying to build the black Egypt of his dreams!

2 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree it was good that McAndrews finally left Walker's service. But he was disillusioned by what he saw in the Two Lands of Khem. The Egyptians were not in the least interested in "black power," or even thought of themselves as being blacks (which they mostly were not).

I was rather amused by Ramesses II--he comes across as vain, foolish, and pompous. But, we are then surprised by his shrewdness and become aware that he really did care, in his own way, for the welfare of the Two Lands. Ranesses II was naturally and rightly anxious to make sure Egypt did not become helpless and weak in the face of Great Achaea, Hatti, Babylonia (and never mind the upstart Nantucket!).

Sean

Sean M. Brooks said...
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