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 NPR contributor Scott Huler read an essay on
the radio
show "All Things Considered" in which he made a simple claim: that he
would forever give up trying to read James Joyce's Ulysses. Little did
he know that his public claim not only would land him exactly where he had
promised never to be - in a reading group slogging through Joyce's impenetrable
modern masterpiece - but would launch an obsession with the book's inspiration:
the ancient Greek epic The Odyssey, and with the lonely homebound
journey of its Everyman hero, Odysseus.
At the time of The Odyssey, its hero is in his
mid-forties; so was Huler. Negotiating the complex shoals of midlife, Huler
turned to the Odyssey and found much more than he had expected: in its
well-known adventures with monsters and goddesses, the Odyssey became something of a guidebook for a person facing the challenges we all face in adulthood. Before long Huler wanted to do more than just read his hero. Odysseus made a long journey, and for millennia people have speculated on the Mediterranean sites where those adventures occurred. Seeking such heroic adventure, Huler stuffed a
backpack with clothes, guidebooks, and the Odyssey. And he headed for
the wine-dark sea.
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Work until you die...
Monday, April 7, 2008
Greetings, readers. I've just had a rather unusual piece of attention that I've really enjoyed -- not a review but a small video/photo collage about the creative process by News & Observer photographer Takaaki Iwabu. You can see it here. . .
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No-Man's Lands
Click here to see Scott's own photos of his epic journey.
Click here to see Scott's well-traveled copy of The Odyssey.
Click here to see what Scott brought back.
An illustrated map of his journey can be found here.
Listen to the NPR
commentary that started it all where Scott Huler officially gives up on Ulysses.
In this
commentary, Scott Huler finds himself, against his better judgment, "Stuck in Dublin with the Bloomsday Blues."
Defining the Wind
Listen to the NPR commentary on the Beaufort Scale.
Listen to an interview about Defining the Wind from The State of Things on WUNC radio.
Listen to an interview about Defining the Wind from
"Talk of the Nation" on NPR.
A Little Bit Sideways
Listen to a commentary about the attempted gentrification of NASCAR.
Scott Huler Q&A
Click here for 8 questions with Scott Huler.
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