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OEDIPUS’ RECKONING: A COMEDY OF ORACLES

OEDIPUS’ RECKONING: A COMEDY OF ORACLES

 

Price: US$ 15

The major thesis of this novel, written in a "mythic realistic" style, is as outrageous as it is simple. Everything you think you know about Sophocles' Oedipus is not true. Namely, he did not kill his father, marry his mother, solve the riddle of the Sphinx or have swollen feet. And Jocasta, his wife, but not his mother, does not commit suicide. She is murdered.

Here's how it works. Mike Quick, a fat cat New York lawyer, travels to modern Greece to argue and prove all of the above. No small task considering that the play - allegedly part of a trilogy - is arguably among the central texts of the Western canon. And through Freud's major misinterpretation it has impacted most, if not all people alive today. Thus if anything has been studied down to the microscopic grit under its texts and subtexts, it has.

So how could all of those really smart learned folks have missed what I just said? Good question, which will be answered in abundance during the course of this novel. The bottom line here is they have. That's what happens when you hook your fate to the everyone knows that and sing with the chorus.

First on Quick's intricate agenda is drumming up support for his project among the Greek media and other powers that be. Second is going to the other world – here known as the ekei (over there) – and persuading Oedipus and his trusty daughter, Princess Antigone, to return to the world of the living so he can arrange a proper trial and fully clear him of all charges and scandal.

In the ekei Princess Antigone asks Quick:

"So you have discovered some things that everyone else has missed?"
"Not everyone. In fact, when you add up the names of our predecessors in this matter, it makes quite a substantial list."
"So what makes you special?"
"I've put it all together. What many of them merely suspected - as a hobby, so to speak - I can prove and bet my money and reputation on."
"They were interested," Laura [Quick's girlfriend and assistant] interjected. "He's obsessed."

Why is he so obsessed? Is it the money? The chance of hitching his name to Oedipus' fame and riding him into immortality? More good questions, which will be answered in the course of the read. It's a novel. It's about suspense.

Next on Quick's agenda is going to Thebes, where it all happened so many thousands of years ago, and laying out both ancient and modern evidence for all to see, examine, evaluate and judge. The result is literary, poetic, thoughtful and amusing interactive entertainment.
Readers are definitely expected to play along, either for or against.

 

Again about me

Am I a classical scholar? Not at all. And I would never have had the 24 carat chutzpah to go through with this madcap scheme without the encouragement and cooperation of Frederick Ahl, professor of classics and comparative literature at Cornell University. In the course of our correspondence and conversations – starting in the summer of 2001 and continuing to this day – he has become a very dear friend.

In the novel Mike Quick says in an open Theban court:

Before doing that, however, let me disclose my connections with him [Ahl], and his with me. So there won't be any The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail/The Da Vinci Code misunderstandings later on.

One, I am using his translation of Sophocles, with his permission. Two, while our team has derived much benefit, comfort and pleasure from his keen and insightful work, we have done a good deal of independent research.

OEDIPUS' RECKONING is intended to knock the stuffing out of some time honored myths about Greek myths and tragedy.Those who have a long standing investment in traditional interpretations will ignore, attack, reproach and ridicule this one. But they can never refute it. Everyone else can enjoy the never a dull moment show.

 

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