Antigonick (New Directions Paperbook)

Not so much a translation as an interpretation. This is probably not for someone who is unfamiliar with Antigone. It is a very stylistic, aphoristic retelling of the tale for a contemporary audience, done in a radical style. The daughter of Oedipus and his mother-wife, Jocasta, Antigone comes into life with some baggage. When her brother Polynices declares war on Thebes, the city is defended by her other brother Eteocles. Both die and their uncle Creon declares that Eteocles shall receive a proper burial, while Polynices, a traitor, must lie unburied, to be eaten by birds and dogs. But Antigone believes leaving her brother unburied is so utterly wrong that she must break the law to bury him and be condemned to death herself.The print is in the form of Carson's own handwriting, with little or no punctuation, giving the tale a frantic, nervous feel. Bianca Stone's illustrations are a surreal assortment of images, printed on transparent pages that overlay the text, and which relate only occasionally to what is happening in the text. The result is delightful mixture of wit and irony. The characters of the play even comment on various interpretations that have been offered by Bertolt Brecht and G.W.F. Hegel. Carson is one of our literary treasures and this is Carson at her best.

Anne Carson really outdoes herself in her re-imagining of Sophocles' tragedy. The illustrations are bizarre, though some of them are very beautifully fitting. The formatting and typesetting is appropriate and there is a humor and playfulness (like a guest appearance in the dialogue by a certain Samuel Beckett) which makes the tragedy even more terrifying. She is one of our greatest living writers, and this is one of her great works.

This is truly a gorgeous book. The text is handwritten, there are ink & watercolour illustrations on vellum between lots of the pages, and Carson's version of Antigone is more than readable. It is contemporary, at times funny, true to the spirit of the original text (as far as I can tell), and I really enjoyed it very much. I got the book for about 15 USD when it first came out (hardcover) and all I can say is, that's a great price for such a well-designed, elaborate book. Would make a great gift for any poetry lover in your circle of friends.

I had no idea what I was getting. I thought it was just a translation of Antigone, and it is that, but this is a hand-crafted book, the text written out by the poet-translator, illustrated with beautiful drawings. There's more to say about the translation itself; I'm not really qualified to comment, except to say that I found it intriguing and moving. But the book as a physical object is astounding, and I feel like I accidentally struck gold when I ordered it.

I love Antigone. I love Ann Carson. There's really nothing that could have gone wrong here, but it still went far better than I had any right to expect.Anachronism is one of my favorite things about Carson; she uses it fairly frequently, and I really find it underused these days. That's what hooked me on her from the start, and that's a large part of what kept me reading Antigonick three times in a row right after I opened the package.But aside from opening a play by Sophokles with references to Beckett and Hegel, there's much much more going on here. Anyone who's read Carson before knows that her whole way of writing is very much meant to be read. Speaking it aloud just doesn't have quite the same effect. This is particularly more striking when she uses this style to write a play. There is almost no punctuation throughout, which gives the whole thing a very fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants feel, and also makes the dialogue extremely wooden... but that somehow makes it even more expressive and magical. Which is, again, really interesting to see in a piece which is ostensibly meant to be spoken onstage.Buy the book. Now.

the author's work brings a translation no other has; another woman to give antigone that fire she truly had. its utterly raw and very much makes you feel her clapping back each time. really suggest it if you have a hard time connecting to old text.

I'm really upset that the Kindle version does not have the pictures and the original print style of the actual book and that this wasn't mentioned before purchase. It's ridiculous--those things are just as much a part of the book as the writing itself so it's like I got an incomplete book.

I have been following Anne Carson since The Autobiography of Red and always look forward to her next book, be it poetry, prose, or translation. I know it will be challenging but rewarding. However, with Antigonick, I find the form takes away from the story. First off, it's a beautiful book that I'm surprised can still be made in this digital age (and for the price). That said, I found the handwriting to be a bit distracting and the graphics puzzling as they don't appear, with rare exception, to have anything to do with the story. This continually pulled me out of the story to scratch my head and wonder if I was missing something. I did not encounter this with Nox, which was in some ways presented in a similar manner and is one of the favorite books by Carson. I fully admit that it may be me and I will reread this in a few months to see if I get it then.

it's a bad printed booknot the one with the illustrationsi'm disapointed

Absolutely loved it -- poetic and haunting

Poetic, humour but wise words in minimalist. Break my impression about Greek's literature and play.Well address the death, tragedy and human being's mindset.I would def recommend to friend who enjoy poet or essential writing style.

Tracing paper pages are lovely! The art is wonderful! Exciting story too! Yay! Easily as good as Nox! Pretty accessible considering.

A really beautiful and interesting book.