After rather careless deliberation, the discussion question’s for May’s book, Autobiography of Red, have been drafted. Feel free to answer them or come up with your own.

Visit the thread for more details, and see the questions below.

• “A man moves through time. It means nothing except that, like a harpoon, once thrown he will arrive” (81). What do you make of this statement, particularly when examined against its place in the work (Geryon on a plane, traveling toward Buenos Aires)? What does it suggest about Geryon’s life and situation?
• Geryon is red. Everything about him is red and the color is intrinsic to his character. The only other character with even a hint of assigned color is the “Yellowbeard” character, featured on pages 85-97. Is this significant?
• Geryon has a reoccurring thought process: after observing an event that pleases someone, he concludes “____ makes ____ happy. This occurs at least three times in the novel, on pages 23, 97, and 107. It is a trait that has followed him from childhood. Does Carson’s inclusion of it in these three separate instances suggest any sort of importance or insight into Geryon’s character?
• At the closing of the interview at the end of the book, there is the enigmatic “So glad you didn’t ask about the little red dog.” As mentioned in the essay on Stesichoros at the very beginning, the original Greek text contains references to Geryon owning a little red dog that Herakles kills with his club. Did Carson omit this part of the story or did she work it in in another way?
• In the original text by Stesichoros, Herakles comes and kills Geryon to get his red cattle. In Carson’s telling, we can come to understand that Herakles doesn’t literally kill Geryon, but breaks his heart. What does Herakles get out of this (as there are obviously no cows…), if anything?

Hello, kittens. I’m announcing this eleven days in advance to give you fair warning.

For May I have chosen the lovely and delightful Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson: a novel in verse.

From the back of the book:
Geryon, a young boy who is also a winged red monster, reveals the volcanic terrain of his fragile, tormented soul in an autobiography he begins at the age of five. As he grows older, Geryon escapes his abusive brother and affectionate but ineffectual mother, finding solace behind the lens of his camera and in the arms of a young man named Herakles, a cavalier drifter who leaves him at the peak of infatuation. When Herakles reappears years later, Geryon confronts again the pain of his desire and embarks on a journey that will unleash his creative imagination to its fullest extent. By turns whimsical and haunting, erudite and accessible, richly layered and deceptively simple, Autobiography of Red is a profoundly moving portrait of an artist coming to terms with the fantastic accident of who he is.

I’m expecting participation from Courtney on this, as she has already read it, and although I know Hannah is remarkably busy, I’m hoping she might find the time, prone to the classics as she is.

Seriously, folks, this book instantly became a favorite when I finished it. I highly suggest you participate in this month’s selection.