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lillyalpina's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
raquelpgonzalez's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
cjt64's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.5
aaron_j136's review
3.0
Honestly idk what the heck I just read but it can be summed up in 4 words~ poetry, boobs, song and grief
cesspool_princess's review
4.0
artful, poetic, horny but in a way that highlights the v real sensuality in the promise of death. Rly captures how death and the passing of time and the reality of impermanence is what makes life actually weighty and lively and exciting. Rly a blow to the pods and bug ppl who want the safe unlife of perfect convenience without the threat of discomfort, risk, ambiguity and the mother of all of those things: death. Sadly the babelic project of trying to attain perfect alienation continues :/ ok the more I write this review the more I like the book, was going to give it a 4 to break the streak but… no I must stay strong: this is no From Hell. makes me want to revisit the original Orpheus and Eurydice tho
600bars's review
4.0
Last year I took a kid’s book home from work bc it was annotated by Lemony Snicket in character and had charming illustrations. That was “The Bears of Sicily”. We loved it so much. I looked up the author and realized that I already owned this book, which I bought because I had never seen an NYRB Classic be a graphic novel since NYRB has the NYRC imprint specifically for graphic novels. So I basically bought this just for novelty purposes without knowing anything about it, but then when I looked at it on the shelf I noticed the blurb on the back was written by Daniel Handler, who is Lemony Snicket!
This story is a retelling of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. In the traditional story Eurydice dies and goes to the underworld. Orpheus is a lute player and decides to go down to the underworld and use his musical talents to get her back. It works but the condition is that he can’t look back at her while they’re walking out of the underworld, and of course he can’t resist. I’m gonna be real, I only know the story because of Hadestown. But that’s not so bad. These stories are meant to be retold and retold and it’s always cool that they are presented to new generations in novel ways. Previously I always got this story mixed up with the biblical one about looking back at the city and turning into a pillar of salt. Why do deities get sooo mad about turning around to look? Anyway, looking back isn’t really a factor in this story although it is mentioned, which is interesting because the whole looking back thing is always what people remember most about this story.
In this version we have Orfi and his girlfriend Eura who live in Milan in the 60s. Orfi plays guitar instead of a golden lyre. He sees her walk into a mysterious door across the street and when he follows her in he realizes it’s the underworld. Hades (I think) is represented by a sentient overcoat. I’m not sure if it’s actually Hades because he mentions being demoted to underworld middle management, but I'm not up to date on Stygian Bureaucracy tbh.
The underworld is not what you’d expect. There isn’t torture devices and fire and screaming. The biggest problem is that it’s boring. It’s not that nothing is going on. It’s just that all their needs are met, they have everything they want. “Here everyone is healthy, equal, content. Oh sweet unhappiness!” 76 ”I mean: what do you lack? Almost Nothing. Recently we got a color TV. But we lack the most important thing: the freedom to die. 74” And herein lies the real torture. With no mystery, no desire, no dread, nothing has any meaning. Without the deadline of death there’s no point in doing anything. Nothing to seek, nothing to search. It’s difficult to desire what you already have. You can’t want to know if you already know everything. There are beautiful naked women everywhere, and there is no illicitness to sex, so it loses its spice and is just boring. Everything is mind numbingly boring and they all miss the dread they felt at the end of the day on Sundays, they miss dreading the week ahead. The finitude of life is a blessing.
I almost never ever finish my to-do lists, but on the rare occasion when I do, I look around and feel totally lost and empty rather than accomplished and happy. Getting everything you want is actually not what you want. Freedom from all restrictions takes all the fun out of life. You can’t have day without night etc. This is why I like living in Minnesota and having seasons; I think I would get depressed if I lived somewhere where the weather was always nice.
The art really varies in style and technique. Forgive me for I’m not an Art Person so I don’t know all the terms but some pages have a lot of cross hatching, some have none, some are pointillism (those were my favorite). Some are crude and cartoonish with simple straight lines and some are extremely detailed with lots of texture. Some are abstract shapes, some are realistic. Some are surrealist bizarro scenes and sometimes the dullness is the point. Really the only thing that gives it aesthetic consistency is the color palette, which is GORGEOUS. Idk if Buzzati did the coloring for this or if it was updated for the NYRB release but it looks great. Lots of light yellows and peaches, light greens and blues, and many different pinks. It’s very different from what you’d expect from HELL which is typically so dark and red and brooding.
There are a lot of naked women, like a LOT. Everyone likes to see beautiful women but I was having a debate as to whether I thought it was reaching a point of misogyny or not. It’s typical for heaven/hell to have lots of naked women running around because that’s what everyone desires, and that does fit in with the core concept that if it’s everywhere it’s boring and not even enticing any more. However I did side-eye the moment in which the Coat is offering Orfi his pick of women, and every girl gets a name, but with the one black woman is presented as “a black girl”. She doesn’t get a name and she’s presented purely as an exotic enticement. The drawing of her, at least, is beautiful and you can tell he put much more work into her drawing than the other girls in the display. But that’s kind of a small consolation. Other than that, this is pretty awesome.
This story is a retelling of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. In the traditional story Eurydice dies and goes to the underworld. Orpheus is a lute player and decides to go down to the underworld and use his musical talents to get her back. It works but the condition is that he can’t look back at her while they’re walking out of the underworld, and of course he can’t resist. I’m gonna be real, I only know the story because of Hadestown. But that’s not so bad. These stories are meant to be retold and retold and it’s always cool that they are presented to new generations in novel ways. Previously I always got this story mixed up with the biblical one about looking back at the city and turning into a pillar of salt. Why do deities get sooo mad about turning around to look? Anyway, looking back isn’t really a factor in this story although it is mentioned, which is interesting because the whole looking back thing is always what people remember most about this story.
In this version we have Orfi and his girlfriend Eura who live in Milan in the 60s. Orfi plays guitar instead of a golden lyre. He sees her walk into a mysterious door across the street and when he follows her in he realizes it’s the underworld. Hades (I think) is represented by a sentient overcoat. I’m not sure if it’s actually Hades because he mentions being demoted to underworld middle management, but I'm not up to date on Stygian Bureaucracy tbh.
The underworld is not what you’d expect. There isn’t torture devices and fire and screaming. The biggest problem is that it’s boring. It’s not that nothing is going on. It’s just that all their needs are met, they have everything they want. “Here everyone is healthy, equal, content. Oh sweet unhappiness!” 76 ”I mean: what do you lack? Almost Nothing. Recently we got a color TV. But we lack the most important thing: the freedom to die. 74” And herein lies the real torture. With no mystery, no desire, no dread, nothing has any meaning. Without the deadline of death there’s no point in doing anything. Nothing to seek, nothing to search. It’s difficult to desire what you already have. You can’t want to know if you already know everything. There are beautiful naked women everywhere, and there is no illicitness to sex, so it loses its spice and is just boring. Everything is mind numbingly boring and they all miss the dread they felt at the end of the day on Sundays, they miss dreading the week ahead. The finitude of life is a blessing.
I almost never ever finish my to-do lists, but on the rare occasion when I do, I look around and feel totally lost and empty rather than accomplished and happy. Getting everything you want is actually not what you want. Freedom from all restrictions takes all the fun out of life. You can’t have day without night etc. This is why I like living in Minnesota and having seasons; I think I would get depressed if I lived somewhere where the weather was always nice.
The art really varies in style and technique. Forgive me for I’m not an Art Person so I don’t know all the terms but some pages have a lot of cross hatching, some have none, some are pointillism (those were my favorite). Some are crude and cartoonish with simple straight lines and some are extremely detailed with lots of texture. Some are abstract shapes, some are realistic. Some are surrealist bizarro scenes and sometimes the dullness is the point. Really the only thing that gives it aesthetic consistency is the color palette, which is GORGEOUS. Idk if Buzzati did the coloring for this or if it was updated for the NYRB release but it looks great. Lots of light yellows and peaches, light greens and blues, and many different pinks. It’s very different from what you’d expect from HELL which is typically so dark and red and brooding.
There are a lot of naked women, like a LOT. Everyone likes to see beautiful women but I was having a debate as to whether I thought it was reaching a point of misogyny or not. It’s typical for heaven/hell to have lots of naked women running around because that’s what everyone desires, and that does fit in with the core concept that if it’s everywhere it’s boring and not even enticing any more. However I did side-eye the moment in which the Coat is offering Orfi his pick of women, and every girl gets a name, but with the one black woman is presented as “a black girl”. She doesn’t get a name and she’s presented purely as an exotic enticement. The drawing of her, at least, is beautiful and you can tell he put much more work into her drawing than the other girls in the display. But that’s kind of a small consolation. Other than that, this is pretty awesome.