MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Literary A True Story by Lucian of Samosata

AnotherCat · 07-31-2019, 11:55 PM

I have enjoyed this and is another choice of the group which I would likely otherwise never got to.

In the main I read the Fowler translation with the Redmond commentary. I also partly read the Harmon translation and glanced through the Hickes one. The Harmon one, although dating from 1913, contained the most fluid prose to me (enough so for it to come across well using a text to speech reader).

I could not really find much that for me gave the story any inkling as to it being science fictionish, rather I found it to be fantasy and satire with humor. In considering this I tried to put myself back in Lucian's time and scientific (really philosophic then) environment and while he takes us to the moon, for example, that is a fantasy voyage in a contemporary vehicle. In comparison, Well's science fiction also takes us to the moon but that is in a rocket ship of a type yet to be invented.

I found parts of Book II to be a lampoon of the classics authors and others. What drove Lucian to that I do not know as the targets were people of mythology or from several centuries before his time.

It is short enough and enjoyable enough that I will read it again, the Harmon version that time in full.

07-31-2019, 11:55 PM	#13
AnotherCat .... Posts: 1,547 Karma: 18068960 Join Date: May 2012 Device: ....	I have enjoyed this and is another choice of the group which I would likely otherwise never got to. In the main I read the Fowler translation with the Redmond commentary. I also partly read the Harmon translation and glanced through the Hickes one. The Harmon one, although dating from 1913, contained the most fluid prose to me (enough so for it to come across well using a text to speech reader). I could not really find much that for me gave the story any inkling as to it being science fictionish, rather I found it to be fantasy and satire with humor. In considering this I tried to put myself back in Lucian's time and scientific (really philosophic then) environment and while he takes us to the moon, for example, that is a fantasy voyage in a contemporary vehicle. In comparison, Well's science fiction also takes us to the moon but that is in a rocket ship of a type yet to be invented. I found parts of Book II to be a lampoon of the classics authors and others. What drove Lucian to that I do not know as the targets were people of mythology or from several centuries before his time. It is short enough and enjoyable enough that I will read it again, the Harmon version that time in full. Last edited by AnotherCat; 07-31-2019 at 11:58 PM.