because you were all wondering what I'm writing my dissertation on, here's a brief synopsis of my 'research context': When James Macpherson published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry in 1760, he went to great lengths to make the Fragments appear to be authentic remains of an ancient, heroic oral tradition. His reasons for this were largely political, and as such, influenced the content of the epics themselves. As an attempt to establish a particularly Scottish identity, the poems were quite effective. However, to do so required both a simplification and a manipulation of traditional mythology. Stripped of anagogical significance, the Ossian epics more or less represented an Enlightenment version of history, tradition, and mythic heritage. The stories themselves were changed by their very purpose and in turn changed the manner of representing myth in future narratives. Moreover, the emphasis on the Ossian epics as authentic tales from the past, as ‘fragments,’ served...
This comes out today. I've had an advanced reader on my coffee table for about five days now and still haven't managed the time to read it. What have I been doing? Working? Writing? It's a mystery. Anyway, I'll see what I can do about that. I haven't written a YA review (or any review for that matter) in many months. It's about time! I'd also like to mention that my advanced reader isn't your typical mock-up. It's a real hardcover with pretty pages and a shiny dust jacket. Meaning that if it didn't have 'ARC 2911' in sharpie on the textblock, it would look just like the real thing. (And what's this with sending advanced readers five days in advance? How's that supposed to give us any reasonable headstart? How are we supposed to circulate the thing and build up hype? No idea.)
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