Background
Publisher Jamie Byng of Canongate Books solicited author Margaret Atwood to write a novella re-telling a classic myth of her choice. Byng explained it would be published simultaneously in several languages as part of an international project called the Canongate Myth Series. Atwood agreed to help the rising young publisher by participating in the project. From her home in Toronto, the 64-year-old author made attempts at writing the Norse creation myth and a Native American story but struggled. After speaking with her British literary agent about canceling her contract, Atwood began thinking about the Odyssey. She had first read it as a teenager and remembered finding the imagery of Penelope’s twelve maids being hanged in the denouement disturbing. Atwood believed the roles of Penelope and her maids during Odysseus' absence had been a largely neglected scholarly topic and that she could help address it with this project.
Read more about this topic: The Penelopiad
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
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“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
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