I find the weirdness of these characters values/actions similar to the weirdness in biblical stories, e.g. Lot offering up his daughters to the Sodomite mob. Maybe it’s just that Saddam did actually hold values fairly close to those of Bronze Age patriarchs?
Didn't you mention on Discord that the translator noted at the beginning that they'd actually cut *down* on the repetition in the original to keep it from being even more unreadable?
Unrelatedly, a cousin of mine once spent some time working in what had been Saddam Hussein's palace. I should dig up his description of it. I do remember he mentioned that the walls were decorated with his initials (in Arabic), repeated over and over.
Having also read Ozy's Discord liveblog of the book, I think this contains one serious omission, a description of the flowery passages on how great Iraq is. I am going to reproduce that part of the liveblog below with permission.
~~~~
"Yet because of modesty, usual for all sons of Iraq, who prefer to sacrifice themselves rather than talk of great deeds that are being done by their hands, the author preferred that his name did not appear on the cover of this book."
"How many strange and unusual things, how many heroic and glorious deeds, how many true wonders occur in Iraq?"
promising start
Iraq is great because of the Tower of Babel was there
also the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
but if it were judged honestly half of the wonders of the world were in Iraq (translator notes that this is because Egypt is part of Iraq according to Saddam)
Adam and Eve were sent to Iraq when they left the Garden of Eden, Abraham was born there, and all prophets and prophecies were concerned with Iraq
Noah lived in Iraq
"Would anybody be surprised by anything unusual or extraordinary, if this unusual thing were coming out of Iraq?"
Iraq is also great because its people roise up and fought "raging Zionism" and its "grotesque alliance with America"
"As Allah was looking upon him from the height of the heavens, Iraq thundered in a loud vocie: 'We shall not bend our knee before any but Allah! Let all the cowards, compromisers, and traitors get out. We shall not capitulate! Let all the Arabs who have forgotten that they are the descendents of Yarub and that they worship Allah alone get out!'"
there is a lot like this
"Iraq was the country of prophets and revelations, the country of civilizations, of merchantry, and of purity, where the first plants sprouted and milk flowed from the udder, so that there was life and so that there was the world in all its virgin purity and sins, with all the sweetness and bitterness of life. Iraq has been the land from which the door opens to heaven for those who rise there and to hell for those who are destined to burn in its flames."
"Iraq-- the land of Sumer and Akkadia, Babylon and Assyria, established civilizations, Baghad and Samarra, the country of famous hawks and notable beauties, a land without which there would be no sun, and without which the mood would not find its way in the sky; nor would plants sprout to the joy of the farmer and to the envy of infidels, nor would there be rain."
we have learned that in Iraq no one tells "vain tales and jokes"
Napoleon Bonaparte also wrote a terrible romance novel (at least, what we have remaining of it is terrible -- parts of it are lost because every publisher to whom he submitted it rejected it). It's called Clisson et Eugénie. The plot is actually kind of reminiscent of The Room.
> "well, a woman always hides her secrets from those closest to her and talks about them to people she's not close to. that is how women. women like telling other women's secrets but not their own"
Not sure if intentional, but if not, the middle sentence seems unfinished.
I find the weirdness of these characters values/actions similar to the weirdness in biblical stories, e.g. Lot offering up his daughters to the Sodomite mob. Maybe it’s just that Saddam did actually hold values fairly close to those of Bronze Age patriarchs?
Didn't you mention on Discord that the translator noted at the beginning that they'd actually cut *down* on the repetition in the original to keep it from being even more unreadable?
Unrelatedly, a cousin of mine once spent some time working in what had been Saddam Hussein's palace. I should dig up his description of it. I do remember he mentioned that the walls were decorated with his initials (in Arabic), repeated over and over.
Having also read Ozy's Discord liveblog of the book, I think this contains one serious omission, a description of the flowery passages on how great Iraq is. I am going to reproduce that part of the liveblog below with permission.
~~~~
"Yet because of modesty, usual for all sons of Iraq, who prefer to sacrifice themselves rather than talk of great deeds that are being done by their hands, the author preferred that his name did not appear on the cover of this book."
"How many strange and unusual things, how many heroic and glorious deeds, how many true wonders occur in Iraq?"
promising start
Iraq is great because of the Tower of Babel was there
also the Hanging Gardens of Babylon
but if it were judged honestly half of the wonders of the world were in Iraq (translator notes that this is because Egypt is part of Iraq according to Saddam)
Adam and Eve were sent to Iraq when they left the Garden of Eden, Abraham was born there, and all prophets and prophecies were concerned with Iraq
Noah lived in Iraq
"Would anybody be surprised by anything unusual or extraordinary, if this unusual thing were coming out of Iraq?"
Iraq is also great because its people roise up and fought "raging Zionism" and its "grotesque alliance with America"
"As Allah was looking upon him from the height of the heavens, Iraq thundered in a loud vocie: 'We shall not bend our knee before any but Allah! Let all the cowards, compromisers, and traitors get out. We shall not capitulate! Let all the Arabs who have forgotten that they are the descendents of Yarub and that they worship Allah alone get out!'"
there is a lot like this
"Iraq was the country of prophets and revelations, the country of civilizations, of merchantry, and of purity, where the first plants sprouted and milk flowed from the udder, so that there was life and so that there was the world in all its virgin purity and sins, with all the sweetness and bitterness of life. Iraq has been the land from which the door opens to heaven for those who rise there and to hell for those who are destined to burn in its flames."
"Iraq-- the land of Sumer and Akkadia, Babylon and Assyria, established civilizations, Baghad and Samarra, the country of famous hawks and notable beauties, a land without which there would be no sun, and without which the mood would not find its way in the sky; nor would plants sprout to the joy of the farmer and to the envy of infidels, nor would there be rain."
we have learned that in Iraq no one tells "vain tales and jokes"
Napoleon Bonaparte also wrote a terrible romance novel (at least, what we have remaining of it is terrible -- parts of it are lost because every publisher to whom he submitted it rejected it). It's called Clisson et Eugénie. The plot is actually kind of reminiscent of The Room.
How did hunter-of-emirs tell the story? Did he use sign language? did the lady tell the story?
So, it isn't a romance novel, it's an Author Tract?
> In one version, the a merchant named Hiskil
Typo, "the a".
> "well, a woman always hides her secrets from those closest to her and talks about them to people she's not close to. that is how women. women like telling other women's secrets but not their own"
Not sure if intentional, but if not, the middle sentence seems unfinished.
So... it's so bad and dull it's not even fun to mock? Eww.