The Iliad

Author: Homer
Translated by: Samuel Butler
Year: ~750 BC
pages: 391

COMPOSITE SCORE: 55

BS ratings:

Novelty--6 This is apparently one of the first epic stories written and certainly the most popular epic in Western Civilization throughout the past two thousand years. It does not receive a higher score because Homer is only considered the author because he wrote the story down. It had already existed as a spoken legend.

Literary Legacy--10 This urbook becomes influential for most ancient writings that followed it. It has been also a standard in the studies of classics for some time exposing countless authors to the epic storyline and heroic archetypes.

Overall Legacy--8 The Iliad became the book that standardized the Greek language in the same way that the Luther Bible did for German. The story became a way for the ancient, and later modern, scholars to learn the Greek language. The popularity of this written dialect helps form a Greek identity.

Substance--6 War and its strain on the combatants whether they are defending their homeland or are far away from home fighting for others. Paying due homage to the gods to ensure their help. And showing proper respect to friends and foes because of their counsel and good deeds.

Rhetoric--5 Homer communicates the sense of a siege and battle pretty well. Homer attributes the failures and successes of those involved to the actions and inaction of the gods; and therefore by extension, to the heroes who had either failed to make due respect or offered up the correct sacrifices.

Precision-- 3 The majority of the book was spent describing the battles and the fighting. These scenes were practically indistinguishable from one another. A smaller part of the book was dedicated to the substance of the story with the rest being more of a log of fighting that eventually became boring.

Readability-- 4 The book had conflict to drive the story but it could have been told much quicker and it got bogged down. There was a large number of place and people names that were only mentioned once and without reference to anything significant in the story.

Mechanics-- 5 Translations of poems tend to turn into prose for readability's sake but they lose their rhythm and energy. The Iliad is probably a much more impressive book read in its original Greek. We are left with repetitive sentence structure that lacks vitality and the forward movement that a poem provides.

Emotion-- 5 It was difficult to become engaged emotionally with the book until the last chapter. This was dedicated to Hector's funeral and his family mourning his death in battle. It became the end of the story rather than the Greeks conquering Troy to my own surprise. It punctuated the respect given to him throughout the book.

Practicality-- 3 After reading battle scene after battle scene that just seemed unrealistic, I had to score it low.

BIBLIOTHEKA

The slow, anticipated emergence of Bruce's book reviews has found its way onto the interweb. First of all, a small thanks to my good wife for her technical assistance. I love to read and wanted to rate the books I read on some meaningful scale. Most rating scales are limited in scope to something like '4 stars' or '8 out of 10' plus some written defense of the given score. I decided to give each book I read a rating of 10 separate scores on a scale from 1 to 10 with a composite score of 10 to 100. This allows for a book to excel in a given category without escaping mediocrity. Although, I have only scored a few books this way, I anticipate most scores to fall within 40-70 range, more like a bell-curve. Categories were created based on what I generally have admired in a book and some are a stretch because I chose the unarbitray number of 10 categories. These ratings are based on my perception rather than some qualitative representation of reality; for example, the category of literary legacy is based on my perception of a given book's impact on the literature that had followed it rather than it's actual impact on those authors and books.

All are of course invited to comment on the reviews; and if you find yourself ambitious, bored, and pretentious, to read the reviewed book and score it using the given scale which will hereafter be named BS for obvious reasons.Here are the 10 categories of BS and brief explanations of what I mean by each of them.

1. Novelty--the book introduces new ideas, new ways of using literary devices, or has a new style unique to the literary environment of its time. If I were to pick up a romance novel, of the many thousands, it would probably score low on this scale because they are mostly the same outside of the characters, plot, and story.

2. Literary Legacy--the book inspires other literature either by the same author or by others who have read the book and pull from its novelty and write their own version of it. Using the romance novel example, the first romance novel would score high in this category because of the multitude of books that followed its pattern and indulgence.

3. Overall Legacy--the book inspires ways of thinking beyond the literay field. The book may be the inspiration for a movie, a halloween costume, an approach to life, or a religion.

4. Substance--whether the main message of the book has significant meaning and/or ubiquitous application. The Bible would score high because of its purpose of inspiring people, but the murder mystery would score low because a story about murder usually only has significance to those individuals affected by the crime.

5. Rhetoric--the author's ability to tell his story and communicate the 'substance' of the book. Murder mysteries would score high here because they use interesting plot twists to tell the story.

6. Precision--to what extent the book is able to communicate its ideas and message without being redundant. I once read a book about systems theory that had a fascinating idea but it was rehashed over and over again, chapter after chapter, idea after idea, and so on and so forth. Ultimately, is the book concise and not a waste of time.

7. Readability--does the book flow quickly and is it hard to put down. I have found that books written more recently tend to be easier to read and comprehend, as well as books written originally in my native tongue.

8. Mechanics--the use of writing elements at the most basic level. Sentence structure, punctuation, and paragraph content all contribute to the book. Some existentialist writers use this category as the artform while the actual story is irrelevant or mundane.

9. Emotion--does the book evoke specific emotions within me. And how intensely do I feel these emotions over the course of the book. Have I had an emotional experience reading this book?

10. Practicality--does the book effectively tell its story without compromising reality. This is an interesting category because many books are about fantastical things or occurrences. Tom Clancy's books would score high here because they are believable and detailed within the context of his fascinating scenario.