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The Immortality of the Human Mind: Reception of Classical Culture in Tad Williams’ Otherland

2010; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.2139/ssrn.1607765

1556-5068

Ornella Rossi,

American Literature and Culture

This paper explores the presence and the role of classical tradition in the tetralogy Otherland by Tad Williams. Williams’ saga, published between 1996 and 2001, has encountered large public success, with translations into numerous languages and with the production of an MMO videogame, to be released in 2010. My purpose is, first, to discuss how Williams draws on classical material (in particular Roman history and Homeric Greece) to create some of Otherland’s fantastic worlds. Secondly, I aim to illustrate how the interaction between classical mythology and other mythological traditions shapes the novel’s core themes, such as the relation between technological and ‘human’ progress, and the eternal quest for immortality.