frequently asked questions
Volume II
by Rob Kovitz
forthcoming 2025
forthcoming 2025
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Volume II
'Were you followed?’ she asked.
‘Are you serious?’
‘Of course. We are not in London now.’
‘No, I don't think so.’
‘You said you had questions.’
Marcel Theroux, Strange Bodies
“Yemi. Forgive me. I should have listened to you. You were right. I didn't mean to do what I did.”
“The work being done in this place is important, Eko. It is more important than anything, and it is in danger. You must help John. He has lost his way. You must make him take you to the question mark. John will not want to show you, so you must make him, Eko. There are many distractions, brother, but you must move past them. What is done is done. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Yemi.”
“And, Eko? Bring the axe."
Lost, Season 2, Episode 21: ?
Rob Kovitz’s eagerly awaited supercut extravaganza, Frequently Asked Questions, is an epistemological-ontological-metaphysical-montage-appropriation-detective-spy-mystery-thriller-courtroom procedure caper, in which every text selection includes the word question, but much funnier than that sounds (though not any shorter). In two volumes.
This second volume continues the plan outlined in the first, the commentary itself being somewhat denser. Attention is increasingly drawn to typical motifs and themes, which become more marked from book 5 on. At the same time vol. 1’s emphasis on poetics, especially at the level of rhythm and diction, is maintained; and the analysis of character and motivation, as well as of divine involvement, becomes somewhat fuller than before. The four introductory chapters continue the progressive examination of the background to the Iliad; they will be complemented here and there in subsequent volumes, not least chapter 1 on Homeric religion. Reference to modern secondary literature, which some critics have found too slight, has been increased. Subsequent volumes will go further in this respect, although the principle stated in the editorial introduction to vol. 1 still applies, that neither complete bibliographical coverage nor a generally doxographical approach to Homeric interpretation is sought after.
Two amendments have been made to the list of essential aids (cf. vol. 1, xxi). First, Dr Stephanie West’s elucidation of Odyssey bks 1–4, in the revised, English version of the Odissea commentary overseen by Alfred Heubeck, is of exceptional value for many Homeric matters and is cited with corresponding frequency. Second, Ameis-Hentze’s commentary, though obviously outmoded in certain respects, still contains much that is both acute and relevant, and in the present volume is cited on a par with Leaf. Other references to works in German are too few, but the influence of Burkert, Erbse, W. H. Friedrich, Latacz, Leumann, Meister, Trümpy and others (not to mention Dörpfeld and Korfmann), if not of Neoanalysis except at its broadest level, is plain enough. In French, the quality and frequency of the guidance provided by Chantraine are equally obvious. Yet the ‘commentary for Europe for the 1990s’ desiderated by one friend is obviously not to be found in these pages—if it could, or should, be found anywhere. I have also continued to maintain a certain reserve over the ultimate intentions and attitudes, both moral and literary, of the Iliad’s monumental composer. That may be frustrating to some, but a commentator’s first aim should be, not to provide ready-made answers to all possible questions at whatever level of generality, but to help his users make their own attempts to do so. Meanwhile (as a visit to the recent F.I.E.C. congress in Pisa served to remind one), on many points of Homeric interpretation, not least over questions of religion, a distinctly personal, not to say visceral response is still preferred by many scholars.
G. S. Kirk, Preface (The Iliad: A Commentary, Volume 2, Books 5–8)
Mature audiences only
2.0 out of 5 stars
This graphic novel, a collection of the comic books, needs a warning label.
I’m sure some will enjoy the gritty, cynical, graphic, and unremittingly liberal plot lines, but I wasn’t one of them. The scratchy artwork was interesting at first, but soon, for me, became tiring, almost as if it were a caricature of comic book art. If it had a redeeming quality, it was in the fact that there wasn’t a super-power in sight. But, eventually, I began to wonder how many times the Question can be beaten into unconsciousness and still remain alive.
—BarClay
Dennis O’Neil and Denys Cowan, The , Vol. 2: Poisoned Ground
(Amazon Customer Reviews)
Following what happens when questions are attempted.
Moodle, Engine 2: Design (moodle.org)
treyf books
keep refrigerated
