https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/But_What_If_We%27re_Wrong%3F
The premise of the book is that most of what we believe is likely to be wrong, but to avoid delusions in our perceptions, Klosterman advises us to "think about the present as if it were the distant past."
Klosterman examines such phenomena as the history of scientific theories, our perception of historical literary geniuses and our interests in entertainment and professional sports, as background examples to challenge the reader's confidence in their contemporary perceptions, and to try to detect how those perceptions might be mistaken. In a series of what have been called thought experiments, various topics (literary greats, multiverses, time, dreams, democracy, television shows, sports) are analyzed under "Klosterman's Razor": the concept that "the best hypothesis is the one that reflexively accepts its potential wrongness to begin with.
Our age has abandoned metered verse for prose. This affects the epic context greatly.
Of gods, Man, and beasts; of savage wrought and ascendant reach; tell us your tales of goddess of glories; speak your prose of divine aspects’ stories.
Let us hope in the age of slop there is still best works of Man yet to come.
Brendinooo•1h ago
Dunno if this is true or not but it's certainly thought-provoking!
yepyoukno•58m ago
Writing reappeared fifty years after the time of Homer, within a hundred years or so bringing on the “golden age” of Greek philosophy, if that tells you anything.
Homer did not invent the Iliad, though it is strongly arguable he and his “school” did wholly invent the Odyssey, at least the story in which lore was woven.
The Iliad was a small part of the “epic cycle”, which only survived in fragments referenced by later literary discussions.
All this said, there is some truth to what you have highlighted. A grand epic is one which speaks to an age, and it takes generations of telling to process this into a mind worthy of its ultimate composure.