Notes from Source: One way of thinking the difference between poetry and philosophy is in the different ways each might answer the question: “What is time made of?” This question is central to Anne Carson’s new book, and it mediates many of the other questions explored, including the nature of sexuality, desire, identity, language, rationality, power, and community. Described as a novel in verse, the book creates a contemporary character Geryon, kin to the red monster Geryon whom Herakles slays as one of his labours. The contemporary Geryon is an innocent and an outcast, a monster who cannot be socialized, and he is both stupid and intelligent; stupid because he asks the question of time that cannot be answered and intelligent because he knows the question is important, or, as Carson puts it, it “is a question that had long exercised Geryon.” This is a subtle use of the verb “exercise,” suggesting the way time puts us through our paces.

Further Notes: Place: Fredericton Publisher: University of New Brunswick