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We First Met in Ithaca, or Was It Eden?
Elle and Oz, strangers ready to restart their lives, meet by chance and flirtatiously swap stories in a dark abandoned house. They soon sense that these stories are coming from an unknown source. It's as if they are watching the stories rather than telling them. Then they become actors inside the stories, seeing and hearing as if they were the characters, affecting outcomes but still conscious of their separate contemporary selves in the dark abandoned house, their attraction heightened by this mysterious adventure. The stories transform: the two become characters from the Odyssey and Genesis, facing challenges in previous lives, challenges that they meet head-on . Finally, and they find themselves in a future where whole populations have transferred themselves to (or been absorbed into) a massive computer network. The human cycle of birth, death, and rebirth will end. They will live in that network forever. But Elle and Oz have a choice.
212 pages, Paperback
Published January 28, 2023
1 person want to read
About the author
Richard Seltzer
27 books132 followersAuthor of two dozen books, I've been editor, novelist, Russian translator, parttime spy, Internet evangelist, and ebook entrepreneur. I've published children's fantasies, historical novels, and pioneering books about how to do business on the Internet. As a spokesperson for Digital Equipment, a tech leader in the early Internet, I saw how consumer choices and business models molded the outcomes we live with today. My latest book, "In Flux," puts AI into context and suggest how we can nudge the future toward either serving us or oppressing us.
I graduated from Yale, with a major in English and went to grad school there in Comparative Literature. At Yale I had creative writing courses with Robert Penn Warren and Joseph Heller.
In my 70s I've finally been able to write what I want when I want, and I've been publishing 2-3 books a year. Most don't fit in established genres and hence agents and editors aren't interested. So I've gone with small and hybrid publishers which makes it difficult to get the attention of traditional reviewers. Now I'm finally getting some recognition, with reviews of three of my books appearing in the same issue of Publishers Weekly (June 9). Another book of mine (One Family) was reviewed in their July 21 issue. And yet another will be reviewed in their Sept. 8 issue. One Family also won the Connecticut Press Club's annual award for best non-fiction book.
My personal web site is seltzerbooks.com My Twitter account is @seltzerbooks
A list of every book I have read since 1958 (over 3500 books) appears at seltzerbooks.com/readall.html
I graduated from Yale, with a major in English and went to grad school there in Comparative Literature. At Yale I had creative writing courses with Robert Penn Warren and Joseph Heller.
In my 70s I've finally been able to write what I want when I want, and I've been publishing 2-3 books a year. Most don't fit in established genres and hence agents and editors aren't interested. So I've gone with small and hybrid publishers which makes it difficult to get the attention of traditional reviewers. Now I'm finally getting some recognition, with reviews of three of my books appearing in the same issue of Publishers Weekly (June 9). Another book of mine (One Family) was reviewed in their July 21 issue. And yet another will be reviewed in their Sept. 8 issue. One Family also won the Connecticut Press Club's annual award for best non-fiction book.
My personal web site is seltzerbooks.com My Twitter account is @seltzerbooks
A list of every book I have read since 1958 (over 3500 books) appears at seltzerbooks.com/readall.html
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 14, 2023
I am the author, so of course I love it.
Here's the synopsis:
Oz draws Elle's portrait before he meets her, only it's her as she looked years before. That's how they see one another -- far younger than they are. Flirting, they pretend that they are a married couple pretending to be strangers as erotic role play.
They break into an abandoned house, leaving the door shut and the curtains drawn, make-believing, in darkness, that they are trapped in a magical realm. Sitting on the sofa, they swap stories and make love. It's as if they have fallen in love with one another in previous lives and are destined to be together.
The stories become magical, as if not of their own creation, as if fed to them by Greek gods and then by the God of Jews and Christians. They see the stories as well as tell them. They come alive as characters in their stories, including previously untold episodes from the lives of Odysseus and Penelope, Adam and Eve -- playing in the wiggle room of what was left unsaid in The Odyssey and Genesis. They become Ktimene the sister of Odysseus and Eumaeus his loyal swineherd -- newly invented as legendary lovers.
Then they find themselves in a future world, where they are about to be transferred, together with the rest of mankind, from their bodies to a vast computer networking. This will end the perpetual cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. But they can opt out. They can choose to be the only man and only woman and start the story of mankind all over again.
Here's the synopsis:
Oz draws Elle's portrait before he meets her, only it's her as she looked years before. That's how they see one another -- far younger than they are. Flirting, they pretend that they are a married couple pretending to be strangers as erotic role play.
They break into an abandoned house, leaving the door shut and the curtains drawn, make-believing, in darkness, that they are trapped in a magical realm. Sitting on the sofa, they swap stories and make love. It's as if they have fallen in love with one another in previous lives and are destined to be together.
The stories become magical, as if not of their own creation, as if fed to them by Greek gods and then by the God of Jews and Christians. They see the stories as well as tell them. They come alive as characters in their stories, including previously untold episodes from the lives of Odysseus and Penelope, Adam and Eve -- playing in the wiggle room of what was left unsaid in The Odyssey and Genesis. They become Ktimene the sister of Odysseus and Eumaeus his loyal swineherd -- newly invented as legendary lovers.
Then they find themselves in a future world, where they are about to be transferred, together with the rest of mankind, from their bodies to a vast computer networking. This will end the perpetual cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. But they can opt out. They can choose to be the only man and only woman and start the story of mankind all over again.
Displaying 1 of 1 review