A nice collection of works by Eric Ravilious. This isn’t too text heavy, but each print gets a few sentences of copy. Much of Ravilious’s work leans towards the decorative side, especially his later prints. There’s a bit of the stench of Eric Gill in those simpler images. I much prefer his earlier, more illustrative works. For what it’s worth, there are not many books about wood engraving out there so this one is a fine addition to any collection of books on the topic.
In keeping with animal themed giallos, this is also known as The Scorpion with Two Tails. I don’t know what the deal is with Etruscans and Italian screenwriters, but that particular lost civilization is not at all scary or threatening. All their sculptures are grinning men with permed hair. The acting in this one is simply appalling. I thought John Saxon would elevate it, but he is dead within the first five minutes. The rest of the film is supposedly carried by Elvire Audray who is embarrassingly bad as an archeologist who is also the reincarnation of an Etruscan priestess or something. The unique hook here is that the killer twists his victim’s heads 180 degrees. Sans-CGI this is accomplished by, wait for it, the actors wearing their clothes backwards. It’s the Kris Kross Killer!
This is the sort of book that I feel like I have read already but that is mostly because we devoted a class or two of high school English to this and The Odyssey. I was inspired to read this after having watched season two of Great Greek Myths which helped me keep all the characters straight. I can say that for a book that was written two thousand years ago, it’s pretty darn exciting. It is also quite graphic in its descriptions of violence. Homer knows all the places that a spear can penetrate a body. Some of the best moments in the story are when the gods are scheming against each other. On the negative side, there was way too much text is wasted on describing the complete lineage of just about every minor character who is killed. Also, no Trojan Horse! That’s like the one thing everyone knows from this story and it turns out it is not in this book. I feel a little ripped-off.
