Creation
Once again the incomparable Gore Vidal interprets and animates history -- this time in a panoramic tour of the 5th century B.C. -- and embellishes it with his own ironic humor, brilliant insights, and piercing observations. We meet a vast array of historical figures in a staggering novel of love, war, philosophy, and adventure... "There isn't a page of CREATION that doesn't inform and very few pages that do not delight." -- John Leonard, The New York Times "From the Paperback edition."
Stats for nerds
2recommend
5mentions
4people
2009–2023years
60% recommend20% neutral20% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If you like this sort of thing, you may enjoy Gore Vidal's Creation book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_(novel)
The story follows the adventures of a fictional "Cyrus Spitama", an Achaemenid Persian diplomat of the 6th-5th century BCE who travels the known world comparing the political and religious beliefs of various empires, kingdoms and republics of the time. Over the course of his life, he meets many influential philosophical figures of his time, including Zoroaster, Socrates, Anaxagoras, the Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tsu, and Confucius. Though vehemently identifying himself as a Persian and speaking disparagingly of the Greeks, he is half-Greek himself – having had a formidable Greek mother.
- Gore Vidal wrote Creation as penned by the Persian ambassador in Athens in the 5th century BC.
Highly amusing. Seen from that viewpoint, the Greeks were just a bunch of pirates and cattle raiders on the edges of real civilization.
- I read Creation by Gore Vidal and I was blown away by his imagination and knowledge of the classical world.
His other books are on my list.
- Funny, just a couple weeks ago a friend recommended Gore Vidal's historical novel Creation, where the author is a grandson of Zoroaster. He manages to meet Socrates, the Buddha, and Confucius, which was actually possible at a certain point.
(I don't like Vidal's writing, which I find to be mostly attitude, but YMMV.)
- A somewhat useless list -- who cares about the 100 Best? I care about which book I'll learn the most from right now. I forced myself through a bunch of classics in high school without learning much from them. Eventually I realized that I can judge what I'm getting out of something by my level of interest. If I can't get interested in a book, despite working hard to find something of interest in it, then I'm wasting my time.
The best books to read aren't necessarily the best books. For example, I just happened to pick up Creation by Gore Vidal while halfway through Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind which I happened to pick up after a painful breakup caused by incompatible cultural assumptions. It was a happy coincidence, reading exactly the books I needed at the time and getting the most out of each as a result.
What's the point of lists like this if reading is so personal and context-dependent?
Also, number 24 is The Mismeasure of Man, which isn't a particularly good book -- just a popular book on an important subject. How many other books on the list are mediocre books that address noble topics? By the number of noble topics addressed, I would guess quite a few.
