Status
Checked out
Call number
Publication
Emece Editores (2001)
Description
In eleven chapters, Kalpa Imperial's multiple storytellers relate the story of a fabled nameless empire which has risen and fallen innumerable times. Fairy tales, oral histories, and political commentaries are all woven tapestry-style into Kalpa Imperial: beggars become emperors, democracies become dictatorships, and history becomes legends and stories. Kalpa Imperial is much more than a simple political allegory or fable. It is also a celebration of the power of storytelling. Gorodischer and Le Guin are a well-matched, sly and delightful team of magician-storytellers. Rarely have author and translator been such an effortless pairing. Kalpa Imperial is a powerful introduction to the writing of Ango?=lica Gorodischer, a novel that will enthrall readers already familiar with the worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member jbushnell
Fabulist allegories investigating the relationship between power, humanity, and storytelling, using Empire as the central metaphor. Often fascinating, although the book has a tendency to skew towards abstraction: this has the feature of making the stories feel more universal (a plus) but also saps
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them of concrete details that would make them more memorable. Show Less
LibraryThing member alexdallymacfarlane
A book comprising snippets of history, as told by storytellers, of a grand empire. The parts are only slightly linked; most stand alone, short and marvellous stories of an intriguing land. Gorodischer knows how to spice her work with the details that bring a city's individual streets to life, or
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make a character unique in a short space. I really enjoyed this one. Show Less
LibraryThing member tronella
A collection of short stories by Argentinian writer Angélica Gorodischer, translated into English by Ursula K LeGuin. The stories are all set in the same world, written as stories being told by storytellers about the history of a vast and ancient empire. It's fantasy-ish in tone, but there aren't
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many particularly fantastical elements. A lot of the stories are about various Emperors and Empresses and their lives, but my favourite was the history of a city, starting from its founding and covering its changing role within the empire (a stop on the way to a port, a spa town, a centre of religion, the capital city) over many generations. I enjoyed this collection a great deal. Show Less
LibraryThing member zeborah
Ursula Le Guin's translation of this may have been very accurate but I don't feel it let much flavour of the original come through. It read just as though the story had always been written in English, and a generic pseudo-medieval fantasy English at that.
On the other hand it was hard to get from
Maybe it's a mistake for me to be trying to find any. It's more of a patchwork than a tapestry, with the common thread being the focus on the throne itself: how the emperors and empresses - noble, ambitious, wise, paranoid, pragmatic, or weak - shape the country for good and ill, and yet how easily it can all be forgotten. How much of it is for the joy of creating a fictional empire and how much is to make political statements I can't tell, but "Magareta’Acher" makes an appearance, for the most obvious, and there are almost certainly a great many references that I don't have the background to even recognise. Each tale by itself is an enjoyable read, and there's a lot beneath the surface for anyone who might choose to delve deeper.
On the other hand it was hard to get from
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the story more of a sense of the eponymous Empire than "generic pseudo-medieval fantasyland" either. The story (or stories: the conceit is that a marketplace storyteller is recounting all these forgotten tales to a respectful audience) spans not only centuries but countless aeons, but there's no sense either of continuity or development from tale to tale.Maybe it's a mistake for me to be trying to find any. It's more of a patchwork than a tapestry, with the common thread being the focus on the throne itself: how the emperors and empresses - noble, ambitious, wise, paranoid, pragmatic, or weak - shape the country for good and ill, and yet how easily it can all be forgotten. How much of it is for the joy of creating a fictional empire and how much is to make political statements I can't tell, but "Magareta’Acher" makes an appearance, for the most obvious, and there are almost certainly a great many references that I don't have the background to even recognise. Each tale by itself is an enjoyable read, and there's a lot beneath the surface for anyone who might choose to delve deeper.
Show Less
LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
Of course, I read this because it was translated by Ursula K. LeGuin.
I can see why she liked it - the book touches on many of the themes that LeGuin deals with in her own work.
As usual (actually, without a known exception) LeGuin will not steer you wrong. (I've started buying any book that I see
However, although the book is very good, it's not as good as LeGuin.
The book is a series of stories all set in an imaginary (but rather realistic) ancient empire. It felt slightly Eastern European to me, but others may see it differently. The Empire is thousands of years old, and dynasties have come and gone, so Gorodischer has given herself a wide canvas to work on. The portrayals of the nature of human society, which this book focuses on, are similarly broad and deep. (My one criticism is that while the social and political situations were vivid and dramatic, the characters themselves, to me, were not so memorable.)
The Empire has been ruled by men and women wise and foolish, cruel and just. Those they ruled have also been venal or honest, have succeeded or failed...
The stories are all told as if they were oral narratives, folk stories told by a storyteller in a village square or around a campfire...as such, they have a feeling of mythology, and also create a commentary about how a society is defined by the stories it tells about itself.
I can see why she liked it - the book touches on many of the themes that LeGuin deals with in her own work.
As usual (actually, without a known exception) LeGuin will not steer you wrong. (I've started buying any book that I see
Show More
LeGuin has blurbed, and they are ALL good.)However, although the book is very good, it's not as good as LeGuin.
The book is a series of stories all set in an imaginary (but rather realistic) ancient empire. It felt slightly Eastern European to me, but others may see it differently. The Empire is thousands of years old, and dynasties have come and gone, so Gorodischer has given herself a wide canvas to work on. The portrayals of the nature of human society, which this book focuses on, are similarly broad and deep. (My one criticism is that while the social and political situations were vivid and dramatic, the characters themselves, to me, were not so memorable.)
The Empire has been ruled by men and women wise and foolish, cruel and just. Those they ruled have also been venal or honest, have succeeded or failed...
The stories are all told as if they were oral narratives, folk stories told by a storyteller in a village square or around a campfire...as such, they have a feeling of mythology, and also create a commentary about how a society is defined by the stories it tells about itself.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Mrs_McGreevy
Angelica Gorodischer is an Argentinean writer who has won numerous awards. This is the first of her nineteen books to be translated into English, and it’s a doozy. It’s a collection of tales from a long-ago empire that resonate with Gorodischer’s own experiences under a brutal government in
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the 70’s and early 80’s. The book is translated by Ursula K. LeGuin, and she seems a perfect fit, capturing Gorodischer’s dreamlike prose in all its power. Show Less
LibraryThing member tronella
A collection of short stories by Argentinian writer Angélica Gorodischer, translated into English by Ursula K LeGuin. The stories are all set in the same world, written as stories being told by storytellers about the history of a vast and ancient empire. It's fantasy-ish in tone, but there aren't
Show More
many particularly fantastical elements. A lot of the stories are about various Emperors and Empresses and their lives, but my favourite was the history of a city, starting from its founding and covering its changing role within the empire (a stop on the way to a port, a spa town, a centre of religion, the capital city) over many generations. I enjoyed this collection a great deal. Show Less
LibraryThing member mmparker
Strange, mythic, delirious short stories
Awards
SF Site Editor's Choice (2003)
Language
Original language
Spanish
Original publication date
1983 (volume 1)
1984 (volume 2)
2003 (English: Le Guin)
ISBN
9500422735 / 9789500422734