Surazeus answers to questions from Piotr

- As the greek mythology says, Kadmos - who was the husband of Harmonia and a brother of Europa - has taught the phoenician alphabet to his people. Do myths explain anything to us?

Myths are like stories in newspapers or history books that record the dramatic process of human action where the character comes to symbolize the archetype of the human personality whose actions create new technology, like Kadmos teaching the alphabet, which inspires people to live better lives. Myths record the exploits of cultural heroes.

- I would like to ask about iambic pentameter and about blank verse (in Polish poetry something similar to dactylic hexameter is much more popular) - did you choose it because of the accent and melody of the English language?

Blank verse is the most natural rhythm of expression of accentual melody for the English language. Shakespeare, Milton, and Wordsworth employed blank verse as the most dynamic method of expressing narrative and lyrical self-expression, similar to the verse of Homer and Vergil. I also employ the thought-rhyming parallelism used in Hebrew poetry, where the concept of each line will echo the concept of previous lines, repeating the same concept in different words, expressing the opposite concept, or building on previous concepts.

- You write really a lot. Is it a form of expression for you?

I see visions of human life in my mind, so I craft elegant lines of verse to express that vision with coherent beauty, so poetry is the artistic representation of reality. I find myself inspired to write poetry every day.

- Your Hermead is the longest epic in western literature. How did you write it?

I was reading "The Western Canon" by Harold Bloom when I came on a passage where he talked about the history of poetry where gods, kings, and martial heroes are the subjects of epic poetry. I thought about how philosophers and scientists have had a greater impact on human history, so at that moment, the early evening of 16 July 2011, I was inspired to write the Hermead as an epic that presents philosophers as cultural heroes. The Hermead presents the lives and ideas of 26 ancient Greek philosophers, so it envisions the foundation of the philosophical tradition of Academia as the founding myth of Western Civilization.

- What is the secret of finishing large projects?

I set myself the goal of writing at least 100 lines of blank verse every evening, and so I was able to compose 126,680 lines of verse in the Hermead over 5 years from 2011 to 2015. However, the Hermead is only 1/5 of the project I want to write. Someday I may write more tales of scientists in the Renaissance and the Modern eras.

- You work as a cartographer. Why are maps so interesting?

Maps represent the physical reality of the world, just as lyric poetry represents the visionary imagination of the brain, and epic poetry represents the drama of human action.

- Are illustrations in books important? What do you think about illustrations of poetry?

I would love for artists to be inspired to paint illustrations of the Hermead someday.


The Hermead has been published in a single volume.

Hermead paperback in Poland
https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/0359794386

All Surazeus books
https://www.amazon.de/Surazeus-Astarius/e/B00G4CN6YU

Hermead paperback on Lulu
http://www.lulu.com/shop/surazeus-astarius/hermead-philosophers/paperback/product-24175712.html

Hermead hardcover
http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/surazeus-astarius/hermead-philosophers/hardcover/product-24175889.html