floated down on his eyelashes and covered the branches around him and silenced / all trace of the world.” (25). Geryon exists in his own world. The objective realities of the other world do not exist for him. Just as he is unable to gain access to kindergarten, Geryon is unable to exist in the world of objectivity. Geryon holds his own subjective reality.Autobiography of Red is a world which lacks convention. This is demonstrated by Carson’s writing style, which follows its own patterns and does not subscribe to any conventions of writing which are previously set. The subtitle to Autobiography of Red states: “A novel in verse.” This is a first delineation of the lack of convention. Typically, novels are written in prose, and writing a novel in verse attacks this standard. Secondly, by writing the novel in verse, Carson can inject line spacing in random places just how she chooses, as well as ignore proper punctuation and structure. This further challenges convention by having no sense or coherence to the writing style. Autobiography of Red is a subjective work, because Carson does not subscribe to outside convention and forces to determine her novel. She does not allow it to be objectified as a standard work of prose. Rather, it is a subjective work which stands alone.Another form in which Autobiography of Red attacks convention, is through it’s reworking of the original myth. The first section of the book entitled “Red Meat: Fragments of Stesichoros” contains the objective story of Geryon, which is the original Greek myth. Then the book moves on to challenge this objective reality and create its own story and its own reality. The portrayal of characters is significantly different in Anne Carson’s novel. In the original Greek myth, Geryon, the monster, was the antagonist. Herakles, the legendary hero, was naturally the protagonist. Anne Carson reverses these roles and ma...
