Blogtrotter

Horslits: Lit Crit meets Horslips!

Lee Templeton indefatigably continues her web endeavors, sensibly expanding the ComeBackHorslips.com Guest Book chat some of the more eggheaded of us have engaged in into its own Yahoo Group discussion list about the background in the Irish sagas and all their millennia of subsequent mythologizing, rambling, and dissembling. And, why Horslips did what they did to bring young impressionable minds such as my own out of their rock-addled senses back into these ancient tales. Thanks to their combination of intelligence and bravado, by the magic of folk-rock, the intensity of electric amplification, and the sensibility of the literary lions of the Revival, the Beats, and the hippies, somehow their concept albums on the Táin Bó Cualnge and the Lebor Gabhála, or the Book of Invasions, worked where so many others foundered on the shoals of prog rock's hubristically rocky shores (what a metaphor). Not to mention the cool couplings and the rampant mayhem that my ancestors enjoyed-- at least until Patrick and the monks forced them to simmer down under threat of damnation.

Horslips took this sense of longing and lust and invigorated these tales. They restored their swaggering energy. No Lady Gregory Kiltartanese, nor Yeatsian piffle. No Alfred Nutt clunky Victorian cod-heroic versions that sound like-- well, those satirized so memorably and cruelly in Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds. Return to those golden days of the 70s, or misty gore-splattered and dewy urine-spattered times nearly immemorial. Or both. Your choice.

See this addie for more info:

Horslits-owner@yahoogroups.com

Herewith the Founder and Leader's own invitation:Believe it or not -- another Horslips project.

But this is in response to the exceptional discussions on the Tain that started in the CBH guestbook and have continued via three- and four-way email conversations.

Still, emails and guestbooks aren't the best place for longer, exploratory discussions. And the testing of the Bravenet discussion board was just too ad-ridden to be enjoyable.

So I thought I'd return to one of the web's oldest forms of community: the Yahoo Group! Picked out a classy name (thanks Donnacha!) and now I'm really looking forward to sharing my thoughts on such things as alternate versions of the Book of Invasions, the smutty bits of the Táin, key words and themes in Horslips' music and more.

Haven't checked yet, but I believe Yahoo Groups offer you options on your membership, so if you join, you can control your own level of involvement and privacy. Ask for assistance on that if you need it in this area.

Also, be sure to check out and add to the database of retellings and versions of the Táin and the Book of Invasions. Let's see how many we can find! And will gladly accept artwork for the site too.

Well. That's this morning's free time on the web. Hope you'll join.