Middlesex 2 (post did not go through a week ago)

"Smyrna endures today in a few Rebitka songs and a stanza from The Wasteland:

Mr. Eugenides, the Smyrna Merchant
Unshaven, with a pocketful of currants
C.i.f. London: documents at sight,
Asked me in demotic French
To luncheon at the Cannon Street Hotel
Followed by a weekend at the Metropole.


Everything you need to know about Smyrna is contained in that. The merchant is rich, and so was Smyrna. His proposal was seductive, and so was Smyrna, the most cosmopolitan city in the Near East. Among its reputed founders were, first, the Amazons (which goes nicely with my theme), and second, Tantalus himself. Homer was born therem and Aristotle Onassis. In Smyrna, East and West... blended as tastefully as did the rose petals and hones in the local pastries."
Page 50

This passage describes the ancient city of Smyrna, where the protagonists are situated at this point in the novel. It is described as a place where opposites come together and mesh into a beautiful combination, as a conduit connecting the East to the West. The language the author uses is wistful, his tone being one of loss, because in the sentence previous to this passage, and at certain times during this passage, he foreshadows that the city is soon to be destroyed. In his reference to The Waste Land, the narrator makes an intertextual comparison between this setting of the novel and another work, which incidentally has the authors' name in the first line. The author also uses parallelism to describe the city and compare it to the poem, giving the reader a feel for the city. The narrator also mentions the Amazons in the city's history, musing that they go well with her theme of gender, the Amazons being powerful female warriors.