History Literature / AutobiographyOfRed

** It's near a beach where American money and an "a piece of an old war helmet" are not unusual things to find.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Lava Man is a NoHistoricalFiguresWereHarmed version of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludger_Sylbaris Ludger Sylbaris]], who survived a 1902 volcanic eruption on Martinique because he was imprisoned in a bunker-like cell.

* CutAndPasteTranslation: Used for deliberate artistic effect. The ''Geryoneis'' fragments are full of AnachronismStew, making them appear closer to a paraphrase than a proper translation. In fact, [[spoiler:most of their content isn't even paraphrased: it's Carson's original work]].

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Lava Man is an {{Expy}} of a real person, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludger_Sylbaris Ludger Sylbaris]], who survived a 1902 volcanic eruption on Martinique because he was imprisoned in a bunker-like cell.

* ChainOfCorrections: Herakles and Geryon go through one of these:

** Geryon gets a line from one of her letters stuck in his head.

* NoPunctuationIsFunnier Sometimes more evocative too.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: [[QueerRomance Or all guys.]] Herakles is a sub-{{delinquent}} type, with a fondness for UsefulNotes/{{graffiti}}, {{s|tickyFingers}}hoplifting, and [[HellBentForLeather leather]]. Geryon finds him wildly attractive.

* HellBentForLeather: Herakles is a Bad Boy type and wears a black leather jacket.

* NoPunctuationIsFunnier Sometimes more evocative too
* NominalImportance: Played with. Apart from the central trio, the only named characters are minor ones, such as Maria (Geryon's mother's friend, [[TheGhost who never appears onscreen]]), or Lazer (who has only one scene -- part of which is devoted to him explaining his name). More important characters such as Geryon's mother and brother go unnamed.

** The yellowbeard and Lazer (who wears a yellow scarf) are people Geryon socializes with for a day, with no follow-up or ongoing acquaintance.

* MagicalMinority: Ancash has shades of this, being a quechuaphone Peruvian who serves up traditional wisdom for the benefit of the anglophone North American protagonist.

* AllGuysWantBadBoys: Herakles is a sub-{{delinquent}} type, with a fondness for UsefulNotes/{{graffiti}}, [[StickyFingers shoplifting]], and [[HellBentForLeather leather]]. Geryon finds him wildly attractive.

* HellBentForLeather: Herakles is a BadBoy type and wears a black leather jacket.

* NoNameGiven: Several characters, but special note goes to "the yellowbeard," who is never called anything else even though the narrative seems, briefly, to be teasing him as a LoveInterest for Geryon.

* ShoutOut: There are repeated references to Emily Dickinson.

* ShutterBug: Geryon, especially late in the book, spends quite a bit of time either taking photographs, planning to take photographs, or thinking up titles for the photographs he is taking or planning to take.

* WithAFriendAndAStranger: In the final section of the story, there is the trio of Geryon, Herakles (Geryon's OldFlame), and Ancash (stranger to Geryon, newish LoveInterest to Herakles).

** Subverted with the volcano in Hades, which doesn't erupt within the timeframe of the story.

[[Characters/ClassicalMythologyMonsters Geryon]] and [[Characters/ClassicalMythologyMortalsAndDemigods Herakles]] are, of course, originally from Myth/GreekMythology, where Geryon is the giant, monstrous keeper of a herd of red cattle. Herakles steals the cattle -- killing Geryon in the process -- as one of his labors. Carson brings up that version of the story in some prefatory matter concerning the poet Stesichoros, who wrote the first sympathetic portrayal of Geryon in the sixth century BCE. This section of the book also discusses a separate story about Stesichoros: he is supposed to have been struck blind by [[WorldsMostBeautifulWoman Helen]] for insulting her in a poem, then had his sight restored after writing a [[AuthorsSavingThrow palinode]].

* OurMonstersAreDifferent: A rare application of this trope to a single being. In Myth/GreekMythology Geryon is a red giant with an unusual number of heads and/or limbs, and sometimes with wings, who lives somewhere west of here. In [[Literature/TheDivineComedy Dante]] he is a huge, flying MixAndMatchCritter who lives in Hell. Here he is an ordinary-sized WingedHumanoid, red, who lives in Canada.

* CameraObscurer: One of the pictures in the PhotoMontage sequence towards the end is "a close-up photograph of Geryon's left pant leg just below the knee." The backstory is that Geryon was about to photograph some soldiers (which would presumably not have been a good idea) and Ancash's mother pushed the camera down at the last second.

** Played straight early on, when Geryon's mother calls her friend [[TheGhost Maria]].

* ViewerGenderConfusion: Pops up several times in-universe:
** When Geryon gets a job at a library, he pays so little attention to his co-workers that when he gets home he can't remember whether they are men or women. His mother guesses they are mostly men, based on his photographs of their shoes.
** In Argentina, Geryon [[LadyLooksLikeADude briefly mistakes the tuxedo-clad female tango singer for a man]].
** Later, he and Ancash are momentarily fascinated by two people in furs and high heels, [[DudeLooksLikeALady who they suddenly realize are men]].

* PhotoMontage: Evoked non-visually late in the book, in a series of seven chapters/poems all formed on the same pattern: the word "Photographs" in the title, a one-line description of the picture, and a narration of the circumstances in which it was taken. Subverted in the seventh of the series, "Photographs: #1748," in which the description is, "It is a photograph he never took, no one here took it." Since this is the chapter in which [[spoiler:Geryon flies into the volcano]], and he apparently ''does'' take a photograph, the negating description recalls the Stesichorean palinode.

A 1998 [[NarrativePoem novel in verse]] by Anne Carson. It tells the story of Geryon, a boy who is red, has wings, has a whirlwind teenage romance with a guy named Herakles, becomes a photographer, and travels to South America where he runs into Herakles and Herakles' new lover, Ancash. From Ancash, Geryon learns ''why'' he is red and has wings. (It involves him being a ChosenOne. Kind of.)

** The yellowbeard and Lazer (who wear a yellow scarf) are people Geryon socializes with for a day, with no follow-up or ongoing acquaintance.

* TheMagazineRule: Lampshaded when Geryon looks over the magazines at a newstand: