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Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (Swiss-French,1859-1923)

Cat and fishbowl, 1897

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Mahmoud Darwish, Life To The Last Drop

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Heroes of the Iliad like

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actually this is maybe the most haunting curse tablet from bath

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“I have a feeling that the future and past aren’t separate at all, just different snatches of a single song, always sung, given consequence when heard”

- Ferdia Lennon, Glorious exploits

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Left: Susuwatari, Studio Ghibli. 1988.

Right: Baths of Musiciolus, Ostia Antica. ca. 200 CE

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tbh my favourite quality about Odysseus towards the end of the Odyssey is that he'll swear to be honest and immediately spit out two pages of nothing but lies about who he is and where he comes from and whose son he is and how he's suffered terribly to get where he is now

compare that to him giving polyphemus his full name, his postal address, his social security number, and his birth certificate in earlier chapters

that's what we call ✨personal growth✨

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Know Thy Shelf: Discord Community

Know Thy Shelf is a new community focused on discussing literature of all kinds!

Featuring:

a monthly book club

genre channels for book discussions

study & craft spaces

All members must be 16+.

Please keep in mind this is not a space for advertising one's work or advertising in general.

Join here!

[audeamusss]

The Iliad, Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

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Iliad adaptations: all of us are great people except king Agamemnon, who's the only villain, and he's basically forcing us into committing war crimes against these helpless trojans uwu.

Homer's Iliad: if there's 10000 of us, then there's 10000 different reasons to fight this war. We do nefarious things because war is dark, and it's made by men.

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Villa Popea, Oplontis, Italy (1st century BC.)

The rooms of Villa Popea are world-renowned for their sumptuous frescoes, an extraordinary display of the styles of Roman mural painting, the maturity of the Second Style and its transition to the Third Style of Pompeii.

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— Roberto Ferri, Vanitas | Paolo e Francesca

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The Trojan prince Troilus brings his horse to a fountain to drink, while Achilles (to the left; not visible) lurks in ambush.  Detail from an Etruscan red-figure stamnos, part of a pair known as the “Fould stamnoi”.  Artist unknown; ca. 300 BCE.  From Vulci; now in the Louvre.

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:) ancient egyptian greywacke fish

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Just picked this months read The Girls by Emma Cline!

Know Thy Shelf: Discord Community

Know Thy Shelf is a new community focused on discussing literature of all kinds!

Featuring:

a monthly book club

genre channels for book discussions

study & craft spaces

All members must be 16+.

Please keep in mind this is not a space for advertising one's work or advertising in general.

Join here!

[audeamusss]

July: Wrap Up

The start of this month felt like a slog, I wasn’t picking up to read and I generally felt a bit frustrated. There is nothing worse than hitting a slump. I’d have bursts of reading I finished the first two books each in a sitting but then wouldn’t touch anything in-between. It hit a low point with In The Miso Soup, which took almost two weeks to push through. Even through the mid-month crush, I completed my annual reading goal of 40 books almost 5 months early with one of the lowest rated books of the year.

As July draws to a close I feel like my spirits are lifted. Convenience Store Woman was a book to finish on a high note and as I roll into August I’m looking forward to what next month brings.

1. Pretentiousness: Why it Matters - Dan Fox (4/5)

I think this book does a very good idea of laying the foundation for authenticity as a concept. The burden that comes with the label of pretentiousness is often born through classism. It covers many topics although I found that the book focuses heavily on the relationship between the pursuit of niche topics that are often ‘pretentiousness’ and how that correlates to class. It talks about accents and the association that British accents in the eyes of Americans are pretentious but also that within the UK there is often a stigma associated with certain accents. I think its a topic that I’ve rarely seem literature touch on but I think it breaks it down well, contextually within the context of the UK.

2. Wild Things - Laura Kay (4/5)

This book was a big surprise. The cover is reminiscent of typical rom-com and it was my local book clubs selection for the July session. I had doubts I am not a romance kind of gay. I like heavy, sad and depressing but there was a lot more to Wild Things than meets the eye. Its a story about a group of friends that move out to their own house in a small town, they’re all close. Together they form their own sort of found family. The relationship is a smaller aspect of the bigger picture about pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and the importance of friends in your own development and success.

3. In the Miso Soup - Ryu Murakami (1/5)

As a short concept it feels like Patrick Bateman goes to Japan. There is very little in the way of content, the book loosely follows three acts and the pacing seems to make it drag on much longer. I felt like the book would never end. It must be said that the book will be extremely triggering to some, it handles things with little class and is made to be a point about the brutality of Frank. The third act gives some insight into the mentality but other than that I felt like the subtext of the novel was very two-dimensional. What it excels in is creating a suffocating atmosphere of Tokyo’s nightlife, the air is heavy with cigarette smoke and damp with regret.

4. Motherthing - Ainslie Hogarth (4/5)

This is a good intro into how to take something innocuous and distort it into something genuinely disturbing. Its a great balance of a commentary on the relationships between women as much as it is between men. It explores grief and loss. Ties and abuse. I read it all in one sitting, but I loved every second of it. It never overstayed its welcome so I can’t say I was displeased at all. It definitely left me craving for more horror.

5. Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata (5/5)

I think this is a book more about authenticity than anything else. The pursuit if passions irregardless about how much people push you to an alternative. Everyone is different and to some working in a convenience store is all they need. It talks about ablism and the expectations to fulfil peoples ideals but also about rejecting them. I resonated deeply with the characters, I felt that the learning curve was something reminiscent to my own development. Definitely worth the short amount of time it took me to read this book.