dr-dendritic-trees

[dr-dendritic-trees]

Helen is a cosmic horror. Helen is a mother to an innocent girl. Helen is a destroyer of men. Helen is a sister needing to be rescued. Helen is an eldritch being that thousands of years after her creation cannot be fully understood or seen or touched. Helen is a young Spartan princess. Helen is a depopulation. Helen is not Helen. Helen can only be Helen. Send post.

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This absurd yarn is 45% cashmere, 55% silk. I have never worked with anything even remotely like it - no cashmere, no silk, and definitely nothing so thin as 92 wraps per inch. Ninety fucking two.

New, it originally cost £200/kg. A very, very kind weaver in Scotland was de-stashing and sent me 5 kilos for £50 total (plus shipping).

I have many dreams for it but right now I mostly have screams. I have no real idea how it will behave in weaving, so I've wound a small warp for some sampling and a scarf. This is 3.5km of yarn (a bit over 2 miles) and it weighs 119 grams (a bit over 4 ounces?). For those of you playing along at home, each 1kg cone is thus 30 kilometres of yarn (nearly 20 miles). It does not feel like any other yarn I have ever touched.

Because it's so thin (difficult to handle or even see) and so valuable, I am using it with a "dummy warp" - I have left the remains of the baby blanket warp on the loom and then I tie the new warp to it, thread by thread by single fucking thread. This means I don't have to set up the loom all over again and almost none of the fancy yarn will become "loom waste", the unweaveable section of warp at the end of a project. But it also means tying every knot, perfectly in order for each end of both the old and new warps, without the cat getting too interested.

24 knots down, a mere 1000 to go...

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Hey fibre arts friends and bog friends, there's an interesting talk about BOG FASHION on April 5, live at the Ashmolean museum in Oxford and also on Zoom:

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it's interesting how often odysseus' role is to get his hands dirty by shepherding along the next plot point. i'm thinking about iphigenia and polyxena, because i'm obsessed with polyxena right now, but it's like agamemnon and achilles are in opposite positions re: the parallel sacrifices and odysseus is just. getting the girls from point a to point b by whatever means necessary. what's most expedient to keep the plot moving? that's what he'll do

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Friend Shaped!

Eva Funderburgh

love her work

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I know most people don't care about anything unless it has to do with the U.S. but can we please start talking about the Canadian election.

Please don't vote for Poilievre. He's basically the Canadian Trump and plans to put in place laws that harm trans youth, and lots of other shit.

Please vote istg this is the only way anything will get better. Poilievre has been kissing millionaires and billionaires asses. He'll make life even harder, and he loves Trump.

Reblogs are appreciated, especially if you aren't Canadian.

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I love it!

I have got to make some monk's belt!

and also the monks belt sample too

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my uni staged philoctetes and one of the best choices was to have odysseus walk in with a cigarette through the entrance directly beneath the "no smoking" sign

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Even anteaters have fun...

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I love my Seikret and my Palico

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California Quail (Callipepla californica)

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Behold the pocket-sized western pygmy possum! (Cercartetus concinnus). One of the world’s smallest possums, this species typically weighs just 0.5 oz (14 g)—the size of an AA battery. This dainty marsupial is a nectarivore, meaning that its diet consists primarily of plant nectar. It inhabits treetops in forests throughout parts of Australia, using its long prehensile tail like a fifth limb as it moves from branch to branch.

Photo: gilliank, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

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So for reasons I will not explain, I went on a hunt for Babylonian weather and found this absolutely fascinating study (McGovern et al 2020) looking into Babylonian weather through translations of their own records.

Which leads to these fascinating graphs:

But most interesting to me, is "the weather became cloudy, but rain did not fall; rain fell, but it did not loosen the sandal" which is apparently a common Babylonian phrase/proverb where the sandal is or is not removed.

Which, if you live in a river valley with a lot of clay, is likely a reference to how prolonged and absorbent the ground was! "to loosen the sandal" = extremely sticky and difficult to travel.

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So, funny story, my 4K introduction chapter finished at a totally reasonable and entirely normal 15K.

My 4k chapter is 10k and not finished. And I should feel good because it means the idea has legs, but I just want to get this bit done!

I wanna write the bit with the actual lead character in it!

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You can give yourself one genetic mutation and it is safe, effective, and cheap*. What are doing?

*i know that a lot of these aren’t just due to one gene but are a complex interplay of several genes, epigenetic factors, and environmental factors, but we are playing pretend here

[dr-dendritic-trees]

The fact that Hecuba and Iphigenia in Aulis are both by Euripides makes the whole thing really ironic, I think. And it kind of gives me feelings and opinions about the characters that I imagine some people wouldn't like much. But okay, I’ll share it here!

In Iphigenia in Aulis, Iphigenia is willing to die out of a desire for patriotism and for glory and renown, in a way. She wants her death to be a voluntary sacrifice, similar to how the deaths of warriors are a kind of voluntary sacrifice. She's not thinking sympathetically of the Trojans, she's actually expressing a desire for them to be conquered. Don’t get me wrong, Iphigenia has shown empathy, but not like that — she shows empathy towards her family, Achilles and the Hellenic men in general, but not the Trojans. Iphigenia wants kleos. And yet in Hecuba, Polyxena is clearly a Trojan parallel to Iphigenia, having her sacrifice ordered so that the Achaeans can set sail. This occasion can only happen because Iphigenia was sacrificed first (because if she hadn't been, the Achaeans wouldn't have left Aulis), a sacrifice that Iphigenia proudly saw as her contribution to the conquest of Troy — a pride that she saw as a way to take back her agency. Iphigenia declared about how the Hellenes were free but the Trojans were slaves, and here is Polyxena, her Trojan counterpart, claiming that she would rather be dead than enslaved. Iphigenia is often remembered as the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra when it comes to their feelings — I mean, how Agamemnon didn't want to sacrifice her and how Clytemnestra was filled with grief and anger — but it’s less often remembered that…as their daughter, Iphigenia also shared her parents' vision and desires regarding Troy, at least to some extent. And this makes her parallel with Polyxena, who is a victim of this Achaean desire, quite ironic. Iphigenia is constantly remembered as the pure and sweet older sister of Orestes and Electra, she isn't remembered as a girl who wanted to achieve kleos. And I don't understand why. Male characters who sought kleos through the fall of Troy still receive empathetic receptions from the audience, so why does Iphigenia only elicit empathy in her sacrifice if her morality has been simplified to be purely good? Polyxena, who shares a tragic destiny like hers, is seeing in this tragic destiny an escape from a destiny that she judges to be even worse… slavery, something that Iphigenia wished for the Trojans, which includes Polyxena. 

They’re obvious parallels, but they’re different. They both have no real choice. If Iphigenia didn’t agree to her own death as a kind of contribution to the Hellenic “cause”, she would be dragged away and sacrificed anyway. If Polyxena didn’t see death as an escape from slavery, it wouldn’t matter because she would still be sacrificed. They cannot have full agency, but they can try to regain some agency — even if it’s little, even if it’s only what the context allows. And they can try to find some comfort in that; Iphigenia may say that it will give her renown as a benefit, and Polyxena may claim that if she were alive, she would suffer more while enslaved. They may try to find some motivation and some action in a scenario that strips them of that agency. They may tell themselves that this choice is the best possible one they can make, they may think that since this is destined to happen, then they can at least make less hopeful resistance bring less vain effort to their mothers (Clytemnestra, Hecuba). If they’re to be sacrificed, let them be remembered with dignity — let the Messenger inform Clytemnestra how brave Iphigenia was, let Talthybius inform Hecuba how Polyxena remained dignified even in the face of death. This was their way of trying to make this narrative, which everyone around them was trying to make not about them, really about them. But Iphigenia's comfort was ensuring the fall of Troy, and Polyxena's comfort was being able to escape a consequence of Troy's fall. Indirectly, Iphigenia's comfort is the reason Polyxena needed comfort in the first place. Iphigenia certainly doesn't have nearly the guilt of characters like Agamemnon, Odysseus, Achilles, etc, but her idealized desires weren’t entirely naive and harmless. Iphigenia is a victim of the war that she herself tried to justify as an honorable cause in the hope of giving meaning to her death, ironically.

But if Polyxena is a parallel to Iphigenia, then the grieving Hecuba is a parallel to the grieving Clytemnestra. And how ironic is this when we remember that Cassandra, Hecuba's daughter, will meet her fatal fate at the hands of Clytemnestra? Hecuba, in reality, demonstrated questionable morality as well by practically using Cassandra's status as a prize for Agamemnon to try to gain his favor in an attempt to prevent Polyxena's sacrifice…but she still loves Cassandra, even though she temporarily tried to use her in that way. And Agamemnon, in sympathizing with Hecuba, I imagine, was seeing himself in her for he too had lost Iphigenia. This didn't cause him to actively prevent the sacrifice, but it did make him empathize — as opposed to Odysseus, who wasn't touched even when Hecuba reminded him of Telemachus. In this sense, Hecuba is similar to both Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in the pain she feels at losing Polyxena because a superior desire required her sacrifice. She is similar to both the people who will take her daughter from her — Agamemnon, when he enslaved Cassandra, and Clytemnestra, when she killed her. The protective and vengeful violence shown by Hecuba towards Polydorus' death again makes her share a similarity with Clytemnestra. Just as Clytemnestra ignored any possible moral accusation that could be made against her (and here I'm including not only the murders, but the treatment of her remaining children) out of her despair and grief, so did Hecuba (both in the way she tried to use Cassandra to gain a favor because of Polyxena and in her violence in revenge for the unfair treatment of Polydorus). Both were the ideal female standard of a controlled, modest, maternal woman, etc until the moment when, despite all their attempts to be what was expected, both their marriage and motherhood (typically feminine spheres, which an ideal woman should care about) were harmed. Clytemnestra even reminds Agamemnon of this in Iphigenia in Aulis: about how much she tried. Again, an ironic air to the whole thing. Sharing similarities with people who are the indirect cause of your pain…

And okay, so Hecuba is similar to both Agamemnon and Clytemnestra and Polyxena is similar to Iphigenia…Odysseus is still Odysseus (he plays the same role in both plays), so who is Artemis? Well, Achilles. He's the one who demands Polyxena's sacrifice just like her demands the sacrifice of Iphigenia. And the thing is…people always say "Achilles wanted Polyxena because he was in love with her", but in Euripides' Hecuba there is no 100% definitive indication that this is the version used. In fact, the justification is that Achilles would feel insulted if he didn't get some of the final "spoils" of the war. So I'm going to assume that in Euripides' Hecuba at least, Achilles wasn't seeing Polyxena as a bride he would obtain by force, but rather as a confirmation of his importance to the army. Even in death, he is assured that he will be remembered and recognized, that his death has indeed earned him the immortal glory he wanted. If both Iphigenia and Achilles desire kleos in Iphigenia in Aulis, they have both already achieved it in Hecuba and Achilles is ensuring that it remains that way in his case (in Iphigenia's case, she has already been sacrificed, so she is already immortalized in memory). In Hecuba, Achilles' desire doesn’t seem to be about Polyxena (about him wanting her as his bride), but it seems to be about him (about him wanting recognition even in death, because then he will feel immortal in the memory). In an interesting way, similar to how, in Iphigenia in Aulis, he initially protected Iphigenia because he saw his name being used without permission as an insult to his image and not because of the innocent maiden (only later it was because of her).

Indeed, the portrayal of Achilles in the play is more like that of an angry divine figure in need of appeasement than that of an common mortal ghost visiting the world of the living (compare the power Achilles seems to has in Hecuba with Clytemnestra in The Libation Bearers, Patroclus in The Iliad, Polydorus in Hecuba). He is depicted as a supernatural force, able to stop the winds and then bring them back when he is pleased, in a way that parallels the actions of Artemis in Iphigenia in Aulis. It has been suggested that Achilles' power can be explained by the detail that the ghost appeared over the tomb, i.e. the play is set within the area of ​​influence of Achilles' tomb. In hero cults, the hero worshipped was believed to have power over a specific location linked to his death. In this case, Polyxena's sacrifice in the Euripidean version wouldn’t be about Achilles' desire for a bride, but rather about Achilles' desire for recognition and — feeling neglected in his own place of cultic identification — reparation, similar to the narratives in which deities who feel neglected send punishments to mortals, which end with the satisfaction of the offended deity (see, for example, Hippolytus, also by Euripides). Achilles isn’t a god, but in Hecuba he is playing the role analogous to the goddess Artemis in Iphigenia in Aulis.

But if there is an irony in how Iphigenia and Polyxena play the same role even though one's misfortune was verbally encouraged by the other, in how Hecuba plays a similar parental role with Agamemnon/Clytemnestra while they are still blamed for her losses as a mother, what is the irony of the Artemis-Achilles parallel? In particular, it’s the characterization of Achilles. In Iphigenia in Aulis, he is young and inexperienced, to the point where he is unsure about interacting alone with Clytemnestra when he first meets her. Not only that, but although he desires kleos, he is willing to risk it when he gives Iphigenia the suggestion that he can continue trying to prevent her sacrifice (remembering that her sacrifice is necessary for them to leave for Troy, and the war against Troy is necessary for Achilles' kleos). Not only is he painfully human, he is also willing to defy a sacrifice demanded by a superior will even if it implies an obstacle to his glory. But Hecuba's Achilles? He doesn't sound human, his trope is much more like the way deities tend to be portrayed as enraged. Achilles is so dehumanized that he doesn't even really have his personality exposed directly, all we know about him is what others say, in contrast to how we can see his personality in his own lines in Iphigenia in Aulis. In one play, even his own companions are willing to try to stone him for being an obstacle and show no fear in opposing him; in the other, although it is still Achilles vs. the army, they’re willing to cooperate and not even what Agamemnon, their leader, thinks will convince them not to comply with Achilles' wishes. And if in Iphigenia in Aulis he was willing to put an obstacle to his glory, in Hecuba he is so in need of glory and honor that even in death his ghost returns to ask for recognition. The Achilles of Iphigenia in Aulis was very mortal, the Achilles of Hecuba is metaphorically immortal in the sense that he has already achieved “immortal glory” and has already been “immortalized” as a hero. He is no longer an opponent, he is the one who demands it. Achilles achieved the glory he wanted and the process of obtaining it distorted him to the point where the character no longer seems the same.

And I personally find these bitter and ironic parallels delightful. Delightful in how, even though the Achaeans won the war, they didn’t emerge unscathed. In how they are each other’s distorted images. In how, while you deal with your own pain, you cause pain in someone else. In how everyone is desperate to live, survive and achieve their goals while robbing others of both their lives and their ability to dream. Given Euripides’ anti-war thinking, he is truly stupendous in his aim to show that you shouldn’t take for granted that you will be the winner, and that even if you are in the winner side of the war, that you will emerge unscathed.

Anyway, this is all interpretive. Using the part I've seen most debated as an example, Achilles is not always considered to be responsible for the winds stopping depending on the commentator. I hope I have made myself clear, just too many thoughts…

[dr-dendritic-trees]