#A modern retelling of a classic

[shesamreads]

Is Rupert a vampire that turns into a mosquito? Is someone going to die in the bread oven?

I lost my dad to cancer. I know that everyone grieves differently, and losing a spouse is different that losing a parent, but Rupert is being absolutely awful. Even using that as an "explanation, not an excuse" is bullshit.

Also, this is how I'm picturing Rupert

(Colin Robinson from What We Do in the Shadows) (I'm woefully behind on this show)

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OH DAMN. GET FUCKED, RUPERT

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Ok, but you haven't bought the house and you haven't paid for the house and you have even PUT AN OFFER IN ON THE HOUSE. How do you figure it's yours, Rupert?

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oh shit

OH SHIT

did Michael kill Rupert? Is he going to cook Rupert in the bread oven? Will anyone miss him, since he works for himself and he's a widower and he "wants to leave the UK"?

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Ok, Michael. Make your lies believable.

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This novella has a lot of Lamb to the Slaughter vibes.

[finelythreadedsky]

your tags. yeah. it's not that they are progressive or feminist or even written by women -- but they are doing something with women that is complex and worth paying attention to, and in many cases they are the reason we have a version of a particular woman's story at all

yeah that's one of the marketing conceits of the myth retelling novel industrial complex that bothers me, it's the framing as if no one has ever paid attention to these female characters who are buried unnoticed in the myths when often the most complete or the most authoritative version of the character's story that survives from antiquity is in tragedy, a genre that is notoriously interested in bringing female characters out of the house and putting them on stage in active roles, and in using those female characters to explore issues of gender and the place of women in contemporary society.

like to a certain degree it makes sense for the homeric women who don't appear in (extant) tragedy, like briseis or the hanged women in odyssey 22, but we have stories where clytemnestra and deianira and medea insist on make narrative space for themselves to tell their own stories from their own perspectives, refusing to be silent about the violence their society inflicts upon women and the lasting damage it does. they're called aeschylus' agamemnon and sophocles' trachiniae and euripides' medea. and maybe you want to retell those stories for modern audiences, changing things or emphasizing different aspects of them! and that's great! but framing it as if they've been ignored and their stories are as-yet-untold is just not accurate, and it's a cheap way to paint your work as innovative and subversive.

[hacked-wtsdz]

Not a fan of modern greek myths retellings largely because they redesign the characters and the relationships from a modernised viewpoint and the entire story loses its original connection to reality.

Myths were a way of thinking. They were a way of explaining the world that surrounded people, not just stories like the ones we create for entertainment.

Persephone being kidnapped by Hades relates to the real world in the way that it’s a story about death. Death takes a daughter away from her mother’s arms, a mother’s inconsolable grief barrens the earth. Of course when it becomes a story about eloping with a secret hot lover in rebellion against traditional gender roles, the whole connection to the original concept of death gets lost.

Feminist retellings sadly often suck because instead of seeing greek goddesses and gods as manifestations of forces of nature, life, death, love, etc, they turn them human. The world is cast aside for the creation of a character. To me personally the original concept was much more interesting and reflected a lot more about humanity than, well, humanising gods.

Not a new take but I feel like it bears repeating that modern retellings do not dive deep enough into the original material on a scholarly level and do not treat the original material like something other than an equal literary form, when in fact it isn’t that.

[swordsandflowercrowns]

there are two wolves inside of me. one is yelling that authors have a duty to accurately depict classical cultures in their retellings and not impose modern expectations onto the stories. the other is yelling for them to completely twist the focus and narratives and morals to better convey the current cultural zeitgeist because reception of myths is not only fascinating but actively creating material for me to study. both wolves are historians.

[cannibalistic-vampirefag]

romeo and juliet modern retelling where instead of poison juliet jumps off a cliff and then romeo follows her but she actually had a hidden parachute so there's the split second where they're looking at each other and then she opens the parachute while he keeps falling. and post.

[wuntrum]

bro last night was a sims 2 machinima

[diamondnokouzai]

i love when the olympians get turned into a modern succession-esque soap opera. mostly because imagine if you had a sister who literally came directly out of your fathers skull. and then imagine if you were the son who got thrown off the mountain for being ugly

[pink-inthenights-blog]

I could only wish that modern retellings of greek or classic literature of feminism doesn't center around the stereotypical girlboss mentality, being quirky for the sake of being different, and always complaining rather than embracing.

I understand the message, really I do but I'm so sick of reading stories with female protags either passing up a perfectly good opportunity for them just for some guy or acting as if a parrot, a puppet of the author to voice their frustration rather than building the character.

[tooturtly]

Everyday I live with the knowledge of my greatest sin: unintentionally getting one of the Classics professors to read Lore Olympus.

[shesamreads]

For a 4 hour book, this took me a long time to finish. Which is unfortunate, because these books, and this universe, and Seanan's voice is lovely. Not knocking the book, just my brain and my time management, and my life.

This was a bittersweet story, since we know what happens in Jack and Jill's future. It was an interesting look into what made them them. Coming home, such as it was, was cruel, but lets you see how they got set on their courses.

"This, you see, is the true danger of children. They are ambushes, each and every one of them."

It's true, though. I love my ambush, but dammit. I wasn't ready.

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"It can be easy, when looking at children from the outside, to believe that they are things. Dolls designed and programed by their parents to behave in one manner, following one set of rules.

It can be easy, when standing on the lofty shores of adulthood, not to remember that every adult was once a child, with ideas and ambitions of their own.

It can be easy, in the end, to forget that children are people, and that people will do what people will do, the consequences be damned."

A lot of people need to read this, and then reread this.

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"He couldn't imagine a circumstance under which he would touch her ever again."

I want to hit Chester so fucking bad. I had an easy birth with a caring husband (who almost passed out), I can't imagine this life, this relationship.

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"...before they got to be too much trouble, and she [Gemma Lou] forgot how to love them. That was what their mother said, anyway."

Jesus Christ. These people don't deserve kids. No wonder they find a door.

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It's interesting that Jill is the one that fell on the steps down to their door, when, in the rhyme, Jack is the one that fall first.

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Where the Wild Things Are reference! (my favorite book.)

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"The moon is the friendliest of the celestial bodies, after all. Glowing warm and white and welcoming, like a friend who wants only to know that all of us are safe in our narrow worlds, our narrow yards, our narrow, well considered lives.

The moon worries. We may not know how we know that, but we know it all the same. The moon watches, and the moon worries, and the moon will always love us, no matter what."

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So, I know the story of these men, to an extent.

But I have to say, with the descriptions provided in this book, I'm with Jack.

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Jack is gay! I thought for sure Jack was going to fall in love with the Doctor, but she's in love with Alexis! I have chills!

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After a brief break, and a library renewal, we're back at it!

And Jill is still The Worst.

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Goddammit, Jill. Leave your sister alone. Leave your sister's people alone.

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"We will leave them there. There are some things that do not need to be seen to be understood."

Damn, Seanan. You have a way with words.

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"If our sympathy is more for the first of them, well, we are only human. We can only look on the scene with human eyes, and judge in our own ways."

Harsh, but true. We probably do feel more sympathy for Jack. But Jill needs sympathy, or pity, too. She was let down by every adult, just like Jack. She was let down by a monster that pretended to love her, and then thrown aside at an inconvenience.

And, at the end of the first book, Jack and Jill go back to their home. And Jill will be resurrected, and will still have lost everything there, too. She can't become a vampire after she's been brought back.

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What a way to start a book. What a way to bring life into the world! To have kids for the clout, because it will make you look better to coworkers and peers. No wonder jack and Jil turned out like they did.

Also, this is read by the author, and I like her voice. (the author who is also Mira Grant! No wonder I like these books, I like her other books, too.)

[samglyph]

Hadestown… good

[eoneill18]

I want a modern retelling of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, where Dr Jekyll is just a chill dude, with some issues. And Mr Hyde is a snobby, Victorian era Gentleman, who struggles to keep his disgust in check.

basically,

Jekyll: Sup

Hyde: Unhand me you peasant!

[aidenwaites]

The tragedy of watching two very good video essays only to discover its the only two video essays the creator has made so far

[varlysca]

Ovid after writing multiple monologues to women in his Metamorphoses and writing the entirety of Heroides, lettres from heroines to their heroes, including Penelope, Briseis, Phaedra, Oenone, Dido, Hermione, Dianeira, Ariadne and writing (the unfortunately unpreserved) Medea:

"Nobody gave a voice to these Greek Mythology female characters."

Euripides after writing Andromache, Andromeda, Antigone, Danaë, Electra, Hecuba, Helen, Iphigenia in Aulis, Iphigenia in Tauris, Medea, Merope, Wise Melanippe, Captive Melanippe, Peliades, The Phoenician Women, The Trojan Women etc.

[thebaronmunchausen]

will file under "beacon of hope for Philippine cinema"

[thoodleoo]

>looking for a new retelling of ancient myth

>ask the reviewers if the book is classical reception or modern tropification

>they don't understand

>i pull out a diagram explaining the difference between what engages with ancient sources and depictions of the story and what relies on reduction of the story to its most marketable aspects

>they laugh and say "it's a good retelling"

>read the book

>its tropification