#I don’t actually like Emily Wilson's translation a lot

[jules-ln]

I remember reading Emily Wilson's translation of the iliad and there's this part of her translation that kind of implies that Achilles, Patroclus, Iphis and Diomede (not to confuse with DiomedeS) were all sleeping in the same bed

And you know what that means!?!?!?!? 😏

That Achilles had a really big bed

[patrochillesvibes]

Hiiii

First of all I really LOVE your blogue it is my little refuge, I have a question so I consider my self to be a big fan of Greek mythology and the Ancient Greek world and I’ve been wanting to read the Iliad for years now but I don’t know which translation should I go with and it’s supper overwhelming so could you please recommend one where Patroclus and Achilles are dissected as lovers and not as some Good friends or worst Cousins

Thank YOUUU <3

Hello friend and patrochilles stan!

I’ll be up front and state that I don’t particularly care for The Iliad. I started reading it back in January 2023 and haven’t gotten past Book 10. And I read about 150 books a year, so it’s not for a lack of trying. It’s just not for me 🤷‍♀️

A friend recommended The War Nerd Iliad by John Dolan when they noticed my struggles. Part of me thinks it’s supposed to be satire, but I actually think it does a good job at capturing The Iliad as a form of entertainment material per the time of Homer. There’s no patrochilles 😢 But if you’re like me and you want to better understand the plot, then I recommend this “transladaption.”

I’ve been recommended the Caroline Alexander translation by several folks on here. I’ve seen a few describe it as the most pro-patrochilles yet. It’s the one I’m currently reading (please don’t take my lack of enjoyment as a bad review -that’s just me).

A lot of people have been raving about Emily Wilson’s translation. I’ve skimmed it. The language is very pretty. If you want a translation that’s more “poem” like, then this translation is a solid choice. It’s very pro-patrochilles.

The classic translation, which is unfortunately not pro-patrochilles, is Lattimore. The passages that I’ve skimmed (looking for patrochilles) really pull you into 1250 BCS. It does a good job at embracing elements of drama.  

Not a translation but a masterpiece of an adaptation is The Age of Bronze. Very explicitly pro-patrochilles.

This Reddit Post does a nice analysis of the different translations and what they offer. Highly recommend taking a look.

I have seen a similar ask going around and it has some really excellent patrochilles resources. And some more here. Check those out for sure.

Final note that I just gotta add in cause I’m a bitch like that: Don’t put Homer on a pedestal. I think it’s cool that you’re exploring mythology, but don’t think you gotta suck Homer’s dick. He has a lot of value from the perspective of historians and related fields, but that’s about it. Case in point: No one can decide who he is; No one can decide who wrote the Iliad; There is evidence to suggest that he didn’t actually create the plot of the Iliad, he was just the one who wrote it down and had copies survive; and His work is full of anachronisms. So from a fan perspective (which I think more people need to acknowledge that they're just simple fans and not academics), my takeaway from all this is that he’s just the first to put his headcanons down on paper. And just because he was the first, it doesn’t mean that his headcanons are more legit than yours or mine or Shakespear or Miller. Enjoy Homer in the same way you enjoy random hc posts on Tumblr or fics on AO3. Don’t give him the canon treatment. Respect him, but do it with a heavy dose of salt like at least a teaspoon.

Thank you for the ask!

[measureformeasure]

Hey June! I was wondering, what medias/books would you recommend for a person wanting to get into the ancient greek classics? The Iliad/Odyssey/Aeneid stories fascinate me, but as there are so many versions and translations and retellings, I don't really know where to start. How did you get into them?

hey anon! I feel mildly underqualified to answer this as I actually haven’t read the Iliad or Odyssey or all of the Aeneid but I will do my best (i’m working on it! promise! iliad is up next and i’m gonna read it and i’m gonna go crazyinsane)

firstly you should totally read the original texts. remember that they aren’t The One True Story, they’re just written-down versions of wobbly cultural stories that change from person to person. and you don’t have to read them before reading retellings or adaptation but it’s good to read them fairly close together. just read what you wanna read. the bit of the Aeneid I read was translated by Robert Fagles, and I’ve heard Emily Wilson’s Odyssey is good. my friend Theo @fifthlydoyoudream recommends E. V. Rieu’s Argonautica translation, if you wanna read that. poetry in translation has decent translations of most plays i’ve tried to find, and that’s nice because it’s online and super accessible.

the way I first got into the greek classics was reading Anne Carson’s An Oresteia, which is Agamemnon, Elektra, and Orestes. it’s a really great intro because Anne Carson’s translations are just fantastic & it’s one play from each of the three big greek tragedy-writers & it’s a pretty well-contained story so you don’t need much context - you could read Iphigenia at Aulis first but that’s not really necessary. (confusingly there is also The Oresteia, which is different). if you can find an Anne Carson translation of a play you should totally read that one. that’s my rule of thumb. I always recommend Antigone too - it’s also fairly self-contained and it makes me crazyinsane. Anne Carson has two translations, they’re both good - Antigonick is better if you have a little context beforehand in my opinion. also Oedipus the King/Oedipus Rex is good.

tbh what i recommend is just following characters or stories that you like and seeing where that gets you. like i’m having a pretty intense house of atreus moment atm but i still barely know who penelope is because i haven’t read the odyssey. who is penthesilea? still do not know. but don’t get overwhelmed by the amount of stuff out there!! it can be a little scary but wikipedia is your friend and also you do not have to know everything.

and some adaptations/retellings:

Lavinia by Ursula K. le Guin is an adaptation/retelling of the Aeneid from Lavinia’s point of view and it is very very good.

Luis Alfaro’s Greek Trilogy are play adaptations of Oedipus Rex, Elektra, and Medea set in modern-day LA with a Latino cast and it is so fucking good it makes me want to bite glass and explode. you can find oedipus el rey by googling but the other ones might be a bit more annoying to find

Iphigenia and the Furies (on Taurian Land) by Ho Ka Kei is a good deconstruction of the colonialist nature of Iphigenia among the Taurians, and it is also absurdly hilarious, so I recommend. I read it before I read the play it adapts and I was fine but it is good to have context.

i’m having an iphigenia moment anyway i also recommend Iphigenia at Zero by Lisa Schlesinger if you get into iphigenia’s story.

I’m like 15 pages in to Cassandra by Christa Wolf and I am thoroughly enjoying it so far

Antigone directed by Sophie Deraspe is a great French Canadian adaptation of Antigone in the modern day I really like it

and who would i be if i didn’t recommend max @goose-books‘s godsong, aka the aeneid (among other things) with lesbians

also. note on adaptation - a lot of adaptations i have read flatten the morality of these plays into good and bad. i think that’s dumb. let them be shitty, adaptations!

ok thats all good luck brave soldier o7

[darlingpoppet]

✨ Get to know me ✨

I was tagged by @alibonbonn a while back (thank you so much!) sorry for the late response but I suppose this is a good way to reintroduce myself to my tumblr followers (hey y’all!)

Current Wallpaper: I don’t wanna take a screenshot of it since it’s someone else’s fanart but it’s this Hades Patrochilles piece by Zeyan. (are they on tumblr? Idk lemme know and I’ll reblog it!) my home screen is a much older eruri fanart whose artist I can’t even remember anymore :’) hopefully they’re out there thriving!

Three Ships: Patrochilles, Eruri, ummmm FrodoSam (idk I’ve been emotional about them again recently) also I feel like this shouldn’t be allowed to count since I haven’t played the game but I’ve been mega eyes emoji over FFXVI ever since I heard about Dion & Terence because I’m SO WEAK for any and all king & lionheart ships (these are all king & lionheart ships!!!!)

First ship: OH GOD it was probably 1x2, Heero Yuy x Duo Maxwell from Gundam Wing aka the millennial baby’s first bl amirite folks? Wolfstar was also an early formative ship, from a book series whose name I can’t seem to remember now… hmm weird!

Fave color: mint green! I love wearing it and I love home aesthetics using it as an accent color

Last song: Mr. Kitty - After Dark

Last movie in theatres: ATSV babyyy!! I have half of that soundtrack stuck in my head 24/7 so any of those songs would also easily apply to the previous question

Last show: tv? I don’t know her (I’m pretty sure the last series I actually finished was OFMD but that was over a year ago and I still haven’t finished IWTV orz)

Currently reading: The Priory Of The Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (the real answer is “the Iliad for the 84847384th time”. I also just finished reading Plato’s Symposium)

Current obsession: Everyone who knows me knows this by now but I’ve been deep in a Greek mythology rabbit role for about a year & a half now with no hope of escape. Particularly anything Iliad/Trojan War/Achilles/Patrochilles related. I’m sorry for the person I’m about to become when Dr. Emily Wilson’s Iliad translation is released this September 😔

Unrelated obsession: I love watching ASMR videos, especially ones with massages, hair brushing, or 1st person POV where they do your makeup or give you a spa treatment or whatever lol. Also wood soup asmr! I also recently got into keyboard asmr and bought myself some wireless keyboards for my birthday which make nice thocky/clacky noises 🤤

Currently working on: a lot of fic writing for zines, djs, and ao3, but my main WIP is Where The Dead Forget, a memory loss AU Patrochilles fic set in the Hades game universe, which also has a lot of my own retellings of the Achilles & Patroclus myths woven in. The updates have been slow in the last few months but I’m finally close to publishing a new chapter. We’re still in the early game so come join me! ✨

Tagging: @cosmicvoidance @cottonomz-again @johaerys-writes @lostcauses-noregrets @zorthania @erwinsalive, and anyone else who wants to do it! (sorry if you’ve already been tagged or did this I haven’t been around lol)

[sophia-sol]

Books I read in 2022!

I spent a lot of this year messing with my brain chemicals, in order to find a medication that worked well for me, and what that means is that I spent a lot of this year varyingly exhausted, out of it, too anxious to function, and a bunch of states in between. So I kind of feel like my reading this year was all over the place too, as a result. But I still somehow managed to do a fair amount of reading! Did you know: I like books. I like books a lot.

Books read: 104

Rereads: 20

Books with male authors: 18

Books with female authors: 83

Books with nonbinary authors: 5

Books with authors of colour: 46

5-star books: 18

4-star books: 48

3-star books: 36

2-star books: 2

1-star books: 0

This year and going forward I plan to not think about these numbers in the context of percentage of books read. I have realised that that approach is unhelpful to me, and too often leads to me choosing to not read anything at all if I don't have something appealing on hand that will increase the percentages on the Morally Correct Stats. It's good to read diversely! But it's also good to just....actually read.

Here's the list of all the books I read this year! Please feel free to talk to me about them! I love talking about books!

January

February

*** A Snake Falls to Earth, by Darcie Little Badger

**** Heartstopper volume 3, by Alice Oseman

**** The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System volume 1, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

*** This Poison Heart, by Kalynn Bayron

**** The Flatshare, by Beth O'Leary

*** The Kingdoms, by Natasha Pulley

***** Vespertine, by Margaret Rogerson

*** Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom, by Sangu Mandanna

March

**** Chaos on Catnet, by Naomi Kritzer

**** The Jasmine Throne, by Tasha Suri

**** A Marvellous Light, by Freya Marske

*** Heartstopper volume 4, by Alice Oseman

*** Tidesong, by Wendy Xu

**** Almost American Girl, by Robin Ha - nf

**** The Legend of Auntie Po, by Shing Yin Khor

April

*** A Spindle Splintered, by Alix E Harrow

** Project Hail Mary, by Andy Weir

*** The Complete Debarkle: Saga of a Culture War, by Camestros Felapton

- nf

**** Being Seen: One Deafblind Woman's Fight to End Ableism, by Elsa Sjunneson

- nf

***** The Terracotta Bride, by Zen Cho

*** Victories Greater than Death, by Charlie Jane Anders

***** Elder Race, by Adrian Tchaikovsky

**** The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, volume 2, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

**** Where the Wild Ladies Are, by Aoko Matsuda, translated by Polly Barton

*** Race the Sands, by Sarah Beth Durst

May

*** Dracula, by Bram Stoker

**** Iron Widow, by Xiran Jay Zhao

***** Too Bright to See, by Kyle Lukoff

**** The Past is Red, by Catherynne M Valente

June

***** All the Horses of Iceland, by Sarah Tolmie

***** Favourite Folktales, translated by [redacted]

*** The Hellion's Waltz, by Olivia Waite

*** The Magnolia Sword, by Sherry Thomas

July

***** The Blue Castle, by Lucy Maud Montgomery

***** Siren Queen, by Nghi Vo

*** Swim Team, by Johnnie Christmas

***** Make, Sew and Mend, by Bernadette Banner

- nf

*** The Grief of Stones, by Katherine Addison

*** Swan Lake: Quest for the Kingdoms, by Rey Terciero

***** Spirits Abroad, by Zen Cho

**** Me and White Supremacy, by Layla F Saad - nf

*** Fevered Star, by Rebecca Roanhorse

**** A Mirror Mended, by Alix E Harrow

**** Outcast, by Rosemary Sutcliff

*** Song for a Dark Queen, by Rosemary Sutcliff

**** The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water, by Zen Cho

***** The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, Volume 3 - Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

*** The Last Mapmaker, by Christina Soontornvat

*** 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne

August

*** Fireheart Tiger, by Aliette de Bodard

*** Birds Through an Opera-Glass, by Florence A. Merriam

- nf

***** A Desolation Called Peace, by Arkady Martine

*** Soulstar, by CL Polk

**** The Odyssey, by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

**** Glass Town: The Imaginary World of the Brontës, by Isabel Greenberg

*** Have His Carcase, by Dorothy Sayers

September

**** Moby-Dick; or, the Whale, by Herman Melville

*** Folktales of Japan, edited by Keigo Seki, translated by Robert J Adams

***** The Haunting of Tram Car 015, by P Djèlí Clark

***** The Black God's Drums, by P Djèlí Clark

**** The Bear and the Nightingale, by Katherine Arden

*** Skin of the Sea, by Natasha Bowen

**** When You Trap a Tiger, by Tae Keller

**** Squire, by Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh

*** The Girl in the Tower, by Katherine Arden

***** Kaufman Field Guide to Advanced Birding, by Kenn Kaufman

- nf

*** The Winter of the Witch, by Katherine Arden

**** Gideon the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir

** A Strange and Stubborn Endurance, by Foz Meadows

October

**** Empire of Sand, by Tasha Suri

**** Last Night at the Telegraph Club, by Malinda Lo

**** Realm of Ash, by Tasha Suri

***** Ducks, by Kate Beaton

**** Harrow the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir

**** Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir

**** Radcliffe Hall, by Miyuki Jane Pinckard

*** The Golden Enclaves, by Naomi Novik

*** Sailor's Delight, by Rose Lerner

**** The Wife in the Attic, by Rose Lerner

*** Sisters of the Vast Black, by Lina Rather

*** Passing Strange, by Ellen Klages

**** A Taste of Honey, by Kai Ashante Wilson

November

*** The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, Volume 4, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

**** Into the Riverlands, by Nghi Vo

***** Ocean's Echo, by Everina Maxwell

**** Dracula, by Bram Stoker, edited by Matt Kirkland (Dracula Daily)

*** The Black Tides of Heaven, by Neon Yang

**** Sorcerer of the Wildeeps, by Kai Ashante Wilson

*** Moira's Pen, by Megan Whalen Turner

**** Heaven Official's Blessing, Volume 1, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

**** Heaven Official's Blessing, Volume 2, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

**** Heaven Official's Blessing, Volume 3, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

**** Heaven Official's Blessing, Volume 4, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

December

**** Illuminations, by T Kingfisher

**** Heaven Official's Blessing, Volume 5-8, by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

**** The Ramsay Scallop, by Frances Temple

**** Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke

**** Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night, by Iona Datt Sharma and Katherine Fabian

**** Island of Ghosts, by Gillian Bradshaw

***** Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein

*** Schemes of the Wayfarer, by Drew Sarkis

[thevampiremarie]

I hope this isn’t too much to ask, but for someone new studying Hellenic Polytheism, what 1-3 books would you recommend that you don’t think get recommended much OR that you think are good books?

Hi there! First of all, welcome to the community! Even if you don't end up practicing Hellenic polytheism or you just have an academic interest, welcome :)

-

While I do have some book recommendations, I also have a recommendation for you about how to read. Unfortunately, a lot of (if not most/all) of the easily accessible books written recently about practicing Hellenic Polytheism (the guides to worship or how to books you might find on amazon) have various biases that could make them unreliable sources. Whether that's connections to racism/white supremacy/xenophobia/ultra nationalism/sexism/homophobia/transphobia, outright misinformation/lying, cultural appropriation of other, closed religions, crossover with other polytheistic/pagan paths, crossover with Wicca, etc.

While these books might still have useful and relevant information, if you're going to buy/read them, it's worth researching the book, researching the author, messaging someone in the recon community about it, etc before buying it. You don't want to give someone money and support who doesn't deserve it. And if you end up reading it, read carefully and with a close eye for those aforementioned biases.

As far as things to read go, I recommend the following mixture:

you want to read some really good translations of different epics/myths/hymns.

You want to read a good amount of academic scholarship on different aspects of greek religion, on the history of religion and religious practices, as well as on the culture of Ancient Greece, the history of Ancient Greece itself, and comparative mythology. That last one is really important. The Ancient Greeks were not mythic literalists and neither are we, and it's important to understand all the different things myth is used for and how/why myths are created and passed down, so you can look at our myths and understand the religious/historical/cultural information within them.

You should then support all of these base historical knowledge with some modern books of the category I mentioned earlier: written by practitioners as how to manuals, which might not be the most accurate sources, but after learning from the academic perspectives on ancient greek religion, you can sift out the biases and misinformation easier and just focus on the useful info

If this seems intimidating and like a lot, don't worry, that's because it is. I have been a practicing recon Hellenic Polytheist for over a year, and I spent a few years before practicing slowly working my way towards this reconstructionist religious approach. It will take a lot of time for you to build you own practice and household worship, as well as a lot of reading, patience, and research.

You don't need to know everything all at once and you can take your time, maybe you change your mind and you don't end up wanting to practice, whatever it is, that's fine.

As for actual book recommendations: I recommend acquiring translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, These are fundamentals, I really like/recommend Caroline Alexander's translation of the Iliad and Emily Wilson's translation of the Odyssey. I've read others, they aren't nearly as good.

I also recommend reading Hesiod's Theogony and (very importantly) the Homeric Hymns. If you don't want to spend money/you want to read everything in one place, theoi.com has it all for free.

As far as comparative mythology goes, I urge you to check out Joseph Campbell's work. The Hero's Journey story format you probably learned about in school comes from Joseph Cambell's work. I specifically recommend Joseph Cambell's Power of Myth, which is both a television series and a book.

Modern how to books:

I'm going to provide some links with background on all the different big modern authors/books. Please read these posts before you decide to purchase anything written by them.

Finally, you should look into the background of Wicca and neo-paganism, and the racist/sexist/appropriative/colonial/homophobic/transphobic/WD/anti-semitic roots within Wicca/neo-paganism/the Westen New Age spirituality movement in general. Once you learn the signs, you'll be able to recognize them within content about Hellenic Polytheism.

-

I apologize for how long this post ended up being. I hope it was helpful and not overwhelming. Feel free to message me with any further questions, concerns, etc! My inbox (both ask and DMs) are always open.

[percabeth4life]

Do you have any opinions on the different translations of Greek/Roman literature? Any authors you find better/more convincing, that sort of thing.

Well, in general for Greek vs Roman literature itself, I don’t particularly like Ovid. He’s got value in his time period to be sure, I like how he says FU to the Romans lol, but I don’t like him as a proper source on Greek mythos... mainly because he has a habit of making stories that are in general already trenched in sexism, more sexist (including ones that were actually pretty not-sexist prior to him getting his hands on them).

As for translations... I’m still making my opinions on the different translations. Different ones have different values, and I have like three copies of the Iliad and Odyssey, all by different translators and in different styles. I do highly recommend the translation of the Odyssey by Emily Wilson, I desperately want to get a hard copy of that one myself (got one for Izzy for a present last year). It’s a very good version, a lot more care for things a lot of authors tend to... make nicer sounding (like removing slaves from the words).

So yeah, ask me again next year and I might have more info on translations, right now I’m more focused on content then the individual versions of translations (though I’m slowly looking into that sort of thing as well).

But you should def check out Emily Wilson’s translation of the Odyssey. She’s also translated Seneca’s tragedies so you could check those out too!

[margridarnauds]

I think it’s just awful how so much mythology, folk lore, local local legends etc. Aren’t easily available online. But is their a reason why those with access to these stories aren’t able to put them online themselves?

Mainly, as far as I’m aware (keeping in mind that I’m just one person in the field and I’ve not been here for very long), the reason is copyright.

 That and, to be honest, a little bit of classism (can’t have the rabble accessing our nice, bright, shiny sources!) My field, while we’re gradually accepting that you can be a Celticist coming from a lower class background, still do kind of pin a bit on the idea of the gentleman scholar - A polymath who’s already studied French, German, Latin, and Greek and who can therefore take to Old Irish and Medieval Welsh like a fish to water. For many in the field, there’s the expectation that you already have at the very least an understanding of Gaeilge, or that you already have a strong linguistic background, and that can cause a massive break between the public and the scholars involved. Especially in the instance of editions which, by their nature, are JUST the Irish, with no English translation. Because, hey, it’s just Old Irish, right? There’s a dictionary at the back! 

Both UCC and UCD have, to their credit, done an IMMENSE amount of work in making these resources available to the public. UCC has done wonders with their CELT database and Irish Sagas Online, UCD with their Thesaurus Lingua Hibernicae. They’ve done a truly magnificent thing there, and I wouldn’t have been able to enter the field without the diligence and hard work of everyone involved in both projects. The problem is that many of the sources involved are...well. Old. We’ve learned a lot about the Irish language since a lot of these were done, specifically about Old Irish. A lot of them are in very archaic language, because that was the translating style at the time, and some of them cut out whole portions of text. Because it’s got to be in the public domain to be legal, unless you have an instance where the scholar is able to grant permission for their recent edition/translation to be released, such as in the case of Gray’s Cath Maige Tuired, which was given a special release on CELT. On a folkloric level, Duchas is doing amazing work. 

What you have to keep in mind is that, unlike Classical studies....we’re a BABY as a field. Many texts still haven’t been translated. Many texts still haven’t even been given editions. And a LOT of work goes into making both editions and translations happen and there are...very few of us that can do the work to make it happen. I would estimate that there’s fewer than 100 Celticists worldwide. It might be as many as two hundred but I strongly doubt it. Hence why, in many of the cases, the last translation was made in either the 19th or early 20th century. It’s because, frankly, since then, no one’s had the time or energy to go over it again, and people were trying to do new editions/translations. With stories like the Iliad and the Odyssey, you can VERY easily get ahold of one of those online because, while there are a ton of newer translations that you won’t be able to get ahold of as easily (Emily Wilson’s Odyssey, for example), there are a LOT of older translations that are still very viable, because you’ve had people studying these texts for literal centuries. In our case, we’re lucky to have one older translation. We...we’ve been around for a little while, really getting our first breath of life in the 18th century, but we only really hit our golden age with the Celtic Revival and the establishment of the Republic, and then we kind of fell out of fashion. A lot of the time, when I ask my supervisor “Has anyone done anything on x subject?”, he’ll give me this kind of beleaguered “Well....”, not because Celticists haven’t cared about the material, but because their hands have been full in a hundred places. 

And it’s worse for mythographers, because we are a very tiny section of Celtic Studies. Tiny. You’ll notice that, in my source list, a lot of the names repeat a lot. Why? Well, part of it’s because I personally like their work, but part of it is also that these ARE the big names in the world of the Mythological Cycle. These are the ones who are REALLY focusing and doing a ton of work on it. Other scholars might touch on it, do an article here or there, but very few really commit to it, in the end. In my own program, I’m basically the only one of the MA students with a mythological focus, and even in the department as a whole...I’m basically one of very few. Ulster Cycle and Fenian Cycle get more, but the Mythological Cycle...I don’t want to say there’s a STIGMA against it, but there’s........a different feeling, being in it. A lot of mythological material is still being transcribed and translated, a lot of it is still being talked about for the first time, and we’re pl

In my time, I’ve done two editions/translations of a text, the latter of which was almost completely incomprehensible at points, the vellum that the ink was written on being of a very poor quality; the bottom third of so of the folio was totally faded. Both of those times, it fell to me to transcribe the material, reading it letter by letter, trying to figure out what various abbreviations meant (Irish scribes used a very specialized form of shorthand that, while perfectly comprehensible to them, isn’t always so to us), and then having to translate it, keeping in mind that in some cases, the Irish was a mixture of later Irish and Old Irish. Translating Old Irish is a bit like trying to wrestle with a snake at times - It’s unpredictable, it’s wriggly, and it feels, at times, like just when you think you’re holding onto the head, it shifts and you realize you’re holding onto the tail. It isn’t something that you can really do just because you feel in the mood to do it one day and then publish on Tumblr; it’s a VERY intense process that involves a lot of time, effort, and tears. (Seriously. A lot of tears.) 

And...no one gets rich out of Celtic studies. Every one of us who’s either entering into the field or is actually in the field has accepted that it’s a labor of love; I’m statistically unlikely to get a job IN the field and I’ve accepted it. It could very well end up that I get my MA, maybe even my PhD and then...that’s it, done. Now, this isn’t meant to be a pity party, but it does explain why a lot of scholar’s can’t JUST give out pdfs of their books - They do need to get paid, at least a little, though if I’m not mistaken, once they submit their articles to a journal....that’s it. They’ve gotten as much money as they’re going to get. So that could be a factor in why articles tend to get handed out much easier. Books also....keep in mind, we don’t digitize a LOT of our stuff. It was part of why Covid kicked Celtic Studies’ ass. Suddenly, you had a bunch of scholars around the world used to having access to a library who...no longer had access to a library. Or the books in them. I was personally amazed that Tom O’Donnell’s recent book on Fosterage and Mark Williams’ Ireland’s Immortals were actually released in Ebook format, because that’s still a little on the unusual side. We’re slowly coming to terms with the 21st century, but it’s difficult. 

Anyway, that’s the answer: Most of it isn’t INTENTIONALLY trying to keep the public out, and for many of the scholars, I know very well that they really want the public to have access to that stuff, but their hands are tied by copyright law + needing to make some amount of money in the very unfair world of academia. I hope that some part of this makes sense. We do want to do more work with the public, it’s just that...well. Copyright law and academia. They’re bastards. 

[joecial-distancing]

2021 Roundup!

Another month down, another chance to take stock and look back, and even better, it’s the end of the year! which meannnnns...... list season babey!

Before media lists, though, I want to double back on life highlights, how I did with 2021 goals, etc. there were a lot of them!

Highlights - I got into fermenting, which has been fun & delicious - Moved in with my girlfriend, which has been incredible - Started running again - Managed to do some traveling: went to Puerto Rico, and the American Southwest - Went to something like 5 weddings in three months - Finally went to get screened for ADHD, got the diagnosis, and started medication (substantial quality-of-life improvement!)

2021 Resolutions in review:

Get moving on jobsearch and figure out why it’s so hard for me to do This one’s finally got some momentum in the last stretch here, but it took way longer than I’d wanted. Originally was hoping to have this wrapped up over the summer.

Recommit to health: stretch more, and most importantly fix sleep schedule One-upped this by regularly going running again, though started slacking on stretching on non-running days. Committed extremely well to normalizing my sleep, though (helps to live with an early-to-bed/early-to-rise partner).

Reestablish routine of reading did pretty well with regular bedtime reading for a while, but started flagging pretty hard halfway through the year. Also I think I kind of burned myself out on too much Pynchon. I also gave up on a lot of books this year, which is probably healthy in the long run, but I still don’t like doing it. Hoping to recommit this one for next year

Write more: Ehhh, did monthly review posts here, wrote some stuff about Dune... not super happy with that output, but it’s more than nothing.

Take more initiative: specifically regarding friends and hobbies Did pretty bad with this one, I feel like if anything I’ve gotten even more reclusive.

Will cover 2022 resolutions in a different post once the year actually hits, I think

2021 media consumption tracking [toot toot]:

Books!

Real big-picture societal construction fascination happening this year, apparently. And/or a lot of Thomas Pynchon. Love his stuff, but will probably be good to take a break for a while

Midwest Futures: Really nice read, particularly myself being a child of the Midwest. Historical perspective as a place plotted, seized, and settled with the explicit goal of generating money, and the weirdness induced by regional mythmaking that papers over this history with an obsession with being The Average.

The Odyssey (Emily Wilson translation): Posted about this one a bit, but my big takeaways were 1.) this translation had me understanding meter and why it’s interesting in a much more visceral way than I’d really been exposed to before; and 2.) I keep trying to remember this story as seafaring adventures, when really the text is mostly about a guy and his son taking their shit back from people who you as the audience cannot wait to see get slaughtered.

Mason & Dixon: I finished this thinking it wasn’t one of my preferred Pynchons, but it keeps sneakily coming back to mind as I read other stuff involving 18th-century America (Midwest Futures, and particularly The Dawn of Everything). It’s also an interesting book to read as someone whose career has relied a lot on satellite imagery and land surveying — it has a lot to say on the way these means of interacting with the world comprise systems of control and submission. The survey line whose construction the majority of the book depicts comes to represent in no uncertain terms a sort of original sin for the land that will become the United States.

Kapital p1: Stalled out on this after the first section, unfortunately

The Shining: It was good to read an early King from before he’d really begun to solidify his preferred building blocks

Inherent Vice: Read this after watching the movie, which was maybe somewhat helpful for keeping anchored. The rare Pynchon where the writing itself wasn’t actively challenging. In a lot of ways it feels to me like a second pass on a lot of the stuff that he’d covered in Vineland, but delivered a lot more tightly and clean.

The Confidence-Man: Also tapped out on this one partway through. Felt like I’d gotten the gist of it, and wanted to move onto other stuff. Might revisit later.

Dune! (reread): For whatever reason, I’d had it in my head that Herbert’s weird proclivities didn’t start to poke through until later books, but even with this first one there’s a lot of various messiness that I think I hadn’t really picked up on back when I first read it. Like I was too busy trying to keep all the setting in my head to notice where he’s going with certain themes, and how entire long plot threads get no payoff whatsoever. Still an A+ read.

Against the Day: probably my second-favorite Pynchon, takes a real long walk through the transition of the 19th century to the 20th. In addition to stuff I’d written about this earlier, it puts a light onto aspects of the buildup to WWI that I otherwise probably wouldn’t have passively encountered, e.g. the relations of the Ottoman Empire against Austria-Hungary, the prevalence of anarchist movements, and the scale of the russian empire’s ethnic heterogeneity (if not equity).

Molloy: I tried so hard with this one, but had to tap out. Eyes sliding right off the page

The Master and Margarita: Russian Lit continuing to have a good hit rate for me. A very weird, funny, and often sweet read. High-tier devil depiction, though going with a Faust-inspired devil’s usually a winner. I really felt as the thing was winding down that it turned into a real case of a story made by a writer for fuckin writers, y’know? Which still works extremely well given the censorship jokes and the actual hellishness of this book’s publication history.

Mumbo Jumbo: I had a really bad sense the whole way through of which parts were meant to be satirical, and which were dead-serious but dressed as satirical (by which I mostly mean the knights templar stuff). The parable of Atonism toward the end was outstanding.

Bleeding Edge: Maybe I was burned out on Pynchon, maybe Pynchon was burned out on Pynchon, who can say really. Definitely a sense that I as a reader of Pynchon was being deliberately fucked with for being exactly that, which, fair play if so.

The Dawn of Everything: Book in progress!

Movies

Animal House: not all that good. Sorry to a generation that apparently grew up with this. Like seriously, there’s so many people I’ve encountered whose sense of humor is entirely beholden to like a particular era of SNL, it’s so fuckin annoying

Blues Brothers: Belushi twofer I guess. I liked the musician cameos and surprise carrie fisher appearance quite a bit.

Easy A: Think I prefer 10 Things I Hate About You for highschool lit adapted as teen movie, but pretty charming, still.

Mank: Not the kind of thing I really want to be going to David Fincher for.

Magnolia: an all-time favorite movie now. Absolutely wonderful & touching, delivers so hard it gets away with stuff I’d never tolerate from other movies.

Inherent Vice: Really need to rewatch this after having read the book

Britney doc: if there’s two things I hate a fuckin lot, it’s paparazzi and people playing dumb, so hoo boy,

Jaws: I’d never seen this before! Excellent reminder of how good Spielberg’s been capable of being

Lethal Weapon/Lethal Weapon 2: man, remember mel gibson being in things?

Dr. Strangelove (rewatch): stone-cold classic

Xfiles movie: The one where they go to antarctica. thoroughly mediocre.

Smokin’ Aces: Absolutely perfect idea for a movie, so it’s a shame the movie itself doesn’t really live up to the concept. Extremely funny use of Ben Affleck, though.

Godfathers Rewatch (I and II): They’re quite good. Wish my italian were better.

Cliffhanger: Jesus Christ this one surprised me. Genuinely scary setpieces, good fights, outstanding John Lithgow performance. Opening scene actually freaked me out a lot.

Promising Young Woman: one of the most muddled endings to a thing I’ve seen in a while.

Die Hard: Hadn’t seen this one before either! extremely well-deserved reputation, RIP Alan Rickman.

Aliens: I need to get my hands on Alien 3 at some point to test my hot take that it’s better than this one. Quotable, though!

Mr. Vampire: this was a riot start to finish

8 1/2: Quintessential movie about a Type of Guy. Also a filmmaker’s-ass movie about filmmaking. Another movie that makes me wish my italian was better, Only character talking slow enough that I could pick up on was explicitly not from italy.

Gamer: Clocks in at a kind of The Mummy level, where it doesn’t actually have to be good to be compelling.

Midsommar: haha oh my god that boyfriend’s such a piece of shit! The descent kept going to the point that it stopped being annoying and started being hilarious

Fight Club: K, box checked, worth the watch for sure.

Bo Burnham’s Insides: went in kind of expecting to not like it, ended up being really won over.

50 Shades of Grey: hahaaaa hey guys he’s 50 shades of fucked up!!

Black Widow: poor use of Rachel Weisz, but Florence Pugh completely upstaged everyone in this.

Project marvel rewatch: doing real deep dive on all feature films under the banner, chronological order, revisiting fond nostalgia and gritting our teeth through some fucking dreck. Not gonna list all of them, just certain highlights, things that really made me feel:

Howard the Duck: all-time contender among wretched movies, incredible piece of shit. Horrible viewing experience but fond memories.

Bana Hulk and Norton Hulk: Both of these were actually pretty good! Bana one in particular, Nick Nolte's performance is completely unhinged, it’s great.

Daredevil: Evanescence needle drop and Colin Farrell’s performance redeem so much about this one.

Even as a Nic Cage vehicle, Ghost Rider doesn’t hold up

xmen 3 and fantastic 4 are remembered as these irredeemably terrible movies, but really they’re just mediocre on the scale of things

The romance writing in the Raimi Spidermans is completely insane, but the directing and performances are still wildly better than basically all the rest of these.

Disney takes over, removes sexuality, removes music (and wants backpats when it occasionally puts it back in), adds military bullshit, goes all-in on really cheap-looking cg effects

Hot Rod: watched this then immediately could call to mind everyone I knew in high school who had clearly seen this

Rocky Horror Picture Show: I wish I liked this more, and the first third or so is genuinely really fun

Hocus Pocus: lotta fun!

Practical Magic: unfairly good cast

Casper: Man, remember movie sets?

Some netflix christmas movie with brooke shields and the guy from princess bride: It was fine. They kind of decided to underplay the requisite fight-that-threatens-to-tear-them-apart, which was nice.

White Christmas: One time my sister and I were invited to join my brother and his then-girlfriend’s family to a screening of this, but, like, a rocky horror style screening where the audience is supposed to be shouting and saying things to the screen. So right off the bat this is the lamest idea for an event, but then my brother had to bail on this for some reason, so it’s just my sister and I at this bad show with Not Our family. Nothing about this situation made any fucking sense.

TV

X-files: Watched every episode of this wretched show, including the revival seasons. I had a brief window of goodwill circa s2-3 that is pretty much entirely evaporated by now. Can’t believe people put up with this show.

Documental: some of the funniest stuff I’ve seen in a really long time. There’s a weird element, where, like I really hate laugh tracks on sitcoms, but something that I think is key to making this show work is that Matsumoto is also being recorded concurrent to the action, just completely laughing his head off at the stuff that’s going on.

Taskmaster: a delight

The Expanse: The main actor's a weak link imo, but solid sci-fi show.

I Think You Should Leave: Tried watching s1 with a friend once and couldn’t really connect with this. But watching it alone, though...

Only Murders in the Building: I like the people in this, show’s mediocre though

What We Do in the Shadows (s3): still staying funny for me

Over the Garden Wall: never saw this before, even though I’m sure that this has to have a pretty vocal fanbase.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency: can definitely feel the douglas adams in this, s2 was kind of ruined a bit by a lot of really obnoxious performances.

Games

fuck, man, I dunno... played a lot of Into the Breach and Hades in the first part of the year, and a lot of Slay the Spire in the second part, tried replaying Diablos 2 and 3, neither of which stuck for very long

Hollow Knight: this was really fun for a while, but I ended up getting way too bogged down toward the end, wound up not finishing.

Sekiro: Made for a very good summer project. This kind of ruined the Souls games for me, though, I can’t go back to dealing with a stamina bar now.

Deltarune ch2, Undertale revisit: The games aren’t long enough to really get properly lost in them, but deltarune is extremely good, and undertale holds up, even if it can’t recapture the first playthrough.

Music?

good fuckin question.

[classicslesbianopinions]

Hey, so I'm reading the Odyssey for the first time (the translation by Emily Wilson) and I'm suprised by how much I'm actually liking it. I've been in an ancient greek mood lately (just finished reading Circe by M. Miller) and I was wondering if there's something you'd recommend for someone that's new to reading these sort of classic? I know I gotta read the Illyad too but what other good ones are there? (Sorry if this is a bother, I'm just curious bout your opinion, you seek to know stuff)

not a bother! definitely the iliad, personally i like the odyssey better but everyone has their own personal choice. if you like the iliad and the odyssey you’ll probably also like the aeneid, which is roman! i don’t know specific translations for either of those though, i only know who i’m annoyed at (i’m annoyed at lattimore and fagles). so sorry about that but i’m SURE followers can recommend.

i also think ovid’s metamorphoses is a good one, it’s a bunch of different myths so you can pick and choose.

my own expertise is largely in greek theater so of course i HAVE to recommend antigone. oedipus rex is also a classic and very good. other plays i like are aeschylus’s oresteia (which is technically three plays) and euripides’ bacchae. i also liked alcestis a lot

and if you want just... a groundwork for greek myth i recommend hesiod’s theogony. hesiod has some weird ideas (mostly in works and days, which i don’t remember as well) but theogony outlines, like, the godly family trees and stuff and it’s lots of fun. it’s like... the origins of a lot of the stories in d’aulaire’s book of myths or whatever else you read as a kid

but i’m just an undergrad right now and i’m sure we have followers more qualified to recommend things so! followers, what did i miss? check the notes for whatever they say

[thegrapeandthefig]

Hi! I was wondering do you have any recomended books or sources for reading mythology. Like in the case of Hades and Persephone's there are lots of "new" versions people try to pass as "canon" or "true version". How can I find a good resource and avoid misinformation. Sorry if this sounds like a dumb question I'm really new and still trying to find reliable resources to research from.

I’m honestly not the best person to ask mythology questions to, but my advice would be to avoid reading retellings until you’re already familiar with the source material and use the more recent translations of said material as much as possible. 

For Homer, the two most recent translations were by Peter Green’s Iliad and Emily Wilson’s Odyssey in 2018 and 2017 respectively. There’s a lot of online debate regarding translations in general, some people prefering faithfulness to the Greek text, while others prefer translations more focused on storytelling. In the end, only you can judge of what you want out of it. Worth noting that there has been other recent translations, so feel free to give it a quick search to see what fits your fancy. Just don’t grab a translation that’s like 200 years old, please. 

Other important sources will include the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod’s Theogony. There are also many scientific commentaries on the Homeric Hymns that you can read for a more complete understanding of the text (Andrew Faulkner’s “The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite Introduction, Text, and Commentary”, Stuart Douglas Olson’s “The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite & Related Texts Text, Translation & Commentary” and Athanassios Vergados’ “The Homeric Hymn to Hermes Introduction, Text and Commentary” come to mind). Again, the more recent the better, but those texts have been less translated than the Iliad and Odyssey. 

To be fair, my advice to avoid misinformation is to avoid pagan and fiction authors and stick to translations of source material and scientific literature. As a rule of thumb, you want something that has footnotes or notes at the end of the book and a solid bibliography. 

Also, if you’re not sure about a book, look for peer reviews. Not Goodreads or Amazon, actual reviews from other experts on the topic. 

One last tip: take your time. You won’t learn everything you need to know in a day.

[recurring-polynya]

Writing/Art Update 4/30/2021

So, I have, in fact, been writing, it’s just been really slow going. It’s been a little in love all week-- I did, in fact, finish the chapter I wanted to last week, skipped the next one for reasons, and have made significant progress on the one after that, but it’s just been really hard. I may try to finish the entire Act before I post it, I haven’t decided yet. There’s a fair amount of misunderstandings and mistaken assumptions and I want to make sure everything hangs together in case I have to go back and change anything.

I’m not sure why writing is hard these days. It’s possible I have written Too Much Fanfic and I feel like I am doing the same things over and over. It’s also definitely a factor that I used to think about my fanfic a lot when I wasn’t actually writing, and it’s really hard to do that anymore. I don’t really enjoy being in my own head these days, and I’d rather just stare off into space or play phone games, since every time I try to do a thing, my children materialize from nowhere in order to interrupt me. :/ Anyway, please don’t anyone tell me to be kind to myself, I have been kind to myself for the last year and I have produced nothing and I am furious at myself, that is what comes of being kind to yourself.

I did finish my People Skills drawing course, that’s positive! I’m working on a little character design project that hopefully I’ll finish up this weekend. I have a 2nd one after that, and another stupid comic that I want to do before I forget about it. Then it will be back to all the plant and flower lessons that I missed in April. 

My brain actually is not working very well these days-- I find myself doing a lot of weird stuff like typing homophones for things or other incredibly stupid mistakes. In an attempt to keep my brain from melting, I decided to read The Odyssey (Emily Wilson translation). I’m halfway through the introduction (which is a dense 80 pages long), and it’s pretty interesting so far. We’ll see what comes out of this... the last time I read a book, I ended up with a meandering fanfic that I can’t manage to finish. Sigh.

[sophia-sol]

The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson

I've read the Odyssey once before, over a decade ago, in the Fagles translation. And I really enjoyed it! Then when I heard about the Wilson translation, and the kinds of things she was doing, I was very curious and interested to see how different it would be.

Turns out the two translations have VERY different feels. The Fagles is far wordier and more consciously poetic sounding to the English ear, the Wilson is more plainspoken and direct. I don't know what the experience is like of reading it in Homeric Greek so I don't know which better captures the feel of the original, and trying to google for information on the homeric style gets me a lot of not-very-trustworthy sources saying very different things. But I do appreciate that the Wilson starts with a note on translation choices, so you understand what she's trying to do and her thoughts about her approach as compared to other ways it has been done. The Fagles says nothing about its translation. And because of Wilson's explanation I knew what to look for and appreciate in her version!

I had a very different experience reading the two translations as well, but that could just as easily be the changes in me in the decade between so it's not exactly a rigorous comparison, lol. The first time I read the Odyssey I was newly graduated from university, had a recent concussion, and was on an extremely long flight across half the globe; this time I'm living a settled life in my thirties. Also when I first read it I honestly had very little idea what to expect, because the things I thought I knew about it from popular culture don't actually closely reflect the actual experience of reading the work itself, so I found it constantly surprising.

So the first time I read it, in the Fagles, I engaged with it mostly just as fun story to feel fannish about. And I found it lots of fun! This time, with the Wilson, I read it more as a piece of insight into the culture and values of a very different time and place; plenty interesting, but a bit less fun. Is that me, is that the translation, is that both? Who knows.

So I guess I don't have a lot useful to say about comparative translations here, unfortunately! At any rate, the Odyssey is definitely a poem worth reading, and I'm glad I came back to it, and I'm glad I got some of Wilson's perspective on it too.

[countryroads]

heyyyyy @factorykingpin thanks for the tag!! i’ve never done this before so thanks for the tag!!!

Movies: warning i don’t watch a lot of tv/movies sooooooooo and also idk if this is stuff that came out this year or just favorites but 🤷🏻‍♀️

pride and prejudice 2005 babey!! i always watch this movie and i’m planning on watching it tonight

barbies princess and the pauper for my zr:tm friends ❤️

loving, vincent

okay genuinely can’t think of any others rip

i watched the star wars movies? idk ❤️

Tv Shows:

avatar the last airbender

killing eve

i used to watch jane the virgin but i don’t think i watched it at all this year

okay i really don’t watch tv lmaoooooo that’s all i can think of

Songs:

okay i’m going to do two lists because i listen to music a lot so all time top 5 songs:

1. first day of my life- bright eyes

2. dear diane - diners

3. real slow- CBMC

4. wasteland, baby! - hozier

5. tango dancer - ghost quartet

top five songs i discovered this year!

1. freight train- elizabeth cotten

2. aerosol ball- the felice brothers (thanks charlie 😘)

3. you make me feel like dancing - leo sayer

4. pleaser- wallows

5. lust for life- girls

Books: i don’t read a ton like i used to but i actually picked up books a few times this year and most of them were comfort books but! anyways

1. the hunger games series. me and my bestie emily reread these together and analyzed them and wowza they are so much better than i remembered and just. great read. there’s so much more to understand when you aren’t 13 lmao

2. le petit prince- i actually read this for my french class but it was honestly a great book with lots of really meaningful quotes to me and will most likely read this again

3. ella enchanted. this is one of my earliest hyperfixations and i reread it all the time and it’s super short but still one of my favs

4. the odyssey by emily wilson was a great read and i’ve really enjoyed seeing the differences in her translation compared to others

5. i started reading inkheart but haven’t finished yet and this was another childhood fav of mine but is still p good so far

Good things that happened:

i had my last ct scan come back post chemotherapy/radiation and i have been cancer free for 18 months which means the chances of a relapse are much much lower than before!! this was a great relief after the past few years ahahahahahhahah

i started running and exercising more and while i’ve taken a bit of a break it was nice to see that it was possible after chemotherapy bc my lungs were all out of whack anyways i ran my first ever mile without walking !!!

i finished my first semester of college and even though i hated online i still am happy with my grades!! definitely could have gone worse

while a lot of things were cancelled for me, because they were cancelled i was able to meet a whole bunch of people i wouldn’t have met otherwise! i’ve ended up very close with of these people and i’m very glad i met them AND i’ve also reconnected with old mutuals who i wouldn’t have otherwise sooooo ❤️❤️❤️

i was able to get better at crocheting and spinning and was able to sell my handmade items this year which is a process i’ve loved and would love to expand on in the future (also new sweater pictures i’ve made coming soon :-))

also crush anon you’ve been a highlight 🥰

anyways it’s been a strange strange year but it’s also had good parts because of the bad so anyways yes i’m rambling

I tag @doebt , @kaoticfive (or anyone from zr:tm) , @toughshera , @mothmansleftasscheek (peak url) and anyone else who wants to!! tag me if you do and also no obligation to the ppl i tagged i prommy i won’t be offended if you don’t

love y’all xoxoxo

[ganymedecatamitus]

hey, so i read pjo as a kid and that started me om being interested in studying mythology outside of those books, do you have any reading recommedations that aren’t written in like.. elaborate academia speak or if its something translated, isn’t written all... old-timey? if that makes sense? i find those things super difficult to read, like i tried to read the illiad and it sounds like gibberish to me, i can’t understand anything :( sorry if this makes absolutely no sense, and thank you sm

Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton Happily! Note though that my area of focus is actually Sumerian/Akkadian mythology and that my actual credentials are in linguistics, so hopefully someone will add more resources in the notes. These are just ones I like from a linguistic perspective! 

First and foremost being angry at translators is my specialty, so here’s some good translations (and a caveat that the penguin translations will never be easy to read). Getting into this you may have noticed that the translator matters a lot. I’ll do a better breakdown of why exactly eventually (because I’ve spent this entire year so far digging a hole into Gilgamesh and yelling about it to anyone who’ll listen to me) but the gist is that the time period and bias they come from influences how they write things. Some translations suck because they’re inaccurate, and the rhythm/line number translators choose is very important to some people. Me included.: 

Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey (her forward is also worth reading, she really throws down)

Nicholas Rudal’s translations of greek plays use modern language and I appreciated them a lot as a student with ADHD

If you wanna give the Iliad another try, I’ve also used Caroline Alexander’s translation in my work. It’s very good! Richmond Lattimore’s translation is also supposed to be good but I can’t testify personally. 

Richmond Lattimore also did a translation of Theogony, another important poem, although I’d shop around a bit more before settling on this one. 

My personal copy of The Metamorphosis is translated by David R. Slavitt. 

So on to collections I like. With the caviet that while the old joke of “the Romans said our OC do not steal” is a cool simple way to explain it to younger kids, that’s not exactly what happened. The Romans had a cool way of getting the locals on their side called “This is your god? No, No, this is OUR god, you just call it that. It’s actually named THIS” and that worked a couple dozen times and they conquered their way through the Mediterranean, which is why Aphrodite became Venus Genetrix (being equated with a war goddess and a mother of rome type persona) ect ect. Keeping that on mind will help when you come across irritated people. I don’t know shit else about Rome tho. 

FIRST OF ALL if you want some of that good ass gay shit, here’s a collection of myths breaking down masculine love in ancient Greece 

I’m contractually obligated to mention  Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton even though it was published in 1942. It’s just a good introduction, although she doesn’t linger on stories for that long. 

Also this is gonna get me slapped, but if you want a simple example of how myths change over time and why there’s six different versions of everything, just watch this video which breaks down the evolution of Dionysus. Yes it’s osp. The name of the game is accessibility! 

The Library of Greek Mythology by Apollodorus (otherwise known as the Bibliotheca) is the only mostly complete contemporary attempt we have of people trying to codify all these oral histories into one place. You’ll wanna shop around for a translation, but Robin Hard uses modern language and you might enjoy that version just fine. 

And my last bit, Theoi.com, which is basically wikipedia just for world mythologies. 

This is just an intro! The best myths and discourses aren’t usually in the big collections, so I encourage you to chase after your areas of interest instead of trying to find the one big comprehensive Book, because that Book with the capital B doesn’t exist. Patheons this old are huge, expansive, and contradictory, so it’s natural to feel overwhelmed. Start small! Hyperfixate! Have fun!! Please read some historical context. 

[kaesaaurelia]

books and reading in 2021

Overall I’d like to read at least 65 books for 2021 and I’d like for most of those to be new-to-me and things I either already own or have listed as to-read on Goodreads.

So far I have read 11/65 books and 4 fanworks.

Themed reading challenge checklists and brief book reviews are under the cut.  I may or may not finish any of these challenges; again, my goal is to cut down my to-be-read list and unread books I own, and themes and deadlines help me pick a book rather than hemming and hawing.

Book reviews answer the questions “Did I like it? Was it good? Would I recommend it?” (please note these are very different questions) and how many stars I rated it.

I may put fanfiction, webfiction, and other things that are very much not traditional books down on here as well, depending on how booklike I’ve decided they are.

The FFA reading challenge, 2021 (2/12 books)

JANUARY - The Pandemic Year - a medical thriller, or a book about medicine The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum Did I like it? Yeah! Was it good? I think so.  Sometimes the prose meandered in such a way that I felt the author was kind of saying dun dun dun! under her breath at me, and I was like “idk, is that significant?” but usually it was good. Would I recommend it? Do you have a strong stomach? Then sure. 4 stars

FEBRUARY - Macavity/Ratigan - a genre you wouldn't normally read Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone, book 1 in the Jane Doe series Did I like it?  Yes!  Very much!  The power fantasy of being able to take vengeance against people who hurts your loved ones, without feeling bad about it, was really appealing to me, a person who feels guilt over a frankly ridiculous number of things.  It was also genuinely funny. Was it good?  I thought so.  The narrator had a really strong voice that struck the right balance between creepy cold indifference and endearing little moments of self-discovery. Would I recommend it? Yes, but with the caveat that there’s some pretty serious emotional abuse of the protagonist’s false persona (which she encourages and privately gloats about), and she also gets close to committing serious violence, including fantasizing at length about it. 5 stars

MARCH – 100+ Comments of Terror - a book set in the arctic, or a book about an expedition In the Land of White Death: An Epic Story of Survival in the Siberian Arctic by Valerian Albanov (ordered)

APRIL - Sexy John Oliver Rat – a book about animals, or a book with a character called Oliver or Olivia A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling (hardcover)

MAY - A Feud in Wolf-Kink Erotica - a book involving wolves, the legal system, or ripped from the headlines Song of the Summer King by Jess Owen (ebook)

JUNE - Showerhead Wank - a comedy of manners, an etiquette manual, or a book where someone wanks or has sex

JULY – My Shithead Is What You Are! - a book with profanity in it, or a book about themes of censorship

AUGUST - Yep, Still Indoors - a book involving travel, or being stuck in one place

SEPTEMBER - Socktopus, Maybe? - a book where someone has a secret identity, or a book about aquatic animals

OCTOBER - Politics is Sequestered – a book involving politics or politicians Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago by Mike Royko (owned in DRM’d ebook)

NOVEMBER - It's Canon in Spanish - read a book originally written in Spanish, or set in Latin America

DECEMBER - Apple Is a One Syllable Word - a book about language/linguistics/etc., or a book with a two syllable title. 

Around the Year in 52 Books (8/52 books)

A book related to “In the Beginning...”: (Using the subprompt a book set in the ancient world) The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson Did I like it? Yes; it was definitely a less comfortable read than prior translations I have read, but a more interesting one, I think.  A lot of details leapt out at me that I had either forgotten or that had been overlooked in the 3ish literature classes I have read the Odyssey for. Was it good? Yes! Would I recommend it? Probably, with the caveat that if you are just in it for a cool mythology story you would probably prefer an adaptation rather than a translation. 5 stars

A book by an author whose name doesn't contain the letters A, T or Y The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis Did I like it?  I really read this for the worldbuilding of Hell, so I liked that; to some extent I did also like some of the musings on how a lot of human foibles that people like to think of as virtues can actually be kind of shitty.  On the other hand, Lewis and I disagree about a lot of things -- mostly that whole Christianity thing.  So I liked it with caveats. Was it good? It was okay!  Again, I was not really there for the Christianity stuff.  I am never there for the Christianity stuff.  I am either precisely the wrong audience for all of C.S. Lewis’ stuff, or, if you look at it a certain way, precisely the right audience, but even if you look at it that way, he is never going to convince me; I wrote furious postcanon fanfiction about the dwarfs when I reread the Narnia books as a teenager and realized they were meant to represent people like me. Would I recommend it?  Probably not?  Unless you frequently write demons or other evil creatures trying to figure out how humans work, which I guess I am. 4 stars but only because that reveal at the end is great

A book related to the lyrics for the song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music (The cover depicts a rose with raindrops or dewdrops on it.) Ensnared by Rita Stradling Did I like it? In a sense.  In a sense, I enjoyed this book.  It was a Beauty and the Beast retelling, and I like Beauty and the Beast.  There were robots, and I like robots.  And it certainly gave me something fun to talk about.  However, it also inspired me to try and figure out when and why I acquired this book, and while I still don’t know why I bought it, I was relieved to find that I only paid 99 cents for it.  For a more thorough description of the plot, please see my Goodreads review.  It was a weird book to start with, and then it really, really didn’t age well. Was it good?  IT SURE WASN’T. Would I recommend it?  No.  However, if you decide to read it I’d love to hear what you think.  Please.  Please talk to me about this book. 2 stars

A book with a monochromatic cover The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson Did I like it?  Yes, very much!  Also it accidentally became fic research.  I genuinely was just thinking “where do I slip Leonard into this narrative so he can try and fail to sabotage the Ferris Wheel?” and then I began to think about how much Leonard would admire and envy H. H. Holmes’ ladykilling ways.  But in general it was a really good read and had a lot of... Chicagoness, which I of course am fond of. Was it good? I thought so!  Obviously a lot of the narratives of Holmes’ murders were mostly the author’s speculation, but there were a lot of great research tidbits in there, and the picture the author paints of the World’s Fair was vivid and wonderful. Would I recommend it?  Yes, with the warning that this is true crime and there is vivid narration of several murders, including the murders of several children. 5 stars

A book by an author on USA Today's list of 100 Black Novelists You Should Read Wild Seed by Octavia Butler, book 1 of the Patternmaster series Did I like it?  Yes, but it was intense.  It takes a lot of skill to keep me reading and invested through so many horrors; the protagonist’s children and loved ones die on-page multiple times, in horrible accidents or senselessly murdered, and it hurts every time, but I kept reading.  Admittedly I am (predictably) extremely here for immortal enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies angst, so that was probably part of it. Was it good?  Yes!  I am kind of sad that I’m not just moving on to the next in the series (there are 3 more books), but also, god, I’m not sure I could handle it. Would I recommend it?  Yes, definitely, with the caveat that it is very dark and very sad. 5 stars

A love story Deal with the Devil by Kit Rocha, book 1 of the Mercenary Librarians series Did I like it?  It was good!  I gather both of the authors who are Kit Rocha were (are still?) in fandom, and it shows in the right ways; it doesn’t shy away from depicting sex pretty explicitly but there’s a lot of emotion in it, and the main couple is a m/f couple without the book being unpleasantly heteronormative.  Like, yeah, it’s about a big butch macho dude who’s broken inside and a woman who’s very caring, but the big butch macho dude is genuinely kind and not like, violent for the hell of it or overprotectively jealous, and the woman doesn’t drop everything to Heal His Pain.  (Also I think most of the characters, including the romantic leads, are established to have had same-gender lovers at one point or another without that being considered unusual or wrong in the setting, so that’s nice.)  It’s also a cheerful and optimistic post-apocalyptic book about two found families coming together to make the world a better place, despite the very grim backstories of pretty much everyone in the story, which is really nice. Was it good?  It was okay.  It was good popcorny reading; it’s not winning any literature prizes, but it sets out to be fun and readable and exciting, and it is all of those things.  Also, as noted above, the prose has a lot of the strengths of fanfic (not being afraid to mix genres, not being afraid of writing sex earnestly and emotionally but also explicitly, strong emotional focus) without the much-derided stereotypical weaknesses of fanfic. Would I recommend it?  Probably?  This isn’t a must-read; it’s happy to be idfic so if it sounds like it’d scratch your id I would recommend it, but it might not be Your Thing and that’s okay too. 4 stars

A book that fits a prompt suggestion that didn't make the final list (Using the subprompt a book related to a local industry or small business) The Gangs of Chicago: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld by Herbert Asbury Did I like it? NO.  NO I DID NOT.  It made me genuinely angry.  It was a useful read for fic research and unfortunately I’ve got it in my little fic-writing reference material corner in my office but I DID NOT LIKE THIS BOOK IT WAS VERY BAD.  Many questionable or outright incorrect assertions and implications, and extremely racist and sexist.  For details, see my review on Goodreads. Was it good? It was actively bad. Would I recommend it? Not unless you are interested in it historiographically, or on the off chance that you are trying to find some fiddly details about a particular bit of Chicago crime history, but also have no responsibility to make sure those fiddly details are correct when you use them in the project. 1 star

A book set in a state, province, or country you have never visited The Last Duel: A True Story of Crime, Scandal, and Trial by Combat in Medieval France by Eric Jager Did I like it?  It was okay.  It was definitely interesting but not amazingly life-changing. Was it good?  It was fine!  I did think the underlying rape case was handled surprisingly sensitively given that this was a male author writing about 20 years ago about a medieval rape accusation and trial, but there is a chapter that is basically just the victim’s account of her rape, and it’s very brutal. Would I recommend it?  Do you want to understand more about trial by combat in the Middle Ages, and/or learn about how medieval people treated rape victims?  You should definitely read this book.  But if that doesn’t particularly interest you, probably not. 3 stars

A book you associate with a specific season or time of year Summers at Castle Auburn (ebook borrowed from CPL)

A book with a female villain or criminal Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul by Karen Abbott (owned in paperback)

A book to celebrate The Grand Egyptian Museum The Oasis by Pauline Gedge (ebook)

A book eligible for the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation The Memory Police by Yōko Ogawa (on hold at CPL; est. 3 week wait)

A book written by an author of one of your best reads of 2020 The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow (on hold at CPL; est. 10 week wait???)

A book set in a made-up place Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey (paperback)

A book that features siblings as the main characters Sisters One, Two, Three by Nancy Star (ebook)

A book with a building in the title

A book with a Muslim character or author

3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 1

3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 2

3 books related to "Past, Present, Future" - Book 3

A book whose title and author both contain the letter "u"

A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads

A cross genre novel

A book about racism or race relations

A book set on an island

A short book (<210 pages) by a new-to-you author

A book with a character who can be found in a deck of cards

A book connected to ice

A book that you consider comfort reading

A long book

A book by an author whose career spanned more than 21 years

A book whose cover shows more than 2 people

A collection of short stories, essays, or poetry

A book with a travel theme

A book set in a country on or below the Tropic of Cancer

A book with six or more words in the title

A book from the Are You Well Read in World Literature list

A book related to a word given by a random word generator

A book involving an immigrant

A book with flowers or greenery on the cover

A book by a new-to-you BIPOC author

A mystery or thriller

A book with elements of magic

A book whose title contains a negative

A book related to a codeword from the NATO Phonetic Alphabet

A winner or nominee from the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards

A non-fiction book other than biography, autobiography or memoir

A book that might cause someone to react “You read what?!?” Missing 411: Eastern United States by David Paulides (terrible pdf copy I’m not paying $100 for a book about extradimensional bigfoot)

A book with an ensemble cast

A book published in 2021

A book whose title refers to person(s) without giving their name

A book related to "the end"

There’s No Business Like Snow Business February Reading Challenge (8/8)

Snow is precipitation in the form of small white ice crystals formed directly from the water vapor of the air at a temperature of less than 0°C (32°F).

Read a book that has snow on the cover or snow in the title. Killing Dragons: The Conquest of the Alps by Fergus Fleming Did I like it? It was okay.  There was more about the personalities involved in early mountaineering than I did about actual mountain-climbing, which was fine, but didn’t get really exciting until those personalities got really dysfunctional. Was it good?  Again, it was okay.  The prose wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t gripping, and there was some odd (lack of) translation on occasion.  The research seemed thorough and solid, though. Would I recommend it?  Not really, unless you are specifically looking to research the Alps or early European mountain-climbing enthusiasts for a writing project or something, in which case, of course. 3 stars

Precipitation: Read a book that has any weather related term in the title. Trail of Lightning, book 1 of The Sixth World, by Rebecca Roanhorse Did I like it?  Yes!  This took me back to my first forays into urban fantasy as a preteen/young teen.  I loved the Diana Tregarde books and also Harry Turtledove’s The Case of the Toxic Spell Dump, and whenever I want urban fantasy that’s kind of the pattern I’m looking for?  An unfriendly world full of myths that are real and living and breathing and otherworldly but also they are probably trying to bum a cigarette off you.  I haven’t reread my favorite childhood urban fantasy because I think it probably won’t hold up, and later urban fantasy has mostly been not quite what I wanted, but this book was like being that kid all over again.  I’m not super familiar with Dine folklore/mythology so it was neat to learn a little bit about that, too, although obviously to learn those stories maybe don’t go to an urban fantasy novel. Was it good?  It was pretty good!  The prose wasn’t like, stylistically exciting, but it conveyed the plot well, and I did like the narrative voice, and the characterization was good, I thought. Would I recommend it?  Absolutely.  Content warning for violence (as per urban fantasy) and a child dies violently early on in the book, but if you were the kind of kid I was but you’re not really into paranormal romance or Harry Dresden, give it a try. 4 stars

Small: Read a book that has less than 200 pages. A Butt in the Mist: Stirred to the Core of My Bodice by the Duchess Triceratops of Helena by Chuck Tingle Did I like it?  I mostly did, but it wasn’t super exciting.  I liked the free book afterwards better.  It was funny, but Chuck’s been funnier. Was it good? This 4,000 word book was written with all the quality and attention to detail that I have come to expect from beloved author Chuck Tingle. Would I recommend it? Not really?  It was funny, but I think I like his more metafictional stuff better, and I think he gets a lot weirder with his m/m stuff; if I’m reading Chuck Tingle, I want it to be weird. 3 stars

Snow is formed of crystals and is a slang term for diamonds. Read a book in which a gem or other mineral can be found in the plot, title, or cover art. Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip Did I like it?  Mostly!  I love the lush visuals of McKillip’s prose; they more than live up to the also gorgeous covers.  Dreamy fairytale stuff but with solid emotions and a good sense of place. Was it good?  I think so, although the dreamlike quality of the prose does mean you’re liable to miss something if your attention drifts. Would I recommend it?  Yes, I think so. 5 stars

Snow is a dessert made of stiffly beaten whites of eggs, sugar, and fruit pulp. Read a book with a dessert on the cover, or read a book in which a dessert is made. Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke, book 1 of the Hannah Swensen series Did I like it? I enjoyed parts of it, but I thought it really suffered at the beginning, when our introduction to the detective was “not like other girls, not interested in DATING and MEN” and our introduction to her older sister is “she was a DITZY CHEERLEADER and now she’s married with a kid but she’s a HORRIBLE CAREER HARPY who WORKS ALL DAY and puts her child in DAYCARE and CAN’T COOK” and that was all just very tiresome.  The sister does turn out to have redeeming qualities and useful interests, but the way these two and their mother interact is all like, if you were asking yourself whether there’s such a thing as toxic femininity and what that would look like, it’s these women.  Aside from that, it was fine; it was a cozy mystery novel about a bakery specializing in cookies.  I will say, I did appreciate the Midwesternness of the small town Midwest setting. Was it good?  Not really.  I did kind of have to handwave a lot to let the detective get away with all the HIPAA violations and crime scene disturbing that she does, but it is a cozy mystery. Would I recommend it? Probably not; I’ve heard this series gets better so if you’re interested in the series and/or like the idea of cookie-themed cozies, maybe start with a different book, unless you’re a completist like I am. 3 stars

Snow is slang for cocaine. Read a book about drugs or drug addiction. The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren Did I like it?  It was not a fun read, by any means, but Algren’s prose is fantastic and it was such a novelty to see such a familiar accent represented by eye dialect.  (Which I know has fallen out of fashion and is considered the mark of a bad writer, but I really don’t mind it if it’s done well.)  It’s one of those books where nobody has a fair shake and everybody is doomed, but it doesn’t feel gratuitous.   All the characters are horrible to each other, but in fairness they are also horrible to themselves; it’s all they’ve ever known. Was it good?  Yes.  It was extremely good and I’m considering buying a physical copy so I can write things in the margins.  This is actually really weird for me to do; in high school we occasionally had to turn our books in so our teacher could be sure we were writing in them Correctly, and I found it a little painful, but I did want to do it with this book. Would I recommend it?  Yes, if you’re up for a really depressing story about heroin addiction and poverty. 5 stars

White is the color of snow. Read a book that contains white in the cover. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin Did I like it? I definitely did.  I haven’t read much Le Guin yet for some reason, and while this did initially start off feeling exactly like just another ‘70s SF story where in the future we’ve solved all of psychology and it’s super mechanistic, it was really fascinating and surprisingly, unpleasantly prescient. Was it good?  I thought so!  There were some parts of it that were pretty awkward about race, from a 2021 perspective, but it does actually deal with race in a way that made me think “yes, that’s exactly what would happen as a consequence of this plot, and it would be horrible, oh no, oh shit,” and it is horrible. Would I recommend it?  I am not sure I would!  I would recommend it in like five years, assuming those five years are not much like the last five years.  Hoping and praying that those five years are not much like the last five, really.  The premise of the book -- which I haven’t explained, I realize -- is that in this near-future environmental dystopia, the main character can change things in real life by dreaming about them, and he would like to not do that, only he is put under the care of a psychiatric researcher who tries to play God.  So this poor man literally wakes up every day to a brand new dystopia and it felt... familiar. 4 stars

To snow someone is to deceive, persuade, or charm glibly. Read a book about a con artist, or read a book about deception. Empire of Deception: The Incredible Story of a Master Swindler Who Seduced a City and Captivated the Nation by Dean Jobb Did I like it?  I did.  I have joked that my own personal reading challenge this year is to fill up the Chicago shelf/tag on my Goodreads account, and this book was recommended to me in that spirit, and I always like hearing about a. Chicago; b. the 1920s; and c. con men conning people. Was it good?  The prose was fine; it was fun but I think the thing I appreciated most was all the punny newspaper headlines. Would I recommend it?  If you are someone who perks up at the sound of at least 2 out of 3 of the themes of “Chicago,” “1920s,” and “con men,” yes. 4 stars

2021 Q1 challenge: Changes (3/20)

Read a book that features:

The word "change" (Changes, Changing, or other variations) in its title. Weeds: How Vagabond Plants Gatecrashed Civilisation and Changed the Way We Think About Nature by Richard Mabey Did I like it?  It was all right.  I like hearing about plant history, and the chapter on plants unexpectedly surviving/thriving on battlefields and bombing sites was particularly interesting to me. Was it good?  It was okay, but kind of poorly-organized; there were chapter themes but it felt awfully stream-of-consciousness sometimes. Would I recommend it?  Maybe not unless you’re really into botany and Western anthropology.  (As in, the study of Western cultures; this book does not do much with other cultures.) 3 stars

The theme of money or money on its cover (loose change). Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik Did I like it?  I really, really liked it to the point that I feel kind of silly about it, gotta say.  I’m really, really hit or miss on the author’s work (both fanfic and profic) but the themes of this were perfect for me; Russian fairytales, a cynical but earnest sort of Judaism, creepy fairy abductions, interesting worldbuilding, and women coming together to help each other.  (Also some interesting enemies-to-lovers stuff that wasn’t really developed on the “lovers” side, which I would have dug.  Like its precursor, this book has a lot of f/f friends-to-lovers subtext and hostile canon het.) Was it good?  I don’t know?  I liked it enough that I genuinely don’t know if it was well-written. Would I recommend it?  I would, but I’m not sure you should trust me on this???  Again, this book really, really hit me in the id. 5 stars

An adaptation of its original format (book-to-manga, translation, etc.) Murder on the Rockport Limited! by Clint McElroy et al Did I like it?  It was okay, but not nearly as good as the original podcast’s murder train arc.  The art was good and all, but, eh. Was it good?  It was fine.  I’m not sure how into the DM/character conversations I am, and I found myself having to pause and reimagine the dialogue in the various McElroys’ voices, which wasn’t good because it meant I wasn’t automatically reading them in those voices in my head, which is a major litmus test I use when I’m deciding whether I want to keep reading a fanfic. Would I recommend it?  Definitely not as a standalone thing. 3 stars

The author's initials found in the word "change" Helen of Sparta by Amalia Carosella (in progress)

Separate book sections or part of a series of three or more books (make change) The Seduction of the Crimson Rose by Lauren Willig (in progress)

An author or character writing under a pseudonym The Maker’s Mask by Ankaret Wells (in progress)

A topic or character about which you feel differently now than in the past. La Belle Sauvage by Phillip Pullman

Changing one's mind about a life decision. A Tapestry of Magics by Brian Daley

Switching careers/jobs. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine  Addison

Relocating to a different city, state/province, or country. Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout by Philip Connors

Cultivating new daily habits. How to Be Fine by Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer

A character who shifts shapes or identities. The Lie: A Memoir of Two Marriages, Catfishing & Coming Out by William Dameron

Life changes due to age Two Old Women: An Alaskan Legend of Betrayal, Courage, and Survival by Velma Wallis

A medical transformation Specials by Westerfield, Scott

A life-changing experience. Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright

A changing household The Girl from the Other Side: Siúil, A Rún, Volume 1 by Nagabe

An action or phenomenon that transforms society or the world. Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel

Replacing one thing with another (change out) In Vino Duplicitas: The Rise and Fall of a Wine Forger Extraordinaire by Peter Hellman & Charles Constant

Technological innovation Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet by Andrew Blum

A game-changer. The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher  Clark

Fanfic Reading Challenge recs (1)

I have a private checklist with the fanfic reading challenge data, but will not be sharing all of the fics; fanfiction is generally an amateur endeavor, and many people do not enjoy receiving (or stumbling across) criticism of their work.  Bad reviews are normal and accepted as part of commercial publishing, and professional authors (hopefully!) get paid for their work, so I’m comfortable criticizing published novels.  I would prefer not to publicly criticize someone’s writing when they are just writing for the joy of it, especially since some of the tasks require me to read first-time authors’ fics, fics with relatively low kudos counts, fics for ships I don’t like, etc.  So I’m only putting the recs here.

Romancing the Tome by Anti_kate Good Omens; Aziraphale/Crowley; ~40k words; rated Explicit Romance novelist Aziraphale Wilder is pulled from his carefully ordered life when his sister is kidnapped and held to ransom. With the help of antiquities forger Anthony J Crowley, he braves the wilds of Scotland to rescue her and keep a priceless book from falling into the hands of dangerous book thieves. Did I like it?  Yes!  It was cheesy and cute and basically what I want out of this kind of romcom AU fic.  I’m not normally into human AUs and this one wasn’t like, super deep or anything, but it was very fun. Was it good? I thought so!  The dialogue was great, I enjoyed the characterization, the sex was good.  I do think the Crowley in this fic is pretty self-loathing in a way that I don’t see canon Crowley being at all, but I have a weakness for that and I also think self-loathing works for a human version of Crowley.  One thing it doesn’t shy away from is Crowley doing genuinely awful stuff (instead of being a misunderstood woobie) and yet the resolution is sweet and lovely anyway. Would I rec it? Yes!  Go read this fic.  It’s fast-paced but long enough to be worth settling in to read, it’s funny, and it’s sweet. 5 stars

In Holy Matrimony by Myracuulous Good Omens; Aziraphale/Crowley; ~6.7k words; rated General From the private journal of Alisha Jones, wedding planner, concerning the nuptials of Anthony J Crowley and Aziraphale and the planning process thereof, containing an account of chosen decor, guest list construction, and the holy war against the Antichrist that nearly ruined six months of professional organization and a very nice dinner. Did I like it?  Yes!  It was extremely cute, and I always really like outsider POV.  I did appreciate the fact that poor Alisha definitely knew something was definitely weird, but kept telling herself not to question it because a gorgeous wedding with an unlimited budget and zero issues with scheduling, catering, guest limits, etc. is a great problem to have. Was it good?  It was pretty good!  The climax and wrap-up felt a bit rushed, mostly due to the limits of outsider POV, but I did enjoy Aziraphale unexpectedly embracing his inner groomzilla while also being unfailingly sweet about it. Would I rec it?  Yup, especially if you want wedding comedy/fluff and outsider POV

Wrong Turn by anticyclone Good Omens; Aziraphale/Crowley; ~38k words; rated Teen And Up Lots and lots of somethings are wrong. First, Crowley's nearly hit by a car. Then he almost brains himself tripping over new and excessive piles of books at the bookshop. To add insult to near-injury, Aziraphale starts throwing knives at him. Safe to say his day could be going better.

The thing that's the most wrong of all is the universe, of course. In this one there was never an Arrangement. Aziraphale and Anthony (they can't both be 'Crowley') aren't friends and they certainly never agreed to prep for Armageddon. Unfortunately, the end of the world is two days away.

So that's something Crowley really has to fix before they can figure out how to get him home. Did I like it?  Oh yes.  I had read bits of this on ffa previously, and also anticyclone is a good writer (and a friend) so like, I was expecting it to be good; I was not disappointed. Was it good?  Yes!  I was particularly impressed at how much alternate backstory is set up in little hints here and there, and then explained more thoroughly in ways that take the AU Aziraphale and Crowley by surprise when they do finally get to talking. Would I rec it?  Yes!  Especially if you like a nice dose of enemies-to-lovers along with your friends-to-lovers, and also the awkwardness of meeting your alternate universe self.

Finished in January, not for reading challenges (3 books):

The Way of Kings, book 1 of The Stormlight Archive, by Brandon Sanderson Did I like it? It was fine. Was it good? I think so.  I am maybe not the best audience for epic fantasy at this point, partly because I’ve read a lot of it and partly because I habitually read 3-7 books at once at any given time. Would I recommend it? Maybe, but I feel like most of the people who would enjoy it have probably heard of it already. 3 stars

Get a Wiggle On, a Good Omens fanzine Did I like it? Yup! Was it good? Mostly, although as usual with zines and anthologies, quality varies piece by piece.   Of the fics I particularly liked “A Head Above Water,” “The Grapes of Mild Irritation,” and “Concerning the Great Serpent Glykon and the Angel Clothed With the Sun,” all of which are now available on AO3. Would I recommend it? If you like snakey Crowley, yes. 4 stars

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne Did I like it? Yes, very much!  A very silly thing I particularly liked (which unfortunately you cannot really replicate) is that the edition I have is an illustrated hardcover book from 1926 which I picked up cheap at a used bookstore, knowing I would like it because Jules Verne.  I didn’t think much about that specific date when I bought it, but I am now writing a fic set in 1926, with a character who has a habit of reading adventure novels and who I have specifically mentioned enjoyed Jules Verne in his childhood, so when I discovered the date the coincidence made me very happy.  The book itself smells very nice, it’s nice to hold, and as I was reading it I kept thinking about what Danny would think of the book, and whether he would try reading it aloud to Crowley, and wondering if the book smelled as nice in 1926 as it does now.  Maybe I will have Aziraphale give this book to him as a very small thank-you for all he has done to keep Crowley alive and well. Was it good? For the most part.  Jules Verne is prone to wandering off on tangents where he shows you his research, but I’m sympathetic to that, and there’s some really cool and atmospheric scenes in this book.  My favorite character was definitely Captain Nemo, who we don’t really learn much about.  Could have done without Conseil, the bland servant character who could be a naturalist in his own right, if he had any opinions of his own, or the period racism/imperialism, which unfortunately is so built into this kind of adventure novel.  But the environmentalism was a nice surprise, and you can definitely read some critiques of certain aspects of (Western?) culture at the time into Captain Nemo’s behavior; I have not yet read The Mysterious Island where Captain Nemo also appears, but I do get the impression a lot of people read him as being disgusted with imperialism. Would I recommend it?  Probably!  With the caveats above.  It was a good adventure story with some awesome visuals, and I kept thinking about what a pretty movie it would make with modern SFX, and how sad I would be that they would inevitably not spend just 3 solid hours on cool fish and interiors of the Nautilus and scenes of the lost city of Atlantis and Captain Nemo being very mysterious and dreamy scary, because they’d probably shoehorn an awkward romance into it. 4 stars

Finished in February, not for reading challenges (2 books):

The Deception of the Emerald Ring by Lauren Willig, book 3 of the Pink Carnation series Did I like it? I did.  It was a silly Regency romance novel with espionage elements, it is the third of a series I have enjoyed, and it contained an accidental/forced marriage to preserve a lady’s honor despite neither party to the marriage particularly liking or wanting to have anything to do with each other, and some misunderstandings about that.  Also spies. Was it good?  Not really.  It was fun and I liked the characters, but I don’t think the writing was of particularly high quality.  The handling of certain elements of English imperialism was not great, and bothered me enough to note it in my review on Goodreads. Would I recommend it? I’d recommend the series if it sounds like something you’d like; I might not recommend this specific book. 3 stars

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley Did I like it?  No.  It was very dark, and I did not enjoy most of the book.  A lot of it was because it was very gritty and grim, and because I frequently don’t enjoy military fiction; a lot of it was because many of the dystopian aspects of our present reality that came to a head in 2020 were magnified in the book.  Part of it was also that the protagonist’s entire reality and memory was being denied for much of the book, and I think it reminded me of being gaslit.  (This is not a criticism of the book, or some kind of weird accusation that the book or its author was somehow abusing me, I just have this personal history.  In fact, it turns out the main character is being gaslit to some extent, and the author writes it very well.)  It was a minor relief when she finally decided the stuff she was going through was real, and a huge relief when she was able to talk to someone who believed her. Was it good?  Yes, I think so. Would I recommend it?  Not right now, but I think this would be a good book to read at a time when the world feels more stable.  I don’t say this because I want you to wait until everything’s fine to read it; I say this because it feels like a good anti-complacency read. 4 stars (3 for not being an enjoyable read, 5 for the actual plot; it averages out.)

In progress, not for reading challenges (1 book):

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by 墨香铜臭