#Norma Jeane Baker of Troy

[do-you-know-this-play]

[isayhonk]

“norma jeane baker of troy” - anne carson

[bookquotesforthesoul]

Desire is about vanishing. You dream of a bowl of cherries and next day receive a letter written in red juice.

Anne Carson, Norma Jeane Baker of Troy

[malrie]

“A cloud? he’ll say. We went to Troy to get a cloud? We lived all those years knee-deep in death for the sake of a cloud?”

Norma Jeane Baker of Troy is my second attempt at Anne Carson, the first being The Autobiography of Red, which I had read years ago at a younger age. At the time, contextually, much of the callbacks and themes went over my head. It’s nice to better be involved with what topics are being deconstructed in a short vignette like this after all. Carson’s prose is always melancholy and beautiful and sharp and she uses Greek mythology and pop culture history as a venue for fascinating remarks on forced-feminine veneers.

There is an alternative mythology documented by a few Ancient Greek authors where Helen of Troy was not in Troy during the entirety of the Trojan war, but in fact in Egypt, and in her place was a cloud in her exact form called an eidolon. Carson floats this line of myth with the idea of Marilyn Monroe, the Hollywood starlet, as Norma Jeane Baker’s own “cloud.” A decoy, but not a deceit of any kind. “Substitute the playful and musical Russian expression maskirovka: masking.” This is what Carson is exploring in this piece, the idea of masks and clouds as protection, particularly as marks of surviving womanhood.

If you pick a flower, if you snatch a hand-bag, if you possess a woman, if you plunder a storehouse, ravage a countryside or occupy a city, you are a taker. You are taking. In ancient Greek you use the verb ápπáζειν, which comes over into Latin as rapio, rapere, raptus sum and gives us English rapture and rape—words stained with the very early blood of girls, with the very late blood of cities, with the hysteria of the end of the world. Sometimes I think language should cover its own eyes when it speaks.

[mournfulroses]

Anne Carson, from "Norma Jean Baker of Troy," originally published in 2019

[thegaysciences]

Ben Whishaw on heels for Norma Jean Baker of Troy

[likeniobe]

somehow I was compartmentalizing the fact that the greek shipping magnate maria callas had an affair with was in fact aristotle onassis of jackie kennedy onassis. how are there not 3-5 stage plays or possibly operas by gay men about these two women being in the same room

[apollon-emos]

...Euripides makes a hero out of Helen, who was brutalized by merely staring at war too long.

―Anne Carson, Norma Jean Baker of Troy

[asteria-of-the-stars]

Feminine Rage

‘As women raged, old men fumbled and cried: “we’re sorry, we thought you didn’t care, oh.” - Florence + the Machine, 100 Years

Florence Welch // Sansa Stark, Game of Thrones // Anne Carson, Norma Jean Baker of Troy // Lucrezia Borgia, The Borgias // Florence + the Machine, Dream Girl Evil // Alicent Hightower, House of the Dragon // Kiki Rockwell, Same Old Energy // Paula Alquist, Gaslight // Taylor Swift, Mad Woman

[somejoyinmudville]

"ok. daryl watts. she is basically helen of troy of womens ice hockey"

Norma Jean Baker of Troy by Anne Carson / x / x / Sceptres forward Daryl Watts brings skill and attitude. She hates losing more than she loves winning / x / x / The Gods Show Up / Antigone by Sophocles trans. Paul Woodruff / If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho trans. Anne Carson

[mockiatoh]

Norma Jean Baker of Troy, Anne Carson

[hier--soir]

feb + mar + apr reads

norma jean baker of troy by anne carson [★★★★★]

"Sometimes I think language should cover its own eyes when it speaks."

"Is she human? Are you? Is she a beast out of control? There's so much danger. No human can become just a beast, you plunge beyond - beyond what? Remember Jack the Ripper? 'I'm down on whores and I shan't quit ripping them till I get buckled,' Jack wrote in a letter to the newspaper, September 18, 1888. He never did get buckled. Of course insane, his mind blooming with it, who could go down that rabbit-hole or unlock such a puzzle as Jack? - but still, the woman! the thing is! the woman has everything and you smile and you take some."

: ̗̀➛ an exploration of the lives and myths of marilyn monroe and helen of troy.

: ̗̀➛ anne carson is there anything you can't do? please email me back. please.

piglet by lottie hazell [★★★★]

"'I want to make some food,' she said. 'For both of us?' he asked. 'No, just for me.'"

: ̗̀➛ one woman, piglet, and the lead up to her wedding in the face of a big confession from her fiancé.

: ̗̀➛ this one slipped beneath my skin and writhed around the spot inside me where i've tucked away all of my food issues.

merciless gods by christos tsiolkas [★★]

"I'm scared that if I let go, not only the room, not only this city, but the whole world will go cold forever."

"Your false gods cannot save you. There is only one God, my God."

: ̗̀➛ short stories that bash you over the head with how awful things and people and places can be. i did not live for this one... particularly wasn't into the one where a guy jerked his dad who has alzheimers off.

foe by iain reid [★★]

"All day. Time keeps moving. I've always thought that was a good thing. Until recently. I'm not so sure now. Is it good? For time to go by fast?"

: ̗̀➛ they want to send junior to space and replace him with a robot that looks and acts and talks exactly like him so his wife has company in his absence.

: ̗̀➛ marriage and trust and complacency, and a guy called terrence who we get reminded over and over has long gorgeous hair.

: ̗̀➛ a little boring for my taste. i had an idea of where it was going pretty early on, and it took a while for me to be proven right. pretty disconcerting!

acts of desperation by megan nolan [★★★★]

"The need was a true and human part of me, but I could feel nothing else of myself to be true or human, and so the need seemed ungodly, an aberration."

: ̗̀➛ a book full of confession, desire, jealousy, violence, and power. messy messy messy!!!! readers procceed with caution.

: ̗̀➛ shout out to everyone who said i should read this - you were right, it is up my alley.

gone girl by gillian flynn [★★★★]

"My wife was no longer my wife but a razor-wire knot daring me to unloop her, and I was not up to the job with my thick, numb, nervous fingers. Country fingers. Flyover fingers untrained in the intricate, dangerous work of solving Amy. When I'd hold up the bloody stumps, she'd sigh and turn to her secret mental notebook on which she tallied all my deficiencies, forever noting disappointments, frailties, shortcomings."

: ̗̀➛ i have become a gillian flynn STAN this year, it's true. despite having seen the movie multiple times, i enjoyed reading this, and was delighted to find some differences in the texts [for better and for worse].

: ̗̀➛ nick dunne, big fan of the lie of omission, mama's boy whose mama is dead, i'd like to introduce you to couples therapy.

dead beautiful and life eternal by yvonne woon [reread] [★★★]

: ̗̀➛ the first two books in a paranormal romance trilogy. these kinda bang guys, i can't lie. 15-year-old me was onto something when she decided to keep these instead of donating them. however, they DO have some of the worst book covers i've ever seen, sorry yvonne.

fourth wing by rebecca yarros [★★★]

: ̗̀➛ a romantasy book that has dragons, smut, and twists that you'll see coming from a mile away. pretty fun. recced to me by one man in person and a thousand women on tik tok.

: ̗̀➛ no one who has the thought 'double standards for the win' is using 'whomever' in a casual sentence with the guy she's having sex with.

: ̗̀➛ good enemies to lovers should have actual murder attempts. but maybe that's jusT MY OPINION.

my book rating system is as follows:

★ = i felt pure contempt the entire time

★★ = yeah it's a book

★★★ = i liked it!

★★★★ = good fucking book, damn

★★★★★ = blew my dick clean off and i'll throw a tantrum if everyone i know doesn't also read it and love it

[lunas-worlds-stuff]

A wound shines by its own light.

Anne Carson, from "Norma Jean Baker of Troy," originally published in 2019

[bookquotesforthesoul]

Sometimes I think language should cover its own eyes when it speaks.

Anne Carson, Norma Jeane Baker of Troy

[hauntedbythenarrative]

Tiny ghosts live inside me. The ghosts of my own pathetic girlhood.

Norma Jean Baker of Troy, Anne Carson//Prelude, Brynne Rebele-Henry//Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head, Warsan Shire//The Hungry Woman: A Mexican Medea & Heart of the Earth: A Popul Vuh Story, Cherríe L. Moraga//Emily Carey and Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, House of the Dragon (2022-)

[petaltexturedskies]

as night dew on leaves

Anne Carson, from Norma Jeane Baker of Troy