#Robert Graves

[madnessofmen]

me and the mutuals

[lokavisi]

Not to mention that the Triple Goddess "archetype" reinforces gender roles/stereotypes and sometimes bioessentialism when placed in the "right" hands.

[weirdlookindog]

Daniel Maclise (1806–1870) - The Origin of the Harp, 1862

after the painting by Robert Graves (1798–1873)

[vintagehomecollection]

Architect Robert Graves juxtaposes straight and curved geometric forms in unexpected ways in a townhouse library.

Inside Today’s Home, 1986

[dehautdesert]

What you need to understand is that all the things I've ever been obsessed with ever since I was a little girl are actually in conversation with/inspired by each other.

AKA the literary equivalent of the Habsburg family tree (It really explains how a lot of these guys come off as very similar even though the authors have never heard of each other e.g. Gen Queensthief and Lymond. It's because they share like 98% of their DNA and can be traced to 2 common ancestors. Captive Prince is basically that one guy who was so inbred he needed to eat through a straw because he couldn't open his jaw, and I say this in the most affectionate way possible.)

I'm pretty sure lots of these people have also been inspired by Dumas and Sabatini, but I can't find them saying so on record (only Lynn Flewelling cited Sabatini among her influences).

Other common influences that I didn't include because either I've never been more than lukewarm on them or because they're a cultural milestone everyone's read are Tolkien (obviously), Shakespeare (obviously), Mary Renault, Arthur Conan Doyle, Anne Rice, and obviously the Odyssey, the inventor of the guile hero. Other books inspired by these that I didn't include because I've never been more than lukewarm on them include Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, Cassandra Claire's entire opus, Christopher Ruocchio's Sun Eater, Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora (which I remember liking a lot when I was reading them, but I don't remember anything about them currently), and Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series. And also a million Star Wars and ASOIAF copycats I guess. Thought I might list them anyway in case somebody used this as a reclist. Some rando on Reddit said that Martin cited Dunnett as one of his influences but I can't find where he said that? All I've found was an ancient forum post where he says he never read them.

*Pacat has cited ASOIAF as an influence on her Dark Rise books, which I haven't read, but I included it nonetheless.

Also the arrow between Kay and Graves should be in the opposite direction but I can't be arsed to fix it lol

[thepettymachine]

Agnes has learned she is expecting a baby boy again

[alovelywaytospendanevening]

Sassoon and Graves in 1920.

When Robert Graves walked into C Company mess on 28 November 1915 on some errand, he noticed an unexpected book on the table. It was a copy of Post Liminium, a collection of essays by the late nineteenth-century poet Lionel Johnson. The army was not noted for its Lionel Johnson readers; a 'military text-book or a rubbish novel' were more the order of the day. Graves took a discreet look at the name on the flyleaf. A glance round the mess was enough to indicate 'Siegfried Sassoon': the tall, lanky, shy subaltern. Graves, also tall but anything but shy, quickly struck up a conversation. Both being off duty, the two were soon walking into Béthune for cream buns, busy talking poetry. Sassoon and Graves had a good deal in common. Both were conventionally unconventional public school products, trying to turn themselves into competent army officers and into the kind of poets Eddie Marsh would publish in his Georgian Poetry anthologies. Both, anxious about being insufficiently manly, had cultivated a tougher, sportier side: Sassoon through fox-hunting and cricket; Graves through boxing — he had been the school middleweight champion. Both were lonely and in love (Sassoon with David 'Tommy' Thomas, Graves with George 'Peter' Johnstone). Both were almost certainly still virgins. The friendship necessarily developed in fits and starts, and owed some of its intensity to that. Long conversations, the uninterrupted exchange of poems and confessions, were a rare luxury. Graves gave Marsh a humorous but probably not very misleading account of their difficulty 'in talking about poetry and that sort of thing': 'If I go into his mess and he wants to show me some set of verses, he says: "Afternoon Graves, have a drink… by the way, I want you to see my latest recipe for rum punch."' He also made it pretty clear to Marsh that it was not just poetry they had to be careful about discussing openly: 'I don't know what the CO would say if he heard us discussing the sort of things we do… His saying is that "there should be only one subject for conversation among subalterns off parade." I leave you to guess it.' There was obviously a secret thrill in these surreptitious exchanges, a sense that Graves and Sassoon were like two naughty schoolboys, hoodwinking their peers and those in authority.

— Harry Ricketts, Strange Meetings: The Poets of the Great War (2010)

[jurakan]

I’ll take a fun fact, and in return give you a Happy Friday!

I found this out because I recently read The Fellowship about the Inklings, and so! Today You Learned which famous actress Tolkien met by accident one time.

Tolkien recounts this in Letter 267, in reference to how he knows that not a lot of people really know who he is. He was at a lecture by Robert Graves (yes, that Robert Graves; he had this to say about him: "A remarkable creature, entertaining, likeable, odd, bonnet full of wild bees, half-German, half-Irish, very tall, must have looked like Siegfried/Sigurd in his youth, but an Ass."). After the lecture--which Tolkien said was horrible--he was introduced to a young woman (Graves assumed they'd recognize each other) who he found easy to talk to, and they apparently got along quite well. Partway through this conversation, Graves was very amused and said, "It is obvious neither of you has ever heard of the other before," and made formal introductions.

Tolkien, of course, you know. The woman here was Ava Gardner. Y'know, the famous actress.

[From the Turner Classic Movies website.]

Tolkien, for the record, still had to be told she was a famous movie star, as apparently he still didn't recognize the name.

J.R.R. Tolkien met movie star Ava Gardner, at a lecture by Robert Graves, and apparently they got along pretty well, even if they didn't know who the other was.

I just thought that was wild.

[rainbowpopeworld]

Michael Sheen reading poetry, along with other poets chosen by him, from bbc radio today

[ashintheairlikesnow]

I got a new Dead Gay Poets With Complicated Feelings About Nationalism book! As far as I can tell this book was written explicitly for my specific special interest and I am just emotionally rolling around on the floor right now like a happy dog in the backyard

[thequietabsolute]

Robert Graves, She Tells Her Love While Half Alseep

[majestativa]

Medusa loved to feel the serpents which served for hair curled close to her neck and dangling down her back, but with their heads raised to form an impressive bang over her forehead.

— Lucan, The Medusa Reader, transl by Robert Graves, (2013)

[derangedrhythms]

Some say that Darkness was first, and from Darkness sprang Chaos.

Robert Graves, from ‘The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition’

[davidhudson]

Robert Graves, July 24, 1895 – December 7, 1985.

[domitiaa]

Frances White as Julia The Elder in some postcards of I, CLAUDIUS (1976)

[glowing-starlight]

Tiberius and Vipsania Scene for Anonymous