#also my modern greek myth stories hot take is that they actually don't have to be faithful ie replicate every piece of characterization

[bvckbiter]

me going into the rr crit tag lately: perhaps you would be happier writing your own books

[raedshadowlegends]

LO hot take:

idk if I was writing a story about Greek mythology I would a) do actual research first b) not make it about Hades and Persephone cause the original myth to my understanding contains some pretty heavily implied SA and c) if I was still going with the modern theme Rachel’s going on I would commit to it fully, set it in actual Greece (again, doing research) and have the Olympians live in a skyscraper instead of a mountain

also I wouldn’t make the gods neon

I feel like it would be more interesting to write a story about, say, Hephaestus and his struggle to fit into the Olympians, or play with the themes of how power corrupts or how the Olympians attempt to navigate their complex family relationships while trying to stay true to original myths

but yeah there are a ton of super cool myths in Greek mythology and a lot of them are really epic stories with important details like the fatal flaws of heroes, the earning the favor of the gods, anyway I feel like they shouldn’t be reduced to cotton candy looking smut with a barely held together plot

I agree with everything you're saying here.

Now I am by no means a mythology expert but I'm pretty sure that the original myth was about the grief of Demeter and not a fluffy uwu smut story.

It's honestly kind of disrespectful to be slandering a myth this much. Yeah, retellings have always been around and they always will be. But I'd expect a retelling to treat it's source material with respect, y'know? LO is far from respectful in my opinion.

I remember seeing a while back that if LO characters just had normal oc names, nobody would give a shit about it. And yeah. That checks out.

But you're right, there are dozens of myths to choose and retell in unique (but respectful!) ways. I genuinely think LO would be much more appealing if it were a collection of mini stories. Each one could take on a new myth in new ways/ Maybe add some original twists and turns. And get creative with the designs too!! That way Rachel and her team wouldn't be handcuffed to the Persephone and Hades myth and they could have fun experimenting.

Shit, if they had a myth they had fun retelling then they could expand upon it later down the road.

I dunno, I just would have preferred to see that version of Lore Olympus.

It's sad that Greek culture is kinda being slandered like this. It feels pretty disrespectful to me but I'd love to hear more thoughts about it.

Also the neon colors fucking suck.

I'm not a big fan of having my retinas fucking obliterated each time I look at Persephone's horse face. Dear god I wish Rachel had reference sheets and the colors didn't gradually become blinding. Honestly sad.

But I can imagine that the bright colors draw in younger readers. They see the pretty pink lady on the cover of a book and they go for it. Not good. Don't let kids read LO.

Anyways thank you for the ask, I agree with literally everything you said. I wish we got to see a more fleshed out LO like you suggested </3

[ultfreakme]

You must be in a tumblr bubble because how have you never seen posts with thousands notes claiming most classical literature is actually fanfiction of bible and the rest is of mythology. Like, this isn’t a hot take on tumblr, unfortunately.

Probably because I have a life outside of tumblr and curate my experience, but yes, I have seen posts about how Paradise Lost is just Bible fanfic and Dante's Inferno is self-insert fanfiction, but mostly from people who watch OSPD videos and say it as a joke. It's a major simplification of about a dozen concepts but okay, if you look at it from the point of definitions, yeah, Paradise Lost & the Divine Comedy are technically fanfiction; they are based on pre-existing work, with Dante there's irl people in scenarios they've never been in, etc etc.

Although I have never seen anyone saying any particular fanfic is a literary masterpiece that must simply be taught in academic settings, which is what that OP's post was actually implying.

And here's the thing; I think fanfic has the potential to be considered a classic. Because, what makes let's say, the Divine Comedy so important? It's not because it's old, but because it struck a nerve among the masses, it did things against the societal structure no one dared to do before, it transformed the Italian language as we know it, it's this carefully, excruciatingly crafted work in terms of sentence structure and is primarily a theological exploration. Now this stands out also because the og canon content, the Bible, is MASSIVE in influence. That thing STILL shapes social norms, conventions and expectations.

No current fanfiction now will ever come to be seen as a true classic unless the canon thing the fic is based on reaches Bible levels of influence on society, which is going to take centuries. Same can be applied to Greek Myths in general(also in both these cases the canon thing is also tied to social structure and religion which large portions of the world follow). We don't want to equate the term 'fanfiction' to that stuff because it feels like it's beyond that but technically, yeah. It's fanfiction.

But the term fanfiction itself is extremely recent, it was said first in 1939 and therefore carries temporal contexts and definitions. It's why it feels juvenile and uncomfortable assigning such a new, and initially frowned-upon term to classics. Being angry about what is and what isn't fanfiction depends entirely upon how you view the term 'fanfiction'.

For me, it is value-neutral and doesn't immediately denote lowered quality these days because at the most fundamental level, fanfiction is literary work based on pre-existing media. But if you add the current cultural context in which fanfiction is primarily written, ie., posted online by anyone and everyone with a desire to write, mostly to fulfill shipping fantasies or certain character scenarios canon didn't provide, then I can see why people would consider giving the label of fanfiction to the classics an insult or "shooting too high".

Maybe 'fanfiction' isn't fitting because of all the social stigma around it, maybe it doesn't apply because it feels like trying to apply modern story beats and terms to ancient mythology. What specifically, is making someone uncomfortable about the term 'fanfiction' on the classics? What the hell even is "fanfiction" in the first place because you could argue that The Song of Achilles is canon-compliant POV change fanfiction but its advertised as a retelling. Pride & Prejudice & Zombies also counts for fic. I think there's a good discussion to be had on what makes "fanfiction" as we know it now what it is because even I think assigning the term to Divine Comedy or Paradise Lost feels wrong. Maybe it's about intent? The classics are written with the need for social change or to make people see things different; art for life's sake. But most fic these days are purely art for art's sake- it is peak self-indulgence and self-expression.

I'm looking it up and people keep narrowing the definition of "fanfiction" as like

Amateur writing

Based on copyrighted characters

Without permission from og creator

Now that whole "copyright" concept complicates things because Romeo & Juliet? Not originally by Shakespeare. Dude borrowed characters from a different play, pretty sure he changed Juliette's name, and he wrote it when the og was only recently made. The concept of "copyright" and "author permission" is also VERY recent. What even counts as actually "amateur" because Van Gogh is considered a pro now but when he was alive he only sold one painting apparently so back then he could've been classified as "amateur"?

I have fully derailed. I forgot what I wanted to say-- Okay yeah I'm aware people say the classics are fanfiction, and in a way, yeah, it is, depending on how the individual defines "fanfiction".