#literary symbol

[raindrops-on-concrete]

Hua Cheng wearing wedding colours, Xie Lian wearing funeral colours

Hua Cheng's spiritual weapon being forged in a last desperate attempt to stay alive, Xie Lian's spiritual weapon being forged in a futile attempt to die

Hua Cheng who is dead and has died three times clinging to life with everything he has to the point where he became one of the most powerful ghosts in the world, Xie Lian who is immortal and literally can not die trying to kill himself and being self-sacrificing

Hua Cheng who loves life choosing to die for Xie Lian, Xie Lian who wants to die choosing to live for Hua Cheng (live as in actually enjoy living as opposed to being idle and suffering)

[whenthewallfell]

Suzanne Collins straight up invented a whole marriage ceremony based around toasting bread on an open fire for your one true love just to then have THE BAKER'S SON LITERALLY BURN BREAD FOR THE GIRL ON FIRE

Absolute legend.

LEGEND.

[samuraijacksoff]

HELLO i have finally finished putting together a little book of cross stitch patterns made w minecraft. for free on Internet Archive !! :)

[missallie93]

Small detail I appreciate in Twisters (one of many honestly) is how at first Kate and Tyler wear different styles of outfits/colors and then once they were on the same “team” they were always wearing similar styles and color clothes.

[owlarchimedes]

Jean is saved by the narrative when he's given number three instead of the four he would've gotten if Nathaniel was in the Perfect Court. Jean was given three, which means rebirth in Japanese, BUT what's even more interesting about that is what Riko stole from Jean: he stole his name, he stole Jean-Yves from him. Yves, which means Yew and symbolizes everlasting life and rebirth.

His number brand saved his life but Riko stole what made him feel alive, and he didn't get it back till he left the Ravens.

[simplydnp]

the sudden shift in footage quality, signifying something has changed. that this is Different. something is deeply wrong. cinema 🤌

[goldensunset]

noooo don’t advocate to get rid of one of the main character’s two best friends who narratively and symbolically has always represented home safety and stability in contrast to the one associated with change and risk that ultimately form a nice narrative balance between the things that change and the things that don’t because both are important in life when growing up she’s so cute ahahaha

[arsanimarum]

Georges Bataille, Erotism: Death and Sensuality

[tamelee]

Panel redraw (sorta). Based on this ask, hope you and the one who suggested this panel- 🫣💕 like it. I'm not sure if it turned out well..

Bridge scene ⃩/Naruto's resolve

[opbackgrounds]

The Adam tree is obviously a reference to the biblical Adam, but less talked about is how Ohara was an allusion to the Tree of Knowledge (of Good and Evil). Which makes sense, as the library housed all the secrets of the world, both good and bad. Water 7/Enies Lobby also marks our first real hint of devil fruit knowledge and Vegapunk will have his first name drop here in a chapter or two, so Oda's laying a lot of groundwork for future series lore. Later on in Fishman Island Oda will explicitly link the sunlight tree Eve with the treasure tree Adam, for those readers who might not catch the biblical allusions.

There's one more tree mentioned in the Genesis account of Adam and Eve, the Tree of Life, which was guarded by an angel with a flaming sword after they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden by falling to the tempted by the devil to eat the forbidden fruit.

It is interesting to me that the Adam tree is specifically found in a war-torn country when the Genesis account is so closely associated with the Garden of Eden, so it will be interesting to see what Oda does with it going forward.

[sad-eyed-lady-of-the-paperbacks]

I don’t want to admit how many times I’ve reread certain passages of TBK in the past months, but just now as I’m thinking about the current WIP chapter of my retelling, I was like, three days is such a long party, I wonder if that’s meant to be literal or not. WAIT

Hold up—

…dammit Dostoevsky, you’re always doing this

I know that means something.

[lionofchaeronea]

Salammbô, Gaston Bussière, 1907

[multifunctionalnitroglycerin]

The Locked Tomb Series Names and Symbolism #4

Hiya folks! Hope you are all doing fine and dandy. This series ofc couldn’t be complete without our beloved Sex-Pal in the count. Now according to wiki there are two figures that inspired the Master Warden, Παλαμήδης, the Greek mythological hero that took part in the Trojan war, and Palamedes the Arthurian knight. I am more well-versed in the Greek myths than I am in Medieval plays, I admit, but I will do my best to do justice by both these inspirations.

            But first things first, some etymology. There are two most prominent versions for the etymology of the name Palamedes or well, Παλαμήδης. In the first one, it’s a derivative of the verb παλαμάομαι meaning devise/contrive and invent. Aka the inventor that devises plans (Or concocts schemes, depending on how you want to see it). In the second one it is believed to derive from the verb παλαίω => παλεύω aka fight and μήδομαι => σκέφτομαι, συμβουλεύω aka think and advise. So, Palamedes would be the one that thinks abt the battle and gives advice for it. Both etymologies I feel fit our inventive strategist, The Master Warden of the Sixth, to a t.

Let us now begin with the Greek hero from the Trojan war. And no my pals, this is not yet another Iliad reference, for our proclaimed hero does not actually appear in the Iliad. His first appearance is in what has been known as the Κύπρια, a well-known epic of the ancient Greek literature that despite being quite famous during the classical period, has been lost to the sands of time. Long story short, this epic is a part of the Trojan circle and follows the conclusion of the Iliad. Palamedes’ story is one of many included in the epic that counts I think 11 books.

            Truth to be told, Mythological Palamedes did star in quite a few epics, tragedies and other works that refer to the Trojan war or the time after it, but for the sake of keeping the post relatively short, and since I do not quite have the time to hunt down every ancient text reference and draw a parallel to the Master Warden, we’ll mostly reference the most relative ones and I’ll leave a list in the end, in case some of you do want to go hunting ancient texts.

            I’ll start with a fun fact. According to a Trojan priest of Hephestus, Dares the Phrygian, Palamedes was described as tall, slender, wise, magnanimous, and charming. Now I cannot speak for everyone, but well, to me that sounds like Palamedes Sextus.

            In general, there are not many direct parallels that I can make between Palamedes the Euboian and Palamedes Sextus, bar for the most obvious one, that they are both ingenious. Palamedes the mythological figure was accredited with inventing part of the Greek Alphabet, lighthouses, navigation, coins, the division of time into months days and hours and a few board games, with κύβοι being one of the most prominent (to my understanding it’s the equivalent to dice). Palamedes Sextus on the other hand, figured out the secret to Lyctorhood, necromantically bound his soul to his skeleton, saw through Cytherea’s ploy, exploded himself, created a bubble in the River in which he persevered until Camila could glue his skull back together and he figured out a way to co-exist with her, in her own body, without killing them both, plus the Grand Lysis and Paul’s creation.

            What mostly sticks with me from the above, among others, is navigation. One Palamedes is the inventor of it, and the other, though by that point is Paul, seems to know a way to the Tomb via the River. The river that even God struggles navigating – at least with other people on the way. So, could it be, that Palamedes -that beat even Cassiopeia in time survived in the River – figures out a way to truly navigate this sea of the dead?

            Two smaller parallels we could draw from mythological Palamedes are 1. Pal seeing through Cytherea’s ploy, the same way that Palamedes the Euboian saw through Odysseus’ ploy when he wanted to avoid fighting in Troy and played mad, plowing the earth with a horse and an ox throwing salt in the holes.   2. The syphoning challenge. This story also includes Palamedes butting heads with Odysseus – not going to lie to you, they were evenly matched in genius – although according to some accounts it’s Palamedes who was the brightest and most ingenious of the Greeks - , but Odysseus never forgave him for uncovering his ploy and may or may not have orchestrated Palamedes’ murder – only in this analogy Pal is Odysseus. In a time of great hunger for the Achaeans, Odysseus was sent to Thrace to find wheat and returned empty-handed. Palamedes mocked him, and Odysseus replied that for all his ingenuity he too would return emptyhanded. Palamedes did embark on the quest and was successful, returning with shiploads of supplies. In the syphoning challenge, Pal is Odysseus, the one who turns up empty handed, refusing to risk Camila’s well-being once he figured out how the test worked. And he is also the one that tries to talk Harrow out of completing the challenge. Harrow much like the mythological Palamedes jumps in the opportunity to prove herself – through the challenge’s objective had little to do with proving one’s self, as we saw – and succeeds, obtaining the key.

            All in all, the biggest parallel’s we can draw here, is that Pal like his mythological namesake is a genius inventor and strategist, a bright necromancer and brighter scholar still. He is the Odysseus in Harrow’s Palamedes and vice versa.

            And now that I drew the parallel with Odysseus I cannot unsee it. He made his body the Trojan horse that exploded in Cytherea’s face. He was stranded in the River – the sea of the undead, of the souls and corpses and all that nice stuff – for however long it took Camilla to piece the skull together, like Odysseus lost in the seas. He found his Ogygia in Camila’s mind where he stays safely stored until his stop in the island of the Phaeacians – Naberius’ body. A brief stop gathering supplies, gathering courage before going home. Back to Camilla, but now as one. There is no him and her anymore. They have had a home in each other, and it’s time he returned to it, burning down the ruins of the past, and getting reborn as something new, together, as one. (Cam and Pal are a phoenix metaphor if I have ever seen one.)

            Onto the Arthurian Palamedes now, our friend was a knight of the round table, and makes his first appearance in an expansion of the Tristan and Iseult legend, as a knight vying for the princess’ hand, much like our beloved Sex-Pal wanted Dulcinea’s affections. There are no Trsitans in this world however, merely Cytherea as an imposter.

            Now what is interesting about the Arthurian Palamedes, is that according to various tales he is the hunter of the Questing Beast – a multi animal snake like monster that he, Percival and Galahad are tasked with exterminating. In most versions the hunt is futile and bears no results. After Palamedes converts to Christianity however, releasing himself from the worldly entanglements, he is finally able to slay the beast after the other two trap it in a lake. My theory here is that the Questing Beast, Beast Glatisant or whatever you want to call it, is a Resurrection Beast, perhaps even Varun the Eater. And the Warden has “converted to Christianity” by ascending, aka completing the Lyctorhood process. He shed his mortal shell, disentangled himself from the coils of mortality and worldly needs, becoming very much the equivalent of the “converted Palamedes”.

 Practically, to sum up, Pal through Lyctorhood and Paul could be the one to slay the Resurrection Beast that is Varun the Eater. With the help of two other individuals – for some reason I feel one of them would be Pyrrha – they trap Varun in a “lake” – could be the Tomb, could be the First, could be yet another metaphorical body of water – and he is the one who end the RB that allegedly killed and consumed Cassiopeia the First.

That’s the post folks, now the list of ancient Lit that I promised:

Ἀπολλωδώρου, Βιβλιοθήκης Ἐπιτομή, 3.7 /  Apollodorus, library epitome 3.7 (But he, not wishing to go to the war, feigned madness. However, Palamedes, son of Nauplius, proved his madness to be fictitious; and when Ulysses pretended to rave, Palamedes followed him, and snatching Telemachus from Penelope's bosom, drew his sword as if he would kill him. And in his fear for the child Ulysses confessed that his madness was pretended, and he went to the war)

Ὑγίνου, Μύθοι, 105/ Hyginus' fabulae 105

Παυσανίου Ελλάδος Περιήγησις,/ Pausanias' guide to Greece

Γοργίας, Υπέρ Παλαμήδους Απολογία / Gorgias Palamedes’ Defense

Ovid, Metamorphoses pp. 13.34-60, 308-312

Virgil, Aeneid pp. 2.81-85

Plato, Apology 41b

Take care of yourselves! See ya on the next one!

[queenlucythevaliant]

If I weren't so familiar with "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," I think I would be able to appreciate "The Albatross" off the new album a whole lot more. Like, "peace" is a top three song for me off folklore and I just love the conversation those two songs are having, the storytelling choice to use third person, some of the instrumentation. But she does the least interesting possible thing with the allusion.

It's super clear that Taylor hasn't actually read the Rime and is just going off the general cultural idea of what the albatross is supposed to represent. Given that the allusion is basically the entire premise of the song, this is really disappointing. Especially on an album called "The Tortured Poets Department."

[shyjusticewarrior]

Thinking about Snow's curls and the "duck tail" at the back of Prim's shirt. Both have connotations of youthful innocence, but Snow lost his curls and Prim had her duck tail til the very end.

[pinkeoni]

even if my predictions are wrong, the duffers use pretty on-the-nose christian symbolism in the show. a lot of western media does, actually