#litetature

[bbloggmaym3]

Will westerners who cried about russian dude who was eaten by a shark write about this?

will writers that defend their divine right to write about russia and russians acknowledge real life russian atrocities against Ukrainian people? somehow I doubt it

Three dead and 13 wounded in Odessa, - Operational command "South"

The Russian Federation sent four "Caliber" from the ship in the Black Sea.

As a result of the air battle and the blast wave, a business center, an educational institution, a housing complex, catering establishments and shops in the city center were damaged. 6 people were injured.

One of the Russian missiles hit the warehouse of one of the retail chains. The warehouse was destroyed, a fire started on an area of ​​400 square meters. m. Three dead, seven injured. There may be people under the rubble.

[daphnaea]

wtf is chaotic academia you guys are just using random phrases generators at this point

[mask131]

Thinking about it, I do believe that the big misunderstandings of the Greek gods on the Internet today (or in media recently) is due to a problem of... let’s say “character VS personification”. 

People have grown too much accustomed to the consumption of Greek myths and legends as... not so much “stories” but... as fiction. Which leads them to treat the Greek gods as characters of tales and stories. Which leads people to treat them like... well, like people. Like full humans. Thinking about their actions only in terms of human/social/psychological reasons and consequences. And people forget the very essence and nature of the gods...

The Greek gods are personifications. They are allegories, and their actions always reflect their actual nature as a part of the world or a human phenomenon. It is true that when you read the Greek myths as they reached us today, you will read what seems to be stories about super-humans, because said stories were given to us through epic poems and theater plays. But there was a whole theology and religious thinking behind those myths (to the point some of the ancient litetature of the Greeks was criticized by religious authorities for deviating from their actual beliefs) ; and there was an entire philosophy surrounding those myths. Literal philosophy - with Ancient Greek philosophers not only re-reading and interpreting the myths in the lights of their teaching, but also inventing their own “philosophical myths”. The Greeks had time to read and rewrite and discuss their own myths and stories for centuries and centuries - and thus these stories ended up with numerous layers of meaning and interpretations woven through them.

Which is why to fully understand a myth, one must look behind the simple story. A god in the story is never just a character, but always something else. Poseidon is a grudge-holding, monster-birthing deity prone to mood swings which place him alternatively as an ally or an antagonist - but it isn’t just because “he is like that”. He is like that BECAUSE he is the god of the sea, and the Greeks, as sailors and explorers and island-dwellers, knew very well that the sea was a changing and treacherous thing, the sailor’s best friend and worst enemy at the same time. The fact that Apollo is at the same time the god of truth, the god of beauty and the god of art isn’t just because it’s his hobbies - it is because for the Greek all these concepts were inter-connected, art being beauty, the truth being beautiful, the best art being the truthful art, etc... And as a result myths are always about something else than their own story. The most famous case being Persephone’s abduction. People keep treating it as just being a love story - forgetting that, beyond the story of a guy in love with a girl and a mother worried for her missing girl, it is actually also a fable for the brutality anf unfairness of death striking young people, and how a mother can deal with her grief. It is literaly the story of “Kore” (which isn’t a proper name, but just means “maiden” or “young girl”), being ravished by Hades (whose name is ALSO the name of the Underworld), of a young girl plunged from the world of the living to the world of the dead, and a distressed mother crying for her disappeared daughter... 

I can list on and on the examples, but I think you get my point. Yes, it is nice to know the story. It is better to try to understand them. The topic came when I read something about Zeus recently... It talked about the gods embodying “order” - and it listed Zeus, for after all he was the ruler of the cosmos, punisher of wicked ones and fighter of monsters, the god of justice overseeing all oaths and the basic principles of Greek society... But this text added that however, his behavior character wise was “much more chaotic”. Notably pointing out towards Zeus’ wild behavior around females of all kinds. It is true that a serial cheater with a HUGE number of lovers of all kinds, and lots of “bastard children” everywhere seems to contradict his role as a god maintaining order and morals... But again, the key is looking beyond that. Yes, Zeus is massively unfaithful on his wife and seemingly can’t keep his thunderbolt in his pants - if you pardon me the expression. But the question that nobody asks is... Why is he like that? Why does he do that? Just because he is a horny guy? That’s the superficial explanation, that’s the joke explanation. That’s not what the Ancien Greeks would have answered you. This precise topic is one I like to reuse frequently because it illustrates perfectly something that feels natural to those that read about Greek mythology from experts, and yet can seem like a sudden mindblow for those that only know Greeks myths from popular fiction. 

I do not recall where exactly I read this explanation - but I am certain it was in one of the books about Greek myths written by famous French experts, so it was probably from Jean-Pierre Vernant or Pierre Grimal, or someone of those waters. Why is Zeus such a horny dog? We have to think about his titles. “Father of Men and Father of Gods”. It isn’t just a nickname or a title, it describes what he does: he birthed most of the major Greek gods, and he birthed many ancestors of humanity. It also makes you think: what was Zeus’ first action when he became king of the cosmos, when he took over the world after fighting the Titans? He married, several times, and had numerous lovers, with which he birthed some very important gods. Through sex he actually created important elements needed for the world. Not counting the other Olympian gods, he gave birth at the beginning of his reign to the Arts (Muses), the Seasons (Horae) and Fate itself (the Moirai), basis for the civilized world and an ordered, stable cosmos. And who are the other children of Zeus, all those “bastards” children he got out of being unfaithful? Heroes. Heroes who build principles of civilization, heroes who destroyed monsters, heroes who threw down criminals and tyrants. Good things. That’s the thing with Zeus: he constantly lusts after women, yes, and he constantly has sex, yes... but most of the time, if not always, it is to create something good. He keeps procreating beings, things and people needed for the universe to form itself, for civilization to form itself, for the world to get better and evil/chaos to be defeated. Herakles and Athena and Perseus... Even through his unfaithfulness, Zeus keeps creating new agents and champions of order, law and justice. 

It is in fact quite interesting to look at Tumblr here, because on Tumblr there are favorite deities who are depicted right because people love them enough to go dig into their symbolism and their religious festivals and their philosophical meaning. Dionysos is the one that comes to mind. And then other deities whose deeper meaning gets thrown out of the window. 

A good counterpart to Greek mythology, in the approach of “character vs personification”, is Norse mythology. Because the Norse gods, as depicted and represented in mythological texts such as the Eddas, are actually “characters before the personifications”, the reverse of Greek gods which are “personifications which were given character”. I am not saying that the Norse gods aren’t personifications, that would be a stupid claim. But what I am saying is... Often people try to enter Norse mythology asking “So, this god, what is he the god OF?” because they assume Norse gods are like Greek gods, defined by their field of action and what they represent or rule over. When in truth, the Norse gods are defined by who they are, not so much by what they are. Odin is the one-eyed wanderer, and the eight-legged horse-rider king of the Aesir, and the cunning rune-master ruling over Valhalla. Thor is the very strong god, and the hammer-wielding jötunn killer riding on a goat-chariot, and the red-haired hero of Asgard who fears nothing and fished Jormungandr out of the sea once. Everybody knows today that Thor is the god of thunder and lightning - but it isn’t said, or explicitely spelled out in most of the Old Norse texts. It is not like Zeus who is explicitely said to use thunderbolts on his ennemies - Thor’s hammer doesn’t have lightning shooting out of it. To get this, to get what a Norse god is the “god of”, there is a work of research that needs to be done. For a Greek god it can be obvious due to their attributes and names (Hestia for example - her name literaly means “hearth” and she started out as the hearth being venerated, before being personified). For a Norse god, to get the “what” of the deity, you will need to look at the archeological remains of the religion and cult of Norsemen, you will need to theorize based on the etymology of the deity’s name and its relationships, you will need to collect the kennings and local expressions and other folk-sayings and interpret them. It is a para-characterization that isn’t obvious, or sometimes doesn’t even appear, in the Norse texts per se. Because in the Norse legends as they came to us, the gods are mostly defined as characters - by their function (guardian, warrior, king), by what they do (power to see far-away, power to know the future), by what they look like (missing one hand, or golden hair)... For exampe, for a very long time it was thought that Loki was the god of fire. It was a strong, popular and famous interpretation - but research and experts have proven that it is a late re-interpretation of the deity, who originally probably didn’t had anything to do with fire and was just mixed up with other fire-figures (like Logi) with time, the same way Loki was mixed with Utgard-Loki as a “master of illusions”. 

This phenomenon of inversion can be summed up quite easily. In Greek mythology, we have TONS of secondary and tertiary deities who are basically personifications without any kind of legend or myth to them, uncharacterized allegories that sometimes are just a name appearing in a list of concept. In Norse mythology, you have tons of secondary and tertiary deities without myths or legends, who are just names in a list - but this time, we have their names, we have a basic characterization, we know who they are, and the problem is that we don’t know what they are supposed to represent. You have tons of small Norse gods about whom people keep asking and searching “What did they embody? What did they personify?”. The character without the personification. 

[gojurt]

i think ive said this before but its such a petty pet peev of mine when ppl have "classic lit" on their interest list bc it tells you absolutely fucking nothing about what their taste in reading is, they might as well just have put books. also a lot of the time they just mean like the same 4 or 5 gothic novels and the great gatsby or smth. but like classic lit can mean anywhwre from like plato to jane austen to hemingway to maya angelou to vonnegut etc and waters litetature down into one genre of like singular content and quality like What Do You Mean By This. the history of literature is so expansive

[18shadesofmay]

THE YOLO ATTITUDE HAS CAUSED DEATH AND MISERY DO NOT MISTAKE YOUR LIFE FOR A WORK OF LITETATURE

Ship trope I'd love to see more of: "Are we in love? I mean, yeah, probably, but that's a problem for future us. Right now we're just trying to make it through the Plot."

[candidwrites]

Oh to have someone to talk about books, movies, litetature, poetry, art, space, existence>>>

[prosedumonde]

Ressasser des idées négatives tire vers le bas, dans le lisier de la rancoeur sur lequel ne poussent que la déprime et la maladie.

Laurent Gounelle, Le philosophe qui n’était pas sage

[mitskey]

Love Poem With Apologies For My Appearance, Ada Limón

[mfelewzi]

Interesting. Sadly, my knowledge about Classical Japanese Litetature is based on poetry, especially the Kokinwakashū of Heian period, for its similarities with Aristotle's Poetics (a thing that I know better than Kokinwakashū), about rules of Japanese poetry. And It isn't a deep knowledge, sadly.

But about Konietzko and Di Martino knowledge of Asian Cultures, Well the reason is that they had a partial and not completed knowledge of that subject. Their best knowledge of Asian culture are Wu Shu and Chambara movies, Sci-Fi and mecha manga and anime, with an honest interest of Miyazaki movies, but very superficial. They didn't know Asian Cultures, or other anime and manga than Gundam Franchise, Watanabe's shows and the most famous as Dragonball, Pokémon and Evangelion (this one is their favorite, cause there are many references to Evangelion in LoK), and when they had some experts of Asian Cultures, like Ehasz husband and wife, they didn't love their informations.

They wanted an american show with an asian dress and an asian aesthetic, nothing more. A thing Who was Modern and Metropolitan, without culture except rielaboration of real cultures but transformed in a different thing, Just like Evangelion, or some Internet Rules.

And that was One of the reasons for their fails. But they refuse to accept, cause It would mean that they are not talented authors.

That's why AtlA is an Unfinished Masterwork.

More hints we were supposed to get a Book 4: Air

The introduction at the beginning of every ATLA chapter starts with, "Water. Earth. Fire. Air." This aligns with the book titles for every season of ATLA. We also get Iroh singing a song that goes, "Winter, spring, summer and fall. 4 seasons for love." This also aligns with the seasons each book is affiliated with.

Now, have you ever heard of the ancient Chinese storytelling technique called Kishōtenketsu? I didn't until now. It is an old style of storytelling that features a 4-act story structure. Here is a video that explains it through its use in Studio Ghibli films.

It's no secret that the writers of ATLA drew inspiration from many different Asian cultures. Why wouldn't they also take inspiration in storytelling structure from these cultures as well? Each part of Kishōtenketsu can be broken up into their own respective parts.

Ki is the introduction of the characters, awakening them. In ATLA, Aang literally is awakened by Katara and Sokka. Zuko is also introduced quickly in the first chapter.

Shō is about listening and being informed. In Book 2, Aang is told he must find an earthbending teacher that is a master at neutrajing where they wait and listen. Toph takes in information with her seismic sense and waits for the best opportunity to make her move.

Ten means "twist" or "change". This is when the story takes an unexpected turn. Each character has their own focused episodes to highlight their changes. For instance, Sokka becoming a swordsman and Katara becoming a bloodbender. Toph asked for help in writing a letter to her mother, and she didn't like asking for help when we first met her. Aang had to deal with his anxiety about confronting the Firelord. The unexpected twist can also be seen when our heroes fail the invasion mission and Zuko joins Team Avatar.

Ketsu is the conclusion, or it could also mean "something coming to fruition." In this last part, all the elements of part 1 and 2 are brought back along with the agent of chaos in part 3. In Hollywood, the story would end with a "happily ever after" or a triumph over evil. However, Ketsu doesn't do this. The story ends with a resolution that can be bittersweet or ambiguous, a balance between light and dark.

In Star Wars and other Hollywood films, the story ends with the defeat of a bad guy then peace is restored. ATLA ending on Book 3 lines up with this western style of storytelling. It never sat right with me how the show ended on Book 3. The last line of Book 3 should've been "Where is my mother" which leaves a cliffhanger for Book 4.

The tea shop scene was shoehorned in and I don't accept it as the true ending. The war is won. Why is Zuko in Ba Sing Se and not back in the Fire Nation doing his Firelord duties? Where are the peace agreement meetings between Firelord Zuko and the other nations? In reality, there's a whole journey of restoration that happens after time of war. Zuko along with the others should've gone on this journey together as a team.

In Book 4, we would've learned that the previous antagonists of the show were not entirely evil and given redemption arcs. We would've seen Azula undergo a redemption arc of her own. On the flip side, we would've also seen previously seemingly nice characters to have a darker side to them. We would've also seen the return of any named side character in the show. Why give a side character a name if they are only going to be featured in one chapter for 1 to 3 minutes of screen time? And what about the airbenders? The fact that they are masters at evasion and hiding? What about the unseasonable tornado in the swamp?

I'm getting off topic. Back on track.

In Spirited Away, Yubaba is definitely an antagonist and she does questionable things like manipulating and stealing people's names. However, she isn't evil. There are rules and laws in the spirit realm and she is the enforcer. The real struggle is subverting from the norm and making meaningful change. This would've been the overarching theme of Book 4 if only it hadn't been cancelled.

Now I'm correcting this wrong by writing my own fanfiction called Book 4: Air, the Missing Element. I'm picking up every crumb and puzzle piece I can find to write the season that should've been.

[watchoutforintellect]

One cannot pick up a single one of her books and read a page without feeling more alive. If art is not to be life-enhancing, what is it to be?

May Sarton, talking about Virginia Woolf in  Journal of a Solitude: The Journals of May Sarton

[vazakinada]

[extwistle]

hey there!

I am a new blog dedicated to academia and the art of deducing. I need to follow active accounts of the same interests so it would be lovely if you could give this post a like.. Xx

[kingdom4books]

Novedades sobre la FIL LIMA 🥰🙊

[saireyn]

“Onun bizi sevdiğinden emin olmaya ihtiyaç duymaksızın onu sevmenin hazzıyla yetiniriz…”

- Marcel Proust

[ahomeganeyatsu]

They're Made out of Meat is funny but that last line hits hard.

[magicalchristmasmoments]

Our gorgeous premier issue. Exquisite décor, art and literature, collectables, time for tea and much more... Join us for a peek into the world of The Enchanted Lair ~ La Guarida Magazine! http://www.blurb.com/b/7813878-the-enchanted-lair-la-guarida-magazine #purple #springtime #litetature #collectables #teatime #magazine #poetry #theenchantedlairlaguaridamagazine (at New York, New York)