#nostos books

[wxttxwxn]

Analog Algorithm: Source-Related Grid Systems

Christoph Gruenberger

[beastatthefeast]

(via スタジオ・オラファー・エリアソン キッチン)

[mythology-void]

okay so I was doing a Research™️ about ancient Greek etymology as one does and I found some Things that made me want to Violently Claw My Arms Off please allow me to force feed you my discoveries

So there are 2 words for "not" in ancient Greek, depending on the context: ou and mē. Having introduced himself in the Cyclops episode as " ou tis", or No-man, he then stabs Polyphemus in the eye. When Polyphemus' brothers come to check on him, they say this:

"... surely no man [mē tis] is carrying off your sheep? Surely no man [mē tis] is trying to kill you either by fraud or by force?"

Right after this, after the other cyclopes ditch Polyphemus, Odysseus's inner monologue goes something like this:

"Then they went away, and I laughed inwardly at the success of my clever strategem [metis]." (pronounced mEH-Tis)

Now, there's a difference between mē tis and metis. [mē tis] (pronounced mEH-Tis with a space between the syllables) is the literal translation for "no man". Metis is a word for extreme intelligence/cunning, which is something Odysseus is famous for.

Now, there are several examples of abuse of metis/intelligence in the Odyssey, but I think the juxtaposition between [mē tis], or the concept of anonymity, and metis, or extreme intelligence, is REALLY interesting. Odysseus's adoption of the title "No-man" was characteristic of metis--it was a really smart move that simultaneously hid him from the cyclops and avoided any future consequences. It was a highly effective strategy all wrapped up in a nest little package with a bow on it.

But when he revealed himself as Odysseus of Ithaca, effectively throwing off No-man (anonymity and [mē tis]), that was characterized as idiocy--he's essentially doxxed himself, and now he's doing to (spoiler alert) get tossed around the Mediterranean by Poseidon for the next 10 years.

This is really interesting because it lets you see the parallels/codependency between metis(intelligence) and humility. When Odysseus refused to allow himself to go unnoticed (hubris) he suffered for it. BUT when he declined instant glory/satisfaction (kleos) in order to achieve the long term goal of survival, he was rewarded with Athena's favor (pay attention. This part is important).

And this situation repeats itself MULTIPLE TIMES in the Odyssey--the EXACT SAME THING happens near the end of the book, with the suitors. When. Odysseus is dressed as a beggar and the suitors/Antinious are abusing him, he ACTIVELY CHOOSES not to react--he doesn't stand up and rip off his disguise and start hollering "TIS I, ODYSSEUS OF ITHACA! FEAR MY WRATH"

No. He sits there patiently and waits. He plans and schemes and quietly orchestrates their downfall without alerting them of it. Why? Because he learned his lesson the first time this happened. He buried his rage and adopted what was, according to Grace LA Franz, a more feminine form of metis, weaving a web of destruction for his enemies that ultimately resulted in their total annihilation (see Weaving a Way to Nostos: Odysseus and Feminine Metis in the Odyssey by Grace LaFranz). His patience allowed him to win the whole prize--no questions asked, no 10-year-long-business-trip strings attached--just the sweetness of a full victory. And he is, once again, rewarded with Athena's favor--both in the battle with the suitors and in the aftermath (cleanup/reuniting with Penelope).

This really reinforces the idea in the Odyssey that Odysseus's defining characteristic is not just his intelligence--it's his ability to learn from his mistakes. He used what he learned at the Lotus Eaters Island against Polyphemus--the Lotus Eaters drugged his men, so he drugged Polyphemus. He used what he learned from Circe and Polyphemus against the suitors--Circe used false sweetness and honeyed words to lure his men into a trap, so that's exactly what he did to the suitors. His hubris on Polyphemus' island cost his whole crew their lives, so he intentionally left well enough alone until the right time. He didn't just learn from his failures--he turned them into BATTLE STRATEGY.

i don't care what anyone says that is completely totally and objectively awesome

[under-a-shady-ash-tree]

Okay diomedes during the odyssey fics!! There is a shocking lack of dio fics and post odyssey fics in general so hopefully at least some of these are new to you. If not you have my apologies!

So first up is : https://archiveofourown.org/works/57380605/chapters/145974487

Its bran new. Takes place immediately following the fall of troy and will (I assume) end up with diomedes on itacha

https://archiveofourown.org/works/5791948

Okay it's not letting me link the next one for some reason but it's "come home with me (we're waiting for you)" by vastvastvast. Diopen comforting odysseus post odyssey. Which honestly every fic by them is high key worth reading. Espacially the lastest two. One of my favorite authors!!

wishbone by asteraspera is a 4 part series spanning various parts of the illiad and the odyssey ending with diopenody all in itacha! However it does deal with some pretty heavy topics. Mainly the mental health affect of being a child solider and having undiagnosed schizophrenia

the cost by still_mourning_polites dio and ody kill some sirens together

Nostos by this hazeleyeddemon idk if you read smut so ignore this last one if not but a very sweet hurt/comfort between diopenody where pen and ody are reassuring dio thst of course he still has a place with them.

And not exactly what you're looking for but if you haven't read survival tactics by where_the_crazy_often_go or Two lions at midnight aegialia you sould definitely check them out! They're both excellent dio focused series

And finally if you like cheesy chat fics the secret 25th book(the chat log) by allise is a fun modern au featuring diopenody and odysseus adding his son to the work group chat for shits and giggles.

I have read a few of these and they’re very good but some of them I have not read!! Thank you!!

[bodhranwriting]

Tocktick - Anxious single father Emmett Askren agrees to enter a prestigious airship race to clear his debts and save his home, but every member of his crew has deadly ghosts on their tail, his foster father has returned from the dead after vanishing mysteriously four years prior, and their revolutionary engine is a time-bomb waiting to explode.

Nostos & the Filigree Lantern - The day the mines burst open, deaf goat herder Nostos was only one to escape capture by the denizens of the underground. With no help forthcoming and the chosen heroes apparently defeated, Nostos descends into a nightmare with nothing but his wits and the hope of a fabled light to save his brother from eternal darkness.

Flies in Amber - Archeology students Flora Beckett and Flora Avery are honoured when they are chosen to embark on the most important expedition in history. If they succeed they could turn back time and bring back the magic that held civilisation together. But the deep caverns at the end of the world hold far more than any of them could have ever imagined…

[mystical-flute]

Swanfire Week Day 4: Time Warp

Also on AO3

Oops, so this is a month late.

While investigating the last of Zelena's magic in Storybrooke, Emma and Neal are thrust back in time, and they must find the key to get them back home.

Okay. Now Emma was beginning to understand how everyone found Gold to be so damn creepy in the past. Not that she’d ever had a great feeling about him, even before she believed in magic, but the glittery skin and the lizard-like eyes were just downright intimidating and terrifying to look at.

Neal looked like he wanted another portal to open underneath him and take him far, far away from here. Emma couldn’t say she blamed him - despite their reuniting in Storybrooke and the work the two of them had put in already, she couldn’t imagine being confronted with Gold while he looked like that was easy for him.

“I thought I felt some powerful magic around here, and here you two are,” Rumplestiltskin hummed, his fingers steepled together. “I must say you’re rather brave to be in this kingdom.”

“And… why is that?” Emma questioned.

“Because of the war, of course. Snow White seems determined to take her kingdom back from her wicked stepmother,” Rumplestiltskin replied, before he gave her a smirk. “There aren’t many people in this realm that don’t know about that considering Regina’s reputation. I don’t think you’re from here at all.”

“How could you - ”

“I’m the Dark One, dearie. I know all.”

Neal visibly shuddered next to her.

“Okay, fine. We’re not from here. We got sent here from the future. See? It’s all written in this book,” Emma said, holding the book out in front of her. “I don’t know how to get us home. I wasn’t the one who cast the original time travel curse.”

“Ah… yes I understand now. But Once Upon a Time is a rather on the nose title for a book isn’t it?”

Emma shrugged. “Who knows why authors choose the titles they do?”

Gold smirked. “Yes. Who knows indeed.”

“So how do Neal and I get back to our time?”

“That depends on you, dearie. What was it in this time that you hated so badly that you needed to change, hm? Who hurt you, and drove you to cast a spell like this? Desperation?”

“Neither of us cast the spell. We just got caught in the crossfire when Emma was trying to stop it.” Neal wasn’t looking at Gold as he spoke, and Emma couldn’t say she blamed him. “So just tell us how to get home already.”

“What’s wrong, dearie? Not a fan of the past?” Gold giggled.

“You could say that.”

Gold flourished his hands. “Well, if neither of you cast the curse, then I suppose you’ll just have to watch the way things play out. Perhaps there’s a feeling of loss that you have, that being here will heal. Just be sure not to change things around… you don’t want something you love to disappear.”

“But how do I - ”

“There is a lake not too far from here. The waters there are magical, so I’m sure you’ll be able to work it out. And who knows? You might be able to find what you’re missing.”

But she wasn’t missing anything, was she…?

Gold raised a brow, like he knew what the issue was, and smiled. “Yes well, if you’re going to risk running into people, you’re going to need to look the part.” His hands flourished, clouds of smoke surrounding them for a moment before it vanished, and they were on the edge of… what was supposed to be a lake, she was sure, but looked like an empty sand pit.

“Where the hell did he send us?” Neal whispered as they kept themselves hidden within the thicket of trees. They were alone, which was weird.

“I don’t know,” Emma whispered as she stepped forward. “But… I feel like I’ve been here before. It feels familiar.”

“You mean when you got sucked through Jefferson’s hat?”

Emma nodded. “Yeah, but it’s weird… I could have sworn this was a lake.” It was coming back to her now, slowly. This was the place she’d fought Hook and Cora, right before she and her mother had gone back to Storybrooke.

Before they had gone… home.

“This is Lake Nostos… there was supposed to be some sort of magical water in it… I wonder why your dad would have sent us here?”

“I wonder why there’s no water here,” Neal added with a frown, crouching down. “Does Henry’s book say anything about this place?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, sitting on a log she wasn’t sure was technically on the shore or if she’d be drowning if the lake looked normal. “Keep an eye out for anyone else coming and I’ll take a look.”

Neal nodded, looking into the thick brush that surrounded them.

Emma sighed and flipped through the book, searching for any mention of Lake Nostos. She stopped at one, where a siren tried to get David to drown himself to join her by disguising herself as Mary-Margaret (which Emma shuddered at, because ew). But the lake seemed fine, so she moved on, flipping further into the book, and only stopping when she noticed the same empty basin.

“Oh no,” she whispered, flipping through the story and hoping for a happy ending despite knowing it wasn’t meant to be. “Neal… this is the place David’s mother died.”

Neal’s eyes widened. “Oh no. So if Papa sent us here, does that mean there’s something you need to see before we’re able to go home?”

Emma opened her mouth to reply, but shut it quickly when they heard the sound of footsteps and the creak of something being pulled. Neal ducked in front of her as she shoved the book in her bag, only managing to close it in time for her parents and Lancelot to appear from the forest, and her grandmother - and Emma could hardly believe she would be meeting one of her grandparents - on a cart being pulled behind them.

And Ruth had an arrow in her shoulder, her skin a sickly pale color as blood dripped onto her shoulder.

God, why would she have to watch one of her loved ones die? Hadn’t she been through enough? Hadn’t they all been through enough?

David had fallen to the ground and was clawing desperately at the sand, and Mary-Margaret was dabbing at Ruth’s forehead, bent over the cart and speaking to her so quietly Emma couldn’t hear her.

“Hey!” Lancelot shouted, looking at Emma and Neal with a hand on his sword. “Who are you and what happened to this lake?”

Emma held her hands up in surrender. “I’m… Odette, and this is Derek. We came here hoping to find some magic that will aid us in our quest. We don’t know what happened. The lake was like this when we got here.”

Lancelot frowned. “I see. We were hoping to save Ruth here. King George’s men attacked her.”

Neal gave him a weak smile. “Well, there’s five of us. If we spread out and dig, surely we’ll be able to find some.”

It wasn’t fair, Emma thought as she got down on her knees and began digging in the sand. She knew the little bit she was digging for wouldn’t work, that Ruth would die either way. The little drop David found wouldn’t be enough.

“Young lady… Odette, you said your name was?” she heard Ruth say quietly.

Emma looked up from the hole she’d been digging. “Oh - um, yes, Ruth?”

“Come here, dear. Away from my son and soon to be daughter-in-law’s ears,” Ruth requested, gesturing weakly with one of her hands, and when Emma leaned close to her, she smiled softly. “If you - if you find any of the magic water, make sure Snow drinks it. Not me.”

Emma’s eyes widened. “What? But why? You’re the one who - ”

“She’s had a curse placed on her. One that will prevent her from bearing a child… and I can’t in good conscious live while she has that burden.”

Emma felt the color drain from her face. What?

“So please… promise me she will get the water. And you, of course. I do not know what burdens you, but you’re so young. You deserve to be free of your burdens too.”

Emma nodded a little, and god, she knew she shouldn’t but… David would find a small bit of water, and somehow, her mother must have been the one to drink it, not Ruth so… if Emma could pull the same trick on Ruth that Ruth had done to Mary-Margaret… it wouldn’t hurt, right? Saving her father from the pain and agony of losing his mother would only help, not hinder, right? It wouldn’t be a bad thing…

So Emma dug, and dug, and dug until she thought her hands would start to bleed, and David found the small amount, and the switch happened with the water. Ruth, of course, did not heal from her injury.

Instead, Ruth asked to watch Mary-Margaret and David get married, so Emma and Neal helped them set it up, creating bouquets and setting up an arch.

“Ruth,” Emma murmured as she handed her a completed bouquet of wildflowers. “There is something you should know.”

Ruth was already looking dazed, but she did blink in an attempt to listen. “What is it, dear?”

“Ma - Snow’s curse will be broken,” Emma replied. “I know for a fact… because I’m living proof of it.”

“What?”

Emma smiled. “My name is Emma Swan… I’m your granddaughter. I got flung back in time and Neal and I are trying to get back to our own time period but… I just wanted you to know that your sacrifice will not be in vain.”

Ruth returned the smile and reached up to pat at Emma’s cheek. “Oh… that’s so good to hear. Thank you for soothing an old woman’s heart.”

“Hey Odette! Is everything alright?” she heard Mary-Margaret call

It wasn’t alright, because she couldn’t save Ruth. She was the Savior… how could she not save her own grandmother? But she couldn’t let that slip, so she forced herself to look over at her with a smile. “Of course Snow. I was just giving Ruth her flowers.”

Standing beside her mother as she married her father was a strange sensation, but it was really making her think of all the sacrifices her family made so she (and the new baby) could come into the world. She thought about the nursery that was supposed to be hers, the unicorn mobile, being put into the wardrobe to escape Regina’s curse… and now Ruth’s sacrifice.

It made her so damn itchy to think about it, because she hadn’t exactly shown she cared.

She wanted to go home. Not to New York with Henry (and preferably Neal), but to Storybrooke. To her family.

Was this why the curse sent them here? So she could truly understand the impact of the sacrifices?

“Mother!” David suddenly said, the wedding ceremony complete and both of them looking so stupidly happy to be with each other. “We - mother?”

But it was too late.

Emma and Neal stayed back as David and Mary-Margaret rushed over to the cart, devastation on their faces - looks she’d only seen in the book after they’d sent her through the wardrobe.

Seeing it in person was worse.

“Emma - ” Neal murmured.

“I want to go home,” she whispered against his shoulder. “I want to go back to Storybrooke. I want my family - our family. I can’t believe I was so stupid to think about leaving.”

With her words, the ground suddenly opened beneath them, swallowing them into the golden light.

They landed in the barn they’d originally been sucked into. Everything in it looked the same, and Emma scrambled to her feet, hoping beyond anything that it was the same outside too. The baby’s big naming party was today, or at least, it should be.

“Baelfire! You found her, thank goodness!” she heard Hook call as they raced toward Granny’s. “They were about to send out a search party.”

“Just needed a pep talk, Hook, that’s all,” Neal said with a nervous cough.

Emma stepped inside, finding all the guests that had been invited mingling and laughing, and her parents looked up in relief.

“Mom, Dad,” she said as she threw her arms around them. It was the first time those words had left her mouth. “I’m so sorry I’m late. I just… needed to think about some things, and I realized how much you had to fight for your happy ending, and that… it includes me.”

“Mom?” Henry said, glancing up from the soda he was drinking. “Does that mean - ”

“That’s right kid… we’re staying here. We’re staying home.”

Her mother laughed in relief. “Thank goodness… you’re going to have a lot to teach your brother.”

“So what’s his name then?” Emma asked, sitting next to Henry in the booth.

Her mother smiled. “Thank you all for coming. David and I are thrilled to introduce you to our new son… Prince Derek.”

Emma exchanged a surprised glance with Neal, managing to hide her laughter in the cheers and applause from the rest of the crowd.

It seems they made an impression in the past after all.

[seventeen02]

favorite movies !

say you love me

a moment of romance

in blow

scarface

life is beautiful

death in venice

purple noon

mr and mrs smith

hackers

leon

girl interrupted

in the mood for love

days being wild

fallen angel

the beautiful person

the apartment

fuyajo

the black swan

the godfather 2

my own private idaho

two lovers under one roof

the scent of green papaya

vertical ray of the sun

stealing beauty

teorema

call me by your name

bonnie and clyde

fight club

kill bill

city of the rising sun

wheels of ashes

fruit of paradise

floating clouds

ghosts

inception

x movie

ley lines

the brown bunny

american psycho

platonic sex

last night in soho

emma

pride and prejudice

red lights

the dreamers

the wind rises

closer

six in paris

mermaids

garden state

on the occasion of remembering the turning gate

the doom generation

the girl on the motorcycle

open house

the place without limits

ratatouille

twin peaks

before sunrise

malèna

possession

all about lily chou chou

bride for rip van winkle

the lover

amelie

rebels of the neon god

as tears go by

a moment to remember

the hot spot

less than zero

edward scissorhands

eyes wide shut

un homme et une femme

the story of adele h

the last mistress

billboard dad

metropolitan

the pillow book

singles

la la land

mirrored mind

fatal frame

and then we danced

dear ex

tune in for love

one fine spring day

reality bites

running on empty

millennium mambo

lost and found

who's the woman, who's the man

mulholland drive

Jess + Moss

swallowtail butterfly

dorian gray

durian durian

hana & alice

40 days and 40 nights

l'amour braque

picnic

to each is own

guilty of romance

vagabond

city of madness

three times

mary is happy mary is happy

comet

sleepless town

like someone in love

hausu

house

46 okunen no koi

2046

l'enfer

cloud atlas

old boy

mystery train

the odd one dies

kedi

l'amour l'apres-midi

fire on the black hand side

le bonheur

fantastic planet

mirror

belladonna of sadness

daisies

lost highway

sweet movie

pearl

heathers

moulin rouge

suspiria

the rich man's wife

requiem for a dream

the others

return of the living dead

dracula

interview with the vampire

wir kinder vom bahnof zoo

le mepris

chi-n-pi-ra

chungking express

ashes and snow

shuttering island

the grand budapest hotel

the young girls of rochefort

the florida project

the edge of love

irreversible

crash

gone girl

bullet ballet

of love and shadows

minari

galaxy express 999

audition

lan yu

silsila

belle de jour

taal

dead or alive

videodrama

lost in translation

washington square

soulmate

summer lovers

barbarella

snake of june

a woman under the influence

mysterious skin

red eye

happy together

the walk

brick

l.a. confidental

love & pop

linda linda linda

swing girls

nana

the lover

hirugao

helter sketler

suzhou river

kaili blues

kamikaze girls

valerie and her week of wonders

comrades, almost a love story

naked lunch

endless love

whiplash

taxi driver

vivre sa vie

la collectionneuse

dog day afternoon

night in paradise

my mister

my name

better days

himizu

first love, letter on the breeze

split of the spirit

one million yen girl

juncchi mori

la belle

ITSAY

mermaid legend

blue spring

badlands

marie antoinette

aftersun

brokeback mountain

portrait of lady on fire

nostos: the return

shiki-jitsu

farewell my concubine

constantine

never let me go

bones and all

paris is burning

trouble everyday

memories of matsuko

pierrot le feu

taipei story

blue velvet

a woman is a woman

buffalo 66

the love witch

valley of dolls

the rocky horror picture show

[will-one-with-the-bees]

Odysseus is a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in that same epic cycle. As the son of Laërtes and Anticlea, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus, Acusilaus, and Telegonus , Odysseus is renowned for his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility, and he is thus known by the epithet as Odysseus the Cunning. He is most famous for his nostos, or "homecoming", which took him ten eventful years after the decade-long Trojan War.

Offerings:

-Wine

-Water

-Candle

-Olives

-Books aka The Iliad and The Odyssey

-Incense

-Coffee or tea

-Figures of ships

Devotional acts:

-Learn sailing

-Learn self defence

-Workout

-Go on an adventure

-Travel

-Learn about past wars

-Learn battle strategies

-Charity

[bathtimebonanza]

The ELEPHANT HEART CAMPAIGN

'NOSTOS, Voices for the Journey Home' is the first project to ignite our ELEPHANT HEART goal. This magnificent art book will be a stunning collaborative envisioning of visual art and poetry about our relationship with Mother Earth. I’m asking for your help to produce a trade edition plus a special limited edition, along with its precursor, MAENAM, Of Water, Of Light, a book of my photographs with poems by six remarkable poets. Profits from both books will help nourish our goal to ignite a scholarship fund. ELEPHANT HEART expresses a belief in the power of creative imagination, in the potential of the child’s spirit, and our obligation to nurture that spirit in furtherance of our understanding that this planet we call home is home to all life.

[bilbobagginsomebabez]

I got these tags about nostalgia recently and i’ve been unable to stop thinking about them because as it happens, I wrote my undergrad thesis on a topic related to nostalgia and have a fair amount of writing on it already. so i've gone and pulled a few paragraphs

nostalgia itself is not a useless act or a reductive farce. Rather than time, the heart of nostalgia is, in truth, connection in the face of distance, either temporal or spatial. Clay Routledge, in his book Nostalgia: A Psychological Resource asserts that nostalgia is used to address and counteract loss, loneliness or isolation, identity discontinuity, or a sense of existential meaningless. In essence, social pain induces nostalgia. When an individual experiences emotional distress, they call back to memories in which that distress was appeased or nonexistent and use that sense of emotional fulfillment to bolster their wellbeing against the stressor. If one is lonely, they remember their friends in another time or place. If one is suddenly unsure of who they are, they remember what made them who they are. The experience of nostalgia addresses breaks in connection and cognitively repairs them, making the experience of nostalgia a fundamental human survival mechanism. Though it takes many names in many cultures, the psychological process of nostalgia is truly universal to the human experience.

The two root words of nostalgia— “nostos” meaning home and “logos” meaning longing—create the opportunity to find meaning two different places. Restorative nostalgia focuses on the idea of home and the desire to return to recreate it, and reflective nostalgia derives meaning from distance and the longing for something that is no longer within reach.

there are good and bad ways to apply nostalgia, but no way to avoid it.

specific and interesting types of nostalgia and related topics under the cut

imperialist nostalgia: nostalgia for something that you have destroyed; “mourning the death of that which you have killed” ex. noble savage rhetoric in the us applied to american indians

indirect belongingness strategy: ways of generating community/connection in the absence of others; ex. listening to the radio or playing the TV in the background while home alone

Solastalgia: the psychic distress caused by the change/destruction in the environment; the soul sickness at the destruction of a landscape you knew; when a place is gone ex. the destruction of a house you lived in or a soccer field being turned into a parking lot | not about time, about place

Golden Age: the retroactive application of meaning and greatness to a period in the past-- “The Good Old Days”

[wxttxwxn]

(via Shape Grammars | Jannis Maroscheck | nostos books ノストスブックス)

[burner-of-ships]

so i read Lies We Sing To The Sea, and honestly i do not think this book was worth all the drama that surrounded it.

it's a perfectly fine YA fantasy, even complete with a love triangle. i read it in 3 days, it wasn't exactly mindblowing but it was engaging enough and the ending genuinely surprised me. i liked it, but probably won't read it again.

and the entire tag for the book is just people who haven't even read it screeching about how the author, Sarah Underwood hasn't read the Odyssey, and is from England.

and now i feel the need to rant:

right away i'm going to brush away the England point, because it feels like just another symptom of this weird hatred of England that's overcome tumblr in the past few years. sometimes it's funny, like yeah, we are pretty shitty, the monarchy and the British Museum suck, and that should be talked about. i'm not going to act like i'm oppressed because people online make fun of a country i just happened to be born in. but it so often slips over into classism. you lot make fun of poor brits way more than the people in power. funny British accents? working class accents. gross British food? poverty meals. it's punching down.

admittedly, i have no clue what Sarah Underwood's finances were or are like, before or after she sold her book. but my point is that i'm not entertaining this idea that her being English inherently makes her worse, because i don't trust this scorn to be warranted anymore. from white Greek people especially. sorry, but the BM having a few of your statues does not make you an oppressed minority any more than me being from the north of england makes me one, and it's frankly embarrassing for you to keep acting like a non-Greek writing a story set in Ancient Greece is at all equivalent to actual cultural appropriation.

it's not her fault she got a publishing deal and you didn't. be honest for a second, that is what you're mad about, isn't it? that she has a bigger megaphone than you right now. there's no shame in it, all of social media is about trying to grab attention, and drama is good at that, but let's not get too aggressive towards those who don't need to get mad on the internet to get that attention.

as for the not reading the Odyssey thing... first of all i read that whole interview and i can say right away that that interviewer did a shit job. she misspells the name of Jessie Burton, another Greek myth reteller, for christs sake! if the interviewer seemed to Underwood as thick as she seems to me, i don't blame her for fumbling a bit. talking to idiots is hard, and we have no idea how accurately she was portrayed, considering the people publishing the interview clearly did no research or spell checking.

and as someone who has read the Odyssey... no, you really don't need to have read it all to write a story set hundreds of years later, with only one character in common, a character who is given barely any characterisation in the original text. there is one chapter in this book that retells a part of the Odyssey, and i think it did it excellently. you don't need to read about Polyphemus or Circe or Nausicaa to write about the lives of those inside the palace. we don't know how much the author actually did or didn't read, but to me reading the book, it seems like she read enough.

the people who are acting like you have to know the Odyssey inside and out to write anything remotely related to it are snobs, plain and simple. not everybody was lucky enough to get an education in classics. it circles back around to this issue of classism in the UK, only private schools and i believe seven public schools teach ancient languages or classics. picking up The Odyssey from a random bookshelf and reading it with no prior knowledge of the time and place it was set in can be hard! the customs were completely different than they are today! with nobody to explain xenia or nostos or epithets to you, it can be daunting! some translations have great forewords that can help with that, but not all.

is the book a masterpiece? no, it's a bloody YA book! have you seen the absolute deluge that market pushes out? there are plenty of mid books padding out the genre, and this is just one of them. i can name half a dozen better greek myth retellings or YA romance-adventures, and i do always recommend you read the actual classics if you think they'll interest you. all i'm saying is that the book doesn't deserve the absolute slating it's getting, and that Sarah Underwood certainly doesn't deserve this harassment or review bombing. does anybody deserve that, just for writing a silly YA book? sometimes we need to take a step back from the bachannal and really think about who or what we're ripping to pieces in our frenzy.

i'm not gonna sit here and insist you read Lies We Sing to The Sea or praise Sarah Underwood. for all i talk, i can't reach through the screen and touch you, you can do what you like with your time and energy. but if you do share your thoughts or leave a review, then yeah, i think you should have at least read a couple of chapters, at the very least to avoid showing your ass by parroting blatantly false statements. and if you make up your mind on how you feel on it after only a few chapters... well i don't think you have much of a leg to stand on when you complain that she drew conclusions without reading all of the Odyssey.

[seijorhi]

In regards to the horror ask that got deleted accidentally, umm I don't think i remember everything I asked, but it was probably about if you got inspo from books or movies for your more horror/thriller focused fics? (Like lightning rod and fracture?) And if you knew media with a similar vibe to those two fic bc they're goated i think

Sorry! I have bad memory 😔

Sgdhdhdkslsl pls don’t apologise nonnie, I'm the one who accidentally deleted it :c

The idea for lightning rod was actually sort of inspired by this one line from an episode of criminal minds. Essentially the victim of the week forms an unhealthy attachment to the serial killer who was copy-catting her ex husband (also a serial killer, naturally) after his execution. She makes a comment about how her daddy said there was something wrong with her growing up, because she kept attracting bad men.

The novel mentioned in Lightning Rod, In the Miso Soup, doesn't have much to do with the actual plot of that specific fic, but it is undeniably an unsettling read, and very much sets the scene for the seedy underbelly of Tokyo. very cat and mouse, which also lended itself to 907. hehe.

Fracture was more just me being horny for older Osamu playing the long game and emotionally manipulating the object of his obsession.

As for other fics, nostos took inspiration from Japanese myths and your usual monster fucking/werewolf films, Final Girl obviously took a lot from the classic slasher movies – tcm, friday the 13th, and Finders Keepers from some zombie classics as well as the Walking Dead.

Echoes took a loose inspiration from the Haunting of Hill House (more in the ‘the house is slowly eating away at you and doesn’t want you to leave’ kinda way)

[ofallingstar]

Three songs, books and movies

Tagged by @thehiddenbaroness. Thank you!

Songs

+ Abstract (Psychopomp) by Hozier

+ Figure 8 by Paramore

+ Liberation by Muse

Books

+ On Heroes and Tombs by Ernesto Sabato

+ The Bone People by Keri Hulme

+ Skippy Dies by Paul Murray

Movies

+ Nostos, The Return (1989, Franco Piavoli)

+ Céline (1992, Jean-Claude Brisseau)

+ Farewell My Concubine (1993, Chen Kaige)

[seaofwine]

nostos

I think that everyone has their media of choice that they carry around with them since childhood. Mine was a copy of The Adventures of Ulysses, a small copy reprinted in the 80s that my dad had on one of the bottom shelves of his office. After borrowing it often enough I put it with my own books, it was small enough I trusted he would never notice. I carried it with me in the bottom of my backpack, slept with it on my nightstand, and tucked it into my suitcase when leaving home for the first time to visit Europe. I read it over and over again until my copy nearly disintegrated, memorizing passages that to this day still cross my mind. 

As a child, I idolized Odysseus. I wanted to be like him - clever, crafty, inventive. I thought he was The Coolest and couldn’t get enough of his mythology. It was this inexplicable obsession that confounded the adults around me. It was my comfort book. I too grew up on an island with its own stories of monsters and vicious tides when the wind turned - I lived for the sea. The ocean was home. I learned to tie fisherman’s knots from my Navy-vet grandfather, and picked out jelly fishing lures to play with and get stuck in the bottom of my pockets. I went kayaking with friends through the waterways and cut the bottoms of my feet so often on oyster beds that I have several permanent scars from their shells. 

This all is coming back to me now, after leaving home about ten months ago. In May it will have been a year. I’ve come down with a fever this week (thanks again Ms. Rona, just can’t get enough of me it seems) and in an attempt to reconnect with the story I have always loved, I’ve been reading sections of the Odyssey for the nth time. As I’ve been reading, I’ve been taking care to refer back to the Greek (when I have the energy to do so) and this word keeps catching my attention - νόστος. In its context, many translators keep it as ‘returning by sea from the sack of Troy’, while others give it a looser definition that applies to any return of a character or hero by sea from an adventure. This term, νόστος, also gives us the word nostalgia; this heartwrenching combination of nostos and algos, where algos ties this longing for home with not just an ache or sadness but with systemic distress at a lack of viable options to return home.

Sometimes these stories stick with you for a reason, a lesson or comfort you seek at different times in life. I am very fortunate that mine comes from my religion, where I can reach out to my gods for guidance when that pain and longing for a home that I cannot yet return to hits a little closer. 

[bodhrancomedy]

So, I had someone on TikTok smugly claim that I was only trying to promote my own work "at the expense of JK Rowling who is a better writer than I will ever be" and you know what? Sure. Here's a bunch of opening lines I'm pretty damn proud of.

THE WAY THROUGH THE WOODS

"It had taken almost a century of denial – and nearly two more of experimentation – before Palamon Keeper accepted it was, in fact, impossible for him to die."

NOSTOS AND THE FILIGREE LANTERN

"The earth opened up on a Tuesday, just before noon."

THE LIGHTNING HERDERS

"The first thing Third learnt about the town called Folly was that it had its own weather bubble, but the second - far more interesting thing - was that it was never supposed to exist."

UNNAMED LIBRARY MYSTERY

"Rogi didn’t know which was worse: the fact someone had broken the spine of the book abandoned in the alleyway or that it was the most obvious trap he’d ever seen."

HOLOFERNES HOLLOW

"The embers looked like fireflies, pouring out of the skeleton of the horticultural shop."

It was number 5, but I still think that’s too high.