#so I pick up my copy of the iliad and start reading it

[m00nbuggies]

IM BACK IN THE FUCKING BUILDING 😭😭😭😭😭

[orchidsarchives]

Hey babe- I wanted to know how you felt about booknerd!reader x Jason. Because it's been rotting my brain forever now and I need to know what someone as genius as yourself thinks about it. So like- We know Jason is a book girl. He's got huge floor to ceiling shelves in his apartment filled with non-fiction, historical fiction, classics, and maybe a few Si-Fi titles. I feel like he would love Toni Morison, Maya Angelou, Henrik Isben, Margret Atwood, and maybe even Harukai Murakami. He has this beautiful collection of leather bond additions of the Iliad Bruce gave him when he was 16. And when he finally invites you over, he cannot contain his excited smile as you start gushing over his home library. He makes you guys coffee and you spend hours talking about your fav genres, authors, online author drama - and after he's walking back to his apartment after dropping you off, he's smiling down at his phone at the message you sent. 'I had so much fun today! Ur library is so so so cool, was wondering if you would be ok going with me to Chapters next week? Wanted to pick up the new Skyward book' He's kicking his feet and hiding his face in his pillow. So deeply overjoyed that his crush shares in his immense love of literature. After you guys officially get together, he buys you so many fucking books. He fallows your goodreads wishlist religiously and surprises you almost every month with a new addition to your growing collection. He usually collects used paper backs, but for you, he splurges on the hardcover special additions. Of course it's because he loves you but it's also so that, maybe, you'll be more incentivised to move into a different apartment. One with floor-to-ceiling book shelves and a shared bed... just saying.. He branches out into more genres and authors he wouldn't usually read from just so he could talk about your favourite books with you. You do the same - your book collections getting mixed together in the process. Library dates, bookstore dates, used-bookstore dates. Your first couple of dates and realisations of love happened in and around books. You would always leave little messages inside the first page of the books you give him. So that if your every away or he's on a mission and he takes a book with him, he'll have one of your small messages of love as a reminder of something to return home to.

Hi hon!! I’m so sorry for the late response, I’ve been dying with uni and just life in general recently, but I’m back and ready to write again!! But I agree with pretty much everything that you said, like you’ve written it out so well and it’s just so cute! I was literally giggling and kicking my feet at the last one omg. I shall try to add more stuff!!

Jason’s go to present for his loved ones is annotated copies of his favourite books. He only does this when he feels comfortable with a person because sharing his thoughts feels raw and vulnerable sometimes.

Having a significant other who loves to read and appreciates these types of gifts would make him feel happy and very emotional. It’s not often he gets to share this side of himself with people.

When he gifts his copies to his friends or his partner, he feels like he’s leaving a piece of him with the person, so he only does this when he trusts you.

He leaves detailed little messages on the margins of his books. He draws little smiley faces on the cute parts and angry faces on the parts that made him upset.

In the books for his significant other, Jason leaves little notes around the quotes that remind him of you. He highlights them in a different colour and makes sure his notes look extra tidy.

He sucks at wrapping things, so sometimes you’ll get a very poorly wrapped, tape covered novel. You’ll look at the wrapping and laugh, you’d pinch his cheeks teasingly and tell him he did a good job. He’d turn his face away in embarrassment, which leads to you placing a gentle kiss on his cheek.

Then, there would be times where he doesn’t have the energy to deal with the horrible wrapping paper. So, you’ll be gifted a plain paper back with a sticky note on the front cover that reads ‘for you,’ in squiggly lines.

It’s honestly sweet and he gets very shy about it.

Also, Jason’s taste in books is very diverse, he reads anything from the classics to romance to gothic horror. He reads anything and everything and because of that, I think that it would be very easy for you to share your thoughts and recommendations with him.

Even if Jason hasn’t read the book, he listens intently with a huge smile on his face. He loves listening to you talk. If he doesn’t know the author or the book, he will try to familiarize himself with what you’re reading and branch into different genres.

There would be lots of reading and bookstore dates. You’d browse through the different aisles with his hand in yours, only letting go when a particular book catches your attention. He watches you in awe as you gush about the different series.

(Side note, my friends and I always go to bookstores and just point out the worst books we’ve read and I think Jason would do that too.)

As you search through the shelves to find your next read, he’ll come to you all excited, rambling about the book in his hand. From the looks of it, it seems like he loves the book. His hands are moving around, he’s smiling and giggling, but if you pay attention, he’s actually just cussing out the author.

This becomes a tradition in your relationship. You both bring up books that you hate instead of the ones that you really enjoy. You’d spend the next hour of your bookstore visit just giggling at the random passages that the author thought were good enough to share with the world.

I think this would also lead to a book club of reading awful books sometimes just for shits and giggles. There would be weeks where you would read amazing, well written stories together, but then there would be times when you guys would pick up something bad just to make fun of it.

Overall, Jason would love having a book nerd significant other because he finally has someone who he can geek out with.

[most-normal-eccles-cake-ignorer]

Good Omens: Lockdown, Aziraphale’s SAD-ASS desk, and how they get to 'Our bookshop' in S2

Welcome to part 2 of me reading reeaally far into the Good Omens: Lockdown video! (part 1 from Crowley's POV here) This post assumes the item choices in the Lockdown visuals are intentional. What follows is going to be my headcanon regardless, but if you're into the Word of God, Lockdown is canon 'If you want it to be.' and I want it to be, sooo checkmate! >;D

Also this is something of a long boi (~13 minute read without following the links >.>), so if you're into unhinged analysis of details and literary references that indicate Aziraphale is in his longing era and want to learn more about author and fave-of-Gaiman, G.K. Chesterton, either get comfy or mark this to read later when you have time!

C: What? A: *somehow surprised even though HE CALLED* A-ah, hello. It's me! C: I know it's you, Aziraphale. A: *regaining composure* Yes, well, just calling to see how you were doing in lockdown.

The video starts with shots of Aziraphale and Crowley's da Vinci sketches (and some sushi remnants)... Babygirl is flipping through the time-goes-too-fast-for-me version of a facebook album, thinking about his crush. vERY chill of him. (also the paper looks new and he's eating on top of them, suggesting these are prints and he has multiple copies of them... sooo normal)

If we look closer at the still of Crowley's portrait, we can see part of the spine of a book that reads Kei- Chesterto-. This is, of course, author Gilbert Keith Chesterton, to whom Neil and Terry (and Crowley) dedicated Good Omens:

The authors would like to join the demon Crowley in dedicating this book to the memory of G. K. Chesterton A man who knew what was going on.

In this post by @azfellandco about Chesterton, you can see a photo of the dedication page and also read the book excerpt where Crowley describes Chesterton as 'the only poet in the twentieth century to even come close to the Truth'.

C: I'm bored. I'm so very very bored - transcendentally bored. There's nothing to do here!

As Crowley is explaining his nap contingency plan, we get a shot of Aziraphale picking up his mug of hot chocolate, then the image below of the 2/3rds gone bottle of Courvoisier cognac (i mean maybe he is baking with it let's not jump to conclusions), and then the stack of books beside a framed woodcut print of witches dancing with devils...

...that I used reverse image search to trace back to page 17 of a book from 1720 called The history of witches and wizards: giving a true account of all their tryals in England, Scotland, Swedeland, France, and New England; with their confession and condemnation.

Interestingly, the text above and below the picture reads:

At their Meeting they have usually Wine, or good Beer, Cakes, Meat, or the like; they Eat and Drink really: When they meet in their Bodies, Dance also, and have Musick...

Beside the framed print of Aziraphale's idea of a really great night out is a stack of books that includes (going from top to bottom):

Homer's The Iliad, Book 2

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton

Forbidden Rites: A Necromancer's Manual of the Fifteenth Century by Richard Kieckhefer

a book by Hilaire Belloc with no visible title

The Club of Queer Trades by G.K. Chesterton

The Iliad (according to sparknotes) has the following major themes:

....Interesting, ok. Book 2 in particular starts with a god (Zeus) messing with someone (Agamemnon) via a dream that says he will be successful in taking Troy if he launches a full assault, balls to the (city) wall. Agamemnon, who is supposed to be leading the Achaean army to conquer Troy, believes the dream but then in a weird twist decides to test his army and be like 'jk actually I'm giving up and going home' and then is mad when the soldiers are like 'sick, to the boats!' Then Odysseus, who sparknotes tells me is the most eloquent of the Achaeans, gives an impressive speech to inspire the troops and reminds them that they vowed 'that they would not abandon their struggle until the city fell.' ...No way that could worsen Aziraphale's internal conflict about being a bad Angel who thwarted the Great Plan. >.>; Orthodoxy we'll get to in a second.

Then there's Forbidden Rites which is a medieval necromancy guide translated from Latin with added commentary - Aziraphale is perhaps studying occult topics in an attempt to understand Crowley better? And then there's the Hilaire Belloc book on top of the second Chesterton book, a collection of related stories/episodes?, The Club of Queer Trades. The book's Wikipedia page says:

Each story in the collection is centered on a person who is making his living by some novel and extraordinary means. To gain admittance [to the Club of Queer Trades] one must have invented a unique means of earning a living and the subsequent trade being the main source of income.

Aziraphale and Crowley have rather novel/extraordinary jobs and they're both peculiar-queer and gay-queer. Neat. The narrator in the book is named Charlie "Cherub" Swinburne - also neat. >.> He goes on an adventure with his friend, a retired judge and president of the Club of Queer Trades, Basil Grant, (who Oct 2021 GoodReads reviewer Cecily said is "described as mad, mystical, and a poet, with almost no friends, but who “would talk to any one anywhere”) and Basil's younger brother, a private detective named Inspector Constable Rupert Grant. The last line of the book is:

Thus our epic ended where it had begun, like a true cycle. (something something "It starts, as it will end, with a garden.")

Anyway, the Belloc book and The Club of Queer Trades are placed back to back in such a way that they almost look like they could be one book with two different aesthetics, or... two halves of a pantomime beast?! (stay with me I needed a segue)

Belloc and Chesterton have what is essentially a ship name:

It was coined by George Bernard Shaw (if you are like me and didn't know why you've heard of him: he wrote, among other things, Pygmalion, which was adapted into My Fair Lady). Shaw apparently liked to gossip about Belloc and Chesterton with H.G. Wells (again if you're uncultured like me: he wrote, among other science fiction-y things, The War of the Worlds).

In the Feb 15, 1908 issue of The New Age newspaper, Shaw said:

He continued:

"Chesterton and Belloc are so unlike that they get frightfully into one another’s way. ... They are unlike in everything except the specific literary genius and delight in play-acting that is common to them, and that threw them into one another’s arms.”

Shaw says Belloc is 'a bit of a rowdy', and 'cannot bear isolation'. Hmm. Then he says Chesterton is 'friendly, easy-going, unaffected, gentle, magnanimous, and genuinely democratic'. HMM.

“They share one failing—almost the only specific trait they have in common except their literary talent. That failing is, I grieve to say, addiction to the pleasures of the table.”

Ok ok I think we can see where this is going.

(^ from Staged S3E6)

Now, someone did ask Neil Gaiman about this similarity, and he said the Lockdown video was filmed by Rob Wilkins in Terry Pratchett's library, and that he suspects 'Belloc is there because he was on Terry's shelves beside Chesterton.' And it MAY VERY WELL BE that NONE (0) of the book titles are meant in any way other than 'these are books from Sir Pratchett's library that looked nice on camera and ofc we wanted some Chesterton refs and maybe some demon-y stuff for Crowley' but that is WAY less fun so I am choosing to take them as intentional: these are books Aziraphale is actually reading (along with the sushi and many cakes he is actually eating). Let's put ourselves in Aziraphale's shoes and try to imagine how it would be to read this stuff during lockdown while you pine for a demon with slinky hips after you got in big trouble at work for Armageddoff (and work happens to have defined your worldview and general purpose in life).

C: welll... ngk then people might follow my bad example and get ill. Or even die—

As Crowley acknowledges that he ought to be out making peoples' lives worse, we see Orthodoxy by Chesterton open on the desk.

Orthodoxy is described as a ‘spiritual autobiography’ and is considered a classic of Christian apologetics, i.e. the religious discipline of defending religious doctrines (in this case, Catholic) through systematic argumentation and discourse. Wikipedia also says Chesterton's The Everlasting Man contributed to C.S. Lewis' conversion to Christianity, so overall it sounds like he must've been fairly convincing. (and so maybe reading it also poked at that work-related-but-religious-trauma-adjacent stuff Aziraphale has going on?)

You can read Orthodoxy (and probably any of the books I mention bc theyre all old) on project gutenberg but I will include this part of what is shown on the righthand page bc it just reminds me (and so probably Azirapalala as well) of a certain angel squeaking happily at a nebula:

"I felt economical about the stars as if they were sapphires (they are called so in Milton's Eden): I hoarded the hills. For the universe is a single jewel, and while it is a natural cant to talk of a jewel as peerless and priceless, of this jewel it is literally true. This cosmos is indeed without peer and without price: for there cannot be another one."

Ok great, so Aziraphale is diving into the works of one of Crowley's favorite authors bc he misses him, that's cute. What else? Oh he already wrote him a letter right before calling - THE WICK ON THE WAX STICK FOR THE SEAL IS STILL SMOKING. sO CASUAL asdashgfjds

something something 'either call on the phone and talk, or appear mysteriously; don't do both'

When Aziraphale gets to 'I've never had so few customers, not in two hundred years!' We get a close up of this glass of cognac with droplets still on the side — I take back what I said about baking, Aziraphale is drinking it~

He's not drinking a wine, eg Châteauneuf-du-pape, which would be ~14% alcohol by volume (ABV), or a sherry (15-20% ABV); he is drinking Courvoisier cognac, a hard liquor (40% ABV). Crowley's Talisker whisky is 48.5% while we are on the topic. This is stronger than what Aziraphale usually drinks which means... he could be a bit tipsy.

As Aziraphale starts talking about the would-be cash-box burglary, we get this wide shot of the desk:

In the top left hand corner, we see two stacks of books, most (all?) of which appear to be Chesterton when I zoom in. Some of them have Chesterton's name visible on them, others have the publisher name 'Darwen Finlayson' on them, which according to my googling is a house that published several of Chesterton's works. If Chesterton was truly 'a man who knew what was going on', then perhaps this is Aziraphale seeking not just to feel closer to Crowley, but also to make sense of the warring ideas in his mind. Interestingly, Chesterton has also been described as 'The Eccentric Prince of Paradox'.

C: *clearly amused* Did you smite them with your wroth?

The screen then shows two occult-y books and a flickering candle (lower left image). Then Aziraphale explains about his cake~, and as Crowley cuts him off because he's about to nervously ask to come over bc he is so so lonely & down bad for a certain angelic bookworm, we see a map of Oxfordshire on top of Pilgrim's Progress (lower right image).

The two books beside the candle are Satanism and Witchcraft (presumably the 1862 book by Jules Michelet that comes up when I search the title), and another called Magic: An Occult Primer.

Satanism and Witchcraft is described on Wikipedia as 'notable for being one of the first sympathetic histories of witchcraft' and says 'Michelet was one of the first few people to attempt to show the sociological explanation of the Witch Trials.’ Sympathy for people who like to eat/drink/dance with demons, if you will?

Magic: An Occult Primer is a 1972 book by David Conway, a Welsh (CACHU HWCH!) magus and is described as 'a seminal work that brought magical training to the every-magician'. It also includes an appendix called The Occult Who's Who, which is somewhat reminiscent of Hastur's Furfur's book about angels. In Chapter 11: A Word About Demons, it says in regard to summoning them:

"Assuming that the form has turned up in the right place, it will soon begin to act and talk in a very friendly manner; do not forget, however, that its winning ways conceal a sinister intention-- namely, to get the adept out of the circle, and into its clutches.”

...okay?? Aziraphale's desk has a flickering candle on it throughout the video, and we get a close up of the flame when Crowley offers to slither over:

and just like that, Aziraphale has summoned a demon~~

Naturally, he freaks out:

A: *panicking*Oh I— I— I— I— I'm afraid that would be Breaking All The Rules! *nervous breathing* Out of the question! I'll see you… when this is over.

But why? Isn't this what he wanted? Let's go back to the Pilgrim's Progress shot from right before the successful demon summoning and zoom in:

In a similar vein to Orthodoxy, Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan, is an allegorical Puritan conversion narrative. Christian is the main character / stand in for anyone who wants to be in the allegory and Hopeful is well, hopeful, from what I gather. A slightly larger continuous excerpt is here for the curious, but here are some bits I thought were especially interesting in the part of the book shown above:

Christian: Why, what was it that brought your sins to mind again? Hopeful: Many things; as, If I did but meet a good man in the streets; or, If I have heard any read in the Bible; or, If mine head did begin to ache; or, If I were told that some of my neighbors were sick; or, If I heard the bell toll for some that were dead; or, If I thought of dying myself; or, If I heard that sudden death happened to others; But especially when I thought of myself that I must quickly come to judgment.

Perhaps the pandemic is bringing Aziraphale's "sins" to mind again, on top of the whole choosing faces thing to avoid 'quickly coming to judgment'. And then:

Hopeful: I thought I must endeavor to mend my life; for else, thought I, I am sure to be lost forever. Christian: And did you endeavor to mend? Hopeful: Yes, and fled from not only my sins, but sinful company too, and betook me to religious duties, as praying, reading, weeping for sin, speaking truth to my neighbors, etc.

UM??? While I can't say about the praying or weeping for sin, he has definitely been reading and the whole 'giving a good talking to' the burglars could be 'speaking truth to [the] neighbors'...?

Anyway to recap:

Aziraphale has been poring over books about dark magic and demons as well as a ton of books by an author that Crowley loves and who formed a partnership w a very different person in a sort of yin-yang, pantomime beast situation

He has been looking at pictures that remind him of their fun times w Leo in Florence and eating sushi and cake cake cake (and forgiving sinners) and drinking hot chocolate and cognac trying to fill a void but now he's tipsy so he wrote Crowley a letter, stamped it with a wax seal and then thought 'I should call her' BUT

His recent brush with attempted death penalties, the death toll of the pandemic, and some of the religious books he was reading have also filled him with guilt/fear over disobeying Heaven, who he knows could still be watching him and Crowley, so he feels much more conflicted than usual AND

He probably has some inkling that he wants to go ape shit on that ox rib if it comes over to hang out (lol editing to add bc i remembered ox rib discourse: ape shit in an emotional way! whether you hc them as ace or not I just think he really likes him and I’m using ox ribs as a stand in for general forbidden joy/love, not specifically sexy stuff)

So he has to say no.

Anything else might cause him to spontaneously discorporate into a plume of pining and cognitively dissonant gay smoke, which may be all well and good if you only think there's a God, but if you KNOW it and the angels are absolutely recording you and Heaven just tried to kill you and your wife colleague, it's... kind of a big deal.

C: Right. gnnehh. I'm setting the alarm clock for July. Good night, angel. *dial tone*

We don't get to hear Aziraphale's response, but besties you and I both know he is not feeling tickety-boo. He spent like a month putting off calling Crowley (UK lockdowns started end of March, the call is at the beginning of May), finally got drunk and said what the Hell, it'll just be a fun flirty chat in between his temptations, and then it turned out Crowley was depressed and not going anywhere and Aziraphale made him even sadder. And then it got worse because it wasn't all over in July, or in October, even.

I think Aziraphale ends up with a lot of time and brain space in which to think about how Orthodoxy and Pilgrim's Progress were only written to guide *mortals* and how it really wouldn't be so bad if he spent more time with Crowley, would it? Heaven hasn't reached out in actual years again, things feel safer. Crowley is essentially Good and spending time with him would be sort of ministering to the downtrodden and afflicted, and Aziraphale does miss reporting his good deeds (lol you know, whatever rationalizations you need to get you there).

More than anything, he thinks about how hollow everything feels without Crowley; how no mouthful of food or drink tastes as satisfying in his absence because it wasn't ever just about the 'gross matter'...

So when lockdowns end, Aziraphale begins to summon his demon again, but this time with much less inner struggling. It all comes so naturally, when you let it. By the beginning of Season 2 in 2023, they seem delightfully comfortable with their shared routines and places (see also this lovely post by @nightgoodomens). Our car. Our bookshop.

Aziraphale might take longer to catch up, but he does get there.

(SHHH DON'T THINK ABOUT EPISODE 6! STOP! I'M HANGING UP!)

“The way to love anything is to realize that it may be lost.” ― G.K. Chesterton

[intermundia]

do you have a favorite translation of the iliad? i want to read it but want an informed opinion on the best translation to read!!

This is actually a very timely question anon, because I got a new translation of the Iliad for Christmas (Emily Wilson's) and have been enjoying the hell out of it haha so it's on my mind.

In general, I think that the best translation depends on what experience you’re looking for! Homer in Greek is both archaic and formal, and also beautifully dynamic and rapid (like the oral delivery had amazing flow). So translations usually have to kind of pick between the two, and you can lean on whichever side feels best.

This is the Greek of the beginning if you want to read it out loud and get a sense of what two lines of the OG dactylic hexameter are like, and what they’re trying to match:

Mēnin aeide thea pēlēiadeō Akhilēos: oulomenēn, he muri’ Akhaiois alge’ ethēke

Lattimore (1951) is probably the most ~acccurate~ line-for-line translation, I would use it in place of a dictionary if I was in a hurry sometimes haha it’s that loyal to the Greek if you want to know that that's like, but it's also a bit of a clunky slog to read, lacking poetry:

Sing, goddess, the anger of Peleus’ son Achilleus and its devastation, which put pains thousandfold upon the Achaians,

Wilson (2023) that I just began today so far has been fresh and engaging, it begins like this:

Goddess, sing of the cataclysmic wrath of great Achilles, son of Peleus, which caused the Greeks immeasurable pain

Fagles (1990) has good flow without sacrificing too much accuracy. It was the first translation I read, and look what happened to me lmao. It starts like this:

Rage—Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus’ son Achilles, murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,

Fitzgerald (1974) is another popular choice, he has good poetic feel:

Anger be now your song, immortal one, Akhilleus’ anger, doomed and ruinous,

Or if you want to feel like Keats, you can go hog wild and hit up some Chapman from the 1600′s:

Achilles’ banefull wrath resound, O Goddesse, that imposd Infinite sorrowes on the Greekes, and many brave soules losd

Basically there's no real right answer, but if you came over to my house and asked to borrow a copy, I would hand you Fagles (1990) (pdf here if you want it).

[deadpresidents]

ANOTHER REASON WHY USED BOOKSTORES ARE AWESOME

I bought this book -- The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst by Kenneth Whyte -- a few years ago at the wonderful Iliad Bookshop in North Hollywood. However, I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, so it's just been sitting on one of my bookshelves pretty much ever since I bought it.

Today, I just happened to pick it up and start thumbing through it, and this fell out:

Now, I don't know what it is exactly, but it sure looks like a thank you note that would be sent in response to someone who had expressed condolences after someone's illness or death. Was it sent to someone from William Randolph Hearst's estranged wife after he died? That in itself is interesting because Hearst and his wife were estranged for the last 25+ years of his life because he had a very public affair with actress Marion Davies. Here's the thing, though: Hearst died in 1951, but the used book that the thank you card fell out of was published in 2009. The card definitely looks much older than the book, but that just brings up more questions. Did someone have the card from 1951 and just decide to use it as a bookmark since it's a biography of Hearst? Was the card a collectible item about Hearst and they figured that the book was as good a place as any for safekeeping? Is it even a card pertaining to the famous William Randolph Hearst who is the subject of the book, or maybe for his son, William Randolph Hearst Jr., who died in 1993?

I have no idea, but I bought a used copy of a book about William Randolph Hearst for like $7 in North Hollywood a few years ago and on top of the fascinating story of Hearst's crazy life printed within the book's pages, it's created a whole new set of stories and questions for me just because somebody left a unique memento tucked in those pages. All I can say for sure is that you don't get these types of experiences when you're reading e-books on a Kindle or an iPad.

[literallyreading]

January 2025 Reads:

(subject to updates)

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius

-In Progress-

Inspired by The Holdovers, Gladiators I & II, and, surprisingly, after I’d already purchased the book and intended to read it, East of Eden. Do I agree with everything he says? Definitely not. Do I find his takes on freedom of thought and power of the mind intriguing? Yes.

SPQR, Mary Beard

-In Progress-

Coming up on a year of it sitting on my bookshelf. I recently had planned on starting it after finishing Meditations, but found myself itching to read it to gain better context of what Ancient Rome was like and how that could have affected Aurelius’ thoughts in the text. Loving Beard’s takes so far.

The Odyssey, Homer

-In Progress-

I actually picked this one up recently on a whim. I’d heard a lot about Epic: The Musical online, and also knew I had two copies of The Iliad waiting at home for me. I thought this would be a nice companion. The same day I got it, I began reading and found myself quite intrigued. Of course, this is a bit of a pivot from where I was headed with the Ancient Roman studies, but I like it.

The Oresteia, Aeschylus

-In Progress-

At this point, it’s probably clear that I have a bad habit of picking up books while in the middle of other books—or, in some cases, in the beginning. Literally within the first few pages of The Odyssey, I was looking up The Oresteia (of which I already had a copy) to understand the referenced myth involving Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Orestes (which had sounded very similar to Hamlet). I began The Oresteia the same night, only to learn it was inspired by The Odyssey and not the other way around. I plan to work on The Odyssey first but am keeping this one in my proverbial back pocket (on my nightstand) for later.

Honorable Mention:

Six Plays by Henrik Ibsen, Henrik Ibsen

-Not Started-

While moving along in SPQR after Beard taught me about the conflict between Catiline and Cicero, she brought up how the story had been retold throughout the centuries. One such case was in Catiline, the first play of Henrik Ibsen. I thought to myself, “I know that name,” and sure enough, I had a volume of six of his plays on my shelf. While it has been added to the ever-growing pile on my nightstand, it will be a while before I read it—especially because Catiline is not actually part of the collection.

[pomp-quio]

tagged by @cattus-catos 💛 who has excellent opinions and always accurate takes (especially about Crassus) -

last book i read: Dragonfly by Frederic S Durbin. I try to intersperse my mostly classics and french revolution reading with my second great love, fantasy books. Dragonfly is a cute little creepy standalone novel that I read when I was a teenager and ended up reading again recently.

book i recommend: Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut. I have no explanation exactly for why but this is hands-down my favourite book. So it goes.

book i couldn't put down: Babel by R F Kuang. I was a bit concerned because I generally don't enjoy the plots of BookTok books, BUT the subtitle (The Necessity of Violence) intrigued me. And let me tell you I was blown away by this book. It was a bit clunky at times but I loved every second and coming from a country that is still recovering from its colonial past, with our own national language that is considered uneducated, crass, and rough, it just hit very hard.

book i've read twice: I'm a chronic book repeater because my brain is swiss cheese, but the one book I regularly re-read for fun (and sadness) is Catch-22 by Joseph Heller. It's such a good book, actually I'm probably due for a re-read again! Also Watership Down by Richard Adams, I love that book so much ✨prince with a thousand enemies✨. And of course I have read the Odyssey several times!

a book on my tbr: my current TBR list stands at over 300 books (my Goodreads is Pompey Watching if you're interested). I think the next book I pick up will be The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk.

a book i've put down: Decolonising the Maltese Mind by Charles Xuereb. Not because it's bad but because I get so pissed off at the British every few paragraphs that I genuinely just need to take a mental break.

a book on my wishlist: oh dear there are so many. I desperately want the clothbound versions of the Odyssey, the Iliad, the Aeneid, Paradise Lost, and Inferno. I also REALLY want a physical copy of Sextus Pompeius by Anton Powell and Kathryn Welch, but its so expensive.

a favourite book from childhood: The Edge Chronicles The Edge Chronicles The Edge Chronicles I will never be okay about them, the plot, the arcs, the art, the characters!!!

a book you would give to a friend: Feral by George Monbiot. I am first and foremost an environmental/animal girlie and while I have some criticisms about this book, it genuinely argues for a lot of what I believe in when speaking about wildlife rehabilitation.

a book of poetry/lyrics you own: I sadly own very few poetry books! I do have a copy of Wilfred Owen's war poetry which makes me far too emotional for my own good.

a non-fiction book you own: so many! I have a lot of animal behaviour books, wild fauna books, french revolution books, and ancient Rome books. I guess one of my favourites would be Choosing Terror by Marisa Linton.

currently reading: House of Leaves by Mark Z Danielewaki, Lucan's Pharsalia (Susan Braund trans), yay Pharsaliabookclub, and Xuan s posts made me start the Epic of Gilgamesh but I'm only at the introduction so far!

planning on reading next: I never quite know what I'm going to read next but it will probably The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk. I also want to get started on the Thebaid, but I fear reading it at the same time as Pharsalia will do some irreparable damage to my brain!

I'm tagging @kushielsmercy (Shiel this is my Rome sideblog hello and welcome sorry you had to find out like this) and @burritofriedrich ❤️❤️❤️

[aunteat]

𝟏𝟑 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐓𝐚𝐠 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞

tagged by @mothmage & @desertfangs THANK YOU!

1) The last book I read: It was a short story but I read In The Penal Colony by Kafka a couple days ago!

2) A book I recommend: Too many so I’m going to recommend authors instead— Bret Easton Ellis, Joyce Carol Oates, William Burroughs, I’ve only read a couple books by Ryū Murakami but have really enjoyed them. I assume Anne Rice goes without saying!

3) A book that I couldn’t put down: Anytime I pick up a Junji Ito piece, I read it straight through without fail.

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more): I don’t usually re-read books but I’m currently listening to Interview with the Vampire again on audiobook! Man keeps pronouncing Louis’s name like “Lewis” though and it’s killing me

5) A book on my TBR: Too many. Bloodchild and Other Stories by Octavia Butler is the first one that comes to mind but I still have to read Vittorio the Vampire too!

6) A book I’ve put down: Three times I’ve started The Vegetarian by Han Kang, got a chapter or two in and put it down. The beginning just does not grab me but I’ve heard such good things about it so I’m planning on trying it again! Maybe via audiobook next time.

7) A book on my wish list: I’ve heard great things about Emily Wilson’s translation of The Iliad but it’s only available in hardback right now (and last I checked, pretty expensive). Hoping to snag a copy of it when it comes out in paperback in August!

8) A favorite book from childhood: I am once again deferring to Warrior cats.

9) A book you would give to a friend: I'm always recommending American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis to people. Just feels like a horror rite of passage.

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own: I don’t know if I have any! Poetry really isn’t my genre.

11) A nonfiction book you own: I went through a David Sedaris phase so I have three or four of his books.

12) What are you currently reading: A Student’s Guide to Academic and Professional Writing in Education. I have to teach an undergrad course this coming fall and am trying to prepare myself!

13) What are you planning on reading next? I wish I knew 😅

No-pressure tagging: @this-writer-needs-coffee @cinnamonclove @littleshopofflorrors @uncivilcivilservice + anyone else who wants to!

[louisegluckpdf]

I just picked up Possession by A.S. Byatt on the street today, this is a very auspicious sign :D

yayy it's my friend's favorite book so they got me a copy so i could read it :') going to start it once i finish the iliad

[f0xgl0v3]

I live-!

It’s only been a day or two since I’ve posted; but that’s just because I’ve been doing school things and all that jazz; but I feel like there’s some cool things I should share; because really I think people just like having an unspoken community and support of other people who like writing for Octavian- and I love him too, but there’s only so much I can say about him without talking about my OC (who I love talking about, but no one really cares lol) however what I am going to do; seeing as I’m reading,

The Iliad; almost finished with it, and I’ll probably say some things (for any specifications I’m talking about the penguin deluxe version; translated by Robert Fagles)

The Odyssey; haven’t started yet, but I’ll do more update and post as I read versus the sort of retrospective I have to do with the Iliad

The Aeneid; I’ll read it after the Odyssey, and I’m excited because Rome is one of my special interests :] (it’s the best way I can put it, but Rome and the PJO franchise are my special interests) and I’m excited to just read a like good Segway into more older literary readings!

My class is also reading the first PJO book (tLT) and I’ve been annotating my personal copy (just sticky note flags) and I’ll probably talk about it (and just generally re-visit the OG series and see how my opinions have changed; if Luke still gets to be the favorite from the first series) so I’ll probably talk about that (Chapter 17 and Chapter 20 are my favorites and I get to read them!! Along with Chapter 21 which is rad too B])

TSOA; I’m holding off on reading The Song Of Achilles (mostly because I’m too scared to pick up my copy and actually read) but when I do work up my courage I’ll report back (just begging Thetis isn’t as bad as people tell me they interpreted her as)

ToA; wild I haven’t read Trials of Apollo I know; but I had to pause it to read the Iliad, Odyssey, and Aeneid- so I’ll get back to that and I’m really excited to, because of the Emperors and my (personal) favorite Emperor shows up (it feels weird to say I have a favorite Roman Emperor, but he’s really the one I like reading the most on, because I find him interesting; and no, I won’t be admitting it at the moment)

All of the companion books to PJO/HoO/ToA; not any of the spin-off series, but things like the guide books, Demigod Diaries/files, Greek Gods, Greek heroes, those ones :]

tKC(?); the Kane Chronicles, I’ll probably end up reading Magnus Archives first (because guys I heard Pansexual representation in Magnus and I need a new character to giggle about and I really wanna see Alex and TJ. Jr (feels like such a random and specific character but I’m just excited to see the silly)

Magnus Archives; as I said instead of talking about the Kane Chronicles (I might have to read the Graphic novels for those because the first chapter book could not hold my attention span but the first graphic novel did)

Also Sun and The Stars; I totally didn’t forget about this because I genuinely have an irrational dislike toward Nico; even though I love him I still disagree on a character level for him to kill off two characters I really like (one of which only gets like 2 pages of screen time) but I’ll try because I want more Bob content and I want it now! Also my friend marked all the Mr. D pages for me and that’s very nice

That’s all the books I can think of at the moment; then I have some projects too-

Lorica Hamanata(?); I’m too lazy currently to go look up the spelling, but I am working on making the Chestplate and I’ll probably fill people in while I do so

Cardboard Riptide; I’m making Riptide out of Cardboard! Haven’t worked on it in a while but I am :] I’ll show pics when I’m done

The Camp Jupiter/HoO/Maybe-just-Pjo/HoO/ToA re-imaging; uhhh, im working on it; I don’t know how many people want to see some random internet users re-imaginings of things like this- but I like having it down someplace

Probably more Octavian Sillies; I’ll probably write more on Octavian; he’s my favorite fictional character in general, I relate to him probably a little more than I should and I just like talking about my thoughts on him!

Calliope- my OC that got some posts that only my friend saw; she is probably a bad character but I love her and I think publicly showing her process is a good way to just improve my writing skills; which segways nicely to,

The Nine Au/HoO Au/ me and my friend arbitrarily shove our OCs into the seven and I try to make it make sense with their narrative arcs/ we also put a bunch of our different Ocs in there as background characters so there are minor characters; pretty much what I just said; my friend runs a mainly art-blog, but just know we both are working on this, and I do really want to talk about this because we put hard work into it and I want to share it

Okay; you (random audience I’ve decided that I apparently have) probably don’t care, and just like seeing me go ‘hehe this is Octavian, I like Rome :3’ and I also like doing that- but these are things I genuinely want to do and use my blog for!

(I’m also going to make a post about my headcanons on Camp Jupiter kids fatal flaws hc soon👀)

Anyway, byeeeeee!!

[stevenmeeksfreeamericaradio]

What is the Odyssey and how to read it?

This is a new series of blog posts about the classics where I’ll go through each book( chapters as we call them) and talk about what happened and what I think of it. Today is the first of this and is a brief summary of what and how to read the Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two classics wrote by Homer, the other being the Iliad. This Poem is called an Epic poem as it contains 24 books (what we would call chapters) and was originally spoken aloud. Most of the Odyssey takes place in Ithaca after the Trojan war, with the main character being Odysseus, the king of Ithaca trying to get back home to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus. This book can be seen as a sequel to the Iliad as it picks up after the war that took place in the first book (we will get to the Iliad soon). I recommend reading the Iliad before the Odyssey as there is many things said that are references to the Iliad but if you know the basic story, starting either will be fine. Odysseus wasn’t a demigod but was favoured by many Gods (Athena being the one who favoured him the most). This story has many twists and turns as the Gods try to help and stop Odysseus from getting home. Poseidon doesn’t want to help Odysseus get home; in fact, he refuses to let him get home (which we will very soon explain why). I will go through each part of the poem and explain what is going on, and I will provide page numbers for those who want to read along- the version is the E.V Rieu penguin classics version (I sadly don’t have the same translation for the Iliad so will be using a different one) (I will also later on provide the details for the Emily Wilson translation when I get my copy and finish reading it)

Next week we will be doing book one of the Odyssey.

(Disclaimer there are many retellings of the myths and the ones I tell are sourced from many places like websites , videos and podcasts , the books and many more , I hope my post can make it slightly easier to understand the myths that came from the ancient Greeks)

[godsofhumanity]

HOMER'S ILIAD | LITERATURE REVIEW

ok so many months ago, i got a copy of The Iliad, and i said i'd read it, but then i never did.. but finally i've picked up and i've started reading it ^-^

i wanted to a little book-by-book review of it, because when i read books i like to make notes and stuff, and i thought some of you guys might be interested in offering your own thoughts, or reading some of mine.. so i thought i'd make one massive thread here, and as i finish each book, i'll post my thoughts/notes about it :D

EDIT: ahahahahaha ok apparently u can't add a read-more in ur reblog, and tumblr removed the html editor? idk. lol. i'll just make separate posts and link them at the bottom here!

the translation i'm using is by Samuel Butler (1898).. i'm aware that this version is in prose rather than verse, and there are some differences in translation where Butler chose to make the English more "colourful" and "flowery" in order to preserve the spirit of the original Greek,, but the gist is the same, and this is just for fun so it doesn't really bother me :)

OVERVIEW: The Iliad takes place in the middle of the Trojan War, describing the conflict between Agamemnon and Achilles on the Greek side, and Achilles' return to the battlefield to face the Trojans. The story concludes with the death of the Trojan hero, Hector.

RATING: 7/10.. the Iliad’s importance/relevance to mythical studies could not be quantified, and i definitely enjoyed reading this.. HOWEVER, this book is incredibly lengthy,, i found myself fairly bored at some times which is why it’s taken me so long to finish it!! i would not read this book again, ahaha! even so, i recommend that you read it if you’re really really into mythology, and you’re interesting in reading the myths for yourself- the Iliad is great because it includes many small snippets of other myths within it, e.g., Poseidon and Apollo having to build a wall, etc.

AVAILABLE ON: pdf link here ((but this one is for Alexander Pope's translation aha))

BOOKS: I / II / III / IV / V / VI / VII / VIII / IX / X / XI - XII / XIII - XV / XVI / XVII - XXI / XXII / XXIII - XXIV

EDIT: liked this? check out my review of the Odyssey too!!

[cursestothemoon]

I Won’t Say I’m In Love

ii.

Fred Weasley x Fem!Slytherin!Reader

Read part one here

Warnings: forced intimacy, suggestive themes, strong language, fighting (verbal), Fred being a jerk, Adrian being a bigger jerk

Word Count: 3388

Summary: After Fred’s comment in Herbology, Y/n is avoiding him. Not wanting to be a bother. Lily and George try to get Fred and Y/n to make amends while Adrian does everything in his power to make sure the message to Fred is loud and clear ‘Back Off’. Eventually pent up anger, jealousy, and frustration leads to an explosive fight between Y/n and Fred. 

SERIES MASTERLIST

MASTERLIST

Icarus fell.

He had flown too close to the sun and let the warm heat scorch his skin and melt his wings.

Icarus fell and Y/n understood that the sun that melted her wings was no sun at all but instead a boy. The boy she often took the selfish luxury of assuming saw her the same way she saw him, a being of the gods. The image of the boy she created in her mind, shattered to pieces from the stones he threw, bringing her back to reality.

Her lover didn’t love her. Not even a little bit, not even at all.

Y/n kept her cool in the class, offered a cool laugh and turned away as the lesson started. She tried to listen, though her mind often wandered back to what Fred had said.

...Godric knows they’d be less bothersome

By the end of class, Y/n was beyond self conscious of how desperate and clingy she probably seemed. The thought alone made her stomach turn, and she vowed to leave him alone, to never be so bothersome again and to get over Fred Weasley.

She didn’t need him.

She didn’t love him.

She didn’t.

Fred was in a rather perturbed state during class. Y/n gave no sign that she was dwelling on what he said, no sign of sadness of discomfort.

Absolutely nothing.

The air was odd, he could feel it. No matter how unbothered she looked, sounded, even acted, the way her fingers picked at her cuticles and her brows furrowed to make the gentlest crease had guilt eating away at his insides. Fred had half a mind to ignore the lesson, completely disregard whatever Ms. Sprout was saying and trying to explain to Y/n that he meant none of it.

Every word, every syllable, that had spewed out of his mouth tore at his tongue as if he was chewing glass. Even worse was the tearing of his heart as he watched the light flicker from your eyes for just a moment before it returned, dull and forced. But his pride gave a gentle rumble as it had been awoken by the thought of him apologizing and inevitably confessing, laying everything bare and vulnerable in front of Y/n, and he decided that he’d just wait for it to all boil over.

It had to.

***

The next day came and Fred was eager to see the girl in the morning, expecting the usual routine of back and forth banter as he and George and Y/n and Lily walked to the breakfast hall, only for him to send a fake glare in the direction of the Slytherin table as she parted from him.

Only Y/n never showed.

With twenty minutes left for breakfast and a nagging George, Fred gave up waiting and walked into the mess hall. His eyes glancing over toward the Slytherin table and he nearly choked on air as he gaped in the direction of the house of Salazar Slytherin.

There she was, tucked under the heavy arm of Adrian Pucey. He felt his anger nearly boil over as he watched the way Adrian ran a hand through Y/n’s hair before turning her face, quite forcefully Fred noted, towards his own. It was an exercise of self restraint, forcing himself to stay put and stay calm when Adrian gripped her jaw to keep her in place so he could kiss her.

Y/n grimaced at the feeling of Adrian’s lips on hers, his hand holding her jaw painfully tight making the pair of eyes burning holes into the side of her face go unnoticed. But Fred had been seen, of course he had been, but he was seen by Adrian Pucey who decided to give him a show.

Adrian knows, he knows the way Fred watches Y/n when she isn't looking and he knows that Y/n would dote on the ginger in a heartbeat if her pride had not been in the way so often, and he used this to his advantage.

“What are you doing?” Y/n growled trying to pull away from Adrian.

Adrian grinned, his grip on her jaw unwavering, “Whatever I want.”

“Next time...don’t.” She grunted, shoving his hand away from her face.

If only Fred had seen the rest of the exchange, if only he had seen the way she forced Adrian off of her or the way she got up to sit further away from the pompous boy. But Fred saw none of it, his back facing the two at the other end of the hall and the dangerous concoction of rage and jealousy pumping through his veins. His face was in a deep scowl as he sat in thought, all feelings of guilt and the want to apologize withering away.

“You alright, Freddie?” George asked, noticing the unusual broodiness.

“Peachy.” He grumbled, not making eye contact with his twin.

George didn’t ask anymore questions, the deathly tone his brother was sporting enough for him to understand that this was a private matter.

The day passed and soon a day turned to days then to a week and a half. Y/n had done her best to avoid Fred and his group of friends, the fear of coming off as bothersome gnawing at the back of her mind. As she tried to purge Fred from her life, every hidden blush or muffled giggle that he once pulled out of her served as a powerful blow to her heart.

She was going toe to toe with the loss of a love she never had, and she was losing.

The only person who seemed to notice the inner battle was Lily, the clear signs of defeat had etched themselves onto Y/n’s heart only bared for her best friend to see. But Lily waited, it was a delicate thing to try and heal a heart wounded by the bullet that is unrequited love.

It was a Friday night when Lily decided to talk to Y/n, but she had to find the girl first. The weather was crisp, cool, and unwelcoming as she snuck out of the castle and trudged her way to the tree.

The tree, a crooked and scarred tree that the two girls used to climb during first year, had become a point of clarity for them when in need. When Lily got to the tree, lovingly named Jigsaw, she knew where to look. Her head tilted upward, a sad smile gracing her lips as she saw a leg dangling from a branch.

“Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.” Lily recited with a loud voice.

Y/n smiled to herself, the familiar words falling from a familiar mouth.

She spoke aloud without looking down at her friend, “ There is the heat of love, the pulsing rush of longing, the lover’s whisper, irresistible magic to make the sanest man go mad.”

Lily laughed, making the girl in the tree finally turn to meet her eyes, and the moment would have been perfect if it weren’t for the glistening tears that sat across the apple’s of Y/n’s cheeks, glistening in the moonlight.

“I knew you liked the book.” Y/n smiled softly at the memory of her nose scrunching in scrutiny as you handed her your battered copy of The Iliad.

Lily disregarded the comment.

“He said something to you again? Is that why you’re crying in the tree?”

Y/n shook her head feeling fresh tears push toward her waterline. That was just it. Fred hadn’t said a single word to her, no apology or attempt to ask why she had pulled herself away from his life. He seemed completely content without her, it was what she wanted but she didn’t know it would be this difficult to accept it.

“No. He hasn’t.” She shrugged, eyes avoiding Lily’s strong stare.

The girl on the ground understood, “That’s the problem then. You want him to say something.”

“It would be nice for him to notice my absence.” Y/n said bitterly.

Lily shook her head, walking closer to the trunk of the tree, “You two are probably the most oblivious people that have ever walked the earth.”

Y/n didn’t respond so Lily continued.

“Too prideful, too stubborn. When will you just admit that you are in love with him and it’s killing you trying to stay away?” Lily raised her voice as the sentence progressed.

“I don’t- I’m not in love.” Y/n grumbled, looking down at her friend.

Lily scoffed, “Oh please, I’ve seen the way you look at him and the way he looks at you. Don’t let his fragile boy ego ruin this. To be quite honest, you haven’t exactly been warm and fuzzy with him, if I were some hormonal teenage boy with fragile masculinity I would’ve said what he said too, to protect myself.”

“And he’s been so clear with his feelings for me?”

A laugh slipped through Lily’s parted lips at the question, her facial expression one of disbelief.

“No boy spends as much as he does trying to bother some girl they don’t like, and no boy would get so defensive over a girl he has no interest in. Fred is in love with you, even Adrian can see it!”

Fred’s name made the situation all too real, all too personal, and Y/n decided she no longer wanted to be sitting. She jumped down from the branch and brushed off her skirt as she spoke.

“He’s just a boy who thinks I’ll open my legs for him if he tries hard enough.” The words she said hurt herself, but it’s true, it had to be.

Lily seemed near to pulling her hair out, “Stop lying to yourself! Stop denying it!”

“No man is worth the aggravation, it’s ancient history now. Been there, done that.”

Y/n started to walk back to the castle, Lily quick on her heels, “Who do you think you’re kidding? Honestly?”

The girl just shook her head, trying not to pay attention to the thumping of her heart at the thought of Fred being in love with her.

“Look at you know! You’re thinking about him aren’t you? You get that look in your eye, like he’s the earth and heaven to you.”

At this Y/n stopped and turned to her friend, “I don’t get any looks in my eyes.”

“I can see right through you, you can’t conceal it. Just say you’re in love.”

The girls snuck back into the castle, their conversation now turned to hushed whispers as they made their way to the dungeons.

“You’re way off base. I won’t say it.”

“Face it like a grown-up.”

“No chance.”

“Don’t be so proud, it’s ok to be in love.”

“No way.”

Y/n and Lily stopped in their tracks at the sound of quiet voices coming from the adjacent corridor. They looked at each other before peaking their heads around the stone wall, being sure to not be seen by whoever it was.

Speak of the Devil and he shall appear.

Fred and George were down the corridor, laughing about something as they tried to get into Filch’s office. Neither of them noticed the two girls, and sported beaming smiles when the door unlocked with a click.

“At least out loud,” Y/n said with a somber tone as she took a selfish moment to take in just how devastatingly beautiful Fred Weasley looked in the dimly lit corridor. “I won’t say I’m in love.”

The sad smile she gave Lily was returned before they turned around and went the long way to the dungeons, avoiding a run in with Fred and George Weasley.

***

Fred’s Saturday had been going fairly well. The prank he and George pulled on Filch the night prior went off without a hitch, he had no homework for the weekend, and he even got to breakfast early this morning which got him the first spoonful of eggs, and the prime pick of toast. So, yeah his day was going fairly well to say the least, but it could’ve been better had he been the one nuzzling his face into Y/n’s neck instead of Adrian. Though he imagines she wouldn’t look as disgruntled if it were him.

With this new public closeness that Adrian and Y/n were displaying, regardless of if it looked like she was enjoying it or not, Fred assumed that they had made it official. Adrian Pucey and Y/n L/n, the power couple of Slytherin, Fred couldn’t compete with that and he assumed that Adrian was the one keeping her away from him, and he resented both of them for it. He resented Y/n for dropping him from her life so easily, and he resented Adrian for getting the girl.

“Is there a reason why your face looks like a wrinkly old handbag?” George asked, eyeing the lines in Fred’s forehead as he sat deep in thought.

“Just thinking. Doesn’t matter, we have any plans for the day?”

George groaned, quite literally sick and tired of his brother’s grumpiness and the jealous glares at Adrian and Y/n.

“When are you gonna man up, apologize, and tell her you love her?”

Fred needed a minute to process what had just been said to him, but when he did he looked at George with annoyance, “It’s in the past. Obviously I didn’t mean as much to her as she meant to me.”

“This is a start, you didn’t deny that you are in love with her.” George shrugged.

That earned him a warning looking from Fred, but he knew the threat was empty and just shook his head at his brother’s tough guy act.

“To be completely fair here, you weren’t exactly the nicest to her. What did you say again? Something like ‘I’d rather shag a goblin’ then wasn’t it something along the line of her being… annoying?”

Fred grumbled out, “Bothersome.”

“Right right, bothersome. Now call me crazy but I wouldn’t exactly swoon at that.”

He was right, of course he was, “I panicked.”

The younger twin nodded, “I could tell. Shame too, just before you completely obliterated her self confidence she even looked like she was starting to blush.”

“Alright, not one of my best moments but she didn’t have to run into that git’s arms.”

“You really think she ran? Or was she pulled?”

Y/n’s day wasn’t going as well as Fred’s had been. She was late to breakfast and only had a measly butt end of the toast, not only that Adrian had seemed to take his blatant disregard for personal space to the next level as he placed sloppy kisses on her neck. She no longer had the strength to fight him off, she had gotten into bed late last night and even then didn’t sleep most of the night making her too tired to care.

And she didn’t have it in herself to care when Adrian followed her to the shore of the Black Lake, but she drew the line when he pushed her up against a nearby tree. He dipped down to continue the assault on her neck, wet and sloppy kisses placed across the skin of Y/n’s neck made her grimace.

“Get off of me.” She growled, trying to push him off of her.

Adrian was persistent, “Come on, you never said no before. Before Fred.”

“I’m saying no now. Get. Off.”

The harsh shove to his chest made him tumble back a few feet before he smirked back up at Y/n, eyes dark and dangerous as he gave a dry chuckle.

“It seems you’re missing something, babe. You’re mine.”

He stalked toward her grabbing hold of both her wrists and pushing them up above her head, holding them there in a painfully strong grip as he forced his lips onto hers. He had planned it out perfectly too, after catching a glimpse of the mops of red hair making their way over to where he and Y/n are.

Y/n struggled against him, whimpering in genuine pain and trying to free her hands but to Fred and George it looked nothing like what was actually happening.

Adrian finally pulled away, eyes glancing up to see a seething Fred, before dipping down to give a harsh bite to Y/n’s neck, not breaking the eye contact.

“See you later, Y/n.” He smirked, walking away with his hands in his pockets.

He went the extra mile to make sure he bumped shoulders with Fred as he left, making George call out a few words that would get them into loads if Molly ever heard.

But Fred didn’t care about pompous assholes at the moment, he was too busy seeing red. The jealousy and anger mixed in his heart, a cocktail of destruction that he couldn’t help but let poor out of his lips as he stalked his way over to the tree that Y/n was still leaning against. Breathless from the kiss he presumed.

“If it isn’t the slag of Slytherin.” He called.

The insult brought George back from his bout of rage directed toward Adrian, and he knew Fred was beyond mad.

“Fred…” He tried to stop him, the look he gave him was one that always pulled his twin back but it didn't work this time.

Fred grumbled, “Go George, I’ll catch up.”

George sighed but hoped for the best, maybe they would talk it out finally, so he gave his brother a look telling him to tread carefully then left.

Y/n was not in the mood to stroke Fred’s ego. She felt dirty, used and the sudden, random bursts of unsolicited PDA made her think that Adrian wasn’t just doing it for his own benefit.

Had Fred always just been right around the corner?

“What do you want, Weasley?”

Fred scoffed, “Adrian’s finally loosened his grip on the leash then?”

The comment made her insides boil, of course he had seen it all, and of course he had assumed the worst.

“Fuck off.” Her tone was strong, not giving away the tears that pushed at her waterline. She still hadn’t turned to face him.

Fred got closer to her, manners locked away and replaced by his anger.

“Why? Because Adrian doesn't like you talking to other people? His fragile little ego couldn’t handle it could it?” Each word dripped with sarcasm.

It was Y/n’s turn to scoff, “Please, I don’t want to do this right now.”

It was a desperate plea in disguise, but Fred wasn’t having it. He was out for blood. She hurt him, and the deepest, most barbaric and boorish part of him wanted to hurt her back.

“So you’re just gonna run off to do Adrian?” He laughed with everything but humor.

Y/n felt her anger boil over, the nerve this boy had absolutely astonishing her. All her feelings mix and overwhelm her, making the unshed wall of tears grow thicker.

“Can’t even look me in the eyes.” He chastised with a tone meant to belittle her.

That was when she had enough.

Y/n pushed herself away from the tree and whipped around to meet Fred’s eyes, the anger that swam in her eyes, swirling with the tears on the precipice of falling. Fred had never seen her with so much emotion and it was unnerving.  

“You know nothing Fred! Absolutely nothing! Stop trying to understand what’s going on, you’ll hurt yourself.” Venomous, pained, and waterlogged the words came out, an accusatory finger coming out to point in his direction violently.

He paused for a moment watching as she started to walk away, and for a moment he questioned himself.

Did he know what was happening?

But the thought was fleeting, and as she passed by him he tried to hit back one last time.

“I know you’re a whore, Y/n.”

The response he got was unexpected and chilling. Y/n started to laugh, and spoke with a tone so calm and leveled if Fred hadn’t been here fighting with her he would’ve thought she was bored.

“If I was such a whore... I would’ve shagged you.”

Taglist:

@crazylokonugget​ @alluringshawn​ @meph1stophelian​ @lol-idk-oops​ @slytherclaw1996​ @anywherebuthere​​ @freddieweasleyswife​​ 

@honey-honey-5644 @amourtentiaa​ @mariamermaid

[wellbelesbian]

ao3 tag game

@sharing-a-room-with-an-open-fire thought i tagged them in this, but i actually haven’t done it yet. i will take this as an invitation to…

how many works do you have on ao3?

13, but some are really old marvel fics and a lot of them are unfinished.

what’s your total ao3 word count?

41303

how many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

technically it’s filtered as 5, but i’d say 3 because some fandom tags mean the same thing. Carry On Series/Simon Snow & Related Fandoms, Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Ancient Greek Religion & Lore/The Iliad.

what are your top five fics by kudos?

nothing is sacred enough to escape gen z humour- this is one of my oldest and dumbest fics, hence why it’s the top one. it’s an mcu fic about Peter and Shuri beginning a vine reference war that gets way out of hand. i guess it is pretty funny.

Hugs Are The Best Type Of Team Building- another mcu fic. this one was mostly written by my co-writer and i just supplied some ideas and beta-ed it, but i was put down as co-writer and, as another old fic, it’s built up a lot of kudos over the years.

Happier Memories- now we’re onto the recent stuff! this was my fic for the Carry On Anon Fest, where Baz proposes to Simon and it goes horribly wrong, but still ends up happy in the end.

Lend Me Your Comb- this is a short little drabble i wrote about Baz cutting Simon’s hair during lockdown. this is a fairly recent fic so i’m surprised it’s so high!

long is the road that leads me home- this is my snowbaz highwayman fic for the Carry On Through The Ages event. i’m surprised this fic is so high when i’ve still only posted the prologue. i promise i will write the rest eventually!

do you respond to comments? why or why not?

i try to, because it’s so nice to receive the comments so they deserve a response. but sometimes i just don’t know what to say! if there’s anything in a comment i can latch onto i will, if not i’ll just try to leave a thank you.

what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

i’ve barely started it, but the only one of my fics with an angsty ending will be long is the road. kind of. basically it’s going to have 2 endings, one happy, one very sad. it’s weird because i LOVE writing angst, but i haven’t really written any since my wattpad days. i need to pick it up again…

have you ever received hate on a fic?

no, thankfully! maybe some back when i wrote on wattpad, because i got a LOT of comments on those and i doubt they were all positive. but i don’t remember anything worse than some people joking about typos, so it can’t have been that bad.

do you write smut? if so, what kind?

nope. i sometimes like to read it, but it just feels incredibly stilted and formal when i write it. maybe it’s because i’m ace, or maybe it’s something else. at the end of the day it doesn’t really bother me, i can just do fade-to-black if the situation ever calls for it.

have you ever had a fic stolen?

sort of. okay, so i’m talking about my long-ago wattpad days more than i expected here, but back in like, 2016, one of my friends found that a lot of their fics had been posted to some random fanfic website, and when we checked a lot of mine and another friend’s were there too. i don’t know if the website just had some code that copied fics from wattpad or if this was a person posting them there as their own, but either way there was no way to report it and they weren’t getting much traffic anyway, so we just had to leave it.

have you ever had a fic translated?

a few people messaged me on wattpad to ask to translate some of my fics, and i always gave permission, but i don’t know how many were actually translated. none of my ao3 fics have ever been stolen or translated! am i somehow a worse writer now than i was back then??

what’s your all-time favourite ship?

that’s a big thing to commit to because i change my preferences all the time! if we’re going by fics it would be snowbaz, if by tumblr posts i would be jonmartin (the magnus archives), if we’re going by the longest it would be solangelo (percy jackson). i guess snowbaz or Charlie and Nick from Heasrtstopper in equal measures, for now. but that could change at any time.

have you ever co-written a fic before?

a have 2 fics on ao3 that i co-wrote with somebody who i no longer talk to. they were generally a pretty manipulative and shitty person and sometimes i want to delete those fics, but i also don’t want the memory of them to ruin things i like, so i haven’t. on a lighter note, another friend of mine and i have repeatedly tried to write together, but despite how much fun it is to argue in a google doc, after half a dozen chapters we always get distracted and it fizzles out. we’re still good friends, we just need someone with more focus to mediate and force us to commit more.

what’s a wip you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will?

not even a wip, because once i start those i don’t ever really stop, but the story i have planned for my OCs is probably never going to make it out of my head and onto a page. writing original fiction is so daunting, and i have a terrible habit of simply not doing things if i suspect they’ll fail.

what are your writing strengths?

dialogue and characters. also foreshadowing. it’s why i love d&d! i can create a bunch of interesting characters and interactions, and be super ominous about the big bad.

what are your writing weaknesses?

describing places and blocking scenes. my friend who i tried to co-write with is a master at beautiful, descriptive prose, which is why we tried to write together. also fight scenes, though i thankfully don’t write many of those.

what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in fics?

i’m only fluent in english and i don’t trust google translate, so i would need to consult someone who knows the language, or just put it in english in italics.

what was the first fandom you wrote for?

Percy Jackson and the Heroes Of Olympus.

what’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

basically all the ones that haven’t done as well as i expected are my under-appreciated faves. i can’t pick just one!

it’s so stupid, but Rats is one of them. it’s just a dumb little fic i wrote in one night and holds up surprisingly well. also, Simon referenced Baz farming rats in AWTWB, but i got to it first!

also All That She Wants, which was a very personal fic i wrote because i wanted Agatha to have female friends and balance her being gay and ace.

and finally we are slaves to the gods, whatever gods are, because i love ancient greece and trauma and that’s what this fic is a fusion of!

phew, some of this got personal 😂 i tag @otherpeoplesheartachept-2 @martsonmars @mostlymaudlin @bazzybelle @knitbelove and @nonbaznary if you haven’t done this already!

[ragingbookdragon]

Leaving Notes In The Northern Lights

A Connor Kenway x Reader One-Shot

Word Count: 1.4K Warnings: None

Author’s Note: Day 13 of the Christmas fics! Please don’t ask me what this title means because I just came up with it and it sounds pretty. That’s the only reason. Enjoy! -Thorne

           There was something about her. Something that made his heart flutter in his chest and the only way he could relate the feeling to anything he knew would be to compare his heartbeat in her presence to his heartbeat during a Leap of Faith. Erratic, but free.

           He danced around her, too afraid to speak on the feelings that bloomed through his chest and down his spine when she smiled at him. Too afraid to mess up the trusting foundation already laid between them. He wanted more. Wanted to know what it felt like to hold her hand in his, to press his lips against her cheeks, to hold her against him, and yet he still stayed just out of reach—whether it was to keep her safe from the life he lived or to protect himself from something he wasn’t sure about, he didn’t know. But something told him he would soon find out.

***

           She hummed to herself as she cleaned the table of dinner plates and utensils. Achilles had retired rather early after dinner, leaving her and Connor to their own devices. The Native-Assassin had brought down a few books an hour before, studying over them religiously.

           She couldn’t help but take quick glances back at him as she washed the dishes and dried them, watching as he went between one of the books he was reading and the parchment beside him, fingers delicately tracing over the lines, lips mouthing what he was reading. It was almost hypnotizing, the way he would pick apart lines that he either enjoyed or felt had such an impact on him, writing down meanings they could have, translating them into his own language.

           He was fond of Shakespeare and the early Greek poets as she’d learned from having to search high and low for the copies of Hamlet and The Iliad that Achilles had until discovering that they were in Connor’s possession. He’d taken the liberty of sticking notes between the pages.

           Maybe that could be the conversation she could start with him. Hobbies built interest, right? If she could keep him talking long enough to gauge his reactions, maybe she could tell if he liked her or not? No. She thought. That’s a terrible plan. He’s gonna know. Or will he? She felt like she was having an internal crisis. Oh, of course he is. Connor is smarter than that. Hell, he’s the smartest person you know. And the kindest. And the sweetest. And the handso—

           A crash jerked her from her thoughts, and she jumped as the metal pan settled on the brick floor.

           “(Y/N)?” Connor called form the dining room, concern in his tone.

           She winced, bending over to pick the pan up. “Sorry, Ratonhnhaké:ton, I dropped the pan.” Smiling at him, she excused, “Didn’t mean to startle you.”

           He chuckled, setting the ink into it’s cap. “I think it was you who was startled.”

           (Y/N) felt her cheeks warm and she placed the pan on the table, busying herself with another dish as she retorted, “Says the man who leaped a foot in his seat.” She shot him a sharp look, grinning as his cheeks flushed.

           Setting down the rag, she grabbed one of the cups and moved to the fireplace, pouring a steaming, creamy liquid into the glass. (Y/N) walked into the dining room and set the cup down beside him, watching as he glanced into it.

           “What is that?” he questioned, carefully dipping a finger in to check the temperature.

           She smiled. “Warm milk.”

           Connor eyed her with a cocked brow. “Am I a child who needs to be coerced into sleep?” His tone was laced with humor and she snorted.

           “Well, my mother did say that nothing tired you out more than studying.” (Y/N) reached over, gently brushing away a stray hair in his face. “Though I’ve never seen you get tired from reading, only more excited.”

           His cheeks tinged crimson as her fingers touched his skin and he brought the cup to his lips, quietly taking a sip. “It’s sweet.” He remarked.

           She winked at him. “I added a sugar cube to satiate your sugar tooth.” (Y/N) turned, heading back into the kitchen.

           “I do not have a sugar tooth,” he muttered to himself, but she heard it and smiled all the same.

***Later That Night***

           As she readied herself for bed, she heard a knock at the door. Glancing over her shoulder, she murmured, “Come in.”

           The door opened and Connor stepped inside. “Excuse me,” he said, eyes searching until they landed on her.

           (Y/N) observed him a moment before shifting her attention back to the fireplace, laying a log in it. Given that he was no longer in his robes and instead in a pair of white pants and a matching tunic, she gathered that he was about to go to bed as well.

           Giving the fire a few stabs with the poker, she hummed with satisfaction and turned to face him. “Is something wrong, Ratonhnhaké:ton?”

           He shifted awkwardly on his feet, thrusting a thumb to the way he’d come. “May I have a moment of your time?”

           She arched an eyebrow but nodded and set the poker back where it belonged. “Of course.”

           (Y/N) followed him into the hallway, to the backroom. As they neared the door, he paused and turned to her, a hesitant look on his face. She smiled kindly to ease his worry and he seemed to relax, opening the door for them.

           She stepped outside and gasped, eyes widening at the ribbons of green and purple dancing across the indigo sky. Her feet carried her to the wooden railing and she simply stared at the auroras.

           “…Do you like it?” Connor asked, voice full of uncertainty.

           “It’s…beautiful,” she breathed, a look of complete joy coming across her face. “I’ve never seen the northern lights here.”

           He stood beside her, amber eyes directed to the auroras. “You can see them sometimes. But only on clear nights like this.”

           (Y/N) nodded. “I’m glad you showed me. I can’t even describe how amazing it is.”

           “You are welcome,” he murmured.

           Something heavy rested on her shoulders and she turned her head, seeing Connor adjusting a blanket around them. The chill of the night ran up her body and she suddenly realized how cold it was, hurriedly grasping at the side of the blanket, pulling it tighter around her. She leaned close to Connor, ignoring the way he tensed slightly at the contact.

           “I apologize for bringing you out here when it is so cold, (Y/N).” he said, watching as she shivered a bit.

           She shook her head. “A little cold weather is worth seeing this,” catching his eye, she added, “With you.” A small smile graced his lips, and she rested her head on his arm, heart beating wildly in her chest.

           For a moment, Connor didn’t move nor speak, then he shifted, cautiously wrapping his arm around her, fingers resting at her hip.

           “(Y/N)?” he whispered, and she titled her head.

           “Yes, Ratonhnhaké:ton?”

           He swallowed thickly, feeling his cheeks aflame with a flush as he asked, “May I hold your hand?”

           A giddy smile crossed her face, and she raised her hand slightly, then he took it, lacing his fingers through hers, pressing hers to her stomach.

           She couldn’t help the giggle that passed through her lips. “Your hands are warm.”

           Connor huffed. “And yours are small.”

           (Y/N) tipped her head up, meeting his gaze; they stared at one another for a while, then she said, “Being around you makes me really happy, Ratonhnhaké:ton.”

           “I feel the same,” he murmured and gently took hold of her chin with his free hand. “You make me—” he took a sharp breath, suddenly nervous, but the squeeze of her hand encouraged him to continue.

           He met her eyes once more. “You make me feel worthy of everything I have ever been denied of.”

           Her jaw went slack, and she gaped at him.

           “Was that too much?” he questioned, and (Y/N) shook her head.

           “I—no, it wasn’t,” she replied. “I just…don’t have a line like that prepared.”

           Connor snorted and rested his forehead against hers. “If it means that I am allowed to spend more time with you…you are free to take as long as you need.”

           She nuzzled her nose to his. “I’ll take you up on that then.”

[en-231-world-lit-pre-1650]

Big Greek Energy, pt. I

So Achilles & Agamemnon seem like nice dudes, right?? 

Obviously not. Let’s unpack! 

The whole “king of kings” thing sounds weird to a lot of modern ears, but the thing to keep in mind here is that Agamemnon, et al were not your British “The Royals” -- they were the biggest & most successful raiders/swaggerers around. The best ones -- like our good buddy Nestor -- were sensible, grounded guys who could handle a complicated negotiation, smooth over ruffled feathers when needed, and get through the day without starting a years-long bloody conflict. The other ones were ... pretty much what you see in the opening scenes from The Iliad. 

Keep in mind that Menelaos is this guy whose wife ran off with Paris because Aphrodite thought that golden apple looked shiny. An interesting point to note here is that, while Helen of Troy has become a stand-in for “extraordinary example of female attractiveness” and given us the expression “the face that launched a thousand ships” ... the text of The Iliad doesn’t really demonstrate that Menelaos misses her or even cares particularly about getting Helen back, as a distinct individual: He’s upset about the affront to his dignity caused by some other man running off with his “stuff” -- another example of how, in most of Greek literature, women very much are “stuff” and not, you know, people in their own right. You get the occasional exception in Greek drama, with Antigone or Jason and Medea (although, on that note, I don’t think we’d want to consider Medea all that aspirational). 

Hint: If you want to read a not-too-spicy version of The Iliad’s backstory, check out a copy (anywhere; it’s widely available online AND in library copies) of Bullfinch’s Mythology. 

^ I spelled Patroclus “Patrochlus” on this list. I don’t know why. It’s Patroclus. 

One of the frustrating things (for most people) reading through The Iliad (or most other examples of Greek literature) is how gosh-darn unreasonable everybody is. People are always getting all worked up, going on enormous rants, taking their toys and going home (or, well, back to their huts/tents but somehow hanging around in the area just in case there’s a better chance for them to get the last word, somehow). 

On the other hand: Take a good look at humanity today and tell me we’ve actually resolved this problem. I dare you.

It’s always easier to see someone else’s mess. 

Anyway, good ol’ Achilles is the example of this throw-a-tantrum-call-it-manly-rage par excellence, and he gives this mode of engagement A WORKOUT in the first several stanzas of The Iliad. 

Spoiler alert: He doesn’t really get any more likable, although I think his overwhelming grief in the later stages of the epic makes a better excuse than “Agamemnon took my toys.” 

Speaking of Achilles’s grief: 

^ that’s a page from Thomas Cahill’s Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea; the passage describes the circumstances of Patroclus’s death, but that isn’t really why I’m sharing this particular page -- look over to the right and notice the second note in the sidebar. We’ve mentioned several times before that physical texts during periods of residual-manuscript orality pick up the “fingerprints” of the hands they pass through along their long journey to EN 231: The scribe’s marginal “doodles” here make a good example. 

The Greeks Get a Lot of Names: 

The Achaeans get a link because, well, we have plenty on that term. 

There are plenty of references to the Danaans as well, but the generally shallow character of the scholarship tracing the usage of Danaans in Greek literature has always frustrated me. (Doing something about that was the original reason I started my second tour in graduate school, but I ended up venturing down a whole series of other rabbit holes. That’s life, or at least that’s life in grad school. Anyway.) Here’s a screenshot of a pretty good summary from The Homer Encyclopedia: 

The key thing for you to know about how the word Danaan(s) is used within the context of The Iliad is that it’s basically another term for Achaeans, which is another term for Greeks (as contrasted with Trojans). 

That’s it for this post 

... but as you keep reading & thinking, bear in mind some of the “big picture” questions we raised in class today: 

Who “counts” as a person? 

Whose bodies “count” as the body count rises? 

What does “honor” mean if it can be taken from you? 

We should probably also talk about my fave, Nestor ... but that’s another post.