#songs of defiance

[problemspritester]

I updated sofd guys 🥺

2/3 intro routes are knocked out now, just one left

[favorite-music-tourney]

[prolibytherium]

I never touched it but I feel like i only ever hear positive things said about song of achilles.. in (rough strokes at least) what makes it dogshit to you?

Okay it's been a while since I actually read it so some of this might not be spot on accurate. Sorry if at any point I say 'the book never does xyz' and it actually does once or twice but I think my underlying criticisms are accurate

-Patroclus is made into like this soft gentle tender quivering little yaoi boy. In the source text, he's shown as compassionate and moved by the suffering of his own men (and apparently having some medical skill, tending to the wounded in the camp), but very much invested n combat and very, very good at it (pages worth of descriptions of the guys he's killing left and right). In this, the arguably more complex character from this 8th century BC text is flattened into Being A Healer, he doesn't want to go to war he just wants to help people, he only goes because Achilles has to but he doesn't want to fight he's a HEALER he's a gentle lover NOT A FIGHTER who just wants to help he just wants to help everyone around him he HEALS while Achilles is a doomed warrior who is so good at fighting and KILLING its a DICHOTOMY GUYS!!!LIKE THE BEAUTIFUL SUN AND MOON DOOMED LOVERS SO SAD patocluse HEALER . (I Think he's specifically characterized as being BAD at fighting but might be misremembering)

-I don't remember much about Achilles' characterization I think it just makes him less of a jackass while not adding anything of interest and levels out into being mad boring.

-Not getting into the literal millenias old debate whether the mythological characters Achilles and Patroclus were being characterized as some type of lover by the original oral sources of the Iliad or its Homeric writers. We will never know. We don't even know what (if any) culturally accepted conventions of male homosexuality existed in bronze age Greece (we know much more about their descendants). But there are some interesting elements of their characterization in this direction, with how unconventional their relationship is WITHIN the text itself- Patroclus is described as cooking for Achilles and his guests (very specifically a woman/wife's job), Achilles chides Patroclus like a father, but there's also scene where Achilles' mourning of him directly echoes a passage of Hector's wife mourning her husband, Patroclus is explicitly stated to Achilles' elder, and is overall treated as his equal or near-equal, closest confidant and most beloved friend (to the point that pederastic classical Greeks would debate over who was erastes (older authority figure lover) and who was eromenos (adolescent 'beloved')- many took it as a given that this text depicted their present-day cultural norms of homosexual behavior but it existed so Outside of these norms that it had to be debated who was who). Their relationship is non-standard both within the text and to the descendants of the civilization that wrote them.

Basically what I'm saying is this book had opportunities to like, explore the unconventionality of the relationship (being presented here as explicitly lovers), explore the dynamics of why Patroclus wants to do 'women's work' (besides being a tenderhearted softboy), the weird dynamics where they take on paternal roles to each other but also roles of wives, how they feel about being this way, and just kind of Doesn't. Which I guess isn't an intrinsic fault (because it omits much of what I just talked about to begin with). it's just like.... Lame. This book takes jsut abandons everything interesting about the source text in favor of flattening it into bland Doomed Yaoi.

-The conflict that sets off the core story of the Iliad is Achilles and Agamemnon fighting over Briseis, an enslaved Trojan woman taken by Achilles as a war-trophy, Achilles spends most of the story moping because he was dishonored by his 'trophy' being taken. Achilles and Patroclus and everyone else are raping their captives, all the women in the story are either captured Trojans (or in the case of the free women within the walls of Troy, soon to be enslaved, and are slave owners themselves). Slavery as an institution and extreme patriarchal conventions are innate to the text and reflective of the context in which it was developed. You cannot avoid it.

But obviously you can't have your soft yaoi boys doing this, so the author has them capturing women to Protect Them from the other men. Their slaves are UNDER THEIR PROTECTION and VERY SAFE (and they might even Like And Befriend Them but I might be misremembering that. Briseis does though). Our heroes have apparently absorbed none of the ideals of the culture they exist in and the author seems to think "they're gay and aren't sexually attracted to their captives" would translate to them being outright benevolent (also as if wartime sexual violence is just about attraction and not part of a wider spectrum of violent acts to dehumanize and brutalize an accepted 'enemy')

In the source text, Briseis mourns Patroclus as being the kindest to her of her captors, who tried to get her a slightly better outcome by getting her married to Achilles (which probably would be the Least Bad of all possible outcomes for a woman in that situation, becoming a legal wife instead of a slave), and wonders what will happen to her now that he's gone. This is a really really sad, horrible, and compelling dynamic which could be fleshed out in very interesting ways but is instead is tossed entirely aside in favor of them being Besties. Like brother and sister.

All of the above pisses me off so much. If you don't want to engage in the icky parts of ancient/bronze age Greece then don't write a retelling of a story taking place in bronze age Greece. I'm not gonna get mad at children's adaptations of Greek myths or silly fun stories loosely based on them for omitting the rape and slavery but it is SO fundamental to the Iliad. If you're not willing to handle it, either fully omit it or better yet set your Iliad inspired yaoi in an invented swords-and-sandals setting where you can have all your heartbreaking tragic doomed lovers plot beats and not have to clumsily write around the women they're brutalizing.

-The author didn't seem to know what to do with Thetis and she made her just like, Achilles bitch mother who spends most of the story trying to separate our Yaoi Boys (iirc her disguising Achilles as a girl and hiding him on Scyros is made to be more about getting him away from Patroclus than trying to save her son from his prophesied doom in the Trojan War) until she sees how much they loooove each other and I think helps Patroclus' spirit get to the afterlife or something in the end?

-This is more of a personal taste gripe but it has that writing style I loathe where the prose feels less like a story and more like an attempt to string together Deep Beautiful Hard Hitting Poetic Lines that will look great as excerpts on booktok (might predate booktok but same vibe). It's all very Pretty and Haunting and Deep but feels devoid of real substance.

I really like The Iliad and The Odyssey in of themselves. They're fascinating historical texts that give a window into how 8th century BC Greeks told their stories, saw their world, interpreted their ancestors, etc. And genuinely I think these texts have 'good' characters, there's a lot of complexity and humanity to it.

WRT the Iliad- all of the main Achaeans are pretty fascinating, the one singular part where Briseis Gets To Talk and laments her situation is great, Achilles fantasizing that all of the Trojans AND the Achaeans die so he and Patroclus alone can have the glory of conquering Troy (wild), Achilles asking to embrace Patroclus' shade and reaching out for him but it's immaterial (and the shade being sucked back underground with a 'squeak' (the squeak kinda gets me it's disturbing and sad)), Hecuba talking about wanting to tear out Achilles' liver and eat it in a (taboo, exceptioally pointed) expression of rage and grief for his mutilation of her son's corpse, just one tiny line where the enslaved women performing ritual wailing for their dead captors are described as using it as an outlet to 'grieve for their own troubles' is heartrending, etc. A lot of grappling with anger and grief and the inevitability of death, a lot of groundwork laid for characters that could be very interesting when expanded upon in the framework of a conventional novel.

And Song Of Achilles really doesn't do much with all that. I know a lot of my gripes here are kind of just "It's different from the Iliad", I would have thought of it as mostly mediocre and forgettable rather than infuriating if it wasn't a retelling (and I DEFINITELY have strong biases here). But I think the ways in which it is different are less just a product of a retelling (of course there's going to be omissions and differences) and more a complete and utter disinterest in vast majority of its own subject matter, to the book's detriment. I think a retelling has a point when it EXPANDS on the source, or provides a NEW ANGLE to the source. This book doesn't Really do either, it just shaves off the complexity of its source material, renders the characters into a really boring archetype of a gay relationship, and gives very little else. Its content boils down to a middling tragic romance that has been inserted into the hollowed out defleshed skeleton of the Iliad.

Bottom line: I definitely would not be as mad about it if I wasn't familiar with the source material but I think it's fair to expect a retelling to Engage with/expand on its source, and I also think it's weak purely on its own merits. This book was set up to disappoint Me specifically.

[deficd]

---

[glittergroovy]

Standard Bitter Love Song #7 - The Mountain Goats

[byjillianmaria]

Could I get a playlist for the MC of my main WIP? Her name is Sina. Her mentor inspired her, shaped her life, turned her into the scientist she is today. Now she has to face the fact that he's changed, choosing to throw away his morals in favor of scientific advancement that he knows will be misused. Sina decides not only to do the right thing, but maintains a sense of hope as an act of defiance. She refuses to let her troubles take that from her, and is determined to continue to believe that things can be better. She believes that humanity is good at its core, even while seeing and acknowledging the terrible people who are doing terrible things. I love her.

Rät - Penelope Scott

I studied code because I wanted to do something great like you / And the real tragedy is half of it was true

Shadowlands - Allison Russell

A thousand suns burnin' inside us / We can melt thе hatred to love

Bright Star - Anaïs Mitchell

Since I could not fly beside you / I would chart my own course by you

[thecreelhouse]

I’m fighting in the wake / unfettered, so maybe flowers will bloom for me again / the mirror in my face / she’s screaming for blood and violence / but it’s my time to pretend

[problemspritester]

Oh shit it's them, rendered in a symbolic method unique to this comic. Read it you know you want to.

[annunakitty]

Old Man's Child - Black Seeds on Virgin Soil

[tlaquetzqui]

Not me crying over Kuzaku’s flashback to why Al and Kurō left him with Ruri:

“My hands are scarred. They’re the hands of a monster. I can’t hold a baby without the very palms of my hands leaving scratches. But with these hands, I can fight for a future where our child’s hands don’t become like mine.”

[dailyblorboposting]

So basically I got really distracted by song lyrics and took multiple days on it. I might make this a full pmv actually, the song fits really well

"You are Loved" by Defiance, Ohio

[pumpkin-the-girlie-girl-vixen]

You and Me: Yelawolf

Black boots, red cup

Brown liquor, no suds

Some bad motherfuckers just rolled up

Yeah

Firecracker, short fuse

I pull the plug out on you like a cockscrew

No limit, no curfew

Yeah

To get everything I wanted in this lifetime

I had to put my beliefs on the front line

In every song that I sing

It's always been you and me

Tell my baby it'll be another late night

I left work eight hours after midnight

No breaks, no sleep

And it's always been you and me

You know it's always been you and me

Long money, no short change

You're still hatin', poor thing

Middle fingers up, tell you on more thing

Yeah

You can't hear me, let me dumb it down

I'm slum by nature from a small town

We tote guns by nature, no showin' out

Yeah

To get everything I wanted in this lifetime

I had to put my beliefs on the front line

In every song that I sing

It's always been you and me

Tell my baby it'll be another late night

I left work eight hours after midnight

No breaks, no sleep

And it's always been you and me

Like a raven over the grave

I get lost over the page

I'm in tune with my spirit

Doing shrooms, trip for days

18 with the plats, in the projects with the raps

White boy with the blacks

From the stick, I crossed the track

Rock and roll, rolling stone

Daddy left his pistol home

Load it up, shooting bottles off the porch to his songs

I was troubled, I was hurt

And it bubbled up to surface

Took it out on writing songs

I put that seed up under the dirt

God gave me water (blessed)

Two sons and a daughter (blessed)

I prayed and prayed harder (now I)

Work hard and play harder, I

Visualize, put thumbtacks over outline

And when they said I was out of my mind

I put more goals in the pipeline, this is my time

To get everything I wanted in this lifetime

I had to put my beliefs on the front line

In every song that I sing

It's always been you and me

Tell my baby it'll be another late night

I left work eight hours after midnight

No breaks, no sleep

And it's always been you and me

You know it's always been you and me

You know it's always been you and me

The lyrics convey a powerful narrative about resilience, ambition, and personal relationships. Here’s a breakdown of some of the key themes and meanings behind them:

1. **Ambition and Hard Work**: The song reflects the artist’s dedication to achieving their dreams. Lines like "To get everything I wanted in this lifetime, I had to put my beliefs on the front line" highlight the importance of prioritizing one's goals and values, often at great personal cost. The mention of working "eight hours after midnight" emphasizes a relentless work ethic and commitment to success, suggesting that the artist has had to sacrifice sleep and leisure for their ambitions.

2. **Personal Relationships**: The recurring phrase "it's always been you and me" suggests a deep, enduring connection with a significant other. This relationship acts as a source of support and motivation amid the struggles faced in life. The artist expresses gratitude for this bond, hinting that love and companionship play a crucial role in their journey.

3. **Struggles and Overcoming Adversity**: The mention of "slum by nature" and "troubled" reflects the artist's difficult background and experiences growing up. The imagery of firearms and small-town life paints a picture of a challenging environment that influenced their perspective and artistic expression. The lyrics suggest that these hardships have been transformative, leading to personal growth and a drive to channel emotions into creative outlets like songwriting.

4. **Self-Expression and Authenticity**: The artist emphasizes a connection to their spirit and authenticity, stating, "I'm in tune with my spirit." This speaks to the healing power of music and writing as a means of processing emotions and experiences. The act of "writing songs" is portrayed as a therapeutic outlet, allowing the artist to confront their struggles and express their identity.

5. **Family and Blessings**: The lyrics mention "two sons and a daughter," indicating the artist's pride in their family and the blessings they have received. The references to prayer and hard work suggest a spiritual aspect to their journey, highlighting the importance of faith and perseverance in achieving personal goals.

6. **Defiance and Confidence**: The tone throughout the song is one of defiance and confidence, with lines addressing critics and haters ("You're still hatin', poor thing"). This reflects a determination to rise above negativity and continue pursuing dreams, regardless of external opinions.

Overall, the lyrics speak to a personal journey filled with challenges and triumphs, underscoring the significance of love, hard work, and resilience in achieving one's dreams. The artist conveys a sense of empowerment, expressing gratitude for their partner and family while navigating the complexities of life and ambition.

[bamtwozled]

dan and phil crafts - slime // moscow by autoheart

[metalsongoftheday]

Monday, December 16: Civil Defiance, "Days of Rain"

R.I.P. Mike Kent (d. 2005)

Before metal largely settled into an approach (or rut) in the mid ‘90s, the first part of the decade saw the genre searching for ways to evolve and respond to shifts in cultural aesthetics, and Civil Defiance was pretty much in the thick of that on The Fishers for Souls: “Days of Rain” started with some sort of guitar/bagpipe thing before landing on more of a Jane’s Addiction/Saigon Kick-style tribal churn and rhythm.  Those two bands, particularly Saigon Kick, were a clear frame of reference, and Gerry Nestler’s vocals immediately recalled Matt Kramer, though there also a touch of Perry Farrell.  There was a certain openness and sense of possibility to tracks like “Days of Rain” that reflected its time: for a brief moment it felt like the genre didn’t have to be any one particular thing but could incorporate a variety of sounds and textures all at once, even in the space of a single song.  And for some bands it just about worked, but Civil Defiance didn’t quite have Jason Bieler’s or Eric Avery’s clarity of vision or compositional skills, so they ended up being more of a relic of a more innocent time.