#greek poetry books even more specific

[mask131]

The truth about Medusa and her rape... Mythology breakdown time!

With the recent release of the Percy Jackson television series, Tumblr is bursting with mythological posts, and the apparition of Medusa the Gorgon has been the object of numerous talks throughout this website… Including more and more spreading of misinformation, and more debates about what is the “true” version of Medusa’s backstory.

Already let us make that clear: the idea that Medusa was actually “blessed” or “gifted” by Athena her petrifying gaze/snake-hair curse is to my knowledge not at all part of the Antique world. I still do not know exactly where this comes from, but I am aware of no Greek or Roman texts that talked about this – so it seems definitively a modern invention. After all, the figure of Medusa and her entire myth has been taken part, reinterpreted and modified by numerous modern women, feminist activist, feminist movements or artists engaged in the topic of women’s life and social conditions – most notably Medusa becoming the “symbol of raped women’ wrath and fury”. It is an interesting reading and a fascinating update of the ancient texts, and it is a worthy take on its own time and context – but today we are not talking about the posterity, reinvention and continuity of Medusa as a myth and a symbol. I want to clarify some points about the ACTUAL myth or legend of Medusa – the original tale, as told by the Greeks and then by the Romans.

Most specifically the question: Was Medusa raped?

Step 1: Yes, but no.

The backstory of Medusa you will find very often today, ranging from mythology manuals (vulgarization manuals of course) to Youtube videos, goes as such: Medusa was a priestess of Athena who got raped by Poseidon while in Athena’s temple, and as a result of this, Athena punished Medusa by turning her into the monstrous Gorgon.

Some will go even further claiming Athena’s “curse” wasn’t a punishment but a “gift” or blessing – and again, I don’t know where this comes from and nobody seems to be able to give me any reliable source for that, so… Let’s put this out of there.

Now this backstory – famous and popular enough to get into Riodan’s book series for example – is partially true. There are some elements here very wrong – and by wrong I do mean wrong.

The story of Medusa being raped and turned into a monster due to being raped does indeed exist, and it is the most famous and widespread of all the Medusa stories, the one people remembered for the longest time and wrote and illustrated the most about. Hence why Medusa became in the 20th century this very important cultural symbol tied to rape and the abuse of women and victim-blaming. HOWEVER – the origin of this story is Ovid’s Metamorphoses, from the first century CE or so. Ovid? A Roman poet writing for Roman people. “Metamorphoses”? One of the two fundamental works of Roman literature and one of the two main texts of Roman mythology, alongside Virgil’s Aeneid. This is a purely Roman story belonging to the Roman culture – and not the Greek one. The story of Medusa’s rape does not have Greek precedents to my knowledge, Ovid introduced the element of rape – which is no surprise given Ovid turned half of the romances of Greek mythology into rapes. Note that, on top of all this, Ovid wasn’t even writing for religious purposes, nor was his text an actual mythological effort – he wrote it with pure literary intentions at heart. It is just a piece of poetry and literature taking inspiration from the legends of the Greek world, not some sort of sacred text.

Second big point: The legend I summarized above? It isn’t even the story Ovid wrote, since there are a lot of elements that do not come from Ovid’s retelling of the story (book fourth of the Metamorphoses). For example Ovid never said Medusa was a priestess of Athena – all he said was that she was raped in the temple of Athena. I shouldn’t even be writing Athena since again, this is a Roman text: we are speaking of Minerva here, and of Neptune, not of Athena or Poseidon. Similarly, Minerva’s curse did not involve the petrifying gaze – rather all Ovid wrote about was that Minerva turned Medusa’s hair into snakes, to “punish” her because her hair were very beautiful, and it was what made her have many suitors (none of which she wanted to marry apparently), and it is also implied it is what made Neptune fall in love (or rather fall in lust) with her. I guess it is from this detail that the reading of “Athena’s curse was a gift” comes from – even though this story also clearly does victim-blaming of rape here.

But what is very fascinating is that… we are not definitively sure Neptune raped Medusa in Ovid’s retelling. For sure, the terms used by Ovid in his fourth book of Metamorphoses are clear: this was an action of violating, sexually assaulting, of soiling and corrupting, we are talking about rape. But Ovid refers several other times to Medusa in his other books, sometimes adding details the fourth-book stories does not have (the sixth book for examples evokes how Neptune turned into a bird to seduce Medusa, which is completely absent from the fourth book’s retelling of Medusa’ curse). And in all those other mentions, the terms to designate the relationship between Medusa and Neptune are more ambiguous, evoking seduction and romance rather than physical or sexual assault. (It does not help that Ovid has an habit of constantly confusing consensual and non-consensual sex in his poems, meaning that a rape in one book can turn into a romance in another, or reversal)

But the latter fact makes more sense when you recall that the rape element was invented and added by Ovid. Before, yes Poseidon and Medusa loved each other, but it was a pure romance, or at least a consensual one-night. Heck, if we go back to the oldest records of the love between Poseidon and Medusa, back in Hesiod’s Theogony, we have descriptions of the two of them laying together in a beautiful, flowery meadow – a stereotypical scene of pastoral romances – with no mention of any brutality or violence of any sort. As a result, it makes sense the original “romantic” story would still “leak” or cast a shadow over Ovid’s reinvented and slightly-confused tale.

Step 2: So… no rape?

Well, if we go by Greek texts, no, apparently Medusa was not raped in Greek mythology, and only became a rape victim through Ovid.

The Ancient Greek texts all record Poseidon and Medusa sleeping with each other and having children, but no mention of rape. And the whole “curse of Athena” thing is not present in the oldest records – no temple of Athena soiling, no angry Athena cursing a poor girl… “No curse?” you say “But then how did Medusa got turned into a Gorgon”? Answer: she did not. She was born like that.

As I said before, the oldest record of Medusa’s romance but also of her family comes from Hesiod’s Theogony (Hesiod being one of the two “founding authors” of Greek mythology, alongside Homer – Homer did wrote several times about Medusa, but only as a disembodied head and as a monster already dead, so we don’t have any information about her life). And what do we learn? That Medusa is part of a set of three sisters known as the Gorgons – because oh yes, Ovid did not mention Medusa’s sister now did he? How did Medusa’s sisters ALSO got snake-hair or petrifying-gaze if only Medusa was cursed for sleeping with Neptune? Ovid does not give us any answer because again, it is an “adaptational plot hole”, and the people that try to adapt Ovid’s story have to deal with the slight problem of Stheno and Euryale needing to share their sister’s curse despite seemingly not being involved in the whole Neptune business. Anyway, back to the Greek text.

So, you have those three Gorgon sisters, and Medusa is said to be mortal while her sisters are not. Why is it such a big deal? Because Medusa wasn’t originally some random human or priestess. Oh no! Who were the Gorgons’ parents? Phorcys and Keto/Ceto, aka two sea-gods. Not just two sea-gods – two sea-gods of the ancient, primordial generation of sea-gods, the one that predated Poseidon, and that were cousins to the Titans, the sea-gods born of Gaia mating with Pontos.

So the Gorgons were “divine” of nature – and this is why Medusa being a mortal was considered to be a MASSIVE problem and handicap for her, an abnormal thing for the daughter of two deities. But let’s dig a bit further… Who were Phorcys and Ceto? Long story short: in Greek mythology, they were considered to be sea-equivalents of Typhon and Gaia. They were the parents of many monsters and many sea-horrors: Keto/Ceto herself had her name attributed and equated with any very large creature (like whales) or any terrifying monster (like dragons) from the sea. The Gorgons themselves was a trio of monsters, but their sisters, that directly act as their double in the myth of Perseus? The Graiai – the monstrous trio of old women sharing one eye and one tooth. Hesiod also drops the fact that Ladon (the dragon that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperids), and Echidna (the snake-woman that mated with Typhon and became known as the “mother of monsters”) were also children of Phorcys and Ceto, while other authors will add other monster-related characters such as Scylla (of Charybdis and Scylla fame), the sirens, or Thoosa (the mother of Polyphemus the cyclop). Medusa herself is technically a “mother of monsters” since she birthed both Pegasus the flying horse and Chrysaor, a giant. So here is something very important to get: Medusa, and the Gorgons, were part of a family of monsters. Couple that with the absence of any mention of curses in these ancient texts, and everything is clear.

Originally Medusa was not a woman cursed to become a monster: she was born a monster, part of a group of monster siblings, birthed by monster-creating deities, and she belonged to the world of the “primordial abominations from the sea”, and the pre-Olympian threats, the remnants of the primordial chaos. It is no surprise that the Gorgons were said to live at the edge of the very known world, in the last patch of land before the end of the universe – in the most inhuman, primitive and liminal area possible. They were full-on monsters!

Now you might ask why Poseidon would sleep with a horrible monster, especially when you recall that the Greeks loved to depict the Gorgons as truly bizarre and grotesque. It wasn’t just snake-hair and petrifying gaze: they had boar tusks, and metallic claws, and bloated eyes, and a long tongue that constantly hanged down their bearded chin, and very large heads – some very old depictions even show her with a female centaur body! In fact, the ancient texts imply that it wasn’t so much the Gorgon’s gaze or eyes that had the power to turn people into stone – but that rather the Gorgon was just so hideous and so terrifying to look at people froze in terror – and then literally turned into stone out of fear and disgust. We are talking Lovecraftian level of eldritch horror here. So why would Poseidon, an Olympian god, sleep with one of these horrors? Well… If you know your Poseidon it wouldn’t surprise you too much because Poseidon had a thing for monsters. As a sort of “dark double” of Zeus, whereas Zeus fell in love with beautiful princesses and noble queens and birthed great gods and brave heroes, Poseidon was more about getting freaky with all sorts of unusual and bizarre goddesses, and giving birth to bandits and monsters. A good chunk of the villains of Greek mythology were born out of Poseidon’s loins: Polyphemus, Antaios, Orion, Charybdis, the Aloads… And even his most benevolent offspring has freaky stuff about it – Proteus the shapeshifter or Triton half-man half-fish… So yes, Poseidon sleeping with an abominable Gorgon is not so much out of character.

Step 3: The missing link

Now that we established what Medusa started out as, and what she ended up as… We need to evoke the evolution from point Hesiod to point Ovid, because while people summarized the Medusa debate as “Sea-born monster VS raped and punished woman”, there is a third element needed to understand this whole situation…

Yes Ovid did invent the rape. But he did not invent the idea that Medusa had been cursed by Athena.

The “gorgoneion” – the visual and artistic motif of the Gorgon’s head – was, as I said, a grotesque and monstrous face used to invoke fright into the enemies or to repel any vile influence or wicked spirit by the principle of “What’s the best way to repel bad stuff? Badder stuff”. Your Gorgon was your gargoyle, with all the hideous traits I described before – represented in front (unlike all the other side-portraits of gods and heroes), with the face being very large and flat, a big tongue out of a tusked-mouth, snake-hair, bulging crazy eyes, sometimes a beard or scales… Pure monster. But then… from the fifth century BCE to the second century BCE we see a slow evolution of the “gorgoneion” in art. Slowly the grotesque elements disappear, and the Gorgon’s face becomes… a regular, human face. Even more: it even becomes a pretty woman’s face! But with snakes instead of hair. As such, the idea that Medusa was a gorgeous woman who just had snakes and cursed-eyes DOES come from Ancient Greece – and existed well before Ovid wrote his rape story.

But what was the reason behind this change?

Well, we have to look at the Roman era again. Ovid’s tale of Medusa being cursed for her rape at the hands of Neptune had to rival with another record collected by a Greek author Apollodorus, or Pseudo-Apollodorus, in his Bibliotheca. In this collection of Greek myths, Apollodorus writes that indeed, Medusa was cursed by Athena to have her beautiful hair that seduced everybody be turned into snakes… But it wasn’t because of any rape or forbidden romance, no. It was just because Medusa was a very vain woman who liked to brag about her beauty and hair �� and had the foolish idea of saying her hair looked better than Athena’s. (If you recall tales such as Arachne’s or the Judgement of Paris, you will know that despite Athena being wise and clever, one of her main flaws is her vanity).

“Wait a minute,” you are going to tell me, “The Bibliotheca was created in the second century CE! Well after Greece became part of the Roman Empire, and after Ovid’s Metamorphoses became a huge success! It isn’t a true Greek myth, it is just Ovid’s tale being projected here…” And people did agree for a time… Until it was discovered, in the scholias placed around the texts of Apollonios of Rhodes, that an author of the fifth century BCE named Pherecyde HAD recorded in his time a version of Medusa’s legend where she had been cursed into becoming an ugly monster as punishment for her vanity. We apparently do not have the original text of Pherecyde, but the many scholias referring to this lost piece are very clear about this. This means that the story that Apollodorus recorded isn’t a “novelty”, but rather the latest record of an older tradition going back to the fifth century BCE… THE SAME CENTURY THAT THE GORGONEION STARTED LOSING THEIR GROTESQUE, and that the face of Medusa started becoming more human in art.

[EDIT: I also forgot to add that this evolution of Medusa is also proved by strange literary elements, such as Pindar's mention in a poem of his (around 490 BCE) of "fair-cheeked Medusa". A description which seems strange given how Medusa used to be depicted as the epitome of ugliness... But that makes sense if the "cursed beauty" version of the myth had been going around at the time!]

And thus it is all connected and explained. Ovid did invent the rape yes – but he did not invent the idea of Athena cursing Medusa. It pre-existed as the most “recent” and dominating legend in Ancient Greece, having overshadowed by Ovid’s time the oldest Hesiodic records of Medusa being born a monster. So what Ovid did wasn’t completely create a new story out of nowhere, but twist the Greek traditions of Athena cursing Medusa and Medusa having a relationship with Poseidon, so that the two legends would form one and same story. And this explains in retrospect why Ovid focuses so much on describing Medusa’s beautiful hair, and why Ovid’s Minerva would think turning her hair into snake would be a “punishment fit for the crime”: these are leftovers of the Greek tale where Medusa was punished for her boasting and her vanity.

CONCLUSION

Here is the simplified chronology of how Medusa’s evolution went.

A) Primitive Greek myths, Hesiodic tradition: Born a monster out of a family of sea-monsters and monstrous immortals. Is a grotesque, gargoylesque, eldritch abomination. Athena has only an indirect conflict with her, due to being Perseus’ “fairy godmother”. Has a lovely romance with Poseidon.

B) Slow evolution throughout Classical Greece and further: Medusa becomes a beautiful, human-looking girl that was cursed to have snake for hair and petrifying eyes, instead of being a Lovecraftian horror people could not gaze upon. Her conflict with Athena becomes direct, as it is Athena that cursed her due to being offended by her vain boasting. Her punishment is for her vanity and arrogant comparison to the goddess.

C) Ovid comes in: Medusa’s romance with Poseidon becomes a rape, and she is now punished for having been raped inside Athena’s temple.

[As a final note, I want to insist upon the fact that the story of Medusa being raped is not less "worthy" than any other version of the myth. Due to its enormous popularity, how it shaped the figure of Medusa throughout the centuries, and how it still survives today and echoes current-day problems, to try to deny the valid place of this story in the world of myths and legends would be foolish. HOWEVER it is important to place back things in their context, to recognize that it is not the ONLY tale of Medusa, that it was NOT part of Greek mythology, but rather of Roman legends - and let us all always remember this time Poseidon slept with a Lovecraftian horror because my guy is kinky.]

EDIT:

For illustration, I will place here visuals showing how the Ancient art evolved alongside Medusa's story.

Before the 5th century BCE: Medusa is a full-on monster

From the 5th century to the 2nd century BCE: A slow evolution as Medusa goes from a full-on monster to a human turned into a monster. As a result the two depictions of the grotesque and beautiful gorgoneion coexist.

Post 2nd century BCE: Medusa is now a human with snake hair, and just that

#greek mythology #medusa #gorgon #athena #gorgons #poseidon #neptune #minerva #ovid #rape in mythology #greek monsters #roman mythology

[malusokay]

serious, important, gigantic question i have . how do i start writing poetry? i'm really interested but just can't get myself started, lol. also what're some of ur fav books currently? i'm trying to get more into literature. love ur blog btw!

oh I love this question!! 

I believe becoming a poet begins with being an avid reader. Once you develop a love for reading, writing will come naturally as you start to note simple observations from your daily life or random thoughts that come to mind... As you continue to write, you'll gradually develop a better understanding of words. This will allow you to become more discerning in your writing, carefully selecting words and being mindful of how you structure your sentences to convey emotions and imagery... slowly You'll probably begin to dip into poetry, even if it's terrible at first, it's a necessary stage that everyone goes through (I could write an entire post on why creating bad art is so critical lol). The key is to keep writing. Write. Write. Write. And write. It's strange how addictive writing becomes once you get the hang of it… this year alone, I wrote hundreds of poems!!

So to summarize: Reading -> writing -> Poetry

here are some writers and writings I'd recommend to anyone who wants to get into poetry:

 (I got a bit carried away while writing this list lol…)

T.S. Eliot: The Waste Land, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, Four Quartets

Edgar Allan Poe: The Raven, Annabel Lee, The Tell-Tale Heart

Homer: The Odyssey

Walt Whitman: Leaves of Grass, Song of Myself

Dante Alighieri: The Divine Comedy (includes Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso)

John Milton: Paradise Lost

Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales

Emily Dickinson: Because I could not stop for Death, Hope is the thing with feathers, I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Sylvia Plath: Ariel, Lady Lazarus, Daddy

Maya Angelou: Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (autobiographical prose)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning: Sonnet 43 (How Do I Love Thee?), Aurora Leigh (a novel in verse)

my personal obsession lies in ancient poetry (Greek, to be specific), though I understand that it may not be everyone's cup of tea. But if you want to know more about that — or have any more literature-related questions in general — please let me know or send me another ask, and I'll be happy to share more!! <3

#malusokay #girl blogger #askmalu #literature #poetry #writing

[deth-of-a-junkie]

i have a lot of postal dude headcanons, so ive split them up.

so heres my postal 1 dude headcanons

p1 dude has a special interest on the jets and weaponry used in ww2 and the vietnam war, but also the U.S military as a whole. he specifically likes to collect vintage U.S military memorabilia and propaganda. he can go on for hours about the faults of the government and government greed and corruption, he hates the system. he also knows a lot about JFK assassination theories and will go on for hours about them.

oh yeah. postal 1 dude is autistic.

he also has a spin on guns. he knows them all by name and loves to learn about different manufacturers and how each one are built. he knows how to deconstruct them and put them back together. he even has some guns he's made himself. legal? probably not. he doesnt care.

p1 dude also prefers reading in books for information instead of searching the web for them, so amongst the mess of his house is just piles upon piles of books.

p1 dude also is great at poetry. he loves writing too, which is why i think he started his diaries.

he also loves drawing! he loves going out and drawing scenery the most, he also likes drawing nude figures. he finds the human body to be interesting.

p1 dude is religious. im divided on if i see him as someone whos spiritually aligned closer to catholics (though i wouldnt call him a straight up catholic, he doesn't like the church.) or pagen.

talking about pagen dude, correct me if im wrong, i dont know much about pagenism (but ive been trying to learn more as of recent), but he specifically worships greek gods. out of the gods, his favorite is ares.

he hangs around poostall dude a lot. they arent really friends, they're kinda opposites of each other, but poostall looks up to him as a mentor in philosophy among other things.

he used to be active in his local punk scene when he was younger. he has a lot of cds and tapes of obscure bands that almost no one has heard of.

he loves metal more then anything though, and he also has a large collection of horror films (all on vhs, a few of dvd. he doesnt have his dvd player plugged in so he only uses it if he has too. also refused to buy blueray. if its the only option he burns it onto a disk himself.).

his favorite genres of metal are melodic death metal and prog metal. i would also say dsbm but i feel like thats too corny. he loves opeth. also death.

he's non-speaking most of the time by choice. the older he's gotten the more he started to isolate himself, and he usually chooses to ignore people when theyre talking and not respond at all, mainly just people who ask for directions and stuff on the street he'll just ignore. he just doesnt feel the need too, he likes to stay invisible.

talking about that, he hates leaving his house. it used to be because of anxiety but it slowly became due to his other mental health issues getting worse, especially his fear of everyone being out to get him/everyone else being demons/whatever your interpretation of his reasonings behind postal 1 is.

3 in one shampoo. also uses hand soap to shave instead of shaving cream. also uses hand soap to wash his face...

he needs glasses. his sunglasses also has his normal prescription lenses in them, his eyes are sensitive to light so he chose to make them sunglasses too (i believe this is possible. if its not, well it is now). he also has a 2nd pair that are just normal glasses, he uses them only to read or when he's walking around his house at night. (this is totally not me self reflecting with the realization that i just found out i need glasses..../s)

I DONT KNOW HOW I FORGOT TO MENTION but also has a special interest on nuclear disasters, nuclear power plants, and radiation. theyre not separate theyre all apart of one fixation that branches off the core idea of nuclear power. like he cant have one without the other. if that makes sense.

also uses he/they. he doesnt out right say it, he doesnt use social media so its not like, in a bio or anything. he just naturally picked it up. will also accept she being used to refer to himself, but is not something he states publicly or asks people to do. he was surrounded by the queer community growing up as most of his highschool friends were apart of the community so he just one day realized he wasnt opposed to it being used in reference to himself.

he is an ASSHOLE. he used to be more considerate in his youth but the older he got the grumpier he got. he is SCARY when he insults someone. like he will have an entire ass speech of him just degrading someone until they literally have nothing left to say for themselves.

doesnt get angry though. he's calm when hes upset and frustrated, or will straight up just make fun of and make harsh jokes about the situation (i mean that like. if he gets into a disagreement with someone on the street he will laugh at them and mock them by teasing them. thats what i mean.)

#sorry i love p1 dude so much. like so much. #i think about him way too much. #im so not normal about him #please correct any incorrect info in here crying emoji #postal #postal dude #postal headcanons #postal dude headcanons #postal 1 #rws #running with scissors #p1 dude #postal 1 dude

[sunnysam-my]

Dark Academia is a subculture and it isn't problematic, just misunderstood.

I am so tired of people that aren't a part of this community shitting on dark academia literally any time it gains popularity again, claiming that it's pretentious, elitist and racist. It's not problematic, at least not in a way most people criticise it for.

What all of those people don't seems to understand is that there's the dark academia aesthetic and there is the dark academia the subculture. Even when they do understand they still put people who are only interested in the fashion and overall vibe together with people who are dark academia.

Why is dark academia a subculture?

First let's start with what even subculture is?

It's a cultural group within a larger culture, often sharing a collection of values, beliefs, rituals and traditions. Despite what many believes, it doesn't have to have any connection to music, like Star Trek and Star Wars fans, but there's no need for having a shared fandom at all, like the gays, bikers and youth.

Participation in the dark academia subculture is not limited to following a specific set of fashion. It suggest preferred activities, hobbies, philosophies and lifestyles. The focus is on reading and expanding one’s horizons, on becaming the best version of oneself no matter the cost, especially by engaging in classical literature, history, foreign languages, mythology, art and philosophy. On top of that DA is actually connected to certain music (classical and neoclassical) and fandoms.

The (incorrect) criticisms:

1. One of the more common criticisms of dark academia is that of its superficiality and pretentiousness – that it is more a fetishisation of intellectual life than real intellectual life. "Instead of being a reading society, it's a Dead Poets Society cosplay." This is just simply untrue. Yes, there are people who are purely here for the aesthetic and vibes, but they aren't part of the subculture. People who are genuinely part of this community do read all those books, write poetry, journal e.t.c regularly and try to be well educated.

2. The money issue. Now this is where it gets funny. Dark academia is often called classist and racist because of it's "idealised vision of the academic lifestyle in which the money is simply there". Obviously in places where higher education is strictly financially driven studying is a bitch. Nowadays there are even a lot of doctors who are homeless, especially in US. But DA is mainly a European thing, and in a lot of EU countries studying isn't that expensive, it's not cheap either (books costs a lot and not working doesn't help), but you don't need to pay for a good education, you need to study hard and compete with others to get good education.

This however is not a dark academia problem. It's a harsh reality. One that we need to fight with. Getting higher education shouldn't make you get into a debt. It shouldn't make you sacrifice social life for studying all your life only to end on the streets.

3. "Eurocentric obsession". This is so dumb I don't even know to say. How can you possibly call people, mostly from Europe, problematic for being fascinated by Europe's history, it's past culture, Greek mythology, mostly European philosophers (but American too), Latin that is still fucking taught at many schools here, etc. All of things are taught in schools here. There is nothing wrong with you being obsessed with Asian royalty and making it part of your personality, but God forbid, you, a white person, are obsessed with the best parts of your history and culture 🙄.

4. Another criticism of dark academia is that it encourages unhealthy behaviour, both physically (caffeine overconsumption, smoking, drugs) and mentally (perfectionist, constant competition). The pursuit of perfection comes at a price. The entire idea of DA is to study as hard as possible so you can reach enlighten. It's workaholism, except it's school, not work. Now this is why I think dark academia isn't problematic in a way people think, but is misunderstood.

A melancholic comforting dream

It's easy to understand why people think DA is unhealthy or fake. Nights spent studying, writing essays for hours on end, drowning in books and writing excessive notes. For many this sounds like a nightmare, but dark academia romanticise it. It see it as the true joy of university life. At the same time there's taking joy in reflecting on what is irretrievably lost, pessimistic and melancholic.

In reality most people in this community are overworked neurodivergent, usually twice exceptional, youth who struggles mentally. So many people are twice exceptional and it's very obvious. The hyperfixetions, the love for linguistics and humanities, the hate of math.

For many Dark Academia is a coping method.

Staples of dark academia fiction explore intellectualism, classic literature and self-discovery, but also the struggle of fighting for your identity, the way humans are shaped by their trauma, the way they destroy themselves to be better. The word "dark" in Dark Academia is primarily about those dark sides of the human nature, not just the dark colours of the DA aesthetic.

If you think that Dead Poets Society romanticised suicide or Kill Your Darlings academicly motivated drug use then you're the crazy one here. People loved those movies, because of how relatable they were, even the suffering.

Studying is a bitch. If you make it fun then you are less depressed about the fact that you don't have the choice to not study all night. It's not just nostalgia for what you haven't experienced, but what you have to endure all your youth. Some people are forced to study to be the very best and sacrifice their (social) lives, because the system is so broken, but if you can make it into your own, comforting, time - it's better. Sure, the movies and books have lots of harmful copying mechanism, but irl (or in this case online) this community encourages healthy methods like reading, making art, journaling, acting etc.

I do think there's a lot of to talk about when it comes to, for example, sexism, and I do agree DA needs more diversity than just white cis man, but like I said, it's not problematic in a way most people criticise it for.

#dark aesthetic #dark academia #dark acadamia aesthetic #dark academism #subculture #dark academia subculture #mental health #relatable #autism #adhd problems #problematic #coping mechanism #light academia #chaotic academia #dead poets society #kill your darlings #neurodivergent #intellectualism

[finelythreadedsky]

Hey! I just saw one of your qrts of a poem on censorship and I’m really curious about one of the tags you added that said there is a connection between the Jewish sense of identity and the ancient Carthaginians/Phoenicians and I’m super interested, could you please elaborate?

um so the genesis of those tags is actually in two conference talks i heard in december that discussed dido in the civilization video games, which i have never played and know nothing about, but i found it really interesting that the creators of that game give dido an in-game affinity with judaism (that's the religion she's inclined to 'found' if you play as her? or something) and reconstructed the phoenician dialogue her voice actor delivers based on modern hebrew pronunciation. i think it was maureen attali who went into more detail about various jewish approaches to/reception of dido, but i don't remember specifics. i believe the conference proceedings will eventually be published as a book about the reception of the women of the aeneid-- edith hall and magdalena zira are the people behind that.

in an even broader context, i just think it's fascinating that a sense of affinity with the ancient phoenicians and carthaginians seems to develop so easily among modern jews. like the way sonya taaffe's poetry frames both carthage and judea as victims of roman imperialism. and it's sort of baked in on a linguistic level too: it's really easy to learn phoenician/punic if you already know hebrew, and the older convention was even to print phoenician and punic with hebrew letters. if you're familiar with hebrew or even just anything jewish, there are a lot of moments of recognition when you start to look at phoenician and punic history and material culture! like oh wait the suffete? same word as the hebrew name for the book of judges, shoftim. and that's the baal that the bible is always going off about.

like a friend of mine recently joked that the movie frozen is an aeneid 4 retelling bc the sisters elsa and anna map onto elissa (dido) and anna, but the names aren't a coincidence! elsa derives ultimately from the hebrew elisheva, which uses the same root el- as the phoenician name elishat which became elissa in greek/latin! and the name anna became common in europe because hannah (anna in greek) was a common jewish name around the turn of the millennium, cognate with the phoenician name based on the same root that was also latinized as anna!

and also the phoenicians were characterized (both in texts and in reality) by their involvement with trade, which rings with more modern characterizations of jews, and there's also often a degree of untrustworthiness attributed to them because of that association with trading that feels weirdly akin to the last millennium of antisemitism. like i'm thinking of dougherty 2001, the raft of odysseus ch 5-- the picture of the phoenicians suggested in the odyssey looks very much like portrayals of jews, with varying degrees of antisemitism. so i do think there's a sense of (sometimes defensive) identification that easily arises there.

and all that is particularly interesting bc within the bible the phoenicians/canaanites are presented as the enemies of the israelites against whom they're trying to define themselves! and that israelite hostility toward the canaanites is perhaps precisely because they are so similar and so closely related.

anyway reception of the phoenicians is so cool

#long post #ask #amefuyuu

[pray4byron]

I was waiting for an opening as I saw you had match ups available and would love to see who you'd put me with.

Preference for male characters from Hazbin Hotel

About me: You can call me Claire. I'm AFAB she/her, 5'3", panromantic demisexual. I'm Tim Burton pale, brown eyes, messy curly bob brown hair, glasses with glasses chains usually, chubby but strong, dress either romantic gothic feminine or butch cryptidcore, like no in between, never wear make up because sensory hell.

Some type of neurodivergent but not diagnosed specifically. I tend to know a little about a lot of things due to jumping from focus to focus. Queen of Dad jokes, rather blunt since I'm not subtle. Aside from English can speak Latin, some Gaelic, some Spanish, a little bit of Turkish/Arabic, Church Greek and Slavonic, and random phrases in Russian, German, and Italian. I'm ENFP, Ares cabin from PJO if that means anything.

I teach preschool, love children as they're so fun to be around and the possibilities they have ahead are wonderful. I also bake, sew, knit, read tons of books, collect rocks and other nature stuff, tend to the gardens, I sing in my choir, and like to listen to music. Not specific music genres that I care for, more vibes, but been into some Bauhaus lately, along with SJ Tucker and The Dead South.

My faith is important to me, I even am considering pursuing becoming a religious sister at a convent, like a nun.

I do love horror, romantic gothic poetry (Think Poe and the like), analog horror(DOAI, Mandela Catalogue), Dr. Who, bad b movies (think Redletter media level bad), animation in general, HB HH, stuff like that, I read everything and anything so long as the narrative is interesting or the subject is a hyperfixation of mine, such as Religions, Mythology, History relating to late Medieval to Elizabethan, textiles, fantasy, or speculative biology (like thought potato on youtube). I also do dress in character for the Renaissance Festival, people assume I work there as I have season passes for the last 5 years and attend all weekends from open to close.

I tend to be a sweet tooth, love any chocolate, baked goods with richness or chocolate flavors, drink lots of coffee, tea, sweet red wines, mead, rum based cocktails or dark malty beers if we're going alcohol, though I tend to be the driver if I'm going to party somewhere. My giving love language is touch and words, along with acts of service. My receiving love language is words, touch, and gift giving. I love to cook or make gifts for others, usually don't expect it in turn.

I'm loud, maternal, weirdly dark yet wholesome, and able to lift a toilet with my bare hands up two flights of stairs. I tend to talk either like a southern grandma or terminally online weirdo with random swears. When friends have a bad breakup I'm like do you want a hug or does someone have to die?

In relationships I can be very talkative, but also in a sense the less dominant partner. Like, I handle the day to day, but not great at organizing the dates, the stuff like that's more romantic. I'd hope my partner could handle that part. I'm also romantically easily flustered. Like squeaking and burning red in the face from genuine good flirting.

So hope you can find someone right for me, God Bless you dear.

hello claire!! i decided to pair your with…

Lucifer !!

First of, he loves your love of kids, and let’s be real, he probably has a love of kids as well, as much as Charlie is an adult, he would probably eagerly introduce you to her after finding out this tidbit of info

Honestly, to him, you give off very strong, emotional support wifey vibes and honestly he is all in for it haha

Lucifer doesn’t mind that you can be very talkative, infact, he enjoys it.

He tries to make it fairly easy when it comes to planning dates for you, so most of the time, you both just stay in

Also, Luci is definitely someone who gets flustered easily, so you both just end up giddy and smiley at eachothers shy little flirty comments and it’s the most heart warming thing

#hazbin hotel #x reader #mio’s writing ! ☆ #fanfiction #x y/n #hazbin hotel x reader #hazbin hotel x y/n #hazbin hotel x you #x you #mio’s matchups ! ☆ #reqs closed #hazbin lucifer #lucifer magne #lucifer x y/n #lucifer x you #lucifer #hazbin hotel lucifer #lucifer morningstar x reader #lucifer x reader #lucifer morningstar

[person4924]

new about me

my name is sam !! thats basically all u need to know but theres (a lot) more under the cut!!

im a lesbian (???) and ace

they/she (this is my pronouns page)

im probably genderfluid so u can really use any (if u use he sometimes i’ll kiss u /p)

i’m neurodivergent of some sort (i don’t even know anymore)

a minor (don’t be weird)

my personality type is INFP-T

things i like (the things bolder r what i talk about the most)

harry potter (fuck jkr)

marvel

the marauders

boy meets world

it

osemanverse

paper girls

teen wolf

owl house

shameless

glee

stranger things

friends

andi mack

the last of us (i’ve only watched the show tho, but i know most of what happens in the games)

riordanverse

musicals

poetry

reading

cats

animals

fictional characters

music

movies

tv shows

art

writing

women

sitcoms

brooklyn nine nine

new girl

hamilton

grishaverse

stand up comedians

ocean animals (specifically sharks)

community

moths (and just kinda winged bugs in general)

greek mythology

dawsons creek

bojack horseman

halloween

the sky (like stars, the moon, the sunset, etc)

jelly fish

criminal minds

animals

ted lasso

scooby doo (the older movies from the 2000’s ish specifically but all of it too)

everything sucks!

the sun bearer trials

atypical

octonauts

spencer reid

my fav movies are tick tick boom, my girl, dead poets society, breakfast club, the outsiders, hamilton, stand by me, cmbyn, lady bird, beautiful boy, luca, nimona, (500) days of summer etc.

musicals i like are hamilton, tick tick boom and the greatest showman

my fav taylor albums are folklore, evermore, reputation, 1989 and speak now but i love all of them really (please please ask me abt them omg)

my current hyper fixation is the marauders (more of a life-long obsession atp) and criminal minds

i’m currently reading the extraordinaries

my fav music people (i’m really just giving a short list of many): conan gray, cavetown, current joys, queen, rainbow kitten surprise, the front bottoms, harry styles, noah kahan, taylor swift, phoebe bridgers, the fray, coldplay, olivia rodrigo, billie eilish, boygenius, gracie abrams, sufjan stevens, maya hawke, the smiths, lucy dacus, julien baker, the smiths, sleeping at last, mitski

i mostly post about whatever hyperfixation and/or character/person has overtaken my brain, music and analysis things

i appreciate tone tags and i try to use them as much as possible

i’m always looking to talk to more people and i’m always bored (don’t be weird istg)

my fav books are any alice oseman book, the outsiders, the perks of being a wallflower, i fell in love with hope

child of athena (i think) and a ravenclaw

biggest pandalily shipper you’ll find

i love love love making character analysis’ or song or movie or tv show or books or ships or whatever

i also write sometimes!! (i suck ass)

and i’m person4924 on ao3 but i can’t figure out how to link it

this is my spotify (i have the best music taste in the history of human kind btw)

this is my discord (in case of KOSA or if it’s just easier to talk on there)

this is my airbuds idk if anyone actually uses it but i thought it’d be fun to share music with mooties

please please please send me asks i have no hobbies or friends and im always bored please please please (im on my hands and knees begging please please please)

i have a tagging system!! idk how much ill remember to use it but yeah!! (its also new so only my new posts will have them) #sam shut the fuck up -> rants/yapping #asks!!! -> asks #polls!!! -> polls #crazy? i was crazy once... -> headcanons for characters/analysis things

#about me

[thegrapeandthefig]

Hi, do you know of any resources on Ancient Greek seafaring “laws” or superstitions? A sailor’s code of conduct if you will. google has not been my friend in this search😞

Oh gods, I swear it is asks like yours that justify my endless hoarding of resources even when I don’t personally need them. This might be a bit convoluted so I think I’m going to list the potential things I have in my library that may be useful to you, but keep in mind that I think what you’re looking for is most likely to be scattered across different works and there might not be only one possible answer there.

I would begin with Success at Sea: Maritime Votive Offerings and Naval Dedications in Antiquity. I think it’s probably the most straightforward work for what you’re looking for. However, this thesis doesn’t focus only on Ancient Greece evidence.

Archaic and Classical Harbours of the Greek World : The Aegean and Eastern Ionian contexts is also a possible good match but it won’t answer directly to your question. What you’re looking for in that particular book is the section(s) about coastal temples and their usage, both religiously and as landmarks for navigation.

On a similar note, there is an appendix in The Role of the Physical Environment in Ancient Greek Seafaring about the religious associations of different topography (islands, traits and headlands specifically).

Even more indirectly, I think you will also find relevant information in Taming the Winds in Antiquity (1400 BC - 500 AD): Iconography, Cult and Literature. The organization of this thesis is a bit messy but because it’s impossible to sail without wind, there is a section on their place in navigation. I will warn, however, that there is a lot of Roman or (late) Greco-Roman sources used in this thesis.

I also recommend Protecting the ancient mariners, cultic artifacts from the holy land seas, but, again it focuses on a specific area along the coast of Israel and doesn’t discriminate between Greek/ Roman/Egyptian material. That said, it goes in interesting details about the archaeological evidence found, which includes a fair share of statuettes of deities from various eras and faiths and that in itself can be of interest to you.

While unrelated to religious matters, it’d be wrong of me to not mention The Ancient Sailing Season but I can already tell you that it is basically useless for religious information, but it is a goldmine for everything else that relates to sailing in Antiquity.

And before I wrap this up, I need to mention that a lot of the more relevant references I mentioned at the beginning refer to or use the Greek Anthology (also known as Palatine Anthology), and for good reasons. It’s an eclectic anthology of Greek poetry, but there are some gold nuggets in there, including epigrams about navigation (such as the ones for Priapus which I’m more familiar with). So yeah, only bits and pieces will be useful to you through the 5 volumes but might be good to have a copy to refer to if you come across mentions in the works I’ve listed.

Happy research and, ignore the insane price tags of some of those books. If you struggle finding them online, shoot me a DM.

#resources #ancient greek sailing

[f0xgl0v3]

ToA: Hidden Oracle, silly thoughts?

I finished the book! I also had some thoughts about it and some things floating around in my head, so let’s get to start. (A note for context, barely any idea what happens in the other books, I know the very basic like rough rough outline of the plot.)

First off, Austin’s YouTube channel. This one upset me so much when I read it and it’s so silly. Austin in his first appearance mentions his view count on a saxophone YouTube video. A monumental feat I’m pretty sure but also. The entire book drives in the idea that all the camps/demigods/demigod adjacents have been having trouble with anything internet or communications related. No one can call, text, video face time, Iris message, even physical mail isn’t working. So how is Austin able to YouTube? It’s an entire platform dedicated to communication, and demigods canonically can’t use much modern technology because it monster beacons. Is Austin risking the safety of camp to the monsters that live inside Camp’s forest every time he saxophones? If that is true then he skyrockets in my ToA character appreciations so far.

Now the actual stuff that I bookmarked in the book. This isn’t everything obviously (I marked a lot of stupid stuff like and mention of Harley or the talking arrow dialogue just to go back for laughs so obviously this is a summary of the more important stuff).

The actual content

(I forget to put page numbers after the 1st one)

Feral demigods! Mentioned on page 23 we get a confirmation that there are indeed demigods who are never found (which probably was a given) and the fact they have their own name. Also a set time where it’s most likely that monsters start their tomfoolery when a demigods is 13 (this puts Frank, and Leo, and Piper to still be funky.)

New Rome university specifics! Hehehe new Rome but we also get the introduction of the DSTOMP (the demigod standard test for mad powers). All we know is that there is a music and poetry analysis segment, but we can probably assume that each God (or important Roman God more likely) designed a segment of the test.

Ouranos mentioned of his face? It brings up what state Ouranos is in, how that works and affects him, if he’ll ever reform and that also brings up Gaea because they Ouranos’ed Gaea- albeit in a much different way but still.

Apollo recognizes that Octavian wasn’t the one at fault, even if he doesn’t voice it but at least Octavian gets mentioned, this is totally important enough.

Said that headaches on Olympus are from Gods and Goddesses in a Gods mind that were to be extracted via Hephaestus head splitting, how many immortals are we unaware of that have been formed this way?

Athena thinks that Olympus is going to move to Brazil at some point. Worth noting.

Demeter doesn’t often fall in love with mortals *OFTEN, IM SORRY I DIDNT TYPE. DEMEMTER DOESNT OFTEN FALL IN LOVE WITH MORTALS*. The myths seem to support this, but also that Meg is unusually powerful in relation to Demeter kids who “could do little more than make crops grow and keep bacterial fungi at bay” though considering some of the things that Miranda does near the end throws a karpoi into that statement. Along with that a could pages later we are noted that the Greek forms are indeed stronger (which also seems like a given, but brings up if their even older forms are more powerful.) and seemingly implied confirmation and gods can only claim you if you are in the right camp/domain area. As Apollo mentions that it couldn’t be Ceres because Demeter claimed Meg at CHB, and Meg is powerful.

Apollo mentions other deities (and science) also keeping the sun on track. But especially mentions Sol and the wolves (along with making Aztec and possibly all other mezzo American gods canon to pjo universe). However; and forgive me if I’m wrong. Sol is Helios’s counterpart and I know that Helios is currently chilling in an Ichor vat at the moment, so how is this..? Could possibly just be because Helios and his fading thing wasn’t thought of (even though he still is widely popular in this day and age) during Hidden Oracle’s writing, but still, I don’t.. like? Brain doesn’t function this.

Hades has a haunted house and also for the funsies canonically would sneak up on Apollo using shadow travel and make him mess up on plague arrow shots. Based on my knowledge of Hades I can only assume these were not malicious.

Harley is one of my favorites I love him so much he’s baby.

Upon listing demigods Apollo had seen turn against Olympus he mentions the Tantalus situation, King Mithridates, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. Though this implied that Mithridates would be a demigod along with either Clytemnestra or Agamemnon (who if my memory wants to cooperate, I believe was either a grandson or great grandson of Zeus?) along with mentioning that the human sacrifice was to him. For context I believe Apollo is talking about Agamemnon’s daughter that he sacrificed, though I thought that was to Artemis? Oh well.

We get to see summaries of Octavian’s convincing, which like? It’s serviceable to fuel the imagination. Also feel like he might’ve been genuine in a few of these? They all feel like very Octavian things to believe (the War with CHB being quick and easy; which I don’t think he believed whatsoever. And then raising temples to Apollo and how much support he had, both of which I think were true).

Saturnalia mention. Just had to put it out there because apparently Sherman would’ve won most violent holiday decor. Which, knowing what Saturnalia is it doesn’t make much sense? Anyway probably a Saturnalia/CJ ‘Christmas’ festivities post soon.

We get some descriptors of monsters that are inside the Camp Half-blood woods. The named ones including a two-headed wolf that seems standard, and a DRAKON. I say it again, the giant serpent things which are wild and dangerous, a DRAKON living its best immortal life in CHB woods. Excuse me? And Myrmreke, I love the Myrmreke and I want one as a pet and to kiss on the forehead. They are very cute.

Gyser God oaths. Unsure if this applies to oaths made not just with a Gyser God. But uh, a random Gyser bursting forth from the ground and boiling you sounds like a solid reason to not be making Gyser oaths.

Rhea mentions how God-Emperors are made, this feels like it would imply that other important historical figures also reach some form of immortality (Achilles, Theseus, Elvis Presley, George Washington, the sorts). And what about the other Emperors who were deified? Of the original Octavian and like.. the other ones?

Mentions of how Meg can “hear the trees growing” and the idea that the Muses can hear ink drying of poetry pages? Is this another skill to add upon them, no idea and frankly that sounds painful.

Nero and me have the same laugh I think and I don’t know how to feel about it. The best resources I can give you to visualize my laugh would be looking at Dolphins or Hyena’s. His is described as, “a snide little barking sound in the back of his nose” and I’ll be honest if nose was turned to throat It’d be pretty identical. Felt that was important to add to the ever growing and non important Kleos lore.

Nero mentions how it’s impossible for him to fade now due to being permanently remembered through the internet. Man that’s gonna age poorly in tower of Nero isn’t it? Also God-emperors are like, in a weird limbo esque situation and idk how to feel about that? I can only assume the most comparable thing would be something like New Rome’s Lares, the most noticeable other than Vitellius would be the literal ghost of Cato (I assume the younger) in SoN’s senate meeting. He’s called a ghost but I wouldn’t be surprised if he were to be in this limbo like state.

Nero yelling about the Rome fire was so funny I put three flags on the monologue.

Ellis can identify the location of the Colossus and the fact it’s a war machine. Perhaps similar to the like Percy boat/nautical knowledge he has innately.

We’ve learned that automatons are possibly being fueled by primarily the life force of wind and water spirits like Apollo states which is.. dark. But also like uh, thought they were engineering? Does this imply Festus is powered by a poor nymph or anemoi?

Gatorade can help speed the recovery process of exhaustion due to shadow travel. My only idea is that it is partially due to the electrolytes and that shadow traveling has similar effects to intense long term workouts and that the sugar also helps. Along with the fact that one singular shadow travel has seemed to wear Nico out after we’ve seen him do much bigger feats and take longer to be passing out like this?

The arrow of Dodona is really funny I’m sorry.

The Colossus is mirrored after.. someone? I don’t know they threw around Nero and Apollo’s name when talking about it. This in context with Nero is no surprise but If talking about Apollo it meant that at some point in Rome’s lifespan and potentially more Apollo had sideburns. Take that information as you wish.

Plaguey, plaguey, plaguey.

Apollo mentioning how much humans truly do affect the gods and how much the gods truly don’t like that.

Leo’s back… yay.

I don’t think Patroclus and Brises had any beef. Please media stop potraying them as containing beef I want them to be buddies.

And Calypso’s back. After reading the Odyssey I like her much less. I mean I didn’t like her much to begin with either.

Okay, I might do this for all of the ToA books? It’s a nice way to quickly get thoughts down that wouldn’t naturally give themselves over to a full post, or a good resource for me to check back on things I didn’t like and therefore will be going back and making full posts.

But also this was fun, I tried to take out a lot of the things I marked just because I thought it was funny but like… oh well lol. Good night!

#hehe :3 #pjo hoo toa #ToA #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo Apollo #ToA the hidden oracle #gonna knock out dark prophecy faster #get to see my baby boy Lit #also Thalia again? idk #and Leo.. I’ll be honest I don’t like him #okay bye

[anglerflsh]

re: your poetry post, can you give some pointers as to where to learn the rhyming patterns in poetry and the like? i only ever see poetry from the ideas/feelings perspective, but ive never learned the logic and structure behind it lol

I've learned most of it from my literature and grammar classes, it's taught in our school since elementary, so I wouldn't know of any books or manuals that talk specifially about it - but I can give you a rundown of how I do it, anon, if it counts for anything lol

Prefacing that this will be starting from italian poetica because that's what I know best: any poem, but specifically the pre-futurism/1910s ones (A Lot) will have some kind of structure aside from just the ryming scheme; The structure I am most familiar with is accentual-sillabic, so for example any single verso will have its stressed syllable in a fixed potision and occasionally a set number of sillables (eg. an endecasillablic metre means a stress on the tenth syllable, usually penultimate, equally to 11 total syllables), but there are also only accentual, or only sillabic verses, common in French poetry (?), all of which count as types of qualitative metre - as well as quantitative metre, which was more widley used in Latin and Greek poetry and which rather based itself on patterns of syllable weight (something that I know little about tbh; I think it's based on the lenght of pronunciation of the actual syllable).

this, of course, goes without even mentioning free-verse structure and less well-known ones.

Going back to the rhyming scheme, that also comes into play with structure in the sense that ... there are just a lot of them to pick from. The classic is the repeated AABB one, where each verse will rhyme with the one underneath (''kissing rhyme'' in italian), or the alterning ABAB, the crossed ABBA, the 'chained' or third rhyme ABA BCB CDC used for terzine, and plenty more! That's not all the ways to classify rhymes of course: you have plain rhyme between words accented on the penultimate syllable, cut rhyme between words accented on the last, sdrucciola with accents on the third-to-last, bisdrucciola on the fourth-to-last... etc etc

Then, of course, come the classifications in stanza lenghts! Groups of three verses are a terzina, well known for being Dante's favourite number (joke inserted to lighten this infodump), groups of four a quatrina, etc -

and depending on the number of single groups and on the type of verses in them, you have further classification as canzone, ode, madrigale, carme, filastrocca, ballata, sonetto... the latter for example is made of fourteen endecasyllabic verses grouped in two quartine, one in the beginning and one in the end, in crossed or alternate rhyme, and two terzine with any kind of rhyme structre.

this of course doesn't touch on the inner things and games of poem structure like the falling rhyme, spaces in between groups, enjambement, alliteration, allegorical figures, anafore, onomatopee, and all that fun stuff! Essentially when you see a poem look for the number of syllables in each verse, where the stressed syllable falls, how the rhymes are put, how many verses are in each stanza and strofa...

#et cetera et cetera #poetry #DISCLAIMER HI. I AM NOT AN EXPERT THIS IS JUST STUFF I USE TO READ POETRY FOR FUN. #[.asks] #anonymous #it's so sad for me that people only talk about the feelings side of poetry as an art form because! What about the structure! The words! #methinks this is why I don't like a lot of modern poetry #It lacks the acknowledgement of ALL this work that goes behind making good verses! #and ofc free verse is a thing but I will be problematic here and say I don't like free verse or free-rhyme. I'm a hater

[sophieswundergarten]

(Also very much not to do with me digging through everyone's past fics for the last week /s)

I think the Benedict humans should have more unconventional/interesting communication methods!! Specifically, I was thinking of ASL, because I really love learning it, but then it occurred to me that it would be fun if each duo/trio/group in the family had their own preferred way to talk.

I imagine that all of the kids use morse code (They teach Martina and SQ), while the adults favour sign. Within that, of course Miss Perumal and Reynie speak Tamil, and I feel like Mr. Benedict and Sticky would use Greek or Latin with each other.

Milligan and Kate have some complex system that consists mostly of their farm-code terms and meaningful glances (Moocho can participate in most of it, but his meaningful glances aren't compatible with both of them at the same time, so it takes longer).

I think Sticky and Reynie would be the type of silly people to sit down and teach themselves, like, Quenya (A Tolkien elvish conlang) or something just for kicks. Kate tried to learn with them, but she wasn't having near as much fun so it's something just the two of them do. Mr. Benedict knows Sindarin (Other Tolkien elf conlang), but it doesn't help him much.

Constance and Mr. Benedict have perfected a form of communication that is exclusively reciting snippets of poetry to each other. It's actually kind of impressive. They make it a game, and when one of them uses a poet the other doesn't know, they break off to ask about it. This was initially supposed to be part of Constance's schooling and broaden her artistic horizons, but she's stubborn and kept coming back to it so as not to admit defeat (And it fully delights Mr. Benedict anyway, so he lets it continue until it's just another thing they do)

I'm going to (sort of) pull this from the books and say that the twins speak to each other in Dutch. Rhonda, Number Two, Milligan, and Sticky all know a little or have picked it up over the years just from being around Nicholas, but when he and Nathaniel are in a room together they go too fast for anyone else to follow properly.

For some reason, I feel like Rhonda and Number Two (Besides the obvious Sister Speak that they're beginning to let Constance into) would enjoy speaking German or French? I'm not super sure where that idea came from, but there you go. (Their sister ability to communicate is a lot of sideways glances and exaggerated facial expressions, but it is occasionally supplemented with hand signals)

SQ leaves little written notes everywhere. Sometimes he puts them in spots that he knows only one person will get into (The cabinet with Number Two's mixing bowls, Mr. B's pen drawer, Sticky's encyclopedia shelf), but he also likes to sneak them into jacket pockets and things. His favourite is to try and slip them into Kate's bucket. He likes to use a special color code for each person when he can, so that way if someone gets into the mixing bowls and sees a little yellow slip of paper, they'll know who it is intended for.

Reynie's been asking Milligan to teach him some "spy codes", so they will often communicate short messages with an Alpha-Bravo-Charlie and number strategy, mostly assigning each member of the family a short "callsign" of sorts and then using it to check where someone is with each other.

Constance and Sticky, surprisingly, have worked out a fairly good system with their cheating morse code. They got a lot better at it, and now can do it so subtly and quickly that it's hard for anyone else to catch.

Martina and Kate make up absurdly long nicknames and terms for activities/locations and turn them into acronyms. They are fantastically over-complicated and no one has even tried to puzzle out what they're talking about.

#I want to add more but this is all I can think of right now #Do with this what y'all will I just hope it made you smile at least a little #the mysterious benedict society #mbs #sq pedalian #mr. benedict #nicholas benedict #milligan wetherall #milligan #kate wetherall #reynie muldoon #constance contraire #sticky washington #martina crowe #rhonda kazembe #number two #moocho brazos #(slightly. he's there. i just haven't come up with anything specific for him yet.)

[percywinchester27]

The new Mrs. Winchester (6)

Word count: 3.6K

Pairing: Sam X Reader AU

Chapter warnings: None for this chapter, really. Kinda fluffy?

Series Summary: After spending over two years in captivity, and enduring assault, torture, and degradation of every kind, Y/N is finally sold off to the highest bidder. But when the deal is masked as a hushed marriage to a wealthy and powerful man, Y/N knows it means a few more nights of brutal torment ending in certain death. After all, why else would a man like him, want someone like her, except to fulfill desires so depraved that they would require owning a person. However, the Winchester mansion has mysteries of its own, woven in lies, betrayal, and death. Smack in the middle of it, she finds both hope and a home, in the person she least expected to find it with. But when it comes down to it, will she be able to save the thing that matters the most?

A/N: Do let me know what you think of the chapter. Feedback keeps me going!

Beta: My darling, @deanssweetheart23 love ya!

The new Mrs. Winchester masterlist

“That looks so good!”

You jumped in surprise, hitting your head on the stone pillar behind you. “Jesus, Jack!”

He chuckled, dropping down on the parapet next to you. “Don’t say the lord’s name in vain.”

What else was the lord going to do to you that he already hadn’t let happen?

“Religious?” You raised an eyebrow.

He whistled slowly. “No one who’s lived in this house can believe in God. I was only teasing.” He focused on the papers in front of you. “What is that?”

You brightened. “It’s a column capital. See those elaborate designs of leaves and petals? They’re unique to that period of Roman and Greek architecture. This one specifically is a Corinthian column.”

The library still remained your favourite place in the whole wide house. Not only did it provide you with a continuous supply of the best poetry there was to read, but the room itself was so richly made, that each part appeared to be a piece of art waiting to be put onto the paper. More than that, this room, in particular, felt more alive than the rest of the house, lived in. Things happened here– the papers you left the day before were usually piled neatly on the top the following day. In fact, more papers appeared in the desk drawer as the week passed. Your first time there you had found a rouge pen in the drawer, but in the half-month since, a set of charcoal pencils had appeared next to the papers, complete with a putty eraser. A few days later the colours appeared. You had your suspicions, given Jack’s blatant interest in your drawings, but hadn’t brought it up since he wanted to keep quiet about it.

“This is stunning,” Jack marvelled. “Your drawing looks real.”

Grinning up at him, you put the book down. “Where have you been these past few days?” You had missed him.

He huffed out a long-suffering sigh, “Exams. Sam wanted me around so you won’t feel threatened by all the guns and security, but he wouldn’t ever ask me to ignore the piling college work. Final year.”

“I hear you.” And you did feel sympathy for his cause. “Tell you what I don’t miss about college? The exams.”

“It’s like the whole world spins differently if you know there’s an exam coming,” he piled on. “The coffee tastes all wrong, the birds cease to sing and the air itself saturates.”

“Oh my God, yes! And sleep starts to feel like a guilty pleasure.”

Jack clapped his hands. “See, you get it! I tried to explain that to Abby, but she doesn’t understand–” His cheeks turned pink. You wanted to smile widely at him.

Clearing his throat, he hurriedly pointed at your drawing sheet. “If you draw like that… why were you worried about exams?”

“It’s different with art school,” you explained, running your fingers over the drawing. “Even more so for architecture. Design and creativity is very subjective. There’s no correct answer and most exams didn’t exactly have a question paper. Your design itself became the question and the answer. Basically, you take your work to a panel of jurors and they decided if your design’s worth keeping. That’s a design jury for you.”

“Scary,” shuddered Jack, toying with the edge of the paper. “But I bet you aced them all.”

Smirking, you put the paper aside. “Most of the time.”

“You shouldn’t just abandon these papers,” he muttered disapprovingly. “People out there might sell their souls for a talent like yours. I would know. Even my stick figures look like trees.”

You snickered. “I don’t know what else to do with them.” Your room had several shelves but they didn’t feel yours.

“Don’t you guys carry a cardboard jacket of some kind to stash your drawings? I’ve seen it at the university.”

“It’s called a portfolio,” you told him. “And I don’t have one here. Maybe I’ll just put them under the table here for a bit.”

Satisfied by your display of respect towards the drawing, Jack stretched his arms wide and got to his feet. “If you feel like disappearing in the evenings any of these days, drop by for a coffee. I’m sure I make for better company than the deserted hallways of this house.”

So, Abby had been venting her frustration about your disappearances to Jack. It went both ways.

You couldn't stop yourself then. “Hey, Jack?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for the art supplies.” It was the nicest thing anyone had done for you in a while.

He frowned. “Art supplies?”

“Yeah. The ones you keep leaving the library desk for me?”

The lines of confusion on his face deepened. “I didn’t put them there. I was going to ask you where you keep getting them.”

Jack moved on from the topic easily, distracted by the possibility of a wish-granting library and you let him speculate it to the point of hilarity. You found Abby in a mood when you reached your room, complaining about how no one in the house took their responsibilities seriously. You knew most of her ranting was aimed towards you. Still mad at you for worrying her last night, she spoke sharply, but you felt overwhelmed by the emotion behind it. Only someone who cared would worry about you at all.

“You should wear this one for the dinner tonight, Miss,” she said, flinging a dress on the bed. Flowy green silk, right to the floor. “It’s not chilly so you’ll be just fine without a shawl.”

“Abby!” You stopped her tirade. “Thank you for picking out the perfect dress.”

She thawed almost immediately. “You make them all look perfect, Miss. Now, stop making those eyes at me and get on with it. Mr. Winchester doesn’t seem to be a patient man.”

The mention of his name made you stop. You had been actively trying not to think of him, because if you did, then you’d have to also evaluate what you felt for him. Abby’s estimation seemed accurate from her standpoint, but your experience of him, the actual him, contrasted vastly from anything she’d ever said.

“Now don’t just stand there ogling at the mirror,” Abby fussed, thrusting the dress in your hand. “Put it on. The clock’s already pointing at 8.”

Fifteen minutes later, you walked into an already full dining room, bustling with conversation– mostly just men in suits talking to one another. Sam sat with his back straight, deep in conversation with a man you had never seen before. Unfortunately, this time the only empty chair was the one next to Sam. Trying not to draw too much attention, you quietly took the seat.

Next to you, Sam politely excused himself from the conversation to acknowledge you with a deliberate nod and then went back to the man in the expensive suit. You tried to keep up with their talk, but it all felt so dry that you found yourself slipping away from the now, going back to the poetry you had been reading in the afternoon- The Ballad of Semmerwater by Sir William Watson. Such a sad tale of an entire kingdom sinking to the depths of water because of the ungratefulness of its people. But did the kingdom not have one good soul? Not even an innocent child that deserved to live?

Next to you, Sam’s hand resting on the table moved, a finger lightly tapping the table, followed by pats till the pattern emerged.

T-O-O  B-O-R-I-N-G

Pressing your lips so as to not smile, you inched your hand forward, mirroring his pose and actions.

Y-O-U  C-A-N-T  S-T-O-P  T-H-I-S?

A small sigh escaped his lips, the man before babbling on, completely clueless. Sam’s fingers moved again.

N-O-T  R-E-A-L-L-Y

The conversation droned on and on and though Sam’s face looked bland, you could see the way his jaw twitched. Jesus, he was miserable.

Y-O-U  W-A-N-T  T-O  G-E-T  O-U-T?

He didn’t waste a moment before tapping, P-L-E-A-S-E

You gave it a couple of minutes, then bent over the table, clutching your forehead.

“Are you feeling alright, my dear?” The old man seated beside you asked.

“It’s my head,” you groaned, making your voice dull. 

The chair next to you creaked and Sam was up in a second. You slumped further into your hands. “I’m feeling faint.”

“I hope you’ll excuse me, gentlemen,” said Sam, sounding believably worried. “I should help my wife upstairs. Please stay and enjoy the desserts.”

He placed his hands on either side of your shoulders and for a minute you forgot everything except the places on your skin where his fingers pressed.

“C’mon,” he whispered in your ear, leading you out. And then you breathed in his heady cologne, the sort that made you want to turn around in his arms and pull him closer. Good thing that you reached the hallway before your common sense completely abandoned you.

Sam let go of you instantly.

“That,” he said grinning from ear to ear, “was awesome.”

You stood there, watching him look years younger just because of one smile. His eyes, full of warmth, regarded you with the kind of appreciation you hadn’t experienced in a while. No, he wasn’t scanning your body up and down. He appraised you with an acknowledgement of your intellect. 

“Let’s move before one of them finds us lurking here and pulls me back inside.” He ushered you up the staircase and out of the dining room’s view.

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” you murmured, following him. “But isn’t this your house? And wasn’t that your dinner? Why do you have to run away from it?”

He didn't break stride as he answered. “It’s a formality I can’t get myself out of– the monthly dinners for the board of directors.”

“It’s a shame then that you managed to look so convincingly interested.”

“Maybe it is,” he replied. The two of you had made it to the landing of the third floor.

“I’ll ask Martha to send something up to your room for dinner,” he said. “If that’s okay with you?”

You nodded, then asked impulsively. “What will you do with the evening off?”

He appeared surprised at your question, but answered anyway, “Probably read.”

“What’re you reading?”

“Just started The Fountainhead. By Ayn Rand.”

“You’re kidding!”

He blinked, if possible, more surprised than before and you realised you had said the words out loud. “I most certainly am not.”

The Fountainhead was pretty much a rite of passage in architecture school. One would be very severely judged if they hadn’t read that book.

“Tell me what you think of it when you’re done,” you said, instead of explaining your reaction.

He dipped his head once in acknowledgement, a lock of hair casually escaping the part as he did so. “I will.”

You had almost reached the first door– his bedroom– when Sam stopped, hesitating. “I have something for you.”

“Me?” You squeaked, several scenarios, possible and impossible, running through your head. 

He gave a small smile at your worried expression. “It’s just a little thing,” he said, hand on the doorknob. “Would you like to come in?” 

Though he was giving you the option to decline, you knew very well you didn’t have one. Objects don’t have opinions.

You nodded slowly and Sam opened the door of his room. The darkness within was soon illuminated when he turned on the lights and motioned for you to follow him in. When you did, your jaw nearly hit the floor. 

The suite’s layout was pretty much an exact mirror image of yours. A seating room leading to a proper bedroom vestibule, divided by a wide arched door. Except, due to the positioning, this one didn’t have a balcony like yours, just a window in its stead. However, apart from the floor plan, nothing else was similar in any estimation of the word. You didn’t know what exactly you had expected of Sam’s room from the nightly noises but it wasn’t this… the walls were pretty much bare. The seating area held only two wooden chairs and an elongated, old couch with a small reading table. No paintings adorned the walls, no pretty wallpaper or heavy drapes. In fact, the sitting room didn’t have curtains at all. The bedroom vestibule mostly lay hidden from view, but from what you could see through the door, it barely held much beyond a bed. Fourposter, but with none of the extravagance of yours. A simple mattress, a thin bed frame hung with netted fabric. The table next to it, however, was loaded with books, overflowing to the point where columns of books stood stacked on the floor next to it. From here, you couldn’t see the names on the spines. The vestibule windows must have curtains. How else would he sleep in the morning? 

But Sam woke up early, you knew that now. 

Even the floor was thinly carpeted in a generic brown matt carpet, nowhere as luxuriant as the lush faux fur in your room. 

“Please have a seat,” he said politely before disappearing into the bedroom. You noticed he hadn’t shut the main door behind him, leaving it ajar, just enough for you to see the corridor outside.

Sam returned with a rectangular folder in his hand, and when he offered it to you, a gasp left your lips. You took it from him reverently, fingers trailing over the finely stitched mountboard, clad in a soft velvet cloth with satin strings going up on either side to tie it up. The design on top grabbed your attention– two entwined peacocks embroidered in gold and inlaid with beads. Tugging the strings, you opened the folder, revealing a bunch of your sketches neatly placed inside.

“You have a real talent,” he said in that deep, deep voice. “It deserves to be preserved. I figured you would like a portfolio.”

Blinking your eyes rapidly, you managed to croak. “It was you, wasn’t it? … you put the pencils and colours in the library desk.”

He shrugged, “As I said, you have a talent. It warrants more than old sheets of paper and a broken pen.”

Slowly, you sat down on one of the wooden chairs, unsure of your legs. “Why?” you hissed, unable to keep the anger at bay. “Why am I here? Why did you… did you…” The sentence hung in the air, incomplete but perfectly clear.

You watched him slowly sink into the chair opposite yours, silent… until you met his gaze with your bitter one. Sam’s eyes were clear and he hadn’t yet evaded your question, but looking into them made your heart speed up again, it messed with your head, made it hard to hold on to your anger.

“I want you to understand this,” he said, finally, “And I want you to understand this for good. You’re safe here. Your privacy will never be invaded in this house and your comfort will never be compromised.” The way his gaze roved over your face, hinted that he was recording your every change in expression. 

“Then why?”

“I won’t lie to you, because you deserve better than that, but I can’t tell you the truth either. Not right now anyway. Just know that there’s something you can help me with. Think of this as an arrangement in a way that traditional contracts work.”

“Traditional contracts are between a person offering services and another receiving them.”

Sam flinched at the sharpness of your words; you continued, uncaring. “I’m not offering you the services I’m supposed to be specialised in. What’re you getting out of this?”

He shook his head as if dispelling a notion. “Forgive me,” he said. “Not a contract. Not services. I worded it all wrong. Think of this as a favour then. A huge favour you’d be doing me. It’s not coming yet, and we’ll get to it when we get to it, but I swear, I would never do anything to hurt you.” He swallowed, looking down. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

And you believed him without a hint of a doubt, you believed his every word.

“And when this is all over,” he said, “You’re free to go your separate way… legally. Alimony and all.”

Unable to believe your ears, you mumbled. “But you paid–”

“No. That doesn’t count.” His voice was cold steel, dangerous for the first time since you’d heard it, full of seething hatred. Though relieved that steel wasn’t aimed at you, a shiver still ran up your spine. “You’re doing me a favour and I’d like to be able to repay you for that.”

“I don’t even know what I’ll be doing,” you said. “What if I mess it up? What if I can’t do it?”

“Then that’s that. We tried and it didn’t work out. Doesn’t change anything. You still get your freedom and you still get the alimony.”

You wanted to cry. You wanted to break down because this was exactly what you had dreamed of in the cold cell, some Prince Charming would ride in, save you from the pain and the blood, and whisk you away to his castle. Of course, you knew even then that it was all just a fever dream. That Prince Charming didn’t exist. Even if someone looked like that, they didn’t actually own a castle. Even if they did, they wouldn’t actually care for someone like you. 

Prince Charming got Cinderella. Yes, she wasn’t rich, Yes, she cleaned chamber pots, but she didn’t sleep with men for a living. You didn’t even make a living out of that.

And most of all, Cinderella didn’t have two little kids being held at gunpoint in a boarding school somewhere.

But what pained you the most was how sincerely Sam cared. In his own silent way, he had cared more about you than anyone had in years. He hadn’t flung his favours in your face. No, quietly, he’d managed to give you the best room in the house, furnished it better than any other, even his own. He’d actually seen your hidden wishes, heard your unspoken words and tried to make it better for you in his own sweet way. 

For all his kindness, you couldn’t even tell him how delusional he was in thinking you could ever be free. The prickling returned in the corner of your eyes. At that moment, you wanted nothing more than to throw yourself into his arms and sob your heart out, ask him to fuck all that money, and just save your brother and sister. Do something, do anything. But you couldn’t. You couldn’t break down and you sure as hell couldn’t tell him about the kids.

“Hey?” He said softly, urging you to look up at him. “And don’t think you’re not doing anything for me. I wouldn’t have survived half those dinners if it weren’t for you.”

“I didn’t do anything,” you mumbled, rolling your eyes, hoping he wouldn’t see the moisture there.

“You did more than enough,” he said gently. 

Sam walked you out of the front door as if the connecting door didn’t exist. But then again, he’d been so cautious with your privacy, maybe you should allow him the same and not step into his bedroom.

It was barely ten steps between the doors but you found yourself dragging your feet, already missing his company. 

And when you turned to say goodbye, the torn look on his face had you frowning.

“Y/N,” he whispered, “as long as we’re both here, we could at least be friends, right?”

The corridor started caving in around you a little, your throat hurting painfully.

“Or not,” he added lightly as an afterthought when the silence stretched.

“You- you called me–”

“I’m sorry,” he apologised. “I shouldn’t have assumed that it’s okay to call you by your name. I won’t–”

“No!” You shouted, startling him. “Say it again.”

He frowned. “Say what?”

“My name. Say my name again.”

“Y/N,” he said simply.

He must think you were crazy, but you still wanted him to say it again and again and again, not remembering the last someone had called you that; the last time it was Y/N instead of bitch, or whore or Mrs. Winchester and Miss. You thought you would forget the sound of your name. And when he said it, it sounded more than just a name… it resurrected a part of your identity.

Sam must’ve understood. He placed his hand very lightly on your shoulder, where he had placed it earlier while ushering you out of the dining room. But this time he did so slowly, giving you every opportunity to back off if you wanted to. You didn’t.

Funny how your heart knew even before his fingers brushed your skin. “Good night, Y/N. Knock if you need anything.”

You nodded. “Good night, Sam.”

He smiled when you said his name. Friends called each other by their names, right?

Turning the knob, you slipped in and closed the door with a last smile aimed at him. You waited right there, listening to his receding footsteps, then the sound of his door against the frame. When all was quiet, you slid down to the soft carpet, hand placed over your chest, trying to tame the frantic beating.

You understood the response of your heart better now. With it, you also understood the anger you had been harbouring towards Sam and the reason why. The memory of his brief touch had your stomach feeling funny and that itself was so new, you clutched your middle to make it stop. And it scared you… it scared you so much. Because if Sam had been the monster you first thought him to be, you might have still survived the abuse and torture, but this feeling? Liking him might just destroy you for real. 

*****************************

A/N 2: Not gonna lie, the writer’s block is hitting hard lately, and some love would be appreciated.

Please do let me know if you liked this part. Reblogs and comments are what keep me going!

If you want to be tagged, you can send me an ask or you can add yourself to the taglist here.

Or here’s my side blog @percywinchester27-writes. You can give that blog a follow and turn the notifications on to know about updates.

TNWM taglist:

@cosicas-cuquis  @daughterleftbehind  @maliburenee  @spn730015  @aeo10fan  @stoneyggirl2  @houseforwhores  @like-a-bag-of-potatoes  @linki-locks11  @cookiechipdough  @impalaimagining  @gabavaldman  @multifandom-slxt  @chalicia  @mrswhozeewhatsis  @likhelbentin  @vividreader  @mackiemcb  @qveenmikaelson  @lightchesters  @deanwanddamons  @bluedragonflylady  @daddys-littlewhitegirl  @mlovesstories  @sams-bubblegum-bitch  @chinosherlock  @hoboal87  @sandlee44 @mariaenchanted  @little-x-wolf  @theanniewisegirl​ @supraveng  @i-is-for-inspiring  @fandom-princess-forevermore  @sammedeansandwhich​  @trexrambling​  @wittysunflower  @strawberryycows​  @joseyrw​  @agenthellcat  @lacilou​  @giggles1026​  @aloneatpeace  @perpetuallyoverwhelmed​

#sam winchester x reader #sam x reader #sam winchester #sam love club #sam winchester fanfiction #sam winchester reader insert #sam winchester x you #sam x you #sam x y/n #sam winchester x y/n #reader x sam winchester #Ana writes Sam #anawrites #anawritesspn #tnmw6 #Ana writes tnmw #q

[prahacat]

Hi, I really hope you don't mind me asking a few of the questions from the fan fiction writers ask because I'm curious. Of course it's totally fine if you don't want to answer.

✨What's a fic you've posted you wish you could breathe life into again and have people talking about it? (or simply a fic you wish got more credit)

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting?

🍭why did you start writing?

And my own... Do you write in your first or second language and how does this affect your writing process?

Hey! I LOVE talking about writing and (fan) fiction so thank you so much for giving me an excuse to do so! <3

✨ A fic I wish got more credit: "The Red Night" (it's on both tumblr and ao3) Yes yes, I know. It's poetry, it's very short, it's kinda weird(?) but also kinda generic. Basically the kind of stuff where, as a writer, you're lucky if people click on it at all (and I'm beyond happy some people did and even liked it enough to leave kudos/likes or reblog <3). But I spent several days on those ~500 words, I love how it turned out, it's like my favorite child, it's so ME ... and sometimes I can't help but wish it would get the same love as my other fics.

💝 A fic that got a different response than I was expecting: All of them, in some way, but especially "Three Days of Thawing". It was the first fanfic I uploaded to ao3 after years of writing original fic only: a little oneshot I wrote as a part of a bigger project and ended up posting just for the hell of it. I honestly didn't expect to get a response at all. A fic where nothing happens, it's just 15k of two old jaded men bickering and drinking tea? Little plot, hardly any romance? they don't even kiss. Who'd want to read that?

🍭 Why I started writing: Writing in general: Because of my love for words. My family had a lot of books, so I grew up with stories. As a kid, reading was like eating to me. Sometimes, when I was starved for words and there was no book around, I'd read the tv manual, a cookbook, the labels on my cereal box. Whenever I was bored, I'd dig through my parents' bookshelves until I found something that sounded interesting. Naturally, since it wasn't geared toward children, a lot of it went right over my head. For example, I remember reading this passage from Bronte's Jane Eyre:

‘As we are!’ repeated Mr. Rochester—‘so,’ he added, enclosing me in his arms. Gathering me to his breast, pressing his lips on my lips: ‘so, Jane!’

… and it had me so confused. I didn't get it. "Pressing his lips on my lips? Okay, so like kissing? Why doesn't the author simply write kissing then? That's such a strange, roundabout way of phrasing it!" Yes, I was very young. But moments like that made me think about the different ways to use language for the first time. I feel like writing stories is all about expressing simple truths in a bit of a strange, roundabout way.

Writing fan fiction: I started writing fanfic (again) because I was stuck with my original story. So I wrote a short story about my current obsession, Star Wars. And then another one. And another. I love the disaster lineage, and I love writing for the PT because so many of my favorite themes can be accommodated in the stories. A lot of it is about family, about the more quiet, intimate struggles that happen inside of us, but there's also something so inherently "Greek tragedy" about the characters that makes their destruction feel intense and almost inevitable.

First and second language and how it affects my writing process: I write in both my first and second language. English is my second language. I don't think my writing process differs much in either language. My English is okay, I guess ... I keep looking up comma rules and prepositions when editing.

There are a few instances, especially when writing emotional, introspective scenes, where the idea of what I want to say evokes a strong, very specific feeling, but it remains abstract, almost like music or a blur of colors. Or like a train of vague thoughts, but they keep moving and flashing and I can't grasp them. And in such cases, I sometimes resort to my native language to "search" for imagery or tangible concepts that can be expressed with language. It's not like I have difficulty expressing my ideas in English, it's more that the process of pulling them from some unconscious, wordless depths into the realm of consciousness and language comes easier to me in my native tongue. I guess it's more of a creativity technique?

For example, I remember using this technique on this little paragraph from "Three Days of Thawing" (the fic where Dooku is stuck in his Redemption Arc, oscillating between self-loathing and the need for acceptance/forgiveness):

Maybe Dooku wasn’t happy, how could he ever again, but he had learned to put some distance between himself and the hated shadow inside him, the way most people no longer think about the bacteria living in their mouths or the mass of dead skin cells on their bodies, all a gross but inevitable part of the self. Him: the man he hated, and the man who hates, and the man who tries to forgive them both, and the dizzying distance in between. Sometimes, when he sits by the lake and stares at his reflection trapped inside the ice, he can delude himself into believing he might become whole again.

I felt the part about the split self very strongly, but it wasn't until I thought about it in my native language that the words to express this feeling came to me.

There are quite a few scientific studies about how emotions are accessed and processed differently in your native language and in your second language. I know I'm definitely a bit more detached from my emotions when I'm speaking/thinking in English. In contrast, my "English brain" is more rational and analytic, which is great for "killing your darlings" and avoiding sappy, melodramatic dialogue (something I love to write, but it often doesn't feel right for my fav characters like Dooku or Obi-Wan).

Gah, I could really talk about this topic for hours! It's so fascinating to me, and I'd be very interested in hearing the experiences of other bilingual writers!

Thank you again for the questions, this was a lot of fun!

#asks #prahacat writes #bilingual writers

[irregularcollapse]

@littlerockmelonhead I hope you don't mind that I'm answering these questions as their own post! I just think the answers may be a little long and I find this easier than replies hahaha

Re: Auguste, I've actually already talked about him here and here! These posts are from when updates were maybe... halfway through? So readers hadn't had the big reunion yet! At the current stage, things have pretty much been completely revealed, but these posts sort of lay it all out in an explanatory way.

So, was it all planned from the beginning or did it grow in the telling? Sort of both, but not really. Right at the very beginning of writing, the concept was just "Outlander-inspired time slip with marriage of convenience." I knew I wanted to explore an 'Auguste lives' version of events, and I knew that I wanted to do a 'fish out of water' narrative for Laurent. I knew that thematically, I wanted to explore the nature of storytelling, love as religion, and fate/destiny. I knew, above everything, that the story would be about Laurent learning to love himself and value his own strength.

[Cut because this got. Too long.]

I wrote some test paragraphs, and I think around two draft chapters before I actually planned everything else out. This is my first foray into fantasy, and it's the first time I've tried tackling a plot with a few more moving parts than the standard contemporary romance (notoriously light on plot, those). In my original writing, I'm definitely a fan of documenting my planning and being as prepared as I can possibly be before writing. I never do that with fic. I plan in my head, because I'm not necessarily trying to have something completely polished and tight -- I prefer to experiment and explore and try things out. Fic is like my workshop. That said, I absolutely did plan out EIAT, the plot beats and the scenes and even some specific lines. I just didn't really write any of it down. Regardless of what I'm writing, I keep a "scraps" document to put in anything that is too fragmented or non-chronological for the chapter I'm currently working on. A lot of conversations, scenes, and little ideas went into the scraps doc until I reached that point in the writing and could edit/insert them. The "not doing a traditional written plan" part of this is probably why, when I started figuring out the plot, I estimated it would be a 50k fic 💀 I've never claimed comprehending word counts to be a strong suit of mine lmfaoooo

Alright, now! The Sunburst!! As you may remember, the symbol of the Veretian royal family in the books is a starburst. So why, then, is Laurent the Sunburst in EIAT? Well, it's a metaphor innit. There are a few coordinating symbologies working here. Lions are actually symbolically linked with suns, due to their colouring and manes -- those things the lion represents like power, strength, royalty, loyalty (the reasons that the Lion is Damen's symbol) are actually crossover meanings for the sun in various cultures. Suns are historically a royal symbol, being associated with power and light, and are also associated with hope. In Greek mythology specifically, there is the God of the Sun, Apollo: also the god of enlightenment/knowledge, the arts (including poetry), healing, and prophecies. Oracles were often associated with Apollo, such as the Oracle of Delphi -- and they were also stationed near sacred pools that allowed them to commune with him. Can you see how it all fits together?

I began with the plot points of the prophecy and the poem. I knew that the prophecy would say that Laurent was the one who was destined to free Vere -- the hope of Vere. As I did more reading about symbols and also Greek myths, it all started to click into place. Laurent is the Sunburst to Vere because he is their hope for a brighter future; a new dawn is coming, etc. etc. Then to Akielos, he is basically the God of the Sun: he has knowledge of the future, he emerged from the King's Waters, he's highly intelligent and interested in the arts (and writes an epic poem). The symbolism of healing and warming is also important to it all -- Laurent and Damen heal each other (physically and emotionally), warm each other, essentially become each others' guiding lights.

I find it a bit hard to explain how/where/why ideas come from, but hopefully this helps you to see what I was thinking when I came up with it! Basically, it's all intended to feed heavily into the symbols and metaphors throughout the narrative, and so is a really core part of Laurent's character development too. See also this relevant web weave and these gold robes which I drew (soon to appear! In the next chapter, actually!)

I feel like that Charlie Day crazy board meme but congrats if you made it to the end of this. I've just. Put a lot of thought into making the fic layered and interesting and I'm so. Grateful and chuffed and emotional about people caring about those layers. Thanks so much for these questions <3 <3 <3

#asks #even in another time fic #my writing

[liz-allyn]

Fuck you and fuck blaze

Ooh… is this a tasm peter prompt? I don’t take requests but I’ll give it a shot!

You own a small, quaint bookshop, researching ways to advertise (as your last effort, screaming obscenities at passersbys, proved unfruitful) when suddenly. you see him.

oh.

(See I gave you the acclaimed ‘oh’ because im an artist)

It’s Andrew motherhubbin Garfield

He walks into your shop, dressed head to toe in black, specifically comprised of a straight-fit jacket with notched collar and wide fluid trousers, by Saint Laurent, both in black and silver pinstripe wool, a “Yves” collar shirt in black-matte silk with a shiny stripe, a striped silk lavalliere, which is similar but more relaxed than an ascot, and finally Saint Laurent’s Vassili Chelsea leather boots, which feature a Cuban heel that marries nicely with his ‘reading poetry on a chill Thursday morning at 11am’ vibe.

“Hello he said I am Andrew Garfield. I am looking for poetry to read all this chill Thursday morning.”

 You were overwhelmed with shock. This was your favorite actor ever except he really hated the Spider-Man movies. You really hate all forms of commercialism.  Even more, you hated the Social Network. You hate anything that glorifies commercialism especially in a social context.  You also felt like Hacksaw Ridge was garbage, Silence was boring, Tick Tick Boom could literally suck a dick and die, and Under the Silver Lake was stupid, and although mainstream kinda got you, you hated it for being shown commercially in a theater.

“ wow that’s a lot”  he said.

 “Oh, I said all that out loud?” You say

“Yes,” he says, as he flutters his long lashes over his Amber golden eyes.  “You did. So do you have a book on poetry?”

“ Sorry, sometimes I just don’t know how to talk to people,” you said. “I spend a lot of time alone writing hateful messages online. It’s just that I hate commercialism, and I hate advertising so much, but more than anything I hate fire. Fire is bad, and it killed my whole family, which left me as an orphan.  Anything fire related is awful.”

“ wow he said “what an amazing story. I hope you don’t think this is too forward but I really think we should fuck.”

“ That is crazy” you exclaim. “People tell me I should get fucked all the time!” Then, as you sigh prettily you say, “I have Prince Harry’s memoir in stock, want to fuck on top of that?”

Andrew says “that’s edgy. I like it. But first, my friend Lin Manuel Miranda and I agre going to a basketball game snd he has an extra ticket. Would you like to go?”

“Omg,” you say, hyperventilating as you grin wide. “I hated Hamilton so much.”

Andrew laughs, “really no one says that. I’ve never heard that before.” You stare at his pouty cherry lips and his Greek-carved marble jaw and then you go to the basketball game with him. You sit court side, which is lame, because you’re right next to Lin manual and he’s next to tobey maguire, whose giant swimming pool blue eyes are distracting.

But it’s okay, you realize as Andrew grips your thigh. There’s nothing commercial about this at all so it can’t hurt you. Portland is the opposing team and it can’t hurt you in your safe space. And after this your gonna get railed. Not just by Andrew Garfield, but by the Portland Trail Blazers.

The end!

Thanks for reading anon!

#sorry lol #salty anon #salty fic prompts you never asked for #triggered? #youre loved #fuck me for testing out the system to see how it works #apologies to Andrew garfield #apologies to the Portland trailblazers

[sabakos]

What's your preferred translation of The Odyssey?

None of the verse translations I've ever seen are particularly faithful or good. Chapman's is fun if you like Elizabethan poetry, but from the parts I've compared side-by-side it's basically a retelling of the story. Keats liked it, so if you like Keats you might also...

For more close translations, I find the Loeb edition by A.T. Murray to be convenient and useful because it's not overly archaic, and it's highly consistent in how it translates specific words. Also much like every Loeb book it's set in parallel with the Greek, but even If you can't read any Greek at all it's still a fairly faithful, if often sometimes dry, smoothly flowing prose translation.