"When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools."
Not my favourite Shakespeare to read but the tragedies never are. I'll wat
"When we are born, we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools."
Not my favourite Shakespeare to read but the tragedies never are. I'll watch a recording of this live and might like it more, but was a bit confusing with too many characters for me reading it.
No problems with Othello, but don't find it to be Shakespeare's best play, you feel?
I really love (or love to hate) Iago though. He's such a clever aNo problems with Othello, but don't find it to be Shakespeare's best play, you feel?
I really love (or love to hate) Iago though. He's such a clever and well constructed villian and I find him to be one of the most cunning and intriguing characters because his motivations and aims are never 100% clear and I like that.
Some iconic lines though "beware of jealousy, for it is the green eyed monster" I mean it's classic Shakespeare. Also I feel so sorry for Cassio bc he honestly just came out here to have a good time and then he gets attacked outta nowhere by Iago and peer pressured into drinking too much like it's not really not a great time for Michael Cassio
Also Iago is such a drama queen lmao I mean "I am not what I am" pls you're so pretentious don't quote the bible to me
But yeah don't love it, definitely don't hate it. (Although! reading the script is such a bore I'm seeing a play version of it next week and that'll be much better) ...more
“We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.”
way back I said there was a revi
“We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.”
way back I said there was a review of this beautiful book to come and I never did it. So now it's June and finally, finally I am ready to review this book.
deidamia: marry me ach- achilles: in case you haven’t noticed, i’m gay. i’m gay as fuck. i don’t like girls and i don’t want to... like girls. have you ever seen me without patroclus standing right beside me? that’s gay
In a weird turn of events, before I talk about me reading this book I'm gonna talk about other people reading this book. Because I've read alot of reviews of this book and alot of them made me laugh. Like, "Madeline Miller twists history to make Achilles gay" or "this is a new take on events" which is just, endlessly funny to me because there's literal, solid evidence Achilles and Patroclus were at least bonded in a way that wasn't considered "typical" for men in Ancient Greece. My actual ancient history professor talked about Achilles and Patroclus probably being gay in a lecture once. So it's really funny to me when people dismiss this book for being historically inaccurate. It's really not.
One thing I really like about this book is that, it DID THAT. That Madeline Miller actually decided to tell the story of Patroclus and Achilles - a story, like many other gay narratives in history, people have tried to erase. (Looking at you, Hollywood. Troy making them cousins is Hollywood's biggest shame)
To me, it is just really amazing and special that authors are actually rewriting such ancient history and stories to make them lgbt+ and remind people that the internet didn't invent being gay in 2000. It's always been real and people won't stand for that erasure in history anymore.
okay enough ranting. Here's something about the actual book.
for those who don't know The Song of Achilles is a retelling of the Iliad, focussing specifically on the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. It's explicitly a male gay romance and incorporates elements of the myth retold by ancient playwrights as well as the original works of Homer.
This book is so beautiful and precious i literally want to launch myself into the sun just thinking about it because I'm suffering and I want it to end.
It's a good suffering though. It's a - wow, I'm so invested in these characters and this story it physically hurts me that I'm not reading about them anymore - kind of suffering.
Miller's writing is absolutely stunning, so rich and full of beautiful detail. The way she explains things is so tangible and she uses such rich imagery you can't help but immediately fall in love with every chapter, every word even.
Some people say this is boring, but I disagree. It's not slow, it's exactly what it needs to be. A slow burn, organic story of two boys falling in love. It's tragic and soft and it hurts and that all is because Miller takes her time to write them so well, to build them up so high the ultimate fall is unbelievably crushing. I wouldn't have had this book any other way, I really wouldn't. Because in the end it's not about a war or tragedy or heroes or even loss - it's about two people and their connection and how much others can mean to us.
“In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”
The way Patroclus and Achilles are written really constructs them to be more then the allegorical symbols history has turned them into. Achilles especially, has been written and rewritten and romanticised so much in many ways he's a symbol more then a person. I think Madeline Miller really reversed that. What I love about this is how much she humanises them - these are people living in 1200 bce - and I think people tend to forget those were real people too. Madeline Miller attaches hopes, dreams, passions and sorrows to these characters that makes them so real. You cannot see them as anything other then entirely, blindingly human.
The ending of this book left me absolutely shattered, and even though I knew what would happened and I tried to protect my heart from it I just couldn't. You're forced into becoming to invested in these characters and their love for eachother and their love for life and want to just be okay that when they fall, so hard, it truly breaks you.
Achilles and Patroclus aside, the other characters were really well written and i liked the small twists on the original story. Thetis and Odysseus were wonderfully written, Odysseus especially was given such cunning and wit it really plays into his character. Again, Miller is able to humanise such a well known and beloved character.
The setting and imagery employed to make this foreign and ancient setting come alive felt really well done to me, and despite the foreign concepts it worked out so well. Miller has a degree in the classics, and her knowledge of the period and her expertise in the subject really showed to me. This is genuine, well written ancient historical literature.
What I think makes this book so incredibly special is how unique it is. There is no other books in the ya genre that do this kind of thing - that so beautifully and eloquently retell such an old story. I love how this book has inspired so many to learn more about the classics.
It truly is a masterful work, something I can see myself reading over and over because it does something I've seen no other ya book do, and it has so much charm and beauty it's impossible not to fall head over heels for it.
It's about glory, heroes, blood and war. About joy and love and suffering. About sorrow, mothers, memories. About being remembered, being forgotten. The cruelty of time, the cruelty of men. It's about violence and friendship and death. And I love it so so much.
The Song of Achilles is honestly just such a wonderful and beautiful book, I truly think it deserves more praise and recognition. It is the kind of thing I want to just see more and more of, and I cannot wait to read what Madeline Miller comes up with next.
honestly, I feel bad for Oedipus. He left his house to do the right thing and try to avoid killing his dad, just to come across his real dad and kill honestly, I feel bad for Oedipus. He left his house to do the right thing and try to avoid killing his dad, just to come across his real dad and kill him anyway. It's really unfortunate and it really sucks for him. And then he had to go and skewer his eyeballs like yikes he's not having a good time, is he ?
RIP Oedipus eyes, I'm sorry this happened to you. Honestly, I know this play is super tragic, and it actually is interesting how he tried to avoid his fate which led to him fulfilling it anyway but you can't not laugh at his misfortune. Or maybe I have to laugh to avoid thinking about the fact his siblings are his children...more
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—to-morrow we w
Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter—to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning——
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”
The Great Gatsby is my favourite classic, the ultimate reminder that characters can be awful, vapid and annoying and the book can still be good. The ultimate reminder great people aren't always good people. The ultimate reminder we should just stop dreaming for impossible things because doing so leads to DEATH.
In all seriousness I feel like the Great Gatsby is one of the most misunderstood classics .. it's about so much more then just Daisy and Gatsby, and it's so incredibly complex and symbolic each time I read it I get something more out of it. I don't know, I just think it's an incredible book, an incredible piece of literature and filled with incredibly awful characters
The prose is amazing. The imagery and language used by Fitzgerald to create and sustain this book is absolutely beautiful, I adore his prose and the way he describes things.
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For me, The Great Gatsby is one of those frightening truthful books because it's so harshly realistic We hate Daisy because she's silly, can't make up her own mind about things and constantly needs validation but aren't those the things that make US annoying. We're irritated by Nick's unreliable portrayal and yet aren't we all people who will assume and judge people we barely know based on rumours and stories we hear through the press and the media We despise Tom and Gatsby for their unrelenting pursuit of wealth and glory and yet are we not all people, everyday, striving for that green light, for the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us?
The thing about the Great Gatsby is nothing has changed. F. Scott Fitzgerald basically prophesied the Great Depression, warned everyone with this little book that the capitalistic dream was decaying and materialism was all consuming but even today don't we still value people's worth by what they have? doesn't out society still assume people who aren't wealthy just "aren't working hard enough". Isn't there a serious moral hole that people fill with stuff
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I don't care what anyone says about how this book is pointless (it's not) or how the characters suck (true, they're supposed to) I love it, and I don't know if any other classic will ever eclipse my love.
“They were careless people, Tom and Daisy- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”
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