classical affair

all kind, all beautiful, all poetic. master in literature. taking my PhD. studying the brontës and classical reception of ancient greece and rome 🏺

[thequietabsolute]

Keats’s favourite quotation from Shakespeare was ‘Can you hear the sea?’

and i reckon that’s pretty good

[ghostlament]

I still like the idea of a devout religious vampire praying with a rosary and burning it's hands in some kind of masochistic penance for it's sins against nature...

[classicalaffair]

Oh, do you mean Olalla, by Robert Louis Stevenson?

[aleyma]

Horus falcon inlay, made in Egypt in the 4th century (source).

[theravingcelt]

“It is extraordinary that nobody nowadays under the stress of great troubles is turned into stone or a bird or a tree or some inanimate object; they used to undergo such metamorphoses in ancient times (or so they say), though whether that is myth or a true story I know not. Maybe it would be better to change one’s nature into something that lacks all feeling, rather than be so sensitive to evil. Had that been possible, these calamities would in all probability have turned me to stone.”

— The Alexiad, written by Anna Komnene, the daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, c. 1148.

[queensheebs]

what a legend

Nothing can match this energy

fun fact: these are actual vocal warm ups he would do, and used this as a way to interact with the audience while being able to stretch while performing .

also he was a witch and he used it as a spell like look at that power

[homesweetgoodneighbor]

This performance at Live Aid literally was unlike anything anyone had seen. No one, and I mean, NO ONE has ever owned a crowd like this.

Other performers have literally said since, “Freddy basically changed live performance forever and left us NOTHING.” (affectionate)

I am convinced he was blessed by the gods. He was a fucking herald for said gods or something. Hell, there’s that vid of the Green Day fans waiting for the concert to begin and fucking singing in perfect fucking harmony to Bohemian Rhapsody! Freddy isn’t even alive and he still fucking commands a crowd!

Full performance:

[tordenvejr]

everything you love will lead you back to you

[mithrandirl]

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (2005) dir. Joe Wright

[terpsikeraunos]

“ὃ δ᾽ ὄλβιος, ὅν τινα Μοῦσαι φίλωνται: γλυκερή οἱ ἀπὸ στόματος ῥέει αὐδή. - But he is blessed, whomever the Muses love: Sweet speech flows from his mouth.”

— Hesiod, Theogony 96-7.

[atundratoadstool]

Pre-Dracula Vampire Literature Masterpost Part I: pre-1880s - 1849

Before 1800

“Der Vampir” (“The Vampire”) by Heinrich August Ossenfelder (1748) [Vampires.com] [University of Victoria - German]

“Lenore” by Gottfried August Bürger (1773) [GoogleBooks - Multiple Translations] [University of Tampa - Multiple Translations] (not explicitly about vampires, although it does concern the re-arisen dead)

“The Bride of Corinth” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1797) [GoogleBooks] [Project Gutenberg] [Wikisource]

“The Old Woman of Berkeley” by Robert Southey (1798) [GoogleBooks] [Famouspoetsandpoems.com] (not explicitly about vampires, although it does concern the re-arisen dead)

1800-1819

Thalaba the Destroyer by Robert Southey (1801) [GoogleBooks: Vol 1. | Vol. 2] [Project Gutenberg]

“The Vampire” by John Stagg, in his Minstrel of the North (1810) [GoogleBooks] [Archive,org] [The Literary Gothic]

The Giaour by George Gordon Byron (1813) [GoogleBooks] [Archive.org] [Polish Online Literature Library] [The Literary Gothic - Excerpt]

“A Fragment of a Novel” (aka “The Burial: A Fragment”) by George Gordon Byron (1816) [GoogleBooks] [Archive.org] [Project Gutenberg] [Lesvampires.org] [SFF.net]

“Christabel” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1816) [GoogleBooks] [Archive.org] [Project Gutenberg] [Erudit.org] (not explicitly about vampires)

“The Vampyre” by John Polidori (1819) [GoogleBooks] [Archive.org] [Project Gutenberg] [Lesvampires.org] [SFF.net]

“The Black Vampyre” by Robert C. Sands (1819) [Google Books: Part I | Part II | Part III not Available] [Amazon.com ($)]

1820-1829

“La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats (1820) [GoogleBooks] [Archive.org] [Poetryfoundation.org] (not explicitly about vampires) 

“Lamia” by John Keats (1820) [GoogleBooks] [Archive.org] [Bartleby.com] (not explicitly about vampires)

Lord Ruthven ou les Vampires (Lord Ruthven or The Vampires) by Cyprien Berard (1820) [Archive.org - French] [Black Coat Press - English Translation ($)]

The Vampire, or The Bride of the Isles by J. R. Planché (1820) [The Literary Gothic]

Le Vampire (The Vampire) by Charles Nodier (1820) [Munseys - PDF]

“Vampirisimus” by E.T.A. Hoffman (1821), from his Die Erzählungen der Serapionsbrüder (The Serapion Brethren) [GoogleBooks] [Project Gutenburg] [National University of Central Buenos Aires - Spanish] (mentions vampires, but is ultimately about grave-robbing cannibals)

Smarra ou les Demons de la Nuit (Smarra, or the Demons of the Night) by Charles Nodier (1821) [Archive.org - French] [Project Gutenberg - French] [Rilune.org - French] [Amazon.com - English Translation ($)]

Han d'Islande (Hans of Iceland) by Victor Hugo (1821) [GoogleBooks] [Archive.org: Vol. I | Vol. 2] (not explicitly about vampires, although a major character drinks blood for the sake of revenge)

“Wake Not the Dead” by Ernst Benjamin Salomo Raupach (1823) [Project Gutenberg] [Lesvampires.org] [SFF.net]

La Vampire Ou La Vierge De Hongrie (The Vampire or The Hungarian Virgin)  by Étienne-Léon de Lamothe-Langon (1825) [Gallica.bnf.fr: Vol. 1 | Vol. 2 | Vol. 3 - French] [Black Coat Press - English Translation ($)]

Der Vampyre und seine Braut (The Vampire and his Bride) by Carl Spindler (1826) [GoogleBooks - German] [Bibliotheque-vampires.de - German]

La Guzla, ou Choix de Poesies Illyrique (The Guzla, or a Selection of Illyric Poems) by Prosper Merimee (1827) [GoogleBooks - French] [Archive.org - French] (A literary hoax that purports to be a collection of folklore)

“Pepopukin in Corsica” by Arthur Young (1827) [GoogleBooks]

Der Vampyr (The Vampire) by Heinrich Marschner and Wilhelm August Wohlbrück (1828) [Stanford University - Libretto] [Archive.org - German Score] [Archive.org -  German Recording] [Zeno.org - German Libretto]

Der Vampyre, oder die Totenbraut (The Vampyre and the Dead Bride) by Theodor Hildebrand (1828) [GoogleBooks - German]

1830-1839

“The Eve of Ivan Kupala” (aka “St. John’s Eve”]by Nikolaj Vasilevic Gogol (1832), from his Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka  [The University of Adelaide] (not explicitly about vampires, although it does concern blood-drinking witches)

“The Vampire Bride” by Henry Thomas Liddell (1833) [GoogleBooks]

“The Viy” by Nikolaj Vasilevic Gogol (1835), from his Mirgorod [The University of Adelaide] (not explicitly about vampires, although it does concern blood-drinking witches)

“La Morte Amoureuse” (“The Dead Lover,” aka “Clarimonde”; “The Beautiful Vampire”; “The Dead Woman in Love”; “The Dead Leman”) by Théophile Gautier (1836) [GoogleBooks] [Archive.org] [Project Gutenberg] [Lesvampires.org] [Université du Québec à Chicoutimi - French]

“Ligea” by Edgar Allan Poe (1838) [GoogleBooks] [Project Gutenberg] [Poestories.com] (not explicitly about vampires, although it does concern the re-arisen dead)

“Sem'ya Vurdalaka” (“The Family of the Vourdalak,” aka “The Curse of the Vourdalak”) by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1839) [Scribd] [Az.lib.eu - Russian]

1840-1849

Der tote Gast (The Dead Guest) by Heinrich Zschokke (1840) [GoogleBooks] (not explicitly about vampires, although it does concern the re-arisen dead)

Upyr (The Vampire) by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy (1841) [Az.lib.eu - Russian] [Amazon.com - English Translation ($)]

‘The Vampire" by James Clerk Maxwell (1845) [GoogleBooks] [Poemhunter.com]

Varney the Vampyre, or, The Feast of Blood by James Malcolm Rhymer (sometimes attributed to Thomas Preskett Prest) (1845-1847) [University of Virgina] [Project Gutenberg - Incomplete]

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (1847) [GoogleBooks] [Archive.org] [Project Gutenberg] (not explicitly about vampires, although Heathcliff is accused of vampirsm)

“La Dame pâle” (“The Pale Lady,” aka “The Carpathian Mountains”; “The Vampire of the Carpathian Mountains”) by Alexandre Dumas and Paul Bobage, in Les mille et un fantômes (The Thousand and One Ghosts) (1849) [Project Gutenberg - French] [Wikisource - French] [Amazon.com - English Translation ($)]

More Vampire Lit: [x]

Werewolf Lit: [x]

Adapted from this forum post. Original poster has not read all works listed, but has applied descriptive/helpful notes where possible.

[twinktorturer]

studying ancient history will have you thinking stuff like The 18th century was basically yesterday

[thedronesneedyou]

i'll never live down the time i was talking with a friend and i said "given recent events". my friend said "what recent events?" and i had to reply "the Protestant Reformation"

[flowerytale]

John Keats, from La Belle Dame sans Merci

[laceandlitany]

hey, look

a poem about a blow job via our mad buddy boy Percy Shelley, circa. 1810

[voyaging-too]

People often say LOTR is a story about hope. (I'm reminded of it because someone said it in the notes of my Faramir post.) And that's true, but it's not the whole picture: LOTR is in large part a story about having to go on in the absence of hope.

Frodo has lost hope, as well as the ability to access any positive emotion, by Return. He is already losing it in Towers: he keeps going through duty and determination and of course Sam's constant help.

For most of the story, Sam is fueled by hope, which is why it's such a huge moment when he finally lets go of the hope of surviving and returning home, and focuses on making it to the Mountain. To speed their way and lighten the load, he throws his beloved pots and pans into a pit, accepting that he will never cook, or eat, again.

When Eowyn kills the Witch King, she's beyond hope and seeking for a glorious death in battle. It's possible that in addition to her love and loyalty for Théoden, she's strengthened by her hopelessness, the fear of the Nazgúl cannot touch someone who's already past despair.

Faramir is his father's son, he doesn't have any more hope of Gondor's victory or survival than Denethor does, he says as much to Frodo. What hope have we? It is long since we had any hope. ... We are a failing people, a springless autumn. He knows he's fighting a losing war and it's killing him. When he rejects the ring, he doesn't do it in the hope that his people can survive without it, he has good reason to believe they cannot. He acts correctly in the absence of hope.

Of course LOTR has a (mostly) happy ending, all the unlikely hopes come true, the characters who have lost hope gain what they didn't even hope for, and everyone is rewarded for their bravery and goodness, so on some level the message is that hope was justified. But the book never chastises characters who lost hope, it was completely reasonable of them to do so. Despair pushed Théoden and Denethor into inaction, pushed Saruman into collaboration, but the characters who despaired and held up under the weight of despair are Tolkien's real heroes.

(In an early draft of Return, Frodo and Sam receive honorary titles in Noldorin: Endurance beyond Hope and Hope Unquenchable, respectively. Then he cut it, probably because it was stating the themes of the entire book way too obviously, because this is what Tolkien cared about, really: enduring beyond hope. Without hope.)

Also, people who know more than me about the concept of estel, feel free to @ me.

[starspray]

I agree with everything in the above post, and think that the knife's edge balance between despair and hope in LOTR is a really important theme when you see the characters that fall into despair and the ones that don't, and the ones that despair but don't fall.

But the thing about estel is that it's not the only elvish word for hope. There's amdir, which is hope with a foundation, it's based on something. Estel is hope without that foundation, based on nothing at all--a fool's hope, if you will. It's what drives the entire Quest, because sending the Ring to Mt Doom is objectively insane and there is no reason to believe that it'll work beyond like, Elrond saying so (and if anyone is familiar with estel, it's Elrond). But it does work, because everyone in the Fellowship comes together to make sure that it will, because they're clinging to that estel with their last fingernails and they aren't letting go. Even if they give up hope for themselves or for their homes for for their loved ones.

Anyway all that to say I just wanted to highlight this passage from ROTK:

Far above the Ephel Dúath in the West the night-sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master's, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo's side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep.

That's the hope that people are talking about when they say LOTR is about hope, I think. It's a hope that's bigger than any single character, and it's so hard and at times impossible to keep holding on to, but in the end it wins out, in spite of everything.

[visit-ba-sing-se]

you heard of the academic icarus, now get ready for:

Academic Achilleus: your argument is pretty indisputable and strong- except for that one weak spot that could take it (and you) to the grave.

Academic Ulysses: you are soooo close to your conclusion but somehow something always leads you astray. you have been writing this paper for what feels like 10 years. the gods are against you

Academic Sisyphus: You have deleted and rewritten this paragraph numerous times. it still does not work out. you delete it again.

[visit-ba-sing-se]

and may I also interest you in:

Academic Tantalus: You found the perfect source online. You click on it, all information you need in reach. it turns out to be behind a paywall.

Academic Pandora: You open your inbox. there are 7 unread e-mails.

Academic Paris: You had to make one (1) judgement call. your choice seemed good back then. it does not seem good now.

[visit-ba-sing-se]

You know what? one more on the house:

Acamdemic Antigone: you challenged you professor on some point. you may even have been right, but at what cost.

[visit-ba-sing-se]

#I’m academic Penelope#I write down a sentence and immediately think ew that’s cringe and delete it again#When will I finally finish this essay? Who’s to say 🙂 @cryptic-disaster well your tags made peer-review 😉

[chromalogue]

Academic Oedipus: despite all your efforts, it went exactly the way your supervisor said it was gonna go, and now everyone is cursing your name until you’re ready to claw your eyes out.

Academic Persephone: from October to March you’re in hell.  Still better than working retail.

[azahnahza]

How did we not add Academic Theseus: when your final submission contains so many revisions you question if it’s the same paper.

[fjalepurpurt]

“We cast a shadow on something wherever we stand, and it is no good moving from place to place to save things; because the shadow always follows. Choose a place where you won’t do harm - yes, choose a place where you won’t do very much harm, and stand in it for all you are worth, facing the sunshine.”

— A Room with a View, E.M. Forster

[oresti-s]

A Room with a View, E. M. Forster.

[apoemaday]

When I Have Fears

by John Keats

When I have fears that I may cease to be Before my pen has glean’d my teeming brain Before high piled books in charact'ry Hold like rich garners the full-ripened grain; When I behold upon the night’s starred face, Huge cloudy symbols of a high romance, And think that I may never live to trace Their shadows with the magic hand of chance; And when I feel, fair creature of an hour, That I shall never look upon thee more, Never have relish in the fairy powre Of unreflecting love -- then on the shore Of the wide world I stand alone and think, Till love and fame to nothingness do sink.