𖢥𖢥𖢥

The Only Thing you Taught me is the Only Thing you Know: how to Start a Fire once the Embers Cease to Glow

[hongrelmog]

ene , 24 , they/it/wtvr

student of the earth and all her creatures

music nerd, transgressive art enjoyer, gender dissident (tme), goo producer

sideblogs: @spillingardans // @gagagagal // a secret third one

blog is 18+ sometimes nsfw

[doppelgangerleaverite]

can anyone on this gay ass website give me an opinion on which translation of the epic of gilgamesh i should read? ive been wanting to read it for ages but theres a number of common translations and i know translations can make or break a story; i dont want to start with the wrong one

[gilgamesh-enjoyer]

I've read a few so I can offer recommendations! I started with the Sandars translation, which is a good starting point but a pretty early translation. Benjamin Foster's translation is one of my favourites, and the version I read (Second Norton Critical Edition) includes some really interesting discussion essays with it. Andrew George's translation received an update a couple of years ago so is up to date with Foster's translation, though I prefer how the language flows in Foster's.

I would also recommend Gilgamesh Retold by Jenny Lewis for a translation with a more modern poetic take.

[perrenlore]

GILGAMESH TRANSLATION MASTERPOST:

Benjamin Foster’s Gilgamesh condenses all the different tablets we’ve found together to make one cohesive narrative which is way less intimidating and therefore my go-to if you want something that feels cohesive while also sticking very close to the language of the original. 10/10

Andrew George is the most thorough and up-to-date, and sticks as close to the text as you can get. It does, however, separate out all the different tablets, and feels very unedited in its style. Definitely not a “pretty” version. 10/10 cuz he’s a legend and this is the most definitive scholarly edition but don’t start with it.

Maureen Kovacs has a lovely translation with some very interesting footnotes on word choices. Her Ninsun is absolutely incredible and if you want to cry your eyes out over Gilgamesh’s fate that’s the one for you. It’s one step up from Foster’s in terms of poetic-ness but still pretty close to the original. 8/10

Sophus Helle is more poetic than Kovacs but BRILLIANT, one of my favourite Enkidus and his Shamhat is wonderful. Top favourite of all time. This is a very good starting point. 9/10

I wouldn’t recommend Sandars simply because it’s prose, and also condenses the twelfth tablet into a nice tidy ending that doesn’t really work with the Standard Babylonian narrative. 6/10

Lewis’ Gilgamesh Retold is more of a poetic retelling than a translation; it’s beautiful but definitely not a starting point. Sweet and gentle Enkidu though, very charming. 7/10

Stephen Mitchell I’m not a fan of. He smooths the poem out into something tame and very expected. This is my personal bias but I really dislike his Shamhat. His Enkidu and Gilgamesh are also explicitly more like brothers, which is a valid interpretation but also again not one I lean towards. 5/10

Herbert Mason’s Gilgamesh has some stunning moments in it (Enkidu! They do not know you like I know you!) However it is nowhere near the real text BUT closer than Lewis’. Changes the ending of the poem so it’s about Gilgamesh mourning Enkidu rather than mourning his own mortality; a much sadder conclusion with less resolution than in the Standard Babylonian. 7/10

BONUS ROUND:

Derek Hines’ play GILGAMESH is fucking DERANGED guys. Ten Gilgillion out of ten.

[obskurity]

Evil Dead Burn - Trailer

[secondquarrel]

so venezuela has become a usamerican colony. like that happened and everything carried on like normal

[secondquarrel]

like i know venezuela is going through a huge humanitarian crisis right now and their political regime is low in the list of priorities when tallinmg about it obviously it's just it shocked me to read trump congratulating his secretary of energy on how well he's running what used to be a sovereign country until a few months back you know

[totalchaos]

i think its good to she/her the tgirl who doesnt know shes trans yet

[yuckycutepriestess]

"no one is arguing hrt for kids" i ammmm<3

[frontierpsychoanalyst]

Solarpunk is real punk because a) it makes people angry and b) it's lame

[vullen]

future archaeologists will know you were (not) a boy

[vullen]

i've seen countless kind and emotional replies in the year or so since i posted this comic, but this particular tag set has squeezed me unlike any other. thanks

[tim-official]

neopronouns are all well and good but as long as we're adding words to the english language there's much cooler things we could add too. lets add inclusive and exclusive "we." a variant of "we" that distinguishes between "we (including listener)" and "we (including the speaker but not the listener)". other languages have this. Let's add the obviative case to our third-person pronouns so that we can distinguish between two people of the same gender - a him-[salient] and a him-[less salient]. this would make it much easier to write sex scenes where two people use the same pronouns. why aren't our proud pronoun warriors working on this

[real-language-facts]

falsify - to make something false

salsify - to make something salse

[infertilityidol]

woahhhh a floor beef clover it must be my yucky day

[unaturalhistory]

evicshen

[badassdemonsword]

This is how it feels listening to queens of the stone age

[doomtemparts]

one of my friends in a discord server was talking about how they were nervous about their first scheduled acupuncture appointment. another friend offered to do a tarot reading for them. sent this picture.

[famespiral]

i wish emo had been as gay friendly & progressive & feminist as everyone thought it was in 2006 but it’s been 20 years i think we can let this one go 💔

[klapollo]

you are not a "femcel" you are not a "foid" you are not a "hon" you are a woman worthy of respect and taking up space and being happy and the world is yours for the taking you're ALIVE!!!!!!!!! you're a HUMAN!!!!!!! FUCK what they told you!!!!!!

[cerastes]

People don’t even say w00t anymore.

[cerastes]

This sux00rz…