Stories Have a Way of Changing Faces

a sideblog for books and poetry and things

[dilutedh2so4]

The Last Days of Troy, by Simon Armitage (2014).

[stroebe2]

June and July are the same months btw. They want you to think they're two different months but it's the same month that's 60 days long. Same way August is actually August and the first half of September

[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.

[arrenkae]

One of the things that impressed me the most about Dungeon Crawler Carl (mind you, I went in with zero expectations) is that not only it manages to turn a talking cat into fully realized, complex character who is still unmistakably *a cat*, but also that the cental relationship of the series - this kind of strong, unshakable bond between the main characters that never fails to make you emotional over how much they mean for each other - is unmistakably a relationship between a man and a cat. Not just nominally, but in a way that is instantly recognizable for anyone who ever owned and loved a cat. And mind you, it's not for the lack of other relationships - Carl finds new friends and comrades, and each of them is important for him in their own right, but still THE most important person in his life is a cat and as a cat person I think that's beautiful

[trigona-necrophaga]

Gideon the Ninth naming system notes appreciation post

[emily-e-draws]

this platform sure is decayed

[grynwood]

Your honor, I love them, they're so horrible

[cutetanuki-chan]

can't find time to draw for myself in recent month but remembered this wip with anastasia

[nealashitposts]

I cant go to my local libary anymore because last year when I stopped by a librarian was reading a book I wrote under a pen name years ago. This book sold under 10k copies and I've literally only heard people talk about this book online *if* I went looking for it so I went up to them and tried to start a conversation like "oh hey I've heard of that book is it good?" Like hoping for some real feedback and she goes "yeah I love reading things by queer writers" and in a moment of terror I was like "oh but- hold on, I thought the author was some old hetero white guy?!" A thing I thought because I used my own dead grandpa's picture for the author pic because grandpa never had internet. I fake looked it up and was like "yeah if he was queer its not public?" And without looking up this absolute unit goes "oh the author bio is obviously fake. I'd bet my left leg the author is a west coast millennial non-binary queer who has never lived on the east coast." And then proceeded to rattle off a dozen linguistic flourishes that are specfic to the pacific northwest that are in the book and several that are nearly ubiquitous in the state where I said my pen name lives that are somehow completely absent from the book.

So you know. Got read for fifth and didn't even find out if she liked it.

[binkyfishy]

She nan on my tucket til i. She Ishmael on my Queeqyeg til i. she moby on my dick til i

[the-grollican]

i love you ishmael “god wont let me die” mobydick

[benjhawkins]

THAT ACCURSED WHITE WHALE, THE GREAT LEVIATHAN

[thomaszzen]

Sooooo..... I started reading Moby-Dick........

[tyger-land]

𝙈𝙤𝙗𝙮 𝘿𝙞𝙘𝙠 1977, by LeRoy Neiman.

[id-be-home-with-you]

Moby Dick WIP

[lazy-toad]

"so that Queequeg in his own proper person was a riddle to unfold; a wondrous work in one volume; but whose mysteries not even him-self could read, though his own live heart beat against them; and these mysteries were therefore destined in the end to moulder away with the living parchment whereon they were inscribed, and so be unsolved to the last."

[lazy-toad]

that one scene where they're just talking and laughing under the blanket all night like a couple of preteens at a sleepover