mythology, fairytales and other cool written works

[gwenthebard]

Too many Odyssey adaptations make Poseidon look like he has random beef and was being petty, or defending his cannibal son no reason, because I need to specify that Odysseus:

-sacked the shit out of a city he was patron of

-using deceotion hiding in a statue shaped like a symbol of his

-despite this Poseidon helped Odysseus out by sending a sea serpent to eat a guy yelling that the Trojan Horse was a trap

-Greeks then brutally sacked the city

-made no offerings for the gods and Odysseus took credit talking about how smart he was

-Odysseus then proceeds to meet his son and blind him

-Odysseus used deception again and would have got away with it, but proceeds to leave his full government name and address behind whils bragging about how smart he is

[sarafangirlart]

You might think that the guy is Perseus 😀😀😀😀 nope!!! Just some fuckass oc 😀😀😀😀

[sarafangirlart]

Ok…. Let’s dissect this real quick.

-Andromeda wasn’t the queen of Ioppa, her son Perses was king of Ioppa, istg if this writer makes Perses a character in this universe and the son of this fucking Kleos imma-

-Recovering people pleaser - ok this one actually makes sense and is how I interpret her too… bc she stops being a ppl pleaser by choosing her own husband… who was Perseus… anyway.

-Katara coded healer - and just like Katara she’s removed from her loving canon relationship and forced into an enemies to lovers romance.

-Blessed by Astarte - I’m fine with this too bc Andromeda (at least in one source) was said to worship Aphrodite, who would likely be called Astarte in Ioppa… I’m just confused by the healer association? Astarte was a healing goddess sure but like Aphrodite she was mainly viewed as a goddess of love and beauty, was it just not feminist for Andromeda to be devoted to love goddess and be blessed with beauty? Idk I’m probably looking too much into this.

-Introverted but strong willed - what the hell sure

-Plant mom - look I’m not innocent of making baseless headcanons but… huh? Where did that come from?

This just frustrates me so much bc I get the feeling this writer did do some research for this book but somehow she read Perseus and Andromeda’s love story and didn’t stop to think “hmmm maybe I shouldn’t separate them or ship Perseus with Medusa” like it really does not sit right with me…

Now let’s get to… *sighhhhhhhhhjh* Kleos. This isn’t a real character he’s just an amalgamation of different tropes and characters who’s only there to serve as heavily manufactured “fan favorite” and Andromeda’s consolation prize.

- “Cassian and Jesper” - idk who these ppl are

- Bi King - y’know who else was a bi king in love with Andromeda?

- Daddy issues - I said this a million times but his name should’ve been Cleopatros, how deliciously ironic would it be for a man who hates his father to be called “glory of the father”? And besides, naming a Greek hero’s best friend “Kleos” is like naming an American hero’s best friend “Freedom”. Not only that, it would’ve made Kleos actually stand out as a character rather than only existing to have corny banter with Andromeda and Perseus.

- Doesn’t know when to shut up - me neither, this post doesn’t need to exist I just wanted to rant.

- Golden retriever energy - half of booktok’s male love interests are gold retrievers, the other half is bad boys. Be different I beg.

[nusa-jabber]

Need to say this as a Palestinian, too:

1) Where are Andromeda's Palestinian/Cana`an features and roots???

Her father was Ethiopian, her mom Palestinian/Cana`an from Jaffa (which is what Joppa is—we literally have the rocks where Andromeda was hung). Why is she dressed more like a Roman than a Cana`an, who'd also have some tatreez on her dress, since that's where Palestinians got it from (I know, a shocker we retained a tradition started by our ancestors)??? What she's wearing isn't even Tyrian purple! And where are her Stars of Ishtar if she's blessed by Astarte?

Guess the relationship is one-sided, which is ridiculous when you learn there is a theory that Andromeda and Astarte were the same person in earlier Palestinian depictions of the story!

First line is of Andromeda's Rocks in (now occupied) Palestine Second is from a book on antiquity clothing in the Mediterranean

2) Astarte is literally a Cana`an goddess Aphrodite was inspired by, and one mainly characterized for repping love, war and hunting, not healing (which she and her sister did partake in, but was not her main mojo). She and her sister, Anat, goddess of war—and who Athena took inspiration from—were famous for being sister-in-arms!

How Astarte was depicted by the Cana`an and her followers

3) Why is some Greek dude her bodyguard and not a Levantine/Palestinian/Cana'an man? Makes no sense, in-world, if you're going with the Andromeda was an Afro-Palestinian route. We come in blonde, too, if you want to emphasize the golden retriever aspect! We literally don't look different from the Greeks, either, we're cousins 😭.

Fifty shades of Palestinian blonde

If you're going to make an OC to be more "diverse," why not actually go with diversity that makes sense??? Which brings me to

4) Why was the Afro-Palestinian heroine of the original story delegated to side character??? And to an OC love interest??? Who's also Greek, like her original love interest—what was the point of divorcing her from Perseus, if you're just giving to give her his inferior knock-off (and who's not even the main character!)? All so Perseus can be shipped with Medusa, which is the other thing...

5) Why make Medusa a white Greek (from what I've seen), when her roots are North African? If you're going to go with the Afro-Palestinian Andromeda, then why not North African Medusa? Because now, what you did is break up the canon biracial pairing of Perseus and Andromeda to center a whitewashed pair you made up. Like, what? You know this is worst, right? The original myth is more progressive than you!

Medusa mosaic in Tunisia

Just 😭. If you're going to incorporate the whole "Greek Empire wasn't just the European Greeks" history of their myths (which was the reality! Since they were and are part of the Eastern and bigger Mediterranean; we've influenced, conquered and mixed with each other), why do it so half-assed, while also taking steps back from what was already progressive in the original myths?

[blackfemmecharacterdependency]

[plant-based-person]

had a fascinating english class that resulted in the notes header “the forcefeminization of victor frankenstein”

[plant-based-person]

what the people want, the people get

you see

my professor’s take is that mary shelley is feminizing victor throughout the novel, as a way of flipping gender roles and putting a male character through female experiences.

evidence as explained:

victor is creating life. he is putting his health at risk (spends two years with little sleep or socialization) to bring life forth into this world

his illness after he is shocked by the creature coming to life is akin to both ‘hysteria’ and postpartum depression

he pretty much swoons, let’s be honest

henry clerval, a man who has been characterized as manly and heroic, has to chase after damsel-in-distress victor and care for him as he convalesces 

afterward, he hides what he did and went through, for fear that others will label him crazy and emotional and not believe him. sound familiar?

Victor in general is more emotional than the other characters and is constantly tempering his reactions to not be seen as irrational 

the book does not otherwise have central female characters 

Also, Shelley’s mother died in childbirth. It’s interesting, then, that Shelley presents the creation of life as something horrific and damaging. She parallels Victor with her mother.

in conclusion, Frankenstein (1818) by Mary  Wollstonecraft Shelley is one of the first examples of mpreg in English literature 

[just-call-me-the-old-hag]

[nee-naw-nee-naw-beepbeep]

@i-suggest-transfeminism thoughts?

[tankie-transfeminist]

hi thanks for pinging me! I have thoughts but before that I have a personal story: I don't remember all of the details because our memory barely functions, but when we first read Frankenstein in high school as a recently cracked transfem, we did so under a time crunch and while we were really tired, and as a result I think we internalized this emasculation and fully just. read Dr. Frankenstein as a woman. Once it was pointed out to us it was incredibly obvious, and we had always known that he was a man, but for some reason while reading the text we kept imagining him as a woman. To this day we still have to correct ourselves about this, because Victor Frankenstein is still a woman in our head. It feels like I'm talking about an egg, I know she's a woman, but most people have no idea so I have to use the wrong pronouns for her.

Anyways yeah as I understand it this reading is pretty widely accepted in feminist english circles, I'll just add that this doesn't make the book feminist, in fact I think it does the opposite. The effect of this reading on the themes of the story says that if men tried to participate in reproductive labour (something which is framed as unnatural and almost like, satanic, with how Dr. Frankenstein digs up bodies and stitches them back together) they would create a bunch of monsters. This serves to justify the unequal division of reproductive labour, reify the connection between notions of essential femininity and child rearing, and reproduce impressibility discourse that justifies violence and denial of autonomy towards children.

[remnantglow]

classic scifi novels by men r always like. page 1 here’s a cool scifi idea i had. page 2 i hate women so much it’s unreal

[remnantglow]

ALT

ALT

ALT

guys if one more person leaves a tag like this on my post im gonna lose my mind. There Are Science Fiction Authors Who Are Not Misogynistic Men

[remnantglow]

ok i’ve gotten one too many ‘this is why i don’t read sci-fi’ comments so here’s a rec list for the people convinced all science fiction is bad and misogynistic (with something for everyone, hopefully!):

(also, btw, the book links are to the Storygraph, which includes content warnings for each one!)

smth funny and lighthearted about a security robot who’d rather watch TV then do its job? all systems red by martha wells (first novella in the The Murderbot Diaries series, 6 books, ongoing)

a complex, intricate political space opera following a warship AI who’s lost (almost) everything? ancillary justice by ann leckie (first in the Imperial Radch trilogy) (fun fact! bc of space linguistics reasons, all characters in this series are referred to with she/her pronouns, making gender a non-factor - it’s really cool!)

a dark story about travelling between parallel universes and a woman who is dead in almost every single one? the space between worlds by micaiah johnson (standalone) (SO good, i don’t get to recommend it often enough!!!)

a story about grief and letting go, and a unique take on alien invasion? the seep by chana porter (standalone novella)

hey, how abt some dystopian YA, for old times sake? specifically, one with sapphics and sick mechas? try gearbreakers by zoe hana mikuta (first in duology)

or, if you’d prefer something a bit less angsty, YA about a ragtag group of teens and a space heist? the disasters by m. k. england (standalone)

alternate history steampunk that blurs the line btwn science fiction and fantasy? the black god’s drums by p. djeli clark (standalone, novella)

a dark gone girl-esque thriller about clones? the echo wife by sarah gailey (standalone)

poetic sapphic romance and time travel? this is how you lose the time war by max gladstone and amal el-mohtar (standalone)

a hopeful utopian future and a human-robot friendship? a psalm for the wild-built by becky chambers (novella, first out of two) (this author’s got a whole bunch of hopepunk sci-fi novels in general, if that’s smth you’re looking for!)

africanfuturism, coming-of-age, and cool jellyfish aliens? binti by nnedi okorafor (novella, first in trilogy)

spicy lesbian cyborgs? and shall machines surrender my benjanun sriduangkaew (novella, first in the Machine Mandate series, 6 books)

cosmic horror with an autistic scientist, cyborg angels and AI gods? the outside by ada hoffmann (first in trilogy, 2 books are out)

also, if you’re a fan of Janelle Monáe, may i draw your attention to the fact that they’ve recently come out with a Dirty Computer short story collection, each story co-written with a diff writer?

this list is long enough, but have some more authors (who are not cis men) also worth checking out: rivers solomon, yoon ha lee, charlie jane anders, aliette de bodard, xiran jay zhao, mary robinette kowal, corinne duyvis

and finally, not all older/classic scifi is written by crusty old white guys who hate women!!! some iconic authors i’d particularly recommend looking into are ursula k. le guin, octavia e. butler, samuel r. delany and vonda n. mcintyre 🥰

[babischlong-six]

I’ll add C.J. Cherryh and her Foreigner series to this! Alien politics, linguistics, adventure and intrigue… Sometimes the aliens aren’t just like us, after all, and that’s ok!

[ariaste]

And Nicola Griffith. And Lois McMaster Bujold.

[morphean42]

I’d also suggest The Long Way To a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. It’s got some interesting stuff, but is more based in the found family troupe than the sci-fi that’s happening all around it so it’s a good starting point to see if you like the genre.

[hapalopus]

Two times Nathaniel didn't want to dismiss Bartimaeus and one time Bartimaeus didn't want to be dismissed.

[jedi-valjean]

LOTR but Gollum has the ring the entire time, he just keeps losing it and has to chase it down like the squirrel from Ice Age

[cpericardium]

hey everyone "I" have something to show "you"

[cpericardium]

[cpericardium]

[mamawasatesttube]

the thing about media literacy is that understanding why the author chose to specify that the curtains are blue is the same skill set as understanding that the way the author characterizes all black characters as angry or all chinese characters as meek and silent is racist. it is the same skill set as being able to identify when a news source is biased or when someone is feeding you propaganda. the ability to ask "why did this person choose to present this premise in this specific way?" is a critical skill in a world full of misinformation. why are the curtains blue? maybe it's a characterization detail. maybe it's extraneous worldbuilding. why is this character written as being right all the time? maybe you're intended to disagree with them. maybe it doesn't matter. maybe you should still ask why.

[ghostbees]

Beside the fantastic Finnemore pastiche, Jeeves Again had this very sweet Deborah Frances-White story that I found so utterly charming I also had to do a few bits from it. Bertie and Drones infiltrate a servants' costume ball – disguised as valets disguised as their employers – resulting in various misunderstandings and featuring old flames, new flames, green carnations, inheritances, aunts, and salmon paste.

[mxliv-oftheendless]

So if yall didn’t know, in The Hobbit book, Thranduil had the Dwarves locked up for approximately weeks, and Bilbo was just invisible and wandering in the palace the entire time, vibing miserably.

My headcanon, therefore, is that the Mirkwood Elves now have a local legend about a ghost haunting Thranduil’s palace, never seen but generally thought to be harmless. Thranduil scoffs at the idea, but has been seen glancing around at the dark corners of rooms. Legolas fully believes in it and is known to say hello out loud when he enters an empty room, in case the ghost is nearby.

It’s not until Legolas joins the Fellowship that he figures out that the supposed ghost was actually an invisible Bilbo the whole time. He never tells Thranduil, because he thinks it’s funny to see his regal father unnerved by the idea of a ghost.

[airandangels]

On the other hand: “Oh good, it wasn’t really a ghost,” followed by “It was the One Ring of Sauron, the most powerfully evil and dangerous artefact in the world, in my home, for weeks.”

[keepcalmandcarriefischer]

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZTdQuxw52/

I think I found my new favorite rabbit hole. This voice actor does Shakespeare scenes in a southern accent and I need to see the whole damn play. Absolutely beautiful

[saint-batrick]

if you’re not from the us american south, there’s some amazing nuances to this you may have missed. i can’t really describe all of them, because i’ve lived here my whole life and a lot of the body language is sort of a native tongue thing. the body language is its own language, and i am not so great at teaching language. i do know i instinctively sucked on my lower teeth at the same time as he did, and when he scratched the side of his face, i was ready to take up fucking arms with him.

but y'all. the way he said “brutus is an honourable man” - each and every time it changed just a little. it was the full condemnation Shakespeare wanted it to be. it started off slightly mock sincere. barely trying to cover the sarcasm. by the end…it wasn’t a threat, it was a promise.

christ, he’s good.

[anais-ninja-bitch]

the eliding of “you all” to “y’all” while still maintaining 2 syllables is a deliberate and brilliant act of violence. “bear with me” said exactly like i’ve heard it at every funeral. the choices of breaking and re-establishing of eye contact. the balance of rehearsed and improvised tone. A+++ get this man a hollywood contract.

[mndvx]

NCUTI GATWA and SHARON D. CLARKE in THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (2025)

[noka-exe]

oh Frodo…

[dwarven-beard-spores]

Starting a gofundme for my friend Bunbury who's a terrible invalid,

[knightwithahundredkings]

Went to an Oedipus Rex adaption today and my friends were debating whether the Oedipus/Jocasta age gap was problematic. Like guys…I think their relationship has bigger issues

[homeiswhere-thephobicis]

[mythicc-hrshl]

What kills me in " the importance of being earnest" is that the mother has insane issues about everything BUT that her daughter marries her cousin...

Like I know that the royal family did that but also what??????

[mythicc-hrshl]

Noticing that back in the day when I moved from GoodReads to TheStoryGraph, it did not mark my books as owned, only as read. So yeah lmaooo tedious work now...