hot take but the more i read and the more i see classics nerds online get mad about classics adaptation authors who dare to have not read every single ancient text before putting pen to paper, the more i think we all need to realise that classicist does not necessarily equal good writer.
there are classicists who are good writers and there are those who know nothing AND write badly but i genuinely think there’s nothing wrong with someone who writes an entertaining book about ancient myth characters and has read the bits of the iliad or whatever that they find relevant but who hasn’t written a dissertation on it. i think someone is just cranky that they did write a dissertation on it and people read a book from a bookshop instead of that. because of course they did.
like why does it matter? hm? who decided that a story needs to be perfectly accurate anyway? is it not enough to be an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon? i mean honestly a book that is actually perfectly accurate to ancient greek myths would be filled with plot holes and contradictions anyway, because the myths often don’t fit together all that neatly.
i know hating on things is fun but reading is supposed to be fun too guys.
