#glorious exploits

[mykelreadsbooks]

Nothing to say this time around except don't read The Fisherman & do read Glorious Exploits

[oleworm]

Review to “Glorious Exploits” by Ferdia Lennon

Thucydides for size.

This has to be the best book that I’ve read in several years, or the one who scratches the greatest number of itches among various interests. It begins as a comedy of war, drawing on Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War and Plutarch’s accounts of Athenian prisoners of war who survived the aftermath of the failed Sicilian expedition by reciting lines from Euripides but also—in more recent memory—recreates the emotional weight of episodes described by survivors of 20th century wars. The darkness is viewed, at the start, obliquely, but if the reader does not see it, it is because they choose not to, because it is always present.

As time passes, and the Athenians in the quarry continue to starve, the option will be taken away from them. It is a lot of fun, and I think a certain kind of reader needs to be tricked this way into acknowledging certain realities. You laugh along with one character, an unemployed potter helping his friend to stage a play, while another, right next to him, is experiencing the horrors of starvation—and two minutes ago he witnessed his loved one clubbed to death by a man who lost his son to the invading army. They are experiencing, in simultaneous, two completely different stories. The reader holds these contradictions within themselves for a great part of the story.

Another episode, from close to beginning of the book, as not to spoil the tale: a drunken evening at the pub, described with great accuracy to those settings where such things as pubs exist. An insecure man negs a woman who happens to be a slave, captured in war.

It is effective at what it does, and I commend the author for finishing it, for not giving up—I listened to an interview with him where he said that it took him seven years, on and off. It was worth it not only for the recognition he received for his efforts but because it is a contribution to the human culture. More and more we need to find ways for people to face certain topics that they would shelter themselves from, now when they are most important, even something as basic as recognising the humanity of others. It is a well-researched story set in Classical Greece, but it could not be successful if it weren’t also actual. I have seen some criticisms about how you cannot joke about some of the topics covered in the book, but perhaps it is not for those people, who already understand what they refer to. They can move on to more serious matters, but there are others who understand only through jokes, through lightness, or they feel threatened and cease to pay attention.

I’ll not ruin the ending, but it was the piece that completed the puzzle, in more than one way. I laughed, I cried, I cared a lot. And it made me want to reread The History of the Peloponnesian War.

[amorphousbl0b]

I recently revisited Medea (because I read Ferdia Lennon’s Glorious Exploits which is very good and I highly recommend) and I adore it. Making us read this play in high school theater class was an injustice because it’s an incredible story and I was way too stupid at fourteen to appreciate it

It’s insane that Euripides actively changed the traditional legend of Medea to make her the most villainous version of the character hitherto conceived, taking a wronged wife whose sons died tragically and turning her into a full-on first-degree child murderer… and he still made her a complex, sympathetic, victorious character

The Ancient Greek tragedians’ unfailing devotion to never letting anyone be one-dimensional is really something to admire

I’m really surprised the modern scene hasn’t latched onto it as a Female Rage™ story. Women’s wrongs, and all that. But while there are plenty of Medea retellings, but most of them turn her into a kinda beaten-down victim of circumstance and manipulation instead of the very active schemer that she is in the mythic tales. I guess the industry of feminist retellings can’t let their protagonists be mean

[snowyhobbit]

For the world was once just a dream in a god's eye, and a man who gives up on himself makes that very same god look away.

- Ferdia Lennon, Glorious Exploits

[kammartinez]

Ferdia Lennon on the Usefulness of Being Lost

Welcome to I’m a Writer But, where writers discuss their work, their lives, their other work, the stuff that takes up any free time they hav

[greekbros]

(strangely enough, here's a book recommendation!)

(the basic synopsis is about two friends who would like to make a production of Madea and an amphitheater full of war prisoners from Athens.)

(this is a bit of a dark comedy with a lot of historical realism and I can honestly say probably one of the best examples of average life in ancient greece at least from the perspectives of two unemployed men. It's original yet with a bit of familiar trope of a buddy movie but with real-life limitations of war and poverty that elevate the story's character driven narrative.)

(so far I've stopped at least a chapter 5 and I can honestly say it's been very refreshing to see something both easy to pick up with a lot of complexity in terms of motivation and character perspective.)

(it's an easy read with a good bite to it, it's so far better than a retelling of a mythology.)

(8/10)

[embracing-the-shortness]

[mykelreadsbooks]

Glorious Exploits Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

"...I wonder, is it Euripides we're saving at all?"

This book is actually perfect! It's witty, it's devastating, it's inspiring, it's frustrating, it's satisfying, and Lennon manages all of those with quick pacing and relatable characters. The story begins with two friends: Gelon, a theatre and poetry enthusiast, and his loyal, yes-man best friend, and our narrator, Lampo. Worried for the future of Athenian theatre, Gelon decides they must use the Athenian prisoners trapped in the quarry to produce Medea and The Trojan Women, and Lampo agrees to direct the plays with him. The two, joined by a group of children, a mysterious merchant serving as their producer, and a collection of prisoners bribed into participation with food, aim to put on a shocking production and succeed tenfold in that aspect. Despite their seemingly successful production, prisoners are still prisoners, and they must be dealt with eventually. Lampo, however, has formed a friendship with his choice of actor for Jason and remains determined to save him from the fate of the other prisoners, even at risk of his own life and burgeoning romance with a slave girl owned by the bar he frequents with Gelon. Originally, I hated the two main characters, Lampo in particular, who spends any money he has while complaining that he cannot keep any and shows no sympathy for the Athenians trapped in the quarry. Throughout the story, however, Lampo finds himself becoming friends with the Athenians, taking a liking to the children that accompany them to rehearsals, and finding a reason to save money rather than frivolously spend it on himself, and he becomes a character I genuinely like. Also, he calls his crocodile skin boots crocs.