#stone blind

[morsaclizombi]

[derangedrhythms]

Natalie Haynes, from 'Stone Blind'

[narrenstrich]

[sarafangirlart]

I definitely talked about this before but the “for her beauty she was raped, for her ugliness she was murdered” always gave me the ick, it’s simply not rooted in reality. It implies that only conventionally attractive women get assaulted, which is a horrible way to view how assault works bc it’s basically stating that rape is mainly about lust, it’s not, it’s about power, it’s violating another person’s bodily autonomy to exert your power over them, anyone regardless of how beautiful or ugly they are can get raped.

It’s ironically another way Danaë is sidelined, hell in “Stone Blind” Medusa straight up rambles about how Perseus was antagonistic towards Polydectes for no reason bc he was never “actually” interested in Danaë bc she’s an older woman and single mother and she’s just not attractive, I wish I was making that up but I’m not and ppl are praising this book for how feminist it is. The fact that Danaë is an older woman matters to her story (at youngest she’d be in her mid to late 30s), back then (and even now) youth was viewed in high regard, yet Danaë isn’t youthful anymore, she’s “past her prime” so to speak but a powerful man like Polydectes still wanted to either enslave or marry her, bc again it’s not about lust it’s about power, it wouldn’t be far fetched to say that he wanted her bc she rejected him and he just couldn’t handle that, he can’t stand that a poor abandoned woman would not be interested in him, the king and wealthiest man in the island.

[marosii]

“And is a monster always evil? Is there ever such a thing as a good monster? Because what happens when a good person becomes a monster?”

— Natalie Haynes, Stone Blind

[ariadnethedragon]

STONE BLIND by NATALIE HAYNES

Monsters are, what? Ugly? Terrifying? Gorgons are both these things, certainly, although Medusa wasn't always. Can a monster be beautiful if it is still terrifying? Perhaps it depends on how you experience fear and judge beauty.

[megsandherbooks]

What is the point of a bank holiday, if it isn’t to be a couch potato with your head in a book!

[cjbolan]

Finished Part One of “Stone Blind” and already I’m seeing parallels to “The Song of Achilles”. Medusa and Achilles are both mortals born to sea gods, their god family worries about them being mortal. And the Greek sea gods are assholes.

I swear in nearly all my favorite stories (Odyssey, Epic, The Song of Achilles, Emily Windsnap, etc.) the bad guy is a Greek sea god 😆