#tshask

[beholdingslut]

Hi! Since you've read the secret history, I'd like to ask you if you ever figured out what Henry meant when he uttered some greek words (Πελλαιου βους μεγας ειν Αιδη)? I tried to find the exact meaning, but to no avail. I'm just genuinely curious.

ah! i never figured it out, no, greek is not my strong suit, but i’ll publish this in the hope that someone else will know.

[beholdingslut]

Hey I just read The Secret History a few weeks ago (after years of wanting to read it smh) and I'm so... Upset like wtf is this I love this book??? The ending tho oh my god I read the last 60-ish pages while waiting for an appointment and I just ??? I was visibly upset in public this book is horrible I need to read it again asap

i’m sorry it upset you but also yes! this reaction is completely true to my experience! i hope you’re okay, the second time around is just as fun but also better (or it was in my case, because i completely missed how fucked up the murder clique were)

[beholdingslut]

the closer i get to the end of the secret history, the heavier it seems to become, both physically + emotionally.

i definitely agree, the ending feels like swimming through treacle, the miasma from between the pages lifts out 

[beholdingslut]

what did you think of judy poovey?

i can’t really remember any of my organic, original reactions to the secret history because a) i read it in such a hazy blur in the space of like two days and b) it was quite a while ago so so much of my thoughts concerning the secret history have been tainted (in a good way) by other’s opinions and perceptions of the characters. like i’m inclined to think of judy poovey as black because of this edit by @mermaidyke i got attached to, even though she probably isn’t in canon. 

anyway, i digress; i thought judy poovey was pretty cool, i always smirked a little bit when richard had scenes with her because she always seemed to have him in his place? like he was walking around kissing the ground the greek class walked on and she was like “those guys are creeps and i am staying 100000 feet away from them because they are trouble” and you know what? she was right

[beholdingslut]

did you like the epilogue of the secret history? because i felt rushed because francis and his whole thing. like it was a clear ending (for all the characters) but on a different pace than the rest of the book

i definitely felt it was rushed, i remember thinking it was such a loose ending to a book that builds such wonderful tension. like everything else in the novel was examined and turned over with such depth and the nature of an epilogue is to provide an overview of events, but that didn’t really lend itself so well to the secret history as i (and others) tend to perceive it.

i almost felt it had the affect of nostalgically looking back on one’s childhood home and it not being all you remembered, although maybe that was the point -- in showing everything that came after as plain and ordinary and so different from the heights of the novel, it was once again illuminating how damn stupid and rather morally reprehensible the actions of the greek class were, rather than casting a romantic glow over it, as richard is wont to do.

i did rather like the final exchange between richard and henry in dreamland, however.

[beholdingslut]

"Suddenly Camilla stopped and put a finger to her lips. In a dead tree, split in two by lightning, were perched three huge, black birds, too big for crows. I had never seen anything like them before.“Ravens,” said Charles.We stood stock-still, watching them. One of them hopped clumsily to the end of a branch, which squeaked and bobbed under its weight and sent it squawking into the air. The other two followed, with a battery of flaps..." (It goes on). Raven Mean Things in The Secret History too

I DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS 

[beholdingslut]

Ok this might be a weird question, but how do you recognize an unreliable narrator (like Richard Papen or Addy Hanlon, apparently?) I’ve always struggled with that because … well the narrator is the one through which we hear the story, so like … it’s the only ‘voice’ we hear and there’s no other source of information. How the fuck can I not rely on that?? I don’t get it

listen i am an Asshole, this ask has been in my inbox for 25 days and i have been musing on it, i just wanted to do it justice i guess. anyway, the way you “spot” an unreliable narrator is by noticing discrepancies between how they talk about events that other people talk about differently. unreliable narrators come out of their biases or blind spots.

i find it’s easier to pick them out on a second or third read, because the nature of a narrator, as you say, is to believe them. the second time around, you’re able to process the story as a whole and include the narrator as another facet of the narrative rather than someone you actively engage in. i find the wikipedia page breaks it down well enough, so you might want to check out that! 

personally, i head to google straight after i finish a book or movie, i like to know what other people are thinking and what i might have missed. i’m not inherently great at analysing lit or spotting unreliable narrators, but i work at it, and use the resources at my disposal. anyway, information specifically about richard papen and addy hanlon as unreliable narrators w/ examples from the books under the cut

richard wants to see the greek class as this beautiful romanticised grand group of people, when really, they’re a shitty group of students who murdered a man while on drugs. these are the facts we know, but we don’t process when we read it through richard’s perspective, because that’s not how he presented it to us. hell, the first time i read tsh i thought bunny deserved to die even though richard literally says they only killed bunny because he was annoying. because richard was the narrator, he painted bunny being annoying and being a potential threat to group – a group that richard wasn’t even implicitly a part of – as a good enough reason to murder someone.

the other thing you have to remember is that richard is telling the story – “this is the only story i will ever be able to tell” – the book isn’t taking place in present tense, as it occurs. he is remembering it all, and obviously that’s going to affect the way some things are presented. he quotes entire sections of julian’s speech at some points but there is no way he could have remembered that stuff, you know? that sends up some red flags.

or in dare me: addy trusts the coach, wants to be her, wants the coach to trust her so how she processes the murder is different to how events actually happen. her teammates talk about her and beth’s relationship all the time in a way that addy never seems to consider, especially concerning casey jane and the summer cheer camp. addy refuses to acknowledge how much power she has over beth, the fact that she is the “top girl” and the number one and that screams

[beholdingslut]

after i finished the secret history i wore like all black and gray and white and acted really pretentious for like a solid 2 weeks

tbh i’m glad to hear this because the secret history was a major catalyst in causing me 2 transfer universities and also spending unece$$ary dollar$ on a long white dress that never looked good on me for the #aesthetic