#fragmentary references…

[hughesybear]

baby Swedes (Åman, D-Petey, Lekki, & Mancini - honorary Swede) putting pucks back in the bag after practice before the elder Swede (EP40) comes along to help them out

[finelythreadedsky]

kinslaying stats for extant greek tragedy:

instances of infanticide/filicide: 6 (9 deaths total)

instances of fratricide: 2 (4 deaths total)

instances of patricide: 2

instances of matricide: 3

instances of mariticide: 2

instances of uxoricide: 2

[datgreenmonstah]

Finished the cardboard base for my utahraptor reconstruction. Gonna do it the same as I did Jane where it’s half and half. Followed the recasts and skeletal mount as close as possible along with references from paleoartists who helped. This is lifesize, about as big as Jane, maybe bigger(24” long and 9” wide). Since this skull is fragmentary I can see this dino possibly changing as we learn more down the road like spinosaurus.

[bookofthegear]

Long, long ago, before Twitter descended into its end-stage hellscape, I ran a few iterations of a weird little choose-your-own-adventure game there, where I used the poll functions to offer options as we traversed a strange concrete labyrinth. I’d like to do that again. But as the shortest poll I can run is one day, this is more like a play-by-mail than a real-time on-the-fly. Fewer choices, but hey, you do get much longer descriptions!

The Rules

- Your choices are by majority poll (though if there are two identical options, they may be weighed together)

- If y’all choose to do something boneheaded, you WILL die, and the game will begin again with a new adventurer (who may someday find your corpse!)

- If y’all choose to retire and raise cabbages, by god, I will send you home to raise cabbages, which is sort of a happily ever after

- If you played on Twitter, please be kind and don’t spoiler too hard for the new players! Also, don’t assume the maze is still the same…

- Life being what it is, I cannot promise every update will land as soon as the poll closes—I love you guys, but y’know

Let’s begin, shall we?

You, friend, are the latest graduate of the Wentworth School Of Exploration and Adventure (Goooo Fighting Codfish!) the second-best explorer’s school in the city. You left behind your grandmother’s cabbage farm in pursuit of higher, better, possibly more fatal things.

It was at Wentworth that you first came across a reference to the works of Eland the Younger, that wandering naturalist, historian…okay, occasionally out-and-out liar…and his great fragmentary work, the Book of the Gear. It detailed his descent into a great clockwork labyrinth, filled with strange creatures and stone gears. Even for Eland, it’s a bit weird. Most scholars dismiss it outright as a fabrication, and the few professors who would talk to you about it strongly suggested that it was dangerous and you should ignore any rumors about its location and do something else. (Possibly on one of their projects! For course credit, obviously, not money.)

You didn’t listen. It was all just more academic cabbages as far as you’re concerned. It took a lot of research and guesswork and a lot of slogging, but after cutting your way through the overgrown woods, miles from any town, you find yourself standing before a stone wall with an immense crack in it. The edge of a stone gear taller than a man is just visible inside.

A small finch sits on a branch nearby, waiting.

Wentworth students are highly trained in the arts of adventuring, including Hiking, Skulking, Orienteering, and deciphering avian interpretive dance. Which brings us to the first question!

[littlesparklight]

This is for some more handy visuals references for art if you want to draw Greek myth characters in general, or Trojan war (specifically the Achaeans especially) characters in specific, in Mycenaean-era clothing! I found a couple more things, and might repeat some old - mostly focused on women, but perhaps not only.

This picture is my new best friend, honestly, aside from the fragmentary fresco of women in chariots. Look at the large parasols! It's both a good (partially reconstructed) view of the "simple" long tunics without layered skirts and whatnot, and a view of those skirts. I like how it's very clear here that even the simpler tunics can have a lot of patterns. In comparison, here's how the simpler ones look (though even they can have some patterns):

This one also shows you the bottom half of the composite version of this fresco (with the blue and pink tunics).

These two I like for a potential look at how children were dressed. The first is, obviously, a doll, not a child, but still. The girl in the second is wearing the more complicated getup, however. (I am assuming she is a real human girl child anyway, since she's actually on the ground level compared to the small figures being carried with the women. Those I'm vaguely wondering if they aren't effigies/deity statues?? They're so much more decorated than anyone else.)

Also a very fragmentary view of the bottom of men's shorter tunics!

This is only one suggested reconstruction of this type of open-chested tunic, since I've seen other suggestions that are closed down the front below where the open front closes up. (As well as as that this open-fronted thing is actually a short jacket/bolero, and not a full tunic-dress.

Something for the men; the second one is definitely at least partially armour. Armour-related art is also the only place I've seen anything that has the men in something like fringe-ended tunic/wrap around thing (if it is that). And I'm really interested in how I've never seen any fragments of men wearing red. Blue, yellow/saffron, white (undyed linen/wool probably?) is seen most often.

[smallmariofindings]

In the files Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, there is unused text for Merluvlee that contains hints from Paper Mario, likely due to Merluvlee appearing in both games with the same functionality, and some text being imported during development for testing.

Bizarrely, however, the text is fragmentary and has been re-translated incorrectly from the original Japanese. The hint in the screenshot is supposed to refer to Shiver Mountain from Paper Mario, but it was translated verbatim from its Japanese name サムイサムイ山 ("Cold Cold Mountain") instead, creating a name that appears to be a reference to Cool, Cool Mountain from Super Mario 64.

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: DisableYT

[silvernightabyss]

“Who says the protagonist's life has to be happy?” - Chapter 1

Yandere Hero x gn!Reader

Isekai, who among us hasn't dreamed of it? Well, get it signed. Try not to throw yourself into the arms of the protagonist as soon as you see him. Remember, you may know everything about him, but he's seeing you for the first time. The thoughts of the protagonist come as a gift.

How many references do you want? Yes.

word count: 2.9k Prologue/Chapter 1

It's been two weeks since you've been in the fantasy world of the novel. Adapting has been difficult, even though you've inherited fragmentary memories of the original owner of the body. The unfamiliar people, surroundings, etiquette, and architecture were very disconcerting. To your shame, you spent your first night sobbing quietly in your room in the temple. The only thing you were probably lucky about was that you weren't a member of the church, just a hired sewist. Given the fact that the high priest was the one who raped Evan, you had no desire to see the man, whose name was Donavan. Make sure you memorize that shithead's name and if you ever summon a demon, sell his soul.

In fact, you hadn't seen him or Evan since you'd been in this world. And while the first pleased you, the second disappointed you. As you learned by asking the servants, Evan and his team were on a quest to destroy one of the demon lords living in a poisonous swamp. This happened at the beginning of the first volume, as you may recall. And what the author thought to add the location of the poison swamp, in all games it was always the most annoying part. Probably because the author was an insufferable evil bastard who drew inspiration from the most annoying things created by human hands. A sudden wave of anger almost ripped the thin fabric in your hands in half. Then you stroked it quickly, as if to comfort it, removing the creases that had formed.

Poor Evan was going to get poisoned by some nasty animal and come back to the temple with a fever for a week. Sad, of course, but nothing that with your level of power you could change. The day after the isekai, you tried a little magic. Find some chakra, mana core, nen or something. But no. All you got was to feel like an idiot for half an hour, huffing and puffing like a pissed-off hedgehog. No transmigrator buffs. No annoying system or divine companion. Nothing. That made you completely powerless to help Evan. It was frustrating, angry, and made you want to bang your head against the wall. Your modern upbringing couldn't allow you to ignore someone else's misfortune. If you worked in the kitchen, you would surely spit in the soups and drinks that are made especially for the High Priest. Unfortunately, those are the only petty thoughts of revenge you could afford.

Part of you just wanted to leave, good thing sewing skills were embedded in your subcortex, and you could find work somewhere else, not in a place where you knew one hero suffered every day. You wince. Thinking about it like that made you feel bad about yourself. It was vile to think of leaving. As the only person with knowledge of the situation, you had to stay and try to help in any way you could. Even if your attempts would be fruitless in the end.

You spent the next two hours diligently embroidering new robes and fixing old ones where the fabric was too worn. Unpleasant thoughts of varying degrees of intrusiveness kept popping into your head, but you studiously ignored them. Their content was something like “To be or not to be”, only your option was “To stay or not to stay”.

After you finished your work, you picked up a pile of robes and went to turn them in to the storekeeper. The temple was beautiful, even to your unassuming eye. The entire continent worshiped the Creator who made the world and the gods they created to help look after the people. In fact, you remembered from the book that the mythology of Evan's world was very interesting. Incredibly written and detailed lore describing events from ancient times to the present day. Some of the knowledge you had already forgotten, but for example you remembered that the Irin continent, where the main story took place, was named after the god's favorite angel.

The central temple of the capital was dedicated to the Creator. Numerous frescoes on the ceiling depicted the creation of the world and the races that inhabited it. For the first week, you walked with your head up, and more than once you were on the verge of falling. The tall, graceful steles also drew attention to the care with which the flowers and leaves were molded, as if they were real and the spell had just turned them to stone a moment ago. The garden wasn't to be forgotten, you'd only been there once, but it was already completely engraved in your heart. Score one for staying. Overall to summarize the temple was beautiful, the priests friendly. So why the hell is this place of paradise run by this goddamn pervert! The Creator's eyes are blown out of their heads to let a man like that in charge of their temple? Unbearable.

Your boots thudded loudly and angrily on the marble floor, and you continued on your way. The servants and priests you encountered preferred to avoid you in a wide arc, sensing in their gut the dark and heavy aura you gave off. With the power you put into opening the door, you could shred a mountain to pieces with a single blow. Yeah, like that bald guy, that's how powerful you were at that moment. The storekeeper didn't even lift his head from the paper he was looking at. Inwardly, you marveled a little at his restraint; you yourself would have jumped on the spot if you had been rushed in with such a bang. More calmly you approached the not-young man whose most prominent feature was his giant-hooked nose.

“I brought the robes, where should I put them?” Your voice rumbles through the room.

The man nodded vaguely toward a neighboring room filled with baskets full of robes. The servants had to wash and dry the robes before handing them back to the priests. Why the freshly sewn robes had to be washed was a big question, but not of your mind. You were about to leave when you were stopped by the storekeeper.

“Go to the infirmary and get the medicine for the hero. His chambers are in the east wing of the temple on the third floor.”

During your entire stay in the room, the storekeeper didn't even look at you, and after he gave you the order, he started acting as if you weren't even here. Well, the main thing is that he didn't yell. You shrugged your shoulders and left the room.

The stone-face test was successfully passed, the die rolled on a twenty! In fact, your heart was racing, and your palms were unpleasantly sweaty. Did all this mean you would be able to see Evan? You didn't even know he'd returned. With an effort of will, you suppressed the joyful scream that burst from your mouth. You're going to see the protagonist of this damn novel. Almost dancing, you hurried toward the infirmary.

The nurse, whose name was Ellen, gave you your medication as soon as she heard that you had come from the storekeeper. The girl explained that because of the upcoming festival dedicated to the Creator, all the servants were busy preparing for the sacred rituals. Mentally, you tsked. That no servant could spare time for the precious hero of the Church? Nonsense, of course, but nonsense that plays right into your hands. Having memorized what to give and in what dosage, you headed for the eastern wing.

The corridors became more and more empty with every turn, as if you were entering a forbidden zone. The atmosphere was oppressive and growing colder with each step. A creak sounded very close to you, made you jump on the spot and freeze. It was scary to turn around. You didn't want to see the ghost behind you. On bending legs, you turned around and ….Mmm No, that's just your overactive imagination working for the bread. There was nothing behind you. Nothing in the front, either. Cussing under your breath, you continued walking. Isekai had definitely taken a toll on your nerves. Shame they hadn't invented valerian here yet.

The doors to Evan's chambers were carved, decorated with ornaments of flowers. You knocked hesitantly, and when there was no answer, you knocked again, but louder. Maybe he was asleep? What was to be done? The nurse had said the medication had to be timed to avoid making him feel worse. The doorknob in your hand felt like a ticket to heaven or hell. Praying in your mind to who you didn't know, you pushed it down. With a quiet click, the door opened. Like a mouse about to steal cheese, you quietly slipped through the gap and closed the door behind you. You hoped Evan wasn't a cat that would eat you for entering without permission.

The main hero's chambers were green, very green, not because the walls and furniture were that color, but because of the dozens or even hundreds of pots with various plants. As a half-elf, Evan had the ability to understand and talk to plants. For a long time in the novel, they were his only friends, listening to all his sorrows. Sighing sadly, you headed for the door behind, which was presumably the bedroom.

Evan lay on the bed, resting peacefully, deep in sleep. The blanket lay in a bunched pile at the half elf's feet. His complexion was very pale with blue veins clearly visible, there were deep bruises under his eyes, and his breathing was intermittent and heavy. Despite this, he was still more handsome than the sleeping beauty herself. If you thought the comparison was inappropriate, just never mind. On tiptoe, you moved closer and leaned over the sleeping hero. Handsome. You especially liked the way his leafy green hair curled around his pointy ears. You wanted to catch one strand between your fingers and then watch it curl back. You weren't weird. Not at all.

You put the tray of medicine on the bedside table with a little more clatter than you'd like, but Evan didn't wake up, thankfully. The half elf's forehead was scalding hot, and you jerked your hand away quickly. Looking around, you spotted a basin of water on the other side of the room and quickly soaked the rag you'd grabbed from the tray before placing it on Evan's forehead. That's better. Satisfied, you smiled to yourself.

The question of how to medicate the unconscious hero was still open. You frankly didn't want to wake him up. You remembered from the book that Evan's condition was extremely serious, and he didn't come to his senses at all. Rest is the best medicine. It's better if you quietly do your business and leave, and he won't even know you're in his chambers. Shit, that sounded like some kind of thief.

Pass the cure with a kiss? You shook your head frantically as soon as the thought crossed your mind. God, you'd read too many romance novels. Conscience and morality would never allow you to violate Evan's personal boundaries like that, considering how they'd already been violated by the high priest. Besides, it would be despicable to do that to any person.

But then what were you supposed to do? You'd just have to pour the drugs into Evan's mouth and hope he didn't choke. That's about what you did, luckily without becoming a hero killer. Now comes the most difficult and embarrassing part. Ellen gave you an ointment to rub into the half elf's chest. The medical reasons behind this you almost completely missed, and you only had to take on faith the necessity of this action. Evan wouldn't like it if someone he didn't know undressed him and started performing medical procedures on him. Right? So something had to be done about it.

One of the scraps of fabric Ellen put on the tray caught your eye. It's perfect. You'll pretend to be a butler, covering your eyes with a strip of fabric so as not to embarrass your mistress. Master. You mean Evan. Quickly and tightly tying the band, you found yourself in darkness. With suddenly trembling hands you fumbled for the collar of the half elf's shirt and from it, you easily reached the buttons. Normally you would have easily done it in less than a minute, but now deprived of sight and incredibly embarrassed; each of your actions was stretched to the point of impossibility. After an eternity according to your internal clock, you finally managed this undeniably difficult task.

So it was time for the ointment, which was as green as you remembered and smelled like bumps or something else freshly herbal. Incredibly embarrassed by your own actions, you rubbed the ointment in as fast as you could without lingering on any part of Evan's skin. What's a stupid trail? A relieved exhale escaped you when this torture finally stopped. Ellen had said the ointment should absorb very quickly, literally in less than a minute, and in your head you drummed your fingers on your thigh, ticking off the seconds. When the time was up, you hoped for it towards the end you began to speed up the count, with all care you covered Evan with the blanket. The nurse had said the fever would go down very quickly, which meant the half elf could get cold.

And so it was done! Now you could leave with a clear conscience. You pulled the bandage off your eyes, blinked in the light, and hurriedly picked up the tray, leaving the room. Before you passed through the doorway, you took one last look at Evan, still sleeping peacefully. Handsome even when he's sick. Nodding affirmatively at that thought, you headed back to the infirmary to return the medication to the nurse.

***

Evan woke up when someone started undoing the buttons of his sleeping shirt. His first thought was that it was Donavan, so the only thing he could do was lie there and not fight back. Was he sick of his powerlessness? So sick that he wanted to open his chest with his hands and rip out his damn heart, which sometimes allowed itself to hope for the best. The half elf left his eyes closed, not wanting to look at the high priest's ugly face, twisted with desire. He could still visualize it all too well, anyway. A convulsion shot through his arm and he clawed his fingers into the sheets, his nails almost tearing the fabric.

Halfway through the unbuttoning, Evan suddenly realized that the fingers that sometimes grazed his skin were different from Donovan's skinny, knotted fingers, the pads of which were covered with calluses. In addition, a strange chill spread from his forehead down his body. Was it the damp cloth? It was only because of the two factors above that he actually opened his eyes and saw you. The snort that almost came out of his mouth, he held back with an incredible effort of will. A blindfold? It was ridiculous, even more ridiculous than the mix of slime deer and owl he'd met in the swamp. Ridiculous but oddly cute. The mere thought that he might be uncomfortable being stared at half-naked had never occurred to anyone. With already great interest and friendliness, he began to consider your appearance.

When you reached for the green jar, he recognized it as an antipyretic. A spark of realization lit him up, and Evan bit his lip. He was ready for the feeling of a thousand little insects crawling under his skin, but your touch didn't disgust him. Evan blinked perplexedly when he realized this. Short and medically detached, your touch was devoid of any lust. Noticing your fingers trembling, Evan concluded that at the very least you were awkward. Later his guess was confirmed by your tapping on your thigh, too uneven and often out of rhythm to be a sign of boredom or impatience. The blanket you covered him with forced him to smile slightly. A display of simple human caring that he had always been deprived of. The thought made him feel unpleasantly empty inside.

When your fingers reached for the bandage, Evan closed his eyes as quickly as possible, not even knowing why. He didn't have an answer to that question. Listening to the quiet rustling of the fabric of your clothes and the tinkling of the medicine on the tray made his heart feel lighter for some reason. It was as if you were not a randomly sent servant, but someone close to him who genuinely cared about him.

The creak of the door alerted him to your departure, but with his keen hearing, he could still hear your footsteps outside his chambers. As soon as they were gone, Evan sat up on the bed, causing the cloth on his forehead to fall down. Silently, he twirled it in his hands. His head felt strangely empty. Perhaps the only question that bothered him now was; who are you? Meeting you had irrevocably changed something in him, as if he had been a broken clock just now starting to run.

Evan rolled back over, sinking into the soft mattress, and returned the cloth to his forehead. The next time you two meet, once he's recovered enough to walk, he'll be sure to ask your name. With that thought, his exhausted mind took to its realm of Morpheus.

Reblogs, comments, are always greatly appreciated! ヽ(o^ ^o)ﾉ

[acanvasofabillionsuns]

Legendlark Intros Reference Guide

i'm slowly compiling each episode's intro, so i can refind my favorites more easily <3 i try to succinctly describe the standout jokes for each intro, so some have more detail/coherency than others

Festival of Lights

Into Avelis

The Gray Manacle

Final Chapter Prologue

Court of Spears

A Fragmentary Passage

The Weeping God

The Survivor's Ballad/6D Dinterlude

The Beating Earth

Hrose Camp

The River of Lights

[adarkrainbow]

Some of my favorite trivia from checking notes about the Grimm brothers' fairytales:

The brothers Grimm were aware of their "Little Snow White"'s similarity to Musaüs' Richilde, to the point that Jacob wrote in the margins "This is literaly Musaüs' Richilde".

In one of the alternate versions collected by the Grimms, Snow White is some sort of freaky kid that shows up from nowhere out of the forest to greet her future "parents" right after the king wished for a girl "as white as snow, as red as blood, as black as ravens"... After he saw creepy sights in the forests like POOLS FILLED WITH BLOOD. (It is the version Angela Carter twisted to even more horrifying levels in her Bloody Chamber)

Rumpelstiltskin's name in German is Rumpelstilzchen. It is the diminutive form of "Rumpelstilz", which was commonly identified as a synonym for Poltergeist ("Rumpelgeist" exists). So his name might mean "Little Poltergeist".

In a variation of the story collected by the Grimm, the dwarf doesn't just dance around the fire - he jumps on a ladle around it, he rides it like a toy-horse. And when his name is guessed, he just flies in the sky on the ladle, like a witch riding a broomstick. Also, in another variation collected by the Grimms, the problem of the girl in the beginning is that she can't spin hem because it turns into gold every time and she is despaired at this - providing quite a funny twist.

Note from myself: They removed "Der Okerlo" from their fairytales due to being too similar to madame d'Aulnoy's "The Orange Tree and the Bee", but the first part of "Sweetheart Roland" is also The Orange Tree and the Bee. There's enough differences to make it look like a different tale but I mean... COME ON she has seven league boots!

In the preface of their first edition, the brothers denied any similarity, relationship or influence from another collection of märchen by ANOTHER author named Grimm - the 1809 fairy tale collection of Albert Ludwig Grimm. However, this is a lie - because several of the sentences and turn of phrases of their story Die Bienenkönigin (The Bee Queen) were lifted directly from A.L. Grimm's "The three sons of a king".

More d'Aulnoy comparison - her "White Cat" preceeded the Grimms' "The Three Feathers". Also, in a variation of the story the breaking of the enchantment is very different: the hero must place the frog next to him at the table durng meal, but the frog jumps from plate to plate scaring all the guests. He catches her in the salad, and he has to place her onto a bed and CUT HER IN HALF with explicit mention that he has to slice the heart. Then a big CRACK happens and a beautiful girl appears, laying on the bed.

The Grimms' "All-Kinds-of-Fur" actually comes from a story within Carl Nehrlich's novel "Schilly", with some influences by the collected story "Princess Mouseskin" (that the Grimms had in their original editions but deleted laters). Also somehow the title was originally "Allerlei Rauch", "All-kinds-of-smokes"?

"The Bride of the Hare" is a "childish variation of the Bluebeard fairytale" or more precisely a childish variation of its German equivalent, "Fitcher's Bird". However the list of the guests coming for the wedding seems to reference a traditional German song for children called "The wedding of the birds".

So many of the fox and wolf fairytales are just from the Reynard the Fox cycle.

The Grimms were convinced that, just because she is from the bottom of a well, the undine/Nixe from their story "Die Wassernixe" was a double or split personality of Frau Holle.

I'm always interesting in knowing which fairytale currently in the collection replaced deleted ones. For example "The hat, the bag and the horn" replaced "Hans the idiot" (and interestingly you can link this fairytale to an Italian poem of the 16th century "Story of the three Johns and the three fairies". "The two brothers" replaced the fragmentary "The golden egg". "The little peasant" (Das Bürle) replaced "Story of a tailor who became rich fast", as well as "Herr Hände". "The queen of bees" replaced "Bluebeard", "The Hare's Bride" replaced "Hurleburlebutz", "The thief and his master" replaced "Story of the summer garden and winter garden". "The Ogre" was replaced by "The Three Lucky Children", the song "The pear doesn't want to fall" was switched for "The wolf and the man" and "The Castle of Murders" left its place to "The Wolf and the Fox".

"John of the Water-Spray and Gaspar of the Water Spray" was replaced by "The Fox and the Godmother" ; "The Phoenix Bird" was replaced by "The Fox and the Cat", "The carpenter and the turner" by "Clever Gretel", "About the smith and the devil" by "Bruder Lustig", "The three sisters" by "Hans the gambler", "The poor girl/The star talers" by Lucky Hans, the fragmentary "The mother-in-law" by "Hans gets married".

[literaryvein-reblogs]

A Few More Literary Vocabulary

Fabula: (also referred to as ‘story’ or ‘histoire’) the events of a narrative.

Genre: a kind; a literary type or style. Poetry, drama, novel may be subdivided into lyric (including elegy, ode, song, sonnet, etc.), epic, tragedy, comedy, short story, biography, etc.

Grand narratives: Jean-François Lyotard distinguishes between ‘grand’ narratives and ‘little’ narratives: grand narratives such as Christianity, Islam, Marxism and psychoanalysis involve systems that claim to explain everything. According to Lyotard, contemporary (or ‘postmodern’) worldviews tend to comprise ‘little narratives’ that offer fragmentary, non-totalizing and non- teleological, local or individual explanations of the world.

Heteroglossia: (Gk. ‘other/ different tongues’) a term used by Mikhail Bakhtin to describe the variety of voices or languages within a novel, but can be used of any text to give the sense that language use does not come from one origin but is mul­tiple and diverse, a mixing of heterogeneous discourses, sociolects, etc.

Implied reader: Wolfgang Iser uses this term to denote a hypothetical reader towards whom the text is directed. The implied reader is to be distinguished from the so- called ‘real reader’.

Intentional fallacy: W.K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley’s term for what they see as the mistake of attempting to interpret a literary text by appealing to the supposed intentions of its author.

Jouissance: (Fr. ‘bliss’, ‘pleasure’, including sexual bliss or orgasm) a term introduced into psychoanalytic theory by Jacques Lacan, to refer to extreme pleasure, but also to that excess whereby pleasure slides into its opposite. Roland Barthes uses the term to suggest an experience of reading as textual bliss. Similarly, Jacques Derrida suggests that the effect of deconstruction is to liberate forbidden jouissance.

Mimesis: (Gk. ‘imitation’) the idea that literature attempts to represent ‘life’ or ‘the world’ more or less accurately, as it ‘actually’ is, etc.

Nachträglichkeit: a notoriously tricky term to translate, the sense of this German word (originally associated with the writings of Freud) can be variously rendered as ‘deferred action’, ‘deferred sense’, ‘delayed effect’ or ‘afterwardsness’. It is par­ticularly at work in trauma (where the meaning or impact of an event or experience does not happen only once, ‘at the time’).

Oxymoron: (Gk. ‘wise foolishness’) a trope that combines contradictory words or ideas, e.g. ‘bittersweet’, ‘darkness visible’.

Paradox: an apparently contradictory or strange statement of how things are: that which is apparently illogical or absurd but may be understood to be meaningful or ‘true’.

Parody: an imitation of another work of literature (usually with exaggeration) in order to make it seem ridiculous and/ or amusing.

Paronomasia: word play.

Pastiche: a work made up of imitation of other work(s); unlike parody, pastiche is not necessarily designed to ridicule.

Self- reflexivity: the phenomenon whereby a piece of writing refers to or reflects on itself. Often used interchangeably with ‘self- referentiality’.

Source ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Word Lists ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[laurasimonsdaughter]

Hello every time I think about the Minotaur I cry. I know mythology has a bunch of Social Context but the thought of the baby being trapped in the labyrinth never fails to leave me in shambles. Thoughts?

No thoughts. Only fragments of Euripides' lost play "The Cretans" from c.438-5 BCE (Sinha, 2017, p. 210):

f472a: …an infant of mixed appearance, born to sterility… f472b.29-41: NURSE: It is mixed, with a twofold nature, of bull and human. MINOS: I have (heard) that before too; but how…? NURSE: (It bears a bull’s?) head set above its breast. MINOS: So (does it go) on four legs or walk on two? NURSE: On (two)…dark with black… MINOS: And is there anything further…? NURSE: …a tail… (against?) the maddening cattle-fly. MINOS: …voice… NURSE: …grazing… MINOS: …a mother’s breast, or a cow’s…? NURSE: Its parent feeds it…

Its parent feeds it. Queen Pasiphae feeds it:

As far as I know this fragmentary play is the only text which considers the Minotaur as anything other than a monster and furthermore accuses Minos of cruelty towards his wife and her child (Rourke, 1998).

(Pseudo-)Apollodorus (1-2 CE) states that Minos shut "Asterius, who was called the Minotaur" up in the Labyrinth "in compliance with certain oracles". And even Ovid (8 CE), who is very fond of highlighting the cruelty of the actions of the gods, refers to the Minotaur as "the monster" and "the double-natured shame".

But whatever the intended purpose of this play might have been and what it was meant to convey at the time, it at least suggests that even in Euripides' time the epithet "monstrous" did not immediately negate that of "infant".

[austinkleon]

Keeping a "writer's notebook" in public imposes an unbeatable rigor, since you can't slack off and leave notes so brief and cryptic that they neither lodge in your subconscious nor form a record clear enough to refer to in future. By contrast, keeping public notes produces both a subconscious, supersaturated solution of fragmentary ideas that rattle around, periodically cohering into nucleii that crystallize into full-blown ideas

Cory Doctorow

[faereliaa]

hannibal fandom’s equivalent to the rite of passage is witnessing mizumono for the first time. the experience is unrelentingly consuming and spares no one. whenever someone speaks of their still fresh, contemporary experience posterior to watching it i become unspeakably delighted as i vicariously relive my own through them.

there are few things that inch close to witnessing the countless events and the implications thereof unfold in mizumono, followed by the ultimate stab to the heart (the ending scene). will’s inability to proceed with the plan, inability to repress the feelings he harbors for hannibal and those that he experience when he’s with him. notifying hannibal of the situation upon hearing the sound of his voice. hannibal’s despondency — he knew — but had reserved his hopes that will would reevaluate his course of actions, and choose to go with him.

“to the truth, and all its consequences”.

will’s arrival. abigail. the broken teacup mended for an instance, only to shatter once more. will gazing upon hannibal, who is now wholly destitute of his “person suit” — his essence and newfangled emotions unraveled before him. the grief and desolation of destruction that only betrayal can bear. and experiencing betrayal, not simply the act thereof — but having it envelop your soul — necessitates intimacy; an authentic bond.

hannibal meets will with tender violence, “reshaping the past” that will mourned and ruminated over (referring to abigail), for that momentary miracle to shatter at will’s fragmentary undertaking that he, ultimately, wasn’t willing to see through until the end. and when hannibal’s dagger is about to meet will’s own body, he performs the act with unparalleled delicacy, despite the ache seeping through every facet of his being. he’s unable to inflict a fatal wound.

“did you believe you could change me, the way i’ve changed you?” hannibal asks, and will responds verily — “i already have”. which is the reason behind hannibal, much akin to will — being incapable of subduing his emotions and taking will’s life; just like will’s incapability of finalizing the plan devised by jack.

i could write pages worth of musing on mizumono, yet i’d still scarcely scratch the surface. each element is tied together so beautifully, making you feel as if each emotion you’re experiencing is elevated to a wholly different — transcending that of the ordinary — height.

[unknown-lifeform]

Given it's suggested to be a very old play and also incomplete, the book may actually also be heavy on things like notes and interpretations. Like side notes on pages explaining how certain passages are meant to be read, or what most scholars agree something means. That would bloat the page number for sure

Depending on how actually old Loveless is, then hell, there may even be translation notes. Of course that depends on the actual age of the play i.e. if it was the equivalent of Shakespeare era it wouldn't get translated since readers could still infer meaning even if some words are out of use. But say Shakespeare plays still have words and phrases that sound weird to modern readers. On the other hand, all Loveless pieces that we have sound... reasonably modern? Like not words one would use everyday, maybe, but that's just in line with it being a fancy poem. (This of course only applies to the English version, I can't make any kind of comment on the original Japanese)

So given the language one could make a case Loveless was either written close enough to the modern day for the language to be mostly unchanged, or in the distant enough past that it required being translated. Or also it might have simply been written in a different language than the one that is commonly spoken in ff7. Given how hardcore Genesis is about Loveless, it's reasonable that his book would have say, both his favorite translated version and the original version in the original language. That itself would make the book significantly longer, regardless of how actually long the poem is

Honestly I’m confused af as to why LOVELESS is a wholeass book. What do they do, put one word on each page??

but in all seriousness, maybe it’s like an epic. The poem could be a prologue or someth then the actual story is essentially what we see in the play?

[bookofthegear]

Okay! Second verse, similar to the first! Let’s go!

You, friend, are the latest graduate of the Wentworth School Of Exploration and Adventure (Goooo Fighting Codfish!) the second-best explorer’s school in the city. You left behind your family’s oyster farm in pursuit of higher, better, possibly more fatal things.

It was at Wentworth that you first came across a reference to the works of Eland the Younger, that wandering naturalist, historian…okay, occasionally out-and-out liar…and his great fragmentary work, the Book of the Gear. It detailed his descent into a great clockwork labyrinth, filled with strange creatures and stone gears. Most scholars dismiss it outright as a fabrication. Wentworth professors clam up when it is mentioned, but the rumor among underclassmen is that multiple graduates have died in the labyrinth.

You, however, are determined to live a life of adventure! It took a lot of research and guesswork and a lot of slogging, but you eventually found yourself following a narrow track through the woods. It dead-ends at a stone wall with an immense crack in it. The edge of a stone gear taller than a man is just visible inside.

A small, somewhat bedraggled finch sits on a branch nearby, waiting.

Wentworth students are highly trained in the arts of adventuring, including Hiking, Skulking, Orienteering, and deciphering avian interpretive dance. Which brings us to the first question!

[littlesparklight]

What are the specific sources that say Helen went willingly with Paris? Was discussing with a friend but all I could remember was Sappho fragment 16? Ty!!

Let me start with a quote from the preface to Ruby Blondell's Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation:

"Though her [Helen's] departure is typically referred to as an "abduction", none of our sources claims that Paris took Helen by force against her will. Her complicity is essential to her story."

I could, in short, give you almost any and all sources possible, anon! Even the late sources like Dictys and Dares include mutual attraction and desire, even when Helen is, actually forcibly taken. And sure, some might protest about Aphrodite's (implied, usually) forcible meddling in Helen's psychology, but that is never what we really see and that is, secondly, not really how personal responsibility, even in the face of potential/actual divine interference, works. (In that case you'd have to absolve Zeus of a lot of his escapades.)

Anyway, I'll try to give you a selection, vaguely arranged in chronological order.

The Iliad - I could pick several different lines from here, and they'd all be from Helen herself. Sure, if one's interpretation is that she is not honest about what she's saying, you might not agree, but I'm going to insist on allowing Helen the agency she is claiming for herself. So, here, from Helen's conversation with Priam in Book 3:

"Honored are you to me, dear father in law, and revered, and would that evil death had pleased me at that time when I followed your son here, abandoning [...]" (trans. Caroline Alexander)

Elsewhere Helen uses "I went". But for this the pertinent thing is that "had pleased me" because the clear implication is that what pleased her back then was Paris, not death.

The Kypria; fragmentary, here's a quote from Proclus' summary: "Aphrodite brings Helen and Alexandros together. After their intercourse, they load up a great many valuables and sail away by night."

That "brings [them] together" isn't a language of force in the terminology used, and it's clearly both Helen and Paris who takes the valuables, not Paris alone. In fact, lets compare a directly comparable sentence from the (much) later Bibliotheke, Epitome 3.3: "Alexander persuaded Helen to go off with him. And she abandoned Hermione, then nine years old, and putting most of the property on board, she set sail with him by night."

'Persuasion', 'she abandoned', '[she] put most of the property on board', 'she set sail'. You see the point here. Helen is not baggage that Paris has picked up like an inanimate object and left with, no matter what its will. She is doing things.

You already mentioned Sappho 16 yourself, so let's turn to her contemporary Alkaios, fr. 283 (taking the translation of the quote of this from Blondell's book): "... and [Eros?] excited in her breast, the heart of Argive Helen; and driven mad by the Trojan man, the host-deceiver, she followed him over the sea in his ship."

The rest basically reiterates these opening lines, and you can see some of the similarity to Sappho 16, but Alkaios is a lot more condemnatory. Of Helen and Paris both.

Euripides next. Iphigenia in Aulis: "[...]and he, finding Menelaus gone from home, carried Helen off, in mutual desire, to his steading on Ida." (Agamemnon speaking.) and "[...]that Hellas might exact vengeance on the one who had fled her home to wed a foreigner." (The chorus speaking.) Trojan Women: "Their captain too, whom men call wise, has lost for what he hated most what most he prized, yielding to his brother for a woman's sake—and she was willing and not taken by force—the joy he had of his own children in his home." (Kassandra speaking.) I'm not going to quote all of Hecuba's speech in the agon against Helen, but her whole argument is that Helen went willingly... and some of Helen's own arguments are less to deny this idea of mutual desire/having left willingly and more to say Aphrodite is impossible to resist (but then we have to absolve Zeus, for Helen uses his vulnerability to Aphrodite as her thrust for as to why she should be excused).

Herodotus in his Histories is another that speak of abduction out of one side of the mouth and implies something far more willingly/mutual with the other (from 2.115):

"gave wings to and were gone with her"; the phrase really is that, quite literally, and I haven't been able to find anything that actually discusses this. (Another translations goes with "did stir her to desire" which, while that isn't what the text literally says, does, like, get the idea of something mutual happening/the usual focus on Helen's desire for Paris across to us better.)

And for something a little later, Gorgias' Encomium of Helen: like Blondell points out in her book, Gorgias' suggestion of actual force/violence as a potential factor in Helen leaving Sparta is quite singular. (In fact, all of his arguments turns into force/violence against Helen and make her basically an object who doesn't so much have no agency as no will or personhood that might react independently at all.)

And Ovid's Heroides certainly has Helen inviting Paris' attentions, even if she does so in a circuitous manner, circling up on saying "yes, come here, now that Menelaos has left".

Anyway, I could probably have gone on, but there's a couple sources, at least!

And I'd like to point out that whether one wants to insist that Aphrodite's potential direct influence means any "willingness" of Helen's is meaningless or not, there's a whole galaxy between "Helen went off with literally no thought to what this would cause or to her daughter and Menelaos and her family, and didn't care about the consequences/intentionally meant to cause all this destruction to both sides" and "she cares about this, and is/will be conflicted over it, yet is also attracted to and leaves with Paris".

Like, just because she wasn't violently kidnapped against her will, and was/is actually attracted to Paris (which she is still in the Iliad! That is part of the point of her confrontation with Aphrodite!) and so on, doesn't mean there aren't a lot of nuances (as the Iliad itself shows) that can be put into Helen being attracted to Paris and leaving willingly in some manner.