#literature circle

[jennablackmorebooks]

I'm doing a Midnight for Charlie Bone literature circle in fifth year of university because I didn't get to do the book for it in fifth grade.

In all seriousness, this is one of my favourite books ever and that should be a surprise to absolutely no one. So when my Teaching and Learning English Language Arts class in the Education program had it on its reading list, I felt like it was one of the best things that could have possibly happened to me. So now I'm reading the book for the ninth time.

My role going into tomorrow's class is "illustrator" so I drew my favourite scene in the entire series, from chapter 7 (Hypnotised!) and specifically pages 115-116 in the Egmont paperback edition I've owned since I was 10. That this is my favourite scene should be... wait for it.... a surprise to absolutely no one.

Anyway thanks Jenny Nimmo for your book doing something to my developing brain all those years ago I'm sure I turned out extremely normal about it!

[quotespile]

We all know the world is too big for us to be significant. So all we have is the hope of being seen, or heard, even for a moment.

Dave Eggers, The Circle

[saintsesce]

Ocean Vuong, from On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous

[metamorphesque]

These images of circles and circling, revolving around a great center he names God, it makes me think of the cathedral labyrinths of Europe. Or the ancient spiral glyphs carved into rocks and cave faces. I see the circling pathway around some secret center. The road can be bewildering, twisting and turning, keeping us disoriented and uncertain of how near we are, but ever moving inward.

And that courageous line –

I may not ever complete the last one, but I give myself to it.

We walk the winding path, not out of certainty, but because it is the only path worth walking. Walking that road, quietly, with attention, one foot in front of the other, becomes meditation. It becomes worship. Each ring, whether near or far, is a layer of our lives that is blessed by our passing through it.

Walking the circling path is not only the way to the center, it is actually part of the center. We learn to participate in the center by first walking the path. Obsession with the destination becomes an impediment to reaching it. Instead, by patiently inhabiting each step, we discover the center in ourselves... and our feet naturally end up there, as well.

We walk with our whole selves –

and I still don't know: am I a falcon, a storm, or a great song?

On this roundabout road to God, we question our own nature. We encounter the mystery of self. Who and what are we really? Ultimately, it is in that questioning of a self that eludes definition where we find the still center.

The quieter we are, the more patient and open we are in our sadnesses, the more deeply and serenely the new presence can enter us, and the more we can make it our own, the more it becomes our fate; and later on, when it "happens" (that is, steps forth out of us to other people), we will feel related and close to it in our innermost being. And that is necessary. It is necessary - and toward this point our development will move, little by little - that nothing alien happen to us, but only what has long been our own. People have already had to rethink so many concepts of motion; and they will also gradually come to realize that what we call fate does not come into us from the outside, but emerges from us. It is only because so many people have not absorbed and transformed their fates while they were living in them that they have not realized what was emerging from them; it was so alien to them that, in their confusion and fear, they thought it must have entered them at the very moment they became aware of it, for they swore they had never before found anything like that inside them. Just as people for a long time had a wrong idea about the sun's motion, they are even now wrong about the motion of what is to come. The future stands still, dear Mr. Kappus, but we move in infinite space.

Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen, die sich über die Dinge ziehn. Ich werde den letzten vielleicht nicht vollbringen, aber versuchen will ich ihn.

Ich kreise um Gott, um den uralten Turm, und ich kreise jahrtausendelang; und ich weiß noch nicht: bin ich ein Falke, ein Sturm oder ein großer Gesang.

I live my life in widening circles (set me free)

Starry Night (Vincent van Gogh), Widening Circles by Rainer Maria Rilke (tr. Joanna Macy), Commentary by Ivan M. Granger, The Chartres Cathedral Labyrinth, Ouroboros, 1760  (a photograph by Granger), question mark symbol in Armenian, 지민 (Jimin) 'Set Me Free Pt.2', Letters to a Young Poet (by Rainer Maria Rilke), Ich lebe mein Leben in wachsenden Ringen (by Rainer Maria Rilke)

[fang-venkas]

Asking the real questions!

[et-in-arkadia]

reading a history of american writers and i can’t stop thinking about how william faulkner became commercially viable because his publishers paid the 1931 equivalent of nearly $10k to be featured on depression-era booktok

[opens-up-4-nobody]

I feel like I'm losing my mind. Like this has to be a thing right? It's a thing I experience at least. Please please please tell me abt ur experience if u do 🙏

[iparkoo]

[fvckuiloveu]

kiss me in the second circle of hell

[chamerionwrites]

Aimé Césaire saying that colonization works to decivilize the colonizer truly lives in my head rent-free

[old-school-romantics]

[gentleraccoon]

hi i know we're all saying it but bottom table is ot3, i'm losing my mind .

clearly!!! sean is in love with marion and jean, but thinks he's a worthless piece of shit and doesn't deserve either of them, so he's trying to make sure they're both around to take care of each other before he fuckin dies. how long have they all been in love with each other is my newest brain worm because . because !! they just established that they've known each other since childhood.

jean and marion probably(?) were first, but i think. sean fell in love with the boy who always tagged along. he was the youngest brother but marion needed to be cared for too...!!!! and marion's connection to jean means that he introduced sean and jinnah.., "sean this is my crush, jinnah meet sean my other crush"

and maybe by the time they were all realizing how they felt, sean's brothers signed up for the war, and sean needed to go to look after his big brothers, and marion went to look after sean, and jinnah used her schooling to become a surgeon to take care of them all.

oooh my god it's giving "testament of youth" to be fucking honest

[earlgrey24]

[anghraine]

It's still so weird when I see people hand wringing about comparisons of fanfiction to early modern literature, usually with the assumption that the people making the comparisons only read fanfic or they'd know that there's some special quality to early modern writers re-purposing pre-existing stories, themes, and characters that fanfic doesn't have.

But it's glaring that despite all the theatrics and how daaaaares and "read real literature" etc, it's not really possible to define what that quality is.

Early modern literature is not automatically good just because it's old. As in any era, plenty of it sucks! So it's not just "well, fanfic is bad/mediocre and early modern literature is definitionally brilliant and that's what makes them different." It's not that early modern literature comes from an era of unhindered artistry or some nonsense like that. At least for English writers, it was in fact an era of heavy censorship, and opportunities for writing the kind of literature under discussion were sharply restricted by who got access to education and patronage.

Now, those kinds of concerns do make the creative process for early modern English literature different from the far fewer restrictions on writing fanfic. The trends are (sometimes) different and the goals are often different. I don't think they're actually the same thing. But I do think fans are 100% right to point out that the modern obsession with originality, novelty, and copyright is not some absolute standard for all kinds of writing and can't even be consistently applied to works considered literary given how wildly ahistorical it is for things like early modern literature.

If you're going to argue that there is some intrinsic quality about fanfic that makes it Just Worse by definition—and especially if you're going to grandstand and sneer at people about it—then you should be able to define what that is. And it is fair to point out that this concept that originality of plot, theme, and character are intrinsically better, more creative, and even sometimes a defining quality of literature cannot account for things like early modern literature and don't make any sense in many contexts.

[burningvelvet]

Some notes and excerpts sent to Lord Byron from his many admirers — AKA, the Regency era version of sliding into someone's DMs:

“Dear Lord — A person whom you know well, and whom you have deigned to look on with some regard, taken by your extraordinary attractions awaits you this evening at ten o'clock in the back room of the Café San Fantin near the Fenice theater: do not be absent, my adorable Lord, if you do not want to force me to commit some indiscretion. Do not fear any sinister event; love me, though anonymous, as much as I love you, and I will be happy enough. Yours forever — if you want me — just now from home.”

“Milord — Excuse, my dear, the liberty that I take in sending you this note, but seeing you last night at the theater of San Benedetto my heart was smitten by you. Having no possible means of being able to speak to you, I have boldly taken the chance of writing you this note. If you accept my inclination that I feel for you, l will await your answer and will remain with the hope of embracing you if you would favor me with a simple reply by the bearer of this.”

“Being up to date on everything that concerns you, I knew of your new loves — daily you are offered rendezvous— all run after you because I permit a mere fifteen days to go by without seeing you — understand me. No longer an admirer, in order not to suffer your tricks any longer — but believe of me what you will — P.S. Tomorrow evening at eight o'clock I shall have the luck of seeing you.”

“From Home 25 Oct. 1818. Most Esteemed Lord — I would not have come to the Theater this evening except for the pleasure of being able to see your worthy Person and to let you know that I would like to spend, if you do not mind, a few moments in your House this evening after the performance. Awaiting this favor, I have the honor of declaring myself at your esteemed commands — most affectionate Servant — Eleonora de Bezzi.”

“Most Esteemed Sir — Although women are not the first to write, this time I permit myself to take the liberty, in order to let you know that if you favor me by taking the trouble to come to this Friend this evening at nine o'clock I shall have the honor of your charming company for a moment; otherwise there is no way for us to speak. Meanwhile I have the honor of offering my feeble service. P. S. I beg you not to let anyone know that you are coming to visit this Friend of mine.”

“A poor wife bows before your Lordship to ask for some help knowing how generous your beautiful heart is. I know that I am too bold, but the good report that I have heard of you, Sir, gives me courage to come before you, Milord; if my face were sufficiently pleasing to you I would consider myself fortunate to enter into some part of your beautiful heart, but I know I am not worthy and so I ask for your charity. Meanwhile I kiss your hands and declare myself your Most Humble Servant Suzana.”

“Are you ill? but why do I feel worse than you? Sunday evening after eight eternal days will I be able to see you? Yes.”

“Excellency — I wish to know if on Thursday at the appointed hour you will be available. The wise change frequently.”

“Tuesday at the theater Signor Petretin was in a box with you — bravo — after what you promised me, to let yourself be seen with him? If I were not in a very bad humor I would make you laugh by telling you what happened to me with the servant Marietta. If you are not engaged tomorrow evening with Signora Cortessi, at whatever time you like I shall come to see you — addio.”

“Having returned from Padua, I learned that in Benzona's circle it was being said that you made sacrifices for me — I, who know that I never inconvenienced you in the slightest matter, am surprised indeed by this gossip, and I beg you to do me the justice that I merit on this subject — I am certain that you are not the source of such a lie, for I do not believe you are capable of wronging someone who does not deserve it — addio, pardon.”

“I know that you divert yourself in your Gondola; I know about your romance with the Girl of Dolo; I know about the frenzies of Madame Segati; I know everything: and knowing everything — I also know that I am a fool still to concern myself with you. Friday I shall leave for Padua; I would like to say goodbye to you first. If your amorous occupations permit, you may see me tomorrow evening at eight o'clock. Farewell most noble Englishman, believe me with our customary excessiveness — your admirer.”

“You will forgive me for taking the liberty of sending you this simply to learn the reason I have no longer had the honor of seeing you since that day, given our understanding to see each other on Sunday. Subsequently I was deprived of it. Having had the pleasure of seeing you again at the ridotto on Sunday evening, I take courage to send you this letter through my maid. I await your reply. Yours affectionately — Giuliella.”

“Lord — Let an unfortunate Girl enter into your heart if she is ever to remain among the living.”

[brother-emperors]

haec rursus patienda manent, hoc ordine belli ibitur, hic stabit civilibus exitus armis [lucan, pharsalia], or alternatively titled, Aeneas Kills Turnus

there’s a million and seven things that went on in the ‘dialogue’ of figuring this painting out, but it’ll take like, literally 15 pages to explain, so instead I’ll pull together a thread of quotes that rattled around in my head while I made this and hope that the dots are all connectable

the aeneid, tr. fagles

the iliad, tr. fagles

blood in the arena, alison futrell

@thoodleoo​‘s tags on this post

the epodes: horace’s archilochus?, lindsay watson

the memory of philippi in horace and the interpretation of the epistle 1.20.23,  mario citroni (you know, because philippi is where the republic dies, and functions as a spectacle, funeral, and foundational sacrifice for empire, which circles back to---)

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