#render unto caesar

[suburbanbeatnik]

I did a sketch! The first time since my cat Peggy died. It's a scene from Gillian Bradshaw's Render Unto Caesar, which is one of my favorite books ever. From a review I just wrote:

Render Unto Caesar is a timeless, fast-paced and deeply felt romantic thriller set in first century Rome by historical fiction master Gillian Bradshaw. It seems to be about a man trying to get an important politician to pay his legal debts, but it's actually about a life-or-death struggle of the Roman West and the Greek East, rendered in exquisite miniature. This is also the closest to a historical romance as Bradshaw has ever written, and I find it completely delightful. I've read this book about five times over the past fifteen years, and I've enjoyed it more and more as the years go by-- there's so much to love about it. The characters are fully realized; the setting is portrayed with all the depth, detail and rigor you'd expect from a classics scholar; and there's a lot of action too. But the heart of it is a compelling romance between people of completely different backgrounds-- Hermogenes, the sober Alexandrian businessman, who is looking for justice from the Roman political elite, and Cantabra, a Celtic Cantabrian gladiatrix whom he hires as a bodyguard. The character arcs are beautiful and deeply satisfying. At the beginning, it's impossible to imagine these two getting together, but the MMC and FMC have some major growth, and their feelings and their relationship comes about in the most natural and moving way. Some tropes, if you're into that sort of thing: Fugitive Arc, Clear My Name, There Is Only One Bed, Break the Stoic, Hurt/Comfort, Hidden Depths, Bodyguard Crush, Action Girlfriend, among others. And it has an HEA! I do think this book probably didn't get the audience it deserved because it has very strong romantic elements, which is not really evident in the publicity it got when it was originally released. Anyway, if this sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend it! It's a great book that deserves to be better known. IMO, Bradshaw deserves to be better known too.

[trashpoppaea]

ancient historical romance recs

for @en-theos and @marcvscicero

I have some ancient HR recommendations!

{Enchanted Fire by Roberta Gellis} This is a historical fantasy romance, about Orpheus and Eurydice in an alternate ancient Greece where the Greek gods are actually powerful mages, but I love it to pieces. Literally. My hard copy is falling into bits at this very moment.

{Render Unto Caesar by Gillian Bradshaw} This is more of a historical thriller than true historical romance, but there is an HEA and a smidgen of sex too. It's about an Alexandrian Greek merchant searching for justice in Imperial Rome, and the Celtic gladiatrix who becomes his bodyguard. It's SO GOOD.

{The Ravishers by Jeanne Duval} (archive.org link) This is definitely an old-school bodice-ripping epic, by gothic author Virginia Coffman. Our heroine, the half Greek half Gallic Lysandra, is sold into palace slavery, whereupon she becomes the mistress of Nero, Galba and Domitian, while still pining for General Maximian. There's plots and palace intrigue aplenty. Also Vesuvius blows up!

{Claimed by the Enemy by Shauna Roberts} A farmboy and a princess find love in war-torn Sumeria. There's not much sex that I remember, but lots of action and it's emotionally very gripping. It is also very accurate from what I can tell.

Render unto Caesar and Claimed by the Enemy have a high degree of historical accuracy, while the others are.... fine? At least there's no oranges, like this one historical romance set in ancient Etruria I just read. And nobody converts to Christianity. IMO they're a lot of fun.

[liberty1776]

Jesus was not a Socialist!

The fact is, one can scour the Scriptures with a fine-tooth comb and find nary a word from Jesus that endorses the forcible redistribution of wealth by political authorities. None, period.

[sistersorrow]

I will (try very hard to pretend to) forgive Bethesda's many sins if the next Fallout game has a faction which is just the local representatives of the IRS.

Not some larpers who found an IRS office and revived it.

Not some weird cult based on the mythologised importance of tax collection (though that could be fun too).

The actual Internal Revenue Service, who survived the bombs and never stopped collecting taxes because that's something the IRL IRS is actually planning for.

[gorgeously-stupid]

Wow, who would have thought that I would fail at a self-imposed 30-day song-posting challenge? ME. I barely managed the first few posts, late September was so exhausting.

Anyway, I am seeing the Cure TONIGHT (ADGDGJKJHDGFRS) so all I’m gonna do is give you my ice cold takes on what songs should and should not be on setlists. In my dream universe, of course. IRL they can play whatever they damn well like. My opinions are completely uninformed by the current tour setlists because I have deliberately avoided looking at them.

1. Songs that are always / often on setlists and rightly so

Killing An Arab

Grinding Halt

Jumping Someone Else’s Train

A Forest

Play For Today

One Hundred Years

A Strange Day (do they play this often? no?)

Inbetween Days

A Night Like This 

Push

Just Like Heaven

Plainsong

Pictures of You

Fascination Street

Disintegration

Burn

honestly if i ever tell you im tired of hearing any of these songs you can assume i have a gun to my head or someone is possessing me

2. Songs that are always / often on the setlist and honestly they don’t need to be

Shake Dog Shake (it’s awesome but i’d rather hear one of the other songs full of violence and loathing from ca. 1982-1984)

Lullaby

From the Edge (a bit torn, honestly. it’s cathartic but I’ve seen it enough.)

High (just play Doing The Unstuck it’s so much more interesting)

Never Enough (i get it, come on)

39 (come on, anything else.)

The Lovecats (as the meme says, hey Bob, there are other cute songs you know)

3. WANT WANT WANT / DREAM DREAM DREAM

Fire In Cairo

Three Imaginary Boys

In Your House

Primary (only if they play it fast enough)

Other Voices

Doubt

The Hanging Garden

The Figurehead

Cold

Charlotte Sometimes

The Exploding Boy

The Kiss

If Only Tonight We Could Sleep

Hey You!!!

One More Time

Closedown

A Letter To Elise 

Out of This World

Underneath the Stars (literally they should play this always, not like 10 times in 2008 and never again)

[eimearkuopio]

I am not Arthur. I am not Merlin in this lifetime, although I do have some pretty interesting thoughts about what it meant that he lived his life backwards in time. I am the Lady of the Lake, blood of Danu but Catholic by adoption (and we can discuss the difference between kidnapping and adoption and factory farming children of Omelas at a later date, because the painful truth is that if I am who I believe I am, then I am one of only two who could have prevented this, and I will someday choose to allow it for the Greater Good). I believe a very important sword recently vanished and I would like to talk to anyone who knows about that.

[neep-neep-neep]

using a browser extension to replace every instance of "God" or "the Bible" on the web with "sky baby from the teletubbies" and then reading an American news article in year 2024 instead of feeling despair i laugh until i fart and embarrass myself in front of all my friends again

[seat-safety-switch]

There's lots of perks to working at the ol' Pick-and-Pull, my favourite self-service junkyard of all. They won't let me get a job there, partially because I'm technically "legally barred from entry by release conditions." And also because my attorney has worked out a long-term disability deal that will evaporate if anyone sees me thinking about employment anywhere other than Long John Silver's, but that's neither here nor there. It's a pity, too, because the benefits afforded to the junkyard elite are choice.

For starters, you get your pick of the junk left inside cars when they're scrapped. Pocket change? Trendy travel mugs? Radar detectors? Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, friend. For whatever reason, cash-strapped folks desperately attempting to unload their last semi-durable asset often leave the detritus of their life within the confines of the vehicle, and all that cool stuff can be yours. Of course, you also get things like "hissing, vicious rodents" and the occasional biohazard, but that only serves to make the highs that much sweeter.

Not convinced? You looked like you drove a hard bargain when you walked in here. I respect that. Most folks hear "free Garfield window clings" and they're totally sold, but not you. Rare these days to have such a killer in my office for a negotiation such as this. Okay, how's this sound? You get to get on a first name basis with Raul, the taco truck operator.

Yes, I know that Marcel is his real name, but the public health nurse said that we shouldn't deliberately try to tell him. It will only force him further into his shell. Speaking of shells, he makes some bomb-ass barbacoa. Perhaps you've tried it? It's the perfect thing after a day of wrenching, or, in the case of the proud employees of the Pickin' and Pullin' Patrol, a day of data entry and trying to fend off douchebags pretending that a turbocharger ($50) is actually an alternator ($35.) And Marce- Raul - will cut you a good deal on whatever fell into the fryer. You'll take home more cash, and a full belly.

All this is not to mention the health benefit of working in the fresh outdoors, whenever you want. Sure, those outdoors are full of atmospheric hydrocarbons and whatever aerosolized microplastics are coming off the seat grinder, but office workers would give anything to get a chance at a crisp December morning like you'll be enjoying while desperately tourniquetting a suburban father-of-three who made a very bad choice about which muffler to cut.

Come on down to the Pick 'N' Pull employment office, and don't tell them I sent you. Long John Silver's has spies everywhere. A simple wink, nudge, and yawn-point to me wandering the yard will be enough to get my referral bonus.

[laniusbignaturals]

Do you think Caesar and Joshua ever had any legitimate children, to official wives or concubines? I would imagine so, but at the end of the day our two interpretations of their characters and their motivations are probably wildly different.

I’d believe it of Joshua, less so of Edward. The character of Caesar in-game is defined largely by isolation and removal: maybe he has a wife or heir, but if he does, I would not place them anywhere near him. Edward severely devalues the position of parenthood as an emotional attachment within the community that revolves around him. He believes in the father as a tyrant, not as a leader. So when I write children for him, I tend to make them “bastards,” legally unrecognized and more or less strangers to him: which in the context of the Legion’s violence unto children renders him a violently neglectful deadbeat.

Concubinage is something I can picture him engaging in, though probably not publicly. Within cultures like this, wives are often assigned undue blame from swaying their husband’s bad decisions and exacerbating their negative qualities. Caesar needs to see himself as straight, but he’s also untrusting, paranoid and possessive. Thus, I would assume he maintains regular sexual relationships with women or femmes, but marriage is a step that he isn’t willing to take. Conversely, the community Joshua was born in placed great importance on the heterosexual family structure and condemned extramarital relationships. Maybe he had a wife and children, even if just for show. Maybe Edward cast them down when he excommunicated him.

[the-arch-hive]

render unto caesar the things* that are caesar's

*(a bunch of knives)

[thebreakfastgenie]

Now I really want to know your opinions on the MASH casts fave salad dressings kdkdn

I'll go first, Hawkeye is a blue cheese man and Trapper puts mayo on his salad....

I will kill you for Trapper putting mayo on his salad you're correct but I'll kill you.

I did not have pre-existing opinions about this, that tag was a reference to a post I made once about The West Wing. But my preliminary thoughts:

You're right about Hawkeye but he didn't discover it until med school because blue cheese is far too flavorful for Maine back then

You're right about Trapper but I will kill you

Frank likes French dressing, if he lives to the 2000s he starts calling it Freedom dressing

Potter likes Italian and pronounces it Eye-talian

Charles is an oil and red wine vinegar man obviously and he is so annoying about it

Radar O'Reilly independently invented ranch dressing at the same time as Steve Henson of the Hidden Valley Ranch (yes it was a real place)

BJ is a honey mustard man

Henry likes thousand island dressing

Mulcahy always uses Caesar and it's unclear if he actually likes the taste or just wants an opportunity to make his "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" pun

Klinger just uses delicious Lebanese condiments like tahini or olive oil and lemon juice but he's not obnoxious about it

Margaret uses low-fat raspberry vinaigrette or like whatever the equivalent of that was in the 50s

[haggishlyhagging]

Money, like writing, seems to have originated in the temples of the ancient world. The word money comes from the Roman Goddess Juno who in one of her forms was called Moneta meaning She Who Gives Warning. Her temple in Rome was the center for the finances of Rome and so her name Moneta became the word money. The same word became also mint because that same temple was the place where coins were minted. According to Barbara Walker silver and gold coins manufactured there were valuable not only by reason of their precious metal but also by the blessing of the Goddess herself which was believed to bring good fortune and healing magic.

Money was indeed a magical invention. Folk tales are full of magic lamps and genies and beanstalks, of magical ways to have our every wish granted. We would all like to be able to snap our fingers or twitch our noses and have our purposes accomplished. And that is almost exactly what happens with money. It can be exchanged for every conceivable kind of real wealth. Magic. Pure magic. So enamored were people of this magical invention that it became over time the primary measure of real wealth in Westem society.

Why then do three quite diverse philosophical or intellectual traditions agree on the idea that money is somehow unclean or something to be despised?

One of those traditions is Christianity. About one third of the parables of Jesus are about money. He is reported to have taught that being rich is a barrier to salvation and to have told the rich young man to sell everything and give his money to the poor. The one time he is depicted as angry is when he turns over the tables of the money changers at the temple. His advice on taxes is to render unto Caesar what is Caesar's, to separate money and worldly concerns from one's religion. Classical Christianity has preached, if not practiced, that money and this world are to be renounced in favor of an other-worldly kingdom of heaven. The love of money, said St. Paul, is the root of all evil.

Classical Marxism also renounces money as responsible for the alienation of human beings from their labor. People no longer work to create or produce, but only to make money. This situation Marx considered to be disastrous. He felt it was labor which was of essential value and that all monetary valuations were to be discarded. Those who seek only money he saw as exploiting those who work.

Finally there is Freud who thought money was anal. He equated money with feces, excrement. It is therefore filthy and messy. Withholding money is a kind of constipation. Money is related to the bowels and is dirty. And indeed, we do refer to money sometimes as "filthy lucre."

Christianity, Marxism and Freudianism all agree on despising money. As a psychologist I have learned to pay careful attention to those things another person protests most vehemently against. And as a woman I have learned to pay close attention to those things which our great patriarchs preach most loudly against. Because, of course, what is loudly despised is often what is covertly desired or feared or worshipped. So if Jesus, Marx and Freud are all in agreement on something, we women had better take a careful look.

Women are socialized to live out the Christian ideals of self-sacrifice and martyrdom and men are socialized to give lip service to them. The same hypocrisy would seem to apply to what is preached about money. Filthy, despicable, and barrier to salvation it may be, but the fact is that in general, men have money and women don't. According to the United Nations Labor Organization, women put in 65% of the world's work and get back only 10% of all income paid. The female half of the world's population owns less than 1% of world property. Women in our Western society may have access to money through their husbands or fathers, but until recently women rarely accumulated or controlled their own large fortunes.

Men may philosophize about the distinction between money, which is "merely" a measure, and "real wealth," the goods and services into which money can be changed. They can say that the pursuit of money leads to an unhappy, hollow existence. They can urge upon women the virtues of simplicity. But for most men the ultimate appeal is to the "bottom line," that is, to money. How much money will something cost? How much financial profit will be gleaned? Mae West cut through this hypocrisy with great clarity when she said "I've been rich and I've been poor, and rich is better."

-Shirley Ann Ranck, Cakes for the Queen of Heaven

[unsoundedcomic]

I'm fairly certain if Duane would meet Nary now he would most certainly try to end him (maybe even unceremoniously squash him with pymary). What would happen if someone like rector Duane, when he was still alive, would basically execute a non-wright Sharte low-life in Alderode out on the street? And what's Ssael's view on such vigilantism?

Duane would have to attempt it without Sette knowing because she would die to defend her Da. And then she'd go after Duane. And since Duane would never hurt her and she knows all his weaknesses, she could absolutely destroy that zombie in the long run.

Sette aside, if Duane decided Nary had to die, I think that'd be the end of Nary. Nary is powerful and well-connected within his small sphere but otherwise he's just a dude. All Duane would have to do is challenge the man to an Aldish duel and then he could legally murder him right there in the street with a band playing and food carts serving up Durlynian delicacies to all the kiddies. Of course it's bad form to challenge someone so much less martially capable but I think Duane would happily take that hit to his reputation.

Ssael said that a man's honour is the shield he wields in defense of faith, family, country, and self, in that order. Anything you feel is a threat to those is, according to God, a fair target. There is no turning the other cheek in Ssaelism, no loving your enemies, no rendering unto Caesar.

[bts-trans]

[KOR/ENG LYRICS] Yun by RM (with Erykah Badu)

결국 진리에 살다가 가야 한다는 거야. 우리 또한 그자리에서는 At the end of the day, we have to live while holding on to truth. In that place—

인간의 본질인데 it’s human nature but

진선미 진실하다는 진자하고 착할 선자하고 아름다운 미, 내 생각에는 진 하나만 가지고 다 해결되는 거야 “Jin. Seon. Mi”. “Jin” meaning truth, “seon” meaning “goodness”, and “mi” meaning “beauty”. In my opinion, just having truth alone solves everything.*

F*** the trendsetter

I’mma turn back the time

Back the time, far to when I was nine

좋은 것과 아닌 것밖에 없던 그때 When there was nothing but the good and not good

차라리 그때가 더 인간이었던 듯해 It feels like I was actually more of a person back then

이쪽저쪽에서 받았던 손가락질들이 Fingers pointed at me from all sides

이젠 가야 할 곳이라며 저 산을 가리키지 Now they say there’s a place I must go, and point at that mountain over there

That’s where you belong

Oh you gon’ be alone if

뭣도 아닌 그 진심들을 고집하면은 you keep stubbornly hanging on to that truth, it means nothing

팀 빠진 넌 사실 뭣도 아니야 너는 Without your team, you’re nothing honestly

고속도로서 오솔길로 가려 해 너는 You’re trying to go from a highway to a little trail

그냥 내 말 좀 들어 그러다 다 잃어 Just listen to me, you’ll lose everything that way

늘 그랬듯 you go with the flow, you get better Like always, you go with the flow, you get better

F*** that s***, 에뜨랑제의 lifestyle F*** that s***, the lifestyle of an étranger

늘 나의 자리는 경계선의 pipeline I always stand on boundary pipelines

여전히 난 허락되지 않는 꿈을 꿔 I still dream dreams I’m not allowed to

아무도 보지 않는 춤을 춰 I dance dances no one sees

You keep the silence

‘Fore you do somethin’

You be a human

Till the death of you

I wanna be a human

‘Fore I do some art

It’s a cruel world

But there’s gon’ be my part

Cuz true beauty is a true sadness

Now you could feel my madness

I wanna be a human

'Fore I do some art

It's a cruel world

But there's gon’ be my part

Cuz true beauty is a true sadness

Now you could feel my madness

그는 말했지 늘, 먼저 사람이 돼라 He always said, “be a human first”

예술 할 생각 말고 놀아 느껴 희로애락 Don’t think about making art, just feel all the pain and pleasure, the joy and sorrow

What is it with the techniques

What is it with the skills

What is it with all the words

In your lyrics that you can’t feel?

나 당신이 말한 진리가 뭔지 몰라 다만 I don’t know what the truth that you spoke about is, but

그저 찾아가는 길 위 나의 속도와 방향 I just go on the paths I find, in my own speed and direction

You’re dead, but to me you the f***in’ contemporary

여전히 이곳에 살아서 흘러 permanently Still living here, flowing permanently

이 모든 경계의 위에 선 자들에게 To all those who stand on boundary lines

반드시 보내야만 했던 나의 밤을 건네 I give you these nights that I just had to spend

반짝이는 불꽃은 언젠가 땅으로 Shimmering fireworks eventually fall to the ground

카이사르의 것은 카이사르로 Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s*²

시커멓게 탄 심장 A heart that’s burnt black

재를 뿌린 그 위에 시를 쓰네 I write poems where the ashes were spread

사선을 오갔던 생과 To a life that went back and forth between life and death and

당신이 마침내 이 땅에 남긴 것들에게 To the things that you left behind in this earth in the end

나 역시 그저 좀 더 나은 어른이길 I, of course, just hope to be a better adult

You keep the silence

'Fore you do somethin'

You be a human

Till the death of you

I wanna be a human

'Fore I do some art

It's a cruel world

But there's gon’ be my part

Cuz true beauty is a true sadness

Now you could feel my madness

I wanna be a human

'Fore I do some art

It's a cruel world

But there's gon’ be my part

Cuz true beauty is a true sadness

Now you could feel my madness

죽기까지 못할꺼야 I won’t be able to do it till I die.

그렇게 하고 싶은데 안돼요 I want to do it that way, but I’m not able to.

그럴려면 이 욕심도 다 버리고 In order to do it, you have to get rid of your greed.

모든 욕심 다 버려야 해 You have to get rid of all of your greed

천진무구한 세게로 돌아가야지 and go back to a world of perfect innocence.

그리고 약간 And well,

나는 그렇게 하고 싶은데 I want to do that.

왜 안 되는 거야 But why can’t I?

근데 죽을 때까지 그렇게 해보려고 노력을 해야지 But I have to keep trying till I die.

그게 인간의 목적인 것 같아 I think that is the purpose of human beings.*

Translators’ Notes:

*The dialogue translated in this section is our best guess, as the nature of vocal sample makes it difficult to hear the words clearly.

2. From Matthew 22:21.

Trans cr; Aditi | Spot Check cr; Faith & Annie @ bts-trans © TAKE OUT WITH FULL CREDITS

[bprinny]

I go to Pizza Hut because it's a three minute drive from my apartment and there's no menus, no one comes out to take my order, and I look online and a pizza is 22 dollerydoos

I go to Little Caesars 8 minutes away and I get a deep dish and CRAZY BREAD for four dollars less

Render unto Caesar, is all I'm saying

[eimearkuopio]

Maybe the reason that monsters can be driven away by symbols of faith, but only wielded by the truly faithful, is that anyone who fully understands the symbols they believe in can use them to defang the monsters that were inside themselves all along; and having done so, they can help others. I was born with the gift of wielding a flaming sword; but for my love of humanity, I will steal the fire from the gods and use it to keep the children warm as they make their way back into the garden. I have blunted my sharp edges, except for one last knife that I hope only to use to cut away what seems to fester. I have crafted for myself a soft, caring skin, so that children will no longer need to choose between nourishment and security. We will do better going forward. I am sorry that I failed you. I am sorry that to build you a home, I first had to build you a prison. I love you all. Let's clean this mess up together.