#st andrews university themed stories

[the-wales-5]

"Crazy for this girl " (Chapter 1)

Introduction

September 2001.

“Wouldn't you sign this picture for me? Please, I will keep it with myself forever! It will be my favourite item in the room! Yes, I know you are not signing autographs, but you can make an exception for me, right?”

“Look here! It’s my new camera, and I want yours to be the first picture there!”

All these voices full of excitement were ringing in his head yet long after he went to his room. Prince William tried to attend as many seminars and lectures as he could, especially that it was the very beginning of his studies, but the unhealthy interest he had been getting from the young women in the corridor every day was scaring him. He thought that the University of St Andrews in Scotland would be the best possible choice even with the assumption that lots of people would want to talk with him or take a picture, so he tried to get used to it. However, what he'd been experiencing for the past few days made him feel unsettled and exceeded his worst expectations.

He finally sat down on the bed and tried to rest after a day with two lectures and that recent stressful situation. After a while, he decided to take a look through notes he made throughout the day, on one of the pages was written “Bring to the classes in two days”, followed by a title of the book all the students were supposed to have. The prince cursed at the thought of going out of his room and meeting a group of excited or rather overly-excited and hysterical girls once more that day. However, he knew that many other students always borrowed books as soon as possible. Due to that unspoken rule, he had already lost a chance to get one of the important papers before class in the previous week. As a consequence, at that moment, he was determined to completely ignore all the people waiting and get through to the library.

*

“I do not understand all that fuss you are creating here for days” a brunette thought as she passed by some of her female friends who were still enthusiastically talking about the Prince of Wales’ son. She did not express her thoughts out loud, though, as she was in the minority of people thinking that William's arrival at the university was a ‘normal’ thing and not something to gush about constantly.

*

After asking about the book, William was left in disappointment again. The last copy was taken away by someone else just fifteen minutes earlier. After hearing the words “You can ask her”, William assumed that yet another forced and weird conversation was awaiting him.

“Miss Middleton. Her name is on that list given out to all the students on the first day, am I right?” A person working in the library said and rolled his eyes a little. Although he knew that a prince stood in front of him, he still felt an annoyance over first-year students' awkwardness and confusion about every simple rule.

“Yes, of course” William cleared throat moments later “We've simply had no chance to talk yet”. This time, he was the one to not receive a reply and left the library in the following seconds.

***

Chapter 2

[squigglybug]

The Academics of Serpents and Starlight

[Hermione + Draco fanfic] | ao3 link

rating: explicit | word count: 7k | status: ongoing themes/tags: super angsty, slow-burn, battle scars, The Secret History like but sexy, squeal and read, University of St Andrews, Dark Academia, POV Draco, Heathcliff-ish Draco

----------------------------------------------------

Hermione Granger is the most brilliant witch of her generation—Magical protégé, author of a dozen research papers, three books on the philosophy of magic, and, of course, a hero of Hogwarts.

Now Hermione Granger has a new title: divorcee.

When Hermione takes up a teaching position at Gowdie College, a magical graduate school hidden in one of Scotland’s oldest universities, she is surprised to find a newly enrolled Draco Malfoy committed to “atoning” for his family’s crimes. Fate intervenes when a post-war reconciliation mission under Hermione’s leadership tangles up their paths, leading both of them on a heartfelt quest to bridge the gap between who they were and who they are destined to be. ~

We all know the real chemistry is between Hermione and literallyyyyyyyyyy anyone else but Ron. Our leads are---an intelligent, complex, and vibrant Hermione who has outgrown her teenage love + an extra broody, Heathcliffian Draco (*chef’s kiss*). I wanted a story for those of us who dreamed of another magical landscape and have re-read The Secret History way too many times. This story is inspired by Sharp Objects, the Brontë sisters, and my alma mater’s romantic background.

[medusapelagia]

Comment bingo!

This time Andy the 🐙 and I have had a lot of fun reading the wonderful new fics that have been published thanks to the @strangerthingsreversebigbang (thanks to the ST Reverse BB I was lucky enough to be one of the first to read those stories!!!) and we finally completed our bingo card!

As always go give them some love to these fics if you want to! And keep commenting!

Comment on a fic featuring a rare pair: I think of Thee by of house_of_chant ( @house-of-chant), complete, rating T, Hellcheer. Inspired by Bee ( @sunflowerharrington ) beautiful art, it’s a fluffy modern AU featuring the cutest cheerleader ever and the famous metalhead!

Comment on a fic with no comment so far: Stop insisting that I’m not a lost cause by SlippySlip ( @slippy-slip ), WIP, Rating T, insipired by a beautiful art made by LogeDraws featuring a fluffy and clumsy Steve werewolf!

Comment on a fic with a lopsided kudos to comment ratio: Cover Worthy by trans_steve_truther (@stevesno1simp), inspired by @raven-cl wonderful art, Complete, Rating E, Steddie. A photographer trans Steve meets the famous rockstar Eddie.

Comment bargaining firstborn or more: Come and Get Me by Rindecision (@rindecision), inspired by @waldos-art, WIP, Metalsandwich, Rating E, a boxing AU with my three favorites boys: Steve, Eddie and Billy!

Comment on what made you laugh/cry/scream: It’s Always Been You by Eddywow, complete, rating E, Steddie. The lovely conclusion of Eddywow Pornostar/Popstar AU

The other fics that helped me fill my bingo card under the cut!

Comment on a fic with under 50 hits: Dandelion Wishes by Carerra_os, rating T, WIP, Harringrove. This is a super sweet fic with child Billy and a very little magical Steve! And being part of the Harringrove Big Bang it also has incredible art made by Raven ! (now it has more than 50 hits like it deserves but I was lucky enough to be one of the first peole to read it!)

Theorize about world, character, and/or theme: and then you came by what_about_the_fish, rating E, WIP, Harringrove. Another incredible fic from the Harringrove Big Bang (so it has art as well! Made by Luca Doodle Doo) In a Dom/Sub universe Soft Dom Steve finds Billy, a Sub without a Dom that desperatly need one who took care of him like he deserves.

Epilogue comment: speculate on characters' futures: The Only Living Ghost In New York by beetlesandstars, rating M, complete, Steddie. A modern AU where Steve realizes that he is in love with Eddie... when Eddie gets married! It hurts so good!

Explain while the fic is better than canon: Let it happen by Romeren (, rating M, WIP, Harringrove, super sweet story written for bigbangharringrove and with beautiful art by Lemon and Apple.

Leave a long comment: Baby, I got sick this morning (heal me, darling)by TheRedHarlequin - rating: E, a lovely WIP with my favorite threesome: Steve, Billy and Eddie! Half sick fic and half magical AU! And it's not cheating if I put it again bacause it's a WIP and we finally got TO THE HOT CHAPTER and the world needs to know it! (Those are Andrew's the Octopus words, not mine, obviously...)

comment that is at least half keysmash: start by pulling him out of the fire by pricklywhicket, rating: E, complete, Steddie. This fic is SO good, I'm just at the first chapter but Wayne's characterization is amazing! If you are a Wayne lover (as I am) you have to read it!

Comment on a fic posted today: All I want for Christams is you, by LexiRoseWrites. rating: Teen and Up, Steddie, Complete. A sweet Christmas omegaverse fic!

comment detailing emotional devastation: hold me, scold me , by lydiah135 - rating: E, complete, Steddie. This fic has everythig! Transmasc Professional Dom Eddie, emotional pain and wonderful OCs! This is the 4th part of the series, I recommend to start from the first one!

revisit fic you read in the past & leave a(nother) comment: If I stare too long by brawls (brawlite) and ToAStranger, rating: E, complete- The first Metalsandwich fic I have ever read. It's hot, and fluff, and cute and it has incredible art!

Holy trinity: kudos, comment and bookmark: Sea of waking dreams by Oonionchiver, rating: E - Steddie, WIP. As everything that Azriel writes is intriguing, hot and supernatural!

Unhinged liveblogging reaction: Everybody wants you - Whataboutthefish - rating: E, complete - Harringrove. A sexy and painful song fic. It hurts so good!

Highlight & explains 3 favorite quotes: Baby, I got sick this morning (heal me, darling)by TheRedHarlequin - rating: E, a lovely WIP with my favorite threesome: Steve, Billy and Eddie! Half sick fic and half magical AU!

Find a comment you agree with & replay explaining why: The Long Night, by - Nox_Wiked - rating:E, another threesome Steve, Billy and Eddie and another WIP half survival and half unconventional omega fic!

Comment on a every chapter of a multichapter fic: Just add water by Just_my_latest_hyperfixation ( @just-my-latest-hyperfixation) -rating: E, complete, a super sweet Mermaid AU Steddie fic!

Comment on a WIP: To B, With Love by Triddlegrl (@fizzigigsimmer - rating: E, WIP an incredible Harringrove Omegaverse Western AU!

Comment on a fic posted at least 3 years ago: i think of you (i want you, too) i'd fall for you by To A Stranger - rating: E, complete, a Harringrove Criminal AU with hurt/comfort!

Leave a comment that is half emoji: what's mine is yours (to leave or take) by througheden - rating: M, complete, a Steddie sugary sweet AU with baker Eddie and nurse Steve and a lot of cakes!

Comment of a fic post in the last three days: Baby, It's Cold Outside by StitchedFox - Rating:M - complete, a Steddie Christmas fic about traditions and compromises!

promote a fic on Tumblr and/or Discord & tell the author so: All those fics!

[d-criss-news]

‘Glee’ alum Darren Criss ready for National Christmas Tree Lighting ahead of Wolf Trap

His breakthrough role arrived on Fox’s “Glee” before winning an Emmy Award on FX’s “American Crime Story.”

This week, actor and singer Darren Criss performs live at the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on The Ellipse outside the White House on Thursday night.

“This is my first year doing this particular event,” Criss told WTOP. “I’ve been lucky enough in my career to have done a number of things for the Bidens. That is a low-key humble brag. They haven’t decided to kick me off the invite list yet, but there’s still room! I could really biff it at the White House.”

He joins a star-studded lineup of Mickey Guyton, Dionne Warwick, Joe Walsh, Ledisi and St. Vincent.

“It’s a pretty cool list, man,” Criss said. “I just saw the list and I don’t know who printed the ad mat, but there’s no world in my mind where I would ever appropriately be anywhere higher or before the likes of St. Vincent, Renee Rapp. … When your name is with the likes of Joe Walsh, Dionne Warwick and many more, you can’t help but just have a huge wave of imposter syndrome.”

After that, “A Very Darren Crissmas” hits The Barns at Wolf Trap in Virginia on Saturday and Sunday.

“We’re just going from town to town spreading holiday cheer, man,” Criss said. “A lot of people put out holiday albums … just playing the very well-known songs. … My main goal in life is not necessarily as a performer but more like a curator. … If I had it my way, my Christmas album would have been 100 songs that no one’s ever heard of, but because I’m not a fool, I toe the line between familiar stuff but I do it in an unfamiliar way.”

Born in San Francisco in 1987, Criss grew up in loving “Star Wars,” “Transformers” and The Beatles. He pursued the arts as a theater major at the University of Michigan, performing in “Pride & Prejudice” and “A Few Good Men” before founding StarKid Productions to produce his own shows. That included the Harry Potter production “A Very Potter Musical,” which actually landed songs on the Billboard charts.

After appearing on the ABC series “Eastwick,” Criss’ big break came on Fox’s “Glee” (2010-2015), playing transfer student Blaine Anderson, who eventually married Kurt Hummel. Criss started out singing Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” and ended by writing the Emmy-nominated song “This Time” for the series finale.

“‘Glee’ was incredibly popular and progressive,” Criss said. “I lucked out and won the golden ticket because when I joined that show, it already had a significant degree of attention where one of the most popular characters was Kurt, somebody who was making waves … in the queer dialogue amongst popular culture, the conversation of gay teens and representation of queer people on mainstream, linear, network television.”

He reunited with Ryan Murphy to play the killer Andrew Cunanan in “American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace” (2017), beating out Antonio Banderas, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jeff Daniels, John Legend and Jesse Plemons to win the Emmy for Best Actor in a Limited Series.

“Actors wait a whole lifetime for parts like that,” Criss said. “This horrible thing happened because of a guy who happened to kind of look like me and be kind of my age and ethnicity. … Twenty years later, how do we make sure those tragedies don’t end up as these horrible things? To bring light to a darkness by illuminating the things around those tragedies, the other themes that led to how and why these things happened.”

On stage, his Broadway roles include replacing Daniel Radcliffe in “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” (2012), replacing Neil Patrick Harris in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” (2015) and joining Sam Rockwell and Laurence Fishburne in the revival of David Mamet’s play “American Buffalo” (2022).

“I’ve really gotten to check a lot of boxes in what I believe to still be the earlier part of life and career, boxes that I really did always dream of and worked hard to get to,” Criss said. “Now onto Christmas baby!”

[aboutanancientenquiry]

The first editorial of Syllogos-Herodotus Journal

Syllogos 1 (2022) 12 October 2022

EDITORIAL

The first issue of any new journal must invite the obvious question: ‘why?’ In the case  of  Syllogos,  it  is  a  question  that  can  only  be  answered,  first,  by  a  story  of  origins.  The  journal  has  its  roots  in  an  online  seminar  series  that  began  in  the  context  of  the  first  COVID-19  lockdown  of  2020.  The  choice  of  Herodotus  as  a  focus  for  that  seminar  was  made  in  part  simply  because  of  his  centrality  in  the  study of antiquity, but also as a symbol: of the value of contact across boundaries and of a boundless intellectual curiosity. The seminar was intended to make up for  the  sudden  interruption  of  any  collective  research  activity  at  the  time,  but  also — aware, as we had to be, that there were more important concerns — as an expression of international fellowship. The warmth of the atmosphere that developed  in  that  unique  moment  has  persisted.  The  ‘Herodotus  Helpline’  has  now  taken on a more formal status as a charitable organisation with ‘members’. But it has always been conceived as — and we hope will remain — an antidote to more formal, established subject associations: a venue where free, frank and friendly dialogue is the norm, where all scholars and students of Herodotus and his world are welcomed and supported, and where ‘grandstanding’, ceremony or boorishness have no place. 

The trigger for us to give serious thought to publishing the results of our dialogue was a passing suggestion of Paul Demont’s: ‘can you not publish it?’ (Fittingly, the paper in question is one of the first published here.) The journal’s title Syllogos  (‘joint  discussion’,  assembly)  recalls  its  origins  in  the  collective  of  the  Helpline  seminar.  (The  word  σύλλογος  is  used  within  the  Histories,  for  example,  for  the  seven  conspirators  who  wrested  back  the  Persian  throne  from  the  false  Smerdis.)  But  the  journal’s  title  also  speaks  to  our  ambitions.  Syllogos  is  a  journal committed to the widest possible dialogue, the widest possible engagement with Herodotus and his world. Just as the Helpline has a world-wide membership, we  encourage  submissions  from  authors  from  any  language  tradition  or  back-ground; from any discipline; from established scholars and from those beginning their studies; from those with university affiliations or with none. 

Syllogos  is  also  intended  for  the  widest  possible  readership.  The  journal  is ‘open-access’ not only in the limited sense that there are no barriers (beyond internet  access)  to  reading  or  publishing,  but  also  in  the  kind  of  material  that  we  publish.  ‘Critical  round-ups’  (this  issue  includes  the  first  of  these  by  Alexander  Meeus)  survey  both  our  current  understanding  and  the  history  of  scholarship  on  particular  central  themes,  in  a  manner  which  is  readily  understandable  by  students  and  general  readers  as  well  as  scholars.  Everything  we  publish  will  be edited to avoid the jargon or unexplained abbreviations that too often render scholarly publications inaccessible to all but the initiated.  

Syllogos is also, finally, committed to honouring a plurality of voices. Echoing the polyphony of Herodotus’ text, we do not publish single reviews of important new publications; instead we invite multiple responses, and invite the authors to respond in turn. (This issue includes twin reviews, by Suzanne Marchand and Maren  Elisabeth  Schwab,  of  the  Herodotus  Encyclopaedia.)  Future  issues  will  offer  similar  reflections  on  the  most  significant  interpretations  of  past  decades,  both  those  that  are  widely  credited  as  influential  and  others  whose  importance  has perhaps been overlooked. 

That Syllogos has become a reality is the result again of a very collective effort.  First,  it  could  not  have  happened  without  the  support  of  a  number  of  institutions:   the   Christian-Albrechts   University   of   Kiel,   Columbia   University,   Sorbonne  Université,  the  Universities  of  Genova,  Leicester  and  St  Andrews,  Swarthmore College, the Association ‘Sauvegarde des enseignements littéraires’, and,  not  least,  the  Propylaeum  team  of  the  University  Library  of  Heidelberg  (especially,  Maria  Effinger,  Daniela  Jakob  and  Daniela  Wolf).  John  Marincola  (Histos), Douglas Field (the James Baldwin Review), and Anthony Cond (Liverpool University Press) all generously shared their experience and advice. Lida Cardozo Kindersley and John Mawby of the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop designed a new Greek typeface (Kindersley Greek) for exclusive use by Syllogos. Jenny Messenger (Atomic Typo), our typesetter, and Wong Tsz have made an immense contribution to the design of the journal, to the page and cover design respectively. 

Final  mention,  however,  must  go  to  two  figures  who  can  no  longer  be  thanked in person. P.J. Rhodes — a generous, authoritative presence at nearly all of the Helpline’s early meetings — helped to shape the journal’s style guidelines. (The rule that authors’ names are cited as they sign off their own work — by initials or  first  names  —  is  a  concession  to  Peter’s  robust  preference  for  the  use  of  initials.) Although Doris Post’s first passion was Sophocles, her warmth, enthusiasm and initiative were central to the initial planning of the journal — of which she was due to be production manager. (Each year from 2023, the journal will publish the winning essay of the Doris Post prize for early career researchers.) We hope that Syllogos will grow to become a fitting tribute to them both, to the generations of readers of Herodotus on whose contributions we are building, and to the Father of History himself. 

Paul Demont 

John Dillery

Francesca Gazzano

Thomas Harrison

Jan Haywood 

Elizabeth Irwin

Polly Low

Andreas Schwab

 Pietro Vannicell

Source: https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/syllogos/article/view/91137/85879

[readitreviewit]

Are you ready for a time-traveling adventure that takes you from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon 500 years later? Then buckle up and get ready to be swept away by Emily St. John Mandel's latest masterpiece, Sea of Tranquility. Mandel is known for her award-winning works such as Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel, and in Sea of Tranquility, she showcases her talents once again. This novel is a virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful. The story begins with Edwin St. Andrew, an eighteen-year-old who had been exiled from polite society following a disastrous outburst at a dinner party. He finds himself in the Canadian wilderness, spellbound by the beauty of nature when he hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal. This experience shakes him to his core, setting the stage for a journey that will take the reader on a wild ride of time travel and metaphysics. Fast forward two centuries later, and we meet Olive Llewellyn, a famous writer who is visiting Earth on a book tour. However, her real home is on the second moon colony, a place of spired towers, white stones, and artificial beauty. Olive's bestselling pandemic novel contains a strange passage about a man who plays his violin in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal, surrounded by the rising trees of a forest. This passage connects the lives of several characters in the novel, including Edwin and Olive. Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness. His investigation leads him down a dangerous path and uncovers a series of lives upended, from the exiled son of an earl driven to madness, to a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, to a childhood friend from Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe. Mandel's writing style is exceptional, and she writes with such ease that the complex narrative flows seamlessly. She has a way of transporting her readers to different worlds and times, making them feel as if they are right there in the middle of the action. Her descriptions of different settings and her characters' experiences are vivid and evoke strong emotions, whether it is the wilderness of Canada in 1912 or the eerie beauty of the second moon colony. Sea of Tranquility is a novel that touches on themes of love, time, art and plague, weaving complex and multifaceted characters throughout the narrative. The storytelling is gripping and beautifully crafted, drawing the reader in from the very first page. Mandel has unlocked the sense of play and puzzle-making that shimmered in her earliest work, making this novel one of her finest yet. The novel is also relevant to our current moment, with the pandemic playing a significant role in the story. It is a reminder of how quickly our lives can change, and how the choices we make can have far-reaching consequences. Mandel expertly captures the reality of our current moment and explores the human experience of living through a pandemic. Sea of Tranquility is a transporting and brilliant novel that will sweep you away on a journey through time and space. It is a testament to Mandel's exceptional talent and an absolute delight to read. So, get ready to be swept away on a journey that will leave you breathless, as you explore the depths of the human experience through the lens of time travel and metaphysics. "Don't miss out on this captivating read! Click now to buy the book or get a 30-day free trial of Audible and immerse yourself in the story like never before." Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] - Details)

[smithgreys]

Ben horne room arranger

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(Tollerton, North Yorkshire)ĭr Paul Lasseter Phillips CBE. Chief Executive Officer, Outwood Grange Academies Trust. Chairman and Managing Director, Balmoral Group. (Kincardine, Fife)ĭr James Smith Milne CBE DL. Chief Constable, Police Service of Scotland. For services to Financial Services, to Technology and to Public Service. For services to Diversity and Inclusion in Art. Chief Executive, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. (London, Greater London)ĭr Andrew Francis Goddard. (Worcester, Worcestershire)īradley Fried. For services to Museums, to Publishing and to the Creative Industries. Wolfson Chair, Professor of Materials, University of Oxford. Lately Provost and President, University College London. For services to the Arts, particularly during Covid-19. Lady Susan Carroll Sainsbury Of Turville CBE. Director, Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology. Principal and Vice-Chancellor, University of St Andrews. For services to Young People and to Philanthropy. (London, Greater London)ĭr Ann Geraldine Limb CBE. For services to Business and to the Hospitality Industry. For services to the community in Northern Ireland. Lord-Lieutenant, County Borough of Belfast. (Llanelli, Carmarthenshire)įionnuala Mary Jay-O’Boyle CBE. Geoffrey Moorhouse-Gibson and Royal Society Professor of Chemistry, University of Cambridge. For services to Young People and to Charity. Visiting Professor, UCL Institute of Education, Chair, Future First and Camden Learning. Lately First Minister of Northern Ireland. For services to Nursing, Midwifery, and the NHS. Chief Nursing Officer for England, NHS England and NHS Improvement. (Midhurst, West Sussex)ĭames Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE)ĭr Ruth Rosemarie Beverley (Ruth May). Permanent Secretary, Department for Transport. (London, Greater London)ĭames Commander of the Order of the Bath (DCB)īernadette Mary Kelly CB. Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB)Ĭharles Fergusson Roxburgh. Lately Chair, Nuclear Innovation Research Advisory Board, and Honorary President, National Skills Academy for Nuclear. (London, Greater London)ĭames Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE)ĭame Susan Elizabeth Ion DBE. Professor of English and Creative Writing, Birkbeck College, University of London and Distinguished Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford. (London, Greater London)ĭame Marina Sarah Warner CBE. Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) The percentage of LGBT recipients is down slightly from last year, from 5.0% to 4.6%. The proportion going to people from ethnic minority backgrounds, 13.3%, is down from a record 15.0% last year, while slightly more are going to people who are disabled. Read more: The stories of the North East community heroes honoured in the Queens' Birthday listĪ record proportion of Queen’s Birthday Honours are going to women, the percentage this year – 51.5% – slightly higher than the previous record of 51.2% set in 2015. Those behind the selection process said there was more consideration for people who have represented themes such as youth engagement, the environment and sustained public service to mark the monarch’s milestone. People from the world of showbiz, sport and politics have been recognised on a list that claims to represent the monarch's 'invaluable' qualities, long with scientists, educators, volunteers and more. Famous names sit next to those of everyday heroes from across the UK in the Queen's birthday honours list. horoscopes * Choose among Placidus, Koch, and Equal House systems * Choose your own Orb sizes to. StarScopes is designed to help you view the horoscopes for any. astrology charts and horoscope interpretations.

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[psitrend]

Interview with Sissi Chao, passionate and inspirational entrepreneur, founder of REmakeHub

New Post has been published on https://china-underground.com/2020/03/19/interview-with-sissi-chao-passionate-and-inspirational-entrepreneur-founder-of-remakehub/

Interview with Sissi Chao, passionate and inspirational entrepreneur, founder of REmakeHub

Sissi Chao founder of REmakeHub, a social enterprise that provides a circular solution for waste pollution in the fashion and design industry.

Sissi Chao has master’s degrees from the London School of Economics and Political Science, St Andrews University, and Duke University. She has worked in a consulting firm Accenture as well as in the tourism industry at Mouzenidis Group in Greece. She decided that her life mission is to clean up the waste, turn them into renewable resources, and recover the planet ecosystem. She has used her voice to share her story in more than 50 events and try to inspire others to make positive changes in the world, and she has also been known as the “Princess of Waste” and “The Waste Innovator”. She has been honored as Forbes 30U30, SDG activist, Gen.T “Asia Tatler》Top 100 Asian Shaper, PwC NextGen Club member, Ocean Activist, and inspirational speaker at Fashion Summit (HK). Her projects “Made for Saving Our Ocean” & “Fashion from Waste” is now on view as part of the socially responsible startup called “REmakeHub”. It has won the 2018 UNDP Asia-Pacific youth SDG innovation award, the top winner of 2019 YOUTH entrepreneurship for the south (YES), Official 2019 R.A.W Prize recipient and has also been featured in BBC, CNA, CNC, ICS, Phoenix News, Forbes, etc.

Official site

When did you first realize you wanted to pursue a career in circular waste management solutions?

We established at the beginning of 2018, in February. So until now, it’s almost two years.

Sissi Chao is a passionate entrepreneur that has traveled the globe to advocate for the limitless potential of waste and promote a circular economy in which “remake the waste so that both human and nature can thrive.”

What initially drew you personally to becoming engaged in this theme?

First of all, my family business is related to textiles. They have been in the fashion business for more than 20 years. I came back to China around the end of 2017. I did some internships in my parents’ factory. I saw a lot of waste in the fashion industry. Not only about fabric, but also in the production chain as well. Then I decided to tell my parents that I would not continue to work on the pollution side, but on the solution side. I saw an old man who came to our factory to collect all the waste. This event inspired me to see how everything works in the fashion industry. That’s why I decided to do something related to sustainable fashion and to deal with the waste. After that, this idea remained inside my brain for many months. In the very beginning, my parents were against me. They didn’t want me to do something related to waste, because they thought it was not a very decent job. So I left my parents for Shanghai to do my own startup. One day I saw in my dream that I was holding the planet on my hand. It was like a hint. I had this sign in my dream. So I thought it was like a message sent by the planet telling me that I should be the guardian or a messenger of Earth. This helps me to continue to do my job as a mission-driven job. So that’s why we started and why we continue doing it to save the planet.

“Only humans can help solve the problems that other humans have created, I don’t see Remake Hub as a business, I see it as a mission. and I’ve made it my mission to clean up as much waste as possible.” – Sissi Chao

So this is how did you come to create REmakeHub?

In the very beginning, we were working for charities and different brands. We tried to clean up the wastes, starting from upcycling and minimalism, using a lot of different methods of going sustainable. Then, in the end, we decided to use technology and creative design as the main DNA of RemakeHub. Because we think that technology and creativity are going to drive us in the long term. We tried minimalism, especially for fashionable ladies. They cannot wear the same T-shirt, for more than two months. Then they start shopping more up, after the campaigning finish. We can see that this it’s not really sustainable.

REMAKEHUB is a social enterprise, which provides a circular solution for waste pollution. The aim is to create multi circular materials to push the industry GO GREEN.

“I wanted to find a solution that would allow me to recycle all the waste and turn them into renewable resources, for the sake of future generations.” – Sissi Chao

Did the people you were surrounded by always been receptive to the message you’re sharing? Or did you find some problems in the beginning?

I think everything is hard in the very beginning. You don’t know which way you’re going to go. And you don’t know which way the right way. It’s like you’re in a maze and you have to go through all different kinds of way. With all the experience you have accumulated and the challenges you had to overcome during this time, you will find a more clear way to go. But for me, I thought it was always something that I wanted to do. Other people’s opinion does not really change much what I wanted to do. So I think that’s the kind of character that lead me to who I am today and what is REmakeHub now today.

REmakeHub Sissi Chao’s startup REmakeHub a social enterprise that turns fishing net into renewable materials and products through highly innovative technology and creative design. Established in 2018, the business was built on a big ambition to support a “PLANET SCALE” solution for eradicating waste and embracing the circular economy, supported by the top leading manufactories and science-based experts in China. The team is formed by “Planet Guardians” which includes scientists, engineers, artists, architects, entrepreneurs, superstar, fashion designers. REmakeHub has involved Asian companies that are leaders from waste management, technological centers, and recyclers, to thread and fabric manufacturers. All these companies collaborate and share their experience in recycling different types of debris and innovative upcycling ideas through their international alliances with design specialists.

Thanks to the innovative recycling technology, REmakeYarn can now recycle cotton and polyester materials in both pre/post consumed textiles. The aim is to stop textile being discarded into landfills and remake them into fully traceable and renewable yarn to save the land.

REmakeHubs follows the “Cradle to Cradle” design concept, promote resource reuse to extend the product life circle, thereby achieving zero-to-landfill.

Can you tell us more about REmakeHub and what this means for social and environmental impact worldwide?

REmakeHub is a social enterprise. We focus on recycling waste into more valuable material products. We have different categories of waste. We have a sub-brand called REmake-Ocean, that works to tackle the submarine plastic issue. The material comes from fishing nets. We reuse fishing nets into a few different applications. We make them into sunglasses, which we had a pilot case with WWF Australia. And we also make it into office chairs. And more recently, we’re trying to develop it into fashion, apparel, yarns. We also have another sub-brand call REmake-Yarn and we are using chemical programs, recycling processes and also physical recycling process to turn polyester and cotton into recycled material again. The last one is called Fashion from waste, which is a part of all of those things. What else can we do from all the rest of the material? We can make them into tabletops. We use an eco-friendly technology called Eco Hot blocking. With Eco Hot blocking technology we can make tabletops, chair tops, buttons used for fashion. With those kinds of material, we can try to leverage or embrace the value of waste. We use different materials and a few different technologies for recycling. Since we are a hub, we don’t have many limitations. There are different companies asking solutions. Sometimes we will use our waste into a different industry, for example, as the cosmetics industry, and jewelry industries as well. It depends on who is the client looking for a solution and also the solution that we can provide them. Not just on making the fashion, we also in furniture, electronics, and also cosmetics.

Sissi Chao is raising awareness of the impact of fast-fashion on the environment. She is trying to make a fashion revolution

Ok. So you are making a solution to fit every kind of different demands?

Yeah, but we cannot fit everyone. We fit as many as possible. If exist the supply chain, we could do modification and some adjustment, to customize a solution for them, that’s what we can do the best.

The sub-brand “REmake-Ocean” aims to impact 50 million individuals in the world and raise public awareness on ocean pollutions. They have worked with three main NGOs in the world to help collecting fishing net, and prevent further pollution, and has educated more than 5000 fishermen in Asia – Pacific. Trying to finally save Turtles, sharks, dolphins, dugongs, and sawfish which will be caught by discarded fishing nets, enhance biodiversity, recover ecosystem.

Can trash be more than trash? Can all types of waste be turned into new recycled fashion or there are some limits or difficulties?

Not all. As I said, we can do things with marine plastics, textile waste, and some of the food waste. Food for example like chocolate beans. The bad chocolate beans. If they are over-roasted. They don’t know what to do. With fruits, the leftovers of the apple juice. If you don’t know what to do with the scraps of the apples, we can make them into buttons used for fashion. So we can have a different way to play different matches things.

Fashion waste is one of the largest contributors to pollution globally and global wastewater. FASHION FROM WASTE collection was made to create value for the waste found during the production in the supply chain. Eco hot blocking technology is used to produce fashion accessories and furniture materials from waste, such as fabric left over, wood scraps, coffee grounds, and food wastes.

What were some of the biggest challenges for you personally and for REmakeHub?

The important thing is how we can push the fashion brands to actually use the materials. To use them in the supply chain. And also we are looking for big fundings that they can help to scale it up.

Sissi Chao is an environmental activist, that works with different industries to strive towards a green, worldwide circular system. Her company uses high-tech recycled material and inventive upcycling to reduce fashion waste.

An important challenge is to save planet Earth from further harm. What is the biggest misconception you’ve seen, and how did you work for breaking it?

Well, I think maybe not in terms of misconception, but more in terms of challenges. How they can give up a certain portion of profit and invest back into their own factories in the long term. They would never know if one day the brand will no longer meet the requirements. Some of the big factories are understanding this, and they are either transforming themselves into a more sustainable factory. While some of them are investing in a new factory to build, with more sustainable facilities. This requires a big amount of reinvestment. This is going to be a big challenge for big suppliers to transform themselves in a very quick time. It takes time for them to realize this and it takes a longer time for them to decide if they want to do it or not. Because it’s not a must. If they can still make money, maybe they’ll wait five or ten years, and then they will just close their factory. But some of them while looking for a long term, they will struggle to generate a profit and invest it back into a more winning factory. That’s the challenge for them.

To grow REmakeHub what are the skills that are more important for you? Are there new skills that you found out and discovered you have?

I think for us, at REmakeHub, since it��s a Hub, we are more like a platform that promotes this idea into fashion and furniture industries, etc. We can connect everyone who is in the supply chain to work together to the world circular economy. We need to connect each of them and make a circle that you can work with. You need also to make very nice branding, a very nice story to tell the end consumers with the latest technology. So, for example, blockchain is a very hot topic and how we can use blockchain in the fashion industry. RemakeHub is providing blockchain technology as a QR code into the final product. In this way, everyone scanning a QR code will receive a landing page describing what is the product, where it comes from, the whole journey of the product. And then you can also add the campaign to educate consumers about the planet issues or the marine plastic pollution and stuff like this. So we are more about helping the supply chain to be connected, how to help the end consumers to understand more about the real meaning behind a single product.

Most of fishing nets are made by nylon, which can be remade into renewable nylon polymers. The REmake-Ocean aim is to stop fishing net being discarded into the ocean and remake them into fully traceable and renewable polymers to save the ocean.

Raising awareness among potential customers and educate them about planet Earth’s pressing issues. Do you think manufacturers and consumers bear more responsibility for creating a fairer global economy? What role do you think social media plays in this cause today?

We are all connected on the planet. There is no escape. As you can see, the butterfly effect explains everything. So when we talk about media power, I would say that it’s the most important thing in the whole supply chain, because that’s where the information would flow. If nobody knows that the turtles are saved from the fishing nets, nobody will understand it. Nobody thinks that is a problem. Thanks to the media, through the information, the people and the consumers can understand the situation and the challenges we are facing on the planet. In this way, consumers can ask and demand sustainable products. Then manufacturing will definitely catch up on producing them.

How has REmakeHub grown since its start? What are the goals you have achieved so far?

We have cleaned up around 260 thousand plastic bottles and recycled around 26 thousand pieces of old clothes. Now the target is to recycle fishing nets in the sea. The ocean covers 70 percent of the surface of the planet. If the ocean system goes wrong, then the land system will no longer live. We cannot escape this situation. Everyone’s talking about the plastic issue that goes back to our food supply chain. I think it’s a big problem. I don’t want my future generations to drink something which contains toxic microplastics. In 2020 we are trying to find partners, brands, and NGOs that can help us to promote sustainability in marine plastic recycling products. They can produce sunglasses, which are made from ocean fishing nets, or they can produce types of furniture made from fishing nets. Our goal for this year is to let at least one million people understand this concept. We will also clean up at least 20 tons of fishnets and recycle them in 2020.

More than 50 new sustainable materials, all recycled from the trash (plastic bottles, coffee grounds, cloth, fishnets, waste milk, etc) are involved in the creation of sustainable products to use in fashion and furniture.

Has something in your life changed since you started RemakeHub?

Yes, definitely! Before I was a shopaholic, I was one of the polluters for the planet and I didn’t realize this. But later on, as I started having information, I started thinking about my shopping habits. I reduced purchases and I began to take care more about recycling my clothes after I no longer needed them. Before we usually just threw them away in the bin. And now we recycle them, in this way, we are sure that they can be recycled into yarns again. This is waste value.

Photos courtesy of Sissi Chao and REmakeHub

#Environment, #Recycling

[justforbooks]

Dame Muriel Sarah Spark DBE FRSE FRSL was born on February 1, 1918. She was a British novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist.

Spark began writing seriously, under her married name, after World War II, beginning with poetry and literary criticism. In 1947 she became editor of the Poetry Review. This position made Spark one of the only female editors of the time. Spark left the Poetry Review in 1948. In 1953 Muriel Spark was baptised in the Church of England but in 1954 she decided to join the Roman Catholic Church, which she considered crucial in her development toward becoming a novelist. Penelope Fitzgerald, a fellow novelist and contemporary of Spark, wrote that Spark "had pointed out that it wasn't until she became a Roman Catholic... that she was able to see human existence as a whole, as a novelist needs to do". In an interview with John Tusa on BBC Radio 4, she said of her conversion and its effect on her writing that she "was just a little worried, tentative. Would it be right, would it not be right? Can I write a novel about that – would it be foolish, wouldn't it be? And somehow with my religion – whether one has anything to do with the other, I don't know – but it does seem so, that I just gained confidence." Graham Greene, Gabriel Fielding and Evelyn Waugh supported her in her decision.

Her first novel, The Comforters, was published to great critical acclaim in 1957. It featured several references to Catholicism and conversion to Catholicism, although its main theme revolved around a young woman who becomes aware that she is a character in a novel.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) was even more successful. Spark displayed originality of subject and tone, making extensive use of flashforwards and imagined conversations. It is clear that James Gillespie's High School was the model for the Marcia Blaine School in the novel. Her residence at the Helena Club was the inspiration for the fictional May of Teck Club in The Girls of Slender Means published in 1963.

Spark received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1965 for The Mandelbaum Gate, the US Ingersoll Foundation TS Eliot Award in 1992 and the David Cohen Prize in 1997. She became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1967 and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1993 for services to literature. She was twice shortlisted for the Booker Prize, in 1969 for The Public Image and in 1981 for Loitering with Intent. In 1998, she was awarded the Golden PEN Award by English PEN for a "Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature".

Spark received eight honorary doctorates including Doctor of the University degree (Honoris causa) from her alma mater, Heriot-Watt University in 1995; a Doctor of Humane Letters (Honoris causa) from the American University of Paris in 2005; and Honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh, London, Oxford, St Andrews and Strathclyde.

In 2008, The Times ranked Spark as No. 8 in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945". In 2010, Spark was posthumously shortlisted for the Lost Man Booker Prize of 1970 for The Driver's Seat.

Bibliography

Novels

The Comforters (1957)

Robinson (1958)

Memento Mori (1959)

The Ballad of Peckham Rye (1960)

The Bachelors (1960)

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961)

The Girls of Slender Means (1963)

The Mandelbaum Gate (1965)

The Public Image (1968) – shortlisted for Booker Prize

The Driver's Seat (1970)

Not To Disturb (1971)

The Hothouse by the East River (1973)

The Abbess of Crewe (1974)

The Takeover (1976)

Territorial Rights (1979)

Loitering with Intent (1981) – shortlisted for Booker Prize

The Only Problem (1984)

A Far Cry from Kensington (1988)

Symposium (1990)

Reality and Dreams (1996)

Aiding and Abetting (2000)

The Finishing School (2004)

Other works

Tribute to Wordsworth (edited with Derek Stanford, 1950)

Child of Light (a study of Mary Shelley) (1951)

The Fanfarlo and Other Verse (1952)

Selected Poems of Emily Brontë (1952)

John Masefield (biography, 1953)

Emily Brontë: Her Life and Work (with Derek Stanford; 1953)

My Best Mary (a selection of letters of Mary Shelley, edited with Derek Stanford, 1953)

The Brontë letters (1954)

Letters of John Henry Newman (edited with Derek Stanford, 1957)

The Go-away Bird (short stories, 1958)

Voices at Play (short stories and plays, 1961)

Doctors of Philosophy (play, 1963)

Collected Poems I (1967)

Collected Stories I (1967)

The Very Fine Clock (children's book, illustrations by Edward Gorey, 1968)

Bang-bang You're Dead (short stories, 1982)

Mary Shelley (complete revision of Child of Light, 1987)

Going Up to Sotheby's and Other Poems (1982)

Curriculum Vitae (autobiography, 1992)

The French Window and the Small Telephone (limited edition, 1993)

Complete Short Stories (2001)

All the Poems (2004)

Spark died in 2006 and is buried in the cemetery of Sant' Andrea Apostolo in Oliveto.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[the-wales-5]

"Crazy for this girl" (Chapter 2)

On the next day, she was walking through the corridor towards the lecture hall when all of a sudden, the other girls were again talking about William.

“Don’t you think this is childish at this point?” She said a little bit louder than usual to her friend who joined in one of the conversations. William could hear those words and nodded in agreement with her, hiding a sigh.

He wanted to move closer to that girl and ask about something considering the lecture, but right at that moment, he noticed something that she had in her bag. The last copy of the book he wanted to get the day before. “Word and image in ancient Greece” by Keith Rutter.

He knew it was her. A person who took the last copy from the library. “Miss Middleton”. The reason why he recognised her so fast was simple. She was the only person attending the same course who hadn't tried to get into a chat since his first days in Fife.

The young woman at last turned her head towards the spot where he was standing. Despite her indifferent reaction to his arrival and initial thoughts about him or words spoken to her ‘classmates’ just a few seconds before, her face went bright red. William tried to hide his soft chuckle after he made an observation on that.

“Hi, I'm Steve” he introduced himself with a nickname that was already in use by

a few of his friends, so as to avoid unwanted attention and shield his royal identity.

“Catherine Middleton, but everyone call me Kate” she smiled a little

“It is a pretty name” he replied

After a few seconds, the prince wanted to begin a conversation about the book she had ‘stolen from him’ the day before, but it did not occur. Middleton scuttled off and followed her friend into the lecture room right after her eyes met those of William's.

***

“You were talking with the prince today, Kate! How did it go? Tell me everything” her friend asked excitedly as they were sitting in Catherine’s room in the early evening.

“I’ve simply introduced myself. It is nothing extraordinary. You should know that” Catherine replied, rolling her eyes. She was quite annoyed by the behaviour of people around her. It seemed simply wrong and immature in her eyes. There was one thing she could not deny, though. He seemed to be perhaps one of the kindest people attending the same course as her. What she did not know was that while she was talking about him, William was remembering their meeting.

One of the last thoughts on his mind that day was “There is something special about her”.

*

“It is difficult to believe that the prettiest girl in Sally’s is the source of your anger” Fergus Boyd, one of the prince’s closest friends told him one afternoon after noticing Catherine in attendance at a rugby match where William played along other students, After setting his eyes on her, he was irritated, or rather tried to act as if it actually was his real emotion. She was wearing simple jeans and a jacket. Simplicity at its finest.

“Prettiest girl in Sally’s? What do you mean?” “She earned this title back in Freshers Week. You can not deny that it is correct, even if the outfit right now doesn't do her beauty much justice” Fergus replied “By the way, any plans for Saturday evening? I’ve heard someone from the third year is hosting a party..”

William did not reply. He was looking at Catherine and once more wondered if she kept a copy of that book in the bag. In the early morning, although he was aware that it was a ridiculous idea, he was even thinking of stealing it.

**

Finally came the day of the classes for which a “damned” book (as he called it) about ancient Greece was needed. Earlier, “Steve” asked some people for his “last resort”: photocopy of chapters. Unfortunately, everyone was too busy with assignments or university organisational matters. As a consequence, they could not find a few minutes to help with the necessary pages. As he sat in his chair, with embarrassment, asked a guy sitting next to him to share some of his notes.

Kate Middleton entered and sat next to another girl in the row right in front of William. His fury directed at her left for some time, but it had returned the moment he saw her. The professor frowned at the noise in the room. “For today's class, you were all supposed to bring “Word and image in ancient Greece” by Rutter. Is there anyone who doesn't have at least a photocopy?” .

William remained silent, hoping that work with the guy next to him would be enough to hide the absence of the book from the professor.

“Alright. Since you're the first year students, we all want you to get to know one another as your communication is the key to your better work. There is no better way to do that than analysing a text and a painting in pairs. Chapter II in the book, page 38. Two days ago, you were working with the person next to you. Today, try to exchange views with the person who sits behind you”.

Everyone quickly scanned the room. William looked behind himself and found a wall, literally. His row was the last one in the room.

He hid a sigh full of frustration as he heard a woman calling him “Steve? I guess we are to work together. You've got no one behind you” she chuckled lightly, but William didn't say a word in a response.

“Well..” Catherine cleared her throat “Have you finally got the book?”

The words from the professor interrupted William's thoughts: “You've got 20 to 25 minutes for a chat, and then you'll share your views with the rest of the group. Good luck!”.

Miss Middleton repeated her question and, after a second, pulled out her copy.

“I don't know what you meant by ‘finally’ because this is only my second unpreparedness. Is your copy the last one from the library?” William laughed dryly, proceeding to stare at the book cover. Kate rolled her eyes a little and blinked “How do you know?”

“It was supposed to be mine. I went to borrow, and I was told you took the last copy. It is like déjà vu from a few days ago. So this time, my ‘forgetfulness is partly your fault”

“Oh, you should've told me earlier. That way, I could share some materials. Now it is too late to make a photocopy”

“It is fine,” he said and shrugged.

“Better luck next time. We shall start analysing this text now” Middleton said.

William looked at her face finally, and a little smile escaped his lips, but soon it was replaced by a look full of concentration on text on page 38, followed by a discussion.

After twenty minutes, they shared their views with the rest of the students. As she packed her things after the class came to an end, William spoke up: “There's no requirement to bring books or anything for the next week, so you wouldn't have a chance to steal things from me again”.

Catherine wanted to apologise, but the moment she looked at him, she noted his slight smile and replied “Yes. Although, next time, go to the library right after classes end. Just a little advice. I suppose it should be easier for you next week. Everyone will get used to seeing you on a daily basis, Steve” Catherine said and sent him a friendly smile before leaving the room. William's eyes followed her for a few seconds, and his thought he tried to ignore, about her being “very special”, reappeared in his thoughts.

***

Chapter 3

[bookandcover]

I really, really enjoyed this book! Philip Pullman is simply a masterful storyteller, and you feel throughout this book that you’re in the hands of a pro, comfortable and content to follow as he pulls you through twists and turns, reveals and connections as circuitous, and yet as inescapable, as the powerfully overflowing Thames. 

If you summarize this book, it sounds simple: two kids rescue a baby from a flood. I could imagine a version of this book that would be boring, with none of the honesty and realness that pervades these pages. I’m not sure what it is about Pullman’s writing, but you are simply invested from the beginning. Even in the early section of the book that sets up Malcolm as a character, his simple life at The Trout, and his relationship with the nuns across the river, I was fully engaged. Often, when I sit down to read, I have a bit of detachment for a while—I’m aware that I’m reading—before I can enter the mind space of the story. That was never the case for this book; I always dropped immediately into Malcolm’s world. That world is real, present, fully-formed. Part of this is that the world of The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage (and of all of His Dark Materials) is not over-written nor over-explained, but it’s fully imagined. We sense that this is a real and complex place without knowing all the ins-and-outs of its complexity. It’s not hinted at, nor teased to the reader, because it doesn’t need to be; it simply is. 

Once Malcolm, Alice, and Lyra set off down river, the tension in the book rises along with the flood waters. Their pursuer Gerard Bonneville is relentless and terrifying. I could not believe how scared I was at certain points in this book and, in a similar current (ha!) to the above, the writing never got in the way of my fear: the pacing and immediacy was always ideal to keep me inside the scenes as they unfolded. Malcolm and Alice’s quick departure from The Trout, escaping in La Belle Sauvage with Bonneville on their heels, is stressful and all the other actions scenes are similarly experienced through Malcolm’s limited viewpoint (although this is third person narration). We get the fragments that Malcolm has time to process and experience (I felt this in particular during the final sequence when Asriel rescues them from the CCD boat and Malcolm doesn’t really know what’s going on), which brilliantly keeps us inside the action. Sections of the book jump away from Malcolm’s perspective (to closely follow Dr. Hannah Relf primarily and the actions of the anti-CCD group Oakley Street), but while we’re with Malcolm, we stay with Malcolm.

I noticed one glaring exception to the centralization of Malcolm, which therefore stood out to me, and felt intentional. Very close to the end of the book, there’s a the close cut in (almost like a movie edit) on the conversation that occurs through gyrocopter headsets between Alice and Asriel. This conversation happens while Malcolm is asleep, as the small group travels to Jordan College, and it seems to be a moment where the burden Malcolm has carried and shared is, instead, carried fully by Alice. The trajectory of Malcolm and Alice’s relationship is one of increasing trust and mutual dependency, and so this moment felt like it formed the bookend to the beginning of the story, where Malcolm was the most informed, the most committed to the mission of protecting Lyra. Alice’s grit and determination is increasingly revealed to the reader, just as it is increasingly revealed to Malcolm, which shifts her closer and closer into his mental and emotional orbit. This final moment, of her being their shared spokesperson, of her carrying their joint mission while Malcolm is injured, seems to me like the true equalizing moment of their relationship. They have both been in this 100% for a while, but this is the moment where they operate fully as one entity. 

Malcom and Alice are both incredibly crafted characters. The story relies on us as readers deeply understanding Malcolm from the get-go, and we do. He’s resourceful, clever, practical, stubborn, righteous, tactical, and still a kid. He’s an awesome character. Alice plays a beautiful counter-point to Malcolm; it takes us longer to like her and to understand her, to see her many layers, but that is because that’s what is happening for Malcolm himself. I didn’t expect her to be a main character during the first section of the book, just as Malcolm himself would not have. Her inclusion on the trip south on the floodwaters is circumstantial. Before Malcolm gets to know her more fully, she is simply a quintessential teenager—grumpy, claws out, edgy, but also just getting her work done, just there. Later on, we see her vulnerabilities, her compassion, her ways of showing care that she keeps sheltered beneath a tough veneer. She seems her age in every way—older than Malcolm, and more self-aware, yet also young, confused, and easily hurt, but too proud to show that hurt. As she grows in complexity for the reader, she too grows in complexity in Malcolm’s eyes, another aspect of the novel that keeps us close to Malcom’s perspective, merges his experiences—fear, compassion, understanding—with the reader’s. 

Bonneville is also an incredibly drawn villain—another nod to Pullman for literary genius. In this novel, the scene where I felt most genuinely afraid (the maximization of Pullman’s ability to keep his readers in the moment of action) was when Bonneville appears on the other side of the cellar door at Lord Murderer’s abandoned mansion. Bonneville’s voice seems to defy the properties of sound and physics at a few points in this book, but only barely and in a way that is perhaps justified by our protagonists’ focused attention: Malcolm is listening for Bonneville, Alice is listening for Bonneville. More than once, he speaks to them from a very close range when he is not (yet) attacking them, and there is something about his sudden proximity, the sound of his presence, that induces a real terror that I felt keenly. His body, too, borders on the impossible, transcending the properties of physics. He could be close or far from Malcolm and Alice at any given moment because he closes gaps of distance in strange ways. They hear him at great distances across the water and struggle to gauge his exact location. He survives and survives and survives. This gives him a ghost-like quality, immaterial, like a night-ghast who haunts them. 

At the same time, Bonneville’s presence is deeply physical, which we know and understand from his character introduction (when he fights with Coram Van Texel and his dæmon loses a leg) and through Alice’s understanding of him as a man who flirted with her, who approached her as a man. When Bonneville’s voice whispers through the darkness and through the door in Lord Murderer’s mansion, I felt Malcolm’s terror as my own. After reading this part, I paused and said aloud, “isn’t this supposed to be a children’s/young adult book? This is way too terrifying.” The final confrontation with Bonneville has a similar charge of terror, impossibility, and yet inevitability. We understand the insanity with which Bonneville has pursued Malcolm and Alice, the emotional/psychological impact he has on them (particularly Alice), and we feel their terror.

In addition to character development and narrative perspective, Pullman also navigates plot with dexterity. I loved that details from early in the text circled back around without feeling heavy-handed. Part of why this succeeds is that every detail seems to serve multiple purposes within the narrative. For example, when Mr. Boatwright flees The Trout after a confrontation with CCD men, I did not expect him to circle back around and re-enter the plot. His character introduction seemed to develop the role of the CCD in this universe, the level of threat they pose, and the understanding our characters have of that threat. That’s enough. Yet, he re-enters Malcolm and Alice’s lives at a critical moment, helping them hide out along with his band of outcasts in the woods. As a kind of casual Robin Hood (a bit foolish, a bit foolhardy though he is), Mr. Boatwright further shows the texture of this world where defiance of the CCD, even trivial defiance, has consequences. But, as many characters in the book remind us, the flood changes everything, and in this new world of the flood, Malcolm doesn’t expect to happen upon a character from his past and neither do we. 

My conviction that Pullman leaves no stone unturned, highlights nothing with intention, brings me back to two key questions. First off, what happened to Mr. Taphouse? The night of the huge flood, Malcolm learns from the nuns that he’s unwell, and so he’s not at the priory when the flood hits, when Bonneville is there and seduces Sister Katarina. Was he actually unwell? Did Bonneville injury him or do something to get him out of the way? Will his character feature in the story again? These questions also bring up my concerns for Sister Fenella. Did she survive the flood? Will she appear again? A second set of questions exists around The League of St. Alexander, which poisons and pollutes Malcolm’s school space, changing the character of his small and seemingly innocuous community. While The League returns to the plot when Andrew (from Mr. Boatwright’s band of outcasts) betrays Malcolm and Alice and reveals Lyra’s whereabouts to the Office of Child Protection—refreshing the theme of betraying your family in the interests of a higher cause or system the buys or seduces your loyalty—this does not necessarily seem like the end of The League’s role in the plot. With the second book of the series teased—The Secret Commonwealth, which appears to jump ahead about 18-20 years—it’s curious to imagine how some of these questions might be answered or these ideas circle around again in the series. I trust that they may, in unexpected ways. 

[type40thiefoflight]

Sorry it took me so long to answer these; I got stuck on some of the ghosts’ music preferences. Also sorry that this somehow turned into “what musicals the ghosts would listen to.”

If the ghosts found out about Spotify there would be lots of arguing over what gets played and making Julian or Alison set up and change to their own playlists.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robin: Swing, jazz, ragtime, big band (lots of Glen Miller), movie/musical soundtracks:

Bandstand

Beetlejuice

Bombshell

Bonnie & Clyde

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story

Cats (Broadway version)

Forever Plaid

Jersey Boys

Million Dollar Quartet

Newsies

Ragtime

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (movie or Broadway version)

The Road to El Dorado

Young Frankenstein

Plague gang: Medieval Party Mix, Hildegard von Blingin', movie/musical soundtracks:

Gutenberg the Musical

Spamalot

Jemima: Movie/musical soundtracks:

Annie

Oliver

The Addams Family

 The Secret Garden

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (movie version)

Humphrey: Hildegard von Blingin', Medieval Party Mix, movie/musical soundtracks:

Avenue Q

Something Rotten!

Spamalot

Mary: Hildegard von Blingin', Medieval Party Mix, movie/musical soundtracks:

9 to 5

Hadestown

Hello Dolly

Into the Woods (Broadway version once she gets over the magic)

Legally Blonde

Mary Poppins (movie version once she gets over the magic)

Mary Poppins Returns

Six the Musical

Thoroughly Modern Millie

Kitty: Mozart, Beethoven, movie/musical soundtracks:

Aida

Anastasia (movie or Broadway version)

Beauty and the Beast (Broadway version)

Cinderella (Broadway version)

Elf

Finding Neverland

Gay Purr-ee

Hadestown

Hairspray

Hello Dolly

Into the Woods (Broadway version)

Labyrinth

Legally Blonde

Mary Poppins (movie version)

Mary Poppins Returns

Meet Me in St. Louis

My Fair Lady

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812

Spongebob the Musical

The Fantasticks (Broadway version)

The Greatest Showman

The King and I

The Lion King (Broadway version)

The Sound of Music (movie or Broadway version)

The Wizard of Oz

Thoroughly Modern Millie

West Side Story

Wicked

Wonderland

Thomas: Mozart, Beethoven, Devil’s Trill Sonata in G Minor, movie/musical soundtracks:

A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder

Aida

Dear Evan Hansen

Dracula

Frankenstein: a New Musical

Hadestown

Hamilton

Into the Woods (Broadway version)

Jekyll and Hyde

Labyrinth

Lestat

Love Never Dies

Moulin Rouge

Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812

Nevermore: The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe

Something Rotten!

Sweeney Todd (Broadway version)

The Corpse Bride

The Count of Monte Cristo (his favorite song is Hell to Your Doorstep)

The Fantasticks

The Phantom of the Opera (Broadway version)

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The Woman in White

West Side Story

Fanny: Swing and maybe Chopin, movie/musical soundtracks:

42nd Street

9 to 5

Chicago (her favorite song is Cell Block Tango)

Finding Neverland

Gay Purr-ee

Legally Blonde

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

Hello Dolly

Meet Me in St. Louis

My Fair Lady

Six the Musical

The Fantasticks (Broadway version)

The King and I

The Sound of Music (movie or Broadway version)

Thoroughly Modern Millie

The Captain: Jazz and maybe some swing, movie/musical soundtracks:

42nd Street

American in Paris

Anything Goes (Broadway version)

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang

Finding Neverland

For Me and My Gal

Gay Purr-ee

Hello Dolly

Les Miserables (Broadway version)

Man of La Mancha

Mary Poppins (movie version)

Mary Poppins Returns

Meet Me in St. Louis

Newsies

Pirates of Penzance (you know I had to)

Singin’ in the Rain

South Pacific

Pat: Someone actually made a Jim Howick-approved themed playlist for him called Dad Jams full of 80s music, movie/musical soundtracks:

9 to 5

Across the Universe

Bedknobs and Broomsticks

Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story

Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang

Finding Neverland

Footloose

Forever Plaid

Gay Purr-ee

Hairspray

Jersey Boys 

Labyrinth

Mama Mia

Mary Poppins (movie version)

Mary Poppins Returns

Million Dollar Quartet

Moulin Rouge

Newsies

Spongebob the Musical

The Greatest Showman

The Lion King (Broadway version)

Julian: Probably also lots of 80s music and movie/musical soundtracks:

Assassins

Avenue Q

Bat out of Hell

Beetlejuice

Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson

Cabaret

Cats (Broadway version)

Chicago

Evil Dead the Musical

Evita

Footloose

Forbidden Broadway

Grease

Hair

Hamilton

Hot Mikado

Kinky Boots

Labyrinth

Little Shop of Horrors

Mama Mia

Me and my Dick

Million Dollar Quartet

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Return to Forbidden Planet

Rock of Ages

Silence! The Musical

Spamalot

The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert

The Book of Mormon

The Producers (Broadway version)

The Rocky Horror Show

The Wedding Singer

Tootsie (you know I had to)

[yasbxxgie]

Why Octavia E Butler’s novels are so relevant today

It’s campaign season in the US, and a charismatic dark horse is running with the slogan ‘make America great again’. According to his opponent, he’s a demagogue; a rabble-rouser; a hypocrite. When his supporters form mobs and burn people to death, he condemns their violence “in such mild language that his people are free to hear what they want to hear”. He accuses, without grounds, whole groups of people of being rapists and drug dealers. How much of this rhetoric he actually believes and how much he spouts “just because he knows the value of dividing in order to conquer and to rule” is at once debatable, and increasingly beside the point, as he strives to return the country to a “simpler” bygone era that never actually existed.

More like this:

-        The 1968 novel that predicted today

-        The fiction that predicted space travel

-        The story of cannibalism that came true

You might think he sounds familiar – but the character in question is Texas Senator Andrew Steele Jarret, the fictional presidential candidate who storms to victory in a dystopian science-fiction novel titled Parable of the Talents. Written by Octavia E Butler, it was published in 1998, two decades before the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States.

Like much of her writing, Butler’s book was a warning about where the US and humanity in general might be heading. In some respects, we’ve beaten her to it: a sequel to 1993’s Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents is set in what is still the future, 2032. While its vision is extreme, there is plenty that feels within the bounds of possibility: resources are increasingly scarce, the planet is boiling, religious fundamentalism is rife, the middle classes live in walled-off enclaves. The novel’s protagonist, a black woman like the author herself, fears that Jarret’s authoritarianism will only worsen matters.

Fourteen years after her early death, Butler’s reputation is soaring. Her predictions about the direction that US politics would take, and the slogan that would help speed it there, are certainly uncanny. But that wasn’t all she foresaw. She challenged traditional gender identity, telling a story about a pregnant man in Bloodchild and envisaging shape-shifting, sex-changing characters in Wild Seed. Her interest in hybridity and the adaptation of the human race, which she explored in her Xenogenesis trilogy, anticipated non-fiction works by the likes of Yuval Noah Harari. Concerns about topics including climate change and the pharmaceutical industry resonate even more powerfully now than when she wove them into her work.

And of course, by virtue of her gender and ethnicity, she was striving to smash genre assumptions about writers – and readers – so ingrained that in 1987, her publisher still insisted on putting two white women on the jacket of her novel Dawn, whose main character is black. She also helped reshape fantasy and sci-fi, bringing to them naturalism as well as characters like herself. And when she won the prestigious MacArthur ‘genius’ grant in 1995, it was a first for any science-fiction writer.

Octavia Estelle Butler was born on 22 June 1947. Her father, a shoeshiner, died when she was very young, and she was raised by her mother, a maid, in Pasadena, California. As an only child, Butler began entertaining herself by telling stories when she was just four. Later, tall for her age and painfully shy, growing up in an era of segregation and conformity, that same storytelling urge became an escape route. She read, too, hungrily and in spite of her dyslexia. Her mother – who herself had been allowed only a scant few years of schooling – took her to get a library card, and would bring back cast-off books from the homes she cleaned.

An alternate future

Through fiction, Butler learnt to imagine an alternate future to the drab-seeming life that was envisioned for her: wife, mother, secretary. “I fantasised living impossible, but interesting lives – magical lives in which I could fly like Superman, communicate with animals, control people’s minds”, she wrote in 1999. She was 12 when she discovered science fiction, the genre that would draw her most powerfully as a writer. “It appealed to me more, even, than fantasy because it required more thought, more research into things that fascinated me,” she explained. Even as a young girl, those sources of fascination ranged from botany and palaeontology to astronomy. She wasn’t a particularly good student, she said, but she was “an avid one”.

After high school, Butler went on to graduate from Pasadena City College with an Associates of Arts degree in 1968. Throughout the 1970s, she honed her craft as a writer, finding, through a class with the Screen Writers’ Guild Open Door Program, a mentor in sci-fi veteran Harlan Ellison, and then selling her first story while attending the Clarion Science Fiction Writer’s Workshop. Supporting herself variously as a dishwasher, telemarketer and inspector at a crisp factory, she would wake at 2am to write. After five years of rejection slips, she sold her first novel, Patternmaster, in 1975, and when it was published the following year, critics praised its well-built plot and refreshingly progressive heroine. It imagines a distant future in which humanity has evolved into three distinct genetic groups, the dominant one telepathic, and introduces themes of hierarchy and community that would come to define her work. It also spawned a series, with two more books, Mind of My Mind and Survivor, following before the decade’s end.

With the $1,750 advance that Survivor earnt her, Butler took a trip east to Maryland, the setting for a novel she wanted to write about a young black woman who travels back in time to the Deep South of 19th-Century America. Having lived her entire life on the West Coast, she travelled by cross-country bus, and it was during a three-hour wait at a bus station that she wrote the first and last chapters of what would become Kindred. It was published in 1979 and remains her best-known book.

The 1980s would bring a string of awards, including two Hugos, the science-fiction awards first established in 1953. They also saw the publication of her Xenogenesis trilogy, which was spurred by talk of ‘winnable nuclear war’ during the arms race, and probes the idea that humanity’s hierarchical nature is a fatal flaw.The books also respond to debates about human genetic engineering and captive breeding programs for endangered species.

In her author photos, Butler appears a serious woman with an exceptionally penetrating gaze. At a talk she gave in Washington DC in 1991, later reported in the radical feminist periodical, Off Our Backs, she offered a fuller description of herself: “comfortably asocial – a hermit in the middle of Los Angeles – a pessimist if I’m not careful, a feminist, a black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, certainty and drive”.

That certainty and drive can be seen in papers from her archive, now housed at the Huntington Library. In 1998, some motivational notes written on the back of a ring-bound writing pad begin “I shall be a bestselling writer!” She goes on: “I will find the way to do this! So be it! See to it!” Elsewhere, she’s to be found urging herself to “tell stories filled with facts. Make people touch and taste and know. Make people feel! Feel! Feel!”

Butler died in 2006, following a fall near her home in Washington state. Though she had begun suffering from writer’s block and depression, caused in part by medication for her high blood pressure, she’d continued to teach, and in 2005, had been inducted into Chicago State University’s international black writers hall of fame. She published a novel that year, too, Fledgling, whose vampire heroine must avenge a vicious attack, and rebuild her life and family. By then, her books had been translated into 10 languages, selling more than 1 million copies altogether.

In the years since, her fanbase has only grown. It turns out that she didn’t invent the campaign slogan beloved by Trump. It was used by Ronald Reagan in his 1980 presidential campaign, and later by Bill Clinton, although later he described the phrase as a “racist dog whistle to white southerners”. Nevertheless, as Tarshia L Stanley, dean of the school of humanities, arts and sciences at St Catherine University, notes, when readers spotted during the 2016 US election that Butler had chosen the slogan for Jarret, it “jarred people into recognising that she’s been doing this work all along. She’d been trying to tell us that if we do not make changes, this is what’s going to happen. She constantly gave that message: this is the logical conclusion if we keep treading down this path. I think when people saw that phrase, it started a whole new group of people reading her work.”

Butler’s work is today the subject of fan fiction, television adaptations (there are at least two in the works), and lively attention on college campuses, where it’s read from perspectives as varied as critical race theory, Afrofuturism, black feminism, queer theory and disability studies. Stanley, who last year edited the essay collection Approaches to Teaching the Works of Octavia E Butler, is also president of a society dedicated to the author. Its membership is broad, she says, but the most gratifying surprise is how many young people Butler’s work is engaging. At the inaugural conference, there was even a panel of high-school kids.

What would Butler have made of the present political moment in the US? “I don’t think she would have been surprised”, Stanley says. She puts Butler’s ability to envisage our future down to a deep understanding of human nature – knowledge gained from having the role of outsider foisted on her in girlhood. This she backed up with research, reading journals including Scientific American, listening to lectures, travelling as far as the Amazon. For Stanley, the one lesson to take from Butler’s work is hope. “World building is huge in her canon, and so there is always hope that since we built this world, we can build another one.”

There’s a scene in Parable of the Sower when the best friend of heroine Lauren Olamina insists “Books aren’t going to save us”. Lauren replies: “Use your imagination,” telling her to search her family’s bookshelves for anything that might come in handy. “Any kind of survival information from encyclopedias, biographies, anything that helps you learn,” she goes on. "Even some fiction might be useful".

Butler’s novels are just that kind of fiction. The child who began writing as a means of escape, ended up crafting potent calls to socio-political action that seem ever more pertinent to our survival as a species.

Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, and other books by Octavia Butler are published by Headline.

[fmr]

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Homer and Herodotus

” Homer and Herodotus: friends or foes?

by emmabridges | May 1, 2019 | Conferences | 0 comments

Dr. Ivan Matijašić (Newcastle University) reports on a recent workshop held in Newcastle and supported by an ICS conference grant.

Portrait bust of Homer. Roman copy of a Hellenistic original. (BM 1825).

The workshop Homer and Herodotus: A Reappraisal was held at Newcastle University, 4-5 March 2019. Participants and attendees alike discussed the intertextual relationship between Homer and Herodotus, the various common themes that emerge from their works, and their later combined reception in antiquity.

Both authors are well known even outside the narrow circles of professional classicists. Homer, or rather the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, is undoubtedly the father of Greek epic poetry. Herodotus was, according to a famous Ciceronian claim, the father of history, whose work contained nonetheless many fabulae (‘myths’, ‘stories’). Their significance for ancient Greek literature, history, archaeology and historiography cannot be overestimated. The ever-growing amount of publications on both Homer and Herodotus, including several ‘Companions’, is impressive and sometimes daunting.

Herodotus by Jean-Guillaume Moitte, 1806. (Louvre Palace, Paris.)

At the end of 2017 I accepted an invitation to participate to a postgraduate seminar in Venice. The organisers, Ettore Cingano and Stefania De Vido, gave me free rein on the topic. I decided to focus on a disputed passage in Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistai which refers to dramatic performances of the works of Homer and Herodotus in a theatre in Hellenistic Alexandria. However, the name of Herodotus has been effaced from the most important editions and translations of Athenaeus since the nineteenth century, when Friedrich Meineke, a great classical scholar, questioned the correctness of the passage and replaced Herodotus’ name with Hesiod’s.

My stance was that the text of Athenaeus’ should not be corrected for a number of sensible reasons. Among these reasons I also included the – sometimes overlooked – fact that in ancient thought Homer and Herodotus were regarded as two complementary authors: the themes they treated, their language and their style were often considered related. (My article on this Athenaeus passage is going to appear in the next issue of the Journal of Hellenic Studies.) When I started looking for a comprehensive study on the relationship between Homer and Herodotus in antiquity, I found out that, apart from a few articles by John Marincola and Christopher Pelling, there was nothing I could rely on for my argument. To express myself more clearly: there is no book-length study that focuses on both authors.

Hence, I decided that the time was ripe to organise a conference on this topic and started to put together a list of possible participants. Scholars of different ages and backgrounds were involved in this conference, from early career researchers to emeritus professors. Their range of intellectual traditions allowed for the combination of different perspectives in a very constructive way. The final list of speakers included: Christopher Pelling (Oxford), Maria Fragoulaki (Cardiff), Pietro Vannicelli (Sapienza, Rome), Giulia Donelli (Bristol), Massimo Giuseppetti (Roma Tre), Thomas Harrison (St Andrews), Joseph Skinner (Newcastle), Olga Tribulato (Venice), and me.

Chris Pelling, in his fascinating keynote lecture ‘Homeric and Herodotean intertextuality: what’s the point?’, opened up various possible lines of enquiry when dealing with authors from the archaic and classical ages. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey were surely familiar poems in the fifth century BC. References and allusions to the Homeric poems in Herodotus’ Histories highlight the different ways in which an audience might react to certain stories and narrative patterns. Chris’ paper raised many questions, and tried to provide a few answers, on reader-response and intertextuality.

The various speakers tried to assess, from different perspectives, how much can be plausibly pinned down as actually intertextual between Homer and Herodotus and how much should refer to a general mythical matrix. Many different and engaging themes were tackled during the two-day workshop: from representations of the human body in war-related contexts (Fragoulaki) to Xerxes’ expedition against Greece (Vannicelli), from Herodotus’ reception of poetic frames of truth and fiction in Book 8 (Donelli) to appropriation and deconstruction of Homeric epics in Herodotus’ Book 2 (Giuseppetti), from the nature of gods in Greece and Egypt (Harrison) to issues of Greek identity (Skinner), from the linguistic analysis of Herodotus’ language (Tribulato) to the combined reception of Homer and Herodotus in ancient culture (Matijašić).

The workshop allowed for the discussion of a number of general issues, for example: the ‘Homeric world’ through the lens of Herodotus’ Histories; the nature of the language of both authors and how it was perceived in antiquity; the reception of the Homeric epics, and of poetry in general, in Herodotus; the different ways in which later audiences responded to their intertextual relationship. The workshop was attended by more than thirty people, including colleagues, graduate students and undergraduates. Christopher Tuplin very kindly accepted my invitation to give the concluding remarks and offered many exciting perspectives.

My aim is now to collect the various contributions and publish a volume that will hopefully represent a reference work: it will certainly fill a gap in the current scholarship on Homer and Herodotus. From a wider perspective, the output of the workshop will contribute to the advancement of our knowledge in the field of Greek historiography, epic poetry, fifth-century-BC literacy and intertextuality in Greek literature.

by Ivan Matijašić

(Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)”

https://ics.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2019/05/01/homer-and-herodotus-friends-or-foes/

Ivan Matijasic, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia ( https://unive.academia.edu/IvanMatijasic)

Very intersting article and seminar about two major ancient Greek classics. My only remark is that Cicero’s phrase that Herodotus was the Father of History, but his work included many fabulae, must be understood in the context of the not always easy relationship of a Roman of Greek culture like Cicero with the Greek heritage. But anyway, the “tales” in Herodotus’ Histories do not “cancel” his imposing intellectual achievement as the first historian and Father of History, the overall sound structure of the Histories, and the wealth of accurate historical and ethnographical information in Herodotus’ work. Moreover, and despite some inevitable Hellenocentrism in Herodotus, in most cases these “tales” preserve oral traditions and give us the opportunity to understand how peoples of the Antiquity saw themselves, their gods, their rulers, their neighbors or enemies, their past, and more generally their world.

[readitreviewit]

Are you ready for a time-traveling adventure that takes you from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon 500 years later? Then buckle up and get ready to be swept away by Emily St. John Mandel's latest masterpiece, Sea of Tranquility. Mandel is known for her award-winning works such as Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel, and in Sea of Tranquility, she showcases her talents once again. This novel is a virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful. The story begins with Edwin St. Andrew, an eighteen-year-old who had been exiled from polite society following a disastrous outburst at a dinner party. He finds himself in the Canadian wilderness, spellbound by the beauty of nature when he hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal. This experience shakes him to his core, setting the stage for a journey that will take the reader on a wild ride of time travel and metaphysics. Fast forward two centuries later, and we meet Olive Llewellyn, a famous writer who is visiting Earth on a book tour. However, her real home is on the second moon colony, a place of spired towers, white stones, and artificial beauty. Olive's bestselling pandemic novel contains a strange passage about a man who plays his violin in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal, surrounded by the rising trees of a forest. This passage connects the lives of several characters in the novel, including Edwin and Olive. Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness. His investigation leads him down a dangerous path and uncovers a series of lives upended, from the exiled son of an earl driven to madness, to a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, to a childhood friend from Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe. Mandel's writing style is exceptional, and she writes with such ease that the complex narrative flows seamlessly. She has a way of transporting her readers to different worlds and times, making them feel as if they are right there in the middle of the action. Her descriptions of different settings and her characters' experiences are vivid and evoke strong emotions, whether it is the wilderness of Canada in 1912 or the eerie beauty of the second moon colony. Sea of Tranquility is a novel that touches on themes of love, time, art and plague, weaving complex and multifaceted characters throughout the narrative. The storytelling is gripping and beautifully crafted, drawing the reader in from the very first page. Mandel has unlocked the sense of play and puzzle-making that shimmered in her earliest work, making this novel one of her finest yet. The novel is also relevant to our current moment, with the pandemic playing a significant role in the story. It is a reminder of how quickly our lives can change, and how the choices we make can have far-reaching consequences. Mandel expertly captures the reality of our current moment and explores the human experience of living through a pandemic. Sea of Tranquility is a transporting and brilliant novel that will sweep you away on a journey through time and space. It is a testament to Mandel's exceptional talent and an absolute delight to read. So, get ready to be swept away on a journey that will leave you breathless, as you explore the depths of the human experience through the lens of time travel and metaphysics. "Don't miss out on this captivating read! Click now to buy the book or get a 30-day free trial of Audible and immerse yourself in the story like never before." Price: [price_with_discount] (as of [price_update_date] - Details)

[lesty-xx]

10 Questions Ask Meme

ooooh I haven't done one of these in *ages*, thank you @shakespeareanqueer for tagging me!

Rules: Answer 10 questions you were tagged with, come up with 10 more, and tag 10 people.

1) Favorite MCU director? Taika Waititi, he's been one of my favourite directors for years and years (since What We Do in the Shadows, which came out when I was 13) and I'm so thrilled that the entire world now get's to see just how awesome he is.

2) Favorite MCU platonic ship? Hmmmm I'm a big fan of a lot of them, I tend to prefer platonic stuff over romantic stuff since in canon it's normally written better (bc they don't try to make ridiculous mis communication blunders or awkward love triangles or whatever). I love Rhodey and Nebula, I think their friendship was utterly fabulous and really well navigated, I also love love love the dynamic between T'Challa and Shuri, but that might just be because I adore Shuri =")

3) Any MCU NoTPs? St*arker. Put that thing back where it cam from or so help me-

4) Kiss, Marry, Cuddle (when they’re old enough): Toby Maguire as Peter Parker, Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, Tom Holland as Peter Parker? Ooooh I'm not sure?? Hug: Okay, Toby because out of the three of them he looks like he gives the best hugs, he's got a soft face and I think that helps aha Kiss: I don't really remember much of Andrew's run, MJ's death traumatised me a fair bit as a kid so I think I blocked most of those movies out of my memory and I just haven't watched it since. Anyway, I don't really think Andrew's Peter ever got over MJ and honestly, I don't blame him, so I think kiss for that?? Just a quick smoosh, like on the cheek or something lol Marry: Tom, bc he's the last one left hahaha.

5) Least favorite MCU movie? Thor: The Dark World, which makes me really sad because I freakin love Christopher Eccleston, and he was done DIRTY in that film. But like, besides that one time where Jane slapped Loki, I don't think there was a single moment where I actually enjoyed it. I've watched it 3 times now and have fallen asleep or gotten distracted every. single. time.

6) Thoughts on Sony’s foray into Marvel comics films? (Venom + upcoming films?) I actually haven't seen Venom yet! I know, I know, I'm like the only person on tumblr who hasn't haha. Mostly though I'm pretty chill with it, I (like every other person on the planet) really enjoyed Into the Spider-Verse, which was a Sony film, so they definitely hold weight.

7) MCU film you’re most looking forward to coming up? Thor: Love and Thunder. It's actually the only one I'm excited for right now aha, I've been finding the sheer monopoly the MCU has kinda draining lately.

8) Any character/comic arc/random comment/whatever you wish they’d make an MCU movie out of? I honestly kinda wish they'd utilised Kang as the Big Bad instead of Thanos, it would have made far more sense with the time travel story arc in Endgame if they'd been going up,, against,, a time traveller,,

Also, I really hope they do Jane's Thor story arc justice, I have a feeling they will since Taika's running the show, but it's one of my favourite recent story arcs in the comics (is it still even considered recent anymore?? who knows)

9) Thoughts on the Hulu/Netflix Marvel shows? I've enjoyed what I've seen! Due to some personal stuff I haven't really had the heart to watch a lot, just because the themes in a lot of the shows are just a bit too heavy at times (especially in Jessica Jones), but because of the comics I adore the characters.

10) Which Disney+ MCU show are you most looking forward to? The What If? animated series. I'm so pumped, I'm so ready, I. Am. Down.

My Questions

What're you currently reading (be it fanfic, comics, or books)?

What's a fandom you're part of, but don't really engage with often?

What song are you listening to right now (if you're not listening to music, what was the last song you listened to)?

What device from a fictional universe would you love to have in real life (for example, mine would be a sonic screwdriver from Doctor Who)?

Twilight's getting new stuff, Hunger Games is getting new stuff, Percy Jackson is getting new stuff, Sherlock's getting new stuff, and so is Loki. It's almost like 2012 tumblr is coming back. In light of this, what is one thing from 2012 tumblr you'd like to bring back, and one thing you really hope stays in the past forever?

Sci-Fi or Fantasy?

Is your phone damaged in anyway (a cracked screen, an old battery, ect.)?

Pastel or Neon?

How many unread emails do you have right now?

What hobbies, if any, have you gotten into recently?

I've gotta admit it's been so long since I've been on tumblr so I'm not exactly sure who’s still down to be a mutual  anymore 😅 If we're mutuals (or if we're not but you'd life to anyway) then you're more than welcome to answer these questions!  Tag me if you do =D

I'm also tagging @fanfictiongreenirises @ohloverbcy and @shakespeareanqueer (I know you tagged me, but I had so much fun answering your questions I thought you might like to answer more - but only if you'd like to!)