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[yoursinbookishness]

“Number three, I wouldn’t have anyone who would hate Richard Peele with me.” 

to people who commissioned me: I just took two day off to rest and I feel bad for posting my arts while I still didn’t do yours, I’m sorry

[yoursinbookishness]

It’s called The Song of Achilles because the Iliad, the most famous text about Achilles, opens with the infamous line

“Sing, O Muse, of the rage of Achilles”

and that’s how it’s all presented, the rage of Achilles. It’s not his song, it’s a song about his actions and their context within the war and the larger struggle between mankind and fate. There is no song about Achilles himself, no infamous narrative that explores the identity and the humanity of the so-called Best of the Greeks. It’s really dehumanizing, and that’s quite possibly by design, it’s part of the story’s message.

So Miller reframes the story, rephrases the song so that it really is about Achilles. It’s a humanization of one of the most infamous fictional characters ever, it breathes life and soul into Achilles, himself a symbol of the tragedy of a soul broken by insitituonal and personal forces, and makes him more than a symbol, it makes him a person.

But nothing can be about Achilles without also being about Patroclus, because even in the Iliad it is clear that only he can see and reach Achilles’s softer, human side. So Patroclus tells the story, sings us the song of Achilles, of the story of the soul of the man, not simply the man who butchered Troy.

One of Patroclus’s biggest conflicts in the story is the dehumanization of Achilles itself, that history won’t remember him as the boy who loved to play the lyre and eat figs, but as Aristos Achaeon. It breaks Patroclus’s heart and it breaks the reader’s heart, and much of the story is based around Patroclus trying to prevent that from happening.

The song of Achilles is supposed to be Patroclus’s vanguard against the dehumanization of history. On a broader scale, it’s a testament to the necessity of love, compassion, and empathy when looking at any “historical” event, and that the human soul is a precious thing in and of itself and deserves to be protected and cherished, and the world is left a better place when it is. (I could also go into the emphasis on the importance of rejecting repressive cultural, social, and institutional pressures and living life for oneself and not just one’s place in the world, but I’m emotional enough as it is.) That’s why I think it’s such an important text related to the Iliad and it deserves the same respect as the thousands of its other retellings.

[yoursinbookishness]

They’re so precious !

[yoursinbookishness]

Steel Crow Saga! Felt like re-reading during the lockdown, which prompted me to draw some fanart.

Def check it out if you’re looking for a cool Asian-inspired fantasy.

[yoursinbookishness]

rin, nezha, and kitay have about four brain cells between the three of them...

and they're all kitay's.

[yoursinbookishness]

i was thinking a bit about the poppy war, and especially about rin and nezha.

they are two really interesting characters whose personalities, superficially, almost feel the same (example: their reciprocal pettiness during their fist year at sinegard), but you have to barely scratch that surface to see that they are two totally different beings.

the truth is, they were both created to be the opposite of each other, in everything: from their backgrounds (rich kid vs poor peasant), their affections (a popular kid from a loving family vs an orphan with very few friends) and the way they show it (nezha crying for rin at the end of tdr or him calling venka "little sister" vs rin literally saying "fuck you" every time somebody tries to tell her that they care about her), to their powers (water vs fire) and their approach to them (being reluctant to use the powers vs literally being addicted to it).

even their mentalities are different (nezha looks and acts kind of conservative, but if you analyze him you'll see that he has democratic values vs rin is definitely more radical and probably tends to dictatorship).

That's why their dynamics are so great. They make you see two total different faces of the same coin, which can't exist without each other. In some moments it looks like they can collaborate to reach the same goal, but at the end one will prevail on the other.

[yoursinbookishness]

can’t get over kitay insisting on becoming rin’s anchor despite not knowing anything about shamanism and having to hide the pain every time she uses her power.. basically I love chen kitay and he is my favorite boy

[yoursinbookishness]

thinking about how rin, when faced with the possibility of falling behind, just....went ahead and deactivated her uterus entirely so her periods wouldn't get in the way.

I remember being so incredibly uncomfortable reading that, because the entire fucking time all I could think about was how she was now 'not fully a woman' and she would never find love because she would never give birth....yikes. I didn't even know I believed such shitty things about women.

I didn't even realise how much women are subconsciously asked to place their worth on their wombs till I read about Rin. Lots of stories talk about women giving up their fertility but even then they're so weirdly obsessed over it and make it into such a Big Deal and A Sacrifice That You Will 100% Repent (looking at you, The Witcher). Whereas The Poppy War was just like....🤷 anyway, back to the plot.

Absolutely superb, you funky little war criminal. You do you, Fang Runin.

[yoursinbookishness]

can’t get over kitay insisting on becoming rin’s anchor despite not knowing anything about shamanism and having to hide the pain every time she uses her power.. basically I love chen kitay and he is my favorite boy

[yoursinbookishness]

Victor Vale and Eli Ever from V.E. Schwab’s Vicious

[yoursinbookishness]

𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝘆: Can I ask a dumb question?

𝗙𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆: Better than anyone I know

[yoursinbookishness]

history, huh?

[yoursinbookishness]

This was Alex in the beginning of the book

[yoursinbookishness]

anyway we stan revolutionist millennials overturning centuries of antiquated traditions in exchange for focuses on mental health, equal rights, and charitable efforts. ✌️

[yoursinbookishness]

y’all ever just collectively remember Adam Parrish and everything he’s been through and all the events of the books rush through your head all at once and then he’s there at harvard absolutely killing it and you’re so proud of him and all this happen in 1.3 seconds and then you have to spend 20 minutes coming down from that unprecedented rush? bc yeah me too

[yoursinbookishness]

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to carve more time in my schedule for reading. It’s going pretty well.

2020 Books #1. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

[yoursinbookishness]

Cancelling plans is ok. Pushing your archenemy into his brother’s $75,000 wedding cake is ok. Faking a friendship with him to maintain good international relations is ok. Sucking his dick is ok. Do whatever you need to cope.