[laying Down From A Stab Wound, Clutching My Stomach As I Bleed Out Onto The Cold Marble Floor Beneath

If We Were Villains characters as  troubled birds

Oliver

Meredith

Richard

Wren

Alexander

Filippa

James

While watching the Tinkerbell film franchise we can see that pixie hollow functions differently to our own society, for example while all the fairys work in assigned jobs, we never see any evidence that they receive money for their work, furthermore we never see any fairys spending money, however they seem to have all their essentials provided for them. When Tinkerbell arrives at pixie hollow she is assigned a house, and we see that each fairy receives a daily ration of pixie dust. Even when Tinkerbell abandons her job in the first movie we still see her receiving pixie dust. By watching the films critically we can deduce that pixie hollow is a communist utopia that uses no form of currency. In this essay I will

the trouble is, you think you have time. 

GONCHAROV (1973)  dir. Martin Scorsese 

so I was translating the Iliad and of course I had to end up crying again

why?

well, first of all, there’s something important about the Iliad: it’s very common that a certain verse appears a lot of times in the poem (for example, “and thus, X said” or “and then, black death took over his corpse”) because the Iliad and the Odyssey were oral poems. Those verses made it easier for the poet to remember the rest, a bit like the chorus of a song.

Okay. So. In the book 2 of the Iliad, Achilles is with his mother, and he’s crying because Agamemnon has offended him. And Thetis says:  τί δέ σε φρένας ἵκετο πένθος; ἐξαύδα, μὴ κεῦθε νόῳ, ἵνα εἴδομεν ἄμφω. (Son, what sorrow has taken over your heart? speak, don’t hide it in your heart, so we both know).

Then we move forward to book 16. Homer shows us a four verse long simile describing Patroclus’ tears: he cries warm tears like a dark fountain pours its waters over a cliff.  Achilles gets worried about him (because who would like seeing the love of his life crying like that? not me, not Achilles) and Achilles asks him why is he crying, and says:  ἐξαύδα, μὴ κεῦθε νόῳ, ἵνα εἴδομεν ἄμφω. The exact same verse.

And! then! there’s book 18. Patroclus has died, and Achilles is completely devastated. His mother appears quickly at his side, and, alarmed, says:  τέκνον τί κλαίεις; τί δέ σε φρένας ἵκετο πένθος; ἐξαύδα, μὴ κεῦθε. (Son, why are you crying? what sorrow has taken over your heart? speak, don’t hide it). Yes, this same verse again.

Think about it. The very words Achilles had comforted Patroclus with, Thetis has to repeat them to comfort her son again. At first, he was crying because he was offended; then he cries because, as a consequence of that offence, he’s lost the person whom he loved more than his own life.

Intertextuality in the Iliad is absolutely fascinating and heartbreaking and I’m not okay

the overwhelming urge to know latin, french, italian, greek, and russian is consuming me

literature → gothic

Darkly academic research ideas for your time indoors (because you're not a heathen):

The lives of great classical composers.

Ancient Egypt's social hierarchy and attitudes towards women, homosexuality etc.

Poisons.

The tea trade, and how it became so important to British culture.

18th century fashion and the production of clothing.

How corsets aren't the terrible patriarchal torture devices everyone thinks they are.

The use of recreational drugs in the late 19th century.

The French revolution.

Methods of forensic investigation at crime scenes.

Controversy in psychological studies.

Matriarchal societies.

How nostalgia influences fashion, media, and literature.

The nature versus nurture argument.

The history of trains and railroads.

Symbolism in art.

Just a few research rabbit holes to throw yourself into if you're bored. :)