#(& i’m procrastinating on my aristophanes final paper. kill me now. i kind of hate the guy tbh)

[devilsskettle]

the only interesting modern novel adaption of a greek myth that i’ve ever read was bone gap by laura ruby and i didn’t even realize it was an adaption of the abduction of persephone and the orpheus & eurydice myths until halfway through. it was new! it was different! it was interesting! it was only loosely based on these myths to explore certain themes about identity and freedom and consent and love and losing a loved one and BEES and social norms and beauty standards and navigating living with a disability etc etc etc!! another example of a story that can stand alone but is only improved by deeper exploration when you consider the source material! it was such an unexpected story too, i could hardly predict a single thing that happened despite it being a partial adaption because it really was doing something original with those myths. like if you really insist on reading exclusively ya, that’s a good one to try! sure it’s not lgbt but it explores a lot of other important topics and anyway that’s not necessarily a good way of choosing what you read (call me by your name is also myth-reference-heavy lgbt book that emulates an eromenos/erastes relationship and we know how this website feels about that so....)(also if you don’t have an opinion about whether achilles was the eromenos or erastes or neither in their relationship i don’t particularly care about your thoughts on his and patroclus’ relationship. sorry)(i think achilles was the eromenos to patroclus’ erastes role and i will die on that hill unless presented with a very compelling counter argument). also for queer ya, aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe – not classic lit related as the name implies but gay and very good. gay fantasy? carry on. gay sci-fi? we are the ants. more ya high school gay drama? simon vs the homo sapien agenda. not to mention all the other ya gay lit you can find recommendations for on the internet with a quick google search. hit up goodreads or something. anyway in terms of other adaptions that i liked: hadestown i also enjoyed even though it was more of a straight adaption and the game hades looks promising and fun to me too, and i think i will give ursula le guin’s lavinia a try at some point, and of course mythology island on poptropica is a classic, but yeah for the most part modern adaptions of mythology don’t resonate with me, maybe because the language is less interesting? maybe because it feels trite? i don’t know, maybe it’s minor heresy not to spend more time on modern applications of myth but i simply do not enjoy it

#references on the other hand? or perhaps a motif? some parallels? love that shit #hannibal lecter you’re on thin fucking ice but actually your achilles/patroclus comparison checks out #OH the oa? i still haven’t seen past season 1 but damn that’s an excellent use of homeric epic #considering it’s also a nostos narrative like the odyssey! oh wait i have thoughts about this now but that’s for another day #again i’m not taking this seriously i just have a lot of opinions on this shit specifically #(& i’m procrastinating on my aristophanes final paper. kill me now. i kind of hate the guy tbh)