#because cynthia and lesbia and the other elegiac beloveds really don't

[lurking-latinist]

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#anyway the aubrey-maturin kick is helping me with my dissertation I think #because diana is 100% an elegiac puella. all of the things that she does are elegiac puella things #right down to her name - equivalent of propertius' cynthia #(I suspect o'brien knew this he strikes me as probably knowing his catullus at least) #and it's interesting to see that such a character CAN exist in a linear narrative #because cynthia and lesbia and the other elegiac beloveds really don't #only in sort of vignettes. and that's part of what I'm writing about #so that you can reconstruct these characteristics and behaviors into a character who works in a novel #(even if she keeps disappearing to places and her letters cannot be put in order and there are five years in 1813) #(she's not SUPER strictly bound by linear time but she *is* in a novel) #dissertationblogging #this possibly only makes sense if you are inside my brain #sorry