#wrath goddess sing

[theabigailthorn]

Wrath Goddess Sing

I just finished the novel, holy crap hahaha that was amazing

No spoilers but wow, that ending!

#Wrath Goddess Sing

[libraryleopard]

when you're reading an iliad retelling and achilles says to menelaos "don't worry, we'll get your wife back tomorrow" the day the greeks arrive at troy

#that's. optimistic of you #wrath goddess sing #lulu reads wrath goddess sing #books #lulu speaks #tagamemnon #classics #greek mythology #lulu reads

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: Trans Historical Fiction

The Companion by EE Ottoman Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane A Lady for a Duke by Alexis Hall Bonus: These are all Adult, but in YA, check out The Spirit Bares its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White Double Bonus: Coming in 2024, The Woods All Black by Lee Mandelo

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#A Lady for a Duke #Alexis Hall #All the White Spaces #Ally Wilkes #Andrew Joseph White #Confessions of the Fox #EE Ottoman #Jordy Rosenberg #Lee Mandelo #Maya Deane #The Companion #The Spirit Bares its Teeth #The Woods All Black #Wrath Goddess Sing

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Aunty,

I recently came across a book called Wrath Goddess Sing and while I have nothing against the original premise (showing Achilles as a trans woman) despite how that would not really have worked in those times, it's actually so weird how the author decided to magically turn Achilles into a "real woman" whose beliefs around womanhood center on the ability to give birth and be a mother, which is just insane if you consider that the author is also trans (by making Achilles a bio woman, she's literally erasing what the premise was about and then claiming that it happened either because the Gods knew she wanted it *so much* or because she wanted it "enough" to make it happen which invalidates all other trans folks in the story because they suddenly don't want it "enough"). Apart from that, there are constant homophobic, transphobic and incredibly racist remarks throuought the book which is why it's so weird to see it praised by so many.

Also, the author used the term "kallai" to refer to trans people in Skyros and now some fans of hers are using it to speak of themselves, despite it being plural and despite it not making sense in the way they're using it. F.e. "I'm a kallai/good morning Kallai", which is just peak US centrism (and like the author literally claimed that the female version of "Achilles" was "Achileas" - why don't they do research?).

What I often explain to foreigners when they throw tantrums about people (often Greeks 😄) telling them something is wrong, is that we are not unreasonable. I think most Greeks would just go "hm!" at the thought of someone exploring the thought of a trans Achilles, and we would all realize the problem with this book would actually be the historical/language/societal inaccuracies. Like the cringe I feel when I read the "I'm a kallai/good morning Kallai".

As far the female version of the Achilleas go, we know this to be Achillea ("Αχίλλεια" ), not Achilleas. The author perhaps found a woman named Achilleas ("Αχιλλειάς" / "Αχιλλειάδα"; ) somewhere? But I haven't read or seen that name in any Greek text. Grammatically it also feels "off" to me, (having been exposed to enough ancient Greek grammar) but if someone has found it, pls tell us.

For the lack of research... I don't care how progressive you say are. If you are not doing any research on the culture and language of the people you're writing and you're still making a profit, and no one in the industry cares to check you, that's a form of privilege and you're engaging in harmful - and very much not progressive - behaviors.

And because I had a few discussions with other Greeks and non-Greeks on this let me share something here.

A reaction from Greeks and other people would also be "but Achilles was not trans...?" and yes, that's a normal reaction and it's not linked to American conservatism, sorry to burst the US neoliberal bubble.

While the author has the right to write what she wants, it's still a fact that we don't have any evidence of Achilles being anything but cis. If anything he was the most macho male man out there according to Greek standards and very much happy with his predicament. And when this figure is popular and, well, your ethnic hero, you just want to ask about that. Not in a "I don't want this book to exist" way but you want to ask why did it have to be Achilles, and why a historically cis person.

I'm not saying all this to imply that the author shouldn't write this. Anyone can write whatever they want, and I don't think exploring this scenario is harmful to anyone. But it's fair to assume the author went "I want a trans Achilles no matter what!" And because the ends clearly justified the means here, the character of Achilles and all the themes of the initial story were thrown out the window - which is also not the best thing to do when writing well-known figures and stories from other cultures.

Sure, the premise of "what if Achilles liked being a woman?" is an interesting idea and, if written well, I would read it. However when a writer does all the above it's clear to most people that they just make a far-fetched play-pretend out of myths that cannot be changed - bc they are already written and we preserve them for the last 2.000 years.

Then, you have the... odd (for lack of a better word) tropes. For this specific trans writer the tropes worked and good for her. At the same time I can see why other trans women might have an issue with the transformation into a "real woman". From what I hear, there are trans women who'd like this transformation and others who don't find it validating. And ofc there's always the issue of why Achilles got her wish and what the other trans women did "wrong" to not get it.

With all the paragraphs above I also want to raise an extra issue. Why take a completely cis person and make them trans, instead of writing the story of a historically trans person or creating a new trans character? (if history doesn't have any) Relying on an established cis figure for trans representation can be a bit icky.

"Apart from that, there are constant homophobic, transphobic and incredibly racist remarks throuought the book which is why it's so weird to see it praised by so many." That's also unfortunate 😩 I won't read the book but if you have passages and stuff to demonstrate this point, let me know

#Wrath Goddess Sing #retellings

[haveyoureadthisfantasybook]

vote yes if you have finished the entire book.

vote no if you have not finished the entire book.

(faq · submit a book)

#fantasy #books #Wrath Goddess Sing #Maya Deane #poll #result: no #l: English

[feaftlikeabeaft]

I’ve never blogged about a book before but I feel the need to start with Wrath Goddess Sing.

FINALLY SOME GOOD TRANS CONTENT.

In short, it’s a queer retelling of the Illiad (the account of the Trojan War by the ancient Greek poet Homer). It’s so much more than that though - honestly it’s bonkers.

It’s like if the Illiad snorted Warhammer cocaine and came out as trans by decapitating a transphobe.

The first half is pretty fun, depicting Achilles (who in this story is a trans woman) returning to her home country after sheltering on a mostly-women island from her abusers (this book has a lot of explicit depictions of queerphobia so be warned!) and fighting in the Trojan War. It’s very bloody and brutal and also very fun because Achilles is basically invincible at first. I wasn’t fully into the story at this point but I still enjoyed it.

The second half is BONKERS. Without spoiling anything, the machinations of the gods suddenly become front-and-centre and the story becomes all about power and reclaiming power. It culminates in an finale which made me audibly gasp.

Also the characters are very lovable and gay even when (especially when?) they’re committing war crimes (which, to be fair, are not technically crimes because the Geneva Conventions haven’t been written yet).

So yeah. Preddy good.

#Wrath Goddess Sing #Maya Deane #book review #2023 reading list #finally some good trans content

[haveyoureadthistransbook]

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane

goodreads

The gods wanted blood. She fought for love. 

Achilles has fled her home and her vicious Myrmidon clan to live as a woman with the kallai, the transgender priestesses of Great Mother Aphrodite. When Odysseus comes to recruit the "prince" Achilles for a war against the Hittites, she prepares to die rather than fight as a man. However, her divine mother, Athena, intervenes, transforming her body into the woman's body she always longed for, and promises her everything: glory, power, fame, victory in war, and, most importantly, a child born of her own body. Reunited with her beloved cousin, Patroklos, and his brilliant wife, the sorceress Meryapi, Achilles sets out to war with a vengeance.

But the gods--a dysfunctional family of abusive immortals that have glutted on human sacrifices for centuries--have woven ancient schemes more blood-soaked and nightmarish than Achilles can imagine. At the center of it all is the cruel, immortal Helen, who sees Achilles as a worthy enemy after millennia of ennui and emptiness. In love with her newfound nemesis, Helen sets out to destroy everything and everyone Achilles cherishes, seeking a battle to the death.

An innovative spin on a familiar tale, this is the Trojan War unlike anything ever told, and an Achilles whose vulnerability is revealed by the people she chooses to fight...and chooses to trust.

Mod opinion: I tried to read this book a while ago, but it lost my interest unfortunately. But I know a lot of people enjoyed it.

#wrath goddess sing #maya deane #lgbt lit #lgbt literature #lgbt books #trans lit #trans literature #trans books #fantasy #retelling #trans woman #own voices #mythology #polls

[alicelufenia]

#wrath goddess sing #helen wgs #seriously this book is so good

[autolenaphilia]

Gods, browsing the reviews for Wrath Goddess Sing is so frustrating, because there are so much bullshit from tme people that can't read and want to do a transmisogyny.

Like I understand your brain has entirely rotted away from a mix of only reading mediocre ya fantasy and transmisogyny making you not listen when transfems tell you things, but come on.

Like a thing was complaining about the novel depicting transmisogyny and taking that for an endorsement of it when the book couldn't be more obvious about rejecting it. It's a critical depiction.

Again, it's so arrogant that in what is a transmisogynistic hate campaign against a book to accuse the trans woman author whose career you are trying to end of transphobia for truthfully depicting the very transmisogynistic bullying you are committing.

Like browsing the tag for it here on tumblr.

And then there was the complaining about changing the myths, often reacting just to the publisher's plot introduction.

LIke how dense can you be. There is a very obvious purpose to all this. The concept of feminist re-imaginings of mythology is not new at all. The Illiad and greek mythology in general is a product of a deeply patriarchal culture in which women were property of their husbands and fathers. They are full of (trans)misogyny.

The stories of the Trojan war and The Illiad in particular run on this women as property logic. Helen has no agency, but is stolen from Menelaus by Paris. Briseis is just a slave that Achilles rapes and his anger at Agamemnon stealing her away from him is what drives the plot of The Illiad.

Like these stories are important to western culture and all, but should we just venerate and uncritically re-tell them? Maya Deane is a woman, it makes sense that she should be critical of The Illiad. A faithful re-telling in the year 2022 is actually the decision that deserves criticism.

Wrath Goddess Sing is a story about a trans woman Achilles. It's probably based on the Achilles on Skyros story. Which is a crossdressing-as-disguise story which ignores any possibility of transnesss. Achilles is revealed through gender essentialism. He is interested in weapons and women are not warlike, so Odysseus is able to see through his disguise.

And Deane decided to use this story as the basis to re-imagine the whole. What if Achilles was a trans woman and the reason she lived as a woman on Skyros was because that was what she wanted?

And this changes everything. It subverts the (trans)misogyny if one of the greatest heroes of Greek myth is actually a woman, a trans woman. And it's such a radical change you just can't re-tell the Illiad. Achilles is in effect a new character who brings up new transfeminist themes that are incompatible with the existing themes of the Trojan war story and The Illiad. Achilles being a man is not incidental to these stories, but reinforce the basic theme. Again those stories are based on the idea that women are property, and the very concept of a trans woman Achilles subverts that theme. You can't have her fight a war based on that premise.

So you have to change much more to make the story make sense with a trans woman Achilles. You have to tell a new story with transfeminist themes. This is why greek mythology is extensively reimagined in the book to center women and especially trans women. So while greek mythology is the starting point, the end result ends up very different.

So in Wrath Goddess Sing while Agamemnon and the other male heroes believe the war to be a quest to regain stolen property Helen, Helen instead becomes an active antagonist with immense divine powers. And she is opposed to Achilles, another woman, who is one of the few to understand what the conflict is about.

Deane weaves her own mythology merely using the greek myths as raw material in her own literary conception. And the reason she needs to make such radical changes in her transfeminist retelling is because the (trans)misogyny is so thoroughly baked into the original myths.

The very point of a re-telling is to make changes and add original material, because otherwise what is the point of reading a re-telling if it's just the same? Like the point of Wrath Goddess Sing is to have a version of the story of Achilles and the Trojan war where trans women matter.

If you want to read the Illiad, just read the Illiad, or the many books that re-tell the story faithfully in modern prose. Like Wrath Goddess Sing is unlikely to replace The Illiad's position in Western culture. Although I think we might be better off if that happened.

#wrath goddess sing #my writings

[ffxiiiapologist]

Blocking people who are stupid about Wrath Goddess Sing online isn’t enough I need a sword of meteoric iron

#read dathomira’s goodreads review or perish #wrath goddess sing #analects

[trutletruffle]

so i read Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane and first of all, very good, i love when you can tell someone researched the shit out of their mostly-fantasy novel, i love it, it’s very good you should read it. it’s kinda slow through the middle but it’s worth it if you want to. 8/10

#brisewos is so hot i’m not taking questions #on todays episode of i read a book and now need to wordvomit about it #wrath goddess sing #wrath goddess sing maya deane #queer books #trans books

[booksandchainmail]

I dwelt in the Great Mother's temple and mastered the arts of memory. My talent was that I forget nothing, nothing, that I can drink the memories of the dead and bring them life again, for I am Atana who forgets nothing, and when I was but a girl, an invisible girl with staring eyes, my friend Pallasu, glorious Pallasu, elegant and tall and full of secrets, slipped and fell and smashed her brains on the rocks of the Great Mother's temple, and I was sad that her beautiful brains should go to waste and be forgotten and her secrets should be drunk up by the stones, so I knelt there on the stones and lapped her up, and then I TOO WAS PALLASU and the GREAT MOTHER asked WHERE IS PALLASU and I answered HERE I AM

Wrath Goddess Sing, by Maya Deane

#wrath goddess sing #maya deane

[libraryleopard]

reading monstrous regiment and wrath goddess sing at the same time is really wild because they're both fantasy novels about gender and the patriarchy during wartime that also include a dead god and characters trying to get into the enemy's stronghold but they're completely different in tone and plot

#one is a satirical fantasy novel and the other is a retelling of the iliad #wrath goddess sing #monstrous regiment #lulu speaks #lulu reads wrath goddess sing #lulu reads monstrous regiment #lulu reads discworld #discworld #books #lulu reads

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: LGBTQ Novels Inspired by Greek Mythology, Part III

For even more, check out Part I and Part II. The Song of Us by Kate Fussner (MG) Lies We Sing to the Sea by Sarah Underwood (YA) Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane HERC by Phoenicia Rogerson Crown of Starlight by Cait Corrain Bonus: Lion’s Legacy by L.C. Rosen is inspired by Greek history, and The Palace of Eros by Carolina de Robertis isn’t available for preorder yet, but keep it on your radar!

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#Achilles #Ariadne and Dionysus #Eurydice and Orpheus #HERC #Hercules #Kate Fussner #L.C. Rosen #Lies We Sing to the Sea #Lion&039;s Legacy #Maya Deane #Phoenicia Rogerson #Reimaginings #retellings #Sarah Underwood #The Song of Us #Wrath Goddess Sing

[spaceshipkat]

So not to talk about the trans!Achilles book on main again, but a friend of mine is reading the book and he's told me that some of the transphobia in the book manifests in people referring to Achilles being transgender as the f slur - i.e. "f****try". And it's used A BUNCH of times.

oof this review though:

sounds like your friend isn't alone in feeling extremely questionable about this book. did it not have any sensitivity readers or something?

#ask #coeurvrai #wrath goddess sing #bad books

[septemberbells]

read wrath goddess sing this morning and it was incredible!!!!!! the book is titled after the opening words to the iliad and reimagines achilles as a trans woman (& the author is a trans woman!!) achilles in the story is super badass, she's definitely in her slut era, and i really love her. in a lot of ways, this felt like reading a meaningful and complex story without just re-experiencing the iliad. maya deane also did a bunch of cool egyptology research and so there's really cool connections between greek and egyptian gods (as the same figures) within the book. the book is really thoughtful and funny and i couldn't put it down! also i need friends to talk to about it because holy crap i love it so much!!!!! (disclaimer: check content warnings on storygraph)

#wrath goddess sing #so good #i am screm