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If you die, I die.
Jul. 30th, 2019 08:38 am1. We went to the beach at Tybee Island yesterday. Fiona had never been to the beach before, and that was her vacation request this summer. When I went to bed last night, I felt like somebody had beat me up. I can't believe how much of a workout that was. I probably only tread water for 20-30 minutes total, but doing it in those waves was hardcore. Same with just standing and bracing myself against the surf. Wow. The girls had a fantastic time; poor Josh spent the whole day up under the umbrellas and praying not to get sunburned. He is a good sport.
2. ( Stranger Things season 3 episodes 4-6 )
I hope we finish tonight!
3.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don't have a lot of strong feelings about the Homeric epics; they basically amount to Odysseus is a jackass, Achilles is a whiny baby jackass, and Hector is bestest. The Iliad starts in the middle of the action with an invocation to the muse featuring Achilles's rage, and there's just not much more to him in the poem IMHO. The classics are not my bag; I've read the Homeric epics and Hesiod and many other primary texts from ancient Greece and some secondary texts to contextualize, but it is not my area of study at all, and if there's more to Achilles than an angry dude who sticks out his bottom lip and crosses his arms and takes his toys home, I don't see it. Well, until he turns into grief-stricken Achilles who is infinitely more interesting to me.
Miller makes me like Achilles and care about Achilles and see him as an essentially good guy. His anger and his choices make a lot more sense to me in the context of this book than they do in the poem.
The novel reminds me a great deal of Renault's The King Must Die except that the divine there is always ambiguous and may not even exist, but the supernatural is very real in The Song of Achilles. I love Thetis, how otherworldly and hard and frightening and destructive to what is human she is. Her mercy at the end means so much more as a result.
This is such a good book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
View all my reviews
2. ( Stranger Things season 3 episodes 4-6 )
I hope we finish tonight!
3.
The Song of Achilles by Madeline MillerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don't have a lot of strong feelings about the Homeric epics; they basically amount to Odysseus is a jackass, Achilles is a whiny baby jackass, and Hector is bestest. The Iliad starts in the middle of the action with an invocation to the muse featuring Achilles's rage, and there's just not much more to him in the poem IMHO. The classics are not my bag; I've read the Homeric epics and Hesiod and many other primary texts from ancient Greece and some secondary texts to contextualize, but it is not my area of study at all, and if there's more to Achilles than an angry dude who sticks out his bottom lip and crosses his arms and takes his toys home, I don't see it. Well, until he turns into grief-stricken Achilles who is infinitely more interesting to me.
Miller makes me like Achilles and care about Achilles and see him as an essentially good guy. His anger and his choices make a lot more sense to me in the context of this book than they do in the poem.
The novel reminds me a great deal of Renault's The King Must Die except that the divine there is always ambiguous and may not even exist, but the supernatural is very real in The Song of Achilles. I love Thetis, how otherworldly and hard and frightening and destructive to what is human she is. Her mercy at the end means so much more as a result.
This is such a good book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
View all my reviews
