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Feb. 9th, 2009 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI read more of Ovid's Metamorphoses.
I'm slowing down as it gets closer to the end. I think it's because there's only so many times you can read how everyone dies / turns into birds / turns into crying rocks before you're all 'wait, did I read this bit already? no? whose name was it? which bird? why did it matter again?' And then I put the book down again.
I did like the bit where Ulysses and Ajax get in an argument. It's basically a bit argue between a hero who is good at hitting things until they die, and thinks he's therefor the best, and a hero who is good at persuading other people to hit things until they die while he sneaks around back and steals the important stuff, and thinks that works better. Fighter vs trickster, soldier vs general, sort of thing. Ulysses the tricksy wins, of course. I quite like the bit where he explains how secretly everything everyone else did was an achievement of Ulysses, because without him they'd all have run away or something. The bare faced cheek of it, even if it is true within the story, is quite brilliant.
Also, Circe rocks. I realise she's supposed to be the baddie, and the way she mostly does stuff because some bloke doesn't love her is a bit annoying, but she just goes around changing people into things in large numbers and, and I think this is unique so far, changing them back into humans when she feels like it. And, okay, when Ulysses tells her to. But it's just fun. Greedy mens into pigs! Big long description of what that felt like!
BTW, in this translation, 'groin' means snout and 'tush' means tusk. It's, erm, easy to misread. And somewhat boggling.
Astonied means astonished, standing as if turned to stone. The story explains. Just in case we were wondering.
I forget who was doing what to who when I gave up for the evening, but I predict someone will shortly fly away and someone else will turn into a rock. There was only once it was a flying rock, when a Cyclops threw it, but that was nice for variety. Also it managed the triple and turned into a river too.
Okay, so I'm a bit bored and snarky now.
There's good bits and proper sad tragedy and bits where you get really annoyed at someone who is about to get theirs messily and all that, it's just it keeps on happening.
I want to swap and read about miraculous births and stones being turned into people. Which, come to think, there was a bunch of at the start of the story. But I'm fed up of everyone dying and then the story following the next nearest people until all of them die too. People die, we get it, can they do something else interesting too? Sheesh.
So. Anyway. Book. Classic. Interesting.
I'm slowing down as it gets closer to the end. I think it's because there's only so many times you can read how everyone dies / turns into birds / turns into crying rocks before you're all 'wait, did I read this bit already? no? whose name was it? which bird? why did it matter again?' And then I put the book down again.
I did like the bit where Ulysses and Ajax get in an argument. It's basically a bit argue between a hero who is good at hitting things until they die, and thinks he's therefor the best, and a hero who is good at persuading other people to hit things until they die while he sneaks around back and steals the important stuff, and thinks that works better. Fighter vs trickster, soldier vs general, sort of thing. Ulysses the tricksy wins, of course. I quite like the bit where he explains how secretly everything everyone else did was an achievement of Ulysses, because without him they'd all have run away or something. The bare faced cheek of it, even if it is true within the story, is quite brilliant.
Also, Circe rocks. I realise she's supposed to be the baddie, and the way she mostly does stuff because some bloke doesn't love her is a bit annoying, but she just goes around changing people into things in large numbers and, and I think this is unique so far, changing them back into humans when she feels like it. And, okay, when Ulysses tells her to. But it's just fun. Greedy mens into pigs! Big long description of what that felt like!
BTW, in this translation, 'groin' means snout and 'tush' means tusk. It's, erm, easy to misread. And somewhat boggling.
Astonied means astonished, standing as if turned to stone. The story explains. Just in case we were wondering.
I forget who was doing what to who when I gave up for the evening, but I predict someone will shortly fly away and someone else will turn into a rock. There was only once it was a flying rock, when a Cyclops threw it, but that was nice for variety. Also it managed the triple and turned into a river too.
Okay, so I'm a bit bored and snarky now.
There's good bits and proper sad tragedy and bits where you get really annoyed at someone who is about to get theirs messily and all that, it's just it keeps on happening.
I want to swap and read about miraculous births and stones being turned into people. Which, come to think, there was a bunch of at the start of the story. But I'm fed up of everyone dying and then the story following the next nearest people until all of them die too. People die, we get it, can they do something else interesting too? Sheesh.
So. Anyway. Book. Classic. Interesting.