aglarien-Literature (EN) @[email protected]

"You can go home again, the General Temporal Theory asserts, so long as you understand that home is a place where you have never been."

rosepetals42(AO3) is fucking good at writing Teen Wolf(that TV series) fanfics. Go check her out. She wrote common tropes like master/slave or rival rock stars but she's comparable to some "serious" authors in characterization. ​​​

@[email protected] I'm wondering if you would find this interesting...

After the Psalms had been translated into English in prose, people found that these proses were difficult to sing or to enchant in the church. In Hebrew they were definitely "songs", lines supposed to be uttered with music. But the Hebrew orginals didn't follow the rhythmic structure in the way that English poetry did. Therefore, some translators/scholars attempted to create poems that were playfully engaged with the Psalms. In the 1560s, Hopkins produced such a work, putting Psalms into common measure. But the quality of that work was so poor that there were over 200 poets in the following 17th century trying to did the Psalms justice with their own versions. Philip Sydney and Mary Sydney were at the forefront of that trend. They wrote their poems in Heterometric stanzas, that is, they invented a new pattern every time they made a poem out of the Psalms. Their works would not be formally published until the 18th century, but their manuscripts were popular enough. John Donne, for example, was an eager student of them. Centuries later, Yeats also learnt a lot from them.

“No one in the Odyssey reads or writes anything.”
One of the poets' inability to write is even underlined by the fact that he's blind.

Over the last few days I have been in the dread despair having to choose between my favorite Lit program and my second favorite one (with the fundings). One teaches (I think) rather "canonical" literature and quite theory-heavy, while the other focuses more on the popular literature and (maybe) with less theory mentioned in the cirruclum. I consulted a few of my fellow scholars and friends about this, and I learned quite a lot! This is what I learned: whichever program you choose, if you wanted to be really good in this area, you have to learn the things your lectures and seminars do not cover on your own. The only difference here is which part of your effort will be praised, rated, and peer-reviewed. You can't expect to become a genius in literary studies by enrolling in a program. You may choose what kind of help you want to receive.

If you are a beginner in English literary studies (like me), in trying to wrap your head around the idea of metre and feet, I would recommend you to start from the 18- and 19- century poetry. Poets from those periods did these things in a more regular manner so it is easier to practice along the way. Also, W.B.Yeats would rather die than write free verse and he wrote succinctly and beautifully, therefore, his collected poems is a good exercise book!

Now I don't trust all these creativity-related degrees, whether it is the creative writing degree, or the game design degree. I no longer believe in them. Can creativity be taught? Yes, it's beneficial to meet like-minded people to discuss your own work. But it should be done in "workshops", not the degree courses.

“16…For whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
17Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.”
Ruth. 1:16-17
There is passion and commitment, and possibly intimacy too. It is love in a contemporary sense, even if not an erotic one, between these two female biblical figures.

Definition of the word "Canon" in theatre studies:
In theatre terms, canonical texts are those that enjoy an institutional privilege that allows them to be disproportionately studied, read, performed and referenced in relation to their peers.
--The Arden Research Handbook of Shakespeare and Contemporary Performance

I am sure Yeats wouldn't like the poem In Memory of W.B.Yeats. It's so blunt and it's less metrical than it should.

Justice is an interesting theme in the later part of the story of David. As David got older, he seemingly started to lose his competency of imposing justice on his people. He's the second King of Israel, before him and Saul there were numerous "Judges". Kings were supposed to be with greater power than the Judges when perpetuating justice. But the aged David were no longer adroit as a King, nor would he be more competent than the previous Judges when judging people. In the cases of Absalom, of Amnon and of Mephibosheth, he all miserably failed. On the contrary, Absalom cared for and revenged Tamar, and tried to judge in his father's place when he started to behave dissolutely.

Jane Austen was the master of the free indirect speech. Today's literature students use this term "free indirect speech" quite frequently to analyze dialogues in fictions while studying. But it was Jane Austen who invented this way of writing along the way she wrote. By transforming this very genre of fiction, she's able to narrate stories in a more discursive manner and her fictions, as a result, became more nuanced. There were a lot of stylings going on in the conversations she penned.

I delete some posts that I mistook to boost on this account earlier. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, since some of you might only follow me to see breadcrumbs of literature here. I will try to use the right account as much as I can in the future!

This is a very rudimentary comparison of the masculine desire and female agency in Love's Labour Lost/Won(Much Ado About Nothing).
I shall give the presentation at the seminar tonight and here is my PPT.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15ty1vfCix8DMKf7Q-poacWph83IQW-XRDhK0SS5JHKw/edit#slide=id.p

Here're two widely-known facts by the academic research about Eve in the Biblical literature that I think you would be interested in:
1. There're two different stories about the creation of men in Genesis, each incompatible to the other. One is which Eve was created from Adam's rib. (Genesis 2:21-25) One is which both men and women were created at the same time. (Genesis 1:27). It further proves that Genesis itself is a combination of texts from multiple resources.
2. There're many translation errors in the popular English version of Genesis, most of which concerning the status of women. For example, in King James Version (KJV), Eve was said to be created to be "an help meet for" Adam, which indicates that she's made as the assistant of Adam. However, the Hebrew word here is more of a "tutor"/"advisor" than a "helper". God himself has also been described to "help" Adam with the same word.

In 2018 Globe's Hamlet, Polonius looked like a Jew. When watching the first act I felt puzzled: was there any evidence in the playtext to imply that he should be a Jew? Then, when it came to Act 2 Scene 2, when Polonius interrupted the 1 Player, saying the monologue is too long, Hamlet said "It shall to the barber's with your beard." Suddenly, it all makes sense now. Apparently, Polonius won't easily cut his beard because he's a Jew, therefore, Hamlet's words was an insult!
There're many stories in the Hebrew Bible concerning cutting one's hair or beard. David's missionaries, when degraded, were cut their beards by the enemies. Samson, a Nazirite, never cut his hair because that represented his covenant with the God in some senses. Absalom, a narcissist, regularly cut his own beautiful hair and in the end he died because his head stuck in the branches of a tree; his beautiful hairs hanging in the air.
This new interpretation that Polonius is a Jew may shed new light on Hamlet's sanity: he's quite reasonable, considerate even, when he inquired Polonius about Ophelia, alluding to the Jephthah's story. Jephthah was a Judge of Israel, after all.