aglarien-Literature (EN) @[email protected]

My essay be like: ↓

Well I guess the acceptance of Shakespeare's vertical family relationships and other inter-generational relations in China can be a good PhD topic.

"In Shakespeare's romances," remarks Walter Cohen, "the core family relationships are vertical" in distinction from the "horizontal" (fraternal) emphasis of other tragi-comedies from the period.

The Norton Anthology of Poetry, though a bit notoriously old-fashioned and thick, is good. It at least allows the reader to freely pick a poet and read his works with scholarly connotations throughout.

*Name any twentieth century poets and try to find their connection to W.B.Yeats*
*You'll find Yeats was like 99% oblivious of them while the other party at least had read a handful of Yeats' poems*

I'm writing a short essay on the motivation of Athena as the mentor in Odessey and that of Paulina in the Winter's Tale. To me their biggest difference is that as Athena claims she favors for Odysseus for his quick-wit, she mainly gives his son those useful suggestions as a mentor for the sake of Odysseus' dynastic benefits. While in the Winter's Tale, the dynastic desire is depicted as largely unhealthy. Therefore, when Paulina fights for justice and the welfare of people in the court, especially when in defense of the Queen, she speaks against the dynastic desire again and again.

Horace seems to be misquoted like 70% time we saw him on a literary criticism handbook haha, and 90% of these quotes are taken out of context to be misinterpreted. Poor Horace...

I told my professor in Oxford course that I want to write a 1,500-word short essay about how Paulina I in the Winter's Tale similes to Athena in Odessey. He introduced me to like 3 different versions of Odessey translations throughout history...okay guess I now can read them and write about how imaginations of Athena in Odessey in Shakespeare's time differ from that in contemporary times due to translation difference...

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde(the book) could be very entertaining if you didn't get spoilers from pop culture centuries ago. Seriously, this one is a masterpiece in weaving plots. It's just that everyone, including every publishers, tend to impudently spoil its whole ending whenever this work is mentioned...All fun is screwed up.

It suddenly occurs to me that even though the suspected infidelity is a recurrent theme in Shakespeare's plays, no women in his plays ever cheat.

I think it's quite interesting that W.B.Yeats insisted to stick to the "rules", for no other reason than he feared the mortality of his poems. "All that is personal soon rots; it must be packed in ice or salt." He loved poetry with all his passionate heart, to the point that he assumed that poetry lines were like stomping hearts. But, he wanted to pour Formalin in the glass vessels containing these hearts, in order to reserve them for future generations...

"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.