AtG obsession and movie rec
Today I once again had to enlighten Marius, the boy I'm tutoring in Greek, this time on the fact that Achilles and Patroklos might not only have been good friends. He saw this button on my bag and asked what "syllektroi" means, so I told him that it means "lovers." He was obviously clearly shocked -
I don't know what they are teaching the kids these days: his textbook also gives the >>How Alexander fell in love with Roxanna, the most beautiful woman in Asia<< story and ignored any political considerations of this marriage and more imporant forgot to mention how really AtG's loved one was Hephaistion. Oh well, at least he didn't think that Achilles and Patroklos were cousins. oO
Btw, I finally got the topic for my assignment* drafted out.
"Philhellen or oriental by mind? The Alexander portrayal in ancient and modern literature"
So, yay! I'm planning to use Mary Renault, amongst others, for the modern part and already found so much by only leafing through it.
- Homer obsession as an argument in favour of the philhellen dominance
- Kyros obsession for the focus on the oriental culture
- running around naked and thus mortifying the Persians as a sign of keeping Greek culture
- wearing dresses that are supposed to look like the royal uniform instead of trousers as an attempt to unite both cultures;
the latter of course also goes for the proskynesis, both in anicent and modern literature, because I so do not see it as an act of oriental despotism or whatever, but as a try to satisfy both the Persians (by adopting their traditions) and the Greeks/Macedonians (by acknowledging their "equal status" with the kiss)
So I suppose the topic is the best that I could've gotten, considering that other people are writing about stuff like the water supply in Ancient Rome. I'm pretty sure that it's going to drive me crazy at some point, but hell, it's Alexander. I'm also planning to use the Hephaistion!love as an argument for both sides at some point XD
Speaking about Alexander, I finished "Lord of the Two Lands" by Judith Tarr and quite liked it. The Alexander image was a bit weird, with all the "shining brighter than anyone else in his divinity" , but he wasn't portrayed one-sided, I think. There also were a lot of down-to-earth strategy moments which showed how he wasn't only led by some mystical ulterior motive, but did actually quite smartly consider things as war strategies and politcal benefits. Meriamon was a bit Marysue-ish, but it was okay, and I liked how her magical powers were described, not totally aloof and fantasy-like, but in such a way that you could actually believe it was simply a part of her personality and/or her way to communicate with nature. The Meriamon/Niko love story was quite sweet, although not too believable. And there were some really cute Alexander/Hephaistion moments, so yeah, a good read in general.
And so that you won't think I'm totally AtG obsessed, last week I went to the cinema to watch "Slumdog Millionaire" and really enjoyed it. To be honest, I don't know so much about Indian culture, so I can't really tell whether it was portrayed realistically, but I definitely liked how the showed the slums. I suppose it's a realistical demonstration and gave you a pretty good idea of how it's got to be for a child to grow up there. I appreciated, though, that you weren't simply shown the tragedy of it, but how those children also have friends and do play and have fun. I don't mean to trivialize anything, but life isn't black and white, and the movie wasn't either.
Generally I think that the idea to include the quizshow is what made the movie special, because without it would just have been another story of someone's tragic childhood. By having Jamal knowing the quiz's answers from something in his past, both elements were nicely interwoven. Oh, and without saying to much in case someone hasn't seen it yet, I found Latika and Salim were awesome characters and their relationships with Jamal rather exciting.
So, I'd say, everyone who hasn't yet, go and see this movie!
I hope's everyone's doing okay. I'm in the middle of exam stress and suddenly all my friends are turning 18, so even more (birthday) stress, but it's fun for the most part ;-)