Words
This song is giving me existential angst. "To you the next best thing to playin' and winnin' is playin' and losin'." and also "you look at the world though your smiling eyes." I have rose-colored glasses, please someone confirm this.
Anyway.
Item the first. Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair
Lord of the Rings, by annmarwalk
Eowyn gets her man, in this silky and touching fic. Totally romantic, a stunning little drabble. There is a great twist in here, and if you're a fan of Tolkien book-verse, you will fall all over yourself before you even read it.
All the double meanings in that fic reminded me of something. Aeschylus's Agamemnon has some wonderfully ambiguious statements. No, I am not actually high-minded, I have to read it for the dullest class ever, but wow, it's good! except for the part where women=evil, and everyone kills everyone else.
They knew the men they sent
but now in place of men
ashes and urns come back
to every hearth.
War, war the great gold-broker of corpses
holds the balance of the battle on his spear!
Home from the pyres he sends them,
home from Troy to the loved ones,
heavy with tears, the urns brimmed full,
the heroes return in gold-dust,
dear, light ash for men; and they weep,
they praise them, "He had skill in swordplay,"
"He went down so tall in the onslaught,"
"All for another's woman." So they mutter
is secret, and the rancour steals
towards our staunch defenders, Atreus' sons.
Well, okay, that is not am abiguious statement, just a powerful and anti-war one. Appreciate the depth of feeling! Pick up on the economic allusions there - they probably went to war with Troy, historically, because the Trojans had a stranglehold on trade, and the Greeks got tetchy over things like import taxes, and regulations. Also, you see where the idea that Hades/Pluto was a wealthy man, with all that weighing out of souls. I could mention the Egyptian Book of the Dead here, but I will not. (off-topic, if there is a topic- new translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead Whee!)
Oh, for all the world a Helen!
Hell at the prows, hell at the gates,
hell on the men-of-war
This one makes more sense if you acknowledge that in ancient Greek, Hele meant "destroy."
Last item. In my little church newsletter, I read this today:
"Julian and Andrew (the minister and his...hanger-on? I see the guy around all the time, and he's really nice, but I have no idea what his actual job title is, and 'a little bit of this, a little bit of that' is not a title, thanks man) had a super time in India, touring the Golden Triangle* and taking in Agra, New Delhi, Jaipur, Kuchaman and Fatepur Sikri. Andrew was photographed outside the Taj Mahal at the same spot famously used by Princess Diana! In Kuchaman the guys shared a marbled room in a fortifed palace graphically decorated with extracts from the Karma Sutra."
Well now. I may never be able to look at my minister the same way. AHH! There are things I don't want to think about, and that is one of them. Please, make my brain stop now.
Anyway.
Item the first. Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair
Lord of the Rings, by annmarwalk
Eowyn gets her man, in this silky and touching fic. Totally romantic, a stunning little drabble. There is a great twist in here, and if you're a fan of Tolkien book-verse, you will fall all over yourself before you even read it.
All the double meanings in that fic reminded me of something. Aeschylus's Agamemnon has some wonderfully ambiguious statements. No, I am not actually high-minded, I have to read it for the dullest class ever, but wow, it's good! except for the part where women=evil, and everyone kills everyone else.
They knew the men they sent
but now in place of men
ashes and urns come back
to every hearth.
War, war the great gold-broker of corpses
holds the balance of the battle on his spear!
Home from the pyres he sends them,
home from Troy to the loved ones,
heavy with tears, the urns brimmed full,
the heroes return in gold-dust,
dear, light ash for men; and they weep,
they praise them, "He had skill in swordplay,"
"He went down so tall in the onslaught,"
"All for another's woman." So they mutter
is secret, and the rancour steals
towards our staunch defenders, Atreus' sons.
Well, okay, that is not am abiguious statement, just a powerful and anti-war one. Appreciate the depth of feeling! Pick up on the economic allusions there - they probably went to war with Troy, historically, because the Trojans had a stranglehold on trade, and the Greeks got tetchy over things like import taxes, and regulations. Also, you see where the idea that Hades/Pluto was a wealthy man, with all that weighing out of souls. I could mention the Egyptian Book of the Dead here, but I will not. (off-topic, if there is a topic- new translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead Whee!)
Oh, for all the world a Helen!
Hell at the prows, hell at the gates,
hell on the men-of-war
This one makes more sense if you acknowledge that in ancient Greek, Hele meant "destroy."
Last item. In my little church newsletter, I read this today:
"Julian and Andrew (the minister and his...hanger-on? I see the guy around all the time, and he's really nice, but I have no idea what his actual job title is, and 'a little bit of this, a little bit of that' is not a title, thanks man) had a super time in India, touring the Golden Triangle* and taking in Agra, New Delhi, Jaipur, Kuchaman and Fatepur Sikri. Andrew was photographed outside the Taj Mahal at the same spot famously used by Princess Diana! In Kuchaman the guys shared a marbled room in a fortifed palace graphically decorated with extracts from the Karma Sutra."
Well now. I may never be able to look at my minister the same way. AHH! There are things I don't want to think about, and that is one of them. Please, make my brain stop now.