Yarnalong: Whisper Cardigan and Ovid's "Metamorphoses"

Well, I'm still plodding along on my Whisper Cardigan, but at least this week I got a picture that shows the pretty rosewood yarn a little better:

Such a lovely neutral! I think it's because it's got all that pink and green in it - in other words, the shades the neutral's made up of aren't neutral at all.

I'm past the back gather and headed towards the second sleeve. One of the nice things about this pattern is that I can try it on as I go, and thus far I'm pretty happy with the fit.

The book is Ovid's Metamorphoses, which I'm re-reading as research for my next novel, which is going to be set in Bronze-Age Greece. (Well . . . Bronze-Age Greece and an alien planet. Because if mythic heroes are fun, mythic heroes plus aliens are more fun, right?)

I read Ovid back in college, and so far I'm enjoying going through it again, which is not surprising since  Metamorphoses was meant to be entertainment. But I remember getting tired of it by the end last time - all the caprice of the gods, all the death and rape and the mess of the old legends . . . well, even if they are just myths (is there such a thing as just myths?), it's hard to read hundreds of pages of that without weariness. Maybe it'll be different now since I'm reading it with the purpose of mining it for story ideas? My plot might have its dark moments, but I intend it to be full of a good deal more forward action and purpose and even redemption than Ovid is . . . hmm. I'll have to pay attention to see if there's a difference between reading-Ovid-for-class and reading-Ovid-looking-for-spare-parts. :D

So, if you were going to retell a myth, which one would you choose? And, more interestingly . . . would you keep the original ending, or give it a more hopeful spin?

. . . speaking of old myths retold, if you're looking for the best example ever, you just cannot go wrong with Till We Have Faces, C. S. Lewis' retelling of the Cupid and Psyche myth. Oh my goodness. It might be the most perfectly-written novel ever. The first time I read it I felt like I was banging my head against a concrete wall - it was just so big and solid and I could tell I just wasn't mature enough to take it all in (I, um, was a teenager at the time). The second time I read it I said, "This is the best book I've ever read". (Older teenager reaction there.) And I've reread it regularly ever since, loving it more every time. (Yay adulthood!)

So, ah, I suppose the moral of this post is "forget the Ovid, go read Lewis"? Not what I meant to say when I started out . . . :D

More yarn and book goodness can be found here, at Ginny's blog.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

7 Quick Takes

1. Elizabeth Moon has a new book out now, Mira Grant has a new book coming out this summer, and Lois McMaster Bujold has a new book coming out in the late fall. It's a great year to be a spec-fic reader!

2. It was 78 degrees and gorgeous here today . . . but part of what was gorgeous is that the mountains were covered with snow and easily visible. The contrast was weird and glorious.

3. Writing a novel is a bit like having a wonderful and secret bit of gossip. I want to tell everyone what's happening, but hardly anybody would understand and the ones who did wouldn't want me to spoil the story.

4. Ares (the mythical god) fathered many, many children (supposedly, in the myths). Like, oh-my-I-just-have-to-keep-scrolling-down-this-Wikipedia-page many.

5. Writing novels leads you to research the oddest things.

6. There is a direct connection between numbers four and five on this list.

7. My friends are writing books! Not only do I have the fun of doing it myself, but I get to read the nascent stories of my fellow authors. I have one I'm working on now (i.e., reading and commenting/critiquing) and one on its way in the next week. Believe it or not, this is one of the fun things about being part of the writing community. You get to see the good stuff before anyone else. Sometimes you even get to help (a small, tiny, infinitesimal bit) in making it better. It's pretty cool, actually.

More Quick Takes can be found over at Betty Beguiles.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

The Iliad

My husband and I (having finished That Hideous Strength) are now listening through The Iliad during our evening chores. I thought I'd write up my impressions on it since it's been (wow) over ten years since I last read it. Note: some of these impressions are of the story, some strictly of this particular audio version. Also, this is just of the first section of the story (we're not that far along yet).

-When I heard Zeus called "the almighty" by the narrator, I thought, "well, sort of." Seriously, it comes across kind of unbelievable after all these years of studying the Bible and following Jesus. Calling Zeus "almighty" in the context of, well, reality, is laughable. Somehow, this hadn't really struck me before.

Which got me thinking: I see now, with this contrast between Zeus and God, why it's a necessity that the Almighty is also the All-Good. Looking at Zeus, you see that his weaknesses are all moral weaknesses . . . it's his pettiness, his lust, his changeableness that lead to his lack of real power. If he did not have these vices, he might be able to really have a will that is, as the poet says, "never thwarted". As it is . . . nah.

But I'm grateful for the insight that contrast gives me into the real God: I see now that you could not have someone who was all-powerful without him also being all-good. The very, very comforting off-shoot of this realization? Given the actual existence of the All-Good, you're never going have a final triumph of evil. Because an evil power would never be able to be have or maintain absolute power . . . its vices would eventually be its downfall. Moral weakness is real weakness.

-For a very long time, I wondered why the narrator was calling Apollo "Shutefar". I finally figured out that it's "Apollo Shoot-Afar". Ah.

-I hadn't actually forgotten this but . . . The Iliad is very gory. Wow. If the violence in the Bible ever surprised you when you finally got around to reading all the Old Testament, be assured that it's actually very restrained compared to other ancient texts.

-Actually, to me, as a Christian who's been reading the Bible for a couple of decades, one of the most interesting things about reading The Iliad is that it gives me a contemporary text to compare the Bible to. (Well, contemporary to some parts.) It's interesting to see what's similar because of culture and time, and what's very different because of theology or philosophy or culture (yes, culture falls on both sides).

-I also am immature enough that the poet's constant use of "the nipple" as a geographic landmark (as a sort of reference so you know exactly where the spear went in before "the darkness closed over his eyes") makes me giggle.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell