on tragic heroes and the people who'd follow them anywhere.

tumblr textpost// Anne Carson, An Oresteia// Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles// Victor Hugo, Les Miserables// William Shakespeare, Hamlet// Anne Carson, An Oresteia

orpheus but he's sisyphus

Ovid’s The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice (tr. Rolfe Humphries) / Spirited Away dir. Hayao Miyazaki / @mag200 / Jenny Diski, “Housewife” / Franz Wright, God's Silence / Adrianne Kalfopoulou, “Poem in Pieces, a Log” / Jon Ware, I am in Eskew / Kazimierz Wierzyński, “A Word of Orphists” (tr. Czeslaw Milosz) / @prisonhannibal / Aeschylus, The Oresteia / Ocean Vuong, Eurydice

image ids under cut:

image 1: a quote from Ovid that reads: "And Orpheus received her, but one term was set: he must not, till he passed Avernus, turn back his gaze, or the gift would be in vain."

image 2: excerpt from the script of the film Spirited Away that reads: "Haku: But I can't go any farther. Just go back the way you came, you'll be fine. [highlighted] But you have to promise not to look back, not until you've passed through the tunnel."

image 3: a drawing, labeled in all-caps handwriting "a venn diagram of love vs. grief:". the drawing is a single circle.

image 4: an excerpt, highlighted and italicized, from Jenny Diski that reads: "People don't understand about repetition, do they? How it is at the heart (thump, thump, thump) of obsession; at the erotic centre (drip, drip, drip) of desire. You do, of course. Repetition is insatiability spelt sideways."

image 5: a quote from Franz Wright reading, "And let me ask you this: the dead, where aren't they?"

image 6: a quote from Adrianne Kalfopoulou in red text, reading, "Grief will keep you reaching back / for what is not there"

image 7: an excerpt from Jon Ware that reads, "Here's my question. If the ghost wants nothing more than to be witnessed, why would it appear behind you, not in front of you? The only answer I can think of is this: [underlined] it appears behind you because it already knows, to an absolute certainty, that you will have no choice but to look back."

image 8: a quote from Kazimierz Wierzyński that reads: "I understood the true fate of Orpheus, that [highlighted] love is a constant terror of loss."

image 9: a screenshot of a tumblr ask from an anonymous user who says, "What's the point?" user prisonhannibal responds, "of what? it's love though".

image 10: two lines from aeschylus reading, "Orestes: This was always going to happen. She's been dead since the beginning."

image 11: an excerpt from Ocean Vuong that reads, "Your absence has gone through me // Like thread through a needle. / Everything I do is stitched with its color."

end ids.

Anne Carson and Krysty Wilson-Cairns: united in turning my research interests into gutwrenching observations of unconditional love

with anne carson on here it's always:

and never:

kicked out of the amphitheater for yelling ‘get his ass’ when clytemnestra killed that mf

[ID: 8 quotes and 2 pieces of art. The quotes read as follows, 1: “‘You’re all I’ve got now,’ he added, ‘Let’s be off. I’ve come to you. We’re cursed together, so let’s take the road together!’ / His eyes were glittering. ‘Like a man insane!’ Sonya thought, in her turn.” 2: “Orestes- Our cause is lost. / Pylades- Then I’m lost too. Friends share such things.” 3: “Why do you wave me off? You fear to pollute me? I don’t care about that. I’ll share your bad luck, I shared your good luck once.” 4: “‘I mean, look: there you go crying and putting your arms round me again - well, why are you doing that? Because I couldn’t hold out on my own and went running off to someone else in order to unburden myself: ‘You suffer too, and then I’ll feel better!’ And you can love a villain like that?’ / ‘But you are suffering, aren’t you?’ Sonya cried.” 5: “Orestes- O my poor man! My troubles are really your troubles, it seems. / Pylades- But I’m no Menelaos. I can bear this.” 6: “Orestes- Oh girl. How I pity the dark life you live. / Elektra- No one else has ever pitied me, you know. / Orestes- No one has ever been part of you grief.” 7: “Theseus- Why does he hide his head in his robe? / Amphitryon- Shame before you eyes. Shame before your kinship. Shame for the blood of his sons. / Theseus- But if I came to share his grief? Uncover him.” 8: “‘You’re a strange one, Sonya,’ he said. ‘You out your arms round me and kiss me after I’ve told you a thing like that. You don’t know what you’re about.’ / ‘There’s no one, no one in the world more unhappy than you are now,’ she exclaimed in a kind of frenzy, oblivious.” The pieces of art are as follows, 1: A painting of two vague, human figures, done in cool colors. They are embracing. 2: 3 human figures in a misty, expressive scene. They are closeby each other, perhaps walking together. End ID.]

“We’re Cursed Together” | Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky | An Oresteia - Aeschylus, Sophokles, Euripides (Tr. Anne Carson) | Herakles - Euripides (Tr. Anne Carson) | Massage - Elizabeth Glaessner | Medicine - Mary Herbert

Pylades: I’ll take care of you.

Orestes: It’s rotten work.

Pylades: Not to me. Not if it’s you.

Anne Carson, An Oresteia

Agamemnon by Aiskhylos (tr. Anne Carson)

Interview with the Vampire ... After the Phantoms of Your Former Self | Francisco Goya Saturn Devouring His Son | Johann U. Krauss Pélops ressuscité | Homer The Odyssey transl. Emily Wilson | Anne Rice Interview with the Vampire | Tantalus | Interview with the Vampire ...The Ruthless Pursuit of Blood with All a Child's Demanding | Euripides An Oresteia transl. Anne Carson | Interview with the Vampire A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart | Interview with the Vampire Like Angels Put in Hell by God | Christa Wolf Medea transl. John Cullen | Ruth Comfort Mitchell The Sin Eater

brother, we live in one another

an oresteia, anne carson / the world at it's beginning, dustin pearson / dead ringers / the carnivorous lamb, agustin gomez-arcos / succession / a game of thrones, george rr martin

orestes the kind of man to be diagnosed with female hysteria

On siblings

The Sibling Connection, Jane Mersky Leder // Little Women screenplay, Robin Swicord // Mansfield Park, Jane Austen // Little Women, dir. Gillian Armstrong // Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare // Queen of Air and Darkness, Cassandra Clare // Elektra, Sophokles trans. Anne Carson // TikTok user blaineunderstudy // The Sibling Connection // The Raven King, Maggie Stiefvater // The Sibling Connection // I Hope You Get This Message, Farah Naz Rishi // The Cruel Prince, Holly Black // Pride and Prejudice, dir. Joe Wright // These Happy Golden Years, Laura Ingalls Wilder

Anne Carson , An Oresteia.

 [Elektra] is an adult but unmarried female in the house of a mother who hates her and she has neither social function nor emotional context. She seems to squat on the doorstep of the house rather than live in­side. […] She is a woman stranded at doorways and passivity is killing her.  There is only one thing she can do.  Make noise.  So Elektra talks, wails, argues, denounces, sings, chants and screams from one end of the play to the other. […] Her power of language is fantastic; she can outtalk anyone in the play. […] She is a torrent of self. Actionless, yet she causes things to happen and people to change. Hopeless, yet she keeps Elektra going.

Anne Carson, from Elektra by Sophokles in: An Oresteia

"Because I still love you."

PYLADES: I’ll take care of you. ORESTES: It’s rotten work. PYLADES: Not to me. Not if it’s you.

An Oresteia, Euripides (tr. Anne Carson)

ROBERT: Please let me help. AARON: Why would ya? ROBERT: Because if you carry on like this, you’re gonna end up dead. I couldn’t bear that. AARON: I ain’t worth the hassle. ROBERT: Don’t say that. AARON: It’s the truth. ROBERT: You are to me. Because I still love ya.

Emmerdale, 21st January 2016

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