Season of myths and mellow fruitfulness
Oct. 23rd, 2021 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
troisoiseauxRead xo Orpheus: Fifty New Myths, an anthology of short stories retelling or inspired by myths from around the world— it skews heavily towards Greek mythology, but not exclusively so, and actually slightly less than the table of contents suggests; there are a couple of stories influenced by European folk tales that are categorized under squint-and-I-guess-they're-similar Greek myths (a retelling of Sleeping Beauty is labeled as "Eris," for example).
The most popular myths to rewrite/work off of were the stories of Demeter and Persephone (3) and Daedalus and Icarus (4). Interestingly, all three of the Demeter and Persephone stories approached it as a child custody arrangement; the Daedalus and Icarus stories ranged from a sequel to the myth, to ones that seized on certain aspects of the story - labyrinths, flight - and spun it into something entirely different, to one about a squid that builds a rocket ship to go to the sun (Ben Loory's "The Squid Who Fell In Love With The Sun", probably my favorite story in the collection).
Other stories I liked (not an exclusive list):
"The Sisters" by Sabina Murray, placing the Bacchantes in 20th century Amherst, Massachusetts, as a cult of Emily Dickinson enthusiasts
"Devourings" by Aimee Bender, inspired by a number of European fairy tales involving ogres, and also the story of Cronos being tricked into eating his own kids
"Wait and See" by Edith Pearlman, weaving West African/Caribbean folk tales of Anansi the spider into the story of a human pentachromat
"Drona's Death" by Max Gladstone, retelling a story from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata
"The Status of Myth" by Kelly Braffat and Owen King, a kaleidoscopic short story made up of even shorter stories, reimagining various Greek myths including Ganymede, Rhea, and Artemis' huntresses
Out of nostalgia, and on a Greek mythology kick, I read a couple of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books, which I had been obsessed with in middle school. Re-read the first book, The Lightning Thief, and skipped to the third, The Titan's Curse, because it was always my favorite. They hold up better than I expected! The gods and monsters that show up are all really vivid and fun— very distinct voices, in a way that would make for a fun audiobook or read-aloud. In particular, I find Mr. D - a reluctantly teetotaling Dionysus, in charge of a summer camp for young demigods and super annoyed about it - like 1000% funnier now than I did when I read this series as a preteen.
The most popular myths to rewrite/work off of were the stories of Demeter and Persephone (3) and Daedalus and Icarus (4). Interestingly, all three of the Demeter and Persephone stories approached it as a child custody arrangement; the Daedalus and Icarus stories ranged from a sequel to the myth, to ones that seized on certain aspects of the story - labyrinths, flight - and spun it into something entirely different, to one about a squid that builds a rocket ship to go to the sun (Ben Loory's "The Squid Who Fell In Love With The Sun", probably my favorite story in the collection).
Other stories I liked (not an exclusive list):
"The Sisters" by Sabina Murray, placing the Bacchantes in 20th century Amherst, Massachusetts, as a cult of Emily Dickinson enthusiasts
"Devourings" by Aimee Bender, inspired by a number of European fairy tales involving ogres, and also the story of Cronos being tricked into eating his own kids
"Wait and See" by Edith Pearlman, weaving West African/Caribbean folk tales of Anansi the spider into the story of a human pentachromat
"Drona's Death" by Max Gladstone, retelling a story from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata
"The Status of Myth" by Kelly Braffat and Owen King, a kaleidoscopic short story made up of even shorter stories, reimagining various Greek myths including Ganymede, Rhea, and Artemis' huntresses
Out of nostalgia, and on a Greek mythology kick, I read a couple of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books, which I had been obsessed with in middle school. Re-read the first book, The Lightning Thief, and skipped to the third, The Titan's Curse, because it was always my favorite. They hold up better than I expected! The gods and monsters that show up are all really vivid and fun— very distinct voices, in a way that would make for a fun audiobook or read-aloud. In particular, I find Mr. D - a reluctantly teetotaling Dionysus, in charge of a summer camp for young demigods and super annoyed about it - like 1000% funnier now than I did when I read this series as a preteen.
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Date: 2021-10-24 06:56 am (UTC)I thought the three Demeter/Persephone stories were odd in that they all took exactly the same plot. I understand why they all went for that, but I just thought it was SO WEIRD they put 3 stories with the same sort of basic relationship structure that was not at all in the original story.
I thought "The Sisters" was by far and away the BEST in terms of twisting the premise. By far my favorite!
no subject
Date: 2021-10-25 12:44 am (UTC)I'd never seen the "child custody" take on the Demeter and Persephone (and Hades) story, although it makes sense as a modern-day interpretation, and there's room to tell very different stories within that premise. ("Lost Lake" was my favorite of the three.) Still, it is surprising that no one focused on the Persephone/Hades aspect of it, in either a dark or romanticized way... maybe they all thought that was too obvious of an approach? (In which case, it's ironic that they all came up with similar concepts!)