As always thank you for writing. The way you pace yourself and allow for the reader to preempt the connections you are to make by allowing them to observe the story beforehand is something that is as instructive as it is endearing; you place confidence in your readers while allowing those who are unfamiliar to be included at the same starting point and to use their wits in the same step, it keeps even the familiar fresh. It also takes patience and reserve not to shock them with conclusions as quickly as possible, and makes the reader feel as mature as you would have to be in formatting it this way. It also fits the message of the essay, as you accommodate participation in your form, so you implore it in your content. Beyond writing however I'll think of how to apply these points to my own living and habits, which is the point of writing after all. Thank you again YW
Thank you for reading. The recounting of the story is as much for the reader as for myself: the retelling ensures I understand the story well enough to be able to talk about it. For instance, the parable in the bible I remembered completely differently than the actual story. Initially I wrote that segment based on my memories of the parable from childhood, from the church; on rereading Luke I was shocked that what I had remembered was almost entirely wrong. At other times my writing ability fails. I had to rewrite the segment on the Iliad many times in order to arrange my retelling of the story in a satisfactory manner. The story of Diomedes and Glaucus, and its message, was utterly clear in my head, but when I put it to page it was muddled and hard to understand.
Most important in the retelling of these stories is to force the reader to engage with them. I don't think what I write is particularly important, not from any sense of false modesty, but simply because I am young, my writing is young, the ideas are often half finished, not developed, and I doubt I could say anything not expressed better elsewhere. What I do think is important, more important than anything, is the Bible, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Metamorphoses, the works of the Romans, the Greeks, the writings of the Renaissance, in short those works from which the world is built. I figure for you the retelling may be sometimes tedious, given that you've likely read yourself much that I describe, but I imagine my reader like myself, impatient, busy in life, a little lazy, and believing secretly that they are clever enough that they don't need to read these old works. I was wrong and so is my imagined reader: we are not that clever. Thus I hope always that I can entice the reader to the older works with my writings. Put down thy substack, and pick up thy Goethe.
As always I leave you not with practical points on how to live, nothing concrete, only an imperative to act, mostly because I don't know how to live either :^) I think however that the individual path is clear to he who looks, and I trust my reader can see their own path. I cannot instruct, I don't know how, but I hope I can help clear the way, or more precisely point out how it is that we all avoid our path on purpose, through lies and resentment, through our own sin. My expertise here can be trusted only because I am the greatest sinner. I lied to myself for a long time. It was only reading that showed me my lies. It was the works I recommend here and throughout that point directly at my sins and say "you must change your life". If I can give that experience to someone else then my writing has been successful.
It is true that you'll probably have a much more fulfilling life in trying to make your own life a perfect little slice of heaven for yourself, rather try and be an aggressive groyper, but the whole "the Homeric violence and gloryseeking is alien to us" is simply not true, many people are living will to power lifestyles even in the current day, and it's often the people you express a lot of hate and ascribe (falsely) a lot of misery to, since you see the world through the veil of cope. As you've correctly noted regarding the nature of conflict in the Iliad, I can assure you that they actually do think of you as fully human, while you only see them through the lens of political caricature fed to you by 30 year old hateful line cooks (no disrespect to line cooks but its important to note a failure of achievement here is not by political choice) who dwell in seething resentment and misery over not realizing their desires, even though it's true that they might cut your jugular. You got the world upside down. Think about it: anything but 4HL is unthinkable to you, and you are the "man of letters", i.e. written culture, you write substacks. Your reaction comes from the fear of the strange invading force that you fear would upend your sedentary lifestyle. You've never faced any real conflict, you've never even moved outside a 30 mile radius away from your high school, and will do anything to avoid doing so because you're afraid you won't be able to make friends who invite you to parties anywhere else, so this is why you think like that. You know some people just do whatever the fuck they think is cool, even if it doesn't make money, and maintain their culture by hanging out, not by writing substacks, and this drives you nuts. As ridiculous as it is, they *are* your pirates, and you are the farmer. Personally, I think you are so cringe because you've seen so few miracles. Christianity will probably not save you, but in my heart I do sincerely wish you a swift recovery, and hope that it does.
P.S. I wish you didn't block me on sight so I could fit less into one huge block of text, you get me? Creating throwaway accounts every time I remember about your existence and have thoughts I must express is low key very annoying! Perhaps then i would talk to you nice.
I guess all I'm trying to convey is that my friends in BC and around the globe are some of the best DJs and philosophers in the world and you can go cope in Halifax.
As always thank you for writing. The way you pace yourself and allow for the reader to preempt the connections you are to make by allowing them to observe the story beforehand is something that is as instructive as it is endearing; you place confidence in your readers while allowing those who are unfamiliar to be included at the same starting point and to use their wits in the same step, it keeps even the familiar fresh. It also takes patience and reserve not to shock them with conclusions as quickly as possible, and makes the reader feel as mature as you would have to be in formatting it this way. It also fits the message of the essay, as you accommodate participation in your form, so you implore it in your content. Beyond writing however I'll think of how to apply these points to my own living and habits, which is the point of writing after all. Thank you again YW
Thank you for reading. The recounting of the story is as much for the reader as for myself: the retelling ensures I understand the story well enough to be able to talk about it. For instance, the parable in the bible I remembered completely differently than the actual story. Initially I wrote that segment based on my memories of the parable from childhood, from the church; on rereading Luke I was shocked that what I had remembered was almost entirely wrong. At other times my writing ability fails. I had to rewrite the segment on the Iliad many times in order to arrange my retelling of the story in a satisfactory manner. The story of Diomedes and Glaucus, and its message, was utterly clear in my head, but when I put it to page it was muddled and hard to understand.
Most important in the retelling of these stories is to force the reader to engage with them. I don't think what I write is particularly important, not from any sense of false modesty, but simply because I am young, my writing is young, the ideas are often half finished, not developed, and I doubt I could say anything not expressed better elsewhere. What I do think is important, more important than anything, is the Bible, the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Metamorphoses, the works of the Romans, the Greeks, the writings of the Renaissance, in short those works from which the world is built. I figure for you the retelling may be sometimes tedious, given that you've likely read yourself much that I describe, but I imagine my reader like myself, impatient, busy in life, a little lazy, and believing secretly that they are clever enough that they don't need to read these old works. I was wrong and so is my imagined reader: we are not that clever. Thus I hope always that I can entice the reader to the older works with my writings. Put down thy substack, and pick up thy Goethe.
As always I leave you not with practical points on how to live, nothing concrete, only an imperative to act, mostly because I don't know how to live either :^) I think however that the individual path is clear to he who looks, and I trust my reader can see their own path. I cannot instruct, I don't know how, but I hope I can help clear the way, or more precisely point out how it is that we all avoid our path on purpose, through lies and resentment, through our own sin. My expertise here can be trusted only because I am the greatest sinner. I lied to myself for a long time. It was only reading that showed me my lies. It was the works I recommend here and throughout that point directly at my sins and say "you must change your life". If I can give that experience to someone else then my writing has been successful.
It is true that you'll probably have a much more fulfilling life in trying to make your own life a perfect little slice of heaven for yourself, rather try and be an aggressive groyper, but the whole "the Homeric violence and gloryseeking is alien to us" is simply not true, many people are living will to power lifestyles even in the current day, and it's often the people you express a lot of hate and ascribe (falsely) a lot of misery to, since you see the world through the veil of cope. As you've correctly noted regarding the nature of conflict in the Iliad, I can assure you that they actually do think of you as fully human, while you only see them through the lens of political caricature fed to you by 30 year old hateful line cooks (no disrespect to line cooks but its important to note a failure of achievement here is not by political choice) who dwell in seething resentment and misery over not realizing their desires, even though it's true that they might cut your jugular. You got the world upside down. Think about it: anything but 4HL is unthinkable to you, and you are the "man of letters", i.e. written culture, you write substacks. Your reaction comes from the fear of the strange invading force that you fear would upend your sedentary lifestyle. You've never faced any real conflict, you've never even moved outside a 30 mile radius away from your high school, and will do anything to avoid doing so because you're afraid you won't be able to make friends who invite you to parties anywhere else, so this is why you think like that. You know some people just do whatever the fuck they think is cool, even if it doesn't make money, and maintain their culture by hanging out, not by writing substacks, and this drives you nuts. As ridiculous as it is, they *are* your pirates, and you are the farmer. Personally, I think you are so cringe because you've seen so few miracles. Christianity will probably not save you, but in my heart I do sincerely wish you a swift recovery, and hope that it does.
P.S. I wish you didn't block me on sight so I could fit less into one huge block of text, you get me? Creating throwaway accounts every time I remember about your existence and have thoughts I must express is low key very annoying! Perhaps then i would talk to you nice.
I guess all I'm trying to convey is that my friends in BC and around the globe are some of the best DJs and philosophers in the world and you can go cope in Halifax.
meow :3
Oeneas belt rich in "purple" may have been highly valuable if purple was the rare dye, like this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tekhelet
I'm working on it