Have you heard? There's a rumor in St. Petersburg...

OH HAI I'M BACK

So. Earlier today, I finished rereading The Odyssey for the umpteenth time. (Seriously, where the hell is the underline button?) I still love it EMMA but the one thing that bothers me (and always has) is the way Homer constantly describes Clytemnestra--basically, a dirty back-stabbing bitch. For those of you who didn't spend your childhood reading Greek mythology/history I'll give you the short of it: Clytemnestra's husband goes off to fight in the Trojan war--he makes it back alive to discover his honey bun has taken a lover and oops, the two of them have been plotting, and the two new lovebirds murder him.
Now wait, before you start agreeing with Homer, here's her side: The navy tries to sail out to Troy for weeks and into months (I don't remember the exact length of time) because the winds keep blowing their boats back to port. The only way to stop this? Sacrifice a maiden. Agamemnon (the hubby) decides his daughter Iphigenia will be the perfect maiden. Naturally, Clytemnestra rejects the idea, but lovely hubby goes and takes her anyways without telling his wife. So, understandably, she's an eensy bit pissed. Now, to top that off, when he comes back, he's got a second wife. Although I think it's a little strange that wife #2 (Cassandra) could supposedly see the future... so what the hell was she thinking, hooking up with him? (She was murdered too)
But yeah. I'd say that murder was justified--maybe not the murder of Cassandra, but Agamemnon deserved it. But Homer just goes on and on about how terrible she was... failing to mention any of this with sacrificing the daughter and all... Okay, okay, "for the gods and all" but if someone sacrificed my kid to the gods I'd probably kill them. And it's a little troublesome that Aggy wasn't the least bit against the killing of his daughter... But, then again, my first introduction to this story was in The Groovy Greeks--which was very sympathetic for Clytemnestra, being that it was written from her point of view. So maybe it's just me that thinks this... well, Emma agrees too I think. We had this conversation already! lol. But yeah. If you think Clytemnestra was being an unjust faithless murderous wife, she and her lover were murdered shortly afterward by her twins, Orestes and Electra, who were pursued by the Furies until Athena pardoned them. (Athena! No!!!) Ah, those Greeks are a fun bunch, aren't they? And in conclusion, check out the Horrible Histories series--the earlier books in the series, like The Groovy Greeks or The Awesome Egyptians. Yes, I just plugged a series of books meant for fourth graders. These books are awesome.

And, while I was in France, I finished The Brothers Karamazov and Pride and Prejudice.
The Brothers K... That book... The beginning, I got very little, other than scenes where Alyosha was the focus. I rather liked Alyosha, and not just because his name is fun to say, at least how I think you pronounce it. The scenes with him were interesting, especially the thoughts on religion and such, unfortunately I cannot cite any at the moment, because I handed the book off to my brother who will most likely pull out all my bookmarks. So until about halfway through, or the point at which 'Stinking Lizaveta's' story was first told, I was just kind of treading water. After her story, I got and could follow probably every other event in the story. Not that I understood everything I could follow, for example, the interlude revolving around the 'murdered' dog--where did that come from!? So, I will have to reread it, but not any time soon. I started Demian by Hermann Hesse and after that I have a million other books--including but not limited to Middlemarch and War and Peace. That is to say, I'll probably have long since killed myself before I get around to rereading The Brothers K.

Pride and Prejudice was awesome and I loved it, which I'm sure you've gathered. Of course, I love Mr. Darcy now... Well, I liked him before (I saw the movie two or three years ago) but the book adds about a million. Especially at the end when Elizabeth asks him about his going about loving her--"I cannot fix on the hour, or the look, or the words, which laid the foundation. It is too long ago. I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun." <3 class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_15">Mind me hopping in the TARDIS and getting you? And David Tennant? Sounds good! But yeah, I'm totally a fangirl for him now. We need to get the Twilight tweeners to read this, so they can recognize a character worth fawning over... and read an uncrappy book. Actually, forget it, they can keep being in love with Edward. More Darcy for me. But yeah, now I have no choice but to watch the movie again and take it seriously--take it seriously? Well, I actually tried rewatching the movie in... February? March? And I had a difficult time, being that Colin Firth (Mr. Darcy) is secretly my english teacher. I mean, they look similar. Only that. They're definitely not the same person. Except for the part where they are.

And now, since I'm still on France time, I believe I'll go play some Pokemon. Wow, two posts in, and it's already obvious I'm a huge dork.