9 Comments

I have a student doing an independent study project on these right now. I’ll let you know what she comes up with!

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please thank her for this valuable service and give her bonus points if she makes a flowchart

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I'd love to know also! I read both of Madeline Miller's novels and her novella. Really lovely writing and seemingly a good balance between historical research of the originals and where to play with gender perspective to center women (or queerness in the case of Song of Achilles). I love the concept of this genre. But it does seem like a market where many authors are jumping on a trend. Hard to know if the research is being done to do the original stories justice. I am all for re-imaginings of patriarchal tales. Maybe it is still finding its own way in terms of the criteria for genre inclusion. And surely there is room for different kinds of audiences (nerdy historical fact-checkers like me, or more forgiving lovers of a good story set in a mythical time) within the genre itself. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of this phenomenon in literature and media is Christina Ricci with the fake pig nose in Penelope. If there is room for that, there is room for a lot.

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I love your point about there being room for different kinds of audiences. Personally, I want my myth adaptations to have a really Hellenistic feel - by which I mean, they show through clever allusions, choices made or avoided, etc that they are deeply knowledgeable about the original and being really thoughtful about how they engage with the source text. I'm a big nerd like that. But I'm sure many people are totally fine with a story that's loosely inspired by a few key details from the myth and takes those as a jumping-off point for an entirely new and creative story!

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I'm totally with you on what you want from the genre. Well put. Source material nerds unite.

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oops. confused Penelope with Pretty Woman. Penelope is not based on Pygmalion. Sorry.

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i did my dissertation on female retellings of myths and the current market for them! that guardian article which suggests the market is becoming 'oversaturated' with female retellings made me laugh, because how many male-centric narratives in greek mythology do we have?? oh yeah, literally all of them before margaret atwood and ursula le guin kicked down the door. love this ongoing conversation so much, even a year after graduating

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Like many here, I read "Circe" first (loved) followed by "Song of Achilles" (also excellent). Next came "Medusa's Sisters" by Lauren J A Bear, which I absolutely adored, (but *trigger alert* this story does involve a rape or two). I passed on "Stone Blind" by Natalie Haynes due to multiple POV-inspired poor reviews, but eagerly purchased Claire North's "Ithaca". Sadly, North's writing did not grab me, so I passed it on. Today, after a six-month break from the genre, I ordered "Horses of Fire" by A D Rhine. Beautiful writing in the small sample I read gave me high hopes.

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My honest answer is that you should play the game Stray Gods instead, because it actually tackles some of the mythic traditions of sexual violence in new and intriguing ways rather than trying to romanticize or hide it?

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