New Classics Blog

I've started a new blog which will be exclusively devoted to my writings, reviews and discoveries of Greco-Roman antiquity The Gardens of Lucullus. At the moment, it mostly just has links to my existing articles but I will be building up posts of work that will be posted there. At the moment, writing sites are so volatile that I am starting to feel one might as well stand alone with one's own blog and then at least reap the full share of such meagre rewards as may be gleaned rather than post to sites, get few views and get only a small percentage of the scrapings from that. I shall carry on posting externally as well though, as it is wise to cast one's net far.

I will be continuing to post here every so often and will also provide a link here, at least initially when I post something on the other blog. If you have found my classics related posts here interesting, it is worth checking out this new blog.

Pyramus and Thisbe

Pyramus and Thisbe is my latest offering on Hubpages. This tragic love story intrigues me. Found in Book 4 of Ovid's Metamorphoses, it does not actually appear to be a myth as such but rather a popular tale emanating from the Near East ( it is set in Babylon). It doesn't deal with gods or heroes but with  the love of an ordinary boy and  girl who live next door to each other, in a terraced street. This essentially familiar urban setting reminds us that the kind of crowded civic life we associate with modernity was already ancient by Ovid's time.

Very much part of the same sentimental tradition as Romeo and Juliet, or the Greek Romance novels, popular in the Roman Empire, it invites the reader or listener to sympathetically weigh the powerful emotions of lovelorn adolescents against the rights of parents (especially fathers) to make decisions about their children's marriages.

How did the mostly patriarchal Romans feel about these stories privileging sentiment over prudence? How did they feel about their sons and daughters immersing themselves in such tales? It is tempting to wonder whether they ever played a role in softening the attitude of a stern parent or strengthening the resolve of a stubborn teenager. Of course, there is no word of blame in Ovid, for the parents of Pyramus and Thisbe. The couple are perhaps only tragic because the gods cursed them with a love that was not fated to be fulfilled in marriage; the Metamorphoses is littered with many other such unlucky loves.

In writing news, Suite 101 seems to be picking up a little after months in the post-Panda doldrums. For some I believe the improvements have been dramatic; so far for me they have been modest but notable. I feel motivated to started getting more articles in and have one in the pipeline on ancient pantomime, which I hope to have out in the next few days.

Ehow, I'm finding less lucrative at the moment, with a preponderance of titles demanding very specific and technical knowledge to write successfully, however I check back hopefully now and then.

Writing for Bright Hub

Recently, I started writing for Bright Hub on the Books channel. Bright Hub can seem initially somewhat confusing  to the prospective writer, as you have the options of applying to join a variety of different channels, which operate in different ways. A simplified way of understanding Bright Hub would be to see it as a combination of an upfront payment site like EHow and a self-publish, revenue-sharing community like Hub Pages or Suite 101.

Like EHow, Bright Hub editorial channels offer a $15 upfront payment for accepted articles. You do however have to work somewhat harder for your money - the minimum wordcount is  higher and you are not writing according to a pre-determined formula. This does mean however that writing for Bright Hub can be more enjoyable and stimulating. There are also requirements with regard to formatting the article and  improving SEO that seem initially fiddly and confusing, but, no doubt, become second nature, in time.

Articles written for the editorially managed channels are subject to detailed editing, before approval. There seems to be a much greater level of personal communication with editorial staff at Bright Hub, than with EHow, which does help to foster a feeling of greater professionalism as well as of being supported.

Articles are either picked by the writer from an approved list or you can suggest an article title to an editor to be approved (something I have yet to try). The self publish channels allow you to create your own article titles to write.

I actually got a lucky break, in that I applied and was accepted to the Books Channel when it was a self publish channel, only for it then to be taken over as an editorially managed channel,  offering me the chance to make some ready cash and thus the incentive to write!

Only the editorially managed channels attract upfront payments; the others just acrue revenue, in the manner of Hub Pages or Suite 101. A nice extra is that the editorially managed articles also yield revenue for the author, in addition to the upfront payment. This obviously makes sense from the point of view of the site, as it gives writers an incentive to actively promote their own articles on Facebook etc, whereas with EHow for example, there is no incentive to give your article another thought, once it has been successfully published.

So far, for Brighthub, I have written an article on critical responses to A Streetcar Named Desire, which actually constituted my introduction to that play, which I thought very powerful, dark and brilliant so I am glad I was thus prompted to not only read, but reflect on it. 

I've also written two interrelated articles on wise and sophisticated young adult (childrens?) novel Walk Two Moons. 

Review of the Swan Thieves and Discussion of Writing Site Wikio Experts

I've just written a review of Elizabeth Kostova's novel The Swan Thieves (a fine novel) on Wikio Experts, a writing site I joined recently.

The site works on similar principles to Demand Studios, in that, once approved, writers choose from a selection of titles to write and submit within a few days. Wikio Experts is a little different in that payment is a mix of revenue and outright payment, so that for some articles you will definitely get a set amount, say 5 Euros (the site pays in Euros), while for others, you can earn "up to" 15 Euros. It is early days so we'll see how it works out, but another site offering outright payment to non-US writers is very welcome. 

Joining Wikio Experts happens in two stages; you initially fill out a brief application form, then, if approved, you submit trial articles on the topic areas you want to write in and if the articles are accepted, you can then select articles to write. At a maximum of 400 words, the articles are not too onerous to write.

The selection of topics at Wikio is as random as at Demand Studios, but, at the moment, there seem to be much fewer titles available. With Demand, it is usually possible to find something doable, once you've scrolled through the weirdness and the impossibly (for me) technically specific, but, with Wikio, I wonder whether supply will meet demand. It seems like a good thing, on the whole.

Izanagi and Izunami

I've just published a new article on Hubpages Izunagi and Izunami A Japanese Creation Myth.
As I am most familiar with Greek mythology, I was particularly interested to notice the striking parallels between this  story and the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

Like Orpheus, Izunagi goes in quest of his beloved dead wife, to the very land of the dead. Like Orpheus, Izunagi is told that he may get his beloved back as long as he does not look at her. When he does so, he loses all hope of their being reunited and she is condemned to remain in the land of the dead.

There are also correspondances with the story of Persephone, as, at first, Izunami says she will not be able to return because she has tasted food in Yomi, the House of the Dead. Later, Izunami is transformed into Yomotsu-o-kami, a goddess of the dead.

Another interesting correspondance that struck me, this time from the book of Genesis, is that Izunami, the primal mother is, like Eve held responsible for things going wrong because she spoke out of turn and took the initiative. Both stories contain elements seemingly intended to justify male dominance as the rightful norm, although of course throughout the centuries, some readers and listeners must have been provoked to read 'against the grain' and ponder the fairness of the tale being told. By appearing to offer answers, myth can prompt us to ask questions.

The Story of the Night by Colm Toibin Review

This is a novel set in Argentina in the 1980s about a young gay man called Richard who is half Argentinian and half English.
Following the death of his father, Richard is brought up by his proudly English mother, and as he comes to adulthood he continues living with her in their low rent apartment, working at an undistinguished job at a language school. He lives a quiet, somewhat lonely life, satisfying his sexual urges with furtive, anonymous visits to saunas.

Although the "disappearances" - the secret arrests, torture and probable murders of political dissidents goes on around him, he claims, in retrospect, to have very little awareness of this and is later shamed when angrily challenged that he must have known about the disappearance of a girl he studied with. He seems to move through his world in a kind of fog, to be curiously disengaged. Ironically, it is when he is caught up in the patriotic fervour of Argentina's war with Britain that he feels truly and proudly Argentinian. That he is both of Argentina and yet something of an outsider, speaking perfect English, with an English accent is what draws the attention of an American diplomatic couple Susan and Donald who find work for him, when he finally walks out of the hated language school. Although his life takes on a new dimension, he still remains within his mother's fusty apartment, which he neglects to alter in any way, though he feels embarassed on the rare occasions he brings anyone back. The apartment seems to symbolise some kind of refusal to grow up, to fully live in the world.

Through the first two thirds of the book, we watch Richard floating on the edges of power, of the changes that are taking place in his country, partly through his agency. He remains fairly apolitical, though he is sickened when Susan confesses that she and her husband were in Chile, during the time of Pinochet's brutal repression and did nothing. Through Richard's eyes we gains some interesting impressions of Argentina during that period, though always from a certain distance.

In the last third of the book, the tone changes, becomes more focused and gripping, as Richard finally becomes emotionally engaged and is astonished to experience love, happiness and vulnerability. Harsh realities intrude but he does finally repaint his apartment and we get the sense he is finally, fully alive fully himself.

A delicate, subtle, sad and romantic book, whose meandering progress mimics the drifting quality of the hero's life and somehow draws you deep into the world of this elusive individual.

Romulus and Remus

I've just published a new article on Romulus and Remus, basically giving an account of Livy's version of the story and briefly exploring the relevance it would have had to Livy, who had seen Rome suffer through years of civil war.

It's an interesting story that I might like to explore in more depth, at some point - why would a civilisation have, as their founding myth, the story of one brother killing another? It is remniscient of the story of Cain and Abel of course but also of the Romans' relish of the idea of their own nastiness. Their early history is full of stories of heroic men who put loyalty to the city above family ties, such as the Horatii, who killed their sister because she loved an enemy of Rome. By killing Remus, as he disrespected the walls of the city, in essence invading, Romulus was setting a precedent of protecting the city's boundariesat all costs.

I wonder if the killing of Remus could also be interpreted as a sacrifice to propitiate the gods at the founding of the city, or so that his spirit would be embedded as protector  - an idea that seems to lie deep in many ancient belief systems (or else I've been reading too much Peter Ackroyd on London or Alan Moore on Northampton.

I've started to read a book on the myth by T. P Wiseman Remus: A Roman Myth and I'll come back with a review.