Monica Vale

@themythicglass.com

🪞🐍 Writing articles about how myths, religion, and history create identity and cultural systems on Offprint (& Substack for now). 👾 Streaming my research and marginalia notes on Twitch. 🌈 Personal blog on Pckt. LINKS TO ALL↓ https://lnk.bio/themythicglass

I’ve never looked at a Michigan Map so intently before today, and I’ve never noticed how many lake islands there are in that state. Nothing like an election to get a better sense of a state’s geography 🤪

I read Discontent by Beatriz Serrano in one afternoon. I really enjoyed this book, and may identify with this protagonist than I’d like to admit. 😅 It truly put to words the existential dread of having to work in a capitalist world with such snark. I definitely recommend! #booksky

Me holding “Discontent” up against my shelf

Wait-film people are mad about Wilson's review? When a movie is called "The Odyssey" and is based on the poem, it deserves critique for how it failed. Nolan had NO expert ancient world consultants-major hubris on Nolan's part...

I heard someone on a podcast essentially saying that if you call yourself a feminist and anti-imperialist but found anything enjoyable or worth praising in Nolan’s Odyssey then you’re a traitor to both feminism and anti-imperialism. 🧵

"I have learned that you get a lot more out of classics if you allow it to be a disruptive challenge to self-serving modern certainties, rather than turn it into an untouchable ancestor in whose shadow you should count yourself lucky to sit." Seems poignant to remember as folks watch The Odyssey.💙📚

Me holding up My copy of Mary Beard’s “talking classics”

🚨Get HADES II for 30% off, and the original HADES for 70% off, now till next week on Steam!🌖 Now's a great time to battle beyond the Underworld and get to know that Odysseus guy everybody's been talking about, plus dozens more from Greek myth.⛵️ Links in the replies⤵️

My mom died two weeks ago, and while I'm not ready to get into *all* the ways that impacts me, I DID want to briefly talk about how I wasn't anticipating how damn *exhausting* the grief process is, at least for me. I'm feeling it accurately as the beginning of a new week is here, yet again.

My mom died two weeks ago, and part of me went with her.

CW: parental death (obvi) but nothing in detail. Still, take care while reading if you need. 💜

monicavale.com

Finishing this weekend by continuing “Son of Nobody” by Yann Martel—which I’m enjoying immensely. It’s one thing for a novelist to retell a Greek epic, but another thing to create their OWN epic *and* tell the story of the translator at the same time. #booksky #currentlyreading

Me holding My copy of son of nobody by Yann Martel

All translations of literature should be critiqued, but there's a unique flavor that a lot of the criticisms of Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey have. They read like butthurt elites pissed at the audacity to let the plebs in the ivory tower, but they bury their big feelings in jargon.🧵/1

Ooo boy, this Odyssey discourse is wild. From the criticism & praise for the movie to translations of the poem, from right to left wing politics, it’s interesting to see how many people tie their identity to this story.

Just got back from seeing The Odyssey in theaters. There’s a lot that I really liked and some changes from the poem that make sense for the film. The only thing I *loathed* was what the film did to Helen (and not because of who played her! Lupita Nyong'o is wonderful!)

There's a part in the book "Careless People" where the author beats Zuck at Settlers of Catan, and he is absolutely wrecked by it. Someone pulls her aside to explain everyone else has been letting him win for years. I think about this a lot re: why tech bros think everyone will love AI chatbots.

Julian Sanchez@normative.bsky.social · last mo.

People who spiral out overusing LLM chatbots are really just experiencing the kind of brain-damaging stream of unconditional validation that’s always been the norm for the hyper-wealthy, which explains a lot.

I found a letter I wrote to myself as a freshman in high school. (2007) It brought tears to my eyes...until I read that my favorite band was Nickelback. Out of curiosity, I refreshed my memory today by listening to the '01-'05 albums. It's amazing how well the brain can retain song lyrics.

Come join “one of the most intellectual channels on Twitch” today (7/6) at 6:00 pm CST (4:00 pm PST / 11:00 pm GMT) for a Co-Working and Study session! 🧵 1/3

Banner image with the divine comedy translated by Michael Palmas in the back ground with two comments from recent viewers that reads, "This is one of the most intellectual channels on Twitch." with a response that reads, "Yess, I felt like I have found gold. I even told her too"
With text at the bottom that reads, "Research & Marginalia co-working stream on Twitch. twitch.tv/themythicglass "

Obviously Swift is better than Elon Musk (not sure why everyone always jumps to that anytime someone criticizes Swift) but her donations are drops in the bucket for her. Yes it’s better than nothing, and obvi better than musk, but that also doesn’t give her a free pass to avoid all criticism ever

Mrs. Betty Bowers@mrsbettybowers.bsky.social · last mo.

Billionaire Taylor Swift donates MILLIONS to charities before her wedding. Trillionaire Elon Must *takes* millions away for starving children in Africa and otherwise does *nothing* to help anyone but himself. And I see people on here accusing *her* of being "self-indulgent." Excuse me?

It's usually never a good thing when something's trending on Bsky. So, seeing Obsidian on the list freaked me out. I use @obsidian.md to store ALL my notes and writing projects. Thankfully, it seems like it was for a different Obsidian than the notetaking software! 🙏 Crisis averted.

A screenshot of Bluesky's "Trending" featuring: 1. Google Fine, 2. Obsidian 3. AnthroCon 4. Democratic Primary and 5. Israel Opposition