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hawkwing_lbThe plot has provided me with a twist I didn't know was there. The story still sucks, but now it sucks in new and different ways. Which I suppose is progress, of a sort. It also means I can now see a way to move this forward that does not involve Sisyphean labours. Herakleion ones, maybe.
The Augean stables, yes, that's the one I'm thinking of. And no, I can't pull Athena out of my pocket and get her to divert a river for me. Carrying the grey-eyed goddess around would be bad form, and probably bad luck.
You can tell I've been reading the Iliad in my spare time, can't you?
Anger now be your song, immortal one,
Achilles' anger, doomed and ruinous...
Knew how to write a good battle, did Homer.
I love those first two lines. Well, actually, the second one, really. Achilles' anger, doomed and ruinous - it so perfectly captures the entire monumental work. The Iliad is about anger. The anger and pride of Menelaus, for having his prized possession stolen. The anger and pride of Agamemnon, deprived of one of his prizes and seizing another from Achilles out of jealously. The anger of Hector, forced to defend his city against the Achaeans because of his womanising brother Paris Alexandrus who does not even have the good grace to die fighting an honorable duel with Menelaus which might end the war.
But above all, the anger of Achilles. Achilles, whose anger at Agamemnon for seizing Briseis, his prize, dooms him to lose all that he might haved gained. For when Hector strikes down Patroclus with the rage of Achilles Hector is doomed; so too Achilles, so too Troy ('the windy town/of Ilium').
..anger, doomed and ruinous...
I wish I could write a phrase that was that right.
For Gallipoli
Lay your prayers upon the water,
Beside the windy plain,
Fields of old slaughter;
Covenants of death.
Artillery yields
Thunder of the gods;
Silence, choking,
Breath.
On Scamander plain the Danaans fought, before high Trojan walls,
To an altar here Cassandra clung, doomed Priam's daughter,
Lay your prayers upon the water.
Silence, falling away,
Mortar falls;
Many men have died here for small gain, often,
And rain has washed the rocks
Clean of their blood, rocks
Floods cannot soften.
Their suns set here, those sons doomed to slaughter
And moonlight ripples on the wine-dark sea
Across the distance between them, and me.
Moonrise could be sunset's daughter;
Lay your prayers upon the water.
Progress, Tuesday 20 December 2005:
"Dreamdark, or, the Confused-Title Story"
New words: 2,542
Previous words: 18,158
Total relevent words: 20,545
Old-and-now-irrelevant-but-I'm-still-counting-them words: c. 20,000
Total words: c. 40,545
Estimated words required: 100,000
Words left (#1): 59,455
Words left (#2): 79,455
Unpleasant things that characters were subjected to: There was more of the funeral, some threats/warnings, and a surprise acquaintance from the past.
The real "Dreamdark":
"Dreamdark" and Ye Olde and Abandonned Drafte:
words1: 1,719 (Dreamdark, cheating)
words2: 90 (Dreamdark)
words3: 715 (Dreamdark)
wordstotal: 2,524 (Dreamdark)
The Augean stables, yes, that's the one I'm thinking of. And no, I can't pull Athena out of my pocket and get her to divert a river for me. Carrying the grey-eyed goddess around would be bad form, and probably bad luck.
You can tell I've been reading the Iliad in my spare time, can't you?
Anger now be your song, immortal one,
Achilles' anger, doomed and ruinous...
Knew how to write a good battle, did Homer.
I love those first two lines. Well, actually, the second one, really. Achilles' anger, doomed and ruinous - it so perfectly captures the entire monumental work. The Iliad is about anger. The anger and pride of Menelaus, for having his prized possession stolen. The anger and pride of Agamemnon, deprived of one of his prizes and seizing another from Achilles out of jealously. The anger of Hector, forced to defend his city against the Achaeans because of his womanising brother Paris Alexandrus who does not even have the good grace to die fighting an honorable duel with Menelaus which might end the war.
But above all, the anger of Achilles. Achilles, whose anger at Agamemnon for seizing Briseis, his prize, dooms him to lose all that he might haved gained. For when Hector strikes down Patroclus with the rage of Achilles Hector is doomed; so too Achilles, so too Troy ('the windy town/of Ilium').
..anger, doomed and ruinous...
I wish I could write a phrase that was that right.
For Gallipoli
Lay your prayers upon the water,
Beside the windy plain,
Fields of old slaughter;
Covenants of death.
Artillery yields
Thunder of the gods;
Silence, choking,
Breath.
On Scamander plain the Danaans fought, before high Trojan walls,
To an altar here Cassandra clung, doomed Priam's daughter,
Lay your prayers upon the water.
Silence, falling away,
Mortar falls;
Many men have died here for small gain, often,
And rain has washed the rocks
Clean of their blood, rocks
Floods cannot soften.
Their suns set here, those sons doomed to slaughter
And moonlight ripples on the wine-dark sea
Across the distance between them, and me.
Moonrise could be sunset's daughter;
Lay your prayers upon the water.
Progress, Tuesday 20 December 2005:
"Dreamdark, or, the Confused-Title Story"
New words: 2,542
Previous words: 18,158
Total relevent words: 20,545
Old-and-now-irrelevant-but-I'm-still-counting-them words: c. 20,000
Total words: c. 40,545
Estimated words required: 100,000
Words left (#1): 59,455
Words left (#2): 79,455
Unpleasant things that characters were subjected to: There was more of the funeral, some threats/warnings, and a surprise acquaintance from the past.
The real "Dreamdark":
| |
20,545 / 100,000 (20.5%) |
"Dreamdark" and Ye Olde and Abandonned Drafte:
| |
40,700 / 100,000 (40.0%) |
words1: 1,719 (Dreamdark, cheating)
words2: 90 (Dreamdark)
words3: 715 (Dreamdark)
wordstotal: 2,524 (Dreamdark)
