Author Topic: PC140: Terrible Ones  (Read 25682 times)

ElectricPaladin

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Reply #50 on: March 10, 2011, 05:26:18 PM
I really enjoyed this.  Without going into specifics, it amused me and I came away with a smile.

Dude, going into specifics is what the forums are for. Tell us all about it.

Yes, please!  Don't worry about spoiling the story here.  If someone's worried about spoilers then they shouldn't be in that story's feedback thread.

He's totally one of Mistress Zara's other clients.

Come on, dude. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

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iamafish

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Reply #51 on: March 10, 2011, 09:59:11 PM
First of all before I respond to anything...

Tim Pratt is my favorite Escape Artists writer, and so i am sorry to say that i didnt not like this story at all. Reading some of the comments i think it is based on a play? Beyond the mention in the introduction i really dont know what a greek chorus is, or who any of the other mythological characters were supposed to be.

Rain. Honey. Stop what you're doing right now. Go to your iPod and order up some Greek classics. Oedipus Rex. The Illiad. The Odyssey. And don't get the namsy pansy twentieth century updates. Go old school. Go way old school and get the original text. I don't care how...start with Wikipedia and look up "Greek chorus" and go from there. But please, *learn* what the Greek classics was about. Even Aesops Fables.

<rant>
MY GOD, WHAT ARE THEY TEACHING KIDS IN SCHOOLS THESE DAYS THAT THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW GREEK MYTHS AT ALL?!?!
</rant>

this.

Reading Greek Tragedy is actually awesome. Translation mean that it's a hell of a lot easier than Shakespeare, although Aeschylus is still pretty tough at times. Epic is a little denser though. More people should definitely read up on Greek Literature though. Or see some modern reproductions of the plays, although some of those are pretty ordinary.


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Reply #52 on: March 11, 2011, 02:25:21 PM

Reading Greek Tragedy is actually awesome. Translation mean that it's a hell of a lot easier than Shakespeare, although Aeschylus is still pretty tough at times. Epic is a little denser though. More people should definitely read up on Greek Literature though. Or see some modern reproductions of the plays, although some of those are pretty ordinary.

A lot of the readability of such a Greek Tragedy depends a LOT on who translated it.  I read both the Iliad and the Odyssey a few years ago, back to back, but each with different translators (I hadn't realized that when I bought them).  One was extremely difficult to read, seeming never to really flow in English, but the other one flowed very nicely.



iamafish

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Reply #53 on: March 11, 2011, 11:26:30 PM
Even with a good translation, epic can be very dense. Lots of very repetitive fight sequences, long tangential stories within the narrative itself, allusions to mythology and tradition that takes a lot of prior knowledge to understand.

Plays tend to be less dense in this regard. The Choral passages get a bit odd sometimes, but they're usually fairly short.

Translation is key, though. Can you remember which translations you read?


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Reply #54 on: March 14, 2011, 01:22:46 PM
Even with a good translation, epic can be very dense. Lots of very repetitive fight sequences, long tangential stories within the narrative itself, allusions to mythology and tradition that takes a lot of prior knowledge to understand.

Plays tend to be less dense in this regard. The Choral passages get a bit odd sometimes, but they're usually fairly short.

Translation is key, though. Can you remember which translations you read?

I don't remember off the top of my head, but I still have both books.  The one thing that I do remember is that the names were spelled very differently between the two, to the point where I wasn't entirely certain which were recurring characters.

Also, I was a little surprised that the Iliad didn't mention the Trojan Horse--what story does that happen in?



eytanz

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Reply #55 on: March 14, 2011, 02:20:49 PM
Also, I was a little surprised that the Iliad didn't mention the Trojan Horse--what story does that happen in?


That depends what you mean - I think they're quite a few sources for it in Greek writing, but if you're just talking about epics, I think it's only in the Aeneid.



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Reply #56 on: March 14, 2011, 04:50:58 PM
Also, I was a little surprised that the Iliad didn't mention the Trojan Horse--what story does that happen in?


That depends what you mean - I think they're quite a few sources for it in Greek writing, but if you're just talking about epics, I think it's only in the Aeneid.

Ah, okay.  I didn't read that one, just the Iliad and the Odyssey.  I'd always thought the Trojan Horse was in the Iliad.



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Reply #57 on: March 15, 2011, 01:37:42 AM
I'd always thought the Trojan Horse was in the Iliad.

Trojan Horse -- there was a Horse? I always thought it was the Trojan Rabbit.


ElectricPaladin

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Reply #58 on: March 15, 2011, 01:40:29 AM
I'd always thought the Trojan Horse was in the Iliad.

Trojan Horse -- there was a Horse? I always thought it was the Trojan Rabbit.

Dude, we've been over this:

TROJAN Horse.

ROGER Rabbit.

NOT the other way around.

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Scattercat

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Reply #59 on: March 15, 2011, 02:24:24 AM
Trojan Rabbit.  Playboy Bunny?



FireTurtle

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Reply #60 on: March 15, 2011, 02:40:32 AM


This.

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iamafish

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Reply #61 on: March 15, 2011, 04:07:12 AM
*puts in faux french accent*

I fart in your general direction



Max e^{i pi}

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Reply #62 on: March 15, 2011, 07:45:48 AM
I'd always thought the Trojan Horse was in the Iliad.

Trojan Horse -- there was a Horse? I always thought it was the Trojan Rabbit.

Dude, we've been over this:

TROJAN Horse.

ROGER Rabbit.

NOT the other way around.

You mean, the Trojan war wasn't fought because Paris kidnapped Jessica Rabbit?

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Reply #63 on: March 15, 2011, 01:29:55 PM
I'd always thought the Trojan Horse was in the Iliad.

Trojan Horse -- there was a Horse? I always thought it was the Trojan Rabbit.

Dude, we've been over this:

TROJAN Horse.

ROGER Rabbit.

NOT the other way around.

You mean, the Trojan war wasn't fought because Paris kidnapped Jessica Rabbit?

Nah, Paris Hilton's into little dogs, not rabbits.



stePH

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Reply #64 on: March 19, 2011, 07:45:32 PM
I'd always thought the Trojan Horse was in the Iliad.

Is that where we get the phrase "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts"?

...because I think a better lesson would be "Beware of gifts bearing Greeks."

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kibitzer

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Reply #65 on: March 21, 2011, 01:24:53 AM
Is that where we get the phrase "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts"?

...because I think a better lesson would be "Beware of gifts bearing Greeks."

Not bad! Gave me a good chuckle.


Gamercow

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Reply #66 on: March 21, 2011, 08:31:23 PM
I'm here!
...
...
Oh, no one was sent to fetchez le vache?  Oh well. 

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Reply #67 on: August 18, 2011, 09:35:53 PM
This one was nicely done. I can see it appealing strongest to artists, particularly those who like the stage. But it transcends this niche into a more universal story.

I was amused to notice that Dave was suffering from the beginning-of-the-year curse. At Wilson Fowlie's recommendation, I downloaded Impossible Dreams.

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Corydon

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Reply #68 on: August 25, 2011, 02:51:59 AM
Also, I was a little surprised that the Iliad didn't mention the Trojan Horse--what story does that happen in?


That depends what you mean - I think they're quite a few sources for it in Greek writing, but if you're just talking about epics, I think it's only in the Aeneid.

At the risk of engaging in thread necromancy: the Trojan Horse also appears in book 4 of the Odyssey.  (It's also in Quintus Smyrnaeus, but pretty much nobody reads that.)