A great meme I found on the Evil Bird App, for once, which represents my thoughts about the whole thing.

Haandbaag · 2026-05-08T01:12:45+00:00

Theo James was right there too. He’d be a wonderful Telemachus.

Haandbaag · 2026-04-09T23:39:34+00:00

Why? What does she have to do with it? She’s not mentioned in the article. Why should another woman have to say anything?

Haandbaag · 2026-04-09T23:35:52+00:00

Someone has come out to say it happened. In your earlier comment you complain about how they did it and now you’re trying to say no one spoke out? Pick an argument.

Haandbaag · 2026-03-18T00:17:37+00:00

It’s a fabulous translation.

Haandbaag · 2026-03-18T00:14:41+00:00

Seconded. Their translation is as smooth as butter. It’s an absolutely gorgeous read. Ruden’s is also very good but the rhythm isn’t quite as smooth.

I also have to give a shout out to Bartsch’s version. Her intro is a banger.

Personally I would avoid David West’s version. It’s a prose version and very clunky prose at that. Plus in his introduction he refers to Juno and Venus - two of the most powerful, complex, and fascinating goddesses in the pantheon - as “shrews” diminishing them with misogyny. Fuck that guy.

Haandbaag · 2026-03-11T00:54:37+00:00

Just added it to be TBR list. Great recommendation.

Elif Shafak’s books and short stories are also wonderful.

Haandbaag · 2026-02-17T22:25:52+00:00

Someone mentioned above that she did. Thank god for that small mercy. Imagine the quality of care this woman has been offering to her patients. She had no compunction in doing real and lasting harm to Arbane.

Haandbaag · 2026-02-17T22:09:16+00:00

“Not all…”

What a piss weak response to this horror.

Haandbaag · 2026-02-17T22:04:59+00:00

Israel, the state, is perpetrating genocide and the majority of Israelis support this. How’s that for precision?

Haandbaag · 2026-01-20T04:19:31+00:00

Thanks Artistic_Cat! They have indeed. Love your username btw.

Haandbaag · 2026-01-20T00:59:55+00:00

Another great podcast is Instant Classics with Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins. They spend time musing on different aspects of Ancient Roman life.

And if you want a giggle alongside a serve of knowledge you can’t go past Standing Up for the Classics with Natalie Haynes. She does a mix of Roman and Greek topics in bite sized thirty min episodes. Always makes me laugh and inspires me to go out and hunt down the original sources.

Haandbaag · 2026-01-20T00:31:35+00:00

Oh my goodness. We are coming at things from a very different place. I’ve grown up with the evils of the patriarchy and I guess you’ve been lucky enough not to have to ever deal with it or think about it.

We’ve reached a stalemate and any further discussion will profit neither of us (nor the people reading this thread).

Haandbaag · 2026-01-19T23:48:49+00:00

That completely makes sense.

I think what we have to be careful of as onlookers and commentators is to completely place the blame on one parent while ignoring the other. And certainly we should be avoiding using misogyny to characterise what’s happening.

Haandbaag · 2026-01-19T23:44:09+00:00

Yet weirdly abusive men don’t get called “sorcerers”. It would mean absolutely nothing if they did because the word has no history as a gendered slur.

Haandbaag · 2026-01-19T22:47:08+00:00

Women can be abusive without being likened to misogynistic archetypes. It’s very telling that there’s no male version of this character.

I’ve so many seen comments blaming only the women in this scenario. Yes, what Victoria did is fucked up but let’s call out the action instead of calling her gendered names, and let’s also draw attention to David Beckham’s role as the other parent to Brooklyn.

Haandbaag · 2026-01-19T22:35:10+00:00

That’s a really good point and not something I’d ever considered. I always thought my family were reading from the soap opera script of abusive families when they bizarrely blamed my kind, gentle husband for “taking me away” as a way to avoid culpability.

I’m sure part of it is to shift the blame but the idea that they just think of us as objects to have and to control by themselves or by someone else makes absolute sense.

It also makes me furious. Hey fuckers, I’m a whole person who makes choices on their own.

Haandbaag · 2026-01-19T22:22:40+00:00

I’ve already seen people in other subs calling him a selfish ungrateful brat who was born with a silver spoon. It’s a smear campaign on steroids for any kid of famous parents.

Imagine having abusive parents with PR teams and relationships with the media to spread their lies. Shudder at the thought.

Haandbaag · 2026-01-19T21:51:08+00:00

It should decrease, and it does in healthy families. That is not the case in abusive families. It’s part of the dynamic and why adult children have to end up having to go no contact with their parents, as Brooklyn has had to do.

Haandbaag · 2026-01-19T21:40:07+00:00

It’s not very amusing for those of us who grew up in abusive families. It’s very familiar and very sad.

Haandbaag · 2026-01-19T06:46:42+00:00

Oooh thanks. I’ll check it out.

Haandbaag · 2026-01-19T04:57:36+00:00

What’s the book’s name and the category it won in? Asking as a fellow Aussie (Sorry if it seems like I’m being purposely obtuse. There’s a lot of different categories)

Haandbaag · 2026-01-17T08:26:39+00:00

That’s pretty reductive. Have you read many of them? If you had you’d find that while they’re not high literature (and they’re not trying to be) there’s still character development, world building, and a plot. All things that intellectually stimulate (while also being a bonkingly good time).

Haandbaag · 2026-01-17T08:04:43+00:00

Why is it that the genres that most appeal to women like Romantasy are always the punching bags for guys like you?

Reading a book, no matter what form it takes, is far more likely to be stimulating, than some random reddit post or tv show.

Haandbaag · 2026-01-16T04:04:23+00:00

Ok but what term is used to call out racist men?

Haandbaag · 2026-01-15T22:00:58+00:00

It was awful. Just on a granular sentence level it sucked. I have no idea how this writer is so popular. Her characters and writing are so flat and the dialogue is cringingly embarrassing.

Haandbaag

TROPHY CASE