Friday, November 16, 2012

On This, The Third Friday of NaNoWriMo...

First, the ever important and most excellent progress meter:



Because I made it to 50K on the 13th!!! WOO!

And today, I promptly decided that the last 1300 words I wrote yesterday were crap. Since I'm already safely over the 50K hurdle, with room to spare, I thought about just deleting them completely, but it didn't seem right. Not in November. Instead, I may or may not have just used the strikeout option.

And in celebration -- or um, in place of anything super exciting beyond 50K WOO WOOO 50K!!!!! allow me to share with you this strange, gothic, and almost steampunky image of Perseus I found while doing research on Pirithous's half-brother, and his association or lack thereof with the Helm of Hades.

Edward Burne-Jones - Perseus


It's so strange to think of these other heroes as siblings and cousins to one another. So often we don't have any understanding of those family bonds in the stories that surround them. Pirithous and Theseus are an exception, of course, since we know from more than one source that they were like brothers. But you never hear about Heracles calling up his half-brothers or sisters, or really forming relationships with his blood-relatives on his divine side. Sure, he might have buddied up with Theseus to hit on the Amazons, and there's that whole Jason and the Argonauts thing, about which we will not speak, but even when Euripides showcases the friendship between Theseus and Heracles, there isn't any mention of their familial bond. They were friends and heroes in arms, but not explicitly spoken of as cousins.

Of course Perseus and Pirithous are different generations of hero, and not at all contemporaries, so in this case, it's a lot less strange that there's no mention of anything, or even that they ever might have crossed paths -- to say nothing of the dearth of stories we have about Pirithous to begin with. But it doesn't stop me from wondering what Pirithous might have thought of his famous brothers...

7 comments:

  1. CONGRATULATIONS!

    I seriously don't know how you do it, much less every year in November. It's taken me almost six months to hit 100,000 words so I'm totally jealous.

    And very cool picture too!

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    1. Thanks!! I don't know what it is about first drafts, but it's like reading a really good book and you can't stop because you have to find out what happens next so you blow through it way too fast. Of course, the first 50K is the easy part. The second 50K I start to hate myself. :)

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  2. Hooray!!! I never doubted you. :D Congratulations on another successful NaNo run!

    I'm still just past the halfway mark, but I haven't given up the ghost!

    The picture is amazing. I've never seen Perseus like this. Very dark, and steampunky is right! I'm Googling images of him now and mainly the images focus on his slaying of Medusa in all kinds of semi-naked, golden glory. ^-^

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    1. But of course he is!! It would not be proper heroic slaying of monsters if clothing were fully in evidence!

      I can't decide if I like this Perseus image or not though. I mean, I love Andromeda, looking on, totally naked, just like "Hey, you missed a spot down there. Stick it good!" SHE IS BACKSEAT SLAYING IN HER BIRTHDAY SUIT!

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    2. Perseus is all "Do You Want To Do This?! I WILL GIVE YOU THE SWORD."

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    3. Bahahahaha BACKSEAT SLAYING!! You have inspired a scene in my manuscript I love you!!!!

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    4. I am SO EXCITED to read this scene when it is done!!

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