Orpheus But He's Sisyphus

orpheus but he's sisyphus

Ovid’s The Story of Orpheus and Eurydice (tr. Rolfe Humphries) / Spirited Away dir. Hayao Miyazaki / @mag200 / Jenny Diski, “Housewife” / Franz Wright, God's Silence / Adrianne Kalfopoulou, “Poem in Pieces, a Log” / Jon Ware, I am in Eskew / Kazimierz Wierzyński, “A Word of Orphists” (tr. Czeslaw Milosz) / @prisonhannibal / Aeschylus, The Oresteia / Ocean Vuong, Eurydice

image ids under cut:

image 1: a quote from Ovid that reads: "And Orpheus received her, but one term was set: he must not, till he passed Avernus, turn back his gaze, or the gift would be in vain."

image 2: excerpt from the script of the film Spirited Away that reads: "Haku: But I can't go any farther. Just go back the way you came, you'll be fine. [highlighted] But you have to promise not to look back, not until you've passed through the tunnel."

image 3: a drawing, labeled in all-caps handwriting "a venn diagram of love vs. grief:". the drawing is a single circle.

image 4: an excerpt, highlighted and italicized, from Jenny Diski that reads: "People don't understand about repetition, do they? How it is at the heart (thump, thump, thump) of obsession; at the erotic centre (drip, drip, drip) of desire. You do, of course. Repetition is insatiability spelt sideways."

image 5: a quote from Franz Wright reading, "And let me ask you this: the dead, where aren't they?"

image 6: a quote from Adrianne Kalfopoulou in red text, reading, "Grief will keep you reaching back / for what is not there"

image 7: an excerpt from Jon Ware that reads, "Here's my question. If the ghost wants nothing more than to be witnessed, why would it appear behind you, not in front of you? The only answer I can think of is this: [underlined] it appears behind you because it already knows, to an absolute certainty, that you will have no choice but to look back."

image 8: a quote from Kazimierz Wierzyński that reads: "I understood the true fate of Orpheus, that [highlighted] love is a constant terror of loss."

image 9: a screenshot of a tumblr ask from an anonymous user who says, "What's the point?" user prisonhannibal responds, "of what? it's love though".

image 10: two lines from aeschylus reading, "Orestes: This was always going to happen. She's been dead since the beginning."

image 11: an excerpt from Ocean Vuong that reads, "Your absence has gone through me // Like thread through a needle. / Everything I do is stitched with its color."

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Four Things that Would Make Labyrinth Fanfic A+ Just by Existing

(four items again just because of reasons!)

1. Worldbuilding By and large, Labyrinth fanfic writers are really good at letting Sarah’s Aboveground world grow as she matures. Often she has gone away to college, or traveled, or has settled in to a career of some kind that isn’t in upstate New York. However, the Underground suffers a lot. In some favorites such as Limbo, Fairest, and of course Tanglewood, we see the boundaries blurred and pushed in the Underground. In a land where anything can happen and nothing is as it seems, it’s a shame writers don’t explore it more. Where does Jareth go if he’s not in his own land? Who are his allies? His enemies? Who, or what, else exists around him…anything? Tell your own origin story, since it’s apparently changing anyway between the sequel manga and the prequel. 2. Jareth is an equal-opportunity lover A magic creature who lords over goblins falls in love with a human girl? He’s already crossing planes of existence and species. I’ve personally always had the feeling that sexuality in the Underground is a lot like the Sims: you can choose and do whatever you like but in the end it’s all just pansexual people yelling at each other and setting houses on fire. That to mean that there’s no question of orientation or preference, everyone is just as they are. 3. Sarah is also an equal-opportunity lover Give me your bi, pan, questioning, whatever Sarahs! Let her explore! There’s no way after having been so enraptured by a creature like Jareth with all the glitter, long hair, and bulge that she didn’t at least have a few wandering thoughts. Did she have a Katy Perry moment? Maybe she’s straight but gets all flustered if she meets anyone with crazy platinum hair. Also…stop it with Sarah always being a virgin but…that’s another topic for another day. 4. Non-Jareth/Sarah adventures with other creatures and friends I am still – STILL – waiting for the 100k epic Sir Didymus origin story. I know someone has it in them somewhere. There’s a smattering of Hoggle-centric or at least POV fic out there and it’s all pretty well entertaining, honestly. But I’d really love to see someone remix a fic “as told by…” Ludo? A goblin sentry? How did the False Alarms earn their place? Who knows! Without the creatures and general setting, Labyrinth would be a much more boring story…and honestly it would be pretty creepy and unnerving. But the charm that wins Sarah over isn’t Jareth, it’s all the people she encounters along the way. The Worm, even the Fireys got an invite to her victory party. Imagine life as the guards in charge of the riddle. Those characters are ultimately what really makes the story so relateable and believable–the unbelievable, fantasy characters. Explore them!