The Song of Achilles

Oh my gosh.

Speaking of Circe and Song of Achilles, where is that girl? Where is that author? Madeline Miller, where are you? Where'd she go? What are you doing? Show yourself.

You wrote two of the best books I've ever read.

And then are you just relaxing at home?

Right.

Well, I do think that in this day and age of kind of rewriting and adding to the class of something like Madeline Miller, what she did with Circe and Song of Achilles, that the backstory of Medea, that's one that's just waiting to

be...

Waiting to be told.

Plus, of course, you've got the Percy Jackson series.

There's Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles, Margaret Atwood's feminist retelling of the Penelopead, I think, which is the pronunciation.

Am I right?

Yeah, Penelopead.

So she'll read it and then in the morning I'll be like, and can you tell me exactly what happened? Even though I've already read it, she's really good because she gets so immersed in them at retelling it.

So like with Song of Achilles, instead of being like, oh, yeah, and like Patroclus and blah, blah did this, she'll be like, no.

And then he was giving, oh, I like you.

And they had a little moment here.

So I thought Madeline Miller did a great job.

We read Song of Achilles.

If you've been here since the beginning, please never go back.

I don't even know if those videos are up anymore.

But Cersei, I liked more.

I liked more than Song of Achilles.

And I need to go back and reread some parts now that I'm done and I've sat with it.

I can't wait to see this become a movie one day.

It's historically significant, but it doesn't break their heart.

Which perfectly explains the strategy behind the first book in this collider analysis, which is Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles.

Such a brilliant example.

It really is.

You were reading as a reluctant, agonizing witness.

Exactly.

And the real tragedy of the Song of Achilles isn't the physical violence at the end.

I mean, that's sad, but the actual heartbreak is the slow grinding process of watching this boy you've been sitting with in that private room begin to make decisions based on his own hubris.

So I love that story as well.

And I've recently bought The Song of Achilles, I think that one is.

Yeah, The Song of Achilles, also by Madeline Martin, which I'm keen to start reading soon.

Oh.

wonderful do you ever find that when you're writing if you're reading in a similar genre that you know you'd rather read something outside of your genre when you're in the middle of writing

I make the rules

... um, I would go Song of Achilles.

I would, I was like [laughs]

Yeah