guest room
(by guest poster)
Guten tag! I’m Todd’s younger daughter Laurel, and welcome to the first installment of Fantasy! (by a dork who can talk of nothing else.) I’m thirteen and live in Omaha, Nebraska. I really want to be an author, and have started my first book with my laptop that my school handed out to all the eighth graders. Which is great, because I could steal the neighbor’s internet. One more thing you should know about me: I have an unhealthy obsession with anything magical (dragons, elves, mythology, etc.).
Have a lot less people than I thought read Lord of the Rings? Because yesterday my dad was driving me to camp, and he asked who the elves are in LOTR. When I told him who they were, he then asked me who the short guy with the ax was, and if dwarves and hobbits are different. While I was explaining to him about how no, hobbits are much more peaceful than dwarves, I was suddenly struck by what a geek I was. Considering one of my favorite topics is the logic of the characters within fairy tales and mythology, I’m surprised I don’t feel like that more often. But I mean, come on, who just walks into a creepy old lady’s house in the middle of the woods, even if it is made of candy, which is pretty much awesome? Not quite as cool as Baba Yaga’s house, because it walks around on chicken legs, and… I just got that geek feeling again.
Has anyone here read the Percy Jackson series, by Rick Riordan? Because you really should, if you like fantasy. It’s like a modernized version of Greek mythology, and it’s honestly one of the best series I’ve ever read (and I read more than most of the people I know.) It manages to be really funny without sacrificing action or plot, which is nice, and as I mentioned earlier, I’m a mythology nut, so it’s basically perfect for me. (PS: If you have read Percy Jackson and liked it, try The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu. It’s really good too, but Percy will always be #1 in my heart.)
Have you ever noticed how the gods in Greek mythology are kind of hypocrites? They find humans basically worthless animals, but then get mad when we ignore them or don’t honor them enough or something. They were upset about Prometheus giving us fire, so they sent Pandora with her jar (it’s not actually a box,) and insist humanity honors and sacrifices to them. Doesn’t really seem to be a fair trade off. Your kind-of friend steals fire for us, but that leads to us beginning to worship you, and you release a bunch of vices on us. Even-steven. And they seem oddly eager to punish us. Like the king Erymanthia (that’s the best I can spell it) once forgot to include Artemis in a sacrifice, and she released an enormous boar into his country. Hera doesn’t like Zeus’s son Heracles, so she drives him insane a couple times. Though admittly, her husband cheats on her all the time, and punishes her if she tries to get back at him, she’s allowed to try and get revenge on his offspring and girlfriends instead. But anyway, when Heracles (named after Hera!) is driven insane and kills his family, he gets punished for something that is blatantly arranged by Hera. Where does she get off?
Anyway, I hope you have been educated by this rather rambling blog entry, or else you’re probably entirely sick of fantasy. This has been the first installment of Fantasy! And yes, that means there might be more.
Be afraid.
Be very afraid.
Have a lot less people than I thought read Lord of the Rings? Because yesterday my dad was driving me to camp, and he asked who the elves are in LOTR. When I told him who they were, he then asked me who the short guy with the ax was, and if dwarves and hobbits are different. While I was explaining to him about how no, hobbits are much more peaceful than dwarves, I was suddenly struck by what a geek I was. Considering one of my favorite topics is the logic of the characters within fairy tales and mythology, I’m surprised I don’t feel like that more often. But I mean, come on, who just walks into a creepy old lady’s house in the middle of the woods, even if it is made of candy, which is pretty much awesome? Not quite as cool as Baba Yaga’s house, because it walks around on chicken legs, and… I just got that geek feeling again.
Has anyone here read the Percy Jackson series, by Rick Riordan? Because you really should, if you like fantasy. It’s like a modernized version of Greek mythology, and it’s honestly one of the best series I’ve ever read (and I read more than most of the people I know.) It manages to be really funny without sacrificing action or plot, which is nice, and as I mentioned earlier, I’m a mythology nut, so it’s basically perfect for me. (PS: If you have read Percy Jackson and liked it, try The Shadow Thieves by Anne Ursu. It’s really good too, but Percy will always be #1 in my heart.)
Have you ever noticed how the gods in Greek mythology are kind of hypocrites? They find humans basically worthless animals, but then get mad when we ignore them or don’t honor them enough or something. They were upset about Prometheus giving us fire, so they sent Pandora with her jar (it’s not actually a box,) and insist humanity honors and sacrifices to them. Doesn’t really seem to be a fair trade off. Your kind-of friend steals fire for us, but that leads to us beginning to worship you, and you release a bunch of vices on us. Even-steven. And they seem oddly eager to punish us. Like the king Erymanthia (that’s the best I can spell it) once forgot to include Artemis in a sacrifice, and she released an enormous boar into his country. Hera doesn’t like Zeus’s son Heracles, so she drives him insane a couple times. Though admittly, her husband cheats on her all the time, and punishes her if she tries to get back at him, she’s allowed to try and get revenge on his offspring and girlfriends instead. But anyway, when Heracles (named after Hera!) is driven insane and kills his family, he gets punished for something that is blatantly arranged by Hera. Where does she get off?
Anyway, I hope you have been educated by this rather rambling blog entry, or else you’re probably entirely sick of fantasy. This has been the first installment of Fantasy! And yes, that means there might be more.
Be afraid.
Be very afraid.
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