UofG Swift Soc Bookclub 2024-5 discussion

So excited to have out first book club meeting on Tuesday! Hope people have started reading the book. Here's just a little preview of things people might want to talk about at the meeting:

Circe is a Greek mythological retelling centred around a female character. Perfect in the light of Taylor’s references to mythology in TTPD primarily in Cassandra and The Prophecy. Full of magic and witchiness just in time for an October read.

The genre:
Greek mythological retellings have existed in literature for decades through works such as
C.S. Lewis’ ‘Till We Have Faces’ and Magaret Atwood’s ‘Penelopiad’ from 1956 and 2005. Though have had a huge rise in popularity in the 2010-20s with Madeline Miller being near the forefront with Song of Achilles in 2012 and Circe in 2018. Through retellings, new dynamics can be brought to old texts bringing important female characters to the forefront. Though some view this as problematic calling it ‘feminist revisionist mythology’ that while increasing representation in those stories they could instead use new stories without these roots the majority of readers tend to enjoy the effect of ‘reclaiming’ these stories and showing the importance of female characters in driving these stories that was there all along.

Circe weaves together multiple myths with the Minotaur, Medea and Odyseesus all playing parts in the story or rather her playing a part in theirs.. As it was established in the original myths that Pasiphae (Circe's sister) was the mother of the minotaur, Medea was also Circe’s niece and Circe's clear role in the original Odyssey. Creating one novel centred around her shows the far-reaching effects of her story even back then and by collating all these impacts she had into one place Madeline Miller effortlessly shows the importance of female stories in Greek mythology.


Taylor mythological references
- Cassandra: https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/...
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The prophecy states, “Even statues crumble / If they’re made to wait.” in the TTPD pop-up library there was a statue in the exhibit of Diana of Ephesus, the goddess of childbirth and fertility. The original version of Diana was meant to be shipped to London but crumbled due to neglect.-

Thank You Aimee: lyrics about boulders up a hill - Sisyphus

Read here to learn about references in folklore and evermore: https://proseandchords.com/fascinatin...

Feel free to add your own comments about the book and what you want to talk about next week!