Merrry Christmas to all...

What a peaceful, still morning. Not a budgie was stirring.... At least, not until a few minutes ago; they're starting their early morning wake-up songs now, enjoying the Christmas carols I am playing.

My early-morning Christmas reading is Quomodo Invidiosulus Nomine Grinchus Christi Natalem Abrogaverit. I was too lazy to get out the dictionary but could mostly follow it anyway. Loved it.

Wishing joy to everyone.

Now I go to do something with a duck.

First Christmas

How better to celebrate Christmas morning than by writing a Christmas fic?

Title: First Christmas
Fandom: Smallville
Warnings: Christmas mush. Just to prove I don't always write about sex.

First Christmas

The Virtues of War

I did a lot of cooking today, and then cleaning up in the kitchen, and it gave me the chance to listen to an audiobook I'd picked up, The Virtues of War by Steven Pressfield. I liked the irony of listening to a book with a title like that on Christmas Day, so much a day of peace.

The book was read by James Langton, and he red it beautifully. If I had been reading the book on my own, I might not have finished it. Not that it was badly written - it was, in fact, delightfully fluid and articulate, with some wonderful turns of phrase.

And it was all about war. It was about Alexander, yes, but his personal life got hardly more than a passing mention. Most of the book is descripton of action on the battlefield. The familiar pivotal scenes are there, and many of the familiar characters - though by no means all. I'm not sure but I think there's more about Bucephalus than Hephaistion. Everyone is straight - even, explicitly, the Theban Band - until about four-fifths of the way into the book there's a passing mention of an officer who loves his page. Alexander does profess to love Hephaistion, and finds him beautiful - but apparently it's a pure and asexual love. He does have an affair with a woman in Persia, but doesn't mention it to the reader until after the fact. Bagoas of course is not mentioned.

Really, it's surprising I enjoyed it as much as I did - I'm sure I didn't learn anything new, as the basic outline of Alexander's life is familiar to me now. The credit is due to Langton's reading, though he managed with uncanny skill to pronounce just about every single proper name (except "Alexander" and "Philip") in a way that was unfamiliar to me. "Hephaistion" had the accent on the third syllable and that took me by surprise every time he was mentioned. Come to think of it, he pronounced Darius as I would (Dar-yus) not as it as pronounced in the Oliver Stone movie (Dar Eye-us.) He had a lovely voice, articulate and smooth, which I sometimes found jarring in contrast to the rough battlefield material.

(no subject)

Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect. - Oren Arnold

(no subject)

I phoned my father tonight, just to say "merry Christmas". Why is that so difficult to do? And why, now that I've done it, does it feel like such a big accomplishment?

Huh. "Father issues."

At least he was okay, and glad to hear from me.

Which of the Greek Gods am I?

I got this from rjones2818: ( Which of the Greek Gods are you? )

This made me wonder which of the Greek gods I really like, and to reflect that I have many Greek heroes (particularly Achilles and Odysseus), there are none of the gods who really ignite that spark of passion - though I am rather partial to some cognate gods of other Indo-European cultures. But Greeks... Ares, perhaps? Athena? This exercise makes me think of Elizabeth Barrett, praying to Minerva in the back garden of her Victorian London home. The Greek gods have beauty but lack gravitas... or do they, really? Until further notice, I'm rather happy with this choice.