For this time, I have decided to ramble some about the book For the Winner, by Emily Hauser. It was a reimagined version of the tales of Atalanta, an inspirational character in Greek mythology.
Atalanta was abandoned by her father for being born a girl and was taken up to the peaks of a mountain. Luckily, a family living in the mountains found her and gave her a poor but loved upbringing. Taught by her father of how to hunt, Atalanta showed a great potential of meeting -or even superseding-the capability of both men and women, especially in footrace and archery. Throughout the whole book, how she killed two lions on her own, wounding a boar with a hunting group consisted of royal hunters, etc. showed how vast her talents go beyond. I know Greek cultures are open-minded of many things, including homosexuality, and being one of the first cultures that support democracy and votings. However, when it came to women, they tended to get twitchy and disapproving, which I absolutely detest.
With the oppressing chauvinism -I looked up this word on the Internet especially for this-, I guess it was the reason for the existence of the Amazonian Warriors and Atalanta, fighting and proving to the world that they deserve the same respect -and sometimes even more-, and I love the character’s structure for that.
The novel was basically using the same characters inside the original Greek mythology, but giving them a different but resembling role. Every question I had for the original was well-explained in this novel, including why Atalanta chose to follow the golden apple during the footrace with Hippomenes.
Now there is not much I can do with the appreciation of the plot of the novel without explaining the original story, and while I would certainly love to do so, it would be too long-winded… So here is the most profound feature of this book.
One of the main elements in Greek mythology is “destiny and fate”, about how you will get the same results, no matter what you tried to avoid what was already decided: Oedipus killed his father and married his mother because he decided to deliberately avoid it; Achilles was prophesied that he would be killed if he went to the Trojan War, etc. Fate was supposed to be something that cannot be defeated, defied, even by the deities. It sounded reasonable; the earth is round, the celestial bodies have their ways of motions, and there is nothing we can do about it. (I tried inserting some astronomy similes over here, but it seems like I failed)
This book claimed otherwise, despite all:
“Choice is the power that overcomes fate. The choice to believe that fate does not determine destiny. The choice to make the world your own- not because the fates have decreed it, not because the Gods have willed it, but because you, yourself, decide.”
Instead of just giving up, believing that there is still a chance to strive for a better result. Atalanta chose to lose the footrace to Hippomenes to reclaim her deserved throne while at the same time, pry Jason’s ill-bearing hands off the kingdom she ruled. Indeed, she lost the footrace; but she ultimately won. She could have won, but the fact that she chose was iconic.
I know I would, making a choice for myself, and even if the eventuality weren’t to be evaded, I would take it with a content smile, knowing that I did try, and it was the trying part that made my life complete.
Okay, I know I was focusing too much on the novel part, but this story really gave me some feelings. I know I should be keeping lower limits in the words, but when it comes to the books that really made me feel, I would start rambling and would be unlikely to stop. Just… let me indulge in this fun a bit more, alright?
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| I regretted the fact that I had missed Ms. Emily's workshop by a few hours when I was in England; I was having psychology classes :( |
People know, that EHP is never just a class with merely some extra English classes; we have tons more events than the others do. This week in school, I took part in an English spelling contest. It was actually the very one I participated in last year. I did get into the finals, but neither did I make it into the top hundred. It was a confidence wrecker, I had to say (I need such things every once in a while, for I am sometimes too arrogant) Though for this one, I was angry at myself for not knowing what dandruff is....
In addition, we also have some other contests in our way. The voice over competition, the essay competition, speech contest, a show for the school's reader's theater, etc. all tangled together into a ball of yarn, dingling and dangling on the edge of the cliff. Dramatic, I know.
During summer vacation, I had never thought that our schedule can be so crammed up like this, so I think I have to use up more of my free time to keep my blog active...
Sincerely,
Hugo
p.s. sorry again for the unbalanced proportion of contents :D
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