Matthew Lloyd > Recent Status Updates

Werburgh's animal companions (geese) and Ia's unusual sea travel (leaf boat) made today's saint story dovetail nicely with Ovid's account of 3rd February in his fasti: explaining how the constellation of the dolphin came to be through the story of Arion, who was rescued by a dolphin when his boat was boarded by pirates

St. Brigid's Day: This might be Jeffs' best discussion yet: the stories of Brigid are told in a folk-tale manner that I found effective; the discussion acknowledges the interpretation of Brigid's "abortion" miracle, but also complicates it with the medieval context of "virginity", purity, and other saints - all male - who performed similar miracles.

I love Oedipus at Colonus as a conclusion to Oedipus's story. Firstly, his righteous anger that he has been held responsible for divinely prophesised acts he had no control over. Then for the weirdness - that Oedipus's broken, curséd body has become sacred; that his resting place must be unknown, his death mystical. Also, just being set in a grove with a rock. I like simple things sometimes.

I appreciate that we have three versions of the Electra/Libation Bearers myth, and that one of them should seem to simply allow Electra and Orestes to revel in what they do, the vengeance they take. It allows the myth to be complicated - can we really be sympathetic to Clytemnestra's suffering with regard to Iphigenia's murder, when she appears to treat her living children so poorly?

Antigone is excellent; while reading it I was also preparing some Black History Month stuff, which touches on the question of just and unjust laws; but I also read things that asked questions about our moral purity tests leading me to think about how Antigone kills herself after Creon changes his mind, and if expecting people to change their mind is valuable or not... always more to unpack with this one.

Oedipus Tyrannos: still the best play.

Started reading Searoad

St Agnes' Day (the last feast day in January); Jeffs uses this to highlight the iconography of sainthood through the Royal Gold Cup in the British Museum, showing the short life of St Agnes. I still find Jeffs' storytelling a little flat, but the historical information is always interesting.

Finished reading Howl's Moving Castle

I'm normally quite hard on Night Watch because (a) Terry Pratchett and I have different models of historical change and (b) no one else is, but I did choke up at the relevancy of this adaptation in a time when a mad patrician and a militarised police force are killing civilians. I'm just not sure that the solution is for us to sit behind barricades while the ruling classes sort things out for themselves.

Small Gods brings to my attention a problem I think a lot of these adaptations have: Pratchett writes some brilliant endings that draw together numerous strands from the novels, but that are set up, subtly or not, throughout. In adaptation, these endings often seem fragmented, and aren't always well executed. It means I can enjoy 3/4 episodes, but then feel unsatisfied at the end.

Happy St. Mungo's Day, everyone!

Eric is an interesting one - shorter, and thus more easily adapted; but also kind of a bridge in the Rincewind stories... none of which have otherwise been adapted. It's another example of how these radio shows seem more targeted to those who are already fans, which is fine, except it's not clear why they're better than audiobooks. This one does give us Mark Heap as the perfect voice of Rincewind, though.

In this 1992 adaptation of Guards! Guards! you and really hear the influence of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Pratchett's humour was always in that general area, but it's emphasised here in a way that hasn't been the case in the previous, later adaptations in this collection.

Started reading The Beginning Place

I don't know if I just like Wyrd Sisters more as a story, or if the production of Wyrd Sisters was better, or if it's been 6+ years since I read it and >1 since I listened to the audiobook of Mort, but I really enjoyed Wyrd Sisters. There's a couple of things that aren't completely clear or are rushed, but I love the charm and wit of Granny, Nanny, and especially Magrat in their first adventure together.

An enjoyable adaptation of Mort. I'm not completely sure when I would want to listen to it rather than the audiobook of Mort - looking back at my review from last year, I apparently laughed out loud a lot more listening to that than listening to this. It is, however, 1/4 of the length, so perhaps if stuck for time, or when I miss BBC radio dramas (often).

I, too, doubt the attribution of Prometheis Bound to Aeschylus because it's awesome and Aeschylus tends not to be so good.

Took a break from the gospels to read about how they suck

I found the Good News According to Lukas a bit more readable, but I'm excited to be done with the repetitive gospel and get on to the wildly different and weird one