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Emily Wilson @EmilyRCWilson
, 3 tweets, 1 min read Read on Twitter
Powerful essay on how upsetting it is to read Euripides now, and the difference between reading and activism. "Read Euripides if you want, but don’t mistake reading him for making the world less of a terrible place; your personal emotional growth doesn’t mean that much. "
Andromache to her son before he's taken away forever:

Child, are you crying? Do you understand?
Why are you clinging, clutching at my dress,
just like a baby bird beneath my wings?..
Hug me one last time now, grip close to me,
kiss me and hold me tight, my own sweet baby...
Hecuba knows that the administration took away her baby grandson because they were scared of him. "This tiny body frightened you".
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More from @EmilyRCWilson see all

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My eldest daughter is 14 years old. Whenever she leaves the house, she gets catcalled by men on the street or from cars. We were walking together at the weekend, and within a few minutes, two car-fulls of guys whooped at her. They probably thought it was harmless fun.
She goes to the corner store or for bubble tea, and grown men ask for her number. She says she's 14. Some of them back off. Some of them are excited; they pursue harder. They ask if she's going to make them "catch a case".
This morning she was waiting for the trolley to go to school. One man said, "Good morning, gorgeous, how old are you?" She said "14". He said "Goddamn, 4 more years and then you're all mine".
Read 9 tweets
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The Odyssey is about what 20 years does -- to a man, a boy, a dog, a pig, a slave, a woman, a household, a weapon, a community, a marriage, a goddess, a tree, a poem, a father, a mother. How long does it take to come home from a war? Will we ever be who we were?
It's a long poem about a long process, and it's also about how long it takes to tell the story. Right now I am agonizing about how to convert 10K words into 5K without losing anything important. Is that possible?
In @KarenEmmerich's great book, I loved an anecdote about being contractually required to produce a "faithful rendition" of a Greek novel that was over 750pp, in 500 English pages. A miracle. Kate Briggs also has excellent thoughts on time and length in translation.
Read 17 tweets
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A question that is always present, for any translator: What is stylistic "equivalence"? Is "equivalence" even the right term? Translation Studies over the past few decades has taught us a lot about how complex that question always is.
Homer includes words from many eras and many dialects. It's regular metrical dactylic hexameter, not prose, and it comes from a time when prose didn't yet exist. Many formulaic elements. Many polysyllabic words. But syntactically v. easy, quick, fun and absorbing to read.
What is "equivalent", in a contemporary Anglophone context, to how all of this sounded in the Greek-speaking world of, say, the 6th century BCE? There's in fact no equivalent. We just don't have a text or a tradition that occupies the same cultural / literary/ poetic space.
Read 13 tweets

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Some notes on a concept I call "Deep Awareness", a synthesis of "emotional awareness" and "self-awareness".

Comments/suggestions/criticisms are welcome
“Deep Awareness” is a synthesis of “emotional awareness” and “self-awareness”.

The difference between "emotional awareness" and "self-awareness" is the difference between reading about a story and living the experiences of the story.
“Emotional awareness” is an awareness of lived experience, while “self-awareness” is seeing lived experience from the outside, as if it had occurred without your emotional investment/framework.
Read 25 tweets
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1/ Things are different at this year's U.N.'s climate talks, and it's because of (A) something that very nearly didn’t happen three years ago, and (B) science.

A thread.
#COP24 #COP24Katowice
2/ Ever since the 1970s, scientists and diplomats have focused on trying to keep the planet’s average temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C (that’s 3.6 F, for us Americans.) Here's a great @nytimes story on this history if you're interested. nytimes.com/2014/12/16/sci…
3/ But over the years it started to look like even 2 degrees might screw places that are especially exposed to a changing climate, places like the Marshall Islands (here's a plug for @michellemizner's and my @frontlinepbs interactive doc about that). apps.frontline.org/the-last-gener…
Read 30 tweets
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A big difference between the right and the left is an acknowledgement that there are limits to the malleability of the world around us
The leftist imagines utopia but utopia is impossible whether on Marxist or cultural Marxist grounds, though for different reasons. At root the leftist seems to think that good intentions can reshape the world.
It should be obvious why money redistribution (classical marxism) can't work, but just in case: The function of a market is to solve a very complex communication problem; what is the cost in labor and resources of X? | X ∈ {all goods and services}
Read 30 tweets
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OK, settle in. I have no idea where this is going but I have a few things to say.

Anyone who follows me knows that I work really hard to amplify the voices of our Democratic elected officials. I follow every Senate Dem, and retweet them frequently.
I'm always looking for that story that destroys a GOP narrative, or features a Democrat being especially smart and savvy. No one on Twitter is more invested on strengthening the only national political party that doesn't want to discriminate against marginalized people.
I pounce on people trying to both sides an issue or blur the lines by citing some weakness, error or mistake a Democrat may have made. Especially if the reason they're doing so is to raise $$$ for their grift by selling Dems Suck.
Read 41 tweets
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Sempena Hari Hemofilia Sedunia (17 April), I want to share on

[LIFE AS HEMOPHILIACS]

(Sori smlm tak sempat. Ada meeting)

The photo below is me when I was 22 years old
Ada internal bleeding dalam perut secara spontan. Tap impact dia mmg hardcore.

I almost lost my life back then. I collapse and luckily my friends come to the rescue.

In fact, ni bukan skali je jadi benda camni. Banyak lagi. Tapi ni salah satunya
Let's start from the beginning.

Masa kecik2 dulu, before skolah rendah, dari 12 bulan tu, I can only walk around 4-5 bulan je.

7-8 bulan tu baring. sebab kaki bengkak dan lain2 injury

So dari kecik, asik belaja jalan je. banyak kali. and jalan pun tak betul
Read 34 tweets
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Something I don't see talked about much wrt depression and other mental illnesses is the problem of thought permanence.

"How I think and feel now is how I've ALWAYS thought and felt."

Not with respect to other people, relationships, friendships or situations. But internally.
I know that such things as object and emotional permanence are often discussed, but I rarely see the cognitive side examined.

It doesn't just apply to when we experience the worst feelings - it also happens when we are in recovery. "Perhaps it was never as bad as I thought."
Rationally I can understand this as a defense mechanism of the brain when it works in the positive - it flattens out past bad and traumatic experiences so that we may heal.

But when it happens during these bad times, the effect is devastating.
Read 19 tweets

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