#lysis

Louis Hofmann & Oliver Masucci | Under The River/Lysis (2018)

Shelter & Hope.

"I offer no apology for saying things that contradict what I have said before to suit the moment."

- Clytemnestra, from Aeschylus' Agamemnon, Translated by Oliver Taplin

"If only I could sing like Orpheus,"

- Iphigenia, from Euripides' Iphigeneia in Aulis, Translated by George Theodoridis

"Don't you understand? — I saw death reach out for you; and I had no philosophy."

Can someone tell me what is going on here - it's the bit when Alexias cuts his foot while he is swimming with Lysis. I thought I was used to weird internal monologue after years of reading The Charioteer, but this has me stumped......

We've all been joking about how he's embodying the "this is fine" dog, but honestly, I think his denial and tunnel vision is the only reason he hasn't had a breakdown yet. He's known something is wrong for a while now, even since the carriage ride I'd say, but he hasn't let himself dwell on those thoughts. He doesn't think too much about his fear when avoidable, and he certainly doesn't write about it in his journal, because that would mean giving the fear more focus.

Jonathan writes long paragraphs about what Dracula tells him of his history, of their conversations on soliciting, because that's what's safe for him to think about. He focuses on the facts—on the things not tinged with too much dread or many hints of the supernatural, because doing otherwise would mean confronting the true horror of his situation. He won't think too hard about what it might mean that his driver had apparent control over the wolves, because that issue opens up a bottomless hole of questions, but he can think about the issue of how he's going to shave without his mirror. It's a nice, tangible problem in a sea of things he cannot bear to dwell on.

Jonathan is a simple, business-minded man. He's built for dealing with train schedules and real estate law, not the supernatural, so these are the sort of things he focuses on. Anything else is a bit too much to bear. Even the blatantly supernatural stories must be recorded as though they are not so.