je suis perdu

Town size: 7500

Deaths: 189

Childbirth deaths: 1

Burn deaths: 0

Tuberculosis deaths: 18

Measles and measles complications deaths: 32

as always the human immune system is not beating the "overactive HOA that explodes the whole subdivision bc someone put up a basketball hoop in their driveway" allegations

I really hate that it can just be looking around and go "hmmm I don't like the cut of this guy's jib" and the guy is YOUR OWN BLOOD

I was also reminded recently about the eyes having "immune privilege" meaning your immune system isn't really supposed to Go There bc your eyeball tissue is so delicate that inflammation and higher temperatures would destroy the tissue. so your body is just like. "don't look over there. nothing to be concerned about. nothing to see here" about. your eyes. to prevent your immune system from EXPLODING THE SUBDIVISION

It’s totally fine if you’re talking about him being a sparkly yaoi blorbo of gay representation when you’re talking about certain specific adaptations of Greek myth that lead with that aspect of his characterization. But I think there’s something missing if you assert that he is a sparkly yaoi blorbo of gay representation in the Iliad and ignore that his establishing scenes set him up as someone thoroughly bought into an honor culture where you earn your positive reputation through the conquest, murder, and enslavement of people, and that includes completely disregarding the bodily autonomy and consent of women and treating them as war-prizes/objects in a gross scorekeeping game.

Like Achilles does end up questioning that system maybe the tiniest bit by the end of the Iliad but not enough to stop doing war and conquest and enslavement and war prizes about it. He will continue to attack Troy even after his temporary truce with Priam reminds him of his own father grieving at home. And I do think the Iliad depicts him as Loving Patroclus This Big, but I feel like part of what makes Achilles compelling is that how that love coexists with his capacity for rage and violence.

I’m also not saying that the Iliad is the one “true” or “original” depiction of Achilles but it is a highly influential early depiction that lays the groundwork for how his story is understood. (And look. I also think we need to talk about depictions like the one in Statius more—or at least know what comes from Statius vs Homer—or like, I think we should also pay attention to the version of Achilles we find in Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis and other depictions of Achilles in tragedy.) But I do get frustrated when people take the “Achilles was just so in love with Patroclus, omg OTP, ancient gay icons!!11” and see it as the defining feature of these ancient texts where we should probably also be talking about how that intersects with the misogyny and the desecration of corpses and the war crimes.