Why The Silence of the Girls is Better than Circe

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Some of the articles I mentioned:
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Gender bias in literature: www.theguardia...

[@Jesslovescoffee29]

I read the Silence of the Girls a few months back and I still can't get it out of my head. It moved me so profoundly. I honestly didn't think much about the feminist aspect. For me, this was a story of trauma and how people react to that trauma. We expect people to have certain reactions and sometimes they present in that way, other times they don't. The different ways the women respond to their change in status was carefully characterized. I know in the first few chapters I was having trouble connecting to Briseis and it made me realize my own biases and expectations. It really helped me to think more complexly about post traumatic stress responses. Afterwards I read that Pat Barker has written a number of others books with the themes of trauma, survival and recovery and it all made sense. It's a topic she's very much interested in parsing out and I think she did it wonderfully in this book.

[@hlstnr]

Absolutely agree. I read Silence of the Girls first, and have now finished Circe and I really enjoyed both. But Barker's commentary is unapologetic and raw. I had read a review criticizing The Silence of the Girls' feminist chops for 'simply' keeping the plot of the Iliad, and not making Briseis more outspoken and 'feminist', however I think this criticism missed the subtlety of Barker's re-telling: it isn't about changing what happened or giving Briseis a different plot, but about giving her a voice in her pseudo-historical reality. That is why the book is less 'accessible' but fundamentally more poignant.

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Thanks for agreeing, and for making a really fantastic point! Likewise, I couldn't agree more.

[@Maren617]

I really love and enjoy your book reviews! One request: could you please double the volume on your videos? I always have to turn my laptop up to 100% to listen to one of them, and then when I click on another video by someone else I'm blasted and being shouted at, scrambling to reduce it back to my usual 30% volume setting. It would be so sweet if you could please make yourself louder. :-)

[@WillowTalksBooks]

This is actually an ongoing audio issue I've had. This particular video was embarrassingly quiet but I have remedied it in newer videos. Still not as loud as I'd like and I am such a big audio nerd that this really bothers me. I have a new mic but still have issues with background fuzz and blah blah, this is a roundabout way of saying I know and I'm working on it lol

[@Maren617]

@@WillowTalksBooks Thank you, no pressure though! I just need to be more mindful about turning it back down again. :-)

[@gizmo3702]

I'm really excited to read this, starting it tomorrow!

[@EvanUpz]

Relatively CisGender

[@WillowTalksBooks]

Aye, wised up eventually didn’t I. Also forgot this video existed. Nicely found, EvanUpz

[@angelaholmes8888]

The silence of the girls is good but circe is still my favorite definitely will be reading the sequel to silence of the girls in a few months

[@loukiadams5340]

Totally get your point!