why are straight white guys so obsessed with world war 2
like i’ll talk about my interest in history and i’ll have guys be like “yeah i’m a history buff too i love world war 1 and 2″ like cool i was talking about ancient history. like the conversation was literally about ancient egypt.
my fave thing is replying “oh, cool. i just can’t get into it. i like everyday life and religion and art. personally, i find war boring.” and let me tell you it’s a journey to watch them try and understand that killing thousands of people indiscriminately doesn’t hold my attention.
yup it’s always the “oh you’re just not into history” and the response of “yes i am im just into ancient history” and you’re ready to throw 38 greek myths at them just to shut them up about the kinds of bombers the britsh were using in the second world war
except like. they really dont give a single fuck about wwi/ii. they care about the weapons and machinery. do they care about the events and the people? do they care about why wars were actually important? in my experience, very, very rarely.
I think that gets to heart of it: they’re not history buffs in any real sense. What they are is war fanboys. They collect and curate technical information about wars just like any other fanboy collects and curates technical information about the subject of their fandom. It’s basically not real to them; knowing what exact metal the buttons of SS uniforms were made of is of no greater significance to them than knowing the exact height of the captain’s chair on the starship Enterprise – it’s just another shiny technical fact for their collection.
I just got back home from a library book sale and discovered that the old paperback copy of The Two Towers that I purchased for 25 cents was a part of nerd history: an unauthorized edition of the book published by Ace books without JRR Tolkien’s approval, thanks to a copyright loophole.
Fragile-ego’d male whining about “blame-loaded” terms like “sexist” or “misogynist” = yet another dude that doesn’t like people of his gender being held fucking responsible for their bullshit. But I’m sure he doesn’t mind “blame-loaded” phrases like “What were you wearing?” or “How much did you have to drink?”
And yes, ok? I got that just from a screencapped argument about English translations from ancient Greek.
Check it out! It’s for sale! And it’s written to match Homer line for line!
I’ve seen a lot of recommendations for Wilson’s translation on my dash since it came out last year and I just want to mention–it’s easy to read, but it’s not an easy read. In fact, I couldn’t finish it.
Yes, this translation is amazing and historic and readable and very real–which means she doesn’t pull punches or use fancy language to obscure what a complete and utter asshole Odysseus is. I mean, the guy has his positive traits but he’s a phenomenal jerk and Wilson doesn’t make it exactly fun to follow his exploits. I’d read the work before so I knew what was coming, especially when his travels end (spoiler alert: he does make it home) and I didn’t feel up to putting myself through that for a character I genuinely disliked.
So please keep that in mind, especially if you’re thinking about buying it. Maybe check it out from a library first.
That said, the introduction is phenomenal and I learned more from it than I did the entire month I spent studying a different translation for a Greek literature class.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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