#40// mercy percy

greek in july

Dear Reader,
Let me distract you before you ask me what that email subject means. It rhymes.
 

Read

One day I asked on Twitter and Instagram if I should read the Percy Jackson series for the first time. The response was overwhelming. Fans urged me to read giving me tips on what to read first (Author Rick Riordan has written so many books!), how they read it over a day (I laughed only to message them saying they were so right), and what to expect. I’ll be honest, even when I tweeted about PJ, I wasn’t actually planning to read it. It was more of a fleeting thought. AND that is how I picked up the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.
 
Five books later, I am happy to say that it was an awesome ride! Basically this is Greek gods in America. The gods are not allowed to have children with mortals but some of them do and these half-blood children/demi-gods have powers. They train at a summer camp (cover name Delphi Strawberry Service) every year and go on dangerous quests that often don’t end well (you might even become a tree, or…die). Percy Jackson is one such half blood and he realizes this when strange things happen at school (like vaporizing the algebra teacher). He finds out that his best friend Grover was not a boy, but a satyr keeping an eye on him (he wears fake legs over his hooves to fit in school/real world). Also there’s a prophecy about someone (maybe Percy) destroying the world (or not) on their sixteenth birthday. And the age of gods might come to an end (or not). That’s pretty much it.
 
Each book comes with a new adventure. In the first book, The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson has to find the lightning thief and return Zeus’s master bolt before a war between gods begin. My favourite book in the series was the second one, Sea of monsters which was more fleshed out and full of surprises. Percy and gang must save the half-blood camp whose magical borders are failing, by sailing to the sea of monsters. In The Titan’s curse, Percy and friends must find the kidnapped goddess Artemis and face an ancient monster that could destroy Olympus. The fourth, The Battle of Labyrinth grew slightly tiring story-wise but exciting because of the cities covered in the quest. This is the buildup to the final war; Percy and friends must navigate the complicated labyrinth filled with monsters and surprises. And the finale, The Last Olympian, about the prophecy, battle in Manhattan; you know what to expect
 
I loved the Western setting for the Greek gods and the rules. Like Percy cannot fly on a plane. The half-bloods are weak if they go to certain cities. They might have to hitch a ride on animal-smuggling trucks to get to Los Angeles. Mount Olympus is in Empire state building, New York. Central Park has a gate to the Underworld. (Touring the East Coast of US reading Percy Jackson would be really fun!) It is funny that these superheroes with great powers and the goal to save the world have to take subway or ask adults for help. These kids are chomping French fries one minute and crushing evil in the next. I loved the bizarre theories. For example, those donut shops that are part of a big chain and pop up everywhere in the country? Could that be a monster’s work? (Think about it when you bite into your next sweet treat). How would you like your goddesses knitting your death? Or running cafes? Or riding motorbikes?
 
Did I tell you the books are really funny? There is a scene where Annabeth, the daughter of Athena, has to answer riddles and she has a bone to pick with the Sphinx because the questions are too basic (general knowledge questions, not even difficult riddles) and it underestimates her intelligence. Why can’t we just answer and move forward with saving the world?—her gang mates question. But this intelligent girl will simply not take the easy way out. The Council might have an important discussion over a ping-pong table at summer camp. A plastic hairbrush could knock down the greatest villain. Centaurs would fight shooting paintballs. The books are fun and funny! I loved the imagination and the originality. Cyclops eating Skippy chunky peanut butter on lunch break, enchanted casinos, evil nearly-blind cyclops in search of a bride, Iris-messages, minotaur fighting school boys, pens that are swords, Calypso's garden, Aunt Em's (aka Medusa) garden gnome emporium. And the gods making entry! Phew! I forget which one, but one of the gods wears a Texas T-shirt (I think it was Ares, god of war who comes on a motorbike). Poseidon, god of sea, is comfy in Bermuda shorts, Hawaiin shirt and Birkenstocks. Hermes sports a jogging suit and wings on his Reeboks. I loved the sly surprises—Beatles and Alfred Hitchcok are famous demigods.
 
The punishments are hilarious too. Daedalus (remember the father and son who tried to fly but the son Icarus crashed to death?) is a good builder so he was appointed to build over ramps and exit passes to ease traffic congestion instead of being boiled in cheese fondue. Also I was a big fan of the best chapter headings in all the books. Some of my favourites—A god buys us cheese burgers, I learn how to grow zombies, I wrestle Santa’s evil twin, We meet the dragon of eternal bad breath, The underworld sends a prank call, Nico buys happy meals for the dead, We trash the Eternal city.
 
These books are gloriously imaginative. I am a dunce at Greek mythology. In the way that someone has to remind me who is who and who did what, in a retelling. And I perfectly sailed through Rick Riordan’s world. I loved the gods and monsters in new forms, all ready to raise hell and ensure chaos but dependent on a prophecy.

Reading the PJ series as an adult hit different. This also made me understand how some people read a middle grade or young adult series as an adult and do not understand the hype, simply because they are not the target audience. I did not spend time worrying about the gang on quests, like how I’ve done in my childhood. But I did lose sleep (literally) because it was a fast-paced plot with lots of action—100% like I was watching a movie. I get what some readers (non-fans) cautioned me about childish prose before I began reading—the writing is simpler in Book 1 but after that it is just your regular middle grade adventure story.
 
Maybe I would have liked to know about these characters, not just what they do/fight. Except for Percy’s crush on two girls (ugh, make up your mind confused teenagers), we know nothing deep. But who’s complaining? I’ll take the dangerous quests. Also we are aware of PJ’s many fears, so strike out the above point—that’s the adult in me talking. I just knew from Book 1 that I would’ve loved Percy Jackson series as a child. Maybe it would’ve been one of the childhood books I would re-read. That is not to be. Reading them in my thirties, I enjoyed them very much. I read them on my phone, and on my laptop with the lights off when I should be sleeping. I found it difficult to put them down when I read them before bedtime, so much that I made it a rule not to read in bed after having learnt my lesson with baggy dark circles under the eyes. I was so mad that the library hold on the last book would not come through and I was stuck at #1 in the queue for ages. So yes! This was wonderful. Thank you for persuading me to pick this series up.

Summer Reading

A brand-new summer reading list is live which will cater to both your Inventing Anna vibes and your detached girl in academia vibes.

Watch

—the very enjoyable the light hearted Telugu comedy Ante Sundaraniki on Netflix starring Nani and Nazriya. It’s been a while since I watched something entertaining that made me rewind scenes because I’ve laughed so hard at the previous scene that I missed the next one. Also I’ve missed these light hearted kind of Indian movies because my recent watchlist has been heavy on a moral-at-the-end-of-the-story (PS: this one has a few too but there's also a story). Nani’s comic timing is impeccable—Comedy is often lost especially when watching a film relying on subtitles but Ante Sudaraniki really nailed it. The film is narrated through a series of flashbacks—Not my favourite style because I would often get annoyed with the ‘present’ narrator but this format really worked for me in this film. It meant suspense, humour, homams superstitions and elaborate lies. The cast was perfect, be it the hero’s superstitious, casteist father or his meek mother or the heroine’s strict but prejudiced father. And it was definitely refreshing to see Nazriya in her Telugu debut.
 
Sundar is the only heir of an orthodox Brahmin family. Leela is a photographer hailing from a Christian family who is encouraged by her father to follow her dreams. They fall in love and have to convince their families to accept them. Instead of the straight forward way (which they think will not work out), they plan to lie to win approval. By the end of the movie, you’ll question if it was light btw. It makes you think about caste barriers, women’s role in the patriarchal institution of marriage and more. All served with a big serving of laughs for ‘one hour of your time’. (that’s a reference, :) )

Amazing Links

This cool study about randomness
A bored Chinese housewife spent years falsifying history on Wikipedia (Vice)
On feeling rather than thinking
This people’s fish named Benson
Watering the dead and the unseen by Sumana Roy (Emergence magazine)
What happens when Tiktok songs go viral?

Until next time,
Resh x

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