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A review by imaharlequin
300,000 Kisses: Tales of Queer Love from the Ancient World by Seán Hewitt, Luke Edward Hall
5.0
For centuries, evidence of queer love in the ancient world has either been ignored or suppressed. Even today, only a few narratives are widely the wild romance of Achilles and Patroclus; the yearning love of Sappho's lyrics; and the three genders introduced in Plato's Symposium . Yet there is a rich literary tradition of queer Greek and Roman love that extends far beyond the prudish translations of these familiar handful of stories.
In 300,000 Kisses , award-winning poet Seán Hewitt and renowned designer Luke Edward Hall collect these stories—including some of the most beautiful and moving in the classical canon—and bring them to vivid life. Alongside celebrated works by Homer, Sappho, Ovid and Catullus, they include a wide range of rarely anthologized raunchy poems, thoughtful dialogues, philosophical treatises, and even a graffiti text salvaged from the ruins of Pompeii.
This collection of short stories is preceded by short paragraphs from the author explaining the passage they have laid out next, giving context to the time, history, and emotion to really let you in on what you are reading. Accompanied with Seán Hewitt's writing and the actual texts themselves (written by many different authors from Homer and Ovid to Sappho and Catullus as stated above) are many illustrations by Luke Edward Hall which I really enjoyed. The illustrations really let me understand these myths and legends on a new level, the visuals are truly next level and one of my critiques is that I wish there was more (this is just me being picky because I enjoyed them so much lol)!
The mix of short stories varies in length, some being a single page to others being over 10. This is not a book I could devour in one sitting, it required a lot of rumination to really let the many texts speak to me and reveal their many layers. There are a lot of words to describe this collection of short stories, because it takes you on such an emotional rollercoaster. The author is keen on where each kind of story is being fit into the overarching story they are telling, making it easy for a mood reader like me to flow into different themes and tones.
While the main focus of these stories is, of course, love and how it was expressed, there are many other layers that Hewitt weaves throughout. Never shying away from the gruesome details, they give the audience many stories of death, betrayal, and jealousy. On the other end of the spectrum, the stories about love and how much these people would not only die, but live for each other, had me swooning. The lengths they would go to proclaim their love almost had me twirling my hair and swinging my feet, the representation is so important and it feels so good to have characters you can see yourself in.
Overall, I really enjoyed this, I will absolutely be buying a physical copy and marking it up for easy access to the stories I want to revisit frequently. If you are a lover of history and Greek/Roman Mythology I would highly suggest picking it up for that reason alone. For everyone else, the queer representation that is brought to light has reshaped a lot of my thoughts of the heroes from the myths we know and love, it has only made me love it all even more. Highly recommend across the board.
In 300,000 Kisses , award-winning poet Seán Hewitt and renowned designer Luke Edward Hall collect these stories—including some of the most beautiful and moving in the classical canon—and bring them to vivid life. Alongside celebrated works by Homer, Sappho, Ovid and Catullus, they include a wide range of rarely anthologized raunchy poems, thoughtful dialogues, philosophical treatises, and even a graffiti text salvaged from the ruins of Pompeii.
This collection of short stories is preceded by short paragraphs from the author explaining the passage they have laid out next, giving context to the time, history, and emotion to really let you in on what you are reading. Accompanied with Seán Hewitt's writing and the actual texts themselves (written by many different authors from Homer and Ovid to Sappho and Catullus as stated above) are many illustrations by Luke Edward Hall which I really enjoyed. The illustrations really let me understand these myths and legends on a new level, the visuals are truly next level and one of my critiques is that I wish there was more (this is just me being picky because I enjoyed them so much lol)!
The mix of short stories varies in length, some being a single page to others being over 10. This is not a book I could devour in one sitting, it required a lot of rumination to really let the many texts speak to me and reveal their many layers. There are a lot of words to describe this collection of short stories, because it takes you on such an emotional rollercoaster. The author is keen on where each kind of story is being fit into the overarching story they are telling, making it easy for a mood reader like me to flow into different themes and tones.
While the main focus of these stories is, of course, love and how it was expressed, there are many other layers that Hewitt weaves throughout. Never shying away from the gruesome details, they give the audience many stories of death, betrayal, and jealousy. On the other end of the spectrum, the stories about love and how much these people would not only die, but live for each other, had me swooning. The lengths they would go to proclaim their love almost had me twirling my hair and swinging my feet, the representation is so important and it feels so good to have characters you can see yourself in.
Overall, I really enjoyed this, I will absolutely be buying a physical copy and marking it up for easy access to the stories I want to revisit frequently. If you are a lover of history and Greek/Roman Mythology I would highly suggest picking it up for that reason alone. For everyone else, the queer representation that is brought to light has reshaped a lot of my thoughts of the heroes from the myths we know and love, it has only made me love it all even more. Highly recommend across the board.