One year ago today, I launched The Shelbiad!
This is going to be a bit of a celebration / 'year in review' -type post. I was initially quite worried that such a post would be sort of vain, self-serving, and/or navel-gazing.
Funnily enough, navel-gazing comes from the Ancient Greek Omphaloskepsis, and the idea of the 'navel' was really important to the Ancient Greeks. They believed that Zeus released two eagles to fly around the world, and where they met was the Earth's navel, or omphalos. This was at Delphi, which was famous for being both the centre of the world, and the centre of prophecy.
But anyway, I floated the idea of a reflexive blogpost on Twitter, and was encouraged to do it. My lovely followers were right: it's important to look back on what you've done, how much you've done, what's changed, what's remained. So, here we go, with my Omphaloskepsistic birthday blogpost (I am so sorry).
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So, one year ago today, I posted In the Beginning, which was embarrassing and nerve-wracking and all-round anxiety-inducing. It's so hard to get started and put yourself out there, to say 'hey, I have spent weeks and weeks thinking about this, quite a few hours setting it up, and more hours still obsessing about what to write. I'm trying to write something that is sort of your run-of-the-mill, "welcome to my blog" post, while also suggesting that I have something new and exciting to add to the bloggerverse. Right now I have the best intentions to post LOADS, but I know what I'm like, and I reserve the right to delete this blog and pretend it never happened in a fortnight if my inspiration dries up.'
But, you know what, I'm so glad I did it. I overcame the awkwardness of beginning, and now I have a dated post that shows what I was thinking when I first started this PhD blog, and the PhD itself. The post is quite interesting to me now - when I can get over the disgusting font choice - because it feels like not that long ago, and yet the project I describe is so disparate to what my PhD now looks like. I talk about the Canongate Myth Series and a comparative mythological approach, looking at Greco-Roman, Norse, and Japanese mythologies. I notice that I didn't give much more detail than that because, to be quite honest, I didn't really know anything about my project at that point. The Canongate Series and the other myth systems were things that I soon found constricting rather than exciting - there were lots of other books that I wanted to talk about, like Madeline Miller's The Song of Achilles and Pat Barker's The Silence of the Girls, and the more I read, the less I felt that the Norse and Japanese adaptations really fit into my research. I had been thinking this from approximately January, but it took me until April to "officially" change my research, and then I updated my blog in May, with Hopefully not Hamartia (A Research Update) which, I'm happy to report, is still pretty identifiable with my project.As with any odyssey, there have been ups and downs.
I think my lowest point was after Christmas. I know some people really struggle to work on the run-up to Christmas, because their minds are on the upcoming break but, personally, I work really well before Christmas because of the pressure to get things done before I go home. However, I am absolutely hopeless at working after Christmas. I'm too full of roast potatoes, chocolate, and residual booze. The weather is awful, I miss my dog, and the start of term is always a nightmare. My brain is still on holiday mode. Whatever the reason, I am always very busy in December and a hopeless student in January, and that was reflected on my blog. I didn't post in December because I was too busy writing about Jeanette Winterson's Weight (a good excuse); I didn't post in January because I was too busy doing absolutely nothing and feeling super guilty about it (not so good). Seeing my blog go months without being updated made me worry that this was just another type-A endeavour, where I start out SUPER MOTIVATED but very quickly lose interest when it isn't an instantaneous perfect success. Nevertheless, I persisted, and I've very proudly updated it once a month since February, and my blog very neatly reflects my annual working patterns.
Though my blog was by no means an instantaneous perfect success, I do think that it has been a successful year overall. I don't really mean successful in terms of page views, although let me take this moment to thank all of my supporters and readers, without whom this blog would just be a girl who's a bit too into myths shouting into the cyber-void. I appreciate your readership and support immensely. What I was referring to is the initial aim of the blog: I wanted this space to act in part like a diary, tracking my progress, and in part like a platform for me to share my research with others, which is where you all come in.
By far, my most popular post was A Cypriot Special. I think part of the reason why is because Aphrodite's birth is a wild ride - who doesn't love a story about severed penises and subsequent sea foam? But, more than that, I think my writing was better in that post, literally because I enjoyed writing it so much. I had such a good time in Cyprus, and I came back really inspired to write a blog post about its myths, and that human aspect must have made it a more interesting read to you all.
... Who wants to fund more Greek holidays for my art?
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So, there we have it, The Shelbiad's inaugural year in review. In summary...
Things I am looking forward to:
- Another year of reading, research, and blog posts
Things I am not looking forward to:
- Another 'year in review' blog post (I found writing this incredibly awkward, so you probably found it equally awkward to read... sorry)
Okay, I've been talking about myself for far too long, so I am going to end this post with something a bit less ... navel. Anyone who follows me on Instagram will probably have noticed that 90% of my Stories are sharing the artwork of the amazing, inimitable MYTHSNTITS. I mean, her art is all Greek mythology and safe sex education, and oh my god if those aren't two of my all time favourite things.
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| SHE Circe |
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| IS Apollo aka golden banana bi boi |
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| AMAZING Rebirth of Venus |
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