And those teenage hangups are hard to beat

[sovay]

I had forgotten the thread in Katherine Kincaid's Beloved Bondage (1993) that now reads like Christian inspirational romance, but then again that is an occupational hazard of narratives set in early imperial Rome. I've seen Ben-Hur (1959), and Quo Vadis (1951), and keep having to double-check about The Robe (1953). Now I want to re-read I, Claudius (1934), which thanks to the exigencies of my current life is in storage when it used to be one of the books I always unpacked first. In tenth grade, the majority of my friend group was reading Mercedes Lackey and I was reading Robert Graves. To each their id.

Comments

[gwynnega]

I have only read I, Claudius once, but I have large swathes of the TV series by heart.

[sovay]

I have only read I, Claudius once, but I have large swathes of the TV series by heart.

I literally carried the book around for a year in high school. It was completely off my radar despite almost two years of Latin; so was the TV serial, which I didn't see until after I had discovered the book (and its sequel, which was never as important to me—I can't imagine it is to most people). It remains in some ways a really weird book for me to fasten on to as strongly as I did, especially since even at the time I had moments of violent disagreement with Graves. But it gave me something I really needed or it wouldn't have become a talisman and I should really watch the TV version again, since I have not in decades. The box set of DVDs was one of the first home media things I ever owned for myself.