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ellekirks

Travelling bibliophile.

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Spain

Travel

A photo diary of Barcelona, Spain.

A few snaps from Barcelona, summer 2016.

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Welcome, book lover.

author Elle Kirkpatrick

I’m Elle, a writer from Australia. I packed up my bags and left for London 3 years ago. Since then, I’ve travelled around Europe, written a novel, moved to Germany, and drunk a lot of coffee.

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  • Five Favourite Things: September.
  • October Goals.
  • September Book Wrap Up.
I just really like writing stories. I’m pretty lucky that I’ve always known, for as long as I can remember, that I want to be a writer. There’s been no doubts; it’s always been the same dream. And I’ve always got a story, or a character, or a line of dialogue rattling around in my brain, waiting to be put down onto paper. I’ve always got something I’m itching to work on. Always some concept I want to explore through the written word. That’s not to say that it’s all free-flowing and easy. Plot holes happen. The middle of a book is always impossible. Dialogue sounds forced and setting gets lost and characters stop doing what I ask them to do. If you’re a writer, you know. It’s also hard or impossible to sit down, every day, and write something, when there’s a million tv shows to watch and books to read and Instagram posts to scroll through and friends to see and food to cook and news articles to despair about and a day job to go to and places to travel to and did I mention Instagram posts to scroll through? But the blocks keep coming and I always get through them. I always push past them. I always keep writing. I’ll always keep writing stories. It’s just what I do. ✨ And with that little pep talk to myself, I guess it’s time to roll up my sleeves and knock out the last few chapters of this novel, hmm?
Lazy Sunday. A lot of Netflix, a wander around in the afternoon sunshine, and a takeaway from my fave vegan restaurant. And here’s a snap of my bookshelf for #shelfiesunday 📚✨
Dark mode activated. 🖤 My most anticipated read of the year, Ninth House, has finally landed. I’m already anticipating how very dark and twisted it will be. It seems like the perfect October read if you’re craving something spooky and mysterious. I’m loving The Secret History vibes, but I’m also excited to see how Bardugo’s talent for intensely plot-driven narrative develops in this dark adult fantasy genre. 🖤 Have you started reading Ninth House yet?
Autumn vibes 🍂 Snap by @aliceaustinnn who is a photographer now 📸
Sunday stack 📚
Birthday gal 💐
Just me and all my mates 🌿
current read 🌿 and yuhhh, I’m wearing a jumper. Summer’s gone. I’m halfway through the Odyssey, and I’ve just passed the chapter on Circe. After reading Madeline Miller’s Circe, it’s interesting to see the small chapter dedicated to the witch. It has definitely made me appreciate Miller’s beautiful adaptation. I chose this translation of the Odyssey by Emily Wilson because it’s recommended as a clear, modern and fresh translation, and also because it’s the first translation of the Odyssey by a woman. I read a review in the Guardian by Charlotte Higgins, which detailed the intricacies in which meaning can be changed through translation, and the effect that can have on perceptions of a text. The example given is a speech by Helen of Sparta, who says: “the day the Greeks marched off to Troy, their minds/fixated on the war and violence./ They made my face the cause that hounded them.” Higgins writes: “This last line is translated by Fagles as “shameless whore that I was”, and by Stephen Mitchell as “bitch that I was”. The Greek is kunopis, a rare word literally meaning dog-face, or dog-eye. There are few contexts in which to see this word in use, but it is applied by Euripides to the Furies, terrifying creatures that “hound” murderers. It does not carry, argues Wilson, the overtones of female sexual destructiveness that are often applied in its translation. And so another small but significant transformation is effected.” Have you ever read the Odyssey or the Iliad? What are your opinions on translated texts?
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