Dessert and Discourse: GREECE 🇬🇷
why are feminist myth retellings so trendy, and are they even all that feminist?
No dinner party is complete without dessert! This dessert post is part of my monthly salon dinner series, and is for paid subscribers only. Free subscribers are invited to join for dinner, where I give you a full menu, discussion topics, and book and movie recommendations; click here to return to that post.
Before we jump into our dessert discussion, a quick housekeeping note—as a thank you for being one of my early supporters, I want to welcome you to avail yourself of the 25% off promo that I’m running for the launch of the salon dinner series. To do so, you’ll need to cancel and re-subscribe here. If you want to take advantage of the offer and have any doubts about how to do it, shoot me an email at samanthachildress@substack.com.
Now, the fun stuff.
Over dinner, we talked about Stoic philosophy and coping mechanisms for thriving under difficult circumstances. One of our books for discussion was Madeline Miller’s Circe, in which the title character learns to step into her power while living under extreme constraints. Circe is just one of a huge number of books currently marketing themselves as “feminist retellings” of Greek myths. Why are these books so popular, and are they really as feminist as they’re cracked up to be?
party playlist
To celebrate the first dinner in this series and to immerse us in the party atmosphere, I’ve put together a soundtrack. It’s a mix of traditional Greek music and contemporary stuff with a similar vibe. Enjoy!