#artemis fowl

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Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code by Eoin Colfer // Sophocles’ Antigone trans. Anne Carson 

A child cannot be replaced. My mom cries every time she hears a story about a kid getting killed, or separated from their family.

Admittedly, the quote from Antigone *is* a bit scandalizing; it’s not meant to be a statement that is literally, always true, so much as I wanted to draw a parallel between the themes of the works regarding family, death, and obligation. This might be a bit long, and I’m sorry if I go over anything you already know about the texts!

Antigone follows the titular character, who is part of the family that rules over Thebes. Her brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, were at the center of a brutal civil war due to an inability to share the throne, and ultimately, they both die. Technically, Polynices was the instigator of this conflict, a fact which is not lost on Creon, the next in line, when he steps in to rule. To punish Polynices’ transgression, Creon rules that Polynices will not be given the proper funeral rights, and that no one may mourn him. In fact, Creon goes as far as to decree that anyone caught going against this ruling will be put to death. Antigone’s remaining sibling, her sister, begs Antigone to listen to reason, but Antigone slips out in the night to bury her brother anyway. When she is caught, Creon allows her a way out — if Antigone swears that she did not know of Creon’s ruling, and if she regrets her actions, then all will be well. 

Antigone refuses.

Furious, Creon orders that Antigone be put to death. Creon’s son, Haemon, begs his father to reconsider, for he and Antigone were to be wed. Creon, still licking his wounded pride, doubles down. Though in the end, Creon assents, trying to free Antigone before her death, he is too late. However, Antigone never regretted her actions — her sororal love for her brother meant that, ultimately, his honor was hers to attend to before the rule of her mother, her fiancé, or her new ruler. 

In many ways, Juliet leaving the Blue Diamond training after learning about Butler’s injury is a double-bind — in leaving, she loses the opportunity to distinguish herself by completing the course at a record-breaking young age, and she also must resign herself to having to take Butler’s place as a bodyguard. She is denied individuality within a profession she did not ever desire. For Juliet, there was never a question of staying behind or fleeing the bodyguard position at the news of one of the last living Butlers (potentially) dying. Her brother is someone whom Juliet loves unconditionally; although she is, at her core, a dreamer, a wild card, and a rebel against her fate, she would defer the realization of those desires if it meant caring for her brother. Though she was never meant to be a bodyguard, protecting Butler comes naturally to Juliet. 

It is in that sense that these quotes are in conversation with one another — Antigone’s claim of nothing being able to replace a brother is not a statement meant to be universally true, as I said; it is a shared emotional truth for her and Juliet within the context of having lives governed by an obligation that is in conflict with personal freedom and personal obligations.

I hope this makes sense; obviously, the original quote from Antigone is a bit shocking — which is the point! Carson’s translations of many Greek plays are quite dear to me, and I hope that I was able to communicate both my thought process behind the comparison, as well as express part of my love for it. Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I hope I didn’t offend at any point.

I’m putting together a book cover design portfolio, so here’s one I did for the first Artemis Fowl book.  The idea being that there’s a hole in the “O” of the cover page and the second page is the same location in the Time Stop.  Was really lucky to give prints of this cover to Eoin Colfer at BookCon, and he was an absolute delight. 

 [link to new blog]