I Had The Privilege Of Finally Watching HADESTOWN After Years Of Waiting. It Was Phenomenal And Left

I had the privilege of finally watching HADESTOWN after years of waiting. It was phenomenal and left me absolutely speechless.

Wherever she is, is where I’ll go.

I love deep diving into the symbolism in The Hunger Games, there's so many layers in the writing, so much thought placed in seemingly unimportant narrative that it boggles the mind if you go searching for meaning. Classic literature is rich with symbolism, especially Christian symbolism. Suzanne Collins is a master at writing and crafted these books to bursting.

So, Peeta Mellark.

His first name, Peeta, a Greek flatbread (pita), but also a nod at Saint Peter. The feast of Saint Peter is also called Lammas Day or Loaf Mass Day, a harvest festival. It’s customary to bring to a Christian church a loaf made from the new crop, which began to be harvested at Lammastide, which falls on August 1, at the halfway point between the summer solstice and the autumn September equinox.

Mellark, a combination of the word malarkey and meadowlark. The meadowlark is a yellow breasted song bird that makes its nests on the ground rather than trees, in small hallows, covering it with grasses or animal hairs. Basically tiny bird caves.

Malarkey: most commonly defined as speech or writing designed to obscure, mislead, or impress; bunkum, BUT also thought to be derived from Greek μαλακός (malakós, “soft; compliant, meek; gentle, mellow, mild, mild-mannered”

Not long ago I came across the Bible quote while researching more deeply into the symbolism of pearls.

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”

After a fair amount of analyzing I've come to believe it's actually one of the most important themes in the series. The gist of it means don’t give away what is precious to those that can’t appreciate its worth.

Symbolically Peeta offers himself to Katniss, repeatedly, throughout the series. The words

“neither cast ye pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet,”

are what first caught my attention, both symbolic and literal, reminding me of the scene when Peeta burns the bread. His mother beats him and then instructs him to feed the bread to the pigs. Instead he passes the loaves along to Katniss.

Katniss describes the bread Peeta gives her

“It was good hearty bread, filled with raisins and nuts.”

But a pearl isn’t bread, is it? Pearls symbolize a lot of different things, but specifically in the Bible it can symbolize anything Christ-like, from Christ himself, to the gospel of the church. Christ said

“I am the living bread that came down from heaven”

Thus a pearl could symbolize bread, in the right context. When I went to research this train of thought further I was shocked to find a whole bunch of recipes instead of a whole bunch of quotes. Christ’s Bread, or Christopsomo. A Greek Orthodox bread made at Christmas. A rich bread filled with raisins and nuts.

I always thought it curious that the author would choose a name with a Greek origin when so many in D12 have the last names that seem British in origin (Everdeen, Hawthorn, Cartwright, Abernathy), and that there must be more to the name. Therefore I believe it’s no coincidence then, that this Greek bread is so similar to the bread that Peeta gifts to Katniss. It’s further evidence that the author purposefully meant to represent Peeta as Christ-like. Peeta offering his body as sacrifice to save Katniss is a theme that repeats over and over in the series. The strongest example of this, in terms of Christ-like symbolism, was his sacrifice of facing Cato in front of the tracker jacker tree to allow Katniss to escape and hide. That tree is a nod to the Hanging Tree, specifically the line:

Where the dead man called out for his love to flee.

“What are you still doing here?” he hisses at me. I stare uncomprehendingly as a trickle of water drips off a sting under his ear. His whole body starts sparkling as if he’s been dipped in dew. “Are you mad?” He’s prodding me with the shaft of the spear now. “Get up! Get up!” I rise, but he’s still pushing at me. What? What is going on? He shoves me away from him hard. “Run!” he screams. “Run!”

The Hanging tree itself is symbolic of both the Tree of Life, and the cross that Christ was crucified on. With TBOSAS we know the origin of the song, but the actual song written by Suzanne Collins was most likely inspired by the song The Hanging Tree (written for the movie of the same name back in 1959) and the song Strange Fruit made popular by Billy Holiday and became a popular civil rights ballad. I am planning a separate post about the song and how Peeta is symbolically the lover in the song.

This death and resurrection of Christ imagery continues with Katniss later bandaging Peeta and bringing him to a cave where he nearly died, and then left the cave healed three days later. There's so much more, but I'll leave that for another post.

But what about the other part of that quote?

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, [lest they] turn again and rend you.”

This applies to Katniss, rather than Peeta. Peeta is what's holy, symbolically, as reinforced by the pearl that he gives her in Catching Fire, and that represents him symbolically in Mockingjay. He was literally rended by dogs at the cornucopia in The hunger Games, but she doesn't cast him aside till the end of the book.

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”

There is metaphorical meaning in the entire quote as well as this theme continues in both Catching Fire and Mockingjay. Peeta offers himself to Katniss and she "casts" him aside. She realizes this towards the end of Mockingjay.

Seeing it in his hands, it’s like Finnick’s echoing what Haymitch just said, that I’ve cast off Peeta.

She finally realizes his true value, even after he's been hijacked, and refuses to allow him to be killed, and instead of casting him away she does her best to keep him.

It’s a long shot, it’s suicide maybe, but I do the only thing I can think of. I lean in and kiss Peeta full on the mouth. His whole body starts shuddering, but I keep my lips pressed to his until I have to come up for air. My hands slide up his wrists to clasp his. “Don’t let him take you from me.” Peeta’s panting hard as he fights the nightmares raging in his head. “No. I don’t want to . . .” I clench his hands to the point of pain. “Stay with me.” His pupils contract to pinpoints, dilate again rapidly, and then return to something resembling normalcy. “Always,” he murmurs.

This is not to say that she never values him or cares for him before the end of Mockingjay, there is plenty of evidence to suggest she fully loved him by the end of The Hunger Games, only that she did not learn the lesson to "cast not what is holy" till then.

I wrap my arms around his neck, feel his arms hesitate before they embrace me. Not as steady as they once were, but still warm and strong. A thousand moments surge through me. All the times these arms were my only refuge from the world. Perhaps not fully appreciated then, but so sweet in my memory, and now gone forever.

This theme is also apparent in the narrative in that the Rebellion abandoned Peeta, representing both which is holy and the pearl, to the Capitol. The Capitol did not value his worth, nor see him as a treasure. They tortured and hijacked him "trample them under their feet" , and used him to "rend" the Rebellion by programing him to kill Katniss, the symbol of the Rebellion.

I don’t think we talk enough about the fact that the tenth Doctor canonically tried to kill himself after losing Rose and he would’ve succeeded if Donna hadn’t stopped him

My adaptation of the God of Arepo short story, which was originally up at ShortBox Comics Fair for charity. You can get a copy of the DRM-free ebook here for free - and I'd encourage you to donate to Mighty Writers or The Ministry of Stories in exchange.

Again it's an honour to be drawing one of my favourite short stories ever. Thank you so much for the original authors for creating this story; and for everyone who bought a copy and donated to the above non-profits.

I fucking love how like the original cast recording of Hadestown in Wait For Me it sounds like Hermes is mocking Orpheus, but in the Broadway Cast Recording, Hermes sounds like a dad trying to gauge how upset his son will be about the fact that his hamster died and whether or not he'll notice if he replaces it.

"heeeeey the big artiste 😅 ain'tcha workin on your masterpiece???" versus "'Eeeey! The big artiste! Ain'tcha workin' on yer masterpiece?😆 "

But in all seriousness, he goes from in the OG Cast Recording as just a "spectator". Supposedly he doesn't care, he's seen this happen before, it's no big deal (by the end though I have never heard someone sound so defeated and close to tears than OG Hermes, oh my fucking gods. The way he so softly goes, "Well. Alright," at the beginning of Road to Hell II, and his voice breaks because he's seen this before and knew how it ended and gods he wish it ended differently).

But then in the Broadway recording, we've got a different Broadway actor playing Hermes. From the start of it, you get told Hermes practically raised the boy! You're given how they've got a close relationship, how fond he is, how he protects and guides him and encourages his music and tells him stories to inspire him- 'cause the muses ain't always there.

So in Wait For Me- …he sounds desperate, half begging Orpheus not to go, half begging him to just come back alive. It goes from the OG recording's lighthearted joking, "aw you ain't reaaaally goin', but if you do 👀 here's how you get in in one piece," to the Broadway recording being so full of fear of desperation, of terror, because he's not supposed to go down there and it's dangerous and Hermes might never see him again. From joking around to, "I know I can't stop you, but goddammit, don't you dare die."

His voice is soft and scratchy, telling a secret and scolding Orpheus, making sure the instructions stick. It's something whispered in a dark alley or into a crack in a wall, not something sung in the autumn sunlight, by a joking trickster who doesn't care whether you stay or go. It's sung by someone who's scared because he loves Orpheus and he knows where he's going.