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Monica Frederick

Monica Frederick | Writer

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confidence

This is completely embarrassing. I have no posts to show you.

HANG WITH ME ON THE ‘GRAM…

monica.frederick.writes

My most recent #audiobook read: Nomads by Anthony

My most recent #audiobook read: Nomads by Anthony Sattin. I know an audiobook is good when I want to run out and get the physical copy!

I got this book for research purposes, but I got much more out of it than that, especially a renewed sense of awe for nature and how we should be working WITH nature as we depend on her rather than trying to dominate her as humans have been doing for so long.

I highly recommend!

#bookhive #bookrecommendations #currentlyreading #nonfictionreads #bookstagram

I did an introduction post for Hive (an alternativ

I did an introduction post for Hive (an alternative for Twitter) and realized I never have for IG!

In that case: hi, I'm Monica! 👋

I'm a historical fiction writer interested in dissecting what we know about the ancient world and telling stories from that time.

My favorite thing is to find modern relevancies in literature from antiquity and retell them in essay form or fiction forms such as short stories and novels.

What I love (and read about obsessively) is to look at how "foundational western literature" has been misconstrued to support patriarchial ideals, colonialism, etc. (Like with Metamorphoses and r*pe culture, or The Aeneid with Colonialism, etc.)

I'm currently writing my first novel that brings to life the women of Ancient Scythia, who were the inspiration for the Greek Myths of the Amazon Warrior Women, and a short story anthology, Rewriting Myth, that retells ancient myths from the mythological women's point of view.

(Pictured: me holding my FAVORITE translation of Metamorphoses that blast apart problematic translations of ancient literature)

I’ve lost track of how often I heard a history t

I’ve lost track of how often I heard a history teacher say, “Well, women back then weren’t able or interested in [philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, biology, or ________ that isn’t being a wife and mother].”⁣
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It was as though Marie Curie popped out of a vacuum as one of the few women interested in science.⁣
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I’m pretty sure I didn’t get great grades in history classes in high school because I learned about the same type of person from history over and over: pale, stale, and male.⁣
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Looking back at old history books, you’d think the entire world only consisted of one type of person, and everyone else just existed to support them. (Hello, Patriarchy!👋)⁣
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If I had learned about remarkable women like Hypatia (pictured), I probably would have gotten a lot more passing grades!⁣
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Hypatia was a woman living in Alexandria, Egypt, around the late 300s AD. She was interested in everything all my old history teachers were o sure women weren’t interested in.⁣
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She was a philosopher, mathematician, teacher; you name it!⁣
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She wrote about philosophy (it would have been nice to read that in school at the same time I had to read Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”!)⁣
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She was an incredibly popular teacher and lecturer and drew in large audiences and loyal students.⁣
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Unfortunately, she was a “pagan” at the time when Christianity was starting to gain momentum. As a result, a Christian mob violently murdered her in 415 AD.⁣
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Hypatia spoke and dressed as a scholar. She was the opposite of what many people (then AND now) think of as an “Ideal Woman”: docile, quiet, nice, sexual (but not too much!), or subservient.⁣
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All those old history teachers should say her name in the same breath they say, Plato and Aristotle. Don't you agree?

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