My icon- Dan Simmons' Ilium

While I'm not sure if it has aroused any curiosity, I felt the need to explain the picture in the upper right corner of my blog. It is the cover of a novel called Ilium by Dan Simmons, one of my favorite science fiction authors. Simmons' appeal lies in his intertextuality; in this book for example he transforms and integrates the works of Homer, Shakespeare, Nabokov and Proust into a dramatic recreation of the Iliad.

Pride and Prejudice

This novel is the final reading for my Restoration of 18th century British Literature class, and one sentence in particular stuck out in its similarity to a story we discussed in class.

On page thirty of the novel, Mrs. Bennet remarks "but you must own she is very plain. Lady Lucas herself has often said so, and envied me Jane's beauty. I do not like to boast of my own child, but to be sure, Jane-- one does not often see anybody better looking. It is what everybody says. I do not trust my own partiality."

This scene of a mother boasting of her child's superiority reminded me of the story of Niobe, and the moral that it teaches. Luckily for Mrs. Bennet, Apollo and Artemis do not feel the need to give her five daughters a hailstorm of arrows, one could say they dodged the bullet *ducks to avoid flying objects from that pun*.

Note on Presentations

Unfortunately the blog has to be finished for our dear senex to read and review, so I will be unable to note all the presentations, however I still plan to post the remaining presentations as they are given.

On a final note, my apologies to those whose presentations are not mentioned. My notes are a bit lacking in detail and I abstained from posting if I felt my information was insufficient to create an informative post.

Presentations- Sereta Heser

"There are things known and things unknown and in between them are the doors" Jim Morrison

Sereta's presentation examined Jim Morrison of the The Doors and his connections to myth. Morrison's connection to Dionysus is seen in his use of mescaline to induce a frenzy of Dionytic manner and in the naming of his group. Morrison also references Oedipus in the song The End.

This is the end

Beautiful friend

This is the end

My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end

No safety or surprise, the end

I'll never look into your eyes...again

Can you picture what will be

So limitless and free

Desperately in need...of some...stranger's hand

In a...desperate land

Lost in a Roman...wilderness of pain

And all the children are insane

All the children are insane

Waiting for the summer rain, yeah

There's danger on the edge of town

Ride the King's highway, baby

Weird scenes inside the gold mine

Ride the highway west, baby

Ride the snake, ride the snake

To the lake, the ancient lake, baby

The snake is long, seven miles

Ride the snake...he's old, and his skin is cold

The west is the best

The west is the best

Get here, and we'll do the rest

The blue bus is callin' us

The blue bus is callin' us

Driver, where you taken' us

The killer awoke before dawn, he put his boots on

He took a face from the ancient gallery

And he walked on down the hall

He went into the room where his sister lived, and...then he

Paid a visit to his brother, and then he

He walked on down the hall, and

And he came to a door...and he looked inside

Father, yes son, I want to kill you

Mother...I want to...fuck you

C'mon baby, take a chance with us

C'mon baby, take a chance with us

C'mon baby, take a chance with us

And meet me at the back of the blue bus

Doin' a blue rock

On a blue bus

Doin' a blue rock

C'mon, yeah

Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill

This is the end

Beautiful friend

This is the end

My only friend, the end

It hurts to set you free

But you'll never follow me

The end of laughter and soft lies

The end of nights we tried to die

This is the end

Presentations- John Horner

John's presentation connected the realm of myth to that of science fiction. First he mentioned Frank Herbert's Dune series, with Paul Atreides becoming a Tiresias character due to his prescient vision. Next he mentioned the character Superman, who functions as a greek mythic hero of near godlike stature and renown. Surprisingly, Superman's true name Kal-el translates into 'vessel of god' in Aramaic.

Presentations- Danielle Heinle

Danielle's presentation focused on the theme of the Triple Goddess. Danielle mentioned that as an only child, her relationship with her mother and grandmother was strengthened by the lack of siblings in her family, creating a very personal understanding of the triple goddess.

Alluding to the similarities between Greek mythology and Christianity, Danielle mentioned that the triple goddess can be seen as both figurative and literal trinities, as three distinct individuals or as three different aspects that together make up the stages of life.

The maiden stands for birth, fertility and curiosity.
The mother stands for stability, life and love.
The crone stands for compassion and death.

Presentations- Alex Johnson

Alex's presentation focused primarily on the five conflicts of Antigone, but rather than looking for a single work which displayed all of the conflicts, he turned to the AFI's (American Film Institute) top 100 American movies.

Man vs Woman- My Fair Lady. This 1964 movie features a retelling of the Pygmalion story with Henry Higgins attempt to reform Eliza Doolittle into his ideal vision of a woman. This romantic comedy features many confrontations between the two genders, as well as the old vs young conflict between Eliza and Henry and their parents.

Old vs Young- Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Disney's first animated film, the queen's maniacal desire to be the fairest in the land despite her age and the inescapable diminishing of her beauty cause her to attempt to kill Snow White to avoid the cycle of youth replacing the old.

Individual vs Society- One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest. McMurphy's charismatic presence and defiance of authority threatens the order of the mental institution and clashes with the commanding and tyrannical Nurse Ratched.

Living vs Dead- Frankenstein. This conflict is shown in the nature of the monster itself. As a reanimated corpse, its very existence makes it an abomination.

Men vs Gods- Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana's race against the Nazis to recover the Ark of the Covenant symbolizes humanity's desire to understand the nature of the divine, which is transcendent and therefore unattainable.

Presentations- Melissa Kelsey

It has often been said that great minds think alike. To prove this, Melissa's presentation concerned the theme of scapegoats. Apparently the subject makes for a very entertaining/engaging read, as Melissa stated that a search on the term revealed 39,000 books on Amazon.com and over 3.4 million sites on Google. And to further show how deeply the scapegoat has permeated our society, she handed out several comics and cartoons showing several poor bumpkins getting the tar scapegoated out of them. These visual aids also included the famous painting by William Holmon Hunt.

As a final note, Dr. Sexson also mentioned the French historian Rene Girard and his writings on the scapegoat mechanism.

Presentations- Ashley Kirchoff

Ashley's presentation focused on the Homeric Hymn to Demeter and the Eleusinian Mysteries. She mentioned that there are many examples of the relationship between father and child, such as in Hamlet and King Leer, but there are few examples of mother/daughter. One author mentioned was Adrienne Rich, the author of Woman Born, which deals with motherhood, issues of marriage and fertility, and the female rite of passage. Ashley also read a poem she wrote, entitled Tiger Lily, which concerned many things including Rage against the machine, Will-o'-the-wisp, Wonderland, and New Hampshire.

One facet of Ashley's presentation I particularly enjoyed was the mention of the religious rituals in which participators covered their eyes and mouth, which reminded me of The Dream and the Underworld, where Hillman mentions that vase paintings of Hades may show him with his face averted. "All this 'negative' evidence does coalesce to form a definite image of a void, an interiority or depth that is unknown but nameable, there and felt if not seen."
This seems very much like the Eleusinian Mysteries, where the mysteries are known but still hidden.

Presentations- Mick Leslie

Mick's presentation began with the announcement that his book was the wrong book, but that serendipity saw fit to make this wrong book the right book. The book was Walkabout, by James Vance Marshall. During the presentation and discussion, the main issue discussed was the origin and contemporary equivalent to the walkabout itself. The original walkabout was an aboriginal rite of passage in which thirteen year olds were to wander the wilderness for six months, retracing the routes taken by their ancestors. This event, as well as Mick's forced pedestrianism as a result of automobile complications, reminded me of the transcendentalist notion of returning to nature.

As for the book itself, the synopsis I discovered created a very depressing scene. Two children, lost in the wilderness are assisted by an aborigine on his walkabout. I'd rather not spoil the events of the book, but it seemed very similar to the rape of persephone, where an outside force intrudes upon the simplicity and peace of a natural existence and eventually causes its downfall.