on blog on nay's blog abobut my blog

After reading my blog on Pygmalion John Nay posting a counter opinion citing that the story of Pygmalion does in fact hold beauty, for the redemptive power of art is a central theme in the story and that art shall have beauty and shall forever have life. His argument was clear and well spoken, it is a good point. There is even further information in Ovid that would support his claim. First though let me reinstate my claim, somewhat reformatted:- nothing can compare to what is real and natural, the gods have created every natural thing on this earth and recognition of true beauty in the world is recognition of grace, seeing god’s presence in all that is natural and all that is worldly.- Now Nay could have brought up the point that we must transpose this idea that god is within everything that god is within all forms of art, music, and quite literally everything. And in the story of Arachne we see that the weavings created by mortal surpass those by a god. While these all might be true and might even debunk my original post –it is a question of opinion- I still stand by the case that what we find in the world naturally, what comes to life from the connection and passion of a man and a women bearing a child, is far more beautiful that what one man alone creates out of stone, true love cannot be found by asking the gods for it, it must be made but human interactions and human emotions. Love must come from within each being, a unison of connection that rings out harmoniously regardless of technological breakthroughs.

Pan's, Ovid's, and Homer's Labryinth

Although I saw Pan’s Labyrinth several months ago, I am still awed with the relation and correlation that the film had with much of the topics and general themes of ancient Greek and Roman mythology. To begin with, there is the clear representation of Pan, the character within Ovid, this physical interpretation of Pan was not quite what I had in mind. Although the character is friendly throughout the film, never dangerous, we are still weary of his intentions for he seems as though me might potentially be dangerous. In the film, Pan is somewhat frightening especially for a child this old twisted figure asking you to perform fantastic feats might seem fairly sketchy. In the same sense however, this is how many of the stories within Ovid are portrayed. Although the gods bring great fortune and gifts to some, the also have a darker side that many fear and quite a few have felt the wrath. The entire mood of the film follows the same premise, there are scenes of beauty, fantasy and indescribable magic for this poor girl, but at the same time her world is crowded with horrible violence and pain, the side of the gods exposed to such characters as Arachne, Terreus and many, many others.

There are also relations to Homer, first in the Iliadic sense that in order to return home and save her loved ones, the young girl must defeat terrible beasts and overcome great misfortune and suffering. Secondly when she enters the underworld of the man with eyeball hands she is too entering Persephone’s underworld, and as in the Homeric hymns, the young girl eats the tempting fruit and almost solidifies her position in the underworld, I am dying to see the film again because I could only imagine far more allusions to Ovid that I simply had not picked up on. Great film though, everyone should get a chance to see it. And see it through the eyes of the past.

Here is a link to see the movie preview:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqYiSlkvRuw its pretty cool but the guy narrating is that really cheezy movie voice guy so it may lose some of its beauty to that but its still pretty cool

just a related qoute

regarding my post, "the importance of asses ears" i found/ heard this great E B White qoute: "I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. " in my blog my point was that from time to time we must simply enjoy our surroundings, take in what we can, experience life instead of analyzing it.

I for one think the story of Pygmalion is false information. The world should not and does not work in such unnatural ways, yes unnatural things happen that we predict to be great but their greatness lies in the recognition will should soon come to that nothing can compare to the real deal.

For example, a modern day rendition of Pygmalion is in a little film called Weird Science, where two young “nerds” create the perfect women at home on their make-shift computer. Their prayers and plans are answered when a beautiful, smart, loving woman comes forth from their computer in a dense fog with 80’s laser beam light effects. Despite her beauty and seemingly perfect aspects, the two boys soon learn that she is not real and there for not really possessive of all these wonderful things based on this new found information the boys turn their attention to actual women and because they have learned from their previous mistakes they are now ready to go after the real deal with some educated zeal.

This recognition and then change of ways has been a common pattern all throughout human history and has only recently taken a change for the worse with the invention of GMO (genetically modified organisms) we have for the same reasons as Pygmailion and the young nerds (frustration with women, un able to connect with them or retrieve desired results from women) decided to create our food from a laboratory instead of letting it come to us naturally as the gods have given us. Instead of taking the time to nurture plants (as Pygmalion should have nurtured women) we have decided to create our own plants, just as we dream them; strong, fast growing, defensible against pests and bountiful. But as many of us realized that behind this facade of greatness these GMO are simply not real and the threats and dangers that they pose to the environment because of this fact are very real and very serious. Its not even the fact that GMO have been tested to give lab rats CANCER or that the largest company producing them is the same “safe” company that brought us DDT and Agent Orange, no its not even about these things, the fact of the matter is, like Pygmalion’s girl or the two nerds cyber babe, none of it is real and it will never compare to what is.

The importance of asses' ears

When was the last time any of us actually listened to the world? And by that I mean not only listening audibly as in hearing, but also visually and physically. When was the last time any of us spent time taking life in, instead of throwing our opinion into life?
In life, college especially we are so frequently asked to comment and give feed back or interpretation onto all facets of life that we run into. This assignment even is an example of this commonplace in academia. It is important however, to see the world not through a critical eye, take the time to see and hear and experience life without trying to dissect it. When overhearing a debate, every once in a while instead of taking side and routing for one while denouncing the other, listen intently to both arguments and make no judgment once the debate has finished. There is a time however where analysis is important, this should go with out saying. But just once in a great while gather as much information, as much knowledge and visions of beauty as you can our world holds a plethora of beauty, beauty not only of the aesthetic kind (ie. blooming flowers and golden fall foliage) but also beauty of knowledge and emotion, of human interaction and love. It is important no to always judge and be skeptical of these things, instead to take the time to recognize them for their power and grace.

“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” – Ernest Hemmingway

While reading Symposium one really takes time to reflect upon their previous relationships and look to see if they ever have truly found love in its purist. Many of us can place ourselves along to path to true love, recognizing our past loves as some of the far more sophomoric versions as Plato might see it. When reading the passage, “Remember how in that communion only, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.” I looked back on some of my own relation ships to see weather or not I had seen true beauty (through the Minds Eye) or merely been tricked with aesthetic beauty, lack substance and true virtue to make the love pure. Its painful to say but, I have never even come close. I can recall one of my last serious relationships, she was young and astoundingly beautiful, but that’s where the line was drawn, I was stopped with an image of beauty but not the reality of it. I soon found myself in recognition of her unfortunate qualities. To begin with she was mean, always heated and open to criticize anything that I did. When the strong physical connection and passion would take rest, these ugly qualities would come to the surface. As far as being a lover of wisdom? Well I’d say she was as far away from being that as any, I don’t recall her ever finishing a book that I gave her let alone begin any such book without a great deal of bitching and complaining, and to top it off, with a dagger to the heart of Socrates: I’m fairly sure she once told me, “philosophy is a waste of time, who honestly cares about that?” It was clear to me then, and far more so now that she was defiantly not the one, not my soul-mate and in fact probably incapable of ever becoming worthy of true love.
As this picture - immortalized by film-shows Marylyn Monroe, reading a book upside down but looking beautiful none the less, as does that ex-girlfriend off somewhere appearing to the untrained eye as a prize of beauty, stunning men all around her, but never the less…reading a book upside down.

Tom Jones ripping it up.

If you want to see a breif performance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvmyTZEqlo8

Tom Jones is a God (Dionysus)

When the name Tom Jones comes to mind we immediately picture a seas of woman, ranging from the tight-t-shirt-teens to blue haired grannies. Venues swell with frenzied females, eager to throw themselves at the performer and then party, unleashing themselves on the Vegas Strip. Drunk off the liquor of lust and grape of the vine, these woman act barbaric in the venue, throwing undergarments onto the stage accompanied by the occasional hotel room key. Meanadic in their obsession with the sultry lounge singer -the god of Vegas, the city of wine and inhibition- these woman run from their every day lives off to the airport to catch a glimpse and Dionysus in skin tight pants and an unbuttoned polyester disco blouse.
Jones’s uncanny power over woman can only be explained by the presence of Dionysus himself in the performer. In the Bacchae when speaking of the power that has overcome the women Dionysus cites himself as the catalyst,
“I have stung these women into madness…All the females, all the women of Thebes-I sent them crazy from their homes. Even the Kings daughters are running wild them under the fir trees, or seated on rocks in the open.”
Tom Jones holds the same power, when ever he comes to perform just as when ever Dionysus comes to visit the woman run off from their homes to partake in primal, lustful, alcohol induced behavior.

Although I enjoyed reading the material of Lysitrata in the sense it was a good story, much of the comedy was lost for me, maybe it had to do with the translation of the text or maybe, as I posted in my previous blog this type of comedy (sex jokes and swears) is just so overplayed in today’s world. I mean I could recognize the comedy and appreciate it for its originality of the time but for me personally hearing a joke about an erection- although quite funny in middle school- just doesn’t really seem cut it anymore. am i wrong in thinking so? to not appricate aristophanese genious? well as it is emotionally depicted in this photo of lenny bruce, i could care less i just dont tink its that funny.

Each day in modern society we find ourselves in a bind between what is appropriate in public, and free speech. The FCC is abhorred by the material produced by such shows as South Park and The Howard Stern Show. Years before that comedians like Lenny Bruce, and George Carlin were literally jailed for using language and behavior deemed indecent and inappropriate. These comics are cited as pushing the bounds of social commentary to “unacceptable realms.” Many concerned citizens complain, feeling that comics have gone too far from the conservative and moral life style of the 40’s and 50’s. When commenting on the vast amounts of complaints that pour in annually Richard Roeper -of the popular films critic duet Ebert and Roeper- stated, “Of the 23,547 complaints filed with the FCC in July, 23,542 came from the Parents Television Council, which provides handy online complaint forms for members who aren't comfortable thinking for themselves.”
Those who post these complaints forgot, or are simply unfamiliar to the fact that these bounds have been pushed and pushed over thousands of years prior.
In lysistrata, just by opening up the page you can find an assortment of words such as: bitch, shit, ass, and dildo just to name a few. There is also major discussions of violence, sexual positions and sexual innuendos. What the FCC does not understand is that today’s comedians and so forth are not pushing the bounds too far, rather they are caring out a metamorphose of classic comedy into today’s world.

five fine lines

Through all the stories I find my self very drawn to Pythagoras’ speech. His forwardness addressing the issue of metamorphoses is quite literally a moving piece of literature. In college years I fell that most students are in period of transformation themselves, many of us are searching for spiritual enlightenment or at least a sense of direction. Before reading Ovid, I held some belief in reincarnation, I had always liked to believe that I was true but could never quite bring to words a way of describing it, nor had I ever heard the words put as poetically as done in Ovid. The 5 (5 ½) lines that portray the meaning most directly in my opinion are as follows:
For all things change, but no thing dies.
The spirit wanders: here and there, at will,
The soul can journey from an animal
Into a human body, and from us to beasts;
It occupies a body, but it never perishes.

Now I don’t know if these lines might be overplayed, Pythagoras itself might be overplayed but there is no other passage that I found that directly, and beautifully spoke of the essence of metamorphoses itself.

When I began reading to find “my story” I found it very hard, many if not all of the stories deal with some of the most extremes of humanity thought of. Gruesome stories, the likes of which I have never experienced anything close to. I’ve never been cooked into a stew because I resemble my father, I’ve never been beaten over the head because I’m a skilled weaver. I had never had almost any of these things happen to me, I knew to interpret these as metaphors for life and I did my best with that, still though I could never quite place one story as MY story. After several frustrated nights I simply decided to go back to the beginning and start from there, where I came upon not only my story, but our story. Society as I see it, the world I feel we have come to.
While reading THE FOUR AGES I was awestruck at how closely it resembled our own societies history and present, the first I felt represented the native American way of life, no law was needed, no penalties hung over the heads of man scaring people into a way of life. Now, there are some differences many of the tribes did in fact need warriors and such other things but general idea is still present, as the ages went on Man manifested into creatures of want, we soon gave value to objects of no use, things like gold which is only an artifact of desire, greed and jealousy came about and the murder of men and the rape of woman became common place. None of these things had previously existed until material objects appeared, man’s progress became and is becoming the man’s demise. There was even a movie made in the late 80’s dealing with this idea, “The God’s Must Be Crazy” dealt with a tribe in Africa, who had never experienced greed or violence until the God cast down from the heavens a class Coke bottle. I feel as though that this is OUR story as society where once we lived in harmonies peace, we now have become a breed of creature hell bent of “life improvement” we create machines to make life easier, we create weapons to make us safer but in the recent years we’ve brought to the table microwaves that give us brain tumors, GMO food that is unknowing poisoning us (ironically brought to us by the same company that made DDT-yeah that was safe) and nuclear weapons which divide nations with fear of their use, and if used will undoubtedly kill us all-this, this is our progress on safety.
In the story of Icaurs we see the future of our progress, the wings which men build out of hope and aspiration will soon fail us and send our son’s to die, this is our story, the progress of man proceeds only to man’s demise.

-Now piety lies vanquished; and the maid Astaea, last of the immortals

leaves the blood-soaked earth.-

–welcome to the machine-

When beginning Ovid, I was immediately overcome with the beauty and fluidness of the writing and imagery, interpreting the text at first was some what difficult and I found myself trying to draw meaning out of the words instead of the meaning manifesting itself on the pages before my eyes.
At first, after reading the Creation I was disappointed, although a beautiful story I felt as though I had been duped, tricked by the translator into reading the bible masked as Ovid. I originally felt as if this entire book would describe how high above us God is watching, as we his creations scramble and suffer below. It was only after completing Pythagoras’ speech (which I admittedly skipped ahead to after only a few chapters) but it was only after this did the true beauty of Ovid, the essence of the Gods themselves manifest in my mind. It absolutely was not that the Gods watch from above, instead that the Gods are within, not only within ourselves but within everything, everyone around us. The spirit that leaves us when we pass is in fact the spirit of God, as we die our soul does not die with the vessel instead it transforms. Pythagoras put it (p.s. these are not my five chosen lines I just think it sounds cool and is a good way of describing this transformation.) “You’ll see that any corpse which- through long lapse of time or else because of liquefying heat- has decomposed, is transformed into tin animals. If, after precious bulls are sacrificed, you set their carcasses within a ditch, you’ll see (it’s a familiar happening) that everywhere among the rotting guts, the pollen-gathering bees will soon spring up.”
Even though this is some what a gruesome sight there is still beauty in the knowledge that it is the transformation, the metamorphoses of spirit, of soul, of god most importantly to another being. The connection is never ending the transfiguration is constant, like this Salvador Dali painting we see not only depiction of a gods presences in the clouds and mountains, but we also are exposed to the infinity of the spiritual movement from one begin to another, in the painting we cannont clearly see where man and woman separate, where one begins and one ends. Instead we see a connection, one that is alltogether sexual, beautiful and alluring, but also frightening and somewhat beyond our mental bounds.

back up and running

I just recently got my pasword back so i am now up and running, my blogs might be in and out of order as i am behind. sooner or later they will all be posted but as far as chronological order, readers might need to skip around.

As Dr. Sexson has asked us to read, and comment on one page of Stiener, it came to mind that i should probably search for a passage the really Intrigued me. To be honest however, I jut randomly opened up the book and started reading. I was lucky though, to have found a passage the reflected an idea that I often consider, especially with our current government. Steiner comments (while relating Antigone to the French Revolution), “In Antigone the dialectic of intimacy and of exposure, of the ‘housed’ and of the most public, is made explicit. The play turns on the enforced politics of the private spirit, on the necessary violence which political-social change visits on the unspeaking inwardness of being.” Now, the book does not underline this, I have just chosen to do so to highlight the point of interest. From this reading, are we to understand that for revolutionary change violence is nessacary? For if we are to read into the eternities, and if Antigun is the quintessential classic, is it not absolutely necessary for all revolutions proceeding that of Antigone’s must contain within it the ingrained violence of which Stiener speaks? I myself feel that yes they must. Although violence is often seen upfront as gruesome and vicious, I still feel it is necessary to use to combat the even greater violence which we oppose. As we have seen there is a strong voice against our current system, the Patriot Act and agencies such as the NSA are literally revoking our “god-given liberties” as we the citizens accept this somewhat apathetically. While there are others however, who do actively oppose the government, they fail to read into the eternities and use the one tool that has historically been the back-bone of revolution: violence. In demonstrations, the people are afraid to stand up to the henchmen-cops of our government for we fear that using violence is wrong. We should however be reminded of Antigone, her fearlessness, the cowered ness of her sister Ismene, and then place ourselves in the shoes of one of the two.

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”- Thomas Jefferson

Hymn to Hermes

While re-reading the Hymn to Hermes, I was soon struck with a flood of various other texts representing the same story of brotherly competition. Ken Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion, soon came to mind, as the main focus of the story deals with a power struggle between Leland and Hank Stamper, the two sons of the great Henry Stamper. Although Kesey’s story is far more comical and far less God like, the characters remain the same. Hank, the strong, well-know, well respected older brother, represents that of Apollo who we see as a hard-willed, extremely masculine character. We can also relate the sly cunning of Hermes, to the intellectual educated younger brother Leland Stamper, who through a series of planned, organized events overtakes his older, more powerful brother. Although the connection is some what loose, and far more variables are involved with each story, the theme remains the same.

Homeric Hymnys and class notes

I’m not quite sure as to what exactly we are expected to post on our daily blogs so I suppose I’ll just take a shot in the dark-
In both texts Antigone as well as the Homeric Hymns, we can see examples of the five different struggles as well as human nature in general.
Man v Woman
Young v Old
Individual v society
Living v dead
Man v Gods

In Antigone we clearly see the struggle she suffers being a woman in a Patriarchal judicial system, Her actions against the expected ones set in place by society as we have read to understand it. Obviously we also see her struggle coping with the loss of her brother. Antigone also matches her will against the will of the Gods.

I found it interesting in the Homeric Hymns how fitting the Female and Male Gods, Demeter and Hermes, represent the general actions of men and woman today. We see the treatment of the mortal-masked Demeter amongst the mortal woman as extreamly helpful and kind: Characteristics of almost all woman. We also get a view of a darker side of woman that many of us have been exposed to; their propensity to be withholding. In day to day life/ relationship with a woman, often times we see them withhold love, emotions, contact, communication and various other humanly interactions when upset. We see these examples of withholding in the Hymns when Demeter buries the seed of the earth and withholds all nourishment and fertility. As the story progesses, Demeter, enlightened with joy returns to her benevolent ways, similar to almost all woman who, in my opinion are the greatest givers of love and nourishment in this world, (when happy of course).
In the Hymn to Hermes, we are reminded of the nature of men, the nature of boys, children constantly fighting and feuding, struggling for acceptance and approval. Like many young men, Hermes is sly, cunning and caviler. Although a liar, Hermes is skillful and innovative. As the fighting subsides, the two brothers become close. The camaraderie between the two can be found in almost all brotherly connections, related by blood or otherwise the connection remains the same.

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