September 10th: Rituals, icebergs, mysteries, &c.

"A mystery is a profound initiation into a new way of looking at the world. 


FRONT MATTER:

This Thursday (Sep 11th): Three-minute creation stories!

'Unpack' the middle passage from page 38 in Calasso; flesh out all the stories contained in that one paragraph. 

October 3rd: The first class quiz. 

Have the novel 'The Storyteller' read by October 22nd. 

Final term paper ('My Life as a Mythic Detective') due November 19th.


IMPORTANT TERMS/INTERESTING TIDBITS

Rembrandt's "The Abduction of Proserpina," 1631

- Look up tribal rituals; excellent examples of supreme suffering.

- 'The story of the abduction of Persephone'
See this webpage for a very thorough retelling of this tale. 

- Dromeron --> Done; completion.

- Freud: The personal unconscious (dreams, etc)
Jung: The collective unconscious (our 'consensual hallucination')
 
- Cereal (as in for breakfast): Derived from Ceres, (Roman name: Demeter)

- "Calasso writes (on pg. 93) 'Whenever their lives were set aflame, through desire or suffering, or even reflection, the Homeric heroes knew that a god was at work."  ... Imagine that. Thinking can set your life on fire. What was the last thought you had that was fire-like? Have you ever thought something that has set your life on fire? Of course you have. When our lives are set aflame, our psycologists say it's because of certain kinds of chemicals, here, I have some pills, so it doesn't happen to you again.
"Calasso says: No pills. The setting aflame is what is supposed to happen."

- 'The Story of Pasiphaë and the Bull.'
A detailed account of this story can be found here.
(Scroll down to see the story)


ET CETERA:

"Obsessive compulsive disorder... is doing something even if it is detrimental to your life.  And now we are getting very close to what it is Calasso is saying, what his whole book is about—obsession."

"No book is ever read. It is only re-read."

"Life is not a problem. It is a mystery.

"At the heart of the great mysteries—people were brought into the temple and something was done, something was seen, and something was said."

"The storyteller is just the tip of the iceberg. The whole of the story lies beneath."

"It is not a question of whether something mythological has happened to you—it has happened to you—the question is, 'Did you notice it?'. The more sensitive you become to the stories of mythology, the more you realize that your every twenty-four hours is a mythological picture..."

"The whole point of a mystery, is to keep it a secret. The whole point is that if it is revealed, it is no longer."

"'You', as the New Testament says, 'are legion.' In the mirror, you see yourself as all these manifestations. You see yourself as you really are; the precedent behind your visage."

"Ariadne died in a number of ways. None of them are true, or—perhaps more accurately?—all of them are."

"Huh? What is (Adrienne Rich) talking about?
When you have that reaction to a poem, it's probably a good poem."

"Problems are never solved. They are only resolved."