"The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
- Albert Camus
FRONT MATTER:
October 1st: In-class review for the quiz; bring in one question from your notes, or the notes on this blog.
October 3rd: The first quiz.
Upcoming entries in blogs might contain:
- How a tedious or terrible task became enthralling.
- An in-depth look at a page of Calasso.
IMPORTANT TERMS/INTERESTING TIDBITS:
The Story of Sisyphus
...and his eternal punishment (or eternal blessing?)
More here.
Uncle John:
"Why would you spend your life doing something pointless? Why would you spend your life like Uncle John? The answer might be-- Have you got anything better to do?
"He's invested, he's making discoveries, he's making it worthwhile...
"This is what we have to do. The fact that we do not see his point is our problem, not his."
Clinamen: 'The Swerve', or, more specifically, the Latin name Lucretius gave to the unpredictable swerve of atoms falling in an otherwise predictable pattern.
People of note/to research:
- Albert Camus
- Laura Vandenberg
- Samuel Beckett
ET CETERA:
"By the end of this semester you won't be able to walk out the door without stepping on a myth."
"Myths are the things that don't fall off the radar."
"Isn't that the catch-phrase nowadays? People ask you 'What's your point?' And then you realize, you don't have one."
"What if I were to tell you that you don't need stories; you just need a frame of mind."
"The whole universe is perpetually gravitating toward room temperature."
"(The) news is absolutely rotten with myth."
"It's all poetry. In the end, it's all poetry."
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Thursday, September 19, 2013
September 19th: Spiders, snakes, oatmeal, &c.
"As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods..."
- from King Lear, Act 4, Scene 1, by William Shakespeare
FRONT MATTER:
- Tell your creation story to someone else or to many other people while enacting or recreating some part of it, and post photographic proof of the act.
- Pay very close attention to a single page in 'Cadmus and Harmony'. Write out a blog post on your explorations of it.
- Be thinking about your own stories of how the gods have mistreated you.
IMPORTANT TERMS/INTERESTING TIDBITS:
Hubris: Great pride, arrogance; as the say down South, 'You're gettin' above your raisins.'
The Story of Asclepius.
Read more about the story of the healer born out of the burning body of Coronis here.
'The Quaker Oats Box Infinity Complex'
(Also known as the 'Land O' Lakes Butter Box Complex')
("Myths within myths. Inside the page is another page. Inside the myth is another myth.")
- The Story of Arachne.
Read more about her elaborate derision of the gods, and her ensuing punishment, here.
The three stages of our relationships with the gods—
- Conviviality
(Friendliness/an intermingling)
- Rape
(A series of sudden, violent invasions)
-Indifference
("Perhaps even worse than death.")
Caduceus - The staff of Asclepius, around which the two snakes (one the healer, one newly risen from the dead) entwined. Now a universal symbol of healing.
Enthusiasm - En (or 'inside') + Theos ('the gods')
'The god is inside you.'
Maenads - 'the raving ones', The female followers of Dionysus.
Sparagmos - To rip, to tear apart and destroy without control. Linked to the passions of Dionysis.
ET CETERA:
"Choas is merely a kind of order we have not discovered yet."
"Anything worth reading is worth reading a second time. Anything not worth reading discloses all its information on the first pass."
"The search (for order) is not something we do merely once. We spend our whole lives searching for it."
"It's a terrible thing, what happened to Arachne, but without the things that happened to her there would be no story. It's true, but my god what a terrible thing to say."
"You know what's going to happen next. Anytime you boast to do anything better than the gods—watch out. You're about to become a story."
- from King Lear, Act 4, Scene 1, by William Shakespeare
FRONT MATTER:
- Tell your creation story to someone else or to many other people while enacting or recreating some part of it, and post photographic proof of the act.
- Pay very close attention to a single page in 'Cadmus and Harmony'. Write out a blog post on your explorations of it.
- Be thinking about your own stories of how the gods have mistreated you.
IMPORTANT TERMS/INTERESTING TIDBITS:
Hubris: Great pride, arrogance; as the say down South, 'You're gettin' above your raisins.'
The Story of Asclepius.
Read more about the story of the healer born out of the burning body of Coronis here.
'The Quaker Oats Box Infinity Complex'
 |
| 'Europa' (1560-62) by Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) |
("Myths within myths. Inside the page is another page. Inside the myth is another myth.")
- The Story of Arachne.
Read more about her elaborate derision of the gods, and her ensuing punishment, here.
The three stages of our relationships with the gods—
- Conviviality
(Friendliness/an intermingling)
- Rape
(A series of sudden, violent invasions)
-Indifference
("Perhaps even worse than death.")
Caduceus - The staff of Asclepius, around which the two snakes (one the healer, one newly risen from the dead) entwined. Now a universal symbol of healing.
Enthusiasm - En (or 'inside') + Theos ('the gods')
'The god is inside you.'
Maenads - 'the raving ones', The female followers of Dionysus.
Sparagmos - To rip, to tear apart and destroy without control. Linked to the passions of Dionysis.
ET CETERA:
"Choas is merely a kind of order we have not discovered yet."
"Anything worth reading is worth reading a second time. Anything not worth reading discloses all its information on the first pass."
 |
| 'Las Hilanderas' (1657) by Diego Velázquez. |
"It's a terrible thing, what happened to Arachne, but without the things that happened to her there would be no story. It's true, but my god what a terrible thing to say."
"You know what's going to happen next. Anytime you boast to do anything better than the gods—watch out. You're about to become a story."
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