Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
I Corinthians 13: 4-7
While reading Plato's Symposium the other day, I had to wonder at the fact that the question of 'what is love' has plagued mankind since the great beginning. Plato was pondering it all those centuries ago in Greece and we are still pondering on it today. So, I wandered over to YouTube to see what I could for answer to this question. Apparently, Betty Crocker has an answer, as does Sesame Street, Michael Jordan, Diet Pepsi, and the movie Night at the Roxbury. There was a whole lot more out there, so much I can hardly believe it.
So, just what it love? I thought it was interesting what Diotima says about love in the Symposium: "he is always poor, and anything but tender and fair . . . he is hard-featured and squalid, and has no shoes, nor a house to dwell in; on the bare earth exposed he lies under the open heaven . . . and like his mother he is always distressed" (pg. 27). It is very different from the picture of the cute, chubby cupid that many of us think of when we picture love. Yet, I think I have to agree, at lest partially, with this depiction because if love was a cute baby, then it would easy and fun and cute. But that is not how love really is most of the time. Love is pain and agony. As the saying goes, there is a thin line between love and hate.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Exam Starts Now
So, it's that wonderful time of the year: the first test! I'm sure everyone is very excited. Here are the questions that we thought of during class that Sexson will develop the test from. Good luck everyone and Godspeed!
1. Hubris
2. Elusinian mysteries
a) what was done, seen, and said according to Sexson
-relationship between this and Homeric Hymns
3. 5 Steiner Conflicts (in order)
4. What is an epithet? (give example)
5. Which 2 characters exemplify Steiner's conflicts?
6. Stychomythia
7. Sparagmos
8. Define anthropocentric
9. Miasma
10. Antigone's view of politics, notion of a moving target, and meaning of Creon's name (intro)
11. Myth of the Eternal Return
12. Who is Hermes like? -Stewie
13. Thoreau said we should read the ___ instead of the ____.
14. Who is guilty of taking one above and tossing them below?
15. In illo tempore (define)
16. Which 2 mythologicl figures are polytropic?
17. Who are the 3 great tragedians?
18. Who is the god of the crossroads?
19. Define agon (conflict)
20. All that is ___ possesses the ___.
21. 2 best things that can happen according to the chorus in Antigone
22. Sarvam
23. What does Antigone's name mean?
24. What injury does infant Oedipus sustain?
25. Hermes response to demonstrate his innocence? (2 words)
26. What did Robert Johnson do at the crossroads?
27. Why do we laugh?
28. What's it mean to make something anagogic?
29. Senex
1. Hubris
2. Elusinian mysteries
a) what was done, seen, and said according to Sexson
-relationship between this and Homeric Hymns
3. 5 Steiner Conflicts (in order)
4. What is an epithet? (give example)
5. Which 2 characters exemplify Steiner's conflicts?
6. Stychomythia
7. Sparagmos
8. Define anthropocentric
9. Miasma
10. Antigone's view of politics, notion of a moving target, and meaning of Creon's name (intro)
11. Myth of the Eternal Return
12. Who is Hermes like? -Stewie
13. Thoreau said we should read the ___ instead of the ____.
14. Who is guilty of taking one above and tossing them below?
15. In illo tempore (define)
16. Which 2 mythologicl figures are polytropic?
17. Who are the 3 great tragedians?
18. Who is the god of the crossroads?
19. Define agon (conflict)
20. All that is ___ possesses the ___.
21. 2 best things that can happen according to the chorus in Antigone
22. Sarvam
23. What does Antigone's name mean?
24. What injury does infant Oedipus sustain?
25. Hermes response to demonstrate his innocence? (2 words)
26. What did Robert Johnson do at the crossroads?
27. Why do we laugh?
28. What's it mean to make something anagogic?
29. Senex
Friday, February 13, 2009
Give me my robe . . .
I loved the scene from Antony and Cleopatra that Sexson ended class with the other day. While it is not my favorite play and I haven't actually seen it performed, I was intrigued by his acting, so I thought that I would look it up. This is how Cleo's death scene it written in my Complete Works of William Shakespeare book.
Cleopatra: Give me my robe, put on my crown;
I have
Immortal longing in me: now no more
The juice of Egypt's grape shall moist this lip:-
Yare, yare, good Iras; quick.-Methinks I hear Antony call; I see him rouse himself
To praise my noble act; I hear him mock
The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men
To excuse their after wrath. Husband, I come:
Now to that name my courage prove my title!
I am fire and air; my other elements
I give to baser life.-So,-have you done?
Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips.
Farewell, kind Charmian;-Iras, long farewell.
[Kisses them. Iras falls and dies.]
Have I aspic in my lips? Dost fall?
If thou and nature can so gently part,
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch,
Which hurts and is desir'd. Dost thou lie still?
If thus thou vanishest, thou tell'st the world
It is not worth leave-taking.
Char: Dissovle, thick cloud, and rain; that
I may say
The gods themselves do weep!
Cleo: This proves me base:
If she first meet the curled Antony,
He'll make demand of her, and spend that kiss
Which is my heaven to have.-Come, thou
mortal wretch,
[To an asp, which she applies to her breast]
With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool,
Be angry, and despatch. O couldst thou speak,
That I might hear thee call great Caesar ass
Unpolicied!
Char: O eartern star!
Cleo: Peace, peace!
Dost thou not see my baby at my breast
That sucks the nurse asleep?
Char: O, break!, O, break!
Cleo: As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as
gentle:-
O Antony!-Nay, I will take thee too:-
[Applying another asp to her arm]
What, should I stay,-
[Falls on a bed and dies]
Talk a great death scene! Sorry if it's a little long, but I think if you want the whole affect, you have to hear the whole scene. The way that Shakespeare phrased his speeh and the words that he used, just grab one's attention. That's the power of words, I guess. By simply hearing them, you can feel any range of emotions and be moved to do things. Awesome (in the true sense of the word)
Cleopatra: Give me my robe, put on my crown;
I have
Immortal longing in me: now no more
The juice of Egypt's grape shall moist this lip:-
Yare, yare, good Iras; quick.-Methinks I hear Antony call; I see him rouse himself
To praise my noble act; I hear him mock
The luck of Caesar, which the gods give men
To excuse their after wrath. Husband, I come:
Now to that name my courage prove my title!
I am fire and air; my other elements
I give to baser life.-So,-have you done?
Come then, and take the last warmth of my lips.
Farewell, kind Charmian;-Iras, long farewell.
[Kisses them. Iras falls and dies.]
Have I aspic in my lips? Dost fall?
If thou and nature can so gently part,
The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch,
Which hurts and is desir'd. Dost thou lie still?
If thus thou vanishest, thou tell'st the world
It is not worth leave-taking.
Char: Dissovle, thick cloud, and rain; that
I may say
The gods themselves do weep!
Cleo: This proves me base:
If she first meet the curled Antony,
He'll make demand of her, and spend that kiss
Which is my heaven to have.-Come, thou
mortal wretch,
[To an asp, which she applies to her breast]
With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool,
Be angry, and despatch. O couldst thou speak,
That I might hear thee call great Caesar ass
Unpolicied!
Char: O eartern star!
Cleo: Peace, peace!
Dost thou not see my baby at my breast
That sucks the nurse asleep?
Char: O, break!, O, break!
Cleo: As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as
gentle:-
O Antony!-Nay, I will take thee too:-
[Applying another asp to her arm]
What, should I stay,-
[Falls on a bed and dies]
Talk a great death scene! Sorry if it's a little long, but I think if you want the whole affect, you have to hear the whole scene. The way that Shakespeare phrased his speeh and the words that he used, just grab one's attention. That's the power of words, I guess. By simply hearing them, you can feel any range of emotions and be moved to do things. Awesome (in the true sense of the word)
Monday, February 9, 2009
Open Sesame
Passwords. They are magical and mythical and allow you to get to your e-mail account. We are surrounded by passwords in this world. We are required to have one for every little thing these days. Debit cards, library cards, bank accounts, e-mail accounts, facebook, blogs, and the list goes on and on. Even as people we are labeled with numbers: social security, driver's license, college id, which allow us to pass through this world without too much trouble. As adults it is tedious and boring to try to keep track of all of them, but as children passwords were wonderful things. Do you remember having a secret knock or handshake with your friends? Perhaps it was a fun, weird word that you said to identify yourselves. Passwords allowed you to go beyond the ordinary, they made life special and magical. If you think about it passwords have been present in this world since the beginning. Elusinian mysteries were all about passwords. By having seen, heard and done something they were all linked by those shared experiences. With a word they could relate to one another. Maybe that's what passwords are all about. Sure they are made to let you 'pass' through, but maybe they are about finding commonalities amongst all the people of this world. Maybe they are used, not to pass through, but to pass with.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Time is ticking
Monday's discussion on time and how we view time and the past really got me thinking. Why is it that humans have such an interest in time? Just think of all the movies and books about time travel, changing the past, seeing the future. Groundhog's Day, the Terminator series, Michael Crichton's Timeline, and so many more that the mind boggles. Time is a staple in any good plot. Is our interest solely based in our desire to understand what has happened? Perhaps we feel a need to repeat things until we do get it right? Or could it be that we fear time because it reminds us that there is an end coming, so we seek to control it through media?
I was reminded of reruns of a sci-fi TV show that I watch sometimes about a government group that sends a man back 7 days in to the past whenever something very bad happens. For everyone else in the world what happened during those 7 days disappears. The man who time travels, however, remembers things that he heard and saw and did that only he will remember. Just like Bill Murray in Groundhog's Day, his present is possessed by the past. His future is actually the past. How must one react then to everything? Are these people the only ones who can truly appreciate their present since they view it from an entirely different angle then the rest of us? Can we, as non-time traveling beings, gain an understanding of life by grasping at what we might remember of our pasts?
I was reminded of reruns of a sci-fi TV show that I watch sometimes about a government group that sends a man back 7 days in to the past whenever something very bad happens. For everyone else in the world what happened during those 7 days disappears. The man who time travels, however, remembers things that he heard and saw and did that only he will remember. Just like Bill Murray in Groundhog's Day, his present is possessed by the past. His future is actually the past. How must one react then to everything? Are these people the only ones who can truly appreciate their present since they view it from an entirely different angle then the rest of us? Can we, as non-time traveling beings, gain an understanding of life by grasping at what we might remember of our pasts?
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