Some of you may have noticed that there was an extra person in class today. That was my friend Starly-Jazz Thoorsell, who asked if she could sit in on the class with me. I said sure, and this is what came of it. She requested that I change font colors to present it as it is written, sorry if some of you have a harder time reading this.
Look into my eyes see my soul see my hidden secrets
Discover what makes me tick discover what sets me off
See me for who I truly am see me past my own worst enemy
Look past my self hatred and see me for who I truly am
I am not scared I am not evil I am not full of hate I am not
I am truly happy I am truly at peace in every wandering thoughts
I am truly at peace in my ever wandering heart in my ever wandering
I wander to understand life I wander to understand emotion
I wander to understand the many thoughts that pop into my mind
So look past my wall look past my defences look past what I allow show
Discover the beauty of my tears the beauty of my laugh as I let my
soul truly shine through the hate of this world
see the beauty of this hidden self see the beauty of this true person who I
never let out and learn to love the secrecy of this person who I only
let out when in love when I begin to trust whole heartedly
see me for me
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Final Day of Classes
Presentations:
Abby: Conchis/Fowles, Nicholas/reader.
IMPORTANT QUOTE FROM THE MAGUS: "All that is past possesses our present."
"All answers are a form of death.", the story goes on because Nicholas lives at the end. We need to come to terms with not knowing. We are all stupid like Nicholas.
Jessica: The Monster and The Magus.
This started with a story about Jessica's tattoo, which was very interesting as she didn't know what she was getting until it was done. The underlying theme is Nicholas trying to find the monster in his maze, only to learn that that monster is himself. Now he can no longer be human, or beast, but a hybrid.
Jennifer: The Word Made Flesh.
This started out with a memory of bone hunting out by Fort Peck, with the ultimate prize being a complete buffalo skull. A baby starts with gurgling sounds, progresses to speech, and finally the written word. God went in reverse order: The Word groaned and man sprang from the dust. With the Eucharist we do not take power (which was typical of omophagia), but give grace. We wait for the voice singing in the darkness. This last part reminded me of the part in The Magician's Nephew where Aslan creates Narnia by singing in darkness.
Wena: The origins of the Olympics.
The original, or ancient, games were done so heroes could gain power and other material things, such as land. Each sport had a mythological story behind it. Wrestling was Zeus and Kronos fighting for control of the gods. Foot races come from Hermes, while horse racing came from Poseidon. There was much feasting, drinking, and ritual sacrifices. The athletes were fighting for their own honor, as well as the honor of their lands. There was a bit right at the beginning talking about the Olympic torch and flame, which in the modern games starts at the Temple of Hera, and goes around the world to the host city. Side note about the torch: When the winter games where held in Salt Lake City in 2002, the torch passed through Billings, I got to go out, freeze my butt off, and see it. It passed (for some reason) about three or four blocks from my house. The principal of my elementary school got to run it, but he wasn't the runner when I saw the torch.
Jill: Veering to the chathonic path.
Nicholas gets abducted into "the Underworld" and is supposed to accept death and be reborn, but of course he fails to understand what is going on, so he goes through the deed, but gets none of the benefits.
Danielle: Distorted view of reality.
Fale realities are created by not knowing who you are. Conchis tells Nicholas that he can't trust the reality around him, for he doesn't know who he is.
Mary Ann: Modern Myth and Ancient Myth.
Modern myth was covered by a disgusting picture of a "real" mermaid that washed up somewhere over in Asia. There was also mentioning of a girl who has been born with the entire lower half of her body fused. I'll mention here, that there may be two, the one she mentioned is not the one I watched the TLC special on a few years ago. Usually the legs can be separated like conjoined twins, but on occasion that cannot happen. Star Wars was apparently written to be a modern mythology because George Lucas realized that there was nothing for children to look up to. Last we have Andre the Giant who suffered from acromaglia (giantism), I may be wrong on the spelling for the medical term. There are various reports on his actual height. The Ancient myths were covered by a mythology newspaper that she created.
Review:
Have your blogs in by tomorrow morning (12/9/2012).
Logos = Word, specifically creative word.
Group Questions: 1) How many different versions of myth are there? infinite.
2) Who was Oprah compared to? Zeus.
3) Where did we get the name of our project "the shameful truth"? The silent film in The Magus.
4) Darrell had two great one liners, what were they? "That's all folks" and "here we go again"
5) What song was played during the credits in our presentation? "White Wedding" by Billy Idol.
6) Who were the characters at the funeral? Irish, pirate, Viking, cowboy, Chinese, and Egyptian. In that order.
"All that is past possesses our present."/ "Every answer is a form of death." from The Magus.
The succata
Adonis ritual: when someone dies too young.
sacrifice: to make something sacred.
masque: a form of theatre.
Chung Tzu and the Butterfly
The Magus = The God Game.
Orpheus and Eurydice (divine musician).
Bhagavagita.
The Swerve toward eternity.
Eschatology
Metapsychosis
parabola.
NOTE: I may have missed a few of these things. I can only write so fast and we were going really fast. Juniper and Vittoria also have these on their blogs. Juniper said that she got all of it.
Abby: Conchis/Fowles, Nicholas/reader.
IMPORTANT QUOTE FROM THE MAGUS: "All that is past possesses our present."
"All answers are a form of death.", the story goes on because Nicholas lives at the end. We need to come to terms with not knowing. We are all stupid like Nicholas.
Jessica: The Monster and The Magus.
This started with a story about Jessica's tattoo, which was very interesting as she didn't know what she was getting until it was done. The underlying theme is Nicholas trying to find the monster in his maze, only to learn that that monster is himself. Now he can no longer be human, or beast, but a hybrid.
Jennifer: The Word Made Flesh.
This started out with a memory of bone hunting out by Fort Peck, with the ultimate prize being a complete buffalo skull. A baby starts with gurgling sounds, progresses to speech, and finally the written word. God went in reverse order: The Word groaned and man sprang from the dust. With the Eucharist we do not take power (which was typical of omophagia), but give grace. We wait for the voice singing in the darkness. This last part reminded me of the part in The Magician's Nephew where Aslan creates Narnia by singing in darkness.
Wena: The origins of the Olympics.
The original, or ancient, games were done so heroes could gain power and other material things, such as land. Each sport had a mythological story behind it. Wrestling was Zeus and Kronos fighting for control of the gods. Foot races come from Hermes, while horse racing came from Poseidon. There was much feasting, drinking, and ritual sacrifices. The athletes were fighting for their own honor, as well as the honor of their lands. There was a bit right at the beginning talking about the Olympic torch and flame, which in the modern games starts at the Temple of Hera, and goes around the world to the host city. Side note about the torch: When the winter games where held in Salt Lake City in 2002, the torch passed through Billings, I got to go out, freeze my butt off, and see it. It passed (for some reason) about three or four blocks from my house. The principal of my elementary school got to run it, but he wasn't the runner when I saw the torch.
Jill: Veering to the chathonic path.
Nicholas gets abducted into "the Underworld" and is supposed to accept death and be reborn, but of course he fails to understand what is going on, so he goes through the deed, but gets none of the benefits.
Danielle: Distorted view of reality.
Fale realities are created by not knowing who you are. Conchis tells Nicholas that he can't trust the reality around him, for he doesn't know who he is.
Mary Ann: Modern Myth and Ancient Myth.
Modern myth was covered by a disgusting picture of a "real" mermaid that washed up somewhere over in Asia. There was also mentioning of a girl who has been born with the entire lower half of her body fused. I'll mention here, that there may be two, the one she mentioned is not the one I watched the TLC special on a few years ago. Usually the legs can be separated like conjoined twins, but on occasion that cannot happen. Star Wars was apparently written to be a modern mythology because George Lucas realized that there was nothing for children to look up to. Last we have Andre the Giant who suffered from acromaglia (giantism), I may be wrong on the spelling for the medical term. There are various reports on his actual height. The Ancient myths were covered by a mythology newspaper that she created.
Review:
Have your blogs in by tomorrow morning (12/9/2012).
Logos = Word, specifically creative word.
Group Questions: 1) How many different versions of myth are there? infinite.
2) Who was Oprah compared to? Zeus.
3) Where did we get the name of our project "the shameful truth"? The silent film in The Magus.
4) Darrell had two great one liners, what were they? "That's all folks" and "here we go again"
5) What song was played during the credits in our presentation? "White Wedding" by Billy Idol.
6) Who were the characters at the funeral? Irish, pirate, Viking, cowboy, Chinese, and Egyptian. In that order.
"All that is past possesses our present."/ "Every answer is a form of death." from The Magus.
The succata
Adonis ritual: when someone dies too young.
sacrifice: to make something sacred.
masque: a form of theatre.
Chung Tzu and the Butterfly
The Magus = The God Game.
Orpheus and Eurydice (divine musician).
Bhagavagita.
The Swerve toward eternity.
Eschatology
Metapsychosis
parabola.
NOTE: I may have missed a few of these things. I can only write so fast and we were going really fast. Juniper and Vittoria also have these on their blogs. Juniper said that she got all of it.
Make-up: Presentations Day 2
Jerrod: Parenting in Mythology.
Jerrod started with the relationship of Uranus and Kronos. Kronos (Saturn in Rome) ate his children, until Zeus came along and was hidden (on the island of Crete if I remember correctly) until aided by Metis (whom Zeus will later eat), killed Kronos with a poisoned drink. We moved on to Tantalus who cooked his own child (Pelops) to feed to the gods, just to see if they'd notice. Mothers are just as bad, Gaia and Hippodyla (Pelops's wife). Essentially there are few good parents in mythology (Zeus is a good parent, compared to Kronos and Uranus).
Lucy: The Magus and fate.
Greek ate, or divine infatuation. Nicholas gets possessed by Conchis in the book. There was also mentioning of all the chess references that are made in the book, and how Conchis is a better player than Nicholas is. Nicholas and Oedipus are very similar in that they try to run away from their fate, but only manage to run into it. Conchis and his people only want to open peoples minds and reintroduce mystery.
Zach: Relationship appeals in The Magus.
Zach focused on three relationships: Nicholas and Allison (Psyche and Cupid) where Nicholas is Psyche, and doesn't realize what he has with Allison. Nicholas and Julie/Lily/Isis (Hades and Persephone) Julie is very complex, and Nicholas just wants to get away from Allison. Nicholas and Conchis (pawn and Zeus or Aptae) Conchis is a puppetteer who always tells half-truths to get Nicholas to do what Conchis deems necissary.
Sam: The Magus = The World (governed by our past).
Our society is focused on judgement. The labrinth is fed to us through Nicholas, and is always forming. We have forgotten that the gods are at work in the modern world. I also have written down the everlasting opinions of the people, which I remember as relating to myth.
Quentin: Hidden agendas and double lies in The Magus.
There is a veil covering the characters. Quentin compared Conchis to Hades because he is very deceptive in the book. Nicholas finally learns at the end, but not well enough. Life is a veil waiting to be lifted. This was inspired by the book Heart of Darkness.
Jeremy: Comparison with The Adjustment Bureau.
Nicholas has issues with his free will. In The Adjustment Bureau, a politician meets a woman, then sees her again on a bus and they exchange information and what-not. He arrives at his office, and people are there to "get him back on track" with the story that The Chairman has written for him, where he was never supposed to meet the woman again. The movie is spent trying to get away from the Adjustment Bureau. Free will is present in name only in both the book and the movie. We are all part of a huge game.
Sherwood: Beginnings, Middles, and Ends: The Magus.
Beginning- Nicholas is ready for an adventure, Allison could be his new mystery if only he'd see.
Middle- Nicholas doesn't know who he is when he's in the labrinth (or really at any other part of the book). Everyone is convincing in their lies that Nicholas is stuck in the middle. He comes face to face with his own demon.
Ends- "The beginning is included in the end" or "the end is included in the beginning" I don't remember exactly how that one went. Nicholas finds himself waiting for Allison after is massive, yet incomplete, transformation.
Andy: Predestination.
Nicholas is stuck in a fog trying to figure things out, though everything is before him. Nicholas fails at his hero story, because he is a stagnant character. Unless you do something drastic, you will just get pushed along.
Tori (Vittoria): Freedom and Determination.
1) 7
2) 63
3) 9
4) 4
5) D
6) Denmark
7) K
8) Kangaroo
9) O
10) Orange.
This is a statistics exercise concerning the first thing that pops into people's minds (Question 1, concerning a number 1-10). The rest of this comes from following the instructions for the questions, and the majority of people should end up with a kangaroo in Denmark eating an orange. In the Bhagavagita Krishnu convinces Arguna to fight, but Krishnu already knew that the man would fight. For Krishnu is God, who is also compared ot Conchis, and Arguna to Nicholas.
Ashley: "Inferno": fraud and deceit are at the bottom of Hell.
Deceit is defined as the severing of bonds. Nicholas is deceitful to the women in his life. Boy meets girl. Boy pushes girl away. Boy learns. Boy begs girl back. This is a story we're all familiar with. We need to purify the cycle to start over.
Darrell: Here we go again.
Darrell compared Nicholas to many of the Greek heroes, all depending on what he was doing in the book at the time. Oedipus shows up three different times throughout the book. Only the minor details are our own, the story has been played out thousands of millions of times before. Deja vu.
Lauren: The three regimes of godly interaction with the world.
Conviviality, rape, indifference. Nicholas is an atheist, showing indifference. Adonis gets boared by a bull for rejecting Aphrodite, and Nicholas gets compared to that in the book. There is a lot of violence used against Nicholas, and he still tries to overcome divine power.
Matthew: 7 "eccentric" geniuses who were really just crazy.
Everyone in The Magus is insane. Nicholas is the most useless when he is sane. We have to embrace the insanity to be mythoogically inspired. Go check out the list of 7 "eccentric" geniuses, it was interesting.
Justin: I have noted down that he got extra credit for going ahead of his scheduled time.
Nicholas is the hero, in the mythological sense (I have noted above this that it means he does the deeds for sex and no higher purpose). Who encounters the deceitful female Julie/Lily/Isis/Rose, and the trickster Conchis. Mythological archetypes have carried over into modern literature.
Jerrod started with the relationship of Uranus and Kronos. Kronos (Saturn in Rome) ate his children, until Zeus came along and was hidden (on the island of Crete if I remember correctly) until aided by Metis (whom Zeus will later eat), killed Kronos with a poisoned drink. We moved on to Tantalus who cooked his own child (Pelops) to feed to the gods, just to see if they'd notice. Mothers are just as bad, Gaia and Hippodyla (Pelops's wife). Essentially there are few good parents in mythology (Zeus is a good parent, compared to Kronos and Uranus).
Lucy: The Magus and fate.
Greek ate, or divine infatuation. Nicholas gets possessed by Conchis in the book. There was also mentioning of all the chess references that are made in the book, and how Conchis is a better player than Nicholas is. Nicholas and Oedipus are very similar in that they try to run away from their fate, but only manage to run into it. Conchis and his people only want to open peoples minds and reintroduce mystery.
Zach: Relationship appeals in The Magus.
Zach focused on three relationships: Nicholas and Allison (Psyche and Cupid) where Nicholas is Psyche, and doesn't realize what he has with Allison. Nicholas and Julie/Lily/Isis (Hades and Persephone) Julie is very complex, and Nicholas just wants to get away from Allison. Nicholas and Conchis (pawn and Zeus or Aptae) Conchis is a puppetteer who always tells half-truths to get Nicholas to do what Conchis deems necissary.
Sam: The Magus = The World (governed by our past).
Our society is focused on judgement. The labrinth is fed to us through Nicholas, and is always forming. We have forgotten that the gods are at work in the modern world. I also have written down the everlasting opinions of the people, which I remember as relating to myth.
Quentin: Hidden agendas and double lies in The Magus.
There is a veil covering the characters. Quentin compared Conchis to Hades because he is very deceptive in the book. Nicholas finally learns at the end, but not well enough. Life is a veil waiting to be lifted. This was inspired by the book Heart of Darkness.
Jeremy: Comparison with The Adjustment Bureau.
Nicholas has issues with his free will. In The Adjustment Bureau, a politician meets a woman, then sees her again on a bus and they exchange information and what-not. He arrives at his office, and people are there to "get him back on track" with the story that The Chairman has written for him, where he was never supposed to meet the woman again. The movie is spent trying to get away from the Adjustment Bureau. Free will is present in name only in both the book and the movie. We are all part of a huge game.
Sherwood: Beginnings, Middles, and Ends: The Magus.
Beginning- Nicholas is ready for an adventure, Allison could be his new mystery if only he'd see.
Middle- Nicholas doesn't know who he is when he's in the labrinth (or really at any other part of the book). Everyone is convincing in their lies that Nicholas is stuck in the middle. He comes face to face with his own demon.
Ends- "The beginning is included in the end" or "the end is included in the beginning" I don't remember exactly how that one went. Nicholas finds himself waiting for Allison after is massive, yet incomplete, transformation.
Andy: Predestination.
Nicholas is stuck in a fog trying to figure things out, though everything is before him. Nicholas fails at his hero story, because he is a stagnant character. Unless you do something drastic, you will just get pushed along.
Tori (Vittoria): Freedom and Determination.
1) 7
2) 63
3) 9
4) 4
5) D
6) Denmark
7) K
8) Kangaroo
9) O
10) Orange.
This is a statistics exercise concerning the first thing that pops into people's minds (Question 1, concerning a number 1-10). The rest of this comes from following the instructions for the questions, and the majority of people should end up with a kangaroo in Denmark eating an orange. In the Bhagavagita Krishnu convinces Arguna to fight, but Krishnu already knew that the man would fight. For Krishnu is God, who is also compared ot Conchis, and Arguna to Nicholas.
Ashley: "Inferno": fraud and deceit are at the bottom of Hell.
Deceit is defined as the severing of bonds. Nicholas is deceitful to the women in his life. Boy meets girl. Boy pushes girl away. Boy learns. Boy begs girl back. This is a story we're all familiar with. We need to purify the cycle to start over.
Darrell: Here we go again.
Darrell compared Nicholas to many of the Greek heroes, all depending on what he was doing in the book at the time. Oedipus shows up three different times throughout the book. Only the minor details are our own, the story has been played out thousands of millions of times before. Deja vu.
Lauren: The three regimes of godly interaction with the world.
Conviviality, rape, indifference. Nicholas is an atheist, showing indifference. Adonis gets boared by a bull for rejecting Aphrodite, and Nicholas gets compared to that in the book. There is a lot of violence used against Nicholas, and he still tries to overcome divine power.
Matthew: 7 "eccentric" geniuses who were really just crazy.
Everyone in The Magus is insane. Nicholas is the most useless when he is sane. We have to embrace the insanity to be mythoogically inspired. Go check out the list of 7 "eccentric" geniuses, it was interesting.
Justin: I have noted down that he got extra credit for going ahead of his scheduled time.
Nicholas is the hero, in the mythological sense (I have noted above this that it means he does the deeds for sex and no higher purpose). Who encounters the deceitful female Julie/Lily/Isis/Rose, and the trickster Conchis. Mythological archetypes have carried over into modern literature.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Final Presentations Day 1
Christine: Disney, Grimm, and the myth behind it all.
Christine compared myth to a tree, with fairy tales being a vine that grows on said tree. She also stated that no culture has it's own stories. They are combinations of what they brought with them, and the stories that were there before.
I was next (darn my last name): Mythology in Star Trek.
I covered the season 2 episode from the original series called "Who Mourns for Adonais?" Now I do understand why I always wanted to misspell it as "Who Mourns for Adonis?", which Dr. Sexson brought up at the end of my presentation. I've already put my paper up here, basically I just go over the episodes that have mythological references in the original series and The Next Generation.
Megan: Women in The Magus.
Megan talked about how the women in The Magus are deceitful, and compared Allison to Helen in that she was absent throughout most of the book but kept haunting Nicholas. The other thing I have written down for this is that women need to show men that they are powerful.
Courtney: Feminine rolls in initiation.
Women force men to look at their inner demons through betrayal. Betrayal is woman's heroic action.
Juniper: Persephone and Hades in The Magus. Persephone is Lily, and Hades is Joe. This is indicated by the Eliza Pound passage. Lily's mother is already considered Demeter. Joe's early roles of guard and Anubis, indicate a Hades like character. The relationship is presented as "right and good". This all indicates that Nicholas's view of sex and relationships needs to change in order for him to have a relationship, this costs him Allison.
Maddie: A crossover between The Magus and Stranger than Fiction.
In The Magus Nicholas hears about Bourani, and it sucks him into his own separate reality, different from the world he actually occupies. He then learns that he was part of an experiment that was supposed to better him, but did not. In Stranger than Fiction, Harold Creek starts to hear his life being narrated, he then learns that he is a character in a book, and that this story line will move forward without him doing anything. He then seeks out the author, Karen Eiffel, and reads her book, discovering that it is his reality.
Eric: Comparison of The Magus to The Lesser Blessed.
Nicholas has bipolar thoughts about Allison which starts his initiation. The Lesser Blessed is a story about a Native American (Canadian) who has a rather horrible life, and kills his father, but knows the power of story telling. Through love, the dead can live. Be aware of your surroundings.
Rosemary: The Proscenium of The Magus revealed.
Rosemary essentially retold The Magus all while handing out cards to us that had words that she had to look up while she was reading The Magus.
Kevin: Death and trickery.
Kevin compared the rolling of the dice at Bourani to the creation of music by Hermes after annoying Apollo. He also mentioned the women of The Magus as being like the Sirens from the Iliad. He mentions how Persephone is tricked into eating the pomegranate seeds.
Bailey: Board game poster.
Bailey compared The Magus to a board game where you go around the board and end up where you started. Also stating that no matter how Nicholas might have done things, it all would have ended the same.
Parker: Nicholas Urfe's lack of development.
Nicholas's view of reality is very different from the reality of the situation, he also doesn't seem to be able to recognize this. He goes to Phraxos to free himself but truly confines himself more. Conchis shows Nicholas how unrealistic he is, and how destructive this is in relationships. Nicholas is truly trying to escape from his mind.
Stephanie: Mirrors and The Magus.
Stephanie brought a mirror with her to demonstrate her point. The mirror represented the future, where Nicholas's reflection is his "future self". We change, but the mirror does not. Cracking mirrors will give different patterns, but the result is always the same. The gods explained what we could not, and though they are gone, the cracks remain for us to follow.
NOTICE: Everyone- please come to class next week. There weren't many people there on Thursday, and it'll make it harder for our test review next Thursday if we have to spend the entire time on individual presentations. Just in case we don't have many people again, those who would have gone next Thursday may want to be ready in case we have room for you next Tuesday, that will keep things rolling along quite nicely and make everyone happy. PLEASE COME TO CLASS FOR THE REST OF THE SEMESTER!!!!!!!!!!! ONLY TWO MORE CLASSES!!!!!!!
Christine compared myth to a tree, with fairy tales being a vine that grows on said tree. She also stated that no culture has it's own stories. They are combinations of what they brought with them, and the stories that were there before.
I was next (darn my last name): Mythology in Star Trek.
I covered the season 2 episode from the original series called "Who Mourns for Adonais?" Now I do understand why I always wanted to misspell it as "Who Mourns for Adonis?", which Dr. Sexson brought up at the end of my presentation. I've already put my paper up here, basically I just go over the episodes that have mythological references in the original series and The Next Generation.
Megan: Women in The Magus.
Megan talked about how the women in The Magus are deceitful, and compared Allison to Helen in that she was absent throughout most of the book but kept haunting Nicholas. The other thing I have written down for this is that women need to show men that they are powerful.
Courtney: Feminine rolls in initiation.
Women force men to look at their inner demons through betrayal. Betrayal is woman's heroic action.
Juniper: Persephone and Hades in The Magus. Persephone is Lily, and Hades is Joe. This is indicated by the Eliza Pound passage. Lily's mother is already considered Demeter. Joe's early roles of guard and Anubis, indicate a Hades like character. The relationship is presented as "right and good". This all indicates that Nicholas's view of sex and relationships needs to change in order for him to have a relationship, this costs him Allison.
Maddie: A crossover between The Magus and Stranger than Fiction.
In The Magus Nicholas hears about Bourani, and it sucks him into his own separate reality, different from the world he actually occupies. He then learns that he was part of an experiment that was supposed to better him, but did not. In Stranger than Fiction, Harold Creek starts to hear his life being narrated, he then learns that he is a character in a book, and that this story line will move forward without him doing anything. He then seeks out the author, Karen Eiffel, and reads her book, discovering that it is his reality.
Eric: Comparison of The Magus to The Lesser Blessed.
Nicholas has bipolar thoughts about Allison which starts his initiation. The Lesser Blessed is a story about a Native American (Canadian) who has a rather horrible life, and kills his father, but knows the power of story telling. Through love, the dead can live. Be aware of your surroundings.
Rosemary: The Proscenium of The Magus revealed.
Rosemary essentially retold The Magus all while handing out cards to us that had words that she had to look up while she was reading The Magus.
Kevin: Death and trickery.
Kevin compared the rolling of the dice at Bourani to the creation of music by Hermes after annoying Apollo. He also mentioned the women of The Magus as being like the Sirens from the Iliad. He mentions how Persephone is tricked into eating the pomegranate seeds.
Bailey: Board game poster.
Bailey compared The Magus to a board game where you go around the board and end up where you started. Also stating that no matter how Nicholas might have done things, it all would have ended the same.
Parker: Nicholas Urfe's lack of development.
Nicholas's view of reality is very different from the reality of the situation, he also doesn't seem to be able to recognize this. He goes to Phraxos to free himself but truly confines himself more. Conchis shows Nicholas how unrealistic he is, and how destructive this is in relationships. Nicholas is truly trying to escape from his mind.
Stephanie: Mirrors and The Magus.
Stephanie brought a mirror with her to demonstrate her point. The mirror represented the future, where Nicholas's reflection is his "future self". We change, but the mirror does not. Cracking mirrors will give different patterns, but the result is always the same. The gods explained what we could not, and though they are gone, the cracks remain for us to follow.
NOTICE: Everyone- please come to class next week. There weren't many people there on Thursday, and it'll make it harder for our test review next Thursday if we have to spend the entire time on individual presentations. Just in case we don't have many people again, those who would have gone next Thursday may want to be ready in case we have room for you next Tuesday, that will keep things rolling along quite nicely and make everyone happy. PLEASE COME TO CLASS FOR THE REST OF THE SEMESTER!!!!!!!!!!! ONLY TWO MORE CLASSES!!!!!!!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Star Trek Mythology paper
Theresa Brown
November 30, 2011
LIT 285 Dr. Sexson
Final Paper
The myth of Star Trek
“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise her five year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”These words start the opening sequence for every episode of the original series of Star Trek. There is a surprising amount of mythology in Star Trek. There is even one specific episode in the original series where the crew of the Enterprise finds Apollo.
The episode in question, “Who Mourns for Adonis?” premiered on September 22, 1967. The episode begins with the Enterprise being captured by an energy field that appears much like a large green hand extending from the planet they are surveying. They then talk to the image of Apollo’s head, who greats them warmly enough at first, comparing the crew of the Enterprise to Agamemnon, Hector, and Odysseus, but not telling them who he is. Kirk’s defiance angers Apollo who threatens to crush the ship. Kirk relents to Apollo to save the ship; he’s allowed to bring down a landing party. Apollo requests only that Spock be left behind because “… he’s much like Pan, and Pan bored me.” Kirk, Scotty, Chekhov, McCoy, and Caroline (the archeology and anthropology/ancient civilizations officer) form the away party. Apollo states who he is after Kirk asked how he knew about Hector and Odysseus. Apollo informs them that the Greek gods were an intrepid band of travelers who had been to Earth 5,000 years ago (Star Trek is set in the 23rd century). Apollo wants the crew of the Enterprise to worship him as the ancient Greeks did. He also disables all of the technological “toys” so the landing party can’t leave. Caroline gives a basic background of Apollo after he disappears following a demonstration of his powers.
Kirk comes to the conclusion that it is possible for Apollo to be who he says he is. If Apollo is right about the Greek gods being travelers, and they came to earth they could easily be taken as gods by the ancient Greeks. Dr. McCoy found that Apollo was essentially human with minor variances and an extra organ in his chest. Chekhov compares Apollo to the electric eel of earth, in that he can channel energy through his own body without coming to harm. Apollo returns and takes Caroline away; he tells her that gods need love and admiration like people need food. She asked him what happened to the other gods. He said that they could not survive being simply memories, and that they stretched themselves so thin that eventually “only the wind remained”. Apollo had remained because he had faith that mankind would return to them someday. Apollo returned to the rest of the landing party without Caroline which caused Scotty to become infuriated (he really likes Caroline). Scotty tries to attack Apollo, who repels that, and chokes Kirk when Kirk began to argue over their treatment. After Apollo attacks Kirk, he disappears again. Chekhov notices that Apollo looked either pained or tired as he disappeared, Chekhov tells Kirk this when he recovers from being choked. The landing party plans to overwork Apollo to try to free the ship.
Caroline is with Apollo when he returns. She intervenes when the rest of the landing party tries to implement their plan. Kirk formulates another plan and talks with Caroline alone after the incident. He tells her that the only thing that she really has is the rest of humanity, and that she must remember that and spurn Apollo in order to regain their freedom. Kirk sees being forced to stay on the planet and worship Apollo as a form of slavery. Caroline returns to Apollo and spurns him by saying that she had only been studying him the entire time. The Enterprise has managed to make some holes in the energy field that holds the ship in place, so that they can destroy the temple which is the source of Apollo’s power for his “tricks”. After it is destroyed, Apollo states that he would have cherished the crew like a father would his children and wonders aloud if worship and obedience were too much to ask of them. Kirk states that mankind has outgrown the gods, and that what Apollo asked was something that mankind could no longer give him. Apollo then calls to the other Greek gods and says that they were right (specifically mentioning Athena right there) in saying that there is no more room for the gods. Then he too fades away like the other gods. The episode ends with Kirk musing “I wonder if it would have hurt us to gather just a few laurel leaves.”
This is the episode specifically related to Greek mythology, but there were many episodes that covered mythological points. In the season two premiere “Amok Time” Spock must return to his home planet of Vulcan in order to take a wife or die. There is a special ceremony performed similar to a wedding. The kun-ut-kal-ifee is the name of the Vulcan ritual, which means marriage or challenge. It isn’t stated in the episode, but it is generally accepted that Vulcans are mentally bonded to their future mate when they are seven (it’s stated in the episode that they are children, but not a specific age), and that this link will draw them together at the appropriate time to kun-ut-kal-ifee. The woman then gets the option of getting out of the arraigned marriage by issuing the kal-ifee, or challenge. Then she must choose a champion to fight against the Vulcan she is bonded to. She can choose any male present. She then belongs to the winner of the kal-ifee. It is stated that the ritual of the kun-ut-kal-ifee has been handed down “from the time of the beginning.” Spock becomes so engulfed in his need to mate that he fights, and believes he kills, Kirk in the kal-ifee. This need also weakens Spock to some extent, and nearly caused him to die.
There are several other episodes that show mythology quite well. “Bread and Circuses” shows a parallel Earth where Rome never fell and the cars are named after the gods. “Plato’s Stepchildren” shows a planet of psychics who have based their society on the writings of Plato. “Miri” shows a planet whose people tried to find immortality but ended up killing everyone who was an adult. The children did live amazingly long lives, but eventually they too would go through puberty and thus die. “Elaan of Troyus” is an episode where the leader of one planet must be married to the leader of another planet in the same solar system. She seems almost Amazonian, but she really represents Helen in the story of the Trojan War. “The Way to Eden” shows a group of people who want to return to the lifestyle of Eden, and to Eden itself. However, when they find it, the surface is so acidic that everyone who remained on it died of burns. “The Naked Time” has a strange version of Dionysus run amok on the Enterprise. This time he takes the form of a virus that has nearly the same effect as alcohol, and is spread through physical contact.
There is an episode in Star Trek: the Next Generation that involves a people who speak solely in metaphor. The problem with this is that their metaphors are based on their own epic poem, which the crew of the Enterprise-D has no reference point for. Captain Picard does manage to learn enough of the story to determine that “Darmok and Jalad at Tonagra” is meant as cooperation between people. By cooperating with the other captain, a new word is created in their language for cooperation between different species.
The Star Trek movies also have a lot of mythology in them. Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan has Spock make the ultimate sacrifice for the ship. We resurrect him in Star Trek III: the Search for Spock. We learn at the beginning of The Search for Spock, that Vulcans actually can transfer their katra, or the essence of their beings (the soul), into another person. That person is to climb a mountain on Vulcan where they have their religious center, and the priestess will return the katra to the ancestors of the deceased Vulcan. If this is not done in a timely fashion the katra could drive the carrier crazy. Star Trek V: the Final Frontier has a crazy Vulcan (Sybok, Spock’s half-brother) take over the Enterprise and try to find God, and heaven. He tries to emotionally subjugate all of the crew by “taking away their pain”. This works well until he tries to do this with Spock by showing him the scene of his own birth and how their father (Sarek) considered Spock to be “so human.” Spock indicated that he had already come to terms with that assessment from Sarek. Star Trek Generations involves a dimension called “The Nexus” which gave you everything that you most desired. However, none of it was truly real and only created a loop where time would not move forward. This creates the illusion of a paradise, but is in fact not a paradise at all.
It has been stated that when a technology is shown that is beyond the audience’s comprehension it will appear to be magic. Star Trek takes this one step further and states that to a primitive culture advanced technology like that will appear to be the power of the gods. The wielders of these powers will therefore be held as gods in the minds of the people. Kirk indicates that in general people have embraced a monotheistic culture when he tells Apollo that the world is fine with just the one god. There are various implications about how live came to be in the universe. There is an episode, “Return to Tomorrow” where they find three consciousnesses held in orbs. These were once people of a species who committed global genocide. They once had had a great civilization that had spread its seed out throughout the galaxy. They wonder if humans are one of their colonies. Kirk indicates that humans appeared to have spawned without outside help. Spock however, says that the Vulcans might be one of those colonies.
After Caroline stops Apollo from killing Kirk, he takes her away and tells her that mankind thinks it has progressed, but it has simply forgotten all the things that gave life meaning. We have lost touch with our mythology, is essentially what he is saying. We can regain our touch with mythology by recognizing how it appears in our daily lives. Kirk could easily be compared to Zeus, both by the fact that he leads, and the fact that he gets with all the women, all the time. Spock could be compared to Athena as he is the fountain of knowledge on the show, though Apollo compares him to Pan and others compare him to the devil. Dr. McCoy would have to be Aeschylus, because he is determined to heal as many people as he can.
Works Cited
Star Trek: the Original Series. ©2011 CBS Studios. Series originally created by Gene Roddenberry
Star Trek: the Next Generation. © 2011 CBS Studios. Series originally created by Gene Roddenberry
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Group Presentations Day 3
Here's what we did in class today.
Group 5: Courtney, Parker, Lucy, Sherwood, Jennifer
They also did a movie. This was based off a wedding video that Jennifer did for a friend of hers. The actual filming and editing/producing was done by a friend of Courtney's who is a film major here. He got credited at the end, but I didn't quite catch the whole name. They told the story of Persephone in a very amusing way. Courtney was Persephone, who gets abducted by Hades (Parker). We cut back to the beginning where Hades asks Zeus (Sherwood) if he can have Persephone. Hermes (Lucy) sees Hades take Persephone and runs off to tell Demeter (Jennifer), who gets very mad and causes winter. She talks things over with Zeus and demands that there be a wedding. Hades demanded that there be something in writting to bind the marriage. They were also kind enough to provide us with popcorn.
Group 6: Kevin, Andy, Juniper, Wena, Lauren, and the Viking, who I would appreciate greatly if he'd leave his name, as I'm not sure of it.
With Quentin filling in the role of a body (Kyle Miller), we went through six different funerals without ever burying the body. We started with the Irish Wake lead by Andy. We used apple juice that group six provided for our toasts. Then Lauren came in with pirate/sea burials, she was interrupted by the Viking who covered their funeral rites. He in turn got interrupted by Kevin the cowboy who told us that cowboys used cedar coffins. Kevin the cowboy was interrupted by Wena who wanted a traditional Chinese funeral. She lead us in paying our respects by bowing to the deceased, and she "burned" some incense and money. She was interrupted by the arrival of Anubis (Juniper) who demanded that we mummify Kyle Miller and have a priest present to perform the correct prayers so that he may come alive in the afterlife. It ended with what appeared to be about everyone trying to either ensure that Kyle Miller was dead, or going on with their own rites all at once. In reference to one of the Viking rituals (where they kill a volunteer from the dead guy's harem, so she can go with him) we covered seti, or the Indian ritual where the wife of the deceased jumpes into the grave with him. Wena also noted that some people burn things other than paper money for the dead, such as paper cars.
Group 5: Courtney, Parker, Lucy, Sherwood, Jennifer
They also did a movie. This was based off a wedding video that Jennifer did for a friend of hers. The actual filming and editing/producing was done by a friend of Courtney's who is a film major here. He got credited at the end, but I didn't quite catch the whole name. They told the story of Persephone in a very amusing way. Courtney was Persephone, who gets abducted by Hades (Parker). We cut back to the beginning where Hades asks Zeus (Sherwood) if he can have Persephone. Hermes (Lucy) sees Hades take Persephone and runs off to tell Demeter (Jennifer), who gets very mad and causes winter. She talks things over with Zeus and demands that there be a wedding. Hades demanded that there be something in writting to bind the marriage. They were also kind enough to provide us with popcorn.
Group 6: Kevin, Andy, Juniper, Wena, Lauren, and the Viking, who I would appreciate greatly if he'd leave his name, as I'm not sure of it.
With Quentin filling in the role of a body (Kyle Miller), we went through six different funerals without ever burying the body. We started with the Irish Wake lead by Andy. We used apple juice that group six provided for our toasts. Then Lauren came in with pirate/sea burials, she was interrupted by the Viking who covered their funeral rites. He in turn got interrupted by Kevin the cowboy who told us that cowboys used cedar coffins. Kevin the cowboy was interrupted by Wena who wanted a traditional Chinese funeral. She lead us in paying our respects by bowing to the deceased, and she "burned" some incense and money. She was interrupted by the arrival of Anubis (Juniper) who demanded that we mummify Kyle Miller and have a priest present to perform the correct prayers so that he may come alive in the afterlife. It ended with what appeared to be about everyone trying to either ensure that Kyle Miller was dead, or going on with their own rites all at once. In reference to one of the Viking rituals (where they kill a volunteer from the dead guy's harem, so she can go with him) we covered seti, or the Indian ritual where the wife of the deceased jumpes into the grave with him. Wena also noted that some people burn things other than paper money for the dead, such as paper cars.
Group Presentations Day 2- the make up blog
Ooooooppppsssssss. Break got to me. We had some order reversal last Tuesday, group four went first.
Group 4: Jeremy, Stefanie, Rosemary, Megan, Darrel, Jessica
The theme of the presentation was how our view of mythology is altered as we go through life. They started with a quote stating that myth is out there to wake us up, not for us to wake it up. We first meet myth in it's most pure form through cartoons when we are children. We think nothing of talking rabbits who are taller than people. Bugs Bunny is the trickster of the cartoon world. The media is how we initiate the youth of the world into adulthood. There was a South Park reference in there somewhere around this part. In Western culture we believe that people need to learn for themselves. I have a somewhat random line in here about the succubus=lamia (Celtic tradition)= BAD women. The succubus were the female versions of the incubus. They had fun with the men, and typically killed them in the process. I have high school is a labrynth and college is merely a continuation of that labrynth. We are our heroes in high school and college. We also meet Dionysus and Aphrodite in college, though some meet both in high school. Media feuls the narcissitic tendencies of our society. We went over the story of King Midas and how everything he touched turned to gold. Group four left us with the question: Do we lose innocense as we age?
Group 3: Danielle, Ashley, Eric, Abby, Quentin, Bailey, myself
We did a video, Mainly it was pictures though we did have some interesting videos of us asking questions of random people in the bars. I was the only one whose character was not from the Greek mythology. I was Dorothy, and we did in fact take a picture of me in costume outside the Ruby Slipper, but it didn't make it into the video for editing purposes. We had several pictures (more than were shown, and a few videoes) of Artemis (Bailey) shooting people. For those who were there and are wondering who the guy in the blue was supposed to be, Poseidon. Eric (Hades) couldn't make it that night. We had some good pictures of Zeus (Ashley) seducing Io (Abby). We did try to clear off the Yello Brick Road for my pictures, but it was also amazingly cold out that night. We had our pictures and videoes separated out by quotes from Calasso.
Group 4: Jeremy, Stefanie, Rosemary, Megan, Darrel, Jessica
The theme of the presentation was how our view of mythology is altered as we go through life. They started with a quote stating that myth is out there to wake us up, not for us to wake it up. We first meet myth in it's most pure form through cartoons when we are children. We think nothing of talking rabbits who are taller than people. Bugs Bunny is the trickster of the cartoon world. The media is how we initiate the youth of the world into adulthood. There was a South Park reference in there somewhere around this part. In Western culture we believe that people need to learn for themselves. I have a somewhat random line in here about the succubus=lamia (Celtic tradition)= BAD women. The succubus were the female versions of the incubus. They had fun with the men, and typically killed them in the process. I have high school is a labrynth and college is merely a continuation of that labrynth. We are our heroes in high school and college. We also meet Dionysus and Aphrodite in college, though some meet both in high school. Media feuls the narcissitic tendencies of our society. We went over the story of King Midas and how everything he touched turned to gold. Group four left us with the question: Do we lose innocense as we age?
Group 3: Danielle, Ashley, Eric, Abby, Quentin, Bailey, myself
We did a video, Mainly it was pictures though we did have some interesting videos of us asking questions of random people in the bars. I was the only one whose character was not from the Greek mythology. I was Dorothy, and we did in fact take a picture of me in costume outside the Ruby Slipper, but it didn't make it into the video for editing purposes. We had several pictures (more than were shown, and a few videoes) of Artemis (Bailey) shooting people. For those who were there and are wondering who the guy in the blue was supposed to be, Poseidon. Eric (Hades) couldn't make it that night. We had some good pictures of Zeus (Ashley) seducing Io (Abby). We did try to clear off the Yello Brick Road for my pictures, but it was also amazingly cold out that night. We had our pictures and videoes separated out by quotes from Calasso.
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