The end of the end

We started with some general housekeeping about our individual presentations, papers, and blogs. Dr. Sexson discouraged us from just reading our papers, or playing by ear. We should look like we are playing by ear but not actually playing by ear. Powerpoints are great, but we should check with Andrew about any technological things so we don't waste time trying to get it set up.

We then moved on to The Magus, starting with a quote from chapter 45: "All that is past possesses our present." This is essentially the definition of myth, just in different wording. We carry the entire past of the human race, we are just not aware of it. Jung called this the collective unconcious (now if I can get my mind to stop trying to make a Borg reference out of that....) stating that the way that we organize our personal experiences is exactly like everyone else, and everything else since the formation of the nervous system. This is where my notes get disjointed, because we went and covered several people's blogs. We defined the word quotidian as occuring everyday, or domestic.

When we covered blogs I wrote down things that I found really striking. Darryl had put down something about every culture has a Creator, a Preserver, and a Destroyer. I agree, sometimes they are three entities, sometimes they are one. Sometimes you get something like the Holy Trinity of Christianity: ever three and ever one. I described it once as a three-way Vulcan mind-meld, or the merging of three minds into one, but the identies of the three remain separate. 

We talked about the end of The Magus finally. I see why people were annoyed with it (still haven't gotten there...), I wrote down that it ends like The Lord of the Rings. I was mad the first time I read it through, I wanted to know what Valinor looked like, but the end is Sam returning to Bag End and picking up his child (Eleanor), and saying "I'm home." That's the end. You can't get a more precise ending without the world ending, like C.S. Lewis with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle.  By leaving Nickolas and Allison alive (which I thought she commited suicide, so I'm lost in that regard) alive and at a crossroads, we are free to imagine whatever we choose about their fates.

Someone else's blog (I don't remember who), came up with Nickolas wanting the magic to continue, but is left in reality with all the magic gone. I wrote down that magic is like a drug, we want it to continue but reality must reassert itself. When this happens the world seems emptier/duller than when we left it. There seems to be no mystery once we have tasted magic.

We went over Krishnu telling that prince person (see last blog) that you shouldn't do a thing for the fruit (rewards) that it'll bring. I wrote down: "The work is reward enough" ~ Sherlock Holmes. Holmes often would give all the credit to Scotland Yard even if he did all the work because he didn't do it for the fame, that just brought more clients to him. He did it out of a sense of justice and duty to the people. He also did it to keep himself sane, he needed the puzzles for his mind to work properly.