Beginning to End...to Beginning!

I have greatly enjoyed the final presentations given by my classmates. This is a wonderful assessment in that it benefits the presenter, the teacher, and the rest of the class all at the same time. It is so neat to hear about the experiences and conclusions made by my classmates throughout the semester. Thanks for the "My Life as a Mythic Detective" assignment, Dr. Sexson!

I found the presentations on creation and initiation myths were valuable as well. I have found the more opportunities one has to speak publicly, the better one becomes at public speaking. Amazing! Plus memorizing the myths made the experience especially unique and memorable.

It was wonderful to have Dr. Sexson memorize our names. Never has a teacher done this before. It was a blessing to each one of us, and you have inspired me to do the same thing in my future classrooms.

If I were to describe this class, I would describe it as an experience. It is not comparable to other classes because they are simply classes. There was a beginning, middle, and end, and now that we have undergone such an experience, we are changed. Having all partaken in the journey, there seems to be a comraderie among the classmates, even if we do not know one another.

One of my favorite memories was during the beginning of the year when Professor Sexson proclaimed, with a twinkle in his eyes, that we were going to have fun. What a relief such a word is to the student's ear!

I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to go to the performance of Dr. Turner and to have him speak in class. In one of my classes this semester, we have been required to read several pieces of our writing. Through this, I have come to see how special it is to hear the writer read his/her own words. I recognized this greatly when hearing Dr. Turner read his poetry... It is so neat that Dr. Sexson allowed us to spend time with his dear friend.

Thanks for teaching this semester, Dr. Sexson!
-Julia

My Life as a Mythic Detective

I am a Bible-believing Christian. I do not consider the Bible to be another mythological work. It is the Word of God. Because I believe this, I obviously do not agree with much of the content discussed during class. I do not say this to rile up the class or cause dissension, but to be honest. Rather than arguing over disparity in our understandings, I hope to highlight how gaining a greater understanding of mythology will be advantageous for me in many different areas of my life. And even though I do not hold the same mythological worldview, I do see the value in knowing about mythologies, and knowing how they have influenced history and the world we live in today.

The greatest way in which mythological knowledge helps me is in studying literature. I am seeking a degree in English Education, and the more I read texts of all kinds from all different time periods, I recognize my inability to recognize the allusions to myth. The allusions within literature are so powerful because the use of one word or short phrase, such as Cupid or pan pipes, and an entire story with many details is alluded to in the text. We noticed this phenomenon in art as we looked at the painting by Pieter Bruegel that showed two legs floundering in the water, hinting to the drowning of Icarus. Apart from knowing about these mythological stories, richness and depth of the artwork and writing are a mere fraction of what they would be with the understanding of myth. Even with the prolific availability of texts, pictures, movies, and all of the information and information processing abilities we have, the stories of myths are perpetuated by the creative works of art made by people of all generations.

Mythological stories are also helpful in learning about the characteristics of people and relationships among people. In fact, the stories of myths capture these realities so well that they remain timeless. We gained a greater understanding of this by Professor Sexson’s versions of the myths, and by the stories we wrote by displacing a myth. Even the gods of the myths illuminate the nature of humanity in a more unrestrained, exaggerated way. The gods perform acts of adultery, revenge, deception, rape, argument, power struggles, assistance, mercy, disguise, and more. And this leads me to my last point.

In an education class this semester, I was required to read a book about writing narratives. The major point of the books was how narratives (or stories) are in all parts of our lives, and they help us to understand ourselves, others, ideas, and our world. It appears to me that during the time of Ovid and all the way to 2013, mythologies have been used for those purposes: to understand ourselves, others, ideas, and our world. Mythologies have been successful in doing so, and they are beneficial to use in other contexts for the same reasons. Having improved my critical lens of mythologies, I am now more competent in my reading, writing, communication, and understanding of the culture and society today.

Explosions of Blossoms

        Thursday night I experienced how rich literature can be made even more wonderful when the author reads his own work of art. When Mr. Frederick Turner read his poem about the blossoms on the trees, I was thoroughly impressed. First off, there is irony in this poem--the blossoming of trees is described as explosions. Dr. Turner emphasized the words and identified with the embodiment of the poem. Consequently, the audience was captivated. It was a spectacular performance of poetry.

(Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/kennycrossland/page3/)

          I would like to thank Dr. Sexson and Dr. Turner for giving us the opportunity to go to Thursday nights performance, and to listen to Dr. Turner during our class period on Friday. I appreciated how Dr. Turner gave us so much information in class (rather than presenting an summarized overview of his theory). It allowed for me as a student to remain very engaged, and to desire to know more and more. It was also very neat to witness the friendship between Dr. Sexson and Dr. Turner. I hope they arrived at some more conclusions regarding the epic, the myth, and the apocalypse!

Similarities Among the Displacement Stories

I wonder what Ovid would think of this shirt. 

The displacements stories written by my fellow classmates were enjoyable and for the most part suspenseful. Most all of them maintained a nice balance so as to give clues of the related myth but to also not give it away. One of the commonalities among many of the stories was the high school setting and high school relationship issues. I wonder if this is due to the highly dramatic scenes that are typical in real-life high schools. Then again, Ovid’s stories typically do involve many older people, often the characters depicted in his writing are in their prime age of life.

Many of the stories had a lot of little details. I think this helps the reader to become more invested in the story so that the shocking ending is effective. Sometimes the details were unconnected to the myth, but at other times a certain verb or adjective would blatantly relate to a myth, if the mythic detective is awake. To the everyday eye, those words are unnoticed or simply deemed awkward in the writing. This makes me much more appreciative of Mr. Nabokov’s writing because the descriptive words he used enriched the story for the average reader and even more for the mythic detective.

I think I read two stories that ended happily, and this is reflective of the predominance of myths ending in an unfortunate way. As I think of books or movies that I have interacted with, I can say that for the most part they end in a favorable ways—even if the hero dies, it is an honorable death. And then I think of the news and how depressing it can be. It is the minority of news that is actually encouraging. There is obviously many differences between myths and the news, but I think that the significance of individual words and the detail that causes the reader to sympathize with the characters that causes myths to be powerful and long-lasting, as opposed to rumors or bad news. The endings of myths are more often similar to the news reports, whereas the build-up and the meaningfulness of myths are similar to movies and books. This is just a thought; I will have to keep considering it. 

Not Even Once

She was a beautiful, seventeen year-old. Her name was Merilee, and rightly so, for her laughter surrounded her as did the glow of her youth. Her light pink cheeks next to her long, dark, wavy hair gave her a look of sweetness and incorruptibility.  And yet, she had a bend toward evil, as we all do apart from the grace of God. But for the most all of her life, her trespasses were unnoticed, and this probably due to her tendency to smile and to care for the people around her. She certainly did have a desire to aid those who were hurting, and this is where her story begins to end.

            Joe grew up next to Merilee, and as children they would walk to and from Longfellow Elementary School every day. After obtaining their drivers licenses, the two friends quickly lost touch, even when living just a house away. When Merilee heard the news that Joe’s parents were getting a divorce, right after he had broken up with his serious girlfriend, Joann, she could hardly sleep, worried by the pain he may be feeling. After three nights of restless sleep, it was actually Joe who called, asking if Merilee would like a ride to school on such a cold winter day. Relief flooded her as she affirmed him and later jumped into his blue mustang. Her rapid rush to join him ironically began her dive into a reckless romance.

            In the eyes of almost every woman, Joe was considered extremely handsome. Standing at six foot two, having golden skin, dark curly hair, and intensely blue eyes, while exhibiting a respectful, caring personality, Joe appeared to be the perfect man for Merilee. In fact, she had already determined him to be the man for her by the time they reached school that morning. She convinced herself of this so completely that she didn’t second-guess his integrity when he introduced her to marijuana and his not-so-impressive friends a few days later. As weeks passed, Merilee was consumed with Joe, centering her identity upon him, and when she found herself pregnant with Joe’s child, she depended all the more on Joe’s display of affection for her.

            Joann was envious of Merilee since Joe first starting hanging around with her. She heard of Merilee’s secret when she was six months pregnant. In her mind, she hated Merilee and unconsciously plotted some sort of revenge. It was not until Merilee was eight months along that Joanna devised a scheme that was sure to have devastating consequences. Joann, employing a few friends, started a conversation when sitting near to Joann during lunch. Speaking in a way that Merilee could not help but hear, Joann glorified her experience in seeing Joe high on meth. “It wasn’t until he told me he loved me that I was able to witness him doing it.”

Merilee suddenly questioned Joe’s care for her, and begged him that night to show her as well. “That was nothing,” he said, “I only do it sometimes, and I wish you would just believe me when I say that I love you.”

            Merilee relentlessly insisted Joe to demonstrate his love to her in such a way. Considering the emotions of a pregnant woman, and his desire to please her, Joe brought her to his parent’s shed that weekend. He started to smoke the drug and after a few minutes, Merilee’s breathing started to quicken until she was wheezing uncontrollably. Joe was able to push her into his parent’s house, where they dialed 911. An emergency c-section was performed, removing the infant before the mother took her last breath. The child was placed in the neonatal intensive care unit until he was mature enough to live on his own. Merilee’s older sister, Iris, cared for the baby once he was released from the hospital until he was put into foster homes to be raised and nurtured by women who were willing to take care of him. This child was miraculously saved, although his mother was not. She experienced the fruit of her own pride and the envy of another.  

            

Symbols and Signs . . .

For most all of the story, I thought I was unable to recognize the symbols and signs. In fact, at the end I was trying to think of what those five fruit-jellies could possibly signify. Even now as I write this blog, I find myself nervous about writing something stupid.

When I had finished reading, I searched on the website page to look for some sort of resource that would give a little more information. Finding nothing, I googled the name "Symbols and Signs", and found a few analyses of the short story, and the following interesting fact on Wikipedia: "In a letter to Katharine White, Nabokov said that "Signs and Symbols", like "The Vane Sisters", was a story "wherein a second (main) story is woven into, or placed behind, the superficial semitransparent one." He did not say what the main story was.^[4]" 

I think this gives good evidence for why Professor Sexson would have us read such a depressive story. The "depressive story" is only the covering to the actual work of art. The central story is rich with meaning, yet it is not easily recognized. This seems to be the theme of the entire class. We are instructed to be mythic detectives and to see the world not just visually or emotionally, but also with knowledge of myths that have been passed down for a few thousand years. 

A woman I know lives in a similar way. She has so many things, so many small things that have a magnitude of meaning to her. If some stranger were to look at those heirlooms, they would probably see junk, but she sees and knows so much by those signs that are all over her life. 

I see that I am similar in ways. I was recently given many, many wedding gifts when I was married. I greatly like pretty much everything, but there are certain things that are especially precious to me because of the people who gave them to me, and their life and relationship to me. 

And this in turn is similar to words. When I think of home, I attribute much different meaning to that word that you do, and yet there are probably some similarities. Words have meaning that can be shallow or deep to the perceiver. To some degree, the way in which we understand the world is dependent upon us. To some degree we have agency of our knowledge of the world, and this makes us responsible for ourselves. 

Isn't it interesting how we use the wording rich when we refer to meaning? I think we do because meaning impacts our lives, and this reminds me of how in Romans 12:1, Paul writes that Christians are to be "transformed by the renewing of [their] minds." Our way of thinking, our perception of everything greatly impacts our life, whether we want to admit it or not. 

Looking Mythically at "The Spinners"

"The Spinners" 

by Diego Velaquez

Carefully looking at this painting made me realize I need a lot more practice in being a mythic detective. I do wish that I could see an actual painting because I am confused by many of the small details of the painting. A few things I have noticed in this painting in relation to Ovid's story are as follows: 

In his account, Ovid claims that people delighted in watching Arachne do her work of spinning, and muses even traveled to see her artwork. It appears to me that this is represented by the spectators in the back room and the way the artwork is obviously displayed. 

It is also said that Pallas took the form of an old woman, and it is seen in Velaquez's painting that the woman on the left is the oldest and least beautiful. This is also the only character that faces the observer, causing her to be most noticeable. One thing that is different is that Ovid claims Pallas's limbs were also aged, but it seems that the painter chose to paint her leg as youthful and exposed--a clue to the woman's true identity. 

The woven artwork in the back is one done by another artist (Titian), but it depicts the story of Jove's abduction of Europa, which is one of the stories Arachne is said to have woven this story. Valequez also made the rest of the tapestry according to Ovid's description: "The outer edge of the web, surrounded by a narrow border, had flowers interwoven with entangled ivy." 

In reading about Arachne on wikipedia, I found out that in the further reaching room, Pallas is in the process of punishing Arachne. Although Arachne is obviously not at the stage of a spider yet, her head may be starting to shrink. 

I think this painting is very beautiful and rich because of the meaning behind all the details. It is especially neat that he has two different moments in one painting.