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!