Sunny Rae's E-Journal

Last entry Thanks for the memories

2005-12-13T13:53:00.000-07:00

Ok... After reading some published term papers and re-reading Amy and Emily's presetnation noters, and reading and readning, it came to me that I should really have 1 more post.

I, like Colby, did slack off on the lightbulbs for Frye or Calasso or any of the reading for that matter-- I guess my filament just burned out. I began to enjoy reading the textx-- I really liked the Hidden Book, but epiphianic ( is that even a word?) was not what I was feeling. I would have liked to be able to pull from other classes, but I just don't see a lot of correlation between Accounting, Economics and Traditions class. I sure I could have baffled you all with some bullsh** to that nature, but I want to be honest. I am sure that I did not fill the requisit amount of lightbulb entries, and I am POSITIVE I overdid the quantity and underdid the quality of my entries, but if you have read my termpaper, I truly am a literalist. The imtimidation I felt from all of you is in the way you all can see the metaphores and the links that I struggle to see0-- i can always see them when someone else points them out to me ( it is thanks to Dylan that I saw any links at all in the last presentation we did). So, I am a literalist who cannot see anything in the parables but bad, weird, unexciting stories-- neither as a religious person nor as an English Major. Yes, I am an English Major, but as a writer, both creative and technical. I want to get a Masters in communications, writing is the best place to start-- don'tcha think?

Anyway, I enjoyed the class, I enjoyed my classmates, I even enjoyed the blogging along.--even if I did not fulfill all the requisit lightbulbs.

Colby-- hot cider anytime. Thanks for the time in creating the perfect Frye for our group to bash.

Jillian-- I really loved your farewell poem. and wished I hadn't missed the last day of class to hear your individual paper. I really enjoyed the online banter with you and I respect your faith in more ways than you will know. When you have had a Jobian kind of life (especially this semester), you begin to question many things. I frequently think I would make a better Jew than a Christian, but reading Hebrew-- its like Greek to me!

Adam-- I grew to love the ejournal process, though at first I hated it. I like to go to everyone elses and see what they are thinking. I am disappointed more people didn't keep up. Thanks for the conversations walking home. Good luck in the education department!

Mick-- thank you for so graciously accepting my teasing about your needing to add a layer of fat thru bacon. You took it well and volleyed back. I enjoyed our arguements (if you can call them that) and cColby is right-- Fireworks make everything better!

Amy-- You make a great traveler and thank you for your earnest desire to learn. I have great respect for anyone who can tell me that they don't understand and who is really trying to do so.

Rachel-- Thanks for the sharing of notes with me!

Spenser-- you are so smart and funny-- a cool dude with a great funny side I can almost picture you surfin' like, dude, and like reading, like, Hamlet or fRYE OR LIKE SOMETHIN'

Ryan-- I enjoyed visiting your ejournal every week. I have a great desire to call you Sparky every time I see you on campus. I love your go with the flow attitude!

Dylan-- you are frighteningly smart. and (this is a compliment) you are the Northrup Frye of our time. I suspect in the years to come, you will be the critic that students will groan to read, but love in the end. Your insight and centrifugal abilities are phenominal. I am so glad you were part of our group-- you supplied us all with the thesis and let us go with the ... ummm... entertainment--even though you did not quite agree.

Val-- you are on the same level as Dylan-- you amaze me with your smarts and your drive. I am in awe of all that you do and all that you know.

Emily-- I think that without your dedication to note taking and blogging, I may not have done near as well in this class-- I did take notes, but hated taking the time to vomit them back online-- it was nice to go thru my notes and compare them to what you had. UNlike Colby' opinion of "free ride" I appreciated the opportunity to fill in the holes in my own notetaking and weed out the stuff and fluff in my notes.

Lastly, MS. Yes, I came into this class with what I thought was a knowledge of both these traditions. I was wrong. What I knew was a surface, nothing of importance kiond of knoweldge. I am truly seeing references everywhere! Even those stupid TV commercials!! Then, when it is so glaring a reference ( like Mick's beloved Matrix) I wonder how much of the reference is on purpose and how much is unconscious. I hope you enjoyed my term paper. I had a lot of fun in creating it. I gave the Oresteia displacement a try, but it wasn't any fun. Re-writing Revelation was a real kick, and presenting it was just as much fun. I hated the attempting to get a group of 8 people together at the same time to plan presentations, but once we did, we had a great time and i learned a lot more from them than I thought I would. It was a great class-- I just wish it was earlier in the day-- 2 used to be my naptime!! Thanks for the class!

Missed presentations

2005-12-12T16:23:00.000-07:00

I have to apologize-- I missed Friday's class-- I had a drop-me-to-my-knees migraine and wasn't able to move from my bed-- infact, the darned cat nearly got murdered everytime he jumped on the bed( yes Jillian-- I am not a fan of cats-- I prefer dogs) waves of naseua flooded over me. Thanks go to Amy for her diligent note taking of the presentations.

Term Paper

2005-12-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

Here it is... the final draft of my term paper. Out there, for everyone to read.

What was it that MS said? Like repitition, intimidation is good.. I am still imtimidated by all the wonderful "engagements" of the rest of the class, and I will forever lurk in the shadows of thier brilliance.

I want to thank MS, Group 4, and the rest of the students in English 212. I had a great time--- hope to see you soon, in another displacement of another myth in another class!

Sunny Rae

The Revelation
of Sunny Rae
(Apocalypse of English 212)

The revelation of English 212, which Michael Sexson gave us to show his students what has always taken place: he made it known by assigning the critic Frye who testified to the readers of axis mundi and 4 levels of discourse.
Blessed is the one who ejournals the light bulbs the Words with Power, blessed are the ones who read and who respond to what is written, for engagement is needed.

Sexson, to the several students who are in the class:
“Calasso be read and myth is, myth was, and myth will always be displaced by all who dare to write, and read from Oresteia, the trilogy, the oldest and most complete to the earth. Read of Freidman who loves J and frees her from the Hebrew Text by his research and made Documentary Hypotheses known to all in English 212 forever and ever. Amen.”

Look! Linda is coming to the class;
Every ear will hear her
Even those who question her
And on her account of all the women of the Bible we will study.
So it is to be. Amen.
I am the blogger and the student, says Sunny Rae, she who is, who was, and who is to stay, the student.

I, Sunny Rae, your classmate, who share with you in English 212 and the classroom and the windows; endurance was in a building called AJ M and of the lecture of Sexson and the Traditions. I was in the spirit of learning and I heard in front of me a loud voice like a professor saying, “Get in your Groups and prepare what you have learned. Present it to the class from the Cave, the Mountain, the Furnace and the Garden.”
I looked up to see whose voice it was that spoke to me and on seeing I witnessed several students in desks, and in the front of the desks I saw the ONE who looked like the professor of English, clothed in a jacket with a tie around his neck. His face and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow, his eyes sparkle like glitter, his chalk was tiny, small like a crumb, and his voice was like the sound of many teachers. In his hand he held the Power of Words and from his mouth came words hard to spell like chthonic and his face was shining.
When I read Frye I fell off my chair as though stunned. But Sexson placed his wisdom in me saying,”Do not be afraid. You are neither the first nor the last, and Frye is hard for everyone. Now write what you light bulb and be engaged and kerygmatic. As for the mystery of Frye, we will have groups to present to the several students.”

To the classmates of the room in AJM; e-journal these notes of lecture to study, of Sexson who walks among the desks:
“I know your reading of Frye, your work, your patient endurance of him. I know you can tolerate Frye; and his primary concern be life more abundant. I also know you are learning Curses of Atreus and Joseph’s fruitful boughs, for the sake of 212 and that you have grown weary. But I have a quiz that you will love. “Remember the seven divisions of the Bible according to Frye; Creation, Revolution, Law, Wisdom, Prophesy, Gospel and Apocalypse. Repeat them on the quiz we take at first. If not, I will mark it and take from you the points, this you hate.” Let anyone who has pen to write the notes Sexson is giving. To everyone who ejournals, I will give assignment to read from others’ ejournals that is in the world of cyberspace.”

And to the students of the class in AJM learn: “The story is more important than the moral for the experience is missed.” These are the words of the professor.
I now know the differences between Homer and Bible, even though they are many. I know the parallels on the part of the traditions, even though they may be opposite. Beware; the professor is about to throw to some of you words to add to your vocabulary. Be faithful in noting them, they may be on the test.

And as this student of 212 has learned, laughter is important in the biblical text, Yahweh is a trickster.

Sexson says “I know where you are blogging, what your web address is. Yet you are not holding fast to my assignments, and you do not write in your journals. But I have few things against you, Disneyland is a secular religion and of Aeschylus to the teaching of class, Orestes who Furies are a stumbling block after he sacrificed his mother for his father’s death, he put the sword to her. To everyone who has computer, ejournal, what are your questions of Oresteia. Read others and comment on how you receive it.”

And the professor of the class teaches:
“There are levels of Vico similar to Frye. You must know these words, Descriptive and gibberish, conceptual and practical, rhetorical and poetic, speculative and hieroglyphic. And know the last is greater than the first. “There are levels, too, of Calasso, conviviality, rape and indifference. And know them in that order. “You will tolerate that woman Linda, who lectures about parables and teachings and showing my students to practice parable making. We give her time to lecture and throw your notes on ejournal so that all will know the quiz questions.”

I will give this thing authority,
To be descriptive is truth.
Bible is not descriptive
Bible not be truth
Even though it has authority,
Nothing is sacred without making it so.”
After Class I looked, and there in my notes stood an assignment! And the first voice which I heard speaking to me like a teacher, said,” Write your term paper and presentations will take place”. At once I was in the spirit to write, and there on the computer screen were the words. And the words were all literature as displaced myth! Myth is metaphor and if everything thing is metaphor, than nothing can be literal!

Holy, Holy Moly!
The parable has arrived
And it is not what you expect.

And whenever I think of the living creatures of wisdom gleaned from this class, I give honor and thanks for the knowledge that I am a literal eschatologist, I want to know when and where the term paper needs be. I have learned to seek the displacement in all that I read watch and hear. I have learned to enjoy reading this book called the Bible as a great source for literary ideas.
You are worthy, our English 212,
To receive the glory and honor and (words of) power,
For you created in my mind
An unveiling of traditions
That has existed and was created.

Then I saw in the right hand of the ONE standing at the front of class a book with pages written on both sides; and I saw a mighty professor proclaiming with a loud voice,” Who leaves nothing to the imagination and what is infinitely interpretable?” And no one in class or out or under the classroom windows was able to answer the professor without looking at the handout. I began to weep bitterly because no one was found to read the bible as literally as any fundamentalist could desire. Them one of the students said to me, “do not weep, see, the vanity of the breath of YHWH, the wind has become futile and that Job is like an Oreo cookie. When he had taken the Oresteia, the many living students and the twenty-four sleeping ones fell before the professor, each holding a vocabulary definition, which was the list of the class.
“You are worthy to take Calasso and to read his pages,
For he was meant to be read
and by reading the words
we learned for Sexson:
Calasso have made them to get experience
And through it was gained knowledge
But both are made to the kingdom of wisdom.

Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many students surrounding me, they numbered less than myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, singing with full voice,
“Worthy is the Enthusiasm that is
to be overtaken by the gods and by the
awesome and the awful, and it means the same thing.”
Then I heard every creature in class, and out of class and under the classroom windows, and all that is in English 212, singing,
“To the defiant Prometheus
And to the submissive Job
Be parallel and opposite forever and ever!”

And the professor said “AMEN!” and the students wrote down and studied.

Then I heard the teacher read one of several ejournals, and I heard one of several proverbs, and “Grapes of Wrath!” I looked and there was a winepress, its grapes squished and from them blood dripped.
After this I was red carpets rolling out to the four corners of the earth, so that no Agamemnon could tread on earth. I saw a Truth is never neutral and Black Elk at Mt Harney, saying, “You are the center of the earth.”
Then the classmates showed the class the stories of Bible, of Jheri Springer, Judge Debbie, and Rolling Stones. On either side of the classroom are the displaced stories of the land of cheese and “honeys”, of the pearly Gates top Heaven. Nothing guitar will be found anymore, but the image of breaking it and the group 4s will read lyrics forever.
And one of the students addressed me, saying,”Why do we have seasons?” I said to him, “Sir, you need to read Demeter and Kore.” Then he said to me, “These are the etiologies that have come from the great ordeal of pupil.”
And Sexson said to me, “These are the parameters of the term paper, tensions learned, for the professor, the students of English 212, is due very soon.”

For this reason suffering is the hallmark
The darkness before the light,
And of all human condition
And life is fleeting.
Our lives are a series of
Unconscious repetitions of events,
Nothing is new under the sun.
Repetition is good,

I warn everyone who hears the words of this term paper: if paronomasia is only just punning, and once a word is spoken it cannot be taken back, then let the power of the words to be taken from English 212. Nothing is new under the sun, but inside this Sun(ny Rae), nothing will be looked at the same, all that I read, all that I watch, and now all lyrics that I hear, my brain has been unveiled, and I know that the precedent behind every action is MYTH.
The Sunny Rae who testifies to these things, she says,”Surly I am displacing soon.” Amen. Come, three o’clock!
The tensions of the Myths and the Bible be with all the students! Amen.

Thank you St. Peter

2005-12-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

Great job, group 5, with your displacement of the Pearly Gates. It was really fun!

Group 6-- I am excitedly awaiting your DVD of "That 70's Show, Biblical Style"!

Thank you Judge Debbie/ Rolling Stones

2005-12-04T08:28:00.000-07:00

Gotta love them sock puppets!!

For Group 4, I suggested a soap opera reenactment-- With Jheri Spiringer (group 1) setting the precident of daytime television, why not? I thought the displacement of the Judge (group 3) themed television show was excellent use of this idea.

But, as no one in group 4 is a soap watching housewife, the soap dispalacement got set aside. I am SOOOO glad! Dylan saw the link from the Rolling Stones lyric to the themes of love and betrayal from our readings; giving a mock rock concert was a natural progression! It is here that I must thank my son, Jacob, for the sacrifice of his "guin-tar" for the betterment of our presentation-- I think Santa has a great gift in store for him this year.

I am looking forward to the creativity of the next two groups!-- Will the rock concert theme be extended? Daytime television? Groups 5 & 6-- May the Muses be with you!!

My question to all of you...... Did anyone understand the significance of the fireworks?.........

good!

Thank You Jheri Springer

2005-11-30T15:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks groups 1 and 2 for the terrific entertainment! The displaced storeies were very well (re) written and the "violent" Springer show was well done!

and Thank you too so setting the "bar quite high" for those of us who have to follow you! (smell the sarcasm here)

Be prepared to bring your funny bone to Fridays class time.!

2005-11-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

Dear Friend,

As you well know, we are getting closer to my birthday. Every year there is a celebration in my honor and I think that this year the celebration will be repeated.During this time there are many people shopping for gifts, there are many radio announcements, TV commercials, and in every part of the world everyone is talking that my birthday is getting closer and closer. It is really very nice to know, that at least once a year, some people think of me.As you know, the celebration of my birthday began many years ago. At first people seemed to understand and be thankful of all that I did for them, but in these times, no one seems to know the reason for the celebration.Family and friends get together and have a lot of fun, but they don't know the meaning of the celebration.

I remember that last year there was a great feast in my honor. The dinner table was full of delicious foods, pastries, fruits, assorted nuts and chocolates. The decorations were exquisite and there were many, many beautifully wrapped gifts.But, do you want to know something? I wasn't invited.I was the guest of honor and they didn't remember to send me an invitation. The party was for me, but when that great day came, I was left outside, they closed the door in my face... and I wanted to be with them and share their table.

In truth, that didn't surprise me because in the last few years all close their doors to me. Since I wasn't invited, I decided to enter the party without making any noise. I went in and stood in a corner.They were all drinking; there were some who were drunk and telling jokes and laughing at everything. They were having a grand time. To top it all, this big fat man all dressed in red wearing a long white beard entered the room yelling Ho-Ho-Ho! He seemed drunk. He sat on the sofa and all the children ran to him, saying: "Santa Claus, Santa Claus" as if the party were in his honor!At midnight all the people began to hug each other; I extended my arms waiting for someone to hug me and do you know no-one hugged me. Suddenly they all began to share gifts. They opened them one by one with great expectation. When all had been opened, I looked to see if, maybe, there was one for me.

What feelings would you have if, on your birthday, everybody shared gifts and you did not get one? I then understood that I was unwanted at that party and quietly left.

Every year it gets worse. People only remember the gifts, the parties, to eat and drink, and nobody remembers me. I would like this Christmas that you allow me to enter into your life. I would like that you recognize the fact that over two thousand yearsago I came to this world to give my life for you, on the cross, to save you.Today, I only want that you believe this with all your heart. I want to share something with you. As many didn't invite me to their party, I will have my own celebration, a grandiose party that no one has ever imagined, a spectacular party. I'm still making the final arrangements..

Today I am sending out many invitations and there is an invitation for you. I want to know if you wish to attend and I will make a reservation for you and write your name with golden letters in my great guest book. Only those on the guest list will be invited to the party. Those who don't answer the invite, will be left outside. Be prepared because when all is ready you will be part of my great party.See you soon.

I Love you!
~Jesus

Troy and Brad Pitt's naked butt

2005-11-28T17:01:00.000-07:00

OK.. That's it. This class has ruined me for life! I sat down this weekend to watch Troy ( the movie with Brad Pitt's naked butt) and i could not enjoy it at all. Didn't the dude who wrote the screenplay read the Oresteia? Did s/he not thake this class?? Menny dies. Helen goes quite willingly with Paris. There was no "contest" to get Helen. Aggie dies. The screenwriter must not have read Calasso (or Homer) either, as Helen was not the "self-proclaimed slut" of Homer. There was no talk of suffering for the Bards. No talk of "suffering for the truth." I kept telling those family members around me that this could not possibly be the REAL myth-- That Aeschylus is where the "reality" lies.-- They kept telling me to shut up. There I was, trying to Dazzle them all with my new found knowledge of myth, and they tell me to shut up. And... There was the movie-- so far away from the REALITY of myth from Room 222, AJM. And I ccould not possible enjoy something so far away from the truth-- this is not literature and therefore cannot be displaced myth.

there was Only Brad Pitt.

and his naked butt..................................

what was I complaining about? I don't remember..... how can anyone complain about Brad Pitt's naked butt?

Another complaint..

2005-11-28T16:48:00.000-07:00

It would appear as if this blog has become my venue for airing my gripes.

Here is another one.

How come no one commented on my JAWS the TERROR modern day proverb posting?

Should I be hurt??

Ah.. Jillian.. I only fade occasionally

2005-11-22T10:33:00.000-07:00

Jillian... Ever have one of thoise days? I know.. I wrote that entry after one of those days, and felt a little like... shouting at the wind..... If tested.. I would not make it as far as Job. My conviction wavers. Just like my conviction with any "unproven" theory. Just because someone has written it and tells me it is true, does not necessarily mean I will beleive that economic Supply and demand has an equilibrium. Today... after having written too many checks for too much money for too little groceries, I don't feel equilibrized. So.. my excuse is.. I was having a bad day, and was venting!
"Some days you're the windsheild, somedays you're the bug."

Adam-

2005-11-17T11:25:00.000-07:00

Adam, I am so sorry for your loss. I know that words cannot ease your pain, nor do you want them to. Know that I know that you are feeling badly, and if there is anything I can do to help you out, I will. If you need some childcare for you to attend memorial services ( free of charge) please let me know. Living just around the corner from each other, it is a short trip to the sitter's.

My utmost sympathy to you, your brother and Kevin's family.

Spencer--words with power

2005-11-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

In my house, the most powwerful words ever uttered are," Because I am the MOM, that's why!"

Modern Day Proverb: Jaws

2005-11-17T09:35:00.000-07:00

Jaws, the TerrorBy Carol Shenold

I've never met another cat like Jaws, my sister Susan's eccentric, eighteen-pound, black-and-white feline. His Batman mask and the black heart on his chest are unusual, but it's his off-kilter personality that definitely makes him stand out. When I visit Susan, I usually sleep on the couch. One morning, I woke up to Jaws stomping up my chest. Then he socked me on the chin. Later, over breakfast, I said, "Susan, I don't think your cat likes me. He just socked me on the chin." Susan laughed. "Oops, I forgot to tell you! That's his way of telling you that he's hungry. He only does that on mornings that he hasn't already helped himself to the food in the refrigerator in the middle of the night. I blamed my poor husband for years," sighed Susan. "Hard-boiled eggs disappeared, shells and all; food scattered everywhere." Susan said she discovered the true culprit when she stayed up one evening until midnight baking brownies for her daughter's school program. The next morning, the refrigerator door hung open, and the brownie pan lay on the floor, with the foil cover chewed open from the middle and brownies all over the floor. Jaws sat up like a prairie dog, looking back over his shoulder at her. "Talk about looking like the 'cat who ate the canary,'" Susan laughed. Jaws also adores bubbles. If anyone leaves a glass of soda unguarded, Jaws sticks his paw in to feel the fizz, leaving the drinker with a hairy soda. Toilet paper is another favorite. If left alone, Jaws can decorate an entire house with an unbroken roll. But back to the bubbles. One evening, I decided to soak in a nice, hot bubble bath. I went into the bathroom and closed the door. Big mistake. To Jaws, a closed door means: "Challenge!" He slipped his paws underneath the bathroom door and rattled it until he drove me nuts and I let him in. I finished running the bath and got in while Jaws hung his paws over the side of the tub, stirring the bubbles. My long, soothing bath became a battle of wills between Mr. Blackheart and me. He wanted to slap at all the bubbles. I wanted to finish my bath without him falling in. The next day, I figured I'd solve the problem by taking a shower. Even if I had to let Jaws in, there would be no bubbles. Jaws wasn't happy about this, and he let me know it. I lathered up my hair with shampoo as the warm, relaxing water flowed over my body. Flush! went the toilet. I quickly moved to the side and readied myself for the inevitable. The next thing I knew, my nice warm shower had turned into a scalding stream. What's the matter with those kids? I asked myself. Can't they see someone's in here? Avoiding the hot water, I hurried to wash the soap out of my eyes. But it was too late. Flush! Flush! And flush again! Teeth gritted, I leaped out of the shower. And, there, balancing on the edge of the commode, was Jaws. He almost grinned at me as he continued to flush - in apparent protest of the lack of bubbles. As an extra bonus, he gleefully watched the water swirl around as it went down. Who can resist a cat that smart?

Reprinted by permission of Carol Shenold (c) 2000 from Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Marty Becker, D.V.M. and Amy D. Shojai.

To Jillian and bed tricks--

2005-11-15T10:55:00.000-07:00

The guy is just so happy to be in bed with a woman--- and none of his blood is supplying his brain-- he doesn't know nor care who his is in bed with... so long as he gets to .... you know.......

Revealing the truth to Adam

2005-11-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

Reference Adam Thane's Monday 11/14 post---

The truth ain't bad-- we women just want to know what it is like to be a man. That is why Zeus got the headache--- he couldn't handle the circular logic! ( something we women can excell at--- at least THIS woman can!!)

I realize... ( don't hate me because I have an opinion)

2005-11-15T10:40:00.000-07:00

Wow, I realize it has been a while since I have lasted posted, but I have not felt particularily inspired. Reading from the Bible does not give me real literary/literature inspiration. Let me explain.

I call myself a Christian, but... I have some tremendous doubts about the person called Christ. I do not beleive in "devine impregnation". I do not beleive in Virgin ( as in "no sex") birth. I do beleive that a YOUNG woman got knocked up and gave birth to someone who later walked around gaining somewhat of a cult following. Were there miracles? walk on the water.. cure the blind..? I dunno. I have a difficult time buying it. That being said...

I do beleive in a being who has created things just for me.-- I beleive that I can see God in every snowflake, in every mountain meadow, in every rainbow. Yes, these things can be explained by science, but the emotion gleaned from looking at the unique snowflake, the intangible rainbow is not a sceince, it is a "spiritual" feeling. THAT being said....

I don't like to read the Bible as a novel. ( literature)... I find it difficult to get into weakly developed characters and I don't really like any of them.

Lets take Job.-- I tried to separate what I have "learned" in Bible/church classes about this guy--- he was patient, he was tested by Satan to see if he really was all that he was beleived to be ( wholesome and pure and all that.)

To read Job like it is a story-- oh my gawd! What a whiney ass jerk. He whined and cried about his affliction and repeatedly asked "why me" His buddies ( if you can call them that) were not sympathetic to Job's illness, but instead, tried to blame him. Why was there no visits to the doctor to get come Calamine lotion to stop the itching?? OK, I digress... ( and I know that the intent of the book of Job was not what I am geting at here, but, hey, it is my "reaction" to reading it like a book).

I am on the side of the wife-- in essence, she said--"Qwit yer bellyachin'. If ya think ya's wanna die and ya's gotta "curse God" to do it, then do it already and shut up!"

I am having the same kind of reaction to Jesus in Mark--- Are we supposed to feel sorry for this guy who constantly has a group of people begging from him? It is what he wanted, wasn't it? So he didn't get left alone.. so what. You go around promising paradise to all who beleive you, then you have to EXPECT that these people will try to show you that they beleive you by following you around! And telling them to be quiet when they were "cured" of their affliction. Ya, right--- Johnny has sat around for the last 5 years with his fingers falling off from leprosy. On Monday, you see him sitting at the corner of 19th and the interstate begging to work for food, then tuesday, you see him shopping at County Market with a fist full of money and all of his fingers to count it. WELL, darn right you are gonna ask him what happened! And Darn right he is gonna tell ya!. I mean, DUH!

And the whole parable thing--- the people who are supposed to understand Jesus the most, his gang of pals-- if they don't know what the heck he is talking about when he is "teaching" and they have to have it explained to them "in private" then how in the heck are the rest of the people supposed to know what he means? Didn't "Church Universal and Triumphant" ( Livingston's CUT/ cult) have a leader-- Elizabeth Clare Profit-- doing the same thing? She spoke in these vague and ambigious terms, promising greatness for those that followed her--- didn't quite work out, now did it? I survived the end of the world on October 3 1989... did you??

I guess what I am saying here, is that I prefer to read the Classic (meaning GREEK) myths. The characters are developed, they are a LOT more colorful than Biblical characters, and I find the stories much more enjoyable to read. ( MS-- I tried to read Brothers Karamosov. I could never figure out why anyone would want to read something so dark and ... ... (what is the right word here?)...... unhopeful.)

The good news here is that "Vanity of Vanities, everything is Vanity"... It does not matter my opinion... we are all gonna die someday anyway, so if my view differs from yours, it doesn't matter, because, we are all just a breath.....

What shall I close with....? Have a nice day?! --- NAH--- let's try.....

Just keep breathing.

Wow fo Collin

2005-11-01T22:15:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Collin. I found your blog on the Harold Bloom quotes very interesting. May have to order the transcripts from PBS!

Yo! Sparky!

2005-11-01T22:10:00.000-07:00

Ryan-- Tell us about your award inKentucky! I am curious!!

Answer for Mick

2005-11-01T22:09:00.000-07:00

Mick, in answer to your question about the gory details--

Well.... could ANY modern, popular movie be just as good WITHOUT all the gore? The highly acclaimed "Blockbuster" (read highly expensive to create) 'Star Wars Rise of the Sith' [or whatever it is called]-- would it have been just as good a movie had we NOT seen Anakin get burned to pieces before the final Darth Vader transformation? Would the transformation been less powerful? Was the theater totally quiet during the burning? Did the movie get the audience attention? Was it horrorifying?? I know I could have done without it. [ What? my age showing again?!]

The audience wants to be entertained. The gore in Orestieia is there for two reasons 1. it gives the audience a sense of horror regarding the acts of husbanicide and matricide. 2. it gives the audience some entertainment.

To Jillian

2005-11-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

I have a hard time picturing you as a rebellious teenager-- you are just too sweet!-- So.. when MY teen age son comes to college, will he blog the same thing???
I hope not!

In the immortal words of Charlie Brown-- "Good Greif!"

Thanks Mick

2005-10-31T11:07:00.000-07:00

Super Huge thank you to Super Mick for posting all the terrific presentation photos!

Parrallelism

2005-10-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

Was I the only one who really noticed the women as tricksters in Oresteia? It seems that it is the women ( mainly Electra) who pushes the man into action. This parrallels Jacob and Rachel (Rachel pushing Jacob to trick Isaac).

Just wondering

In defense of Clyte

2005-10-30T16:50:00.000-07:00

Page 194 is the source for this particular musing---

What is "so wrong" with Clyte avenging her daughter's death? Was OK for Agie to kill Iphie but not for Clyte to "take justice" on Agie for killing Iphie? And then why is it OK for Orest to kill Clyte? Who will be there to avenge HER death?

Agie kills Iphie, Clyte kills Agie, Orest kills Clyte, who kills Orest? Who kills whom for Orestes's death? Where does it all end???

My Question

2005-10-30T15:40:00.000-07:00

hat is the difference between Zeuses? At one point, Electra prays to "the Third Zeus" Who the Olympia is that?

Misc underlinings of LB

2005-10-28T10:28:00.000-07:00

Below are my underlines from the Prologue for Libation Bearers:

P 52 The Crux of Orest is the rite of spring--memory vs desire, dread mixes with expectation-- the ancestoral dead are summoned to create new life-- it is a festival of reincarnation

p 53 Orest comes home from exile to kill Mom and her lover. This is successful and right but also right and WRONG-- to avenge his Dad he becomes guilty of MOM's death.

p 53: "If the Oresteia is the right of passage from saveagery to cililization, Orestes' step from youth to maturity is the rite of transition in the triology." -- innocence dies and experience is born

The ritual is an exploration of the "relationship between suffering and regeneration"

p 54 procession of women-- may be "ties among the living, among men and women, vengence and afffection."

the LBs are the captives of the war

Clyte has a profectic dream, the people must "painfully unravel" it.

(Just an aside here, I googled Libation, this is my result:
li·ba·tion ( P ) Pronunciation Key (l-bshn)n.
The pouring of a liquid offering as a religious ritual.
The liquid so poured.
Informal.
A beverage, especially an intoxicating beverage.
The act of drinking an intoxicating beverage.
It is interesting that a libation is also that drink that Dionyses offers-- his gift, as discussed in class on Wednesday. )

P 55 "Bless the ones who love you, (the women) advise, curse the ones you hate"

Electra is an altered version of Clyte yet she anticipates her mothers renewal o fpower.

"LB act upon act of recognition-- a play about the continual readjust ment of character and destiny"

P 56 Apollo commands and threatenes Orest--avenge or suffer--"guilt is a strong god...and a brutal one"

The greatest form of guilt is matricide( the killing of the mother) but to kill Clyte is also justice.

pg 57 (THIS IS IMPORTANT) 3 movements
1=longest, 2 sections
a. despair for Agie
b. anger valid
2=clash of the Furies and gods--vengence provoked
3=stretto -Orest consolidates self -- the justice and the curse

P 57-58: Orest reincarnates Agie--Damned if they do, damned if they don't situations== just demand for vengance of Agie, Clyte has just revenge for Iphie. Orest has no choice-- it is the "crucial choice of this careeer" -- love-in-hate--- murder on behalf of life

[look here for a picture of the Furies:
( http://www.loggia.com/art/19th/bouguereau06.html )
( http://thanasis.com/modern/furies.htm )
( http://bama.ua.edu/~ksummers/cl222/LECT3/sld011.htm ) ]

p 58-59: "Like the serpent, jaws embracing the breast that it must cut, he is forever in the act of killing what he loves, yet somehow nourished by it."

p 59 "The only marvel equal to creation is the fury of women"

pg 60: LB has two acts-- the house of the dead and the house of the living

p 60-- Orest is "bound" (think of chains and nets)

Oret is sorry for the loss of his own innocence and youth. Part of his passage into maturity.

pg 62: Aeschylus makes Aegit's death insignificant so that the matricide is the central point.

Clyte is Killed and fulfilled by Orest.

P 63: The most momentous act of the play-- Orest hesitates at sight of Clyte's breast-- leads to the internal suffering of his guilt of matricide---This hestitation is the saving grace== she persuades him to kill her by first pkeading for her life, pleading for him to reject the curse-- He puts her "on trial": she measures her ":maternal care" against his pain in exile, her adultery agains Agie's adultery. This weakens Orest-- he weighs self-pity and histrionics-- she challenges him--p 64-- he argues that her death is not a murder (matricide) but her own suicide because of her guilkt in Agie's murder

p 64 "...a mother's death-cry is a birth-cry too, for she brings forth the destiny of her son; she turns his innocence to power."

"poles of the tragic quandry"--"yoke of necessity, drive of human will" Apollo makes Orest an instrument but Clyte encites him to action.

p 65-- Orest is the judge and the convict both--jhe is the lastest victim of the curse and the consummation of it.-- Orest has an Oedipus complex of sorts--..."he rivals and replaces father...hungers for mother..."

Apollo get held accountable for the murder

p 66-- "(The Furies are) the forces of conscience and would go their wild way, were it not for the nature of theri source--his mother's blood, his own life-blood that he has shed." -- The furies are both the punishment and the power. Orest driven insane by the Furies, goes away and returns restored {sounds like a "sea-change" to me!} He get more adventures but he now has the power of the tragic hero and the ability to "suffer to truth"

Mother and Son --both Cursed and murderers

pg 68-- look for images of nets, snakes, eagles and soiled robes

"The characteristic act of Agememnon is a trampling; here it is an embrace of opposites that may empower each other."

p 69: "In this central play the conflict between male and female has become a dialectic struggle moving towards resolution."

p 70 " The Crux of The Oresteia is the feirce embrace between the mother and the son. Only they can humize the gods; then the gods can humaniz e our world."

Orest is the "Prince and the Outlaw, humanity in ruins and perfection"

NOW! OFF TO READ THE PLAY!!!

The promised post-- a lightbulb for Frye and Fagles

2005-10-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

I promised you all a post of time standing still while in wait-- the suffering it causes, not necessarily physical pain, but a pain of its own.-- but I am going to diverge here.

On page 16 of Aeschylus, Fagles comments that "suffering is the hallmark of the human condition". This is as well of all the stories of demonic time and the "biblic proportions" reference when talking about disaster. We are human, from the fallen eden, on physical earth ( to use some Fryed phrases). We love to tell and to hear stories of people suffering. We really enjoy sharing our suffering with everyone else. We love the tragedy! What is its significance? the pathos/mathos of suffering? Fagles says that "pain becomes a stimulus and a gift" ( pg 16) We are "committ[ed] to suffering"

This "Human condition" makes us "more real." Like Keats, "Do you not see how necessary a World of Pain and troubles is...? A Place where the heart must feel and suffer in a thousand diverse ways" ( no, i did not read Keats to get this.. I read Fagles, page 16)

So maybe Frye is right-- suffering is a human condition, usually brought on ourselves-- like Eve and the Apple. Demonic time and suffering are what is real to us. A state of Euphoria is brought on by dreams ( and occasionally illicit drug use) and therefore not real to us. We may never be able to sustain a life in the Paradisical world on the axis mundi and we certainly do not belong in the heaven world ( as shown by Sophie knocking down the tower) because there is no suffering in these places. It seems that the human condition is happiest when it suffers!

Any psyche major thoughts on this, Holly??

Agie

2005-10-25T20:30:00.000-07:00

As I read thru the first of the trilogy, Agememnon, I found repetiton of words and images. To be honest, I was on the look out for them, after having read the notes in the prologue.

Here are the ones that really stuck out for me:

*crying/tears-- thgis can be somewhat married to the wetness-- teras are wet...
*Dark and night/light and day-- including words like "glisten" and "blaze" and "glow", "flame"
*weather/storms in many forms-- winds, rain
*water/wetness--including words like "shower" and "dew", "soaked", "Stream"
*suffer/pain
s*ea images and illusions -- "riptide"
*several "nets" are used
*chains are used-- the chain of murders are the chains that bind the family

I also found a few "oxymoronic metaphors"--( granted, "the oxymoronic metaphor" is a phrase I made up)
* the gagging of Iphie--"give her all your strength--in her gentle curving lips"-- violence and gentlity in same breath.

*"the shining dead of the land" (line 506) corpses are usually dull and rotting with greying skin, not shining

*"great bloom of corpses" (line 659) -- when you think of bloom you think of a newly opened ( and therefore living) flower-- not corpses

*"dawn of greif"(line 1185)--one usually thinks of the dawn as the beginning of something, not greif-- which is usually the end of something

*"Raging mother of death" (line 1245) Mothers are supposed to give BIRTH, not death

"You treat me like a woman" (line 912) Feminism in the 5th century?!

Misc musings

2005-10-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

Pg 44-- "sun at the eclispe" WHAT A PERFECT image for the lightness and darkness theme we are going to be experiencing in the reading of this trilogy.

Pg 46-- it seems that Fagles is lamenting ion the lost culture of the Greeks-- he rejoices in the language

pg 47-48 somewhat of a lightbulb here: " The language is explosive, volcanic" -- could this be a Frye mountain?? a volcano is a(usually) a mountain-- ..."he employed (a language) with a power few others languages could acheive" Could this translation be the language of ideology or better yet kergyma that we have all "dreamed" about when reading Frye??? I am a little excited here!

pg 48 "the ocean rolling with...corpses"-- could this be a Frye descent ( as cave) like pg 34 "the sea is a resevoir of riches and the incarnation of never-ending strife, a harvest and grisly reaping both"

Sounds to me that Fagles possibly read Frye as a snuggle-up good night book!

Oresteia notes

2005-10-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

I don't know about all of you, but I write in a notebook the things I find interesting or I think might be on a test regarding a novel I read for a class. The following is my notes on the Prologue to Oresteia: Caveat-- Thes may make sense to no one but me, but feel free to peruse--

*Aeschylus was of noble birth in Eleusis, near Athens.
*More than 70 plays
*67 y.o. when wrote triology
*called it "slices from th banquet of Homer" ( pg 14)

*Orestiean Triology one complete greek triology we have.
*"expressions of optimism"
*"vision of warning and reward" (pg 14)

*Dominate symbolism: "Light after darkness"

*House of Atreus is embodiment of savagery" (pg 14)

*Homer omitted Iphengenia story (pg 15)
*Homer case of right and wrong, Aeschylus is "all that exists is unjust and just and equally justified in both" ( pg 15)

*House of Atreus a "grand parable of progress" celebrating emergence of dark to light (pg 16)

*pathos/mathos suffering and its significance-- suffer into truth
* Suffering is the hallmark of the human condition (pg 16)

*(pg 17) So deep is the theme that "mythology reflects the pathology of a culture riddled by guilt"-- the story is modern AND old

*(pg19) Rites of passage: rounds/cycles--puberty, marriage, death united into mate, society, ancestral dead
Agememnon-- rite of separation-- the king from society
Libartion bearers-- rite of transition--the son at the threshold of maturity
The Eumenidies-- rite of aggregation--celebrate initiation of son
"The Oresteia is our rite of passage from savagery to civilization"
* "dramatizes our growth from primitive ritual to civilized nation" (pg 20)
*"presents our lives not only as a painful series of recognition, but as initiation into a stronger state of consciousness" (pg 20)

*Hesiod--theogony--traced gods from savagery to civilization-- peak of absolute control-- story of supression-- filial brutality (pg 21)

*Aeschylus-- each generation creates a new alliance between the forces in contention for its world ( pg 22)

Agememnon: (pg 24)
*Begins in suspense, giving rhythum to the trilogy
*darkness waiting for light, light dropping into shadows
light and dark
hope and fear
triumph and defeat

(pg 25) the curse is where the war begins and ends
(pg 26) Zeus law=suffering=but suffering in Agie leads to knowledge that is sorrow=
"Pain comes in darkness and we call it wisdom"
truth is never neutral

Ipheg--tragic story of choice between evils

(pg 27) Zeus' eagle begins the war, Clyme 's omen ends it

(pg 29) Proverb of the impossible --stain the bronze with dye

(pg29) Helen means hele for destroy na for ship

(pg 30) "In prosperity there is a seed of insolence that leads to ruin" fundamental Greek ethic

(pg 33) Agie-- the victor of a 10 yr war is defeated in a moment of psychological warfare with his wife { sounds like the arguements I have with my hubby-- he always loses -- sometimes it is merely a matter of semantics}

(pg 34) the sea is BOTH riches and strife

(pg 35) parallel to grapes of wrath discussion earlier in semester

(pg 37) Furies offer recreation/re-create

(pg 40) Cassandra- redemptive heart of trilogy-- the tragic muse-- the agony of vision

(pg 41) Clyte- represents the earth-- yet without Aphrodite she is a grim perversion of nature--love-in-hate personified-- the "great mother within the terrible mother"

(pg 43) Homicide justified be retribution
for Zeus to be all acheiving, he must also be all responsible panergetes/panaitios-- conscience, command justice

(pg 46) The paly may be named for Agie, but Clyme is the tragic hero.

hubris : \HYOO-bruhs\, noun:Overbearing pride or presumption. "excessive pride, wanton violence."

Demonic Time

2005-10-22T12:04:00.000-07:00

I have to disagree with MS's assertion that pain is not equal to demonic time. Like I said, I have had three kids and three kidney stones.

In labor, with my first, I was in labor for 15 total hours. This may not seem like much, but, for two days before, I was in pre-labor-- labor that is not quite as painful as "real" labor. I had not slept for more that six hours in over two days. When I finally broke my waters and went into the hospital, I was in active labor. Nothing was happening--so they gave me Oxytocin-- this is the stuff that is supposed to make labor more productive. Wonderful stuff--(hear sarcasm here)-- this drug gave me STRONG labor pains lasting two minutes every 90 seconds. Now-- 90 seconds is not a very long time, but it seems much shorter when you are so exhausted that you fall asleep, only to be awakened with unmanagable, unimaginable pain that seemingly lasts FOREVER!

(NO-- I did not have the needle-in-the-back pain management. I did have a little of the it-still-hurts-but-I-don't-care drug, but by the time I really needed it, it was too late to give me any.)

The wait until the pain was over so that I could lapse into a semi-unconscious state was intermitable. Then the real pain began-- The actual birth.

WARNING - if you have a weak stomach or are easily offend by candid remarks, stop reading-

I finally started pushing. NOW, when you have a vaginal birth, it it "normal" to have an epsiotomy-- this is where the doctor takes a pair of scissors ( without any numbing medication) and slices your skin between vagina and rectum. This is SUPPOSED to prevent tearing of that same skin. My wonderful husband has a family histroy of big heads (they have to pay extra for hats that will fit their heads). My infant, preborn son decided that he did not want his head to "crown"-- the bones sort of squish together to let the head slide thru the vaginal opening-- Rather, David got stuck. The doctor had to vac-u-suck him out. In my house, there is an on-going agrument--between the man who watched it and the woman who suffered thru it-- regarding the size of the sucker they suck up inside me to pull the baby out-- I say it was the side of a steering wheel, JIm says it was only about two inches across.

Having a human literally stuck inside your private parts and having some opposite sex doctor stuff more things up there to get said human unstuck-- this is the meaning of Time in a devil's world.

( sidenote here, unless you have been in labor, you have no idea how much it hurts, and if you have not had any kids, girls, don't let this scare you-- you cannot truly remember the pain-- your body forgets)

Shall I go into Kidnay stones, and how the pain never stops, no matter which way you move your body, how the pain is so strong that you cannot help but throw up. How in passing the rock you can feel it scrape and scratch inside your tubes as it slowly moves to the outside?? NAH, I will spare you that story.

My next post will be about a long long long wait that was another version of hell.

Calasso

2005-10-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

YES, I have come across some Calasso lightbulbs, but I have missplaced my book-- I have a suspicion that it is at the bottom of my unpaid bills pile, along with my favorite pen and Costco membership card. I am just too afraid to move the pile-- heck, I am even afreaid to sneeze near it,,, it may topple over and bury my entire office in a mess of "Biblical Proportions"

Anyway-- When i discover the book-- better yet, after I get my bills paid, I will share with all my lightbulbs about Kore and Calasso.

BTW-- thanks to those who have blogged about the chapters they are presernting. Your blogs have added a little more substance to my information base regarding the presentations!

"Break a leg" to those groups who perform Frye-day!

Presentations

2005-10-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

Wow! I have to say that i was quite impressed by the scope of the Frye chapters. I am looking forward to our Mountain presentation tomorrow.

I have to say, I never thought of Jesus as the second Adam and Mary as the secon Eve. The sleeping red King? I loved it!

I loved the ambience (I can read and writem but I cannot spell!) of the Cave. It was delightful! You reallt piqued my curiosity by "forcing" us to stand in the hall. I think it made me much more receptive to the presentations as a whole.

Sock Puppets-- including a Frye Character! Great idea! Nothing is nothing is and nothing is nothing and Nothing is something!. I will need to remeber that when a sock named Jesus asks me!

Thanks to all the groups for the entertainment! The other class I have that is doing presentations makes for a great naptime, with 40 minutes of Business students rambling about information securities and business practices. I am looking forward to attending MORE Sexson presentations-- too bad the entire semester couldn't be group presentations. But I guess someone has to give us some serious information! ( May be THAT is what Frye is for....)

To Jillie

2005-10-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

Thank you for you blog-- I feel so honored. Actually, I kinda like Moon Star Love-- GREAT name for a horse!!

Don't get me wrong-- I like "Joshua", but I didn't ( at the time) think Joshua Yocom really fit.

Quick story: About the same time we were naming Josh, we had friends picking out names . They had only picked out girl names, as the ultrasound said girl. But in bed one night, she said, "We should probably find a boy's name, just in case." Well, the very next morning, as they were holding thier newborn son, they named him--- Justin Casey.

Classmates blogs

2005-10-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

I KNOW that I do not have Everyones blog addresses ( for a fact, I am missing Jacob's). Does anyone have a COMPLETE list of EVERYONE"S ( including you, MS) that would be willing to email them all, or print them all so that the entire class may have them? If there are nearly 50 in the class... my list on my blog site, is severly lacking. Thanks!

The Name Game

2005-10-18T08:18:00.000-07:00

With a few of you commenting on your names, I thought I would throw MINE into the mix.

I was born in 1969 ( aging myself-- yes, I AM too old to be a student)

My Parents were children of the 60s-- peace and free love and all-- I was the reason my parents got married

ANYWAY-----

My father wanted to name me some terrible name-- something along the lines of Sunrise Delight or Moon Star Love. My mother advocated for me and I have been walking the earth as Sunny Rae ever since-- well-- Mom calls me Sun Rae or Miss Rae, but that is beside the point.

Mom claims that since my Grandfathers ( ok, so Ray was an uncle, but my true grandfather died when my dad was 13) were Sonny and Raymond, that is where Sunny Rae came from. I think she is just appeasing me-- it was snowing the day I was born.

In grade school, I simply answered to Sunny... but when the boys started calling me Dummy or Cloudy, I thought it would be cute to "throw" the off by insisting the Rae be used-- it didn't work-- they just called me Cloudy Day instaed.

ANYWAY-- back to the meaning in a name. Forgetting my grandfather's names for a moment-- Sunny Rae = Bright, thecenter of the universe, giver of life. Sunny days make one cheerful, feel free. Is this me? I like to think so.

Back to my Grandfather's names-- Sonny was a BIG man. I don't remember a whole lot about him-- he dies relativly young-- he drank himself to death. Not a very positive take on that name.

Uncle Ray-- he was a very very very hard working man, doing what he loved for his whole life. He was kind and had a beautiful spirit. I take pride in THAT name. I even once in high school tried to go thru life with S'Rae as my name-- thank goodness THAT didn't catch on.

Is there power in a name? I cannot say. Would I have been the bright and cheerful person I am with MoonStar Love as my name? Hard to tell-- I never was MoonStar Love. All I have ever been is Sunny Rae.

Jillian thanks her mother for taking great consideration into nameing her. I would like to think that my children feel the same way. We put a lot of consideration into nameing them.

John David: My dad was John David. I never knew him--he dies when I was just barly 3 years old. He was the last of his particular genes to carry on the "Brence" name-- and he had a girl. I wanted to honor him by naming my first born for him. As luck would have it, my Husband's grandfather-- the favorite grandfather-- is also named John. We are also religious. David-- a strong name, named of a king meaning beloved of God. John means God is Merciful/Gracious. That describes my David-- he is kinda a popular kid in school( I am jealous, becasue I never was popular) and he is also a very gracious and loving person.

Joshua James: Well-- I personally do not like "Joshua" as a name, but-- I got my way with David, so My hubby got his with Josh. Joshua, also a graet biblical name. It means "God Saves"
I like that. Joshua is my little saver-- he is constantly collecting things-- his room is filled with pretty rocks and feathers and... and... and.... He is also my go to guy-- wheneever I need a hug or need to have something done that i cannnot do (remeber my leg is broken) Josh is always there, happy to do whatever I ask. James, also Biblical, meaning Supplanter and "The Lord's brother". My Husband is James (Jim) as is his father James is one of those strong, deep rooted names in this fam,ily and in history. A Supplanter is someone who replaces and substitutes with superiority. My hope is that my children will always be superior. ( I know, I know.. all mother's wish)

Jacob Christopher: Christopher in this case is the name of my Husband's cousin-- Chris-- who was killed in a car crash by a drunk driver-- the drunk's 5 DUI offense! Chris' brothers-- one the family "black sheep" and the other a terminal bachelor-- would never even consider naming a child for the familty like that. As a way to honor Chris' memory, we asked his mother's permission to use the name. (it made her cry). Christopher means "Christ Bearer" kinda makes sense-- Jacob is the one, who before every family meal, INSISTS that we pray before we eat-- regardless of our location or who is at the table. And he is uisually the one who leads. Jacob also means supplanter-- but as we have discovered in class, Jacob was more than that--- Jacob is a trickster. That describes my boy-- he is always "hiding" arond the corner to surprise us, or pretending something to "trick" us!

So-- what is in a name? Do our names define us? Do we, as parents, define our children by the names we give them? If so, at what time? A child's personality doesn't come out until after they have been named for a while.-- this is like the chicken and egg-- what came first, the name or the personality? Would my children still be the beloved, the saver, the trickster if I had named them Ralph, Waldo and Max?

One thing aboyut this blog stuff-- sometimes I come away with more questions than answers.....

ARGHHH

2005-10-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

I just spent the last hour + working on a blog post-- going thru everyone's blog and making various comments. then my computer froze and I lost an hours worth of work. So Sorry, as I am not going to watse another hour on it.

Suffice it to say that i said thanks to those who posted thier notes for the test, and That many of you have blogs with comments I agree with.

MS-- I much prefer the Old fashioned method of a spiril notebook and pen! Mostly, when I am ready to comment on a passage I have read, my computer is NO WHERE near and when I finally get to it and look at the notes i was going to blog about---I don't remember why I thought the passage was such wonderful blog fodder.

That said, I am going to go read the intro / prologue to orestiai.

Brenna's 9/26 entry

2005-09-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

Brenna-- wow. Thank you for sharing your "light" on the religios vs. beleif. Very interesting. Personal opinion-- make for an interesting Paper/presentation.

Results

2005-09-29T06:26:00.000-07:00

A couple of you inquired about my biopsy results. At this time, everything seems to be fine. I will have to have another biopsy during Christmas break, but I am very hopful. Thank you for your concerns (and your prayers).

Women in the Bible

2005-09-29T06:24:00.000-07:00

Hey Classmates! i will be out of town next week Monday and Tuesday giving presentations at a conference for People With Developmental Disabilities. I am counting on you all to create really TERRIFIC notes (and get them posted) on our guest speaker next week. I really appreciate your help!

More to Val

2005-09-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

First of all, Thank you Val, for hanging out after class and telling me you liked my blog on society vs war. I appreciate your comments and look forward to your ejounal writings.

Next, I just want to add a little bit the the god before the man question.

Unless you are reading the Mountains chapter, you will miss this, but on page 156, Frye addresses Val's question.

"Traditional religion claims that creation is a product of the Word of God, the creation itself being a second Word of God,... ... ... Set the Word at its origin and put the Maker in his place."

Frye says that "Creation is rather an intensely vivid image of the objective world as a spread-out picture of intelligibility awating discovery and intrepetation."

Is it a dream we are all awaiting to be intrepreted? IS it real and we dreamed it?

Does this answer Val's question? I hope not--- all it did, for me anyway, is raise more questions.

Anyway-- Thanks, Val, for your questioning of our position in the world!

what came first, the joke or the punchline...?

2005-09-26T14:38:00.000-07:00

I got this in an email and thought the few readers of this blog might enjoy the mythos of the kitten:

Hope the story leaves a bright spot in your day.

Whoever said the Creator doesn't have a sense of humor?
Dwight Nelson recently told a true story about the pastor of his church. He had a kitten that climbed up a tree in his backyard and then was afraid to come down. The pastor coaxed, offered warm milk, etc.The kitty would not come down. The tree was not sturdy enough to climb, so the pastor decided that if he tied a rope to his car and pulled it until the tree bent down, he could then reach up and get the kitten.That's what he did, all the while checking his progress in the car. He then figured if he went just a little bit further, the tree would be bent sufficiently for him to reach the kitten. But as he moved the car a little further forward, the rope broke.The tree went "boing!" and the kitten instantly sailed through the air - out of sight.The pastor felt terrible. He walked all over the neighborhood asking people if they'd seen a little kitten. No. Nobody had seen a stray kitten So he prayed, "Lord, I just commit this kitten to your keeping," and went on about his business.A few days later he was at the grocery store, and met one of his church members. He happened to look into her shopping cart and was amazed to see cat food. This woman was a cat hater and everyone knew it, so he asked her, "Why are you buying cat food when you hate cats so much?"She replied, "You won't believe this," and then told him how her little girl had been begging her for a cat, but she kept refusing. Then a few days before, the child had begged again, so the Mom finally told her little girl, "Well, if God gives you a cat, I'll let you keep it."She told the pastor, "I watched my child go out in the yard, get on her knees, and ask God for a cat. And really, Pastor, you won't believe this, but I saw it with my own eyes. A kitten suddenly came flying out of the blue sky, with its paws outspread, and landed right in front of her." Never underestimate the Power of God and His unique sense of humor.

Valerie response

2005-09-26T06:26:00.000-07:00

Valeries speaks of duality in her ejournal. I really enjoyed reading it.

Val asks the question, in essense, what came first, the god who created humankind, or the human who created the god? The age old question of chicken or egg is only answerable through science. Like the waters above and below ( and in the middle, if it is rainy or humid) it is the cycle of life-- the rain proves there is no true separation between the waters-- they are forever linked in the life cycle.

Ever notice most cycles are depicted as circles? The Earth is a circle. The "live giving" sun is a circle.

What came first, the man or the god? It is a circle.

By the way, Val, I REALLLY enjoyed the Alice exerpt to enhance your point. Who is dreaming? who exists? what if this is all just a dream?

Desparate Housewives

2005-09-26T05:59:00.000-07:00

Did anyone see the commercial for Desparate Housewives?? I don't watch the show. (Who has time for TV when there is Calasso and Frye to read??) The commercial was right out of Biblical Mythology!

The women were shown, each individually plucking a beautiful red apple from a tree. Some song repeating the word "temptation" in the background.

I know that the frobidden fruit is never actually called an apple in the Hebrew text, but this was SO funny!

I hope they will continue to run this ad== it should be required watching for this class!!

Apology

2005-09-25T09:40:00.000-07:00

I was reading through some previos of my blogs and noticed a HUGE spelling error-- (talk about your misprisms) I said someone's Blog was "Inciteful" (I think it was Claire's) What I should have typed was "INSIGHTFUL". Sorry Claire-- one means to "bring out anger" the other means to "have good ideas on the inner meaning" Of course I noticed this after publishing my last blog-- hoping I had some insight and will not incite anyone to anger!

Sorry Claire and those who read it.

My next order of business is to edit the post and fix my mistake!

Frye Lightbulb--comes with a warning

2005-09-25T08:32:00.000-07:00

WARNING:
IF YOU HAVE STRONG OPINIONS REGARDING THE WAR, YOU MAY NOT WANT TO READ THIS.

IF YOU HAVE STRONG OPINIONS REGARDING THE ACT OF PRAYING YOU MAY NOT WANT TO READ THIS.

THIS IS JUST ME, SHARING MY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS. IT IS ONLY MY OPINION AND, DARE i SAY, INNNER CONFUSION.

If you read this and do not agree-- that is fine with me-- we are individuals entitled to our own "liberty of movement"-- do not blast me in comment or in your own blog for me sharing my feelings. Respect that I have a "liberty of movement" as you do. I will listen(read) your opinions, but I will not begrudge your feelings, nor will I argue to get you to see things in my view.

Ready?..........This is my Fryed "lightbulb"

Page 42.. Frye goes into primary vs secondary concerns... Primary is the concerns of life-- food, bodily needs, liberty/freedom of movement -- and these are not social concerns, whereas Secondary is the concerns of loyality, social contract. "A Famine is a social problem (secondary), but the individual starves(primary)."

End of page 43, he says that the secondary can over take primary--"We want to live, but we go to war..." This paralells the Calasso text where there is constant war. ( I beleive somewhere I read Calasso speaking of that... somewhere around the quote "if they didn't want to be abducted they would not have been" I do not have immediate access to my Calasso book right now)
War IS social problem, but only the soldier dies. I have a buddy who (thank the Lord) has just returned from Afganistan. It would be so easy to blame and to accuse a single person for the social problem -----look at that lady who camped outside of Bush's Texas ranch--her sinlge soldier died.

I cannot bring myself to protest the war--because the single people there fighting it need the support of their society. Whether I agree or not with the act of society-- going to war-- I have to pray for the single person who is in the middle of it all.

What about the social problem that started it all? Remember 9/11? Individual lives were lost. Individual families were torn apart. Should society have left the situation alone? Should we as a nation just have just sat back and let another society infringe upon our own? I cannot answer these questions... I am only an individual. Ask all the individuals involved (whose lives were affeced) in 9/11. Everyone would have different answers. Ask these same questions to the wives and mothers, husbands and fathers of the soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afganistan-- they may have differnt answers. And those who have lost a family member in the fighting-- another answer all together.

Frye says, page 44, that "...writers in our day who have been victimized by a hostile ideology have issued statements defending the value of their work, such statements refer to thier committment of truth. By truth they usually mean not so much the fidelity to facts of society...as to their devotion to human primary concerns"

It is here I am defending my devotion to such concerns. I value the individual life, but I also value the society's actions ( I would not just sit back and let our individuals get killed so some lunatic fanatic will get his virgins in "heaven") "We cannot have a perfect society,... but what we have is the best available"(page 44)

I pray daily for our troops-- for a swift end to this social problem and the safe return of our bothers and sisters== those who have made a social contract that is currently taking precedence over their primary concerns.

P.P. ( Post Post as opposed to Post Script) These is more I could add to this, in refernce to Calasso text-- in an earlier post, I quoted Calasso (page 10) as saying something along the lines of a civilazation seeking self-knowledge destroys itself... I wonder if this is true in the case of this Iraq war. Who is destroying whom? Are they getting destroyed by us or are we the vehicle being used for them to destry themselves? And the opposite could be asked-- did they destroy the Twin Towers, or were we asking for the destruction (with them as vehicle) in our seaarch for self-knowledge? Like I said in my warning-- I am innerly confused. Frye has not offered me a lightbulb to see more clearly, the lightbulb has just shone light on my own inner turnmoil.

P.P.P (Post Post Post) I can also add to all of this the command given in the Bible about not worshipping idols before God--- What is our society doing right now, if not "worshipping" the symbol for our country, the flag? Everywhere we see the flag-- on t-shirts, on magnetic ribbons, on hats... Where does this idolization fit into the Primary vs Seconday concern arguement. And the "Sacred-ness"-- Like Val's stone and the Jacket pocket it was in, we are GIVING a reverence to a hunk of cloth. Does the realization of this change my individual actions? not in the least. I cannot sing or even listen to the National Anthem without crying for those soldier who have lost their life.
I am Cub Scout leader. Every meeting we Salute the flag and recite the Pledge. I find this very important for myself as well as an important "teaching" to the boys-- we cannot persue our own life without giving a loyality to the society that lets us live in it. In a way, we owe our life to those who have given theirs-- not just in modern times, but for the entire history of our country. See where I am confused as to where the Primary and Secondary separate???

Huge Thank Yous!!

2005-09-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

Thank You Thank You Thank You MICK!!!

Mick has been a REALLLLLLLLY wonderful in helping me out with my blog. He fixed it up all nice for me! Doesn't it look really nice.!

Thanks Mick!

Claire

2005-09-21T20:09:00.000-07:00

I thought Claire's comments on God as Bully was very insightful. I have always thought that the Hebrew God OF MYTH was a bully-- it seems he is always promising and deal making and black mailing. It just seems that the world lived in fear of the ALL SEEING GOD. I never thought of god as a "bully"-- in that the word didn't occur to me-- I do picture a tough kid in the schoolyard with his hat on backwards threateing to beat up the book-carrying geek. Thanks Claire.

In the day

2005-09-21T10:08:00.000-07:00

I was re-reading J last night in bed.

( I have read the first "chapter" of J's writing a couple of times, as I am having a difficult time in my brain, separating the religion I am comfortable with and the text as a piece of literature.)

It struck me-BAM- in the side of the head--

As i was reading, I began to read aloud. To hear it caused me to "feel" it-- the text as literature.

What a wonderful story--

I heard my own voice bringing something to the words that I had missed before.

All of the "ands" that Friedman left in the text.

I was quite soothed by it. I felt as if the structure of the phrases, the simplicity of the words, the language and the use of and created a rocking chair effect.

Let's see if I can explian: The "and" of every phrase is the point in the rocker that one stops and starts to go the other direction. "And YHWH took the human"--forwards--"and put him in the garden og Eden to work it and" --Back--"to watch over it. And"--forward... get my picture?

I read the eden story again, sitting in my rocker, it really worked. I was pretty excited aboout this-- Don't ask me why, I just found it very interesting. Friedman talks of the J writer with a passion and a love of his work. I feel the same way. I prefer to read the rocking chair J text a million times over the mud-puddle of Frye's work.

This has become a "play" (to use Frye's word") the exertion of energy for its own sake. This is story for story sake. Frye's book is work-- and exertion of energy toward a forseeable end ( at leat Frye sees it). Frye "worked" on his book and it is work to read.. but the J text is play, it is fun, it is for itself.

Comment on D H

2005-09-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

in my reading of Documentary Hypothesis, the author used the term "Mosaic" to define that which is beleived to be written by Moses.

In light of the misprism/ polysemous discussions in class, I looked up mosaic in the dictionary-- it means the peicing together of small peices assembled into a composite picture.

So..... maybe a gzillion years ago, when someone said that the pentateuch was mosaic law, they were misinterpreted as meaning written by Moses, when they meant to mean a composite of separate writers.

Once again, I say.... interesting.

I was talking

2005-09-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

I was talking to my sister-in-law the other day about all the sex in the Bible and in classical Myth. her comment is worth repeating:

"Sex has always been ok.. it is the Catholic Church that made it bad."

Ever notice

2005-09-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

in class the other day, MS talkled about theodicy.
I muse to myself-- does not that sound like The Odessy by Homer.

interesting?

Answer for Brenna

2005-09-18T10:18:00.000-07:00

I think it is in Frye, the answer to your question as to why people take Bible literally and not the Myths:

Frye says (somewhere around page 25) that the VULGAR creates a prejudice against literature, making "myth" to mean "untrue"-- becasue myth makes a socila contract-- it presents data in a way that makes it seem untrue when it may in fasct be actual events. Frye gives the Flood in Genesis as an example.

Collin thank you to you too

2005-09-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

Collins blog on Conrad Hyers is also great! Who needs to google when one can read classmates findings! Thanks Collin!

Thank you to RaeAnn

2005-09-18T10:05:00.000-07:00

RaeAnn's post regarding Biblical LIteralism is a very good one! Thanks!

Class Notes

2005-09-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

Just thought I had better get my class notes in blogging, so here goes. This blog will be updated, as I will put ALL class notes under this one heading.

8/29/05
*repitition is good
*" in illo tempore" -- orginary, more creedence to. Latin for "in the beginning"
*Hyperborean--comes from northern climes
*"mythos" is greek for stories
*MaMa LuJo: Matthew Mark Luke and John
*Use Hebrew Bible, not "old Testament"

8/31/05
* Fink Link to "Chistine Chapel" ( http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sistine/0-Ceiling.html )
*"Jeremiad" someone who soapboxes, named afet Biblical Jeremaih
*"Scapegoat" a community once wopuld release a goat into the woods after placing thier sins upon it
*Blog a Frye "Ah-Ha " moment
For every upside, there is a downside.- for a metaphor of acsent, there must be a metaphor for descent--all blessings are mixed
*google "Grapes of Wrath", "the Graet McGinty"
*when you read a book, you are in some sense in conversation with other books
*GROUP 4: Dylan, Sophie, Sunny Rae, Mick, Spencer, Ryan, Colby, Amy

9/2/05
*No one will ever name a college after MS--imagine "Sexson U"
*Group porjects must be informative, but also entertaining
*imtimidation, like repetition, is good
*perfunctory--doing only what is required
*Read Emily's Blog on "grapes of Wrath"
*Theodicy-the actions of God that do not make sense to mankind--why make the innocent suffer?-questioning of God
*Theocentric--God Centered
*"Grapes"-wine is blood--Isaiah 63

9/7/05
*Gen 49: 22-26 "fruitful bough by a spring whose branches run over a wall"
1. metaphor
2. repetitive parrallels
*Frye: levels of language
lowest 4: Decriptive/literal
3: Conceptual
2: Rhetorical/ideological
1: Spectulative/Romantic/Mythic/Metaphorical/Imaginative/ "Kerygmatic"
*The lowest language form is the "vulgar" or the "common"language. WHere we live each day ( in the fact or descriptive)
*p 113 Frye: passage regarding student underlining sentences:(I love the phrase here: "reading, like eating, is a predatory activity...")
*What is it that makes something sacred? Things are not sacred, they are MADE sacred. Example of the "sacred stone" in another class-- Valerie still has the sacred stone.
* Peosis: Greek word for "maker"
*literal: comes from "letter"
*Vico:
1. Philosppher
2. everything is made
3. origins of human culture
4. everything is metaphor
5. if everything is metaphor then nothing can be literal
*Vico's heirarchy of language: Every stage worse than the one before ( Worser and worser)
1."We are the gods"- heiroglyphic language hiero- sacred or holy glyphic-pictures
2. "Age of Heores"-aristocratic language/poetic
3. "age of men" - economic language/practical
4. "age of chaos"- gibberish

9/9/05
*Callaso looked at greek paintings/art before writing the stories in Marriage
* look at Frye Pg 28
*look at Gen 49:22
*Google "Joseph-fruitful Vine" http://www.truegospel.net/Philpot/123.htm
*Google "repetitive parrellism" (could find VERY little worth linking)
*What is the core story in Genesis? place
*theocentrism vs anthropocenticism God vs man
*look at Eric and Micks blogs
*paranomasia--word play, punning...God-Jesus...Shakespeare-Hamlet
*Pentateuch--5 scrolls--Torah=law was written by many people jedpr
*"Documentary Hypothesis" as analysis of Bible as literature-- each author has own literay style and personality signatures within the text
*The book of J by Harold Bloom-- asserts that J was woman
*Marriage oral traditions--stories in the 4th level of Frye--could also be woman
*Abduction and metamorphosis in Marriage-- are our lives simply a series of repetitios events?

9/12/05
* read page 113, Frye
*google Talmud--commentary on the bible--in Jewish community, the talmud itself has acheived a sort of canonical status ( http://www.faqs.org/faqs/judaism/FAQ/03-Torah-Halacha/section-16.html )
*canonical: sanctioned as official
approved set of texts
not fixed
authorized by a board
*the Christian new testament is a revision of the old
*iconoclastic icono --images clasism--to break/ hostility of images
*GROUP 4--MOUNTAINS book 2 of Frye--10 min. presentation (we are to read and get together at begin of OCtober)
*google "arabesque" ( http://www.lacma.org/islamic_art/intro.htm )
( http://63.240.197.92/cgi-bin/mwdictaj )
*read back of paperback Marriage-- talk about powerful words
*Ovid The Metamorphosis
*metempsychosis--"transmigration of souls"--metem meaning trans, psyche meaning souls (Greek)
*Hesiod-Theogony--theo-gods, gony-gonads/reproductive organs---birth of the gods
*Homer--Odessy/Illiad
*Homeric Hymns--Permieus
*the Playwrights: Sophacrates, Europedes, Aescelus
canonical story of the Greeks
*Calasso--essential core story of the calssical tradition

9/14/05
* Look at Amys Blog
*google "biblical literalism"-- Conrad Hyers--
( http://www.newreformation.org/literalism.htm )
(http://origins.swau.edu/bible/literal.html )
*Vico-orginal human culture=poetic
*Isaiah 63--excellent example of "words with power" Also Revelation 14:20 metaphor
*"misprism"--a mistake-- the way we grow up thinking it was.....---a huge part of composition ( not writing)
*Imaginitive mode vs descriptive mode = isn't this interesting vs let's fix this
*blessing the child becomes a formal activity Gen 49:22 -- once the words are spoken, they cannot be taken back
*prolix--abdundant

9/14/05
* blog 3 exasmples of Repetitive parrellism
*the repetition is the power of the words
*review J vs P--name of god, order of creation, description of god

9/16/05
M S IS OLD, BORING AND IRRELEVANT

* Val's blog
*look at Aspen's for visual effects
*Didactic-teach=P writer
*there are 400+ years difference between J and P
*Anthropomorphic-J's god --"Breathe in nostrils" to create man
*Pay attention to Frye's Parables of Jesus-- parables are not LITERAL and are not to be taken literally
*"And then something happens"==Gods ad humans walked together, then .... --in JudeoChristin it was THE FALL
* 'AND' Friedman translation--paratatic-- a kind of speech that uses conjunction to bring phrases to an equal level-- no subordinate clauses
* MS thinks that Disney/Disneyland is a secular religion
*What is shameful about nakedness??
*Frieman page 71 -- J wants a story that explains to us/ an experience... whereas P wants to teach us
*Forbidden fruit is a set up, a test
* fRYE PG 23-- SPECIES OF MYTH
*Frye-- a copy puts validation on the theme

More Frye

2005-09-18T09:08:00.000-07:00

pg 21: What feelings of aleination and impotence transferred to the gods: God punish for sins--normal historical process moves in direction of eliminating this

"the world is confined to a consciousness relating itself to the impersonal and what ever is outside consciousness.

Emotion belongs to the subjective

pg 22 Descriptive, conceptual or ideological thought does not get rid of "throwness"/aleination--therefore a more inclusive mode called IMAGINATIVE or Poetic mode
no distinction between emotion and intellect
dream like or fantasy
the CONCEIVABLE not the REAL
THIS IS LITERATURE

Applied Mythology: when in Imagine Mode, we must beleive, or at least say we beleive.

Pg 24 LITERATURE asserts nothing--holds up symbols, suspends your judgement
Reason depends on conscience
conscience is defensive/ excluded dreams
dreams are literature, therefore Reason cannot be a part of literature

2 forms of suspicious rhetoric: Propaganda and advertising--the ironic approach

pg 25 Mythology creates ideology
Vulgar prejudices against literature making myth, fable, fiction to mean UNTRUE BUT because myth makes a social contract, it presents data to be actual events of the past, but the presentation makes it SEEM untrue--Genesis is good example.

pg 26 Myth exerts a counterbalance to human disaster and tragedy to suggest that life is a repeat of the lives of the Gods.

Coleridge formula: we must distinguish that which cannot be divided

criticism is the thweory of words and verbal meaning-- it includes linguistic and semantic-- it is "Language that expresses the awareness of language"

Language does not say things--it communicates in mythical wholes

pg 28 Language begins with an ordinary consciousness but it is a means of intensifying consciousness

Literature is the unescapable guide to higher journeys of the conscience.

Documentary Hypothesis revisited

2005-09-18T08:57:00.000-07:00

My notes:
1. The major strengths of teh hypothesis is that it accounts for te differences in ideas and terminology between various sections and stories.
2. attempts to account for discrepancies
3. One can accept the assertion that they were orginally complete documents only "by faith"
4. the Talmud is a vast collection of expositions on the torah
5. At no point in the Pentateuch is it stipulated that Moses is the Author--How much could he write if what he wrote about did not come until after his death? How coyuld Moses write about his own death??
6. many authors as a sisngle writer waould not be so inconsistant. Use of God's name, numbers in Noahs Ark, repetitions, contradictions
7. J--Yahweh--vivid, concrete style, anthromorphic God
8. E- Elohim-avoid anthromorphic, not colorful as J
9. D- Deutermonic source--Moses farewell speeches
10. P-Preistly traditions, love of detail, distinctive Hebrew vocabulary
11. R- redactor--the editor

some picture links

2005-09-15T22:36:00.000-07:00

I hope these work. They are a couple of Pictures I found. BTW Wikipedia was a terrific source of info on the greek gods... there were many in the Friedman text that I did not recognize.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:BoucherRinaldoArmida.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Statue_of_Zeus.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Theseus.jpg

These are pics of the narcissi flowers that Europa was picking prior to her kidnapping. They look like plain ol'diffodils to me!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jonquil_flowers06.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Narcissus_bulbocodium_bulbocodium0.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Jonquil_flowers.jpg

Playing catch-up

2005-09-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

I have been looking at my pile of books for this class and the sticky notes flowing from them and decided that I needed to play catch up on blogging some of my notes and thoughts.

I have made it thru the first part of Marriage. I am finding it fun to read. My hubby won't let em read it in bed anymore because I have been giggling. In this book, men truly are animals!

I LOVE the quote Calasso chose as an introduction: "These things never happened, but are always " Saloustios, Of Gods and of the World What a terrific Quote! I would love to have that on a T-shirt!

Page 4 mentioned dreams, Page 5 "... and on waking Europa was afraid and sat silent silent on her bed for a long time." Didn't Pharoah waken from a dream afraid and sit quietly in his bed in Genesis? The situations are different, I realize, but same word choice.

Page 8 I would like to have a word or two with this Herodotus person Calasso quotes: "To abduct women...is considered the action of scoundrels , but to worry about abducted women is the reaction of fools. A wise man does not give a monent's thought to the women who has been abducted, because it is clear that, had they not wanted to be abducted, they would not have been." Rape is a very violent crime against women. If this jerk had ever asked a woman who had been abducted, she would not have said " Oh Yeah. The rape was great. I mean, if I did want it, I would not have let it happen. " That is why it is called Rape, not consentual sex. In the myth stories, the women are kidnapped... taken to another place specifically so that the man could have sex with her...are taken through trickery. She was not a willing partner- there was no real consent.

Page 10 the second paragraph speaks of Crete. He calls the civilization childish, as opposed to the Egyptian "consciousness". in the previos paragraph, he states that a "civilization that seeks self-knowlegde destroys itself." How does this fit into Frye's modes of language or Vico's ages? Frye and Vico agree that the highest form is "the age of gods" or the language of imagination. If "each stage is worse than the one before" and the fianl stage is Chaos or gibberish, then do civilizations begin as humans do, as a child, full of imagination, love of story, living in the land of make-beleive, and end in chaos, destruction and wanting only the facts as adults tend to do? Take the Genesis story. Adam and Eve were like children before they ate and became self aware. AH-HA sunny rae says, AH HA. ( Little light bulb flashing here!)
The Calasso stories are full sexual seduction. Sex is an adult thing ( or that is what I keep telling my 14 year old son). Page 20 says the Greek phtheirein has two meanings: to seduce and to destroy. Hmmmm. Frye's writing just got a little more interesting. So is this the centrifugal MS and Frye keep talking about???

I have also got throught the very first part of Hidden Book intro. I do not have a lot to comment on here. I do find Friedman's evident rapture of the Book of J, his excitement for it, very intriguing. I made me want to jump right into the shaded pages and start reading this wonderful story. He makes me smile with his love of his work and how he expresses and defends the book of J. I know, here is where I should be typing some witty comments on how Frye would classify the language Friedman is using to describe his research and the "hidden masterpiece". I am sorry for not, because I think that analyzing Freidman in that way ruins the enjoyment i am getting from Friedman's joy of this "masterpiece". (And yes, I am sure frye would comment on that too.)

Enough for right now. I am sure that there will be more later.

P.S. If quality is better than quantity in this class, I may have to stop blogging and sharing my feelings with the world. I don't want to have too many entries! ;)

Thanks Claire

2005-09-15T06:29:00.000-07:00

just in case you missed it, claire has a terrific post regarding Frye's modes. Thanks Claire. I will be referring to YOUR post when reviewing for the exam!

centrifugal frye

2005-09-13T22:03:00.000-07:00

I was catching up om my reading for Business Communications 201 class, and this little tidbit caught my eye ( another metaphor... MS should be proud) :

"Becasue your goal is to communicate clearly, you're better off limiting your sentences to about 20 or fewer words. The American Press Institute repoerts that reader comprehension drops off markedly as sentences become longer.....
sentence length comprehension rate
8 words 100%
15 words 90%
19 words 80%
28 words 50% "

Examine the following Frye passage: (pp28-9)
"It looks as thought both criticism is both the controlling and directing force within each verbal mode and the power that enables us to travel between the modes in both directions, until we reach the limit of what words can do for us."

I count 43 words in that sentence. I attempted to pick an easy to understand sentence. (Yes it is "underlined " as a passage that I felt had revelance)

THIS is why we are all (ok, gross generalization here, but effective) having trouble with comprehension of this man. In an earlier post, I complained of Frye using word to do self-sexual gratification. What he says in 43 words, we all would have better understood in 20.

Does that relate to the POWER OF WORDS? Absolutly. Too many words, and we are confused and struggle.

Look at the sentence in Ephesians 6:2 Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise. 12 words. Do you understand the meaning? I do.

Friedman: "But how did it all begin?" That was short and sweet. no second guessing there. 6 words.

Hey Frye-- sure, there is power in words--- too many words will melt your readers into a blubbering mass of students at AJM 222. (23 words.)

And I said I was too full of self pity to blog today..... fooled myself!

look here

2005-09-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

I found this website as I was looking for some pictures. The link is very interesting. Take a look.

http://www.mythinglinks.org/home.html

The blank screen

2005-09-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

Please, all, forgive me for a few days if my entries are sparse.

I have sat here for a couple of hours now, staring at the blank screen and the muddle of markings I normally call notes on Marriage and Hidden Book and Frye. I am just unable to put anything down on screen. The Centrifugal gatherings of my brian have exitted, I am feeling very centripetal, ( more like sorry for myself) as I am waiting to hear from my doctor the results of my test. I left class early monday for a biopsy. The test did not go well, and I left the hospital parking lot struggling to find the optimism the doctor seemed to lack at the end of the test. ( HA! there was a bit of metaphor-- makes this blog worthy of some English 212 credit.)

So, please, I AM reading.. enjoying all the sex in Marriage [Men are animals.. literally and figurativly in this book] and enjoying the excitement of Friedman (is that a pun of Frye-d man??), but my engaging thoughts will not surface for a little while.

Thanks

take a look at

2005-09-11T08:33:00.000-07:00

I was reading thru everyones blogs and printed up evelyn's titles e.e.cummings and stuck it in my notebook. She has some terrific things to say. I reccommend it to everyone.

Also, look at amy's and brenna's posted 9/9. They are very interesting.

Human and Non-huma in Genesis and Frye.

2005-09-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

In an earlier post. I commented an "ah-ha" regarding Frye and his example of an astronomer NOT using the word creation inhis studies.

This blog may not expand on this issue, but I would like to make some comparisons.

In my reading of Genesis.. especially the first three chapters, I was reminded of Frye's comments on the human vs the non-human.

My thoughts here are not necessarily coherent to anyone else but me, and I know that Dr MS prefers coherent and complete thoughts, but I process things WAY differently ( that subject of me feeling intimidated by the intellect of the rest of the class).

Genesis 1:26.. man was created to have dominion ovetr all the creatures of the earth. Man is to rule. Man is given Eden (power of it) and a unlimited, open ended world-- unless he eat of the tree of knowledge, he shall live forever.

Frye pg 20 "Ideologies grow in proportion to man's realization that he is the dominant animal in nature... and the (animals) ...do not represent...the powers that man cannot incorporate into his own cosmos."

Genesis 1:6 man and woman ate of the tree(after a serpent-something outside the human--tricked them.)

Frye pg 21 "...human alienation and helplessness in nature,... largely outgrown as society got stronger"
In Gen, humans got SMARTER ( ate of tree of knowlegde) and outgrew their current sensibilities.. (now hide becasue they are naked)

Gen3:15 "cursed among animals" Gen 22-23 "sent forth from the garden"
Frye pg 21 World of human vs non-human...."confined to a consciousness relating itself to the impersonal, and whatever is outside consciousness,...belongs to a subjective world that is not functional...yet."

Frye pg 21 "...the essential feeling of the alienation of human beings... ...the feeling that the fact of existence is an arbitrary fact..."
This DIRECTLY REFLECTS Gen 1:26.. god decides to "make mankind"

Gen 3:6 she "saw that the tree was good...desired to make one wise, she took the fruit and ate..." -- she was not satisfied with her place in Eden, she "desired" to be "wise" ... The limits of their existance were no knowledge and forever life, or gain knowledge and be exiled.

Frye pg 22 we are "never quite satisfied with the tendancies ..." of what we are told as truth(descriptive)-- we desire for MORE. "hense the need for more inclusive mode"--Eve needed/desired to have her eyes opened.

Frye pg 22 "a more open-ended world, breaking apart the solidified"
Gen 3:7 "Both eyes opened" ( they gained knowledge) and were exiled.

A & E were pretty much contented to frolic naked in the Garden, being niave of good and evil. when they gained knowledge, they were exiled, however.. that exile brought the rest of the world open to them. In the Garden, they were limited ( unknowingly) to that existance. When they were exiled, they had to endure pain and suffering, but they also were able to "walk in truth".

Frye reflects genesis in his passage, segwaying between discriptive and ideological modes of language... that we all desire the truth, but find it limiting and are willing to suffer to get the ideological.

response to Jennifer

2005-09-09T10:35:00.000-07:00

Jennifer's post spoke of Frye missing the point with what is "literally" happening in the Bible.
I DO agree with Jennifer, but would like to direct her to the Frye Intro pp xv to xvi.
"literal literism"... "the Bible should be read as literally as any fundamentalist should desire...but its real literal meaning is an imaginitve and poetic one" I feel this passage somewhat illistrates Jennifer's point... that joseph is not literally a bough but there is proof ( scientific/factual) that there was an existence of a Jesus and we are "healed" through his wounds. Literal is as literal does.

The same goes for Frye in this sentence: "...is the number of literary critics ho seem to be unwilling as Biblical critics to admit that myth and metaphor form the primary language of thier own subject." Here, I feel that Frye is not so admiting that he missed the point, but that EVERYONE misses the point.

2005-09-08T20:21:00.000-07:00

Vico

2005-09-08T19:14:00.000-07:00

This is a really interesting site regarding Vico. It does have the language... heirarchy... we discussed in class on Wednesday.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/vico

Documentary hypothesis

2005-09-08T17:45:00.000-07:00

Here are some links for D.H. I have printed out these and will be bringing them toclass on friday. I am not going to give you my impressions yet, as I only scanned and fully comprehended the texts as yet.

LINK 1
http://imp.lss.wisc.edu/~rltroxel/Intro/hypoth.html

LINK 2

http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/gerald_larue/otll/chap3.html

Class terms Vulgar, Gibberish, Charisma

2005-09-08T17:40:00.000-07:00

Charisma: http://63.240.197.92/cgi-bin/mwdictaj?book=Dictionary&va=charisma
I looked it up... so far I have found that it does have a little to do with magical power.

Vulgar: (looked in the Ask Jeeves Dictionary. Link did not work here) Interestingly, the first definition listed here says "a Latin version of the Bible, authorized and used by the Roman Catholic Church" I am looking for more information.

Quick Definitions for 'Vulgate'
noun: the Latin edition of the Bible translated from Hebrew and Greek mainly by St. Jerome at the end of the 4th century

http://www.summit1.edu/gun09/gun02.htm here, "Brother Faull" defines it as "The regularily used text"
Orginally applied to Greek text, not Latin.
Jerome produced an "authorized" version (of the Bible) for the Latin Church around 382 A.D.

So, technically, "vulgar" in Frye is a polysemous word. I have noticed a lot of that going on. In reading Genesis, I also read the notes at the bottom of the pages. Many of the passages were "play on" words in Hebrew. Even the names had a double entendre.

OK.. that brings me to looking up Gibberish: ( One again, Ask Jeeves Dictionary)

"of or relating to knowledge that is restricted to a small group"

Look here. Polysemous? YUP! Says that gibberish can be a technical or esoteric ("belonging to a small group".. ask jeeves again)

OK: So Gibberish of the Vulgate is "regularly used text belonging to a small group" ? ..... "Needlessly obscure language of the Latin Bible..."?

What is Frye getting at here?

If you ask me, it is Frye who speaks in gibberish-- his style of writing uses a sentence structure, or rhetoric, if you will, that the general populace cannot understand ( YES! I AM STRUGGLING WITH WHATEVER FRYE IS TRYING TO SAY!) and he is therefore speaking to a small or limited audience.

Advice

2005-09-06T20:44:00.000-07:00

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't. - Erica Jong

"Battle Hymn" quick notes

2005-09-04T22:53:00.000-07:00

Julia Ward Howe wrote during Civil War to "provide wholesome lyrics to 'John Brown's body lies a-molding in the Grave' ." (go to www.celebrateboston.com/main/johnbrownbody.html for lyrics)

Link to entire Revelation 8 text: http://bible.gospelcom.net/passage/?search=Revelation%208;&version=31;

"Grapes of Wrath" directly from Revelation14:19 (http://www.spiritandtruth.org/teaching/Book_of_Revelation/commentary/htm/031419_frame.htm)

"Loosed the fateful lightening of his terrible swift sword" Revelation 8:5 http://www.spiritandtruth.org/teaching/Book_of_Revelation/commentary/htm/031419_frame.htm)

I find it interesting that Rev 8:1 and5-6 say "seven seals" and "seven bowls of wrath" and "seven angles who had seven trumpets" http://www.spiritandtruth.org/teaching/Book_of_Revelation/commentary/htm/031419_frame.htm
What is the significance of seven (rest on the seventh day...)?

This hymn, "for the Christian, is a message of God's truth being eternal. It also is a warning not to identify politics or patriotism with God's Truth. Nations will rise and fall, but God's truth will remain forever." (From The One Year Book of Hymns, compiled by R. Brown and M. Norton, devotions written by W. J. Peterson and R. Peterson.)

Biblical text also related is I Corinthians 15:24-27
( 1 Corinthians 15:24-27 "Then [cometh] the end, when he [that is, Jesus] shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy [that] shall be destroyed [is] death. For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under [him, it is] manifest that he is excepted [that is God, the Father], which did put all things under him." )

"enemies under his feet" -- "trampling out the vintage" -- Marching is done with the feet.

A moment of Ah-Ha in Frye

2005-09-04T18:19:00.000-07:00

It is a moment I am not sure I can verbalize--- I think I "got it" when Frye used the example of the astronomer studying big bang-- he would not be wise to use the word "creation" (pg 21, paragrapg 2). I am really not sure what I "got"... it just sort of made sense at that moment.

more Frye notes

2005-09-04T18:10:00.000-07:00

BEWARE! I am in a frustrated state with Frye and I am struggling within myself to simply accept his words as opinion, and he therefore has a right to them. I will be inserting my own thoughts and comments to these notes as I type. It will be somewhat stream-of-consciousness, so beware. ( Unfortunatly, I fear that my comments will start mirroring the Frye-ian style of prose) My comments are in this lovely purple.

1. Thrasymaches, a disciple of Socrates, asserts that justice "is whatever is to the advantage of the stronger" (pg 13). Socrates disagreed-- the word "justice" is a good word and when mixed with other good words, it is admirable. [I find this to be a totally ridiculous arguement]

Thrasy felt that words are not effective, material forces are.
Socrates felt that justice can only exist in a different world.

2. Sophist--good and evil/truth and falsehood are relative to a specific situation [I agree]. These people trained others to speak in law courts.

3. Frye's third mode: based on identity of writer and what he writes {or written as if speaking to an audience}. [example: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John-- provide written vehicle for spoken words]

4. Rhetoric is the essentail element of genune logic and objective truth. [is there such a thing? Logic and truth is not universal--whereas Osama Bin Laden finds logic and truth in killing Americans, Americans do not view the same thing. Who is to judge genuine and objective? does not that also imply subjectivity?]

5. Aristotle-- there is a disinterested pursuit of truth which is morally superior to rhetoric and that pursuit should control rhetoric whenever possible. [!?!?!?]

6.St Augustine -- the pursuit of thruth for its own sake is a sin of pride

7. Allegory is the theory and practice of Christianity. "our actions show what we beleive" allegory is typological or quid credas what you should beleive whereas quid agas or tropological (figurative) what you should do

8. An Ideology : a. strategy - respect for logic and intellectual honesty, tactic- to persuade and create a response of conviction.
b. Has an "inter-ordering" of words.
c. points a and b are the ACTIVE side
d. the INACTIVE side=> every verbal structure reflects social and historical conditioning.
e. It is the delta which all verbal structures finally reach.
f. (pg 23) Applied mythology
g. most beneficial when at its weakest-- can be undermined at any time
h. are mortal--birth decay and death ot metamorphosis into another form
i. (pg 20) unity of speaker, speech and listener can only be a human idea [ well, duh! the only time woodland creatures get together to listen to a speaker give a speech is in Disney's Bambi]

9. [I love this one] Pg 19 quote: "The longer a thinker has been dead, the more likely his work is to be studied as an ideological document" [ Dear, dear Frye-- you died too early-- I would much perfer you to be alive, and therefore not have to study your masturbation of words]

10. Rational dialectic is inheriantly deductive and tends to assume action fit arguement.
Reasonable dialetic says every rational arguement is 1/2 truth and 1/2 should be held in compromise.

11. The Romantic mode is more open-ended

12. Imanginative a. no distinction between emotion and intellect
b. consciousness is but 1 psychic element
c. dreamlike--the conceivable, not the real

[ It is here that I must ask and contemplate on-- there MUST be some link between the Romantic and the Ideological. Romantic/ Imaginative says " what can be conceived". Ideology says (pg 20) that no way to reach an ideal goal, but pointing that way is important. If I can conceive an ideal goal, can I not reach it. or is the goal not real? ]

13. Literature descends from mythology (mythos meaning story) [here is that repetition thing again]

14. In myth, a. gods or divine characters are the central characters because they have personalities that are identified in nature (the sun-god) and they therefore "re-people" nature.
[Why does Frye use such a polysemous word here? nature can mean the material world/primitive state of existance OR the fundamental character of an individual. ( from The American Heritage Dictionary--not some google link- a real book, see earlier blog).]
b. unlimited in number, but limited in themes
1. why are we here?
2. Where are we going?
3. creation
4. exodus/migration
5. deluge
6. apocalypse
7. redemption.
c. Myths outlime 1. human vision of nature 2. human's place in the universe 3. human vision of destiny 4. in- or ex- clusion of a bigger order.

just voicing my frustrations

2005-09-04T17:18:00.000-07:00

If words were in limited supply, Frye has made them endangered species!

REAL research

2005-09-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

Immediately after class today, Val, Mick, Dr.S, and I had a quick discussion. I researched "Grapes of Wrath" in hardcopy.. you, know... library, books that you can actually touch. I called it real research. Dr. S said that by that thought, "googling" if false research. Mick asked what the difference was between looking thru a card catalog and online.

I just know that, for me, the tactile, the atmosphere, the process.....gives me a sense of ownership to the research. I feel a sense of accomplishment. Besides, toting aroung the tomes of Biblical text and references, gives me something to show for my efforts.

So, .. real is as real does.

thank you thank you thank you

2005-09-01T21:35:00.000-07:00

Val and Mick are just the best. Dr. S MUST DEFINATLETY nice huge brownie points to val and mick for thier instructive blogging.!

Couple of questions: What is "flaming?"
Will one of you come over and hands-on teach me how to do that link thing? I got the web adddresses in my "favorites" file, but cannot get them to work in the slightest on my blog site.

Argh!

2005-09-01T18:19:00.000-07:00

I just watched a VERY funny media player thing-- I really wanted to add it to my links list, but.. I am still kicking and screaming my way into the computer thing, and I can't get it figured out!! ARGH!!

The Bible and Truth via N. Frye

2005-08-31T22:43:00.000-07:00

Today in class, we were asked to blog about that moment of understanding an issue in this text.

I am going to go a little against expressed wishes here and not follow the rules set before me in class.

Rather, I have an issue I would like to work thru here, regarding an ..... assertion made in this text.

My sticky notes on the subject are stuck to page 6, the first paragraph (actually, began on the previous page.)

I feel that in 1 paragraph, Frye makes an arguement and disproves it at the same time. He is talking in circles. In this paragraph, he again defines descriptive as meaning "truth". he goes on to say that because " there is no continious or fully developed descriptive level of meaning in the Bible, and the Bible would be a grotesque anomaly if it were there." I take that sentence to mean no descriptive language, no truth. Two sentences later, he admits that descriptive writing was not developed until AFTER the Bible!!

Maybe I am reading into Frye a meaning that does not exist [centripetal vs centrifugal] BUT if descriptive writing came after the Bible, then could not the Bible be held as truth for the era it was... produced (for lack of better term)?

And... is Frye criticizing the ORIGINAL HEBREW Bible, or some of the gazillions of translations? The Bible, in its orginal form may very well be "descriptive" in its orginal form.

The Hebrew language has many, many polysemous words (to use a term Frye himself used). Under translation of any kind, the original intent is lost.

Also... Frye gives textbooks as an example of "descriptive" writing-- factual. What are textbooks? Teaching tools.
2005 years ago ( and beyond) the Bible was their teaching tool-the textbook, if you will, of the age. Is it possible that Frye is so egocentric to beleive that our modern textbooks are "truth" and anything previous to them (anceint texts as well as out- moded ones) is the opposite of truth--FALSE? By this standard, his own writings prior to Words with Power is then also false, as Sexon is using this book as a teaching tool- a textbook-- for this class.

Does anyone else see this circular thought process in Frye as I do, or am I just wasting my brain cells trying to figure this guy out?

Heidegger

2005-08-31T22:18:00.000-07:00

Frye refers to a couple of authors I am not familiar with. Heidegger was one. So I "Asked Jeeves" about him ( I prefer ask over google).

Heidegger beleived that language is the "vehicle thru which the question of being could be unfolded."

he beleived that peotry had a special role in society.

He studied/sought answers to the fundamental questions about the ultimate nature of reality.

Onology=> the study of being

Sequence and mode/ N. Frye, ch 1 pt 1

2005-08-31T22:11:00.000-07:00

A few notes from Ch 1 pt 1 of the Frye book:

1. When reading : Centripetal--sense of word
Centrifugal --word meaning from the outside

2. "polysemous"--words with many meanings

3. descriptive stlye--> a. to get info about something outside the book
b. is literal
c. objective truth/factual
1. newspapers
2. textbooks
3. dictionary
d. developed AFTER the Bible
e. without it, we have no "history"

4. "Lockean Procedure" perception leads to reflection --- any perception that leads directly to perception is a "verbalizing" impulse (i.e. "I wonder if...")

5. Words can never transmit to our minds that which is non-verbal --- words transmit the non-verbal only on their own terms and grammitical conventions.

6. Conceptual style --->a. word ordering comes into focus
b. "truth" must be sought in what the word contains, not what it reflects
c. writer seeks objective truth that words can give/searching for
objectivity in verbal order
d. *** emphasis on power of words to co-ordinate verbal elements
1. The arrangement of words means selecting words for
emphasis.
2. Selecting for emphasis can never bee definitive ly right or wrong.
e. Uses abstract terms (i.e. time, nature, substance, being)
f. The objective style of conceptual writing begins more like a
subjective desire.
[Sunny Rae's input here: If descritpive writing is the truth(facts) and conceptual writing is the arrangement of words, then Conceptual writing can never be truth.]

7. In theory, an argument would be the same arguement regardless of who is making it.
In reality,the person making the arguement "wants" it to be truth.
Therefore, there is always a glimpse of a personality in an arguement.

8. When this personal factor of an arguement(item 7) is not assumed, but rather moves to the center of the arguement, the arguement becomes ideologcal.

Yippee! adn Frye intro notes

2005-08-31T19:04:00.000-07:00

I did it... The last post worked! I have officially entered the computer age. That does not say that I still do not have a few kicks and screams left in me! (Expect a kick or two when it comes time to do this e-journal thing!)

And now for the real work:

I feel like I have some catching up to do for this blog.

Northrup Frye: It took me nearly 2 hours to read (and re-read and re-read) the Intro. {What was that Dr. Saxon said about repitition?} From the Intro, I gleaned these 13 points:

1. The structure of all literature comes from the structure of myth and related genres. (myth meaning stories)

2. All verbal sturctures are decended from peotic and mythological verbal structures.

3. Literature has a continuous social function. What is the distinctive social function of literature?

4. All human society has an inherited mythology transmitted by literature.

I stop here to ponder: Just what is Frye's definition of literature? To continue to read the first chapter, I gather that he thinks anyform of written language is literature. I use, for example, his example of "descriptive" style of writing. He uses textbooks and newspepers to illistrate his definition of descriptive writing. Is a textbook really literature?? I will have to mull this in my brain further.

5. A study of mythology MUST include psychology and anthropology. (wasn't that something Dr.Sexon said in Monday's lecture? Ahhhhh.. repetition IS good...)

6. Religion and literature are deeply connected.-- I beleive it myself, but I cannot prove it, and nothing in the text lead convinced me of this.

7. The Bible is written in myth and metaphore. --no new news here.

8. Myth forms the framework and context of all thinking.

It is with point 8 that I think Northrup has crossed over into the completely insane. I do not think in "story", if we are to use the true meaning of myth. When I am trying to figure out the principles of accounting in a previous class, I do not think in story, but in numbers. I have a hard time swallowing point 8.

9. Criticism must define and open the boundaries of literature.

10. Frye's question: To what extent is the canonical unity of the Bible indicatitive or symbolic of a wider imaginative unity of secular literature?--- I hope this class will help to find the answer!

11. The Bible is the only book that pulls all major problems of criticism together into a single focus.

I am not sure I beleive this comment. Firstly, i do not feel that all forms of criticism have a problem, and secondly, I do not feel that all forms of criticism have enough common ground to have a single focus (aside from the fact that many forms can critique a single work).

12. "The Graet Code" principle---the organizing structures of the Bible and the structures of secular Literature reflect each other.

Of course thiswould be true if you are to accept that the Bible is myth, and that myth forms the framwork of all thinking.

13. Metaphore occupies the central area of individual and social existance. --if you say so, Mr. Frye.

90 minutes later/My first ever blog!

2005-08-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

Well, after an hour and a half of hair-pulling and nearly killing my husband ( with dirty looks), I THINK I may have just created my first blog. I have learned a little. Did you know that "blog" actually means/stands for weblog. Well, heregoes...... my first post.