Response to essays

By now you should have read the three essays on Oedipus Tyrannos by Marjorie Barstow, S.M. Adams and Robert Cohen.

Marjorie Barstow’s essay identifies the crucial differences between Aristotle’s concept of an ideal man and his concept of a tragic hero. She wrote the essay during her sophomore year at Cornell University, 1909-1910. Later she revised and re-titled it (excitingly) “Oedipus Rex: A Typical Greek Tragedy.” In that form the essay was included in Lane Cooper’s The Greek Genius and Its Influence [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1917.

The other two essays were written much later. They do not align with each other in many respects: Cohen has a point to make about the relevancy of Sophocles’s work to the 20^th century concept of absurdism. His reference to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot makes clear his familiarity with what came to be known as the Theatre of the Absurd, a post WWII phenomenon of plays written by (says Encyclopedia Britannica)…

“…certain European and American dramatists of the 1950s and early ‘60s who agreed with the Existentialist philosopher Albert Camus’s assessment, in his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” (1942), that the human situation is essentially absurd, devoid of purpose.”

I hope this explanation clears up any confusion you might feel about Cohen’s use of the word “absurd.” His is a different view on the nature of Oedipus’s role as tragic hero than the one that Adams presents. How you react to them very much depends on your own perspective.

Which of the three writers expressed for you the most stimulating and revealing ideas and insights. Were any of your own ideas overturned? Did you learn anything about Oedipus, or about interpreting Oedipus, that might affect your own future writing?

That’s the blog post for Monday. Apologies for failing to get it up sooner.

Get your voice in tune—put on your masks, your chitons & kothornoi—WE'RE GONNA HAVE A SHOW!

Esteemed Thespians (for that is what you are):

Read a third or so of Oedipus, so that you come to the stage with at least a third of the awareness a traditional Greek audience (we won't even mention the players) would have in launching the drama.

Mark any notable examples therein of dramatic irony—the kind that creates its own variety of suspense, or might excite an apt audience to fear and pity. Be prepared to point such things out, even if it means stopping the show.

And remember: the closer you hug the walls of the room, the more I'll be inclined to drop a major role on you. As they (probably) say at Intel & Nike—be a team player.

Yours,

J.D.

Get ready for our last discussion

Monday is our last day to work on themes from Brave New World. Don't be a slacker and leave your book at home. Instead, re-read the last three chapters and come to class with some ideas to raise and discuss. The quality of your preparation will determine the quality of the class.

Your first major essay will be due the following Tuesday. I'll give you a set of prompts to consider in developing your thesis—but of course, it's better if you already have some idea of what you where you want to go.

Starting Wednesday dramatic irony will be our topic of choice. Our text will be a translation of Oedipus Tyrannos, by Sophocles. In the meantime, you should be sure to get your copy of Heart of Darkness and start reading it (even better: you've got it already and your reading is under way). The best approach is to read it through, then re-read each section (there are three) as we work through this tough little book in class.

Warning: it's difficult. You don't want to cram this material—you want it to soak it.

Regards,

J.D.

Shakespeare as a guide to living life

John’s beat-up copy of the complete works of Shakespeare (a gift of sorts from his mother’s lover Popé) becomes his means of understanding life and people. For example, during his big “love scene” with Lenina, in chapter 13 of the novel, John expresses his desire for a pure kind of love that can only be consummated in marriage. He stammers fragments from The Tempest—words that the young prince Ferdinand speaks to Prospero’s innocent and lovely daughter Miranda:

O you,
So perfect and so peerless, are created
Of every creature’s best!

But Lenina, hardly comprehending such highflown language, responds this way:

‘Put your arms round me,’ she commanded. ‘Hug me till you drug me, honey.’ She too had poetry at her command, knew words that sang and were spells and beat drums. ‘Kiss me’; she closed her eyes, she let her voice sink to a sleepy murmur, ‘kiss me till I’m in a coma. Hug me, honey, snuggly…’

As John becomes violent, he searches his store of Shakespeare for words that express his anger and disappointment at finding his Juliet is a mere “strumpet.” From the love-smitten Ferdinand he turns to the the insanely jealous Othello: ‘O thou weed, who art so lovely fair and smell’st so sweet that the sense aches at thee. Was this most goodly book made to write “whore” upon? Heaven stops the nose at it…’
Why, do you suppose, does Aldous Huxley give his near-hero John Shakespeare and only Shakespeare as a handbook for life? What are the strengths and limitations of such a guide? What’s noble and what’s ridiculous about John’s approach to romance?

The Rock & The Sealing Wax

Near the end of Chapter 2, you will find this short paragraph (another sentence fragment, by the way—guess they're not so bad after all, provided you know how to use them):

Not so much like drops of water, though water, it is true, can wear holes in the hardest granite; rather, drops of liquid sealing-wax, drops that adhere, incrust, incorporate themselves with what they fall on, till finally the rock is all one scarlet blob.

Explore this simile and decide what it signifies.

Then find examples in the Brave New World in which the rock nearly breaks through the wax, or where the wax layer is so thin that the rock can be perceived, even if only for a moment. Start with the characters you explored in class and branch out if you have other examples you'd like to cite. You can do this as a group if you can figure out how to make a joint statement.

I'll do likewise and report my findings in Monday's class.

Enjoy the weekend!

JD

The Brave New World—Same Old World?

If, as we discussed, utopian fiction is less a prediction of the future than a reflection of the present, how did and how does Brave New World reflect our world, past and present. What features of Aldous Huxley's World State can you identify as exaggerated but clearly recognizable versions of Western culture?

The next question is a natural one—why? What was his purpose? What did he hope his readers would see?

Please be specific: cite pages and quote the text as you make your case.

PS: We'll save A.H.'s introduction for Monday. That'll be a read & annotate exercise.

See you Thursday, and see some of your folks Wednesday evening.

Regards,

JD

Society, technology and the Individual

Man is about to be an automaton; he is identifiable only in the computer. As a person of worth and creativity, as a being with an infinite potential, he retreats and battles the forces that make him inhuman.

The dissent we witness is a reaffirmation of faith in man; it is protest against living under rules and prejudices and attitudes that produce the extremes of wealth and poverty and that make us dedicated to the destruction of people through arms, bombs, and gases, and that prepare us to think alike and be submissive objects for the regime of the computer.

—Justice WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS, Points of Rebellion, pp. 32–33 (1970)

Justice Douglas (1898-1980) was a dedicated champion of civil liberty and an outspoken opponent of censorship of any kind. His words of warning came nearly 40 years after Brave New World appeared. What does his message have in common with Aldous Huxley's novel? Were the two writers correct?—are individual rights in danger? Is dissent itself dangerous to the individual?