Thank You

This is my last blog so I want to take this opportunity to thank the other students in the class.  There were numerous times that I was amazed at the knowledge and creativity of my fellow students.  It was clear that many of you have taken numerous courses of Dr. Sexson and the wisdom he exposed you to was apparent, and even made me feel inadequate at times, which I think was good for me as it showed me I have more to learn.  I've enjoyed this class immensely, and that's not just because of Dr. Sexson, it's also because of all of you.  Thank you and I wish you all a wonderful summer full of wonder and romance!

Extending Our Lives Through Stories

Another concept Dr. Sexson brought up in class that really intrigued me was how we can extend our own lives through reading stories.  He talked about how when you spend 200 years in the reality of a story you are extending your own life by 200 years.  How can this be?  Dr. Sexson opens these doorways and if we want to find out the answer we have to walk in.  Since I'm just learning to become a conscious and wise reader it makes sense to me that I haven't experienced this life expansion through reading before because I didn't know I could, it wasn't on my mental radar.  So, since I just had another birthday a few days ago and I'm feeling a bit old, I'm going to pick out a good novel (perhaps ask Dr. Sexson's advice as to gain the most years for the read), and add a few more years to my life.

Happy Endings

I guess what I'm finding to still write about in these last few blogs for this class are the concepts of romance I'm still unpacking.

Happy endings...  Frye says that "if the conception is genuinely romantic and comic, the traditional happy ending is usually the one that fits" (134).  But we find out through further reading that happy endings occur for only some of the characters, specifically, the ones that survive.  This reminds me of something else I learned from Frye, it was when he talked about how good romance captures the strength of the human spirit and how it fights and perseveres over great evil.  It is encouraging to get a close look at this human characteristic, how it's celebrated in romance, and its capacity to inspire its readers.

Read on, I say, read on...I'm realizing how much an individual can grow from reading quality romance and the benefits from beginning to learn how to read well.

Random Quote From Frye

"In the ethical scheme of Dante's Inferno, there are two modes of sin, forza and froda, violence and fraud, and every sin is committed under one or other of these aspects.  Ethically, froda ranks lower than forza, because its use of disguise and concealment makes it more difficult to recognize as vice" (Frye 65).

As with everything with Frye, this passage is profound and helps me to perceive themes of the "night world" in romance.  However, Frye does go on to explain that these "two modes of sin" are also modes of virtue.  I find this concept challenging because I can't understand how violence and deception can be virtues in any way.  When is violence good?  I've never experienced an act of violence that felt the best choice for all those involved.  I guess if I really stretch, and think about the Buddhist belief that if you are in a ring with a lion become a lion.  Perhaps all evil knows and will listen to is violence?  These are questions I don't have answers for at this time.  With regards to froda, fraud, I can't think of a single time I've been deceived and didn't feel betrayed on some level.  How deception can be a virtue is compelling.  Yet, Frye goes on to tell us that "it is not surprising that European literature should begin with the celebration of these two mighty powers of humanity" (65).  I have more work to do in understanding this quality of romance.    

Great Class

One of the things I like the most about this class is what I didn't learn.  I know that sounds ludicrous, but it's true.  In most of the courses I've taken it is made clear at the beginning of the semester what is to be learned and how we are to demonstrate what we have learned throughout the semester.  But Dr. Sexson's class has been different from this academic norm and I think it demonstrates his expertise as a professor.

To be specific, he's never given us his interpretation of the characteristics of romance, he let Frye lay out a framework, and then creatively expounded on some other major points, often through his own stories, and never connected the dots.  Brilliant.

I remember feeling a bit sad, no offense to my very talented classmates, when we started the group/paper presentations because it was the last time Dr. Sexson was going to throw out another handful of gems.  Why I call them gems is because I'd often have to ponder some of them for days before I grasped them in their entirety, and some of them I'm still pondering.  For example, in just the first few days of class he said, "We tell stories to have a victory over death."  I'm still discovering what that means.

Response to Alex's blog on popular romance

I understand what Alex is saying when she refers to the popular romantic comedies; they are shallow, simple, and enjoyable because they are the antithesis of the real complexities of our own lives.  I've enjoyed watching these movies from time to time.  But now, after taking this class, I really see the lack of creativity and effort put into most popular media productions.  It's like some simple formula that is layered and layered with sticky sweet frosting i.e. special effects, action, basically eye teasers.  I've always found TV offensive to my intelligence, but now I'm finding most films just as offensive.  The quality of the material we've read in this class exacerbates the issue because it sets a standard that is almost never met in popular media.

So, I'm making a list of good novels to read over the summer.  Any suggestions?

Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories Makes Me Want to Be More Childish

My favorite story is Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories.  When I read it, for the first time in this class, I was entranced with its magic and creatively.  It has been a long time since I've read something so delightful.  It reminded me of what it felt like to be a child; the wonder and imagination that filled every moment of every day.  I wonder what my life would be like if I read such stories continually for a year, if it would change the way I see and interact with the world.  

I read the newspaper everyday, and have been doing so since I read James Cotes book, Arrested Adulthood: The Changing Nature of Maturity and Identity. One of the many significant points he makes in his book is that we need to fight against the current trend towards individualism and take part in our communities and that reading the local newspaper is the best way to stay connected to community issues and events. 

In addition to reading the newspaper, I've been reading a lot of books about the wild written by nature writers, activists, and environmental literature scholars.  There work is inspiring and many of them are on quests that incorporate many characteristics of good romance.

But now, after reading an ocean of stories, I feel the need to read more creative and nonsensical literature.  Rushdie's book awakened something in me and I feel it tingling inside.  My reading lists over the years have created a kind of sinew, a muscle that reaches toward movement, connection, and creating change.  But reading Rushdie makes me want to laugh more, dream more, and play more.

Background Video On Chris McCandless and Into The Wild

Chris McCandless: A Young Man's Desire To Reconnect To The Natural World

A Modern Day Adventure: Hop, Skip, And Go Naked

It is more important now than ever before to be selective about what we are learning and how we interact with our natural world.  Armstrong closes her book with defining where we can still find the mythos we so desperately require.  She says, “If professional religious leaders cannot instruct us in mythical lore, our artists and creative writers can perhaps step into this priestly role and bring fresh insight to our lost and damaged world” (Armstrong 149).  Frye encourages us to push on in the creation of romance and closes his book by telling us that “it is not until we have shared something of this last Sabbath vision in our greatest romance that we may begin to say that we have earned the right to silence” (Frye 188).  In other words, we need to keep engaging mentally and spiritually in stories and myth that contain the power to transform and expand our awareness.  As for kindling our connection to the natural world, John Muir strapped himself to a tree in a windstorm so he could feel the rhythm of the wind, or you could ride a horse bareback, or watch a sunrise in a mountain meadow.  We have to become the hero or heroine in our own life story, forge our way through the “numbing despair and mental paralysis” that Armstrong defines as our current way of thought, and gallop ourselves forward on some friendly druid horse and into a quest for romance, mythos, and ancient wisdom.     

Thoreau: Foreshadowed The Consequences Of Detaching Ourselves From The Natural World 150 Years Ago

Frye and Armstrong are clear on the consequences of our departure from secular scriptures and myth, and roughly one hundred and fifty years ago, nature writer Henry David Thoreau foreshadowed the consequences of detaching ourselves from the natural world.  He believed that man was influenced by the grandeur of nature, that the uncontrolled wild reveals to man the infinite possibilities available in the human experience and that by being present in nature we can internalize these qualities and grow more alive ourselves.  He said, “Nature is a personality so vast and universal that we have never seen one of her features.”  Thoreau thought the limitlessness contained in the wild set our spirits free from the structure and control of the civilized world, and that if we “wean” ourselves from the natural world we will become “a civilization destined to have a speedy limit” (Thoreau Walking).  But all is not lost, as Zimmer states, “the hero discovers then that he is bound (as all mankind is bound) to the maternal principle of Mother Earth, Mother Life, bound to the ever-revolving wheel of life-through-death” (Zimmer 84).  We have to remember that we are still learning and that we are proactive participants in the development of our world.

Karen Armstrong: Consequences Of Death Of Myth In Modern Western Civilization

Karen Armstrong, in her book, A Short History of Myth,” (2005) says that because of the lack of mythos in popular literature "We are facing something unprecedented.  Other societies saw death as a transition to other modes of being.  They did not nurture simplistic and vulgar ideas of an afterlife, but devised rites and myths that helped people to face the unspeakable (Armstrong 134).  She discusses the displacement of myth in modern western civilizations and tells us that, "We try to enter this dimension by means of art, rock music, drugs or by entering the larger-than-life perspective of film.  We still seek heroes. . . .The myth of the hero was not intended to provide us with icons to admire, but was designed to tap into the vein of heroism within ourselves.  Myth must lead to imitation or participation, not passive contemplation.  We no longer know how to manage our mythical lives in a way that is spiritually challenging and transformative" (Armstrong 135).  Armstrong and Frye parallel in pointing out the lack of depth in popular media.  Armstrong is specific and direct when she states that "purely linear, logical and historical modes of thought have debarred many of us from therapies and devices that have enabled men and women to draw on the full resources of their humanity in order to live with the unacceptable" (134).  Our current culture, according to Armstrong, has regressed because of our suppression of myth which provides the mechanism for our understanding of enduring questions, what Zimmer refers to as "a solution of the riddle of life and death" (Zimmer 83).  We have not yet come to terms with our destiny,  and how and what that means, and our current linear thought processes, and the value we place on the scientific over the mythological, romantic, and natural world, leaves us without the tools we need to understand and transform ourselves on the dramatic stage of life. 

Frye: Lack Of Depth In Modern Popular Stories

In the last chapter of Frye’s book, “The Recovery of Myth,” he discusses the lack of depth in modern stories.  He states, "The soap operas of radio and television are addressed primarily to a female audience, and feature a heroine plunged into the woes typical of so many forms of romance.  But while she continually struggles against a swarm of complications, the decisive polarizing of romance does not take place.  She never quite reaches what I have been calling the night world, a life so intolerable that it must end either in tragedy or in a permanent escape.  This is particularly so that the story, along with the financial support of sponsors, can last indefinitely, but there is another social dimension involved" (Frye 165).  It seems to me that the dimension missing is the heroine’s transformation, and that in general, we are no longer using stories and the natural world for spiritual understanding and growth.  

Jack Turner: The Abstract Wild

It’s important to note, however, that although the birth of Christianity has had some impact on our predominant attitudes towards nature, there are those in the world today who still embrace the belief that although humans have forgotten their intrinsic connection to the natural world, our “unitive companionship,” as Zimmer puts it, with the natural world still exists.  Jack Turner, in his book The Abstract Wild, (1996) says we have forgotten “the reciprocity between the wild in nature and the wild in us, between knowledge of the wild and knowledge of the self that was central to all primitive cultures” (Turner 11).  The “reciprocity” Turner refers to derives from our “primitive” connection to the natural world, our organic and historic connection to nature which is intrinsic because we are born from the same fabric. 

"The Acts of Paul and Thecla" Present Both Pagan and Christian Relationships with the Natural World

In the anthology, Ancient Greek Popular Literature, edited by William Hansen, we see in the story “The Acts of Paul and Thecla” both Pagan and Christian relationships with the animal world portrayed.  This intriguing set of juxtapositions is presented when Thecla is brought to the stadium in punishment and set forth to fight the wild beasts.  “And lions and bears were set upon her, and a fierce lioness ran to her and lay down at her feet. . . .And a bear ran upon her, but the lioness ran and met it, and tore the bear asunder.”  Here we see, as in the story of the Pagan Hero, an animal who is an ideal friend, but as the scene with Thecla unfolds, man’s relationship to animals and the natural world reveals the transition Christianity demands.  “And again a lion trained against men, which belonged to Alexander, ran upon her; the lioness grappled with the lion, and perished with it.  And the women mourned the more, since the lioness was dead.”  The protective lioness was dead indeed, but this also indicates a death of friendship with the animal world.  The transition of our relationship with nature is further defined as the story goes on.  “So then she threw herself in the water in the name of Jesus Christ; but the seals, seeing the light of a lightning-flash, floated dead on the surface” (Hansen 61).  Here we see the mighty hand of God reach in and orchestrate an act of nature.  The series of quotes presented in this section of the story exposes a great deal as they encompass three stages of man’s transitionary relationship to nature.  The first is that of the Pagan Hero with animal as companion, the second is man’s domination over nature by training animals to kill men, and the third is the biblical representation of God’s dominant power over all living creatures.  

Lynn White: "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis"

There are many hypothesis of how and why modern civilization has turned away from our connection to the natural world, but one of the most intriguing to me is presented in historian Lynn White’s essay “The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis” (1967). White believes that to a large extent modern man’s relationship with nature has been dictated by our Christian understanding of nature’s purpose.  White suggests modern western civilization’s behavior towards nature stems from the Old Testament when it was declared that nature was created by God to serve man’s needs.  White states that our “Christian dogma of man’s transcendence of, and rightful mastery over, nature” (Glotfelty, Fromm 12) is one of the leading reasons for our disconnect with the natural environment and he suggests we search out a new religion that will unite us with nature.  It’s interesting to note that Conn-eda was led through a spiritual transformation by his “gently guide,” the druid horse, an event that wouldn’t have been possible if Conn-eda believed himself a rightful master over his animal companion.  Therefore, his ability to form a “unitive companionship of the ideal friends [druid horse]” (Zimmer 43) was essential for his spiritual rebirth and exemplifies a transformation enmeshed in the circuitry of the entire living world, a story that differs greatly from biblical transcendence. 

Zimmer: Pagan Hero Captures Past Human Connection To Animals And How They Can Help Us Transform

In Heinrich Zimmer’s book The King And The Corpse, the story of “A Pagan Hero And A Christian Saint” captures how greatly honored and loved animals where as it refers to the druid horse as “the wise and gentle animal nature represented in the rider’s mount.  The bravest beast, with its all-knowing resourcefulness and supernatural strength, has borne him [Conn-eda] through two terrific trials.  It jumped the abyss of water, passing fearlessly within reach of serpents, and it soared like a rocket through the flames of the blazing crater, all with the marvelous felicity of a dream.  Yet now, at the ultimate bound, the animal demands its own immolation” (Zimmer 43).  The druid horse becomes Conn-eda’s “gentle guide” and leads him through “a miraculous transformation and rebirth” (Zimmer 44).  In this story we see again the animal and human spirit intertwined beyond logic, time, and space, which are the walls that confine our consciousness and diminish spiritual growth in modern western civilization. 

Frye: The Overlap Between Romance and Myth

Northrop Frye, in his book The Secular Scripture: A Study of the Structure of Romance, informs us that, “Most myths are stories about or concerning the gods, and so the distinction between the mythical and the fabulous overlaps a good deal” and that “The difference between the mythical and the fabulous is a difference in authority and social function, not in structure.”  Frye concretizes the distinction between myth and romance when he explains “The mythical poet, then, has his material handed him by tradition, whereas the fabulous poet may, up to a point, choose his own plots and characters” (Frye 8-9).  Within this overlap between myth and romance we can see how the poets of some of the ancient stories we’ve read intertwine with mythical concepts and reveal our primitive relationship to animals and the natural world.

Herzog: How Far We've Drifted

To try to understand our ancient connection to the natural world stretches the mind and pulls on the spirit.  At one point in Herzog’s documentary, he tells of an anthropologist who was exploring ancient caves with his guide, an Australian Aboriginal, and how when they came upon some damaged and faded animal petroglyphs the aboriginal sat down and cried.  Shortly thereafter, the anthropologist turned to find his aboriginal guide painting in the faded lines of an animal petroglyph.  The anthropologist said, “How can you paint over this ancient drawing?”  The aboriginal responded, “I’m not doing the painting, the animal is.”  This response captures the connection this man still holds with animals and the natural world, while at the same time it reveals how much western culture has lost.

Snyder: Our Primitive Connection To The Natural World

In his book, The Practice of the Wild, Gary Snyder acknowledges the primitive history of our relationship to the wild.  He uses the example of the aboriginals of Australia and their practice of dreamtime to demonstrate the connection between myth, landscape, and personal growth.  Myths are ancient narratives that attempt to answer enduring etiological and cosmological questions, inseparable from rituals that were performed in sacred landscapes.  Snyder observes “landscape, myth, and information were braided together in preliterate societies,” (83) and argues that our primitive connection to the wild is still present within us.  Is this “primitive” connection to the wild a doorway; a place where we are able to see our true relationship with the wild?  Is it our link to our home in the wild?  Gary Snyder says that walking through the wilderness is “so ancient a set of gestures as to bring a profound sense of body-mind joy” and “the point is to make intimate contact with the real world, real self.  Sacred refers to that which helps take us (not only human beings) out of our little selves into the whole mountains-and-rivers mandala universe” (94).  Few modern men have made this journey, the profits of old, the enlightened ones, the shaman, a handful of nature writers, and a few of the characters we've read about in this class.  If we don't practice connecting to the natural world, what have we lost?  The more I read the more I realize that the further we step away from our primitive connection to the natural environment the more we remove an integral and essential part of our consciousness that is necessary for any kind of authentic transcendence.  

Gary Snyder: The Practice of the Wild

Frye's Themes of Ascent and Yesterday's Group Presentation

I just wanted to comment on the last group presentation and its raunchy content.  I watched the class squirm at the pure evil of the oversexed trailer trash father.  I too felt appalled.  But I couldn't stop thinking about what Frye discusses in his chapter "Themes of Ascent."  In my last blog I talked about how Frye says that modern day television, radio, and film don't reach the depth of despair necessary for the rebirth or new recognition of  the hero.  He says "The standard escape device of romance is that of escape through a shift of identity" (136).  And goes on to say "One of the things that comedy and romance as a whole are about, clearly, is the unending, irrational, absurd persistence of the human impulse to struggle, survive, and where possible escape" (136), and those who don't escape are what represents a tragedy.

Getting back to yesterday's group presentation, Frye explains in his "Themes of Ascent" chapter that "Tragedy, or threatening tragic complication in romance, often involve stresses within families, such as a father's overbearing will or the threat of incestuous relationship.  In the love-and-honor conflicts so frequent in romantic stories, the imperatives of honor usually have to do with attachments to family, tribal, or class loyalties. . . .It seems intolerably simplistic to explain all forms of nightmare by the fear of incest, as some Freudians do, yet incest is certainly a central them in night-world imagery, and the transfer of energies and affections from one's family to the new family of a marriage is the easiest kind of comic resolution.  A comic resolution, in fact, could almost be defined as an action that breaks out of the Oedipus ring, the destruction of a family or other close-knit social group by the tensions and jealousies of its members" (137).  Long quote to use, I know, but the point I'm trying to make is that the yesterdays group presentation incorporated central themes of the ascent in romance.  What else captured my attention was how we all responded to the performance.  It indicates that we have all been conditioned through popular media towards the softer themes that never quite reach the unbearable which leads to the human transformation that occurs from the intensity of hardship which are the themes in many of the stories we've read in this class.

Frye: The Recovery of Myth

Frye also discusses the lack of depth in modern stories.  He states, "The soap operas of radio and television are addressed primarily to a female audience, and feature a heroine plunged into the woes typical of so may forms of romance.  But while she continually struggles against a swarm of complications, the decisive polarizing of romance does not take place.  She never quite reaches what I have been calling the night world, a life so intolerable that it must end either in tragedy or in a permanent escape.  This is particularly so that the story, along with the financial support of sponsors, can last indefinitely, but there is another social dimension involved" (165).  It seems to me that the other dimension is transformation and that we are no longer using stories for spiritual understanding.  Karen Armstrong says that because of this "We are facing something unprecedented.  Other societies saw death as a transition to other modes of being.  They did not nurture simplistic and vulgar ideas of an afterlife, but devised rites and myths that helped people to face the unspeakable (134).  You can see where I'm going with this...  

Karen Armstrong On Displaced Myth

I know I'm rambling on here...my last three blogs are evidence of observation and connections (however remote they may be) that I made after reading Heinrich Zimmer's chapter "Four Romances From The Cycle Of King Arthur."  Specifically, when he enlightens us on the "hidden sanctuary of the fountainhead" what many romantic heroes have sought for millenniums as their "holy goal" which is "a solution of the riddle of life and death" which can be traced as far back as the Mesopotamian era and printed on greatly damaged) cuneiform tablets (c. 2000 B.C.)"  You can find all the details about how this ancient story evolves and where it springs up in other cultures on pages 81-88. Anyhow, I'm still thinking about these connections because it is what our group was originally going to present and I'm still quite fascinated by the story and it roots in the past and in popular culture.

Now that I've gotten those of you who haven't read my last four blogs caught up, I want to move on to how Karen Armstrong couches the use of myth in modern western traditions.  She states, "We try to enter this dimension [mythological] by means of art, rock music, drugs or by entering the larger-than-life perspective of film.  We still seek heroes. . . .The myth of the hero was not intended to provide us with icons to admire, but was designed to tap into the vein of heroism within ourselves.  Myth must lead to imitation or participation, not passive contemplation.  We no longer know how to manage our mythical lives in a way that is spiritually challenging and transformative" (135).  She further states that "purely linear, logical and historical modes of thought have debarred many of us from therapies and devices that have enabled men and women to draw on the full resources of their humanity in order to live with the unacceptable" (134).  The "unacceptable" is what Zimmer refers to as "a solution of the riddle of life and death."  Humanity has not come to terms with our destiny, death, and how and what that means.  Our current culture, according to Armstrong, has regressed because of "our suppression of myth" which provides the mechanisms for understanding of where we came from and where we are going.

Lord of the Rings: With a Terminal Wound, Frodo Leaves for Magical Island Where He Will Live On

Fountain of Youth: Pirates of the Caribbean

The Descent Of Ishtar

THE DESCENT OF ISHTAR

Babylonian account on how Ishtar, the Great Goddess of Love and War, descended through the seven gates of the Underworld to find her beloved,Tammuz. Enjoy a tale of resurrection and love beyond death! From Ancient Near Eastern Texts, translated by E.A. Speiser

Winged Ishtar standing on a Lion

---

To the Land of No Return, the realm of Ereshkigal,

Ishtar, the daughter of the Moon, set her mind.
To the dark house, the abode of Irkalla,
To the house which none leave who have entered it,
To the road from which there is no way back,
To the house wherein the entrants are bereft of light,
Where dust is their fare and clay their food,
Where they see no light, residing in darkness,
Where they are clothed like birds, with wings for garments,
And where over door and bolt is spread dust.When Ishtar reached the gate of the Land of No Return,
She said to the gatekeeper:
"O gatekeeper, open thy gate,
Open thy gate so I may enter!
If thou openest not the gate so that I cannot enter,
I will smash the door, I will shatter the bolt,
I will smash the doorpost, I will move the doors,
I will raise up the dead eating the living,
So that the dead will outnumber the living."The gatekeeper opened his mouth to speak,
Saying to exalted Ishtar:
"Stop, my lady, do not throw it down!
I will go to announce thy name to Queen Ereshkigal."
The gatekeeper entered, saying to Ereshkigal:
"Behold, they sister Ishtar is waiting at the gate,
She who upholds the great festivals,
Who stirs up the deep before Ea, the king."
When Ereshkigal heard this, her face turned pale like a cut-down tamarisk,
While her lips turned dark like a bruised kuninu-reed.
What drove her heart to me? What impelled her spirit hither?
Lo, should I drink water with the Anunnaki?
Should I eat clay for bread, drink muddied water for beer?
Should I bemoan the men who left their wives behind?
Should I bemoan the maidens who were wretched from the laps of their lovers?
Or should I bemoan the tender little one who was sent off before his time?Go, gatekeeper, open the gate for her,
Treat her in accordance with the ancient rules."
Forth went the gatekeeper to open the door for her:
"Enter, my lady, that Cutha may rejoice over thee,
That the palace of the Land of No Return may be glad at they presence."When the first gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the great crown on her head.
"Why, o gatekeeper, didst thou take the great crown on my head?"
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
When the second gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the pendants on her ears.
"Why, O gatekeeper, didst thou take the pendants on my ears?"
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
When the third gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the chains round her neck.
"Why, O gatekeeper, didst thou take the chains round my neck?"
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
When the fourth gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the ornaments on her breast.
"Why, O gatekeeper, didst thou take the ornaments on my breast?"
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
When the fifth gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the girdle of birthstones on her hips.
"Why, O gatekeeper, didst thou take the girdle of birthstones on my hips?"
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
When the sixth gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the clasps round her hands and feet.
"Why, O gatekeeper, didst thou take the clasps round my hands and feet?"
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."
When the seventh gate he had made her enter,
He stripped and took away the breechcloth round her body.
"Why, O gatekeeper, didst thou take the breechcloth round my body?"
"Enter, my lady, thus are the rules of the Mistress of the Underworld."As soon as Ishtar had descended to the Land of No Return,
Ereshkigal saw her and burst out at her presence.
Ishtar, unreflecting, flew at her.
Ereshkigal opened her mouth to speak,
"Go, Namtar, lock her up in my palace!
Release against her the sixty miseries:
Misery of the eyes against her eyes,
Misery of the sides against her sides,
Misery of the heart against her heart,
Misery of the feet against her feet,
Misery of the head against her head -
Against every part of her, against her whole body!"After Lady Ishtar had descended to the nether world,
The bull springs not upon the cow, the ass impregnates not the jenny,
In the street the man impregnates not the maiden.
The man lies in his own chamber, the maiden lies on her side.
The countenance of Papsukkal, the vizier of the great gods,
Was fallen, his face was clouded
He was clad in mourning, long hair he wore.
Forth went Papsukkal before Ea, the king:
"Ishtar has gone down to the nether world, she has not come up.
Since Ishtar has gone down to the Land of No Return,
The bull springs not upon the cow, the ass impregnates not the jenny,
In the street the man impregnates not the maiden.
The man lies down in his own chamber,
The maiden lies down on her side."Ea in his wise heart conceived an image,And created Asushunamir, a eunuch:
"Up, Asushunamir, set thy face to the gate of the Land of No Return:
The seven gates of the Land of No Return shall be opened for thee.
Ereshkigal shall see thee and rejoice at thy presence.
When her heart has calmed, her mood is happy,
Let her utter the oath of the great gods.
Then lift up thy head, paying mind to the life-water bag:
"Pray, lady, let them give me the life-water bag
that water therefrom I may drink."
As soon as Ereshkigal heard this,
She smote her thigh, bit her finger:
"Thou didst request of me a thing that should not be requested.
Come, Asushunamir, I will curse thee with a mighty curse!
The food of the city's gutters shall be thy food,
The sewers of the city shall be thy drink.
The threshold shall be thy habitation,
The besotted and the thirsty shall smite they cheek!"
Ereshkigal opened her mouth to speak,
Saying these words to Namtar, her vizier:
"Up, Namtar, knock at Egalgina,
Adorn the thresholds with the coral-stone,
Bring forth the Anunnaki, seated them on thrones of gold,
Sprinkle Ishtar with the water of life and take her from my presence!"
Forth went Namtar, knocked at Egalgina,
Adorned the thresholds with coral-stone,
Brought forth the Anunnaki, seated them on thrones of gold,
Sprinkled Ishtar with the water of life and took her from her presence.When through the first gate he had made her go out,
He returned to her the breechcloth for her body.
When through the second gate he had made her go out,
He returned to her the clasps for her hands and feet.
When through the third gate he had made her go out,
He returned to her the birthstone girdle for her hips.
When through the fourth gate he had made her go out,
He returned to her the ornaments for her breasts.
When through the fifth gate he had made her go out,
He returned to her the chains for her neck.
When through the sixth gate he had made her go out,
He returned to her the pendants for her ears.
When through the seventh gate he had made her go out,
He returned to her the great crown for her head.
"If she does not give thee her ransom price, bring her back.As for Tammuz, the lover of her youth,
Wash him with pure water, anoint him with sweet oil:
Clothe him with a red garment,

let him play on a flute of lapis.Let the courtesans turn his mood."
When Belili was stringing her jewelry,
And her lap was filled with "eye-stones,"
On hearing the sound of her brother, Belili struck the jewelry on...
So that the "eye-stones" filled the...
"My only brother, bring no harm to me!
On the day when Tammuz comes up to me,
When with him the lapis flute and the carnelian ring come up to me,
When with him the wailing men and wailing women come up to me,
May the dead rise and smell the incense."  

The Evolution Of Our Group Presentation

My group, Rio, Alex, and Matt, were incredible to work with and I learned more about what makes up the perfect romance by working with them.  We met roughly seven times in preparation for our performance (along with numerous email exchanges) and our discussions were insightful.  The course of our dialogue started with the impetus of our project and ended with our performance, which was very different from where we started.

We started with an ancient story mentioned in Heinrich Zimmer's book, The King And The Corpse.  What was so intriguing about this story was that it was so ancient.  The story is the story "of the Marvelous Castle, Le Chateau Merveil: a place full of frightening trials and amazing experiences, comparable to Merlin's 'Valley of No Return.'  Three queens and countless maidens are its prisoners; the mistress is a lady of superhuman beauty; the Chateau is a veritable 'isle of women.'"  Life the nether world of antiquity, it is approached in a little boat, under the guardianship of a ferryman, or according to another version, by a tiny floating island (81)."  I remember thinking when I read this about the recent film series Lord Of The Rings, and how the author borrowed this idea at the end of the story when the main heroes left for an ancient magical land in a boat.

Zimmer goes on to describe this magical place as, "the everlasting sphere of womanhood, representative of the timeless abode of inexhaustible life, the well of death from which life pours forth in perennial rebirth" (82).  This section made me think of the current very popular film series The Pirates of the Caribbean.  In the last film that recently came out, Captain Jack, along with all his rival pirate captains, are in pursuit of the fountain of youth.  This ancient story of this magical matriarchal land seems to be the root of the story of the fountain of youth.  I wondered if the people who wrote the film scripts intentionally puledl from these ancient stories and myths and displace them in popular culture.

I was very intrigued by how old this story is.  Zimmer mentions two ancient sources of the myth.  First he says, "The representations that have come down to us is Celtic fairy tale and Arthurian romance disclose features deriving from the primitive matriarchal civilization that flourished throughout western France and in the British Isles in pre-Celtic times.  Among the multitudinous females of the ageless lineage of motherhood, descending age by age from the primordial great-great-grandmother of the matrilineal clan, the knight, the manly youth, the boy hero (puer aeternus), being wearied of his long adventure, discovers at last his rest.  Hither he has come--to this hidden sanctuary of the fountainhead--for solution of the riddle of life and death"(82-83).  So many of the quests we have read about and discussed in this class tend to deal with this theme, the human condition of trying to understand where we came from and where we are going after we die.  It's astounding to me that human civilization is still struggling with these same issues after so many thousands of years.

In fact, Zimmer places the oldest root of this story, "the 'Land of No Return' (Hamlet's 'undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns') is very ancient standing as a term for the kingdom of the dead.  It derives fro the Mesopotamian tradition, first appearing, as far as the extant records are concerned, on a greatly damaged series of cuneiform tablets (c. 2000 B.C.) recounting the descent of the Sumerian goddess Inanna (=Babylonian Ishtar) to the netherworld.  That dim domain has been for millenniums the holy goal of all the great questing heroes, from Gilgamesh to Faust, for it is the repository of the spiritual treasure of the mystic wisdom of rebirth" (83-83).  Zimmer points us to the core of human desire (which apparently hasn't changed), the search for everlasting life.  Today, corporations have made billions of dollars paying scientists to produce anti aging potions.  Perhaps film script writers aren't the only ones pulling from the information stored in these ancient stories and myths.

Anyway, our group moved away from this ancient story for two reasons.  First, Rio would most likely have played the hero who was on the quest to this ancient magical land, which would have given Matt the very small part of being the ferryman, and second, after the video clip of The Holy Grail was shown in class we felt like the story had already been performed (and produced with a much larger budget).

Persephone and Hades

Persephone and Hades
Group 3

SCRIPT

As narrated by Zeus.....

Ø OLYMPUS SLIDE

This is the story of Hades and Persephone, daughter of Demeter.  I, Zeus, King of all the gods, wish to share this, my favorite of all romance tales, with you…

I saw my brother watching her; he had been for many months – forming a plan to kidnap his niece, Persephone. Yes, Persephone was his niece, which would make Demeter Hades sister, both of whom are also my siblings.  We like to keep it in the family up here in Olympus.  Anyway, he planned to steal Persephone away from her mother, Demeter the goddess of the harvest. Hades savored the pain he would cause Demeter, and he savored the idea of having his beautiful niece once he stole her away.  He came to me one day to ask my permission to take Persephone as his wife.  Being my brother, I thought nothing of granting his request.  “She’ll make a fine bride, I’m sure,” I told Hades.  “You have my blessing.”  It also didn’t hurt that he gave me this sweet lightning bolt with unimaginable power.  “Here, my brother, is a lightning bolt with unimaginable power…for your trouble.”  So he began plotting his plunder.  He knew how upset Demeter would be at the thought of losing her daughter, for Hades lived in the Underworld and, if he took her, Persephone and Demeter would likely never see each other again.

One day, in the very beginning of spring, Hades knew his time to act had finally come.

Ø EARTH SLIDE

Hades waited, until he knew that Demeter would have her beautiful daughter in her sight, as she painted the flowers their bright colors. He rose from the earth, a deep pit rising from the very depths of hell in his golden chariot led by four of the blackest of black horses.

I heard Demeter’s screams as he stole Persephone away, and I heard him laugh at her. Hades felt the useless protest of Persephone.  As her mind registered what was happening to her, Hades turned the chariot around, and

Ø WATERFALL HOLE SLIDE

plunged back into the underworld. Hades chariot was swift as he maneuvered his way back to hell.

Ø HELL SLIDE

Hades welcomed Persephone to her new home in the underworld, her new Kingdom, Tartarus. “You evil man!”- my distraught Persephone cried out.

Hades laughed manically to himself as he led her further into the depths of hell. Hades laughed again, drinking the tears from her cheek before carrying her into his brimstone palace.

Ø THRONES SLIDE

He placed her upon her throne of ivory, and jewels, and knelt before her.

He pestered Persphone with questions of her happiness and she stated her hate for her new home and whispered that she would never speak to Hades as long as she lived. My cunning brother replied to this that she will not be speaking to anyone for a very long time. Hades stood wrapping his cloak around himself, his black eyes staring down on her. Hades, as her captor, urged her to get used to it because he had no intention of letting her go any time soon. 

Ø DEAD SOULS SLIDE

Hades left her side and walked among the dead, their souls weeping, and crying out for his mercy. He ignored their pleas, and stalked on. It was true, he had a black anger, but he was patient, and he would wait for Persephone to adapt to her new home. When she did, he would make her the happiest woman in the entire world – his wife, his queen. The owner of the all the finest jewels, the finest silks, anything she could ever want, or need, she would have, wither she asked for it or not.

Persephone sat upon the ivory throne Hades had gifted her.  Her hair was no longer silky and lustrous, but was now stringy and dirty having taken on a dingy color of dirt and dust. It hung over her face as she took her place next to her husband, Hades.

Ø GOTHIC CHAPEL SLIDE

 The wedding ceremony was held in a sacred place in Tartarus among the weeping dead. Persephone had not cried. She had remained quiet in her gown of silver and gold thread that the maidens of Hades' court had dressed her in. Her tears were gone, and instead she was a sullen shell of a woman. When the ceremony was over, he led her by the arm to their thrones,

Ø THRONES SLIDE

where he had only left her side to conduct his rounds of the kingdom. He draped her with jewels, and kisses, and gowns spun of silver and gold. He watched her with admiration of her beauty, but he missed her voice. (Disco ball!)

Ø LADY GAGA VIDEO

Ø THRONES SLIDE

In the early evening of summer he made his move to get her to speak to him again. He took her hand from where he sat on his throne, and raised it to his lips, kissing her pale skin.

Persephone held true to her word and had not spoken to Hades or anyone since being drug to the underworld. Hades pestered her asking “my darling Persephone, it has been so long since I have heard your voice....surely you wish to speak to me...to someone?”  His voice was calm and sickly sweet. It had to be – he ruled the underworld and his subjects must trust him, quite literally, with their souls.  He was cunning, that Hades.  Or so he thought. 

Persephone looked at him from the dark pools that were her eyes and sullenly replied “Only my mother.”

Hades stood, rage and jealousy filling his body, spreading like thick green paint and curtly replied, “You will never see your mother again.” His voice was no longer sweet, but cruel.

“Then I shall never speak again.” Persephone said her final words, before casting off her jewels and turning her back to her husband. 

Ø EARTH SLIDE

---> On Earth, my sister Demeter was heartbroken. The earth had grown cold, and plants would not grow. She missed her daughter, and she wept. She shared her woes with me, for I was king of the gods and I had not intervened with Hades initial plan. And now the thought of the lighting bolt with unimaginable power that Hades had bribed me with had shaded my judgement. I ignored my sister's pleas (“Please, Please!”) for her daughter back, until I saw the earth being swept into a frozen tundra, a plague of starvation and death. Plants wouldn’t grow, animals became scarce. I could no longer ignore the kidnapping of Persephone and the sorrows they caused Demeter. 

Finally I gave in and told Demeter that she could have her daughter back, but only if she had not eaten anything while in Tatarus. If she had eaten the food of the dead, by the Law of the Gods she cannot be returned. “So you better hope she didn’t eat anything, Demeter.”  I patiently explained this knowing that Hades would be furious when he found out. 

Ø HELL SLIDE

Hades’ rage turned to a plan that would foil my words and allow him to keep Persephone for his wife. He coaxed her into eating something before she left for the surface. Surely she did not want to return to her mother looking malnourished. He handed her half of a ripe pomegranate. Persephone looked into his eyes and took the fruit.  Suddenly she was very hungry, not realizing she had neglected to eat anything while she had been in Hades’ kingdom. 

Persephone took a bite, eating six of the red berries, just as I was descending to inform her that she would be free to go back to her mother.  “NO!” I cried out. But it was too late.  Upon discovering her having consumed the food of the dead I called my brother and sister to a meeting in Olympus. 

Ø OLYMPUS SLIDE

I scolded Hades.   It was a terrible thing he had done.  “That was a very, very bad thing you have done.”

"Is it my fault I found my wife to be most desirable? I knew I must have her, Zeus. And anyway, what’s done is done. I can't return her…she ate the food of the dead. She is mine forever." Hades smirked.

I then told Hades that Persephone must be returned to her mother. The people of the earth were dying in the frozen tundra they were forsaken to. I spoke sternly as I stood, lighting bolt in hand, anxious for the storm that I knew was growing.

Hades boastfully replied that he could not return her because she had eaten the food of the dead and that she will now be his forever. 

I was then perplexed at how to reach a resolution. I knew that a continuation of the current arrangement would not suffice; then I figured it out. Persephone will be returned to her mother for six months, before returning to Hades for the remaining six, the equivalent of the number of berries she ate from the Pomegranate. “Half the year with her mother on the surface and the other half with Hades in his kingdom.”

Hades looked at me quizzically for a second before laughing and then agreeing to the terms I had laid out. 

Ø HELL SLIDE

Several hours later, he found himself alone in his kingdom with only the dead and the music of the harpies wings as company. Six months he was expected to spend alone…six months without his beautiful wife.

Maybe she would realize she missed him. Maybe she missed his attention, his jewels, his riches, the amusement he provided her, her gowns of silver and gold, or maybe just him…him, and the way he spoke to her, the way he looked when he was idolizing her, even in her sullen state…  He knew he missed her, even if she never spoke, even if she was never happy.

He knew nothing but that he had to wait.

Ø FALL SLIDE

The six months passed slowly for Hades, but quickly for Persephone. On her last night with her mother, she painted the leaves in shades of yellow, orange, and red, and slept beneath the stars in a lush meadow of green grass.  She was delivered back to her husband who had not changed since she had left him.

Ø TECHNO SLIDE

Her heart was torn once more but it was different this time. Half of her heart went towards her mother, but the other half went to her husband.  As she looked at him, the angle of his jaw, the curl of his black mustache and goatee, how his clothes clung to his body – she found herself wrapping her arms around him, half out of grief and half out of relief.  She was home, whither she liked it or not.....

Ø DANCE SCENE!

:: In one of my favorite movies, Closer, Clive Owen reminds Jude Law: “you don’t know the first thing about love because you don’t understand compromise.”  Hades, Persephone and Demeter all had to learn to live with compromise.  Sometimes, in the grand sea of stories, there is a tale in which love involves concession, and hope is our happy ending.  In Olympus, anything can happen. But on Earth, love and reality can come up against each other tragically.  You see, the perfect romance doesn’t always have a storybook ending.

YouTube: Cave of Forgotten Dreams

The Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Karen Armstrong

Dr. Sexson suggested I watch Hertzog's new documentary The Cave of Forgotten Dreams.  As with any literary piece he suggests, the information in this film is profound.  One of the most interesting aspects of the film was how it strongly suggests that 24,000 years ago there was no separation between human and animal consciousness, life was all part of a big web of creation of which all life stemmed, and consciousness traveled through these web channels like information through a phone line.  This reality presents itself in the drawings found in this cave that has been sealed for 24,000 years and is like "a time capsule" of information of a civilization that was much different than ours.  We see traces of this way of being in some of the stories we've read for this class. Today, however, we are so insulatory, and our connection with other life, species, and nature has atrophied so much it's almost nonexistent, and the consequences of this intellectual and spiritual departure are much more crippling than most of us realize.

Karen Armstrong, in her book A Short History Of Myth, addresses the implication of our loss of myth and story telling.  It's a great read, for those of you who haven't already read it!

Sonnet Satire: The Drunk Poet Pukes

Dreams To Come

When I awoke from my dream,

tears trickled down my cheeks,

and I realized things weren’t as they seem.

Wrapped tightly, twisted up in my sheets,

I closed my eyes and gave my dream a wring,

squeezing out the images that still floated above the pleats,

pulling them from the air to which they clinged,

into the world in which all life seats,

harnessing them in firm walls, they ceased to sing,

reality organizes emotion into fleets.

I always thought that our love was where life peaked,

but I was only a dreaming, like Coleridge and Keats.

There, on my pillow, I gained control

when I realized our love was just protocol.

Paper Prospectus

I'm interested in writing about how stories have been an integral part of our lives since the beginning of time, what kind of intellectual and spiritual nutrients they provide for human life, and the current impacts of living in a Western Civilization that no longer values stories.  This is a tall order, and I know I would have to write at least thirty pages to do my thesis justice, so I will preface my paper as an overview of each of these points in hopes of providing a global view on the importance of stories.