Honored Marc: POWER in the name "WOMAN"

Honored Marc: POWER in the name "WOMAN": This was a week of some powerful women, Antigone, Medea, and Jesmyn Ward.   At the beginning of the week, the class finished up our dissect...

POWER in the name "WOMAN"

This was a week of some powerful women, Antigone, Medea, and Jesmyn Ward.   At the beginning of the week, the class finished up our dissection of "Antigo- Nick", an Anne Carson translation of "Antigone" by Sophokles.   What an interesting book.   This read was full of eclectic images, by Biance Stone, that made reading the most interesting I have ever done.  The print was overshadowed with image that may or may not have anything to do with the words.   But you will have to read this intriguing book for yourself and blog back your thoughts.   The story, as we known, is ancient but Carson's translation, full of contemporary expression and slang, along with the translucent images, made this literary assignment titillating, to say the least.

     Mid week, the class started to dialogue about our next powerful woman, "Medea", a playwright written by Euripides and translated by Rex Warner.   Futurist Thomas Frey said it best, " Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned".   All I can say is how true.    A story of sorcerer, named Medea, that conspired with her husband, Jason, to bring him to fame and when he got what he wanted, he left her for another woman, a King's daughter, for more power and fame.   This did not sit well with Medea.   The whole story is about Medea's revenge or justice on her husband.   Blinded by revenge, Medea cared less about the consequences of her action to make Jason miserable.   She killed his new bride, which caused her father to kill himself out of grief, and murder her two children, also Jason's progeny, to make him pay for the pain and suffering she had endured by his deception.   The clincher is that Medea did all this and seceded with no punishment from anyone but the lost of everything by her own hands. Was it worth it?   You tell me. 

       Our final powerful woman of the week is Ms. Jesmyn Ward, author of "Salvage the Bones".   I cannot tell you the full story because I have only read up to "The Fifth Day: Salvage The Bones" on page 83.   When my instructor, Dr. Jordan Sanderson, said the book would be interesting, I thought he was saying that because he is a reader and a history professor.   But he was right.  So far, I hypothesize that this story is about a family going through the storm, Hurricane Katrina, by the setting of the story, on the Mississippi and Louisana coast, and all the preparation the father is doing because of a storm he has heard is coming.  But there is so much more that I have gotten in just the 83 pages I have read.   I feel a theme of a young girl in love with her childhood suitor, who's only interest in her is sex and who has a girlfriend.   This blossoming girl has found out that she is pregnant by who she believes the father is her suitor.   I see a relationship between a dog and its breeder, which is quite a love story of its own.   I see an immersed, drunk father, who lost his wife giving birth to their last child and is the provider of four children, who is more concerned about a storm than concentrating on the dynamism of his children.   I will, definitely, keep you informed of the metamorphosis of this story, "Salvage the Bones", by our final powerful woman of the week, Ms. Jesmyn Ward.

The First Feminist: Sexual Difference

ANTIGONE



CREON

And thou didst indeed dare to transgress that law?

ANTIGONE

Yes; for it was not Zeus that had published me that edict; not such are the laws set among men by the justice who dwells with the gods below; nor deemed I that thy decrees were of such force, that a mortal could override the unwritten and unfailing statutes of heaven. For their life is not of to-day or yesterday, but from all time, and no man knows when they were first put forth.

Not through dread of any human pride could I answer to the gods for breaking these. Die I must,-I knew that well (how should I not?)-even without thy edicts. But if I am to die before my time, I count that a gain: for when any one lives, as I do, compassed about with evils, can such an one find aught but gain in death?

So for me to meet this doom is trifling grief; but if I had suffered my mother's son to lie in death an unburied corpse, that would have grieved me; for this, I am not grieved. And if my present deeds are foolish in thy sight, it may be that a foolish judge arraigns my folly.

This week, the class assignment was to conclued Sophocles' three great playwrights with analyzing "Antigone".   What an awesome experience for me to have read, reveiwed, and related to this powerful playwright.   Antigone stood up for her beliefs as a sister, a woman, and a god-fearing individual.   By her stance in her beliefs, at a time when women were submissive, accommodating, and meek, she became, to me, the first feminist.   Antigone sought assistance from her sister, Ismene, to help with the task of simply burying her brother.   But Ismene was the typical woman of that time, afraid, submissive, and accommadating to men and their laws.  Ismene refused to help in the burial of her own brother because of the new law initiated by Creon, their uncle and new ruler of Thebes, that no one morn over or bury the body of Polynices, brother of Antigone and Ismene, son of Oedipus, and nephew of Creon, who fought against the city of Thebes, and if so, would be put to death.   Creon thought of Polynices as a traitor and his body should not have a proper burial and his corpse should rot in the sun for the animals to eat.   This act would show all citizen of Thebes what happens to traitors of HIS city.   But Antigone saw it different.   This act of an improper burial was a disrespect to her brother, her family, and the gods.   Antigone defied the law, buried her brother and was sentenced to death.  

But not before the very confrontational debate with Creon.   This debate is what makes this playwright so powerful.   Antigone stood up for her right to bury her brother, to disobey a man-made law, and to honor the gods, for which she felt she would rather be put to death than to give up her god-given rights. HOW AWESOME.   The class, of four groups, had to each summarize an article on Antigone.  My group summarized the article "In Excess: The Body and the Habit of Sexual Diference" by Rosalyn Diprose.  This very complex article was filled with repesentation of sexual difference in ethical life.   The use of Hegel's own account of habits, by which the body becomes a sign of the self.   Although, reading this article was quite complicated, at first, our group managed to enjoy the class discussion and summary of the Diprose writing.   Some of the interesting concepts gathered was the many meanings of the body.   The body represented the physical body, society as a whole, and the individual within society.  It was stated in the article, "the body is the community's work of art and mode of expression.   And, in representing the will of all, the body becomes other than itself".   Our group was astounded as if a light went off, at the sophisticated work of words.  The group was enriched at the abstract use of the mind and body and the correlation to the story of Antigone's awakening and how she transcends into her own.   Diprose believes that Hegel's theory of thesis, antithesis, synthesis, would not interfuse for a time when femininity signified a difference which was more than the other side of man. What a great experince for me, analyzing history.

A week with Oedipus

     This week in World Literature, we studied literature written by Sophocles.  The first piece was Oedipus- the King and second piece was Oedipus at Colonus.  Oedipus- the King dealt with prophesy and fate, shame and guilt, truth and lies, and also, sight and blindness.  As a child, it was the gods that said through prophesy that Oedipus would kill his father and lay with his mother.  So his parents injured his ankles and got rid of him. But the climax of the story is that fate happened and he eventually killed his father and layed with his mother. Having realized that the man he thought was his father was not, but was the man riding a chariot outside of town that he actually killed, in defense. Also the woman giving to him for his great works, to which he had children, was his mother, Oedipus blinded himself, out of shame and guilt.

The city of Thebes was suffering plague and death until the man that killed the king was avenged, Oedipus was kicked out of the city because of the horrible crime committed and the shame he had brought to his family and city.

This was a interesting piece of literature.  It was very entertaining. Reading literature is all new for me.   When I was younger and in school, literature was boring and I just didn't feel the need to read such spiritless material.  Oh how wrong I was.  I have come to realized the importance of ancient literature and how relevent it is to today's culture. It is the a light came on in my spirit and I cannot wait to get to the next piece of literature to be given to see what history unveils to me.  Because reading the playwrights of classical greek text is still alittle confusing to me, I have found youtube to be quite helpful. As I read the literary work, I follow along with the video.  This process has been a great aid to not only my comprehension of the written work but the imagery of the authors intent.   I was able to put myself in Oedipus's shoes, the shock of hearing the prophesy from others and then realizing that it has already happened.  The shame and guilt he felt, I felt.

      I, then, followed by reading Oedipus at Colonus. This playwright was a continuation.  Years after Oedipus being banished from the place where he ruled and had many great memories, he was now begging for food, blind, and had to live with the shame and gulit of his past.  Being lead by one of his daughters ( and sister), was lead once again by prophesy to a sacred place to die. As if the gods were apologizing for the life he had to live.  Now, it was about redemption.  Where ever his body was laid to rest would be protected and blessed. WOW! I don't think I would want that kind of redemption for a life of HELL. But he was the ruler of a nation, had a beautiful wife and children, fame, and power. But to be stripped, shamed, and belittled for the rest of his life, AND then BE granted atonement for such a life. No, that ok.  I personally don't believe in fate.  I believe that we are given choice by GOD to make our own future. But for the sake of good story-telling, I really enjoyed them both.  Now, on to Anigone....

The Uniformis

"The Uniformis"

As the day became night

Chaos again, awoke by harsh

Another thought to become permanent, gone. The weeping sound is familiar

As the full moon, pierce through, upon the staring eyes of confusion,

Curiousity takes over and fronting, he followed.

Stillness reached, except for the smell   of  lavender and the Nile waters, eastward.

As he sat with the tree, there was sound, but not in the ears.

Imitating the sound, with closed eyes for clarity,

With even and calm breath,

Time passes.  His head dropped, as to have no neck.

As the eyes only of consciousness rose,

No moon, no Nile waters, only the smell of lavender is with him.

SHE came, as if he had called HER.

HER hair, pass HER feet, as linen draped and slightly a drift.

HER eyes, as the moon itself, HER bosom full.

As SHE came closer, grace

And with no words spoken, SHE sang harmony

Serenity was upon him.

His consciousness envisioned his bearer, in a union,

Happy, joyous, and free.

He could see laughter, not tears.

He woke with the tree and dusk upon him, ran, back to the familiar.

Days later, in the middle of the city of Jordan,

Chatter from the circle of voices, looking East.

Like the Sun, HE appeared.

New and unfamiliar, closer HE approached the boy

And his nurturer in conversation.

Her eyes like the moon, cheeks of blush, body communicating  a language not of words.

The boy uncertain of the feeling of comfort tarried home with his beloved

As they set up for supper,

A plate, a cup, for an empty chair, he pondered.

Her face, anomalous, a smile, her blow high, and pleasant humming.

A strike at the door, she moves with grace approaching.

HE, the Sun, the new, here, the boy questioned himself.

Laughter is the sound,

So pleasant.

As the boy slumber, the smell of lavender passes,

The moon rests upon his sight, harmony abides, tout de suite

He appraised,  
SHE answered.