For those of you who missed this round of presentations, you missed a very interesting mind game. Want to see why it was so entertaining??
The Mathematics Of ...
TAKE A TEST
Follow the instructions! NO PEEKING AHEAD! Do the following exercise, guaranteed to raise an eyebrow. There's no trick or surprise. Just follow these instructions, and answer the questions one at a time and as quickly as you can!
Think of a number from 1 to 10
Multiply that number by 9
If the number is a 2-digit number, add the digits together
Now subtract 5
Determine which letter in the alphabet corresponds to the number you ended up with (example: 1=a, 2=b, 3=c,etc.)
Think of a country that starts with that letter
Remember the last letter of the name of that country
Think of the name of an animal that starts with that letter
Remember the last letter in the name of that animal
Think of the name of a fruit that starts with that letter
Are you thinking of a Kangaroo in Denmark eating an Orange?
The Magus by John Fowler is filled with mythology. Not only are some of the characters based off of mythological gods but also the story itself intertwines with the theory of the myths. The Main character Nicholas Urfe meets the strange but interesting Maurice Conchis while he is teaching in Greece. This meeting, though in the beginning is believed to be by chance, takes Nicholas’ life and turns it around and takes him through a life changing reality trip. Throughout his visits to the island Bouranis, where Conchis lives, Nicholas meets many of the characters that Conchis has at his house to take Nicholas on his journey. This journey is all about finding the truth about the inner self and attempting to destroy the monster lurking within his own consciousness. It is also a perfect example of the hero pattern, you will see this through: separation, initiation, and transformation.
If you think about the way in which the whole story began Nicholas’s character was very selfish, greedy and hopeless. He was a womanizer like most of the Greek gods, and the women in the story fell victim to his own selfish cravings. He used them to fill his inner desire because he could not handle his own feelings and emotions otherwise. This act is similar to that of Zeus the Greek god who is known as the “father of the gods and men,” Zeus was known for changing forms and seducing women. For Nicholas women were just there for a piece of happiness rather then as a companion for life. This is the nature of freedom and the beginning of a separation. Maurice Conchis set boundaries and guides for Nicholas to get through the maze; he confused his mind and questioned truth. The gods were notorious for changing things, mostly their appearance, but they did have their minds set to get what they so desired.
What then is desire? It can come in the form of love, infatuation, craving and lust. Nicholas fell “in love” with the actress who played Lily, Julie and then a doctor during the trial. This woman deceived him into thinking that she was on his side then she would change and say that he didn’t trust her. She made him believe that he was supposed to help her escape, but at the same time she also said that she loved Conchis because he had helped her. She is a mirror of Nicholas himself. His inner self could not understand what this game was all about but he was hooked by it and continued to come back and play. Even in mythology the heroes go through trials that initiate them into the role of a hero and through these trials they change into a new and better person, however if they chose not to learn from their experience they are doomed to repeat it until they do find a way out. This is how our character makes it out of the game set before him. He is given different paths and choices to make and they continue to put them in front of him until he can no longer continue. At the end of the trial that Conchis puts on for Nicholas he mentions the Othello situation. More specifically he says, “That we have no choice of play or role. It is always Othello. To be is, immutably, to be Iago” (Fowles, 531).
~ “In Othello, it is Iago who manipulates all other characters at will, controlling their movements and trapping them in an intricate net of lies. He achieves this by getting close to all characters and playing on their weaknesses while they refer to him as "honest" Iago, thus furthering his control over the characters” (Wikipedia*).
This is exactly what Conchis did to Nicholas and then in return Nicholas did the same thing. They would glean information from the other characters and then use it against each other and tell the other what they wanted them to know and left them at that until another character stepped out and said something about it. This whole sneaky game is the downfall of a hero. So many of the stories about the gods are full of deception and trickery. Mothers would trick children into killing the father, they would spy on others to find the mystery of their actions, and they would change form to trick women. The Magus explores all of these realms through the tricks and unraveling of each one of the players. Nicholas has to deal with the confusion of knowing whether Julie/ Lily is really on his side, which turns on him in the end because she is just a player in the game. He deals with the grief of losing Alison to her “suicide” and then he has to get over his guilt. These trials are what change him and transform him. After the trial and getting terminated from the school he returns to London and finds Alison still alive and apart of the whole scheme. She doesn’t seem to believe that he has changed at all and rightly so because of his deception.
As the reader we are not given a happy ending or even a conclusive ending. We are left dangling, wondering if Alison forgives him one more time or if she finally realizes Nicholas is a lost cause. The funny thing is, the reader actually does know the ending of the story. We have all been here before we just have to remember. We have heard this story a thousand times: boy meets girl, boy pushes girl away, boy learns a valuable lesson, boy begs girl back. You can even reverse the roles and say that the girl takes the boy for granted and asks him to forgive her. Everyday a mythological story is retold. We never seem to learn that we just replay the scenes the gods love the most. Dromenon, “ the thing that is done, drama.” This is life, we construct the plot without realizing it and we are the actors in our own story. We befriend the people that fulfill the roles we want in our life, we date the love that we most want or feel we are worthy of, and we betray the people that get in the way of our plans. People have been doomed to follow this pattern since we lost contact with the gods. Now we just have to put up with it. We survive our trials or we give up our lives because it is to detrimental to our soul. The Magus is an important text to understand the roles we play ourselves, we don’t like to admit playing the role of Nicholas Urfe, but we all end up in that situation one way or another. This is the result of being deceitful, greedy, and self-absorbed. The only way to atone for selfish acts is to purify, out with the old in with the new and a new cycle begins from separation> initiation> metamorphosis.
I have to say I was very entertained by the performance on December 6th 2011. I was able to watch and listen to fellow classmates and a well loved professor dedicate the evening to the birthday of the King James Bible and Shakespeare's Tempest. I found it specifically entertaining when Dr. Sexson and Joel battled it out about version. Dr. Sexson with the King James version naturally and Joel with a modern nontraditional version. They argued it out and it just shows how little our generation's appreciation for great literature really is. Most times we look at poetry or writing that has "thine" "thou" and "shalt nots" in it and turn it away. This is a fairly common mistake that young people make. They seem to think that if they cannot immediately understand it that it is not worth their time. This was also expressed during our individual presentations on Tuesday when Andrew said that because he was in engineering that he didn't read books "like that". Such is the loss of young minds. If you do not develop your mind to understand the language in the Old English literature how can you appreciate any book of today. In my creative writing class with Ben Leubner we explored differing variations of poetry and some of it is very difficult to write and some of it has no form at all. Just having to have to write like that helps open your mind to the older classical literature. Seeing as writing and reading in the classical style is so "difficult" for this generation it is as if we have to learn a new variation of language. "You taught me language, and my profit on't Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you For learning me your language!" - William Shakespeare, The Tempest, 1.2
So with our group project we came up with the idea that if myth today is what you want to know we are going to give it to you. We had a difficult time trying to figure out what we were going to do for our presentation and at first we were just going to do pictures and then we decided to go live! This was by far one of the funnest group projects I have ever had the pleasure of working on. Our group had issues getting together at the same time because of its large size but we finally got it together and made it happen. We decided on togas because of the tradition of togas and Greek Mythology and then it evolved into themed togas to represent gods. I became Zeus and took on the role of the cloud a form used for seduction. Danielle took on the barbie mode and became Persephone and she pulled off her role perfectly. We had Theresa become Dorothy. Bailey became the rambunctious hunter Artemis. She hunted everyone in the bar and on the streets with her her mad skills and lightened the mood for everyone around us. Mr. Quentin played Hercules who was the hero of our group and man did he do a good job. Though one of the women he tried to woo was less then impressed we were proud of his attempts. Abby got to be the cow IO, she was sweet and full of zest as she scribbled her name in the snow and allowed the camera to send the message to her long lost family. Last but not least there was Eric, he became Hades in his flame toga and assumed the role of god of the underworld. This being said we all tromped down the yellowbrick road aka Main street and had a jolly good time explaining mythology to people, who actually already knew the answer but had to be reminded. We had some good laughs from some of the answers and then we got some good answers that we werent expecting. Overall we enjoyed the affects of Dyonisis and the good bozemanite people who put up with our shenanigans and mayhem. Thank you group members for letting this project be a blast!
So Even though it has been a little while since this lecture, I enjoyed the clip from the movie Dead Man with Jonny Depp and it intrigued me enough that I watched it myself. I dont know what I was really expecting but this movie was very interesting, and as Dr. Sexon has said before it "entertained us." This movie allows the viewer the chance to get to know 2 characters. One is William Blake, he receives a job offer and follows it only to have his position filled and his life taken from his hands. He takes on the role of a wayward traveler with no place to go and any hope of getting back to where he belongs destroyed. Then character number 2 comes onto the scene. This one is Nobody. Nobody, once an outcast of his tribe, becomes the hero in the story. He tries to nurse the wounds of William Blake physically and mentally as he helps him on his journey. This movie was great, though the ending was kind of sad because both characters die it was intriguing to watch the 2 paths unfold. One dealt with rejection well and the other lost everything because of it.
Every year on December 24th my family and I would bundle up and go to grandma and grandpa's house. We would make turkey and listen to stories. Our family was closest on this night, Christmas Eve. Everyone would stop fighting and Grandpa would read us a story something like this:
'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled down for a long winter's nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below, When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name; "Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!" As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky, So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack. His eyes -- how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow, And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow; The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread; He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose; He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!
I was thinking about finding OZ in Bozeman and I remembered that there is a store on Main street that is perfect for it. The Ruby Slipper is a shoe/accessory boutique that caters to womens need for fashion and want to look amazing.
"The bird flew to Memphis, where it dropped the sandal from high in the air onto the pharaoh's lap as he was judging people's disputes out in the open. The Pharaoh saw that it was a beautiful sandal. He sent men all over Egypt to look for the woman it belonged to." pg 271 Even in mythology a shoe can play an important role, this sounds similar to the story of Cinderella which is a childrens fairytale. Shoes, so often taken for granted, worn out, keeper of the sole, and essential to life. How can we ever live without them :)
22.9.11
"That happiness is an early symptom of misfortune, that 'inherent' within happiness is the power to bring on misfortune, above all through the agency of resentment, whether of men or gods, is a vision that was to persist among the Greeks when almost all others had faded. Yet they did want to be happy." pg 262
How one can live without happiness is beside me. I feel like whenever I get down in the dumps my whole life turns upside down. I have to find someone to have a good time with. Not only does my happiness affect my whole life but it ends up affecting other's lives as well because if I am not happy you can tell and it puts a damper on the mood. I like to be happy and I enjoy making others happy.
Human love is good-will, affection, promoting the happiness of others and finding joy in their happiness.~ Immanuel Kant
In the beginning there was no earth to live on, but up above, in the Great Blue, there was a woman who dreamed dreams.
One night she dreamed about a tree covered with white blossoms, a tree that brightened up the sky when its flowers opened but that brought terrible darkness when they closed again. The dream frightened her, so she went and told it to the wise old men who lived with her, in their village in the sky.
"Pull up this tree," she begged them, but they did not understand. All they did was to dig around its roots, to make space for more light. But the tree just fell through the hole they had made and disappeared. After that there was no light at all, only darkness.
The old men grew frightened of the woman and her dreams. It was her fault that the light had gone away forever. So they dragged her toward the hole and pushed her through as well. Down, down she fell, down toward the great emptiness. There was nothing below her but a heaving waste of water and she would surely have been smashed to pieces, this strange dreaming woman from the Great Blue, had not a fish hawk come to her aid. His feathers made a pillow for her and she drifted gently above the waves.
But the fish hawk could not keep her up all on his own. He needed help. So he called out to the creatures of the deep. "We must find some firm ground for this poor woman to rest on," he said anxiously. But there was no ground, only the swirling, endless waters.
A helldiver went down, down, down to the very bottom of the sea and brought back a little bit of mud in his beak. He found a turtle, smeared the mud onto its back, and dived down again for more.
Then the ducks joined in. They loved getting muddy and they too brought beakfuls of the ocean floor and spread it over the turtle's shell. The beavers helped-- they were great builders-- and they worked away, making the shell bigger and bigger.
Everybody was very busy now and everybody was excited. This world they were making seemed to be growing enormous! The birds and the animals rushed about building countries, the continents, until, in the end, they had made the whole round earth, while all the time they sky woman was safely sitting on the turtle's back.
And the turtle holds the Earth up to this very day.
"The capacity for control, the ability to dominate oneself, to govern things, the sharpness of the eye, the sober choice of the means to achieve an end- all these things detach the mind from those powers that came before Athena, give us the impression of using them without being used by them." pg 230 Athena is officially my favorite goddess. She kicks some serious ass, but can still be kind. She is described as a "protecting presence" and overall she is an excellent warrior. She reminds me of Elizabeth Swan in Pirates of the Caribbean, Elastigirl in the Incredibles, and Princess Leia in Star Wars. Athena can be liked to so many of today's female movie star heroes. Not only does she posses the brute warrior capabilities but she is also said to be very desirable. Sounds like the kind of character we like in our movies today. She was powerful and noble, good qualities for a goddess!
" It was male then that acted. But only the female had the metis, the intelligence that preordains action in the silence of the mind." pg 202 This section of the book lets the reader in on the fact that the women helped the gods get their revenge on each other. Not only do I find this rather entertaining, but I think it's funny that it is still the truth. Women have always been behind all the great ones. One o my favorite quotes in the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is "The man may be the head of the house, but the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head however she wants!" Another is "Behind every great man is an even better woman." For centuries women were considered below the man, that might have been true, however I think that women have always been the ones who have helped make the great men. Needless to say i think it is great that even the goddesses helped the gods.
6.9.11
"It showed Leda beneath the wings of a swan. It showed Danae under a shower of gold. It showed Asteria in the clutches of an eagle. And it showed Erigone, who Dionesus tricked with his grapes. Not a word more does Ovid give us. But out of a sense of defiance, Arachne's cloth does include only stories that would bring shame to the god. Erigone, then was deceived and seduced by the powerful fruit. Other authors tell us that Dionesus and Erigone had a child: his name was Staphylus, "bunch of grapes," but this was also the name of the child other writers attribute to Dionesus and Adriadne." pg 38 I chose this quote for a couple of reasons: 1) because it shows the importance of name, Staphylus meaning bunch of grapes goes back to the way he was conceived. Not only is this important to history for his parents but it also gives individuals a way of knowing part of their meaning. This process of name giving has ceased to exist in today's culture instead of the beauty of what's in a name we get names like Coco, Summer, Cooper, etc. 2) I like that the description of the pictures shown on the cloth are those that "bring shame to the gods." So much emphasis is put on gods being just, right, divine, and omnipotent, however, Greek god mythology does show that they could still be sinister, deceptive, and ultimately wrong.
This selection of reading material is altogether beautiful but it also shows us that even though this mythology was written many years ago and told before writing ability had come to be, our society hasn't morally come very far or gone as wrong as most people think. Society and culture can be deemed just as bad as our ancestors and can show that we don't learn from our mistakes. The gods made mistakes and humans make mistakes, but we still can show love, pleasure and enjoy life to the fullest despite those with selfish intentions.
