One day or another

What is irony? Irony is the incongruity of what is expected and what actually happens. Why I am writing more on this weird comedy? It is for the simple fact that I encounter this motherfucker of an allegory almost every single day of my life. Some days more than others obviously, so what was it about today that made it so disgustingly ironic? In this globalized age where no one is free of personal invasion I received a message from my only love. The one that breaks my heart every time I think of her. This message was pertaining to, what they hell I am doing this disappointing summer? “Nothing just wishing I was with you”. “Do you have a place in Montana this summer I could live at”? “No fuck not until august”. This is just something I guess that will always happen between her and me. Irony good or bad maybe something good will happen right. I finish this message though with the beautiful thought on the possibilities of life. Maybe something will happen maybe nothing; at least the thought of myself still breezes around her psyche.

Notorious B.I.G the one and only King Of New York

"It was all a dream i used to read word up magazine" Juicy

Finding Classics In Everything

As this semester comes to a close I just wanted to talk briefly about how after taking this course I am able to find examples of classical literature on almost a daily bases. From the Homeric Hymns to the Golden Ass the eternities blow in the wind everyday and everywhere I go. Walking down main street I see a joker playing a trick on his older brother, I see a mother nurturing her beautiful young daughter. I look to the gutter, I see the headline of some young 14 year old girl committing suicide in the name of true love, I walk into a bar to order a drink and what do I see a bunch of men arguing over what love really is. Over across the bar at that same moment there are women talking about how they are not going to sleep with their men until they stop being selfish pricks. Walking by cactus records there are about 15 teenybopper girls drooling over a poster of the hottest new rocker on the scene. This all happens almost in the first hour of walking through down town Bozeman one of the most far removed places from ancient Greece. I ask my self where is the Metamorphoses and where is the Golden Ass. I realize that I am the Metamorphoses of my self, coming to downtown Bozeman 6 months ago I would not have been able to spot any of these classical characteristics now they swim in my head with infinite questions of life. As for the Golden Ass, I started to think about what it truly meant to be a Golden Ass. Being a Golden Ass is just a period of time where you are ostracized and rejected from a community; having this happen to a person though helps gain new insight from just simply listening. Everyone at one time another has been a Golden Ass. Being an Ass is having the ability to learn and be a better person. So what I have profited from all this. In probably the most simplistic answer to this question Classical Foundation Of Literature has been one of most enjoyable classes I have ever taken. A more thoughtful answer would be the pleasure of learning about great literature. Finally my most thoughtful answer is the ability to recognize the eternities in more modern literature and even more importantly in everyday life. All of theses answers are answers I stand by regarding the course. I loved taking Classical Foundations Of Literature and have been recommending it to anyone that has the opportunity to take the course.

Note to Dr. Sexson
Thank you for a great semester. You are one of the most inspiring teachers and people I have ever had the privilege to meet. Thank you so much for time, company and passion for teaching

Blog About Jon Orsi’s Blog

In response to Jon Orsi’s blog I will ask firstly how would I describe Jon Orsi. Jon Orsi is a fun loving son of a gun that likes wearing Carhartt pants, crying in front of beautiful sunsets and a nice friendly game of polo at the country club on Sunday afternoons. All and all though he is a great kid and a good companion so that’s why I thought I should comment on one of his blogs and give my altering opinion of the story of Pygmalion

All right time for serious business, I don’t agree with Orsi when he says, “that the story of Pygmalion is false information”. The reason for this is my own personal view of the subject matter. I feel like Orsi interpreted the story Pygmalion wrong because of the underlying story of the metamorphoses. Even though the movie “Weird Science” told a very similar story to the one f Pygmalion I feel that it was in a very different context. The movie “Weird Science” was geared toward crazed 80’s teens wearing t-shirts with sideways neon pink triangles on them; Pygmalion’s story rests in the book of changes with a far deeper metaphor than simply, boy can’t girl, boy make girl, girl teaches boy to be cool, boy get real girl. The story of Pygmalion to me had more to do with the redemptive power of art. Pygmalion created a structure so beautiful and with so much of his passion that it came to life. Great art comes to life and immortalizes the artist. That is why do not believe that this is the sad story of some dirty old man. It is a story that is intertwined in book that talks about bodies becoming other bodies and having immortality through beautiful art. So on that note I am going to leave this as it is and wait for Orsi to write a blog about my blog

Little Gidding T.S Eliot

I just finished reading this poem for the second time. I have a fair amount of things to say about the poem but not enough to truly do it justice but I figured it is better to talk about something rather than nothing. T.S Eliot in this poem is clearly channeling Ovid. He opens the poem by talking about midwinter spring and closes the poem by talking about how you always end up where you started in life. Well just the other day I wrote about Pythagoras and his philosophy of seasonal changes and a lifecycles. Midwinter spring is the season were a being has died and is born again. I found this really strange that two days after doing a blog about this I find myself doing another one. Another thing that I found to be a channel of Ovid was how he would always come back to talking about fire and water. I believe he tried to do this because fire and water in the metamorphoses represented part of the main components of the earth and life. For T.S Eliot though I feel he tired to talk about water as the beginning of life and fire as the end but in circulatory way. Where I came up with crazy notion was that he said that fire was the language of the dead. I know this isn’t much to go on but I have not read the poem enough to go on accurate assessments. Anyway I know this a very lazy interpretation of the poem but while I was writing this I started to feel more inclined to attack one of Jon Orsi’s blogs and blog about that. So I hope at least I put down accurately at least a couple of the metaphors

A quote to live by Perhaps???

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww! (Jack Kerouac).

This quote just popped into my head after long hours of trying to compile what I thought would be appropriate for a blog. I originally thought my final blog of the night was going to be about T.S Eliot’s poem “Little Gidding” I decided to save this particular blog for tomorrow and write about a quote that has had signifagent importance in my life. The book “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac changed my life and turned me on to literature, so I figured for at least one of my blogs I should talk about it. At the time I had first read “On The Road” I was in sort of a pitfall in my life. I had just been kicked out of my high school and was sent to a reformatory school in Connecticut. As you can imagine this didn’t really sit to well with a high school senior destined for the best year of his life. I was assigned to read this book for my English class; I instantly connected with the mad man life style Kerouac was talking about. Prior to my reform school days I had been on my own for the past 3 years of my life due to parenting circumstances. My life was literarily “On The Road”. I knew after reading “On The Road” that this crazy son of a bitch was my hero. Kerouac allowed me to come to terms with the fact that I am a madman destined for a life that was impractical and uncommon. Road life is meant for only a few and I know I certainly meet that mold. So what do I gain from reading this quote now. Christ! I know I am still a ranting lunatic but in a far more subtle and calmed downed way. I have read more and I have learned more than having “On The Road” as my single bible. I look at it now more as something that represents a certain time and place. Coming back to this quote it reminded me of my on going metamorphoses. I am quite different coming back to this quote. I know this book is not where I started in my life but watching it change proves to me that my life is changing. As a salute to one of my favorite books and something that meant the world to me two years ago I am ending this blog with a farewell.
I am tired as hell and can’t write anymore

Visual Representation of Cupid and Psyche

For this assignment I choose to do something a little for my visual representation. Looking through other people’s blogs to see what they did for their assignment I saw that most people choose to visually represent Cupid and Psyche in older pieces of work. I thought this was interesting but I was more interested in seeing Cupid and Psyche represented in a newer piece of art. Searching the Internet I was able to find an encyclopedia of Cupid and Psyche art. As I was scrolling through this encyclopedia I found a blown glass piece that was very abstract and like nothing I had ever seen before. This piece of art was created by Robert Carlson in 2001. I really could not find any articles on this artist online so I don’t know his background. Regardless, to me this piece is very unique and genuine especially after the many years of different artist creating art on Cupid and Psyche.

The Irony Of Athenian Women

Throughout mankind’s existence on earth we have always depended on women in one way or another. Whether this notion is represented as a mother figure, a daughter, a peace bearer or an affectionate lover, women have always been essential to the survival of human civilization. Even though the Athenians thought women were inferior to men they still recognized this necessity about women and celebrated them by acclaiming a young girl of a very prominent background as the hope of a whole nation.

So with this undoubted appraisal of women what exactly is the irony of the Athenian women? Well the irony starts off by how women were viewed by the males of Athenian society. The views of the people in charge of Athens were that women were entitled to be a threat to human civilization with violence and promiscuity. These claims however were really not based on any factual evidence. They were only based on the struggle for men to hold all the power in society. How this affected women though was that it treated them to a life of luxury. Like people of our day and age with mental conditions, women lived above the law. If there was a case of adultery in Athenian society it was not the woman’s fault. They treated an act of adultery as the male’s fault. Society would just give the woman that was involved in the incident the benefit of the doubt because they were seen as not as intelligent as men and were more prone to promiscuice behavior. This were we start to unfold the irony Athenian women. Women in Athenian society lived far more secure and enjoyable lives due to their necessity in the world. Even though they were looked at as inferior they enjoyed a life of security over a life of freedom. They were of course handed this life of security on a silver platter because an Athenian male without a wife was not taken seriously by society.

What I thought was interesting about this notion of a lack freedom in exchange for security is that there is still remnants of this ideology in our own society. Think of the reasons a women decides to marry someone; sometimes it’s out of true love sometimes it is out of sexual pleasure and sometimes it’s even for intellectual stimulization but sadly a lot of the time it is for the ability to go max out a husbands credit card on 5th Avenue in New York. So why do men after thousands of year fail to realize this? It is do to the simple fact that through having a wife they feel less ostersized by society. History is just a story that repeats itself and through classical literature we have the ability to understand the eternities and realize that what is going on now is a story that has already been told.

When I think of the story of Daedalus and Icarus my pleasant mood plummets faster than the actual fall of Icarus. What I found to be the most important allegory in this story was Daedalus’s wings. The reason I found his wings to be the most important out of these allegorical things was the pain of an artist represented through his work. An artist a lot of the time can be interpreted as a tortured soul. In Daedalus’s artistry we see directly how his passionate mastery consequently causes him to be a tortured soul. I actually had to read a poem for my English 123 class about a poet’s depiction of the Deadalus and Icarus story by W. H. Auden entitled “Musee des Beaux Arts”. He begins the poem by saying “About suffering they were never wrong. The Old Masters: how well they understood it’s human position”, he really believes this is a story of suffering and nothing less. This story of suffering fulfills him in a way; it is a story that has remained fresh for almost two thousand years.

What do we derive from this suffering though? Possibly one point that Ovid’s trying to make is that suffering as an artist comes from trying to rival the god’s skills. We certainly see this represented in the story of Archane and Minerva, is not possible this is a component of the story Daedalus and Icarus. The suffering in both these stories from “The Metamorphoses” adds to the redemptive power of art. So perhaps suffering is essential to art and the more suffered an artist the more redemptive the art.

Passage of Time

In Ovid’s metamorphoses I feel that the strongest statement to describe the overall message of the book comes from Pythagoras. He says on page 520 “for all things flow; all things are born to change their shapes. And time itself is a river, on an endless course. I am pretty sure that people chose this as their favorite lines of the book for class discussion so I am not going to really dig into this quote to much, I just thought it would explain some of what I am going to talk about. What I want to talk about is Pythagoras’s idea of comparing a lifecycle to seasonal changes. I thought this was one of the most interesting concepts from the book because I have never really thought about a life from death to birth compared to spring, summer, fall and winter. When I first read this idea I really didn’t think about it too much because I was hung up on Pythagoras’s other philosophies on life. Reading over this again it started to make sense to me as one of the most truthful notions about life and the earth that I have ever read.

For me my philosophy on life is agreeable to Pythagoras’s; so when he talks about the earth being alive and bodies becoming other bodies it is almost like reading a factual text. Pythagoras describes the earth like a mother; a mother that gives life to all it’s creatures. It is through his description of springtime where we start to understand this as a truthful statement about mother earth. Spring is the season of newly born's and the first stage of life; like a womb the earth in the season of spring provides a budding seed with the sustenance to maintain life and let it grow. This season represents the first season of a child; it is the season of life where it is allowed to grow and be comforted by it’s mother. Summertime is the season of power in a human’s life. It is the season of strength and beauty. No longer needing the help of mother this is the season where young people are forced to decide for themselves and choose their own path in life. This is the most defining season in a human’s life. The season after summer is, as we all know autumn. This is the season in between youth and age it is also the season of mildness. For us it is the season of the dreaded middle aged. This is the season where we watch are hair like falling leaves disappear from our once beautiful head. We should not dread any of the seasons though; each serves as a purpose life. The season of autumn is where we can still be what we once were but in a relaxed way. As autumn transcends into winter we finally come to old age. Old age is a time of wisdom but also a time of death what once were green robust leaves are now dead or white. This season seems like a time of hopelessness. What were once young vibrant people are now just relics of what they once were. This though is not a depressing time. We have to remember old age is just a period of time before metamorphoses. The quote I choose at the beginning of the blog I feel is a beautiful representation of the notion of bodies becoming other bodies. We should not fear death, because in all its feared blackness a sun will rise on a beautiful spring day

5 conflicts of Antigony depicted through Holden Caulfield

I would like to pick up some other elements of classical literature I found in this novel. Catcher in The Rye is essentially a tragedy until the end of the book when Holden finds himself. And with this eerie sense of tragedy foreshadowing the book I was able to pick up the five main conflicts of Antigony in Holden Caulfield’s life. First man against society, this is completely apparent throughout the whole novel. Holden Caulfield absolutely despises anything that he see’s that meets societal conformity. Or at least he appears that way he is secretly denying his desire to fit in. This is why his final outcome is ironic, he is happy and he is seeking professional help in the Mecca of phonies Hollywood. Living and the dead is a little more of a deep-rooted conflict in Holden’s life. It has been affecting him in a strange way ever since his younger brothers death. Holden feels very corrupted by the absence of his younger brother because in a sense he feels like it his fault and that it his duty to protect children from the evil world. But since this hole in his heart has affected him for such a long time he becomes semi suicidal and even dead on the inside alienated from the living until the catcher of course is caught. Another very apparent conflict is young and old. Holden’s original philosophy is that young people are the ultimate virtue in life and that the adult world is plagued with to many evils to even give up one’s youth. This to me is Holden’s main conflict in life. Holden’s man and women conflict actually only really occurs on one occasion in this book. It’s between him and his summer hook up Sally Hayes. She represents to Holden the queen of phonies but through his ironic man and society conflict he loves her at the same time. The man and women conflict creates a raging madness to it’s own extent but when you add all of Holden’s other lunatic qualities you have a recipe for disaster. Holden is in and out of love with this girl in every sentence he speaks with her. She likes him too but not with such a peak, pitfall contrast like Holden. And finally we come to Holden’s perspective of men and the gods. Holden has lost faith or he just has not had time for it. He doesn’t feel he has anything to give grace to and his family was never really that religious. His conflict is that he has not found anything to suggest the presence of god until the end of the novel after all the hell he has gone through. This only occurs after he gets a glimpse of faith through his sister and her love. It seems that through something as wonderful as his sister this story turns from tragedy to redemption. Holden Caulfield’s metamorphoses is in a simplistic statement is “hey there is something better than hating the world for it’s evils and that is loving the world and man kind for what it is”

P.S i chose this pic for the concept of metamorphosis

Summary of friday essay

I have been meaning to write this blog for a while now along with many others so anyway here it goes. After reading J.D Salinger’s novel Catcher in The Rye and some modern interpretations on this particular book I have decided to talk about Holden Caulfield’s metamorphoses through the symbolic structure of the book. I am going to write my final paper on this so this is more of just a quick blog to get my thoughts down.
Holden Caulfield’s character to me is one of the most brilliant depictions of what humanity is. He is nihilistic, existentialist, idealistic, and even in a sense completely false. At the same time he holds his idealistic sense of humanity higher than the rest of his traits; we see this represented through his sister phoebe. His character is so complete that it causes a metamorphosis from beginning to the end. One of the main symbolic images of this novel is Holden’s desire to literally be the catcher in the rye. Which essentially means saving childhood from the evil adult world. Holden comes up with this concept through a poem that Phoebe and him have enjoyed over the years. The lyric that is the essence of Holden’s philosophy is “if a body catch a body”.
Now here is the ironic part about this concept of being the catcher in the rye; that lyric that Holden held so high up is actually wrong. The correct lyric turns out to be “If a body meet a body”. And through his failed attempts at his concept of an ideal life he starts to recognize this irony. He does not get upset though, he looks to his sister to understand this “if a body meet a body” concept. What he realizes through all his struggling in out of ideal states of being is that you have to love the world and man for what it is. There is no point in trying to save it form evil just let the individual find out what it is for themselves. The pitfall through adolescence and into adulthood is what defines a human being so let man meet man but with love. This is the essential metaphor of the book and it is realized through Holden’s Metamorphoses through the brute underworld of New York City.

The Journey

I lost my mind on a mountaintop
Looking up in down I knew it would not stop
Opening my eyelid
I saw where heaven and hell divided

Complete insanity had rushed in
I new I belonged in a godamn Looney bin
It waved and waved
But hell, this fellow was not going to be saved

I heard a flute quietly playing
Just then I knew exactly what Dionysos was saying
He spoke to me while I was stroking the sky
And said young mortal what are you going to do before you die

Letting loose all the conceptions of life I once had
They stampeded across the mountain; I was not at all said
Reborn in the mountain
I looked to the woods to find my fountain

In the darkness of the trees
My soul was burning like a spreading disease
Until, I stumbled into a fair forest muse, I asked what her purpose was?
She looked into my eyes and said young mortal to help you find what you are looking for that’s what a muse does

Walking through the enchanted forest
My heart started to sing of metamorphoses
Right and left my mind started setting
I knew what my purpose was it was the earth that I needed to stop neglecting

From mountain top to forest my journey was complete
I know longer lived a life of greed and deceit

The Metamorphoses of youth


For the assignment that was given last Wednesday I choose lines from the story of Arachne. My quote from this story is “Not all that old age offers is mere chaff: for one, the years bestow experience. Take my advice: it is enough to be supreme among all mortals when you weave and work your wool, but never do compete with an immortal goddess. Go, beseech Minerva’s for the words you spoke; ask humbly and she will forgive you”. I choose this quote for a couple of reasons. The first being that it is an attempt to give insight to youth about life and life’s metamorphoses. Second I enjoyed its ironic context. What I mean by this is that it is a great example of youth being arrogant and not seeing what is really going in a particular time and situation. Ovid makes this example by having Arachne badmouth the god while she is directly talking to the god and not even realizing it. This quote carries the story of this young wool weaver by showing that are lives are fragile and there are consequences to pay for excluding modesty in life. Old age is simply the metamorphoses of youth through wisdom and experience. Arachne realizes this later in the story when she shows that her skills do rival the great goddess. Her over confidents blinds her and for this she becomes severely punished. Learning through pain and struggle are the ultimate life lessons which is why I choose this to express the metamorphoses of youth

The Worlds Redemption Through Ero’s
By John Nay

I choose to write a blog about the story in the metamorphoses Deucalion & Pyrrha because it is the tale of human of redemption in an apocalyptic state. Prior to this story about these two individuals who had an absolute love for justice we learn about Zeus’s aggression toward the world and his reasoning for flooding it. Zeus’s reasoning for flooding the earth was human greed. The gods felt threatened by the mortal’s actions. Humans were coming into the Iron Age and had created a realm of selfishness and tyranny toward the rest of the living things on earth. Zeus by his all-powerful nature felt obliged to rid the beautiful earth of these fowl creatures. With good fortune the two individuals Deucalion & Pyrrha drifted to shore on the Cephisus stream and headed off to pray to the oracle Themis. The great oracle was so moved by their sincerity that she granted their wish of redemption of the human race. There love was so genuine and free of greed that the human race was allowed to endure. Through these two individuals love the world experiences a great metamorphoses. This story is very moving to me because it almost feels like the world is in for an apocalypse. Are greed is raping the earth. We have warning signs such as global warming and never ending violence. The only thing is will there be an act of extreme virtue to save us. Is the human race strong enough o put greed aside and have our own metamorphoses or are we going to be condemned to death.

Invisible

The Invisible Man Blog
By John Nay

This is just a short blog I wanted to do on the concept of stories with in stories. Currently I am reading the novel the invisible man by Ralph Ellison. I have just finished the introduction and I am cracking away at the first chapter. So far it has been a beautiful well-illustrated story about this concept of an invisible man. Anyway in the introduction to this book he talks about a black prisoner of war in WWII and this symbolic idea of being invisible. Being an invisible man has to do with a self-identity struggle that we see in many stories we read. The story of the P.O.W is that he is the highest-ranking American officer struggling with the inherit racism that is all around him. His life is essentially a story within a story that cloaks this man with invisibility. It seems that stories with in stories have a tendency to do this to a person or even a character. I think this concept of an invisible man is really interesting because of the fact that it does relate to the eternities. It relates to almost every story within a story. It makes you wonder weather you really care to know about a person or would you just rather look through as if they are not even there.

The Symposium and love

The Symposium and love
By John Nay

Yet another piece of classical literature read and reflected upon. The symposium is a piece of work that can relate to its readers on many different levels. Through the concept of love through the humor it portrays and even through it’s crude depiction of sexuality. Weather this party actually took place is a question that is up to the scholars which read works like this religiously. My personal opinion about this text is that it was wholly written by Plato. My reason for this will be drawn after I talk about what each member of this party had to say. This party starts off by guests lightly chatting about very common things that any guest would at a party. This conversation is then turned into a more serious conversation when one of the guests decides to talk about Eros or love. Alcohol seems to be the reason for this, once people start to drink more they are more likely to open up epically in a room with the greatest thinkers of the time. The conversation begins with the speech of Phaedra’s; he is a very light speaker in this text he explains that love is the greatest virtue a man and that the greatest army would be one of men and the boys they loved. He feels that love will bring the greatest and most noble virtues out of a man. His speech is short and subtle and moves on quickly to the speech of Pausanias. Pausanias is the first person to bring into light the difference between spiritual love and vulgar love. Vulgar love to him is represented by the goddess Aphrodite while spiritual love is represented by Uranus. Vulgar love in his definition is the love of ones body not soul. An example he gives for this is when a lover takes advantage of a boy before he is old enough to realize what is going on. Spiritual love on the other hand can be seen even externally on a man. A man will do outrageous things when he is in the presence of true spiritual love. The people and the gods will honor him for this; he has shown a true definition of what truly is love. The next speech is given by the doctor that attended the party Eryximacthus. Eryximacthis looks at love as deity of the greatest importance. He explains love as something of compatibility. He uses examples of musicians and even he himself as compatible to what they do. With out this compatibility with the soul love does not exist. Eryximacthis represents the logic behind love in this party. Aristophanes is the next speaker at this social gathering. He explains the mythological story behind love. He explains to the guests that humans where once creature that where male & male, female & female and male & female until Zeus split them in half with a lightening bolts. This why humans long to be with each other. Humans are looking to be whole again, gives us the notion of a soul mate weather it be male or female it doesn’t matter as long as are souls are whole again. This to me is really nice depiction of why love exists but it does satisfy the next speaker Agnation who is a true master of rhetoric. Agathon in his speech mesmerizes his audience with his beautiful dialogue. He begins by talking about Eros the god of love. Eros to Agathon is the happiest god and is forever youthful. The god himself is a perfect example of virtue and is the best guide to lead a person through the world. Although this beautiful speech inspires and mesmerizes everyone in the room Socrates finds many flaws in what Agathon has to say. Through his infamous Socratic method he tears through Agathon’s rhetoric. He makes the point that people who desire love don’t always have it available to them he also makes the point that the people who have it still desire it. Socrates claims that to love something is to always be in possession of it also that love is not necessarily beauty because good things are beauty as well. After arguing with Agathon on theses matters and basically completely shutting him down he tells the story of how he acquired the wisdom of what love is. He uses this character called Diotima for his explanations of what love truly is. Diotima claims love is neither good nor beautiful love is in fact a great spirit that was born the day Aphrodite was born. This spirit links Aphrodite and mortals together. Eros or love ‘s parents were Poros and Penia; Poros meaning resources and Penia meaning poverty. Eros lives an impoverished unbeautiful life with many cunning ability’s that makes him a lover of wisdom. The point Socrates is trying to make is that love is philosophy. Eros lives between wisdom and ignorance that is why he is a lover of wisdom. Another definition of this so-called love is being a lover. To love is to be happy and maintain good things; good will either look beautiful in soul or body that’s why there is a correlation between beauty and love. Love always wants to reproduce beauty weather it is a child or good will. Love can also be defined as a mortal’s immortality. As we learn to love beyond physical attraction we learn than the beauty of our souls are more beautiful than our bodies. The ultimate beauty is the birth of true virtue. After this Alcibiades gives a drunken speech to discredit Socrates that eventually proves Socrates right on so many levels of wisdom. The reason I do not believe this party actually ever happened is because of the order in which people speak. It seems just to lead up to what Socrates has to say. According to what Socrates had to say none of the other speakers where wrong they just did not have a solid definition like Socrates had. Another example is when Alcibiades comes in at the perfect timing to prove Socrates true this to me just to be the clever strategy of Plato. The symposium seems to me just to be a work that Plato wrote to define what he believed to be love. Plato’s well-defined theory of love at the end of this party is something that I truly believe. I really do believe a lover can give birth to true virtue in what he or she is in love with. Love to me is the invocation of the 9 muses. A call and a want for ever lasting beauty for what you are in love with.

The Doors

I am sitting here in my dorm room after just taking the test. My floor is filled with neo hippies that are listening to the band The Doors. My mind is still overwhelmed with this concept of Dionysus and duality of man. In Antgony it is not necessarily the duality of a person per say but the duality of the concept of a tragedy. On one hand you have Creon who represents the old in the conflict of young and old; and then you have Antigony that represents the young. This is a pretty obvious statement to make but it is far more deep than just a few words that shows I have read Steiner. Creon to me is a fine example of hypocritical old fool. In one scene he tells the watchman greed will bring him down if he is not careful but this is exactly Creons demise. He was a selfish old man that saw his life quickly ticking away and decided to act on written laws when he should have searched into his soul to see that the unwritten laws of the earth are more important. On the other hand you have Antigony. She is young, foolish and will act on her deepest desires without haste. She represents an innocence that knows nothing but unwritten laws of the world. They are essentially polar opposites on all the main themes of this play Man & Gods, Living & Dead, Society & Individual, Men & Woman and of course age and youth. Dionysus is a god but also a concept of human nature. In Antigony he is a god that is summoned to earth to settle the tragedy of these characters. In real life Dionysus is a symbol of every day life. Should I walk through one door that represents Antigony or should I walk through the other door that represts Creon. Each is a choice that will ultimately summon Dionysus and bring are demise as we see in Sophocles Antigony. I would like to relate this to the Band The Doors and their lead singer Jim Morison. This is just my own concept but I feel like the band particularly Jim Morrison constantly wrestled with the choice of going through Anitgony’s door or going through Creon’s door. Ultimately both doors are a path to selfishness. Even Antigony’s door is self-centered and comes to a fast reselotution when she decides to open it. Jim Morrison decides to open her door when nearing the end of his life. He chooses immortality through his restless youthfulness. By opening this door he summons Dionysus and is ultimately immortalized.

poem that i wrote today

Lustfully Broken Spring Nights
By John Nay

Warm spring nights in New Hampshire are my favorite memory

In this fair state resides rolling mountains and lush streams that lead into some of the finest lakes a young mans heart could want

A gust of fresh air and a relaxing smoke

Nights in New Hampshire have a certain calm blissful felling to them

A feeling that can only be corrupted by the harshest of things in this world

A woman? yes

The only thing that can mend and destroy a mans heart in the same moment of relative time and space

This particular lady I write about had a way to her that had taunted me for numerous years of my life

Her intriguing blue eyes, her luscious hair, her beautiful smile and even her voice that sung so fair.

I would ask my self every waking moment of my life why a higher power would put a creature so fair on this planet.

Was it to spite me?

No or maybe so

A question that will be left for the eternities.

On a very peculiar spring night my one wish had been granted

It was a random coincidence that randomly rambles me on, on random lonely nights of my life.

Why was she so accepting than so fast to discard me?

Why?

Why?

Fuck I hate that bitch!

But still to this day I love her so.

I guess it’s something that can be easily drowned by a bottle of bourbon

Black thoughtless nights of resolution for 20 bucks

A mans heart can feel content with rolling hills and the beauty that is his fair state

But his state of mind is something quite contrary.

As I finish this little poem I think of my next high

I know it will never match her affection but it will fill the whole in my heart like an empty glass.

Homeric Hymes

Yet another blog post. I admit my first blog was rather lacking but I hope that this next one has a little more sustenance to it. For this blog post I am going to chat about the Homeric Hymns To Demeter and to Hermes. Both of these hymns did reflect many of our modern day tales. As Doc Sex explained how these tales related to our own reality I begin reflecting on my life and how these hymns and metaphors have played a role in shaping my own reality. I will explain more about my life as I write my views on these classic pieces of literature.
To Demeter: this hymn I found had less humor in it than the hymn to Hermes. It was a lot more serious and had tremendous amounts of pain and suffering. First of all I thought it was very apparent that Zeus in the Homeric Hymns is on a constant power trip. Demeter was more powerful than Zeus but was made to have less force because of Zeus’s struggle for superiority. Zeus was even so content that he was supreme that he gave away Demeter’s daughter. This betrayal I feel is a metaphor for the incompetence of men. Zeus not understanding the bond of mother and daughter felt it was just a favor to his brother. Another thing I found quite interesting about this hymn was how Demeter felt so compelled to take care of another child after her own Persephone disappeared. This to me sort of reminded me of when you here a story of a mother losing her child and clinging on to someone else’s child it apparently happens al the time. I do not personally no anything about being a women but this part of the story makes me feel that there is some sort primal instinct that women follow when it comes to children. This to me is something men can never understand and never will understand. The only thing men can really understand about things of this matter is the actual wrath of a woman. When women are truly upset, as I have found it really can be compared to the apocalypse. In the hymn to Demeter she literally tries to start the end of the world and I feel this is one of the main metaphors to this story. The reuniting of mother and daughter in this story is also something that really stuck out to me as well. When they are finally reunited at the end of story the world seems to change for the better. It is a bond only mother and daughter can have. The metaphor for Demeter and Persephone being reunited is a quite visual one because of the correlation of springtime and Persephone being aloud to leave Hades. Demeter to me is one of the biggest insights to the mind of a woman every metaphor I received from this has been true. I can see now how these classics translate into are modern day lives.

To Hermes: This tale is much more masculine and is geared more for understanding the lives of men. Even the story of how Hermes came into this world is a fine display of men being men. This story as do most of these Greek tales comes back to Zeus. Hermes father is Zeus as are many of the gods and goddesses. Zeus is what in modern times is what we call a player or a pimp. He has no problem committing adultery and doing whatever the hell he wants. This is a great metaphor for certain types of men. They really don’t care who they sleep with. Anyway back to Hermes; Hermes was a character that represented the swindler side of masculinity. He was very cocky and deceiving and did as he wished at all times. At the beginning of the story he kills a tortoise to make a lyre. The lyre he posses is sort of like a trophy of his man hood. It is representation of him becoming who he was. This to me is something every man try’s to accomplish they look for trophies to show there accomplishments. Hermes setting the cattle free is a metaphor for him being the king of swindlers and his adolescent misbehaving ways. I know when I was a young boy I caused all sorts of mischief. This mischief usually leads to a great deal of trouble with in a family. We see this when Hermes has conflict with his mother. Mother son conflict usually results disappointment and grief as we see demonstrated in this text. One of the most comical parts of the story of Hermes is when we see the image of this little baby jumping around with a walking stick herding the cattle. Doc Sex talks about how these stories are western literature’s original comedies and I can understand why after reading this. Anyway back to analyzing the story more. After Hermes stole the cattle Apollo is quick to find out that his younger brother stole the cattle. When the two first meat there is a tremendous amount of sibling rivalry. Hermes is a complete wise ass to his older brother. Since they are brothers it makes it even more of a vicious rivalry. I actually think this is another metaphor I read somewhere that men always try to compete with the other men in family and this to me is a perfect example of this behavior happening. Of course this brotherly conflict is resolved by their father Zeus. This conflict getting resolved by Zeus represents the father son bond. When you have an older more powerful man telling you what to do you listen. Eventually at the end of the story they resolve their differences and learn to respect one another. Apollo is especially moved by Hermes talent at the lyre. The soft note that Hermes plays moves Apollo to respect Hermes for who is.