Monomyths [Tuesday, March 30, Period 3]

[steel_not_glass]

"Welcome to Act Three," Cindy said from the edge of her desk, just after the bell finished ringing. "We're closing in towards the end of the heroic journeys--just like we're closing in on the end of the semester. We've got three more classes and then the final, so if you haven't started on it yet, you really ought to. Long television series is long

Comments

Sign in #11

[steel_not_glass]

Like the end of the semester is nigh!

Re: Sign in #11

[ancientbschamp]

Gabrielle

Re: Sign in #11

[death_of_hope]

Anemone

Re: Sign in #11

[flashesforinfo]

Angela Montenegro

Listen to the Lecture

[steel_not_glass]

You know the drill by now, right? Though Cindy's always up for questions.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[ancientbschamp]

The concept of support made perfect sense to Gabrielle, who sat with the index finger of one hand absently running up and down the spiral wire binding of her notebook and her pencil tapping repeatedly against her lips as she listened, attentive as always in this class.

The confusing part was trying to figure out if she was supposed to be the support, or if Xena was, in their relationship. (Not that kind of relationship. No, really. No, really . . .) Ultimately, she decided it went both ways.

Re: Listen to the Lecture

[thatsamilkshake]

Francine was a lot happier considering the idea of support -- both the kind she tried to provide and the kind her friends had provided her -- than she was the death part. So she'd be sitting here contemplating the point Karla had made at the meeting of the reserve leaders: what were they going to do about making sure that kind of support continued?

Literary Context!

[steel_not_glass]

"Inanna is left hanging on a hook, her corpse rotting. Fortunately, her friends are unwilling to let her stay there. Inanna's friend, Ninshubur goes to plead her case before the gods (skip down to part 7). Enki, her maternal grandfather, sends two sexless beings down to the underworld to mourn with Ereshkigal and to convince her of compassion, so she will restore Inanna to life."

"Gilgamesh, on the other hand, is watching the slow, painful death of Enkidu. Rather than accept Enkidu's death and try to mend his own ways, Gilgamesh rages against the idea of mortality. Instead, he decides to prove his power over death and sets out to find the secret of eternal life."

Class Discussion: Death

[steel_not_glass]

"So, in this class, we've spent a lot of time talking about Death. But here, death doesn't always mean 'the end of life' like we usually think of it. It's more like the kind of death symbolized in the tarot, death as transformation and change. So let's add a new complexity to this. Death means a lot of things in our culture beyond the end of physical existence. Let's talk about all the ways 'death' is used, all the meanings it encapsulates. Are there any that resonate with you particularly?"

"Also, I know that a lot of you have faced death on at least one occasion--perhaps even as recently as this past week. Did that experience change you in any way? Did you find yourself accepting or rebelling against it? How do you approach the idea of death and mortality now?"

Talk to the TAs

[steel_not_glass]

They're here!

(Hopefully)

Re: Talk to the TAs

[death_of_hope]

Anemone was totally there, with Gulliver in-tow as usual.

Re: Talk to the TAs

[robinthefrog]

What Robin wanted to talk to Anemone about didn't actually have a lot to do about class. He waved to Gulliver.

"Hi Anemone."

Re: Talk to the TAs

[kestrelswolf]

Firekeeper was also totally there... though Blind Seer might object to the insinuation that he was 'in tow', well, ever.