Lit Lesson with Yazoo (Hyde Park, Tuesday)

[geoff_chaucer]

[ooc: Locked to brothers_three.]

Geoff had met up with Yazoo at the brothers' shop first thing in the morning, his journal and a copy of Lysistrata tucked under his arm. After a breakfast at a nearby handwavey eating establishment, they'd headed over to Hyde Park, and settled on the ground under a large oak tree to being their discussion

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[brothers_three]

Yazoo had his copy of Lysistrata with him and he stretched out beneath the tree on his stomach. "I don't know, Geoff. I've never done this before. Which is better?" He shrugged and tilted his head. "And which would be fun for you?"

[geoff_chaucer]

"Either works fine for me, but maybe...let's start the way I did with my students, and that'll give us a place to jump off from."

Leaning with his back against the tree and his legs crossed at the ankles, Geoff fell easily back into the role of congenial professor.

"So...first off then...tell me what you thought of Lysistrata. Liked it, hated it, thought it made no sense at all?" He'd share his own opinions in a moment, but he wanted to give Yazoo a chance to talk first, partly so he could see how the young man thought.

[brothers_three]

"Well. I thought it was funny. And I'm assuming it was supposed to be with the men running around with hard-ons and the women denying them sex." Yazoo grinned and flipped over to lie on his back, staring at the sky.

"I felt like maybe I was missing a point though. I mean I get why the women were denying their husbands sex to get them to stop the war. I didn't get why she kept going on about spinning."

[ooc- I do know my Lysistrata...a little. I knew it was spinning and STILL typed weaving]

[geoff_chaucer]

"The spinning was being used as a metaphor. She's explaining how the role of women in what's going on Athens -- in the war, but also in the political arena in general -- is just as important as the men's role. Any number of metaphor's could have worked, but this is a play focusing on women, so Aristophanes uses a woman's craft -- spinning. In order to spin wool, the wool itself has to be cleaned and unknotted, and that's what the women are saying that they do for Athens -- they work behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly, so the men have the best material to work with when they run the country."

Geoff grinned as he looked over at Yazoo. People tended not to look past the brothers' unusual appearance, their sometimes aggressive or unsettling manner, and so didn't appreciate that the three had sharp minds as well as sharp swords.

"So...beyond the fact that it made for good humor in the play, why did Aristophanes have the women decide that withholding sex would be the best way to get what they wanted?"

[ooc: Bah, I

[geoff_chaucer]

[ooc: *poke* You sure you're talking to the right person? ;)]

[brothers_three]

[flails and goes to fix]

[geoff_chaucer]

[*pets*]

[brothers_three]

There was a long stretch of silence while Yazoo thought about it. "The most obvious thing that comes to my mind is to get their attention," he said. "I mean, weren't women back then considered not much more than property? So it would follow the men would also take the sex for granted. However, when the source of their pleasure stopped, they were forced to turn around and find out why."

He glanced briefly over at Geoff to see if he was even close. Yazoo had never indulged in actual talking about the things he read. It was hard to take what was in his head as free form thoughts and make them have complete sentences that made sense. And try to be right, too.

[geoff_chaucer]

Geoff, for his part, thought Yazoo was doing very well. He nodded and replied, "I think that's it exactly. Women at that time didn't have much in the way of 'weapons' to use in order to attract attention to their cause. Withholding sex forced the men to face the fact that their wives did have a hold over them. And really, isn't it something that everyone does on an individual basis?"

He chuckled and gave Yazoo a wink. "I doubt there's a person alive who hasn't used the threat of withholding something -- if not affection, then something else their partner wanted -- in order to make a point. And, of course, it's use in the play does provide for some good comedic moments."

Placing his arm behind his head, Geoff absently watched the people moving around in the park as he thought about his next question. "All right, so...what about the woman they called 'Peace'. Do you have any insights on her?"

[brothers_three]

Thinking about that, he remembered Peace and nodded. "Lysistrata's handmaid and the woman she trots out to use as the final blow to all the horny me. Peace seems to represent several things. The perfect feminine in Greece, her namessake, the ultimate ideal of what men should strive for, and perhaps even Greece itself."

[geoff_chaucer]

Geoff grinned again. "Sounds to me like you've really understood this, Yazoo. Was there anything you had questions about, that you wanted specifically to discuss? Aside from the spinning?"

[ooc: Might drop into handwavey discussion if that's okay with you.]

[brothers_three]

Yazoo nodded and rolled onto his stomach again. He opened his copy of Lysistrata and started to thumb through it. There are highlights and notes in the margins all through the book.

Tapping at a page, he started to quizz Geoff about the character Kinesias and what his role was exactly in the play. For a male dominated society, the playwright cast men in a very poor light and it confused Yazoo.

[ooc-Good with me! I can handwavey stuff]

[geoff_chaucer]

Geoff eagerly entered into the discussion, explaining about the political undertones to the play, and what Aristophanes was trying to accomplish beyond simply producing some entertaining theater. They veered off for a time into a discussion about the history of the time, the particulars of the Peloponnesian War, and even a brief discourse on ancient Greek religion.

It was good to talk with someone as curious about things as Yazoo was, who obviously wanted to understand and not simply have quick answers to his questions -- and a lot of those questions forced Geoff to really sit back and think himself.