(no subject)
As he said this, Hektor held out his arms
to take his baby. But the child squirmed round
on the nurse's bosom and began to wail,
terrified by his father's great war hem -
the flashing bronze, the crest with horsehair plume
tossed like a living thing at every nod.
His father began laughing, and his mother
laughed as well. Then from his handsome head
Hektor lifted off his helm and bent
to place it, bright with sunlight, on the ground.
When he had kissed his child and swung him high
to dandle* him, he said this prayer:
"O Zeus
and all immortals, may this child, my son
become like me a prince among the Trojans.
Let him be strong and brave and rule in power
at Ilion; then someday men will say
"This fellow is far better than his father!"
seeing him home from war, and in his arms
the bloodstained gear of some tall warrior slain -
making his mother proud.
The Iliad, Fitzgerald Translation, Book VI, lines 540 - 560.
I am doing a Greek paper on this passage. I am going to compare the nuances in different translations and then look at the Greek with my sub-par beginner's Greek skills and write a five page paper about it. I am extremely excited. I have been waiting for someone to assign me a paper and this is such an awesome one. (The assignment is to select a passage, and it was kind of a foregone conclusion to me that it would be this because it's so full of bittersweetness and tension and foreshadowing and are the other translations like that? I can't wait to find out!) In fact, we spent our entire Greek class today talking about translation and what makes a GOOD translation and word usage and accuracy and meter and I've been so anxious to write a paper that when the Greek tutor, to make a point about word usage said something like, "Do any of you know how, if I were to force you to write a five page paper on the differences between the usage of the words 'rage' and 'anger' in various translations?" The entire class answered no and . . .I pretty much went on in detail about how I would do so in a very fast voice before finishing with "And that would be really fun to write!" . . .yeah. I'm glad someone has finally assigned me a paper.
In my lab, we went out into College Creek to catch fish, and that was simply thoroughly awesome. I can't say I did particularly well, but it was still awesome. First me and a guy in my core group got one of the two-person trawling nets and tried to catch fish . . .but we failed miserably because we kept losing our catch. Finally, we caught one fish who managed to get caught in one of the holes of the net. He cut his toe on a rock, so he left to go get a band-aid and I went at it myself with one of the smaller nets and experienced much improved luck, catching about ten minnows and a handful of shrimp. Some other students found some dead blue crabs, which is by far the coolest thing we brought back.
Math class is right now my worst class, but I am trying, desperately, to remedy this. It's partially due to the fact that some of the students are very, very experienced in math and these same students have very dominant personalities, which . . .is sadly a little frightening and overwhelming to me and to a lot of people in the class. It would be unfair to blame them, though, the problem lies with me and my general not-being-good-at-mathness, but I love Euclid and I AM starting to improve and I think I might take Mr. Druecker out to lunch sometime soon.**
Seminar is improving steadily, though it's problematic that it is still the same four people(self included) that talk the most - but at least I'm getting to the point where everything I say is actually contributing rather than repetitive. There's also a lot of. . .well, people not taking things seriously, which is frustrating, but we're still managing to have the actual discussion, which is what we're they're for. I spent a lot of time talking to Mr. Higuera(one of my two Seminar tutors) about it after seminar Thursday and I think we're on the right track. My Thursday seminar also included. . .a couple of weird moments, one in which Mr. Higuera kept habitually saying "tutors" instead of suitors, so we end up with, "Penelope is besieged in her own home by many tutors," which you have to admit, is incredibly funny. After we pointed out that he had misspoke, he responded with, "Well, now you know how I feel about Penelope." There was also a bizarre moment when we were discussing the scene in which Penelope begins crying when hearing a song about Odysseus and the student next to Mr. Higuera whispered something to him and Mr. Higuera shot him a look and another student asked what he had said and Mr. Higuera begrudgingly responds, "He said that that scene reminds him of Casablanca." Yeah, like I said, we really need to get better at taking things seriously.
In terms of the social aspect of life, I am officially Making Friends, it seems. I have two that are most definitely Friends! And maybe a third! Woo! I have friends! And last night I spent a couple of hours playing Settlers of Catan after that night's lecture(which was about decentralization, federalism, and regulation of alcohol and firearms, and quite fascinating), though I got tired and did not stay for the whole game. It was amazing fun, though, so I will probably end up playing it next time it is played, which will probably be next week.
And, for slight emotional angst, but really just weirdness, there was a strange happenstance when I asked someone who had stated he was Catholic if he was Irish or Italian. (So far as I know, this is not an offensive question, though I suppose it could be if said person was obviously one of the above things, but said person was not.) His response was, "Irish. Do I look like a ?" And I kind of just stared at the floor for a little while, and he continued the question, repeating more rude words for Italian people, and then my roommate came up and started talking to him, and I got up and left. I feel kind of silly for being offended, as, 1) Nobody has used any of these words seriously for about fifty years, and 2) said person is pretty much the type of person who is very deadpan and does not mean anything he says seriously. So, obviously, he did not mean what he said, but. . .it still bugged me. But! The next day, he sits down next to me at lunch, and he comments that I seem subdued, and I respond that I am Italian and he somewhat offended me, even though I know he did not mean to offend and I really shouldn't take anything offensive he says seriously, and he responds with, "Oh. I'm sorry I offended you. You can call me a if you ever want to."
So, uh, sort of not really conflict resolved, it seems. Person seems like a nice enough person once I realize he's just like that, and I do feel like I was overreacting.
In general, life is still good. And now I have Greek to do and propositions to memorize and Aristotle and Homer to read, and somewhere in there, lunch. Lunch first, probably, dining hall opens in ten minutes. ^^
* . . .is this a typo? Does he mean 'dangle,' or is dandle a word?
**For non-Johnnies: Mr. Druecker is my math tutor, and there's a program here where you can go have lunch with your tutor in the dining hall and talk to them, which is supposed to be very helpful in understanding how to improve in their class, so I hope to do it soon.
to take his baby. But the child squirmed round
on the nurse's bosom and began to wail,
terrified by his father's great war hem -
the flashing bronze, the crest with horsehair plume
tossed like a living thing at every nod.
His father began laughing, and his mother
laughed as well. Then from his handsome head
Hektor lifted off his helm and bent
to place it, bright with sunlight, on the ground.
When he had kissed his child and swung him high
to dandle* him, he said this prayer:
"O Zeus
and all immortals, may this child, my son
become like me a prince among the Trojans.
Let him be strong and brave and rule in power
at Ilion; then someday men will say
"This fellow is far better than his father!"
seeing him home from war, and in his arms
the bloodstained gear of some tall warrior slain -
making his mother proud.
The Iliad, Fitzgerald Translation, Book VI, lines 540 - 560.
I am doing a Greek paper on this passage. I am going to compare the nuances in different translations and then look at the Greek with my sub-par beginner's Greek skills and write a five page paper about it. I am extremely excited. I have been waiting for someone to assign me a paper and this is such an awesome one. (The assignment is to select a passage, and it was kind of a foregone conclusion to me that it would be this because it's so full of bittersweetness and tension and foreshadowing and are the other translations like that? I can't wait to find out!) In fact, we spent our entire Greek class today talking about translation and what makes a GOOD translation and word usage and accuracy and meter and I've been so anxious to write a paper that when the Greek tutor, to make a point about word usage said something like, "Do any of you know how, if I were to force you to write a five page paper on the differences between the usage of the words 'rage' and 'anger' in various translations?" The entire class answered no and . . .I pretty much went on in detail about how I would do so in a very fast voice before finishing with "And that would be really fun to write!" . . .yeah. I'm glad someone has finally assigned me a paper.
In my lab, we went out into College Creek to catch fish, and that was simply thoroughly awesome. I can't say I did particularly well, but it was still awesome. First me and a guy in my core group got one of the two-person trawling nets and tried to catch fish . . .but we failed miserably because we kept losing our catch. Finally, we caught one fish who managed to get caught in one of the holes of the net. He cut his toe on a rock, so he left to go get a band-aid and I went at it myself with one of the smaller nets and experienced much improved luck, catching about ten minnows and a handful of shrimp. Some other students found some dead blue crabs, which is by far the coolest thing we brought back.
Math class is right now my worst class, but I am trying, desperately, to remedy this. It's partially due to the fact that some of the students are very, very experienced in math and these same students have very dominant personalities, which . . .is sadly a little frightening and overwhelming to me and to a lot of people in the class. It would be unfair to blame them, though, the problem lies with me and my general not-being-good-at-mathness, but I love Euclid and I AM starting to improve and I think I might take Mr. Druecker out to lunch sometime soon.**
Seminar is improving steadily, though it's problematic that it is still the same four people(self included) that talk the most - but at least I'm getting to the point where everything I say is actually contributing rather than repetitive. There's also a lot of. . .well, people not taking things seriously, which is frustrating, but we're still managing to have the actual discussion, which is what we're they're for. I spent a lot of time talking to Mr. Higuera(one of my two Seminar tutors) about it after seminar Thursday and I think we're on the right track. My Thursday seminar also included. . .a couple of weird moments, one in which Mr. Higuera kept habitually saying "tutors" instead of suitors, so we end up with, "Penelope is besieged in her own home by many tutors," which you have to admit, is incredibly funny. After we pointed out that he had misspoke, he responded with, "Well, now you know how I feel about Penelope." There was also a bizarre moment when we were discussing the scene in which Penelope begins crying when hearing a song about Odysseus and the student next to Mr. Higuera whispered something to him and Mr. Higuera shot him a look and another student asked what he had said and Mr. Higuera begrudgingly responds, "He said that that scene reminds him of Casablanca." Yeah, like I said, we really need to get better at taking things seriously.
In terms of the social aspect of life, I am officially Making Friends, it seems. I have two that are most definitely Friends! And maybe a third! Woo! I have friends! And last night I spent a couple of hours playing Settlers of Catan after that night's lecture(which was about decentralization, federalism, and regulation of alcohol and firearms, and quite fascinating), though I got tired and did not stay for the whole game. It was amazing fun, though, so I will probably end up playing it next time it is played, which will probably be next week.
And, for slight emotional angst, but really just weirdness, there was a strange happenstance when I asked someone who had stated he was Catholic if he was Irish or Italian. (So far as I know, this is not an offensive question, though I suppose it could be if said person was obviously one of the above things, but said person was not.) His response was, "Irish. Do I look like a ?" And I kind of just stared at the floor for a little while, and he continued the question, repeating more rude words for Italian people, and then my roommate came up and started talking to him, and I got up and left. I feel kind of silly for being offended, as, 1) Nobody has used any of these words seriously for about fifty years, and 2) said person is pretty much the type of person who is very deadpan and does not mean anything he says seriously. So, obviously, he did not mean what he said, but. . .it still bugged me. But! The next day, he sits down next to me at lunch, and he comments that I seem subdued, and I respond that I am Italian and he somewhat offended me, even though I know he did not mean to offend and I really shouldn't take anything offensive he says seriously, and he responds with, "Oh. I'm sorry I offended you. You can call me a if you ever want to."
So, uh, sort of not really conflict resolved, it seems. Person seems like a nice enough person once I realize he's just like that, and I do feel like I was overreacting.
In general, life is still good. And now I have Greek to do and propositions to memorize and Aristotle and Homer to read, and somewhere in there, lunch. Lunch first, probably, dining hall opens in ten minutes. ^^
* . . .is this a typo? Does he mean 'dangle,' or is dandle a word?
**For non-Johnnies: Mr. Druecker is my math tutor, and there's a program here where you can go have lunch with your tutor in the dining hall and talk to them, which is supposed to be very helpful in understanding how to improve in their class, so I hope to do it soon.