Oedipus Meets 2012

Oedipus Rex is a timeless play. And by that I mean it reminds me of a modern-day soap opera, mini series, or cable sitcom.

If you summed up the plot for someone, without mentioning any names, it would sound like something right off the Crimes & Investigation channel. Imagine…

An adopted guy unknowingly kills his real dad and marries his mom. Then he goes into law enforcement. He doesn’t know the guy he killed was his dad and his wife is also his mom, but he knows his wife’s first husband was murdered, so he tries to solve that crime.

How do you think the Oedipus story would be adapted for today’s viewing audience? What changes would the screenplay writer have to make from the original play? And most important of all, who would play Oedipus?

Spring Break Read-a-thon

Spring Break! One of the things I love about break is the little bits of extra time I have to read—not textbooks, not reviews, not class notes—just for fun. I’m a fan of cheesy, not-too-violent murder mysteries (called “cozies”), anything by Cormac McCarthy, and non-fiction books on world religions and meditation. I’m also still trying to work my way through Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum (a dense, complicated, maze-like novel I started several years ago and pick up again occasionally when I’m feeling really ambitious).

So over break, I finally finished reading the cozy, Crunch Time, a murder mystery (with recipes!) by Diane Mott Davidson. Then, I caved and started reading the first book of the Hunger Games trilogy. So far, I love it—well written, good story, compelling characters. Of course, I’ll want to read all three books BEFORE I see the movie. Reading all three of the Lisbeth Salander books (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) was absolutely essential before seeing the first film—having the complete trilogy in my head made the film version of the first book much richer for me, and I expect it would do the same when I finally see the Hunger Games film. So no spoilers, please.

Have you read anything over break? If so, what?

Post-Poetry Perception

One of the things I hope my Literature students learn about poetry is that it isn’t “accidental.” Most poets don’t sit down in a fit of crazy inspiration and write a perfect poem in a single draft. In some cases, like the sestina, poetry can be a kind of mental gymnastics, an exercise in precision. In other cases, it’s a slow, laborious process of shaping, revising, deleting, rearranging, and re-imagining, until what remains is the poet’s idea of the perfect combination of words and word-pictures, meant to coax a very particular response from readers (weeping, self-reflecting, laughing, looking more closely at something taken for granted, or being utterly horrified).

Do you like poetry more or less, now that we've taken a closer look? Has your perception of poetry changed this semester? If so, please tell us how…

The Perfect Identity

Are you too tall, too short, over weight or too skinny, have a crooked nose or knobby knees, have hair that's too straight/curly, have skin that's too pale, have eyebrows the wrong color or shape, have jaggedy teeth?

Thankfully, technology now makes it possible for each of us (with enough disposable cash) to have the perfect body! Why, there's nothing wrong with your body that cosmetic surgery, permanent makeup, implants, a tanning bed, hair plugs, a silicon lift here or there, growth-stimulating hormone therapy, laser stripping, invisible braces, bleaching, Botox, liposuction, and permanent hair removal technologies can't correct.

This obsession with perfection seems especially prevalent in the United States. Why do you think this is? And what do YOU think of this pursuit of the ideal human specimen? Does changing your natural appearance change your identity? How? If money weren't an issue, how far would YOU go?

Poetry is for Pansies

Admit it. In the back of your mind, you think poetry is something romantic and ancient, something only done by rich old men in ruffled shirtsleeves back in the 1800’s, in a dark attic, by candlelight. Or you think poetry is for pansies, something cheesy silly girls write in pink ink on Valentine’s Day.

But poetry is alive and well in 2012, and all kinds of people are doing it. Check out these YouTube videos (the last one is a USD graduate!!):

cigarette is an insect

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYxXPQ8nGc0&feature=related

the gingers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6b9ZqDVroA&feature=related

the the impotence of proofreading

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OonDPGwAyfQ&feature=related

push

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgORGvC1dTg

Which is your favorite, and why? In what ways are these POETRY to you, and in what ways do they seem like something ELSE?

Whose voice is this, anyway?

Read the poem below by American poet, Ai (1947-2010). Without looking up anything about the poet or the poem, what does the poem reveal about the identity of the author? About the speaker of the poem? About the child in the poem?

Also, the poem is very powerful and disturbing—no one in their right mind “likes” the subject matter of the poem. Explain whether or not it’s possible for YOU to dislike the subject of the poem and still like the poem…

CHILD BEATER

by Ai

Outside, the rain, Pinafore of gray water, dresses the town

And I stroke the leather belt,

As she sits in the rocking chair,

Holding a crushed paper cup to her lips.

I yell at her, but she keeps rocking;

Back, her eyes open, forward, they close.

Her body, somehow fat, though I feed her only once a day,

Reminds me of my own just after she was born.

It’s been seven years, but I still can’t forget how I felt.

How heavy it feels to look at her.

I lay the belt on a chair

And get her dinner bowl.

I hit the spoon against it, set it down

And watch her crawl to it,

Pausing after each forward thrust of her legs

And when she takes her first bite,

I grab the belt and beat her across the back

Until her tears, beads of salt-filled glass, falling,

Shatter on the floor.

I move off. I let her eat,

While I get my dog’s chain leash from the closet.

I whirl it around my head.

O daughter, so far, you’ve only had a taste of icing,

And you ready now for some cake?

Just an identity crisis?

Gilman’s story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” raises several interesting questions about identity. Take a few minutes to share YOUR answers to these questions:

 

1.    How does the protagonist, Jane, define her OWN identity as the story begins—apart from her expected social roles, the expectations of her husband, etc.?

2.   Is Jane’s mental decline the result of losing her identity over the course of the story? Not knowing what her identity is to begin with? Being intentionally stripped of her identity? Adopting a new identity?

3.   What does the brief meeting between Jane and Wallpaper Woman at the end of the story, and the very last scene in the story, say about Jane’s identity?