Monday, December 13, 2010

Last Blog

I'm going to post a final blog because.....well because I can. I'm assuming Dr. Sexson might still be going through the blogs and maybe I'll time mine with when he gets around to mine. This is unlikely, but I think there may be a few stragglers reading the blogs the night before the final in case they missed something. Here's a Golden Bough Christmas quote to get your holiday blood flowing:
First, in regard to the dates of the festivals it can be no mere accident that two of the most important and widely spread of the festivals are timed to coincide more or less exactly with the summer and winter solstices, that is, with the two turning-points in the sun’s apparent course in the sky when he reaches respectively his highest and his lowest elevation at noon. Indeed with respect to the midwinter celebration of Christmas we are not left to conjecture; we know from the express testimony of the ancients that it was instituted by the church to supersede an old heathen festival of the birth of the sun, which was apparently conceived to be born again on the shortest day of the year, after which his light and heat were seen to grow till they attained their full maturity at midsummer. Therefore it is no very far-fetched conjecture to suppose that the Yule log, which figures so prominently in the popular celebration of Christmas, was originally designed to help the labouring sun of midwinter to rekindle his seemingly expiring light.
I think we could all use a yule log of sorts during this finals week. It'd be nice if we had a fireplace in class, but I guess you can't always get what you want.

Whenever I think of people quoting the Bible, I think of texts being so universal that they appeal to nearly everyone. I never connected mythology as equally powerful literature to guide people's lives. This class, as did my last Sexson class, improved my writing skills and cemented my desire to study more in literature. Thanks to all of you for being wonderful piers and thank you Dr. Sexson for going above and beyond the duty of a professor.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Sloppy 12/9 final exam notes

Final myth stuff
  1. What is the only permanent thing? Change
  2. What is the modern version of pan and Apollo? Tenacious d
  3. Study the Signature/archetype
  4. Who brought snow Pygmalion to life (in the presentation)? John madden
  5. At the beginning there was the flood and at the end there was a flood
  6. How did he get away from the cyclops? He said his name was no man
  7. What can be said about all ends? They are all beginings
  8. What two parts did Corrine say were about the same? The heart and the groin
  9. In reference to Tristian's presentation, what did the natives know?
  10. Oral traditions authentically mythological
  11. What did John Orsi compare the writing process to? Loss of virginity
  12. James Joyce compares himself to what mythological personage? God
  13. Eating raw flesh of one dismembered is called what? Omophageous
  14. Read afterword of Ovid
  15. P155 of eliade: if cattle and horses could draw pictures of their gods, they would be projections of themselves
  16. P199: fairytales in the appendix. Paraphrasing, sagas can be distinguished from fairytales. Tragedy is tragic and the happy ending of the fairytale is not to be seen as stupid, it's a transcendence of all the suffering. Willy wonk lived happily ever after. The oral vs written tradition. The ways in which mythology damages catholic view.
  17. P172: popular theology...superstitions in which come back and retold over and over and over
  18. P177childrens myth

Reconstructing Religion and Green Grass

I'm posting another Modest Mouse song, Lives, that I'd like to "reconstruct" with the aid of mythology. But first I want to make a side comment on something Dr. Sexson stated in class today regarding reconstruction. He said that mythology doesn't deconstruct religions, but instead it reconstructs their stories. In order to reconstruct something, doesn't it have to be deconstructed first? Or at the very least, it has no resemblance of a properly constructed idea, so it must be built up differently. We have the privilege of studying mythology in an very open-minded setting (at least no one in our class objected to Dr. Sexson's reconstruction of their beliefs) and that's all well and good, but the rest of the world does not interpret religion with open ears and closed mouths. Dr. Sexson said so himself that, "People usually hold their religious values very dear to them." You can call it "deconstructing" or "reconstructing", but at the base of it all, it represents a fundamental change that most people will not recognize. The world does not agree on a universal afterlife. The world does not abide by a set of universal values. The world does not read the same texts as we are reading. I mean, seriously, who else on the MSU campus has read The Golden Bough, Ovid's Metamorphosis, Henderson the Rain King, or Myth and Reality outside of the select handfuls of students that study under Dr. Sexson. One would be hard pressed to convince another student to read any ONE of those books, let alone all four of them. If we are reconstructing the MSU student body's religions, how can they interpret what we are saying if they are ignorant or abide by a different set of texts? Our interpretation asks them to make a fundamental change in the way they view life; something that may not happen in a year's span or even that of a lifetime.

I digress. Here is "Lives" by Modest Mouse:

Everyone's afraid of their own life
If you could be anything you want
I bet you'd be disappointed, am I right?
No one really knows the ones they love
If you knew everything they thought
I bet that you'd wish that they'd just shut up
Well, you were the dull sound of sharp math
When you were alive
No one's going to play the harp when you die
And if I had a nickel for every damn dime
I'd have half the time, do you mind?
Everyone's afraid of their own lives
If you could be anything you want
I bet you'd be disappointed, am I right?
Am I right? And it's our lives
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
We're alive for the first time
It's hard to remember were alive for the last time
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
To live before you die
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
That our lives are such a short time
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
When it takes such a long time
It's hard to remember, it's hard to remember
My mom's God is a woman and my mom she is a witch
I like this
My hell comes from inside, comes from inside myself
Why fight this?
Everyone's afraid of their own lives
If you could be anything you want
I bet you'd be disappointed, am I right?

There are many myths that this song touches base with, most importantly the story of Midas and the general idea of "the grass is always greener on the other side." Midas thought that if he could just turn anything he ever wanted to gold, all of his problems would disappear. Be careful what you wish for is the moral to that story. Life is not a math problem to be solved in one full swoop, but rather it is a never-ending essay to be written as time passes us by. We as humans have the natural instinct that what we have in the present is not as good as in the past and could be better in the future. Issac Brock says in the song that, "My hell comes from inside myself". This shows that everything we think about our reality is a perception that we construct through myths. Our concept of Hell is entirely our projection of our worst imagination, our worst thoughts imaginable, and our deepest fears we choose not to face. We our thrown in constant doubt of whether or not out conception of a "happy life" is as good as someone else's life. That feeling of missing out, being asleep and not awake to life is constantly present with each new realization of another story taking place in our proverbial rear-view mirror of life. Like Lot's wife, we want to look at the destruction that is taking place behind us. Like Eve, we want to eat the fruit for which we are not supposed to eat. We are curious of what is happening around us. Our live seem boring compared to the lives of Gods, Heroes, Action Heroes, Prophets, and natives of distant cultures. Dr. Sexson would say this is why we read, so that we can discover these mythologies and enrich our boring lives.

Dark Holes

wtf photos videos
I was revisiting Eliade's Myth and Reality, you now like any normal college student would, and I found a term we have touched on, albeit indirectly. I am referring to the term vagina dentata which in Latin means "toothed vagina". Here's a quote to give some context:
A large number of myths feature (1) a hero being swallowed by a sea monster and emerging victorious after breaking through the monster's belly; (2) initiatory passage through a vagina dentata, or the dangerous descent into a cave or crevice assimilated to the mouth of the uterus of Mother Earth. (Eliade, 81)
I was shocked at some of the pictures that popped up on the interwebs when I typed in "vagina dentata". (The picture above is the most PG-13 rated picture that depicts the combination of teeth and a vagina.) Anyway, the point Eliade is making is that heroes go into a lot of dark crevices as a final "climax" to their journey. (There is going to be a frenzy of double entendres in this post, so stop reading now if you're already disgusted) We've been referencing these spaces throughout the course, but we just haven't been referring to them as Mother Earth's Vagina. Jonah and the Whale, Beowulf, Lord of the Rings, the Death Star in Star Wars, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and countless other stories through the course of time have had the hero journey into this mythical space that usually contains some sort of monster or obstacle. In a roundabout way, the hero must come back to it's birth canal in order to complete their "circle of life." If the hero can conquer a vagina that's lined by teeth, than their place in mythology as a hero is cemented in time.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Class Notes from 12/7/10

First off, I'd like to congratulate everyone on the great job they are doing in both the group and individual presentations. I've been keeping track of the times when Dr. Sexson nods his head or makes "approving mumble noises" and more times than not they come in response to a quote rather than an original revelation by the presenter. It seems very apparent to me that Dr. Sexson is more impressed with our ability to quote text from literature that is relevant to our thesis than that of our own creation. Is this a commentary on the nature of myths and literature as a whole? Have we really sucked out the well of originality so much that we cannot produce profound thoughts of our own?

Yes, I know that before we can talk about mythology we must first read and study the important points that have already been made. One cannot make a credible research paper without quoting some other source of literature. Even in the "what I knew then and what I know now" papers, Dr. Sexson seems to be looking for specific examples of eschatology, creation, or storytelling that has shaped one's perspective.

Each time a presenter finishes, Dr. Sexson points out the sources or former stories in which the presenter referenced. Mythology seems to be not so much about telling your story, but more about how your story has already been told.

I want my story to be original instead of being a story which has an origin that is out of one's hands.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

I exited the Suburban through the windshield

The following story is true and took place on November 19th, the night before the Cat-Griz game a few weeks ago. I will put this story into the category of the sublime.

I exited the car out the windshield. Exit as in walk out, luckily I and no one else were actually ejected. The suburban was lying on its side, so using any of the doors was out of the question. The roads were icy, but they had gotten better through the drive. I was asleep when it happened. Instead of falling asleep to a nightmare I awoke to a real-life one.

The paramedic asked me for my name and address. I didn't answer. He asked me again and I finally snapped out of my trance. I had otherquestions that I was asking myself, "how close was I to death? How am I so incredibly lucky?" the paramedic finished bandaging my hand. It was super bright inside the ambulance, but it was so warm at the same time. I didn't want to go back outside. It was cold. My running shoes suddenly acted as sponges in the smallest amounts of snow. Either way I was still in shock.

If you've ever seen a passenger's perspective from a car-rollover in a movie they almost always happen in slow-motion. That's exactly how it felt. The driver slammed on the brakes, fishtailed, and then it was as if God slowed down time as the vehicle began to roll. The car came to a violent jolt on its side and time sped up again.

We shouldn't have even been driving that night. We passed six rolled vehicles in the median between Belgrade and Butte alone. I thought to myself, "there's a good chance we could end up like that." And then even further back in my mind I told myself that it wouldn't happen to us. That's when I fell asleep. Or as Dr. Sexson would put it, I was already asleep and kept on sleeping. Will I ever awake?

There's these small particles in my hair..is that dandruff or glass? Fuck, I think it's glass. I spent the next hour picking out the tiniest specks of glass from the roots of my hair. I eventually fell asleep that night. I was still in shock from how incredibly luck I really was.

All 7 passengers were unharmed. Maybe because I'm still in shock, but I have no idea how to learn from this incident. This story feels very disjointed towards my overall mythology. I was aware of my near-death experience, but I'm still not really scared of death. I must still be dreaming. Or sleeping. Or...



1st draft of final paper

Myths That Stand the Test of Time

Myths recapitulate reality throughout the world in almost every form imaginable. Children are entertained by Disney fairytales in both the home and classroom setting. As they grow up, the myths are retold again in more mature settings such as The Odyssey and Star Wars. Even as adults, cultures throughout the world immerse themselves in imaginative worlds even if they are the same worlds of the childish fairytales. Many of these adults convince themselves that their reality has occurred first and that myths come second as a byproduct or reality. In Myth and Reality, Mircea Eliade argues that myth occurs first and reality follows suit. It is up to the storytellers to create the narrative of the world. Without myths, there is no reality for the world to make sense of. Along with Eliade’s examination of myths, Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari define the concept of a rhizome which helps explain the longevity of myths.

In Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's essay A Thousand Plateaus, the authors describe a root system that weaves together a seemingly unitary structure that can unfold into multiplicity. Every text has a thesis or in the case of myths, a moral of the story. According to Deleuze and Guattari, a thesis can be unwound into a series of references and regimes of signs. The entire framework is compared to a botany framework. The "root" represents symbols found in various settings that imitate the world. A "radicle" represents the seedling or meaning from a root. Finally, the radicles and roots conglomerate into a system known as a "rhizome". In terms of a typical hero myth, the separation, initiation, and return elements can be seen as roots and the retellings or generational references can be seen as the radicles. Rhizomes act as both barriers and rewards for the reader to extract from the text. This cat and mouse game between the reader and the author serves as a larger analogy to real life settings. True rhizomes exist without footnotes because in real life symbols that are not yet defined to people remain meaningless until that person researches that symbol more. Each time a new discovery of a text meaning takes place, connections within the rhizome are unearthed, but new radicles can form to expand the rhizome. Hence, a well-designed rhizome should have roots that can form more than one radicle and radicles that make the rhizome bigger.

In terms of timeless literature, the author must essentially make up as much words and concepts possible in order to have a timeless rhizome. Samuel Colridge made his works stand out because he used words and phrases such as "desynonymize", "esemplastic", and "willful suspension of disbelief". Some of his terms have been understood and used in the 21st century while others are so obscure they remain out of the mainstream lexicon yet still studied with each new generation of English Majors. If an author like Coleridge can add new words to the reader's lexicon over multiple generations, than the rhizome that he created was a success. The root becomes the term "esemplastic", the radicle becomes the meaning that is given to a generation of students, and the rhizome becomes their interpretations and roots that they impose within their own rhizome. In that sense, an author's final contribution from their rhizome is that it becomes the root of a new rhizome to continue the cycle. The functions of rhizomes are essential to Eliade’s interpretation of myths.

Eliade places myth above reality in several different examples and states, “Myth is an extremely complex cultural reality, which can be approached and interpreted from various and complementary viewpoints” (Eliade, 5). In this instance, our cultural reality is the product of the homogenization of storytellers and their myths. But as Eliade points out, interpretation plays a role in fragmenting stories. People rely on language to communicate with each other on the most basic level. Metaphors, heroes, and other narrative techniques are then needed to convey concepts through language. One person’s myth expands to the reality of millions. Through the use of radicles, authors control the lens in which readers see the world.

Eliade expounds on the notion of authors as God-like figures by stating, “Through myth, the world can be apprehended as a perfectly articulated, intelligible and significant Cosmos” (Eliade, 145). Pretend for a moment that the world and readers lie in a room of intellectual darkness. The world cannot escape this darkness until it has experiences to draw from. The collective conscious of the world relies on authors to shed light within this dark room. Readers cannot reach enlightenment on experiences alone because they can only grope about in their surroundings. Without context, shapes and the environment that surrounds readers have been rendered meaningless. Myth creates this context and connects readers’ experiences with knowledge.

Even when the roots of a rhizome are fading, the radicles can form new rhizomes. Eliade addresses the different mediums in which myths surivive:

But even when the Supreme God has completely disappeared from cult and is “forgotten”, his memory survives, camouflaged and degraded, in the initiations and narrations of shamans and medicine men, in religious symbolism…and in certain types of cosmogonic myths (Eliade, 97).

The storyteller doesn’t need to be recognized as a God in order for a myth to survive. As long as the radicles of a mythical rhizome remain, the cycle can continue. Cultures lose track of the origins of myths and their respective rhizomes, but modern radicles pick up the core meanings of myth and repeat them across generations.

Works Cited

Eliade, Mircea. Myth and Reality. San Francisco: HarperColins, 1963. Print.