Friday March 23

The Bacchae continued...

Adonis: another person better to be a 'vernerable Elvis' than Apollo, he also died young

"Live fast, love hard, die young"

The Gardens of Adonis

the most erotic thing that a man and woman can do together after being apart from eachother for a long time, is to tell eachother stories

mint: come from Minthe, who was a woman changed into a plant

lilacs: they only come for a little while, and then leave, which is part of their magic

this is also a theme in tragedy, they bloom early, and die young

Tiresias is like Obi-Wan Kenobi, he is in every story, and is always there when needed, even if no one wants his advice

the bacchantes worship Demeter (the goddess of grain or bread) and Dionysus (the god of wine)

these are the two things necessary for communion, wine and bread, the blood and the body of Christ

to fully do communion you must ingest the body and blood of Christ, which is something I never thought about literally until now. I have always taken communion as an act to remember the sacrifice the Jesus made for me on the cross, and never thought of it literally, but thanks to Dr. Sexson, I will really have to concentrate on looking at it symbolically, rather than literally.

Wild thing:

Wild thing

You make my heart sing

You make everything

Come on, wild thing

Wild thing, I think you move me

But I gotta know for sure

Come on and hold me tight

Oh you move me

Wild thing

You make my heart sing

You make everything

Come on, wild thing

Wild thing, I think I need you

But I gotta know for sure

Come on and squeeze me tight

Oh I need it

Wild thing

You make my heart sing

You make everything

Come on, wild thing

Evius= Elvis

Cowboy Elvis

anagnorisis: recognition by the person in the play who has been ignorant

Women's dinner

On Thursday March 8th I attended a dinner to celebrate International Women's day. It was an amazing experience! 2 of the women that attended were former Montana state senators, and many others held prominent positions in the Bozeman society. Not being from here, it was really interesting and exciting to meet all of these powerful women. One of them, a former teacher at Bozeman High School gave a speech about women throughout the past that had done amazing things to help us be where we are today. She talked about Lysistrata, who stood up for what she believed in and led others to help stop a war. Then she talked about the women that died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, which was a huge fire that killed 146 women working in the building, which led the fire departments to develop the regulations and codes that we have today. Her speech was amazing, showing all of the hardships and trials that women had to go through for us to be where we are today. It was an amazing event that I thought I would share. And it really changed my views on Lysistrata and every thing else that we have read in this class too.

Man/Woman conversation

Since I was in 7th grade, every time I watch a sad movie with my Dad, we have this exact conversation:

Dad: Why are you crying?
Me: It's sad!
Dad: You know it's not real don't you?
Me: It could be!
Dad: But it's not, it's just make-believe.
Me: It's real to me
Dad: That's dumb!
Me: No, it's not. And besides that, it was sad!
Dad: No it wasn't
Me: Were you watching it?
Dad: Yes
Me: Then how do you not think it was sad?!
Dad: Oh Brittini!
Me: What do you mean 'oh Brittini'? Mom cried too!
Dad: No she didn't!
Mom: No I didn't!
Me: You are all empty inside.

Yep, it goes exactly like that every time we watch a movie. I had hoped that since I went away to college, and we never see eachother that it might have been different, but when I went home for Christmas and spring break it was exactly the same. I guess that somethings never change, I will always cry, and he will always tease me.

Wednesday March 21

The Bacchae

Elvis' dancing (for a video of this, refer to Dustin's blog)

grace: a gift from God "we are saved by grace" ~ Ephesians 2:8, it also shows us God's presence in the world, although we are usually blind to it

Dionysus:

• patron god of drama- died, yet still lives on like Jesus
• you must be ready to see him like Hamlet said: "If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes?" ~Act 5, Scene 2
• born of Zeus' thigh because his mother was killed
• his followers are called 'the Bacchantes' or 'maenads' these are the women who danced for him, they honor him because he gave them wine, they carried a thyrsus
• Orlando Bloom would be a good Dionysus, because he is a 'pretty boy'
• he had long hair, and looked like a woman (other men that had power in their long hair: Samson, Elvis, etc)
• made the women riot, salivate, swoon, and sometimes even fall down
• he wasn't interested in smart women, he only wanted them to do what comes naturally
• drove many people out of their minds
• he was very passive, would take no for an answer, but saying no inevitably meant death
• believed that nonviolence was more effective than violence
• he wanted you to dance for him, even if you can't (like in Hocus Pocus, when she wanted them to 'dance, dance until you die!!")
• his name means 'liberator' he wanted to free you from oppression and domesticity
• he was an environmentalist, and back then 'it's not easy being green' ~Kermit
• brought people ecstasy: "standing outside of yourself"
• he was also considered a libel which means 'liberal,' someone who believes in freedom
• he strips you of who you are
• caused much omophagia like Hannibal

Pentheus: name means 'grief, sorrow, mourning, sadness' he was a 'man of constant sorrow'

I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW

I am a man of constant sorrow

I've seen trouble all my day.

I bid farewell to old Kentucky

The place where I was born and raised.

(The place where he was born and raised)

For six long years I've been in trouble

No pleasures here on earth I found

For in this world I'm bound to ramble

I have no friends to help me now.

[chorus] He has no friends to help him now

It's fare thee well my old lover

I never expect to see you again

For I'm bound to ride that northern railroad

Perhaps I'll die upon this train.

[chorus] Perhaps he'll die upon this train.

You can bury me in some deep valley

For many years where I may lay

Then you may learn to love another

While I am sleeping in my grave.

[chorus] While he is sleeping in his grave.

Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger

My face you'll never see no more.

But there is one promise that is given

I'll meet you on God's golden shore.

[chorus] He'll meet you on God's golden shore.

Orpheus: the singer who bewitched women

Apollo: he was not good with women

Thebes: not to be confused with Thebes, Egypt (which is what I did at first)

Tiresias: experienced life as both a man and a woman

Cademus and Harmonia had 4 daughters:

1. Agave
2. Autonoe
3. Semele
4. Ino

Iris Murdoch: also a film about her life starring Judy Dench and Kate Winslet called Iris

Marsyas: the satyr who died horribly by Apollo

Arachne: was turned into a spider by Minerva

Ovid: he changed horror into art

tragedy: often occurs when there is a huge gap between the crime committed and the punishment given (the injustice)

Sex, lies, and Videotape is a more recent reenactment of Dionysus

"We are not searching for the man behind the myth, we are looking for the myth behind the man" ~Dr. Sexson

Monday March 19

LYSISTRATA CONTINUED:

• all about women (yeah!): they were not promoted to be domestic slaves, but because they were repressed they were powerful in the imagination
• phallocentric: "In traditional Greek mythology, Hermes, god of boundaries and exchange (popularly the messenger god) was considered to be a phallic deity by association with representations of him on herms (pillars) featuring a phallus. There is no scholarly consensus on this depiction and it would be speculation to consider Hermes a type of fertility god. Pan, son of Hermes, was often depicted as having an exaggerated erect phallus. Priapus was a Greek god of fertility whose symbol was an exaggerated phallus. The son of Aphrodite and either Dionysus or Adonis, according to different forms of the original myth, he was the protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens, and male genitalia. His name is the origin of the medical term priapism." (from wiki.com)
• they use their phallocentric community and their femininity to end the war
• "dead day": a day that women have power over men, and can seek their revenge
• tragedy and women: Euripides was possessed by Dionysus
• PG 32: the counselor was:

1. dressed up as a woman, which is the most humiliating thing that can happen to a man in classical literature, in some cultures they ritualistically expel someone (usually a goat, hence the scapegoat) to forgive them all of their sins they are literally 'taking one for the team'
2. dressed up as a corpse, which is the symbolic death of the representative of the men

• Aristophanes is making fun of the phallis, don't fear it, make fun of it!! Making it funny also strips it of it's power

1. symbol of life force
2. attacks it because it also symbolizes:

• aggression
• anger
• warfare
• masculinity

Lorena Bobbitt

To achieve real happiness at the end, all of these must happen:

1) reconciliation

2) happy ending

3) feast= food comedy like 1) Chocolat, 2) Babette's Feast, and 3) Soul Food

4) dancing

5) marriage

6) "the mare and the stallion get together, the Jack will get his Jill, and they will live happily ever after"

7) a great example of this is Kenneth Branagh's 'Much Ado About Nothing'

The Rape of Leda:

Leda and the Swan, by W.B. Yeats

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still

Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed

By his dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,

He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push

The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?

How can anybody, laid in that white rush,

But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins, engenders there

The broken wall, the burning roof and tower

And Agamemnon dead. Being so caught up,

So mastered by the brute blood of the air,

Did she put on his knowledge with his power

Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

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Face Off

The Bozo chronicle

While I was sitting at the breakfast table with my roommate Megan, she was reading the newspaper, while I was drinking my apple juice. I usually just read the comics, but I saw a picture of a woman with her dog. Being the avid dog lover that I am, I was intrigued, so I decided to read it. The article was about a woman Iditarod contestant that finished in 21st place out of 58. Which I think is something very impressive. It made me start thinking about the underlying theme of women in this class, and how in Lysistrata the women were ahead of their time. This woman, who competed with 9 other women, and ranked 21st in a 'mans sport' is also ahead of her time. Women like the ones in Lysistrata are the ones that paved the way for us today, standing up for what they believed in and holding their own in a man's society. Although Lysistrata is comical, it also shows that women can do anything they put their minds to, even compete in the Iditarod.

My life changing event...

My life changing event seems a little weak, but it was really important to my cousin. She just got engaged, and is really excited about it. She called me a few nights ago to ask a huge favor. I said, that I would help her in anyway that I could, and then she said she wanted me to help her pick out the song that she will walk down the aisle to. I said that I would think about it, and get back to her. I was a little stressed out of course because we DO NOT have the same taste in music so I guess that 'a little stressed out' was a huge understatement. The next day I asked her to narrow it down a bit, and she said: "nothing country, or cheesy, I want something original, that is either christian or classic." I was originally thinking maybe something by Elvis or Garth, but she knocked both of those out of the water. She keep calling me to put more pressure on me everyday, and so finally in haste, I told her that since The Jackson 5, DC Talk, and a Disney song (literally the only music we have in common) weren't going to work I mentioned the Switchfoot song 'only hope.' She said it would be perfect, and that I saved the wedding! Well, not really, but I did help a bit. And that is my life changing event. :)