Reassertion of Relaxation

            The perfect way to start off the week was going mountain biking with my friends on MLK day! I haven't hit the trail for a ride lasting more than an hour since September, before the big flood. Being able to bike on the nice day that it was, was the greatest feeling. The best part of the trail, Eldorado Mountain, was still closed off from construction of the highway that crosses the trail to get there, so we were again disappointed of not being able to get all the way there. But that didn't stop us from biking as much as we could on the accessible part of the whole trail, and we still made a day of it! Monday made me ready for spring weather, and less ready to go to school again. With a fun way of ending the three-day weekend, there came the first day of school in the short week. Last week was substantially better for me because of the decrease in amount of homework every day. A big factor was obviously not having school on Monday, but there was less homework to be given and more time in class for the homework to be done in general. The hectic element had left last week, and was back to the more normal 'working schedule' for me. The Rent musical rehearsals were less stressful from knowing the songs better and having practiced more, but also from having the reassertion of having much less homework to do once home. Luckily, this past week had little ALA homework, but of course lots of work was done in class and of course, there is a lot more to come.

            On Tuesday, we kept reading the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, whilst we annotated on the themes we were given to annotate about. Then on Thursday, we wrote a hand written essay on which annotations that appeared the most throughout Oedipus Rex and their importance and literary use, proved from citations. In general, I'm not a concise writer, and always write in as much detail as I can possibly think of for essays or creative writing. Being a slower writer in time limited essays; I finally finished it and looked over it with five minutes before school ended, and thus had to finish reading the second half of the playwright for homework. Lastly, on Friday we went over how Oedipus Rex was going to tie in with our next project, which is our poster project on tragic heroes. For homework, we had to think of ideas of films that include a tragic hero and are fitting for the project, and that was it. I was happy there wasn't any reading or writing homework to do, because Friday was the day I had the most homework (for the weekend) of any other day this past week. The week was a good one, easy and hard, fun and moderately stressful, all in balance, which is what I wish every week was like during the school year, but unfortunately is not the case. I am excited for this project, not because of the hard work that is going to be needed to create it, but for the outcome and what the product will be/look like in the end. Every week is unpredictable, but for this week and the days to come, I think it will be quite a lot more packed with work and time consumption than last week, and a big part of that will be from the work needed to complete this very project. 

The Stressful 'Oedipus Week'

            The past week for me in general was stressful. Every day after school it seemed like I had something to do, whether it was going to combo rehearsal for the Rent musical at school, going to a dentist appointment, or having to run errands with my family. Each day I wasn't able to go home and do all my homework right away so I have time to watch TV or whatever else after dinner. Instead, I ended up having to do all of my homework after dinner and finish right when I would have to go to bed. It could be worse, but for my usual daily school day routine, it was wrecking the flow of it every day this week. The amount of homework every day from every class always piles up, especially this past week which was almost worse than some of the weeks right before finals week last semester! This past week was not the most enjoyable all around, including writing the blog posts for this class... Luckily for me, I enjoy writing to a certain extent!  But this past week in ALA class was also stressful; yet intriguing.

            Monday we finished watching Baraka, the non-narrative footage collection from around the world showing the evolution of man, nature, and technology. For homework, we had to write a reflective essay on Baraka for our blogs, which was harder than I thought and time consuming. Then Tuesday and Thursday we were introduced to the story of Oedipus Rex and the basics we need to know about ancient Greek tragedy, figures, tradition, and terms. From the collection of basics on Oedipus Rex and ancient Greece, we had to research every term, figure, etc. Then we had to write 3-4 sentences about each, and post it as a large inventory blog post of information. This was very time consuming for me, and added a lot to the amount of homework I already had. When it comes to researching things and writing paragraphs on a topic, it's hard for me to summarize concisely, because I always feel like I need to research more on the topic and add more to my definitions. It was my fault for putting too much time into it, but it was a big assignment. Lastly on Friday, we started reading the play Oedipus Rex and started attempting to annotate it on the terms and themes we talked about in class and researched about. Let's just say in ALA class, we finished something off with an essay, researched a ton for a new topic, and started something new all in one week. This class is quite challenging with the material and amount of time consumption it requires, but because of its intensity, it pays off in developing our skills as a class and as individuals. This past week was hard but interesting, and has started off a new unit with a punch. I feel this is only the beginning of what we will be experiencing every week from here on out, until the end of this semester.

Ancient Greece and its Elements

            Sophocles was born in Colonus, Greece, in 496 B.C, and died in Athens, Greece, in 406 B.C. He was one of the three of Athen's great tragic playwrights during that time. Sophocles wrote a total of 123 dramas in his life, Oedipus the King being the most famous of them all. Aeschylus being the oldest, and Euripides being the youngest of the three classic playwrights, Sophocles was in the middle for age. He was a great talent, and from his physique, athletic ability, and musical skills, he was praised and chosen for many things during his early life, before he became the playwright talent he was. His last recorded act was to lead a chorus over the fall of his rival, Euripides, when that same year of 406, Sophocles had died as well.

            Dramatic irony is defined when the audience or reader of literature or a play have more knowledge of what can or will happen in the story than the characters themselves know. The things that happen for the characters, and what they say, are more meaningful for the audience than the characters in the story. A character could say or do something that they are unaware will wreck a part of their lives, when the audience is dreading the experience of knowing the character's fate, when the character is clueless. For example, there is dramatic irony throughout Oedipus the King, when we the audience know that his biological parents are the ones from the kingdom that he runs back to, killing his father on the way and marrying his mother, when all he knows at the time is that he is now king and his 'parents' back at home are not a part of his life anymore.  Dramatic irony is a technique used in lots of literature from 1500 years ago to contemporary literature, and many playwrights.

            Teiresias is a prophet of Thebes, and is an important figure in Greek mythology, being the most famous blind prophet and soothsayer of ancient Greece. The story of Teiresias is that he once saw Athena bathing, causing her to blind him from her hands. From his mother's pleading, in exchange for being blinded, he was given the gift of prophecy. From the gift of prophecy, he has shared the prophecies of many figures to them in person, such as revealing to Oedipus that he, Oedipus, had killed his own father and not just some man on the road.

            Fate is something to be destined to happen in one's life, from the spiritual level or a supernatural power. Fate can be a generalized term, but to the Greeks, the definition of fate was more specific and meaningful. The idea of fate was something that is created for one's life from the things that they do. If a person does a heroic action that ultimately kills them, that prideful death becomes part of their fate and by their fate, they will have a rewarding afterlife. The Greeks say not even a god can escape their own fate, and that fate is not something of an individual god, but something inside of humans and gods, and a force out of our reach. Fate is not something of a generalized and coincidental idea to the Greeks, but something by prophecy according to the actions of someone, which controls what happens before and after life.

            Greek theater was the biggest thing in entertainment in ancient Greece, and Greek theaters were where all the famous playwrights of this time were performed. There were many famous Greek theaters such as the one of Epidaurus or Dionysus. Greek theaters were all built in a similar structure, where the orchestra is in the center of the stadium, the skene is the giant tent behind the orchestra that's not surrounded by the audience, the parodos are where the singers/actors came from off to the sides, and the theatron is where the spectators sat to watch, surrounding most of the stage.

           

            Oedipus Rex (the king) or Oedipus the King was a tragic play written by Sophocles, and it was performed sometime between 430 and 426 B.C. It is about a man named Oedipus who thinks his parents are of another kingdom, but his real parents are the ones of a kingdom in which he kills the king, or his father, in a fight and he marries the queen, or his mother, becoming a king through incest and murder. As the new king, he tries to find the murderer of the past king, clueless that the murderer was himself. Oedipus tried to run away from his own fate, and in the end had a life of lies and a worse fate than he was supposed to have through his original path in life.

            Oedipus was the child of Laius and Jocasta, also known as the ruling couple of Thebes. Jocasta is the mother of Oedipus, and the one he marries and who becomes his queen. Laius was the father of Oedipus, the man he kills on the road, and the king he tries to seek out the murderer of, until finding out it was he, Oedipus, all along. Oedipus had his ankles spiked through as a baby when he was left on Mt. Cithaeron to die, and that's why his name is Oedipus, because it literally translates to 'swollen-footed'. Oedipus has an unknowing life of a lie, destined for a disturbing truth and worse fate.

            Oedipus was left to die, but his destiny allowed him to survive, when he was rescued by a peasant employed by King Polybus of Corinth. He was adopted and raised by Polybus and Merope of Corinth, not knowing for most of his life that they were in fact not his biological parents. One night, a drunken man shouted at Oedipus that his true father was someone else, and from there and on, Oedipus could not live with his 'parents' without meeting his real parents. He goes to the Oracle at Delphi to ask who his real parents are, only getting the unsettling response of prophecy, that he will marry his mother and kill his father. Scared of doing this with his 'parents' he flees Corinth in search of another kingdom, so not to end up fulfilling the prophecy. On his way, he kills a man at a crossroads in a fight, and much later on, he marries the queen of Thebes, not knowing that he had just married the woman who was his mother and killed the man who was his father. Many more events happen between then, but this is the myth of Oedipus and the summarized myth of everything beforehand of the play, Oedipus the King.

            Aristotle was born in 384 B.C in Stagirus, Greece, and died in 322 B.C in Chalcis, Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was 10, and his mother, Phaestis, died in his youth as well. He was raised by his uncle, Proxenus, who was his teacher and educated him on Greek, rhetoric, and poetic writing. Proxenus admitted Aristotle in Plato's academy as a teenager, and this is where Plato and Aristotle became associated, Plato being the teacher and Aristotle being the student. After 20 years of Aristotle as a professor of rhetoric and dialogue, Plato died, and Aristotle left to Assos, becoming the chief of philosophers there. Within 15 years or so, he marries twice and has two kids, and goes back to Macedonia due to an attack. Later, Aristotle sets up his own institution, called Lyceum in Athens, where he taught for the next 12 years. He taught: logic, physics, astronomy, meteorology, zoology, metaphysics, theology, psychology, politics, economics, ethics, rhetoric, and poetics. The few works that have survived over thousands of years came from this period of his life. Aristotle was a very important and famous Greek philosopher of his time and will live on in history forever with his philosophical ideas.

            Aristotle had a very specific definition of what a tragedy is. "Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude, in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative, through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions" -Aristotle. With this quote, there are three words that can describe what he means by 'purgation'. The first is purification, as in the tragedy 'purifies' the pity and fear so we feel only those emotions. The second is purging, or the cleansing of harmful emotions such as pity and fear from the body, for focusing on the ones being purified. The third is distillation, as in the tragedy creates stronger pity and fear only in the tragedy itself, from purging any other emotions outside the tragedy, so the tragedy becomes even more intense for the audience. Tragedies, according to Aristotle, also create imitations, and the feelings of pity and fear through this and the actions of the play.

            According to Aristotle, the definition of hubris is simple, and the horrid trait of people that change their fate for the worse. Hubris can be defined as the excessive pride in use of shaming someone for their own pleasure, which leads to a worse fate of death and after death. Hubris was something of serious consequences, and was punishable by Greek law. In Greek tragedies, hubris always leads to conflict and the punishment or death of the person who was hubristic. Whether in playwright or reality, hubris was a very wrong and highly consequential thing in tragedies and ancient Greece, and anything hubristically done in today's societies, depending on what it is, will also have a punishment.

           Works Cited

About.com. "What Was the Crime of Hubris in Greek Tragedy and Law?" About.com Ancient / Classical History. About.com, n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.

Ancientgreece.com. "The Forum." Ancient Greece. University Press Inc., 2012. Web. 16-17 Jan. 2014.

Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 15-17 Jan. 2014.

Greek Mythology. "Teiresias." Teiresias. Greekmythology.com, 2013. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.

Page, Larry. "Google." Google. Google Inc., n.d. Web. 15-17 Jan. 2014.

ReligionFacts. "Greco-Roman Religious Beliefs." Ancient Greek Religious Beliefs. N.p., 2014. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.

Walter Englert. "Greek Theater." Greek Theater. Hum110 Tech., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014. 

K. Wheeler. "Aristotle's Definition of Tragedy" Tragedy web.cn.edu., n.d. Web. 17 Jan. 2014.

           

             

Life As We Know It

            Baraka is a film of amazing footage and worldwide wonder, and even being a non-narrative, it conveys more meaning than most movies out there. Baraka was powerful and moving, and even though it was slow moving overall, that is the only way someone can get anything out of it, and let it also be a memorable and meaningful experience. This film relates to semester 1, not through satire, but through a 'hero's journey' and definitely through uses of allegory. In general, Baraka relates to this class, because the film in itself represents world literature and the art of everything world literature and the world has to offer. Through how the film is put together in every way and what videos are caught to create this film, it all has allegorical meaning, because it literally shows what's happening and why, and it metaphorically shows us what Mary Ann Brussat was trying to explain through pure video. World literature is the art created and written to express human nature and the ills in society, and is made to try and unite the world as one mind, and allow everyone to see something another would. Basically, Baraka is trying to convey that idea through video, emotion, and allegory, and is trying to convince the world of seeing things differently, and doing things differently. All the kinds of writing we read 1st semester are a part of world literature, as are all documented arts with meaning, and all of them in the end, are trying to show an ill through the writing of life and death. The only difference is that it shows all of this, but through video footage instead of words. Baraka does relate to almost everything we learned 1st semester, and is directly related to the study of world literature.

            This film is one that creates emotion, fear, compassion, and curiosity through all of its elements. All of the footage is great, some with more meaning, and some with more emotion. There are certain scenes that express the compassion and wonderment that Brussat tries to show in perfection. The natural scenes from beginning to end, starting with a partial solar eclipse, to the summits of the Himalayan mountains, the many wild animals of different regions, the waterfalls in Argentina, and ending with the beauty of the stars in the night sky, and lastly a full solar eclipse, are amazingly shot and well put together. These scenes show the true beauty of nature, and rise compassion through its emotional beauty, and wonderment through all its possible meanings in context of how the film is put together. There are scientific and literal reasons why all nature is important and how it works, but to figure out what it can mean metaphorically to something else of us and the world, is an answer much harder to prove. There are so many categories of scenes in the film, including natural, spiritual, and technological based scenes, that have so much allegorical meaning to the world and life as we know it. The images that impacted me the most were the scenes showing the ills of society directly, and how those ills and the consequences of technology have affected nature and the world at large. For example, the egg factory was really scarring to me because it showed me how gross the process is of eating chicken product, and how it ruins the natural reproduction rate of chickens immensely in the world, all because of what we, one species, wants for what we call society. Another scarring scene to me was the burning of the oil wells in Kuwait during the Gulf War. Not only is it destroying the environment by pollution, which makes me sadder than anything, but it is also wasting precious energy resource for technology of the world, all because of an ill in societies. The ills in society, whatever they may be, are impacting the natural level of the world, but also the societal level of the world. We are destroying the earth and ourselves, and it only gets worse every day of every year. These two scenes specifically impacted me as did a good few others, and all these scenes seem to be ones that Brussat viewed as impactful images as well. How the film is put together on a cinematographically based level, is very important to the meaning and emotion of this film, especially since it's a non-narrative, it's all about how it's put together. The music and video are directly connected, in the sense that whenever the footage speeds up, so does the kind of music, and whenever the footage is more intense, the music becomes more intense, and vice versa for both techniques. Without the music, the film would be uninteresting, and thus the video would be less emotional and meaningful to the viewers. Of course the great part of this film is that it is all based on the video itself, so the video is the art and the meaning. Both together, express the messages of the film, and make it much more impactful as a pair.

            I believe the main message Brussat is trying to convey in Baraka is the evolution of mankind and how we have created society, religion, and have lived along side with nature, but that with our evolution, we are slowly destroying the natural world and soon ourselves and our own existence in the vast universe that we live in and have yet to discover. Brussat and Ron Fricke, the director, showed just how beautiful life and the world we live in are. Yet because of us, there is also war, destruction, and unnatural death. They both created a display of the diversity of everything in our world, from how beautiful the world can seem, and how sickening it really is, to how beautiful the world really is, and how sickening it can be. We can make a change in the way we live for many things in nature, and we can keep doing things that benefit us, but we can't do one or the other. We have to find a way to sustain the life of everything, including us and the world. These are the messages and meanings I believe Brussat's thesis would have been trying to express, and I think she was trying to teach the world of these aspects of life as we know it.