I have been reading Part 1 of King Henry IV this past week. This is the play that my group is to present on. While reading I came upon a line that has both intrigued and puzzles me. Act IV.2.114: "And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war". This line caught my attention because I do not often think of a maid as part of war. According to the footnotes, Shakespeare was referring to the goddess Bellona. After placing a name to the maid, I have done quite a bit of Googling trying to figure out just who the goddess was/is and why I had not seen her referenced before in works such as the Iliad. It turns out that Bellona is the goddess of war and strife. Many sites confirm that she is a Roman goddess but all over these are references to how she is linked between a myriad of different cultures. She is often referred to the wife of Ares, the Greek god of war, or later form of the goddess Ma-Bellona, a goddess from Turkey. Bellona is linked with many more cultures that it would take me forever to be able to list them all.

 One major goddess that she is often intechanged with is Enyo. A Greek goddess who is the daughter of Zeus & Hera and the sister/wife of Ares. She is responsible for all wars and the destronction that is encompassed within and after a war.
I have found it truly interesting that Shakespeare is not only so well-versed in Greek mythology but that he is able to bring in mythology from the Romans, Turks, and other cultures. This proves how universal all mythology is. This brings me to the question of how did so many different cultures come up with these mythological figures that were so similiar and they had no idea that other cultures were creating these figures at the same time as well? I believe that it is Frye who talks about the collective unconcious. Do humans have such a great collective unconcious that we automatically create gods and goddesses that are similar because they are what is needed at the time? I have no answer to this questions and others similar to it. However, I think that they are questions that are interesting and will never be answered fully, only personal opinions will ever exist to answer them.

Class Notes March 3, 2011

• Terry Tempest Williams
• feminist Mormon environmental writer
• Speaking at the Emerson
• Tuesday March 8
• Attendance is REQUIRED
• Gretchen Minton will be guest speaking
• everyone needs to read Act 1 & 2 of Antony and Cleopatra
• Have at least 1 question to ask
• John Orsi's blog
• Remainder by Tom McCarthy
• Post Modern Novel
• King Lear
• Cordelia and Fool are never on stage at the same time
• might be the same actor
• both remind Lear of who he is
• Needful things
• what is needed?
• page 1592
• Beggar; needful thing; doesn't even need clothes; complete 180
• Storm
• literal & psychological for Lear
• insanity
• 1593
• Lear calling for apocalypse
• cursing all man
• catastrophe
• Job=Lear
• alike in vindictiveness
• Lear towards all man
• Job towards God
• everything is relative
• when things seem the worst possible; it could always be worse
• pelican=cannibalistic
• Page 1596
• Consider him well
• fool, lunatic, old man
• "thou art the thing itself"
• takes off clothes; getting rid of veils/cloak/old self
• 1600
• "The worst returns to laughter"
• On next test!
• 1601
• worst is never the worst if one can say it is the worst
• stichomythia
• 1 liners
• Nate's Blog
• Yon Cot
• IV.6
• Beckett compares with absurd drama
• Gloucester and son
• similar to Joseph and his brothers
• tricking to make them come to a more transformation
• Heart of Shakespeare
• 1605
• Lear
• mimics Oedipus speech
• 1606
• alchemy
• empty out self
• kinosis/nregdo: decomposed blackness
• then elixir can be found
• Via Negatia
• St. John of Cross
• use of this perspective could make play be positive

Pitchforks and Flyting: A dangerous combination!

I will just come straight out and admit it: I was a horrible older sister when I was younger. I have one younger brother and we are only about 15 months apart. Not only are we very close in age but we are also very similar in personality. We both are very competitive and like to be in charge. This often led to much fighting as children. I usually won but am now paying for it. The best and funniest memory I have of us fighting happened when we were around 12 and 11 years old (approximately)
J.E. and I grew up in small town Montana on a ranch. As ranch children we were expected to do chores everyday. During March -May these chores included mucking out sheep, horse, and cattle stalls. One day we were out there working and being older, I finished my half first. Instead of being a nice older sister and helping JE, I decided to just stand there and watch him work. This of course started a fight, which was probably my intention. After he started complaining, I told him it was fair because I shouldn't have to do more work since I was our parents only actual child thus implying he was adopted (he definitely isn't; he is the spitting image of our father). However, I was around for his birth so I obviously have authority even though I was only like a year and a half when he was born! Thus started the insults. I do not remember exactly where they progressed to but I do remember dancing around making a song out of the words "JE is adopted" over and over again. Talk about the song that never ended. Finally he was getting mad enough that I would hide and then sing from my hiding place. My final hiding place was a wooden wind break in the coral by where we were supposed to be working. I would pop my head up and sing then duck down to avoid the snow/mud/whatever he could find that was thrown at me. The last time that I popped up and ducked down, a pitchfork came flying over the windbreak. Good thing that I wasn't in the way!! That ended the fight. I would definitely say that JE won that round. Oh well I won many many more over the years. Even though since we have grown, he now wins more often. Last Christmas, I started a fight and he hog tied me and left me tied up unable to move for about half of an hour. Anyways I digress on that tangent. My point is that rarely are the insults of a fight remembered between siblings except when they are lead to hilarious memories. We have many many memories such as the one above. Whenever extravagant flyting occurs though the fight usually ends in laughter because the insults become so outrageous that they are more funny than mean. This is not the case in King Lear unless one is the person reading the play. Then one remembers one's own experiences of flyting. My brother and I often still flyt. Why just last week we got into a fight over facebook comments and started exchanging insults over wall posts. This gave much amusement to our friends and family. I guess even though lots of years have passed, one never outgrows the enjoyment of fighting with one's siblings. In fact after thinking about all of this "fun" we have had over the years, I am truly looking forward to Spring Break and picking a fight with JE. Watch out little brother. It is going to be on like Donkey Kong over Spring Break!!

King Lear Act 2 Scene 2

Act 2 Scene 2

As asked by Professor Sexson, I watched a clip from King Lear (above). Before I watched this clip, I wasn't really that impressed with Edmund. I knew that he was one of the main evil characters, but when watching this, he truly came alive and there was aspects of him that I could relate to. I feel that everyone at one point in time acts to further their own means, probably not as drastic he does. From actually seeing the play acted out, it seems that he feels as though he is justified in his actions. On some levels, he knows that he is doing a true evil but on other levels he feels he is justified to do as much as he can to get ahead. We have talked about the different levels of play as a whole, realistic and mythological, but now I think we are starting to see different levels within the various characters. We definitely see it in Lear himself but I think that we see it in Edmund. He is reversing the mythological and realistic levels within himself. By discrediting the mythological aspects of the world and trying to be realistic, he is creating the myth within himself that he deserves to have what is his brother's. By creating this myth, he mythologizes his relationship with his family and the relationships they have with one another. I have not completely finished reading all of King Lear but I am curious to see how the character who least believes in mythology inserts it into his own life because of that misbelief.

Class Notes March 1, 2011

• Gretchen Minton Lecture
• March 8
• 4pm
• Wilson 2257
• Group Projects Criteria
• Entertaining and instructional
• must have at least 1 clip of the scene; doesn't have to be very long
• King Lear
• 3 Versions
• read the Conflated version starts on page 1574
• Ailing King
• mythological
• reminiscent of the myth of the Golden Bowl
• Jenny's blog
• Lear is an egoist
• named Cordelia
• cord means heart in French
• What to do with aging elders
• joke about King Lear
• egotistical males divides his consciousness
• worst play ever written
• Subplot identical to main plot
• Edgar/Edmund feud similar to that of Lear's daughters
• fairytale
• very reminiscent of Cinderella
• Edmund
• evil because he is de-mythologized
• most characters are very black and white as to the fact if they are good or evil
• Central words of the play according to Frye
• Nature
• 12 different meanings for the word
• Nothing
• Bloom
• the Invention of Humor
• Shakespeare is the center of the Canon
• King Lear is the center of Shakespeare
• Imagination
• Eye Scene (Lear offers to give his eyes up)
• understands others/things in the world that are different
• Dragon=Boar
• Edgar
• It is never the worst as long as you can say it can get worst
• It can always be worse because you could always be dead
• Flies
• kill us for sport
• discussed how everyone used to kill flied
• flies to us are like we are to gods
• Fool
• function is to teach Lear who he is
• Albany
• only character who is not distinctly good or bad
• know his wife is a horrible person but doesn't know how to fix her
• flyting
• BLOG about
• exchange of terms of abuse
• similar to that exchanged between siblings
• based on things household
• example page 1586
• disguised as a madman
• Edgar
• Tom of Bedlam
• escapees from asylums
• wandering the country side
• 3 Great Tragedies of Literature
• Job
• King Lear
• The Brother's Karamazov
• Bo Diddly
• Say Man
• Listen to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIWgNKUMlzM&playnext=1&list=PL2AA339D0777B6898 
• Find a King Lear clip
• Blog about it