World Literature 2111         

                                                    the story

of that man skilled in all ways of contending,

the wanderer                                    (Homer, The Odyssey, I, 1-3)

this is the watershed of the oral tradition and the written tradition

like all boundaries, it is not always distinct

and thus there are many instances of the oral "technology" being present in the later, written technology

What are some examples of this on the first page of The Odyssey--page 225 in our text--?

What are some examples of this in Genesis--56-77--?

What are some examples of this in Gilgamesh--12-41--?

There are also examples in Ancient Egyptian poetry--41-52--, ancient--or classic--Chinese poetry--812--, and Sanskrit--890.

Many "literate people" consider us at the other end of the spectrum.  We are "postliterate."  What does that mean?

Article about Stephen King--where else can you find out about postliterate?

We don't believe in the word anymore.

In other words, why are we in school?

If we could say we're postliterate--that means about as much as saying we're posteconomic.

All we can say is it's a convenient way of identifying us--?

But does it mean anything?

The Greeks themselves were postliterate for a little while--?

This was the man to whom all things were known; this was the king who knew the countries of the world.                (12)

What does language do?

Why can't we believe we're Postliterate or Posteconomic as readily as we believe we're Christians?

Does language really approach our identity?

Or put it the other way, can we find our identity through language?

If you're lost in the wilderness, what do you have?

Stephen King wrote a story about a young girl (--what's that mean?--girls are young--) whose parents were separating, and the mother, before school starts back after summer vacation, takes the two children for what she as an educator and caring mom, believed would be a fun, good experience walking in a national park--that's how educated moms think--even when they're in the process of separating from their husbands--but the girl accidentally gets left along the trail and when she tries to catch up with her mom and brother, she gets lost--and stays lost for days and nights--perhaps forever.  That's about the most terrifying thing that can happen to a child.  That would be terrifying to most adults--nobody tries to get lost.  Think about it:  most of us could not get lost if we tried.  What does a child have to hang onto?  What do you think she hangs onto?

What is the story about?  How does it relate to the written language--or oral language--or whatever?

When in splendor you first took your throne

                        high in the precinct of heaven,

        O living God,

                        life truly began!                                                                                                                        (42)

What's our perspective?

What are we in the business of doing?

Did anyone see or read The Cider House Rules?

What is unique about the Aeneid?

Stylistically, how is it similar to the Odyssey?

Could you place a passage from the Odyssey as being distinctly Greek or a passage from the Aeneid as being distinctly Roman?

What is this?    How was it she bore the folk?

                        she knew the rite and sacrifice.

                        To rid herself of sonlessness

                        she trod the god's toeprint

                           and she was glad.

                        She was made great, on her luck settled,

                        the seed stirred, it was quick.

                        She gave birth, she gave suck,

                        and this was Lord Millet.

What makes this (part of a) poem different from Greek or Roman?

Or time-wise, look at "The Hunger Artist."  What makes it different than ancient Greek or Roman?  Is there something about it that is distinct?

. . . only the artist himself could know . . . .

Why stop fasting at this particular moment, after forty days of it?

. . . change in public interest had set in . . . .

The pampered hunger artist suddenly found himself deserted one fine day by the amusement seekers.

What, then, was the hunger artist to do?

. . . --what did they care about fasting?--. . . .

Into the cage they put a young panther.  Even the most insensitive felt it refreshing to see this wild creature leaping around the cage.

The panther's a persuasive analogy for "the joy of life" and "ardent passion."  That's how we think, isn't it?  That's what life is.

"Memory and desire," as T.S. Eliot has it in The Waste Land.

In a way, it's ideal--an ideal of a habit--a good habit.  It could be a Greek habit or a Roman habit or a Hebrew habit.  A good habit could even be an English habit.  'You! hypocrite lecteur!--mon semblable,--mon frère!'

He could be addressing the knight Don Quixote de la Mancha, who knows about belief and the nature of believing. 

If Paradise Lost, who was the winner?

A long and happy life--?

You can't go home again--?

If we can't go without home, what can we go without?

But I mean we save our souls--?--what's the target here--?

Many students who read "The Necklace" by Guy de Maupassant either don't see or don't appreciate the irony that Mme. Loisel does work hard and does sacrifice, exactly what we say is the ideal.  She lives the ideal.  I imagine her fairly confident, if not always competent in her desire.  Perhaps she didn't know she would be living that much longer than her audience.

Who can be sure what the barbarians at the gate are up to?  Perhaps even now, they're organizing--and A new system is being born--A new beast slouching across the desert.

What?  "A new beast"?  That's a legitimate identity in modern times?  What is it?  Some new kind of irony?

Like the postliterate are going to take the good guys to task for a new kind of irony?

We can't change stories in midstream--?

So why don't we change languages--?

I mean how we going to do that--?

It's not a Marxist world--?--or a Freudian world--?

It's in our image the world keeps changing--?

Why can't the world be more persistent than that--?

I mean it has to practice--?

It should be finetuning by now--?

We could be back at the flood--Gilgamesh--?

You want us to solve problems--wars and stuff--¿economics!----with education--?¿

¿

We could always have a better plan--?

Take me with you--you can have a better plan than education--???

In an ideal world, there are always other ways--?

El Dorado--?--the best of all possible gold is the gold we possess right now, however finite that gold might be in someone else's eyes--?

You've studied the philosophy of Plato the same as me--?

That philosopher's not funny--he's sick--?

It's all good--?

Except for the parts that irritate you--?

Surely none of education can't irritate you--?

It's knowledge after all--?

Where's the good will of that damn knowledge--?

I mean we're not talking about politics or war here--?

We're talking about economics--?

We can't all make the same money--some folks do work the rest of us don't want to do--?

And that's why we're getting an educatioin?--so we won't be equal with the kids we went to high school with--?

And we won't have to do the jobs they do--?

You want cars don't yaa--?--and houses--with lots of stuff in it--?

So you still aren't working--?

Not for equality, brother--?

And where is Cadiz, shipmates?

I take it it's not in the heart of darkness to your heart--?

you're not asking us to abandon writing again--?

you prefer to discard it--?

we'll come at it again from another angle--?