Ovid within Shakespeare

Kim-Jong Il looking at the 'wood.'

This sorta stems off of what James said in his blog and the comparison of Ovid and Shakespeare. In Jonathan Bates' book, the fourth chapter is titled, Comedy and Metamorphosis. One of the first points he brings up is how to define trans-latio, he settles on the simple, yet definite "it is to make a text from an alien culture speak in the distinctive language of the translator's culture" (Blight, 131). This is because a trans-latio can be done in any language; where the typical word is translation Blight uses trans-latio to emphasize the use of latin within Ovid and Shakespeare, two authors who are able to take a simple language and complicate it while also showing the beauty of simplicity with the words used. He continues to explain how imitation is an important part of translation because it incorporates part of the culture into the rewritten and 'modernized' "is how the classics are kept alive" (Blight, 131). It is "where Ovid found causes in gods and ancient stories, Shakespeare finds in contemporary history" (140) the stories are unique because the author's ability  uses the time period they lived in to emphasize the  intended purpose of their words. Whether this is done through A Midsummer Night's Dream where the use of the fairies (Bottom as Cupid) to give a understanding to the surreal feeling love gives a person. This is because Shakespeare, "invites us to consider the possibility that the love-gods are no more than a dream, something we invent to help us understand erotic love, which comes wholly from within" (135). This is what influences authors like Shakespeare and Ovid; to explain the unknown. Ovid writes hundreds of stories about gods and mere mortals that have affected how the earth is "run" whether it is how man is motivated by Narcissistic needs/wants or North Koreans believe Kim-Jong Il's birth in the Baekdu Mountain was prophesied by a swallow and brought about the change of winter to spring with the birth of Kim-Jong Il and a new star (which neeever happens).

Actaeon engulfed by his hounds.

Blight continues, "In reading the hounds as an image of Actaeon's own desires, Shakespeare is following the tradition interpretation of the myth" this is followed by a reference to Samuel Daniels' Delia in which he makes a reference to Actaeon being hunted by his dogs in the 12th line...

Samuel Daniels' Delia

        Whilst youth and error led my wand'ring mind

And set my thoughts in heedless ways to range,

All unawares a goddes chaste I find,

Diana-like, to work my sudden change.

For her no sooner had my view bewray'd,

But with disdain to see me in that place;

With fairest hand, the sweet unkindest maid

Casts water-cold disdain upon my face.

Which turn'd my sport into a hart's despair,

Which still is chas'd, whilst I have any breath,

By mine own thoughts; set on me by my fair,

My thoughts like hounds, pursue me to my death.

Those that I foster'd of mine own accord,

Are made by her to murder thus their lord.

Blight says this is a reference to, "Shakespeare's allusion economically suggests the exact sense of self-consuming passion that will recur through the play" (146) whereas I believe this is a statement about how mankind is always consumed by a self-imposed passion to improve our personal life. It does not have to require an actual decision to be narcissistic but it happens naturally, this is what creates the survival of fittest culture. When it came down to it during the 'Black Death Plague;' Shakespeare gave up being a playwright because there was no one to perform these plays for; equating to no income. Instead he decided to create his own form of a sonnet which he would be able to sell without risking his own infection of the plague.
Blight follows this by stating, "The pun concentrates the double identity of Malvolio as Narcissus (the self-obsessed 'I') and Actaeon (the desiring 'eye')" (147).

Another interesting fact that Blight raises is "A Midsummer Night's Dream, saves himself through his own musical art. In Twelfth Night, too, the power of music-as embodied in the name Viola- calms emotional storms and restores harmony. It is noteworthy in this respect that the name of Cadmus' wife, though not mentioned by Ovid, is Harmonia" (145)..."But Viola redeems the play because she proves to be selfless, not selfish, in love. She becomes Echo instead of Narcissus" (148).

                                                      Aloe Blacc

On Originality

A great short film using words to inspire a feeling few have felt or understand.

Well I suppose James is right. As he stated Ovid is no more original than you or I. For some odd reason I thought Ovid had been one of the first recorded publisher's but he did not finish The Metamorphoses of Ovid until 8 AD setting him on the late end of the spectrum. In the beginning of Shakespeare and Ovid by Jonathan Blight he writes, "he (Ovid) was equally both an innovator and a rewriter of material from a vast range of earlier writers, most notably Euripides and Callimachus. He did not invent his stories, he just happened to have codified them and told them in an artful and memorable way at an unusually stable moment in early Western culture" (Blight, 18). Hmm, sounds an awful lot like James' statement but I would like to emphasize his point that it is the style the author adopts to tell his story that gives credit to his originality. It does not matter when their style comes about as long as they are willing to explore unknown territory. The amazing thing about artistry is that it can come in many forms, complex as Shakespeare; to simple, the Beatles; or abstract like Salvador Dali's paintings.

It is when a artist is born and is given the opportunity to express themselves, that mankind proves its' superiority to other animals; at least through mental intuition. Blight brings up an excellent point when he says, "We do not have to believe in gods; we do not even have to believe that Shakespeare and Ovid believed in them. But we do have to believe in the reality of the human conditions and aspirations that are storied in myth-negatively, that desire is often blind (Cupid) or self-consuming (Narcissus, Actaeon); positively, that a marriage might be blessed (Hymen)" (Blight, 19). I suppose this is how I would have to define my religious beliefs. I am an athiest but I believe the simple power a religion holds in a person's beliefs can give them the ability survive a bout with cancer. The Bible is a similar collection of stories to me because it is simply meant to be a guide to how to live; while exempting some of the rather obscure lessons (i.e. homosexuality/sexism yada yada ya). When used as the basis for beliefs it can lead a person to live a simple, enjoyable life where they simply turn their cheek instead of fighting back violently realizing this may pay off in the long-run. It is often when a person becomes too encapsulated with an idea that they allow the positive effects an idea may have be overshadowed and ruin the entire idea. When an idea is the basis of a persons' beliefs and as the short film says, "I was raised to embrace, Ma always encouraged us to open our eyes and hearts to the world. Make up our own minds from experience and be inspired." I believe if we developed our own belief systems upon the numerous books created to influence our moral/beliefs we would have a more peaceful world. It would not be the Bible vs. the Koran etc. but it would be a blend of all ideas spawning into even more ideas. This could result in a violent world since man is naturally violent as we have seen in recent weeks in the Middle East but out of chaos peace will prevail. This has proved time and time again whether it was during Ovid's time in Greece or in 1778 (1780 could be argued as well) when America succeeded from the British Empire.  This may be a bit of a stretch but I feel the pagan religions have always influenced mono/polytheism because in order for either to exist their must be the belief of the opposer.

Language

Having started the semester by reading Lucrece, moving on to Shakespeare's sonnets, and having recently read A Midsummer Night's Dream, I have been able to gain an understanding for how well learned Shakespeare was in the english language. His ability to write thousand line poems boggles my mind and I have recently been assigned 1984 by George Orwell for my Language for Teachers course. Some lines that drew my attention to how lucky we are to live in a country where people are allotted the freedom to create words and study language, like Shakespeare and are able to manipulate the language and turn it into a truly beautiful language indeed. Whereas citizens of North Korea are shown what they should believe/practice. I recently read an article about the revolutions in Egypt that said the truth cannot be withheld from citizens now that we have the internet and I find that hard to believe when we continue to have millions suppressed.

                                                             Orwell

The lines that interested me are from p50-51 in 1984
"'The Eleventh Edition is the definitive edition...' 'We're getting the language into its final shape-the shape it's going to have when nobody speaks anything else...' 'You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We're destroying words- scores of them, hundreds of them, every day.'

"'It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives...'A word contains its opposite in itself. Take 'good,' for instance. If you have a word like 'good,' what need is there for a word like 'bad'? 'Ungood' will do just as well"

What would have happened to Shakespeare had he lived in a similar world? His words would have just been continuous rhymes of 'good to wood' capturing no ones attention and we would not be able to sit, read his writing, and think of all the possibilities each line gives emergence to.

Whereas if we had not had the Greek influence on our language what would have become of Shakespeare? Or if he was a Spaniard would his poetic abilities been lost because of the Spanish language? This is one reason I picked Shakespeare and Ovid to research for my final paper in-class because I hope to learn of Ovid's influences on Shakespeare's writing. It must lay much deeper than just the basis of stories and adoptions like Lucrece. The language Ovid use's in his Metamorphoses is just as remarkable as Shakespeare; if not more so because he uses original material whereas Shakespeare was able to draw from Ovid (amongst others) for ideas of inspiration. The ideas that create inspiration are what are lost in 1984 because the revolution has destroyed books and the amount of words to describe a personal experience were being taken away from Big Brother. Language and words are one of the most powerful objects a person has, which Shakespeare emphasized in MSND by putting the story of Pyramus and Thisby at the end showing he could have had the four lovers die at the end of the play instead of having a "happily ever after" that has become so popular in American culture. The tragedies are what make love stories so special because we are taught how horrible times can be; but on the other hand how surreal they can be as well.

Kill the _______

In class last week Dr. Sexson read part of Henry the XI to us and emphasized a line by Butcher, "The first thing we do let's kill all the lawyers" IV.II.81. This was followed by the beautiful voice of Sexson singing, "We don't need no education" as I am sure most of you know is from Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 2 by Pink Floyd.

But I would like to examine a few other lines in context with, "The first thing..." one being said by the Second Rebel, "True; and yet it is said 'Labor in thy vocation'; which is as much to say as 'Let the magistrates be laboring men'; and therefore should we be magistrates." IV.II.17-20. which fuels...
"Then is sin struck down like an ox, and iniquity's throat cut like a calf" (IV.II. 28-29.) which is said by the First Rebel. These quotes remind me of what Dr. Sexson said yesterday about Bottom having one admirable quote during A Midsummer Night's Dream. King Henry Part II, from what I am able to tell from a synopsis I read online is about a rebellion which is shunned away with little effort; showing the significance the First and Second Rebel as well as the Butcher have in the play. Although they produce the influential lines to gain support from peasants and fuel a revolution in which they ask to be put in the place of the magistrates and likewise, putting magistrates in the place of laborers. This is common amongst revolutions which typically start from the bottom up and attempt to strike down the higher classes who have imposed anguish upon lower citizens. The uprisers drive to kill the lawyers, or the teachers-the ones who teach the word instead of the method. Something I feel Dr. Sexson attempts to do through his lectures where he does not tell us what to think but instead how to think. So in classrooms the iniquity's throat must be cut like a calf which it seems to have been done in most collegiate classrooms across the country but the high-schools still are stuck reading the same texts which are censored according to the topic. Most people across the country still think of Columbus as one of the most admirable people in our short American history whereas he may possibly be the worst. It is through teachers (or revolutions) or maybe education in general that our eyes are opened to the negative effects individuals have on our communities. This is one of the best ideas our founders had when they wrote our "Declaration of Independence" in July of 1776 but as our country continues to hide information from us what shall we do? Especially as we watch an Egyptian government which we have supported for decades fall apart and turn the internet and cellular services off, what shall we do? Start by grabbing a hand held radio because our own government is pushing through a similar clause enabling them to turn off these services without warning...

                                                      Oh so sensual...
As I read the first couple sonnets and we discussed them in-class mostly everyone came to the conclusion that they encourage marriage. Well in one of my classes our teacher read us a letter written by Benjamin Franklin on July 25, 1745. In this letter he states eight reasons for marriage. The reasons may be a bit offensive... Also the entire letter can be found at http://grammar.about.com/od/classicessays/a/franklinmis.htm

But if you will not take this Counsel, and persist in thinking a Commerce with the Sex inevitable, then I repeat my former Advice, that in all your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones. You call this a Paradox, and demand my Reasons. They are these:

1. Because as they have more Knowledge of the World and their Minds are better stor'd with Observations, their Conversation is more improving and more lastingly agreable.

2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, the study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Men, they supply the Dimunition of Beauty by the Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do 1000 Services small and great, and are the most tender and useful of all Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such thing to be found as an old Woman who is not a good Woman.

3. Because there is no hazard of Children, which irregularly produc'd may be attended with much Inconvenience.

4. Because thro' more Experience, they are more prudent and discreet in conducting and Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your Reputation. And with regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be rather inclin'd to excuse an old Woman who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his Manners by her good Counsels, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes.

5. Because in every animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part: the Face first grows lank and wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower Parts continuing to the last as plump as ever: So that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old from a young one. And as in the dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of corporal Enjoyment with an Old Woman is at least equal, and frequently superior, every Knack being by Practice capable of Improvement.

6. Because the Sin is less. The debauching of a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her for Life unhappy.

7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend the making an old Woman happy.

8. They are so grateful!!

Thus much for my Paradox. But still I advise you to marry directly; being sincerely Your affectionate Friend,

Benjamin Franklin.