Groups 5 & 6 Tuesday

Group 5- Amazing acting, loved the way they threw in a bunch of the words we have learned in class, Awesome filming... it was like watching a movie :P Bonus points ++ for POPCORN! The dog was adorable, and the costumes were great too.

Group 6- The funerals was pretty interesting. I liked seeing all of the different cultures thrown together, fighting over how to properly bury poor dead Kyle Miller. All of you were hilarious, I thought it was a cool point of view... Apple juice was delicious and so were the cookies:D

Thursday 12-1 Last Names A - H
Tuesday   12-6     ""              I -S?
Thursday  12-8     ""            T-Z
approx.

Have paper ready to hand in after presentation... No longer than 5 minutes!!
Good Luck!

Notes

Seperation, initiation, return - not specific enough for paper

completely planned/ seemingly unplanned - don't read paper word for word

practice in front of mirro

chose specific important parts of book

Dont use words LIKE & STUFF

25 to 30 blogs by the end

15-18 Startlingly awesome blogs

quality of blog/ engaged blog!

Stranger that Fiction

An IRS auditor suddenly finds himself the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire life, from his work, to his love-interest, to his death.

How did it all begin? Calasso god abducted bull

curse or gift of the alphabet- Cadmus

MOST IMPORTANT LINE IN MAGUS pg 311 "All that is past possesses our present."

masque --> music dancing stage professional actors hired

Nick- all staged deconstructing Urfe's mind.

Conchis looks like Pablo Picasso.

Semian monkey?

Precedent behind every action-same as quote from pg 311 Magus.

Carry pressure of past with you. lives are quotidian small talk, world is present.

Hi(s)tory

-guys play with tonka trucks

mythical baggage- Urfe was unaware of

Collective Unconscious

Carl Jung.  It is  a part of the unconscious mind

  the structure of the psyche autonomously organizes experience. "the collective unconscious collects and organizes those personal experiences in a similar way with each member of a particular species."(WIKI)

 I have trap door to birth? also everyone else's baggage

its all been planned, choreographed

every man must make a trip to see Persephone in the underworld.

Creator, Preserver, & Destroyer

"Every answer is a kind of death" Magus, Lily De' Seitas says to Nicholas on pg 626

Impersonal, not about you... Visit with Lily and Roses mother painful discovery- it's not about us. Don't stop being you just start seeing it's not about everybody else.

"Betrayal is a function of deconstruction!"

I love it !!

Ignorance is stupidity, to hide behind veil

Black widow- gets male into web, uses him for something (impregnates), eat him ...

Mae West- devouring female... no soul

gives him good time, devours him.... JULIE is a Black Widow

Eliade- Taoism

--> dreamed he was a butterfly, enjoying himself he woke as a man and didn't know if he was dreaming of being a butterfly or butterfly dreaming of being a man.

Butterfly mirrors the Soul

As I read The Magus, I came across multiple instances where butterflies were recognized. I found this astounding, as we discussed in class the butterfly is the Greek image for soul. Fowles used butterflies to signal a sense of freedom, of calming in the air, or a weight off his shoulders. " We were silent. Two coupled yellow butterflies flitted heavily, saggingly, past." As Urfe finally told Allison of Julie/Lily, the butterflies were released to purposely flutter past them, as to say, you can relax for a moment and gaze into your soul.

Butterflies make me feel that way. When I am gazing upon a butterfly all else is disappeared, unimportant, life is blissful for that endless second. As if looking into your own soul. I started searching butterfly mirrors and came across this picture, which led me to nothing other than ALICE IN WONDERLAND! The girl who made this lovely piece of art was thinking of transcending into a butterfly realm through a portal, the mirror. Which is exactly how I feel when watching a butterfly. I thought this artwork was marvelous and I had to share it with all of you!

Here is the link if you would like to read what the artist wrote :)

http://prolificsoul.blogspot.com/2010/03/alice-in-wonderland.html

Destiny has brought me footy pajamas!

I was told to do community service at the Salvation Army last September. At that same period in time, I was looking for an awesome pair of footy pajamas for the cold, harsh winter ahead. As I hung clothes, clothes, and more clothes... I stumbled upon  the most perfect pair of footy pajamas and not only were they MY size and exactly what I was looking for... MY NAME was written on the butt flap!!!!! BAILEY in big white letters, right there for me to read:D That day I knew I was destined to be at the Salvation Army, hanging that piece of clothing. I couldn't believe it! It still baffles me, what are the chances!!! "It was destined(256)." Nick did not want to walk with Alison for 6 hours, only to be alone with her all night, in a small hut, where surely she would want to do the deed. At that very moment, frantically trying to find a way around this, a man with a mule stopped and let Alison ride packsaddle. Sigh of relief, things worked out in the nick of time, due to destiny. But he didn't get out of it anyway. Because destiny "Conchis" had controlled the outcome, meaning Alison pretty much forced him to have sex with her... it's just part of the game right? No big deal or anything.

Transformation...

"Toujours the done thing(247)." Forever the thing done? I need help understanding this paragraph on page 247... Where did this come from? One minute they are talking about the hotel room, next this? It threw me off balance a little bit. I understand what it means, in translation, but does it have to do with Nick and Alison reuniting? About remember their past? HELP maybe I'm overlooking something...

Aside from that...

"She spoke as if we had last met the week before. But it didn't work. The nine months stood like a sieve between us, through which words came, but none of the emotions(246-247)."

 This hit home with me, reuniting with people you haven't seen in a year or so. Especially after going through such a transformation as Nick did. Nick thought he met someone new, Julie, and no longer had feelings for Alison. He felt a new life forming, in a new place, with new people. He didn't want anything to do with her... later, as you know, Conchis used his awesome mind playing tricks on Nick to go see her, by hiding everyone and everything in Bourani. My transformation wasn't quite as drastic, yet after three years it seems like I am staring at a stranger, their actions seem different, or maybe it is my actions that are different... I can't help but feel separated from the people I once felt most connected to. I choose to roll with the changes, there is nothing I can do... I have been transformed.

The Unexpected

Kevin was beat up on 8th street in front of the Methodist church.
Priest doesn't have time because he has to go to a sack lunch on campus.
Middle-eastern man living in attic takes him to Pickle Barrel, and gets him a delicious sandwich.


Moral of Story: The person you thought would, didn't! The one you didn't think would, did! 

I have experienced this in my life with a couple friends. I only make it home once or twice a year to see my high school friends and when I got there I had plans to hang out with my best friends. I thought both of them would get together with me, neither of them did. The friends I hadn't even told I was coming home, I saw randomly and ended up having a great weekend with some old friends I didn't know I still had. 

Moral of Story: The people I thought would, didn't! The people I didn't think would, did!

Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, & the Tooth Fairy

 Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

"VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

I feel connected to this concept, just like we can make a rock sacred to our Mythology class we can make Santa Claus real. The rock doesn't appear different, it merely is because we believe it is. I saw a commercial for best buy today that made me think about this more. Santa came to a house to put presents in the stockings and the mom comes out, laughs, and says something like "looks like there's no room for your gifts!" I was horrified by the idea that a little kid was going to see that and possible be turned away from the belief in Santa Claus for Christmas. It tore me up because, though I know he, the one individual person, isn't real, doesn't mean I don't want to continue believing in the spirit of him. 

Similarly, I am amazed by the idea of most modern technology. I don't know how they put together a computer, or how making phone calls works. I have never taken the time to try and figure it out, and break it down, it probably wouldn't be as spectacular to me if I were to find out. I choose to stay oblivious to such details. Don't ask questions, just believe. :)