The last few posts can be explained as the results of two weeks spent teaching T.S. Eliot. I wanted to try and write my own five part Wasteland/Quartet for kicks and giggles (and apparently to inflict it on the rest of you). As with "The Wasteland," there is a literary key to the work, John Demos' The Unredeemed Captive. Individual incidents that inspired the work include: a trip to an exhibit of Eastern Orthodox icons, finding out that my favorite tea company had moved from Connecticut to New York, meditations on the California Freeways, The Oresteia, studying at Oxford as an undergraduate, and, of course, growing up in rural southern Connecticut (that pernicious habit). So, until next time: Weiweilalala.
Thoughts after reading the "Iliad" to prepare a Greece unit for my students: -Hector is a jerk until he's dead. He even advocates the exposure of Achaean corpses and then has the cheek to turn around and ask Achilles to spare his. He rudely ignores Polydamas' prophecies and fights outside the gate to save his pride knowing full well what it will cost his family and city. After he's dead, he becomes a martyr for the cause. -Agamemnon has several moments of true leadership to balance out his pettiness. In this way, he's a haunting foil to Achilles: the two men are more alike than they want to acknowledge. -We see that Achilles is the better man at the funeral games of Patroclos. His lordliness, tact, and generosity there give us a window into Achilles before his fight with Agamemnon and the death of Patroclos consumed him. -Nestor is a boring, rambling, old man who's better days are far behind him, and yet every Achaean treats him with the upmo...
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