2018 was a pretty difficult year. Then again, 2017, 2016, and 2015 weren't peaches either. As Counting Crows tells us long December, but there's reason to believe maybe next year will be better than the last. Looking at my Spotify-generated 2018 playlist, there was a lot of Counting Crows, Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, Boston, Kamelot, and Red Hot Chili Peppers -make of that what you will. My definitive reading experience was probably a re-engagement after 12 years with Neil Gaiman's Sandman and teaching Collins' The Hunger Games to 7-9th graders. Oh, I guess there was a trip through Virgil that helped me appreciate the Man From Mantua a bit more. My definitive film experiences were Black Panther and NetFlix's The Haunting of Hill House. I guess both are par for the course though none of my friends have seen Hill House yet. So, a long December it's been here at Platypus of Truth, but there is reason to believe that this year may be better than the last or as Samwise's Gaffer puts it: "where there's life, there's hope and need of vittles."
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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