That, Anyway, is What I Have Learned

I decided to take LIT 285 on the recommendation of my sister. Dr. Sexson was one of her favorite professors. I wouldn’t normally take a literature class by choice, but I thought stretching myself would be a good experience.And it has been. I have enjoyed this class immensely and gained a whole new set of perspectives.

At first I was hesitant about blogging. It wasn’t something I had ever done before. At least not that I can remember. I bet it’s somewhere in that great collective unconscious. My reservations about blogging were, however, unfounded because in blogging I could freely express myself and my thoughts about this class.

These speeches we have had to give were also something I felt uncertain about. Thankfully, the class turned out to be a great audience and the speeches have been fun. We got to hear all kinds of wild creation stories. I learned more about pain and circumcision than I ever wanted to know. The displacements were creative and entertaining. Together, we shared stories.

Coming into this class, I knew very little about mythology. Most of these stories have been entirely new to me. I didn’t know about Zeus and Io or any of his other lady “friends”, Hades and Persephone, Daphne and Apollo, Actaeon, or the Maenads.  It has been really fascinating learning the myths, the precedents.

My interest was grabbed by the stories relating to the Trojan War, Leda and the Swan, the birth of Helen. I am reading the Iliad for another class and with all the complexities of that story, which is another I had never heard before, I was happy to learn as much as I could. I also recently read about the Freudian concept of the “Oedipus complex” in my psychology textbook and thanks to this class, I knew what that was referring to. It made me happy.

I jumped right into reading Calasso and the vast wealth of tales was overwhelming. So many versions of the same story. It was this way. Or perhaps that way. Either way, we don’t know. This irritates me. Which one is the true story? As frustrating as it has been, I’ve had to accept the uncertainty of so many variations and perhaps I have even learned to accept them as part of the storytelling experience. 

The behavior and attitudes of the gods in Calasso shocked me. They were petty and cruel and careless. Rape was the most common theme in the tales about them. This god wanted this lady more than anything else, he couldn’t be without her. So he chased her down. And a mere ten pages later it’s a new lady he also “couldn’t live without”.

Many suffered with the reckless and self-serving attitudes of the gods. In fact the people realized that, as was quoted in class, “Whenever their lives were set aflame, through desire or suffering or even reflection (they) knew that a god was at work.” They accepted their lot with all its pain “so that bards would have something to sing about.” They knew, as Dr. Sexson said, “the only life that is ever worth living is shot through with pain.” If there’s no pain, no suffering, what story is there to tell?

Another thing from this class that has stuck with me, is the repetition of myth. We have seen the same stories repeated throughout history, over and over. I even saw some of this in the picture I posted to my blog. My own unintended unoriginality. If we step back and look at the ordinary, even there we can find beauty and rhyme. As Dr. Sexson said, “reality is mythology.” Even our little, boring lives, rife with trivialities and Uncle John moments tell stories. Dr. Sexson also pointed out, you can indeed find Oz in Bozeman. You simply have to be looking for it. This class has certainly taught me how to look. It was predicted "By the end of this semester you won't be able to walk out the door without stepping on a myth." And it’s true. When I walk out to door, I shall find a myth. That, anyway, is what I have learned.