Class notes: 10-22
Movie Reflection:
-History = his story. Story=mythos; The story is more important than the history. The Jews were able to remain religious and faithful by the story, keeping the story alive about their religion while in exile.
-Read Plotz and you’ll be prepared for the test.
Important chapter from Frye for next test: Chapter 5.
-1st king of Israel: Saul. 2nd King: David.
-Exceptionally long timeline that the bible was composed, from 2000b.c. to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, in 1945.
-Highbrow vs. Lowbrow literature, wisdom, and life.
-Prudential – lowbrow, meant to have practical advice. Proverbs: spare the rod and spoil the child, a penny saved is a penny earned, a watched pot never boils
-Speculative/skeptical – highbrow;
-Wisdom can only be communicated,
* We’ve been brainwashed to think language must be clear and descriptive, rather than ornamented, elegant, and metaphorical. *
-The bible can be described with the U, the parabola, the u shaped narrative. Start high, slide down to the bottom of some experience and work back up. Parables of Jesus; the unexpected.
-Dickinson, “tell the truth, but tell it slant.”
-Like that was awesome, like awfully cool, like so totally badass, doode.
-There is a distinction between wisdom and knowledge.
-Book by Harold Bloom: “Where Shall Wisdom Be Found”
-Wisdom: The things that people come to understand that penetrate the mysteries of life that are often, unfortunately, negative.
-Rio’s godly hands.
-Frye page 121, In the book of proverbs 19:18, “…responsible for more physical pain than any other sentence ever written. “ Spanking.
-The father’s advice to his daughter, “don’ talk to boys!” Polonius giving advice to Ophelia, “don’t talk to Hamlet.” But Polonius tells his son, “have good table manners, and watch out for these three things, wine, women, and song.”
-The Book of Job, and Ecclesiastes, exemplary books that deal with wisdom. Skeptical books. “Vanity of Vanities; all is vanity” Everything is vain, futile, in the end we’re all food for the worms.
-The book of Job is like an Oreo cookie. First the prologue, than at the end the epilogue, but in the middle, the good stuff, Job, whining, bitching, dealing with everything.
-The question of questions:
-Theodicy, the attempts to justify suffering through God
-Tragedies, dealing with pain, the dark heart of skeptical wisdom. Somewhere, someday, maybe the suffering of a child can be explained, perhaps for future generations to learn from and reach higher levels of peace and tranquility. Yet the brother, from Dostoyevsky’s novel, says he’ll, “humbly return his ticket” rather than have gods justify the suffering and pain of a child. It’s too horrific.
-Skeptical wisdom even acknowledges that wisdom is vain, along with everything else.
-“There’s nothing new under the sun.” “Eat drink and be marry, for tomorrow we die.” Carpe Diem – Seize the day!!!
-Check Jamie’s blog for musical enlightenment.
-Read nicks blog on music. Music is everywhere. The Whole earth is a conductor of music. All music, all the time, 24/7/365.
-The greatest passage of literature Dr. Sexson has ever read: the last part of the book of Ecclesiastes; 12:1-8. Enormously consoling.; Everybody’s in the same boat with a slow leak, so let’s look out for each other.
Daily statistics:
-One person has eaten Oreos, me.
-Three to four people know of children who’ve been abused.
-Eight to ten people have had a dog or puppy die
