Grrrrrrrrrrrrades!

				Introduction to Drama		B
				ICSM: Creativity and the Arts		B
				Ithaca College Sinfonietta		A
				Introduction to Developmental Psychology		B
				Hebrew Scriptures		A-
				Academic Writing I		B+

Yay! I passed my first semester of college!
   fireworks and JOY!
allow me some time to feel good about myself and smirk a bit.
.....

....
Yup, okay I'm good.

I probably won't have too much to say until classes start back up again, but I will try to entertain whoever reads this with tales of my adventures in life.

The Fastest Essay I've Ever Written. Huzzah!

 yep. super-high speed (incidently, the polar opposite of the internet here) Don't judge me, I think I stayed up really late to write this, but I don't really remember.  For my Intro to Drama class.  No stealsies.

 

Family.  The safe-haven that will follow you all your life, is such a comforting thing, a central value to the American Dream.  But is it really all it’s cracked up to be?  Eugene O’Neil’s Long Day’s Journey into Night and Sam Shepard’s Buried Child show a very different side of this social convention.  Families, in these two plays are places where the mistakes of the past congeal into big, ugly messes.  Fed by secrets and bitterness, the family becomes some sort of vortex that sucks down people’s lives, leaving them bitter husks of people, never able to shake themselves from the family’s negative influence.

            For example, in Long Day’s Journey into Night, Edmund leaves the family and has some sort of epiphany.

“EDMUND:”…“I became drunk with the beauty and singing rhythm of it, and for a moment I lost myself—actually lost my life.  I was set free!  I was dissolved into the sea, became the white sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm, became moonlight and the ship and high dim-starred sky!” (p 332)

Even after such a beautiful experience, he comes back to his family—back the misery there.  He is drawn back.  Just as Sam Shepard’s Tilden is drawn back to his family after having a similar sort of experience while he was away from the family.  Both men are unable to truly leave their families.

            Both families also seem to have a sort of curse on them.  The Tyrone family is plagued with both alcoholism and drug abuse—the men drink heavily while Mary wastes away in a morphine dream, pretending she is a young school girl, pretending that she has a good life.  The family in Buried Child is also filled with rotting things.  Dodge, the patriarch, is on the verge of death, and the play is filled with images of the earth.  It is pouring rain outside, turning the ground into mud, and there is a dead baby literally moldering away in the backyard.

            The character who most dramatically shows the corrosive effects that such a family can have is Vince, from Buried Child.  He arrives as an outsider, and isn’t recognized by Dodge and the others;

“DODGE: Who are you to expect anything? Who are you supposed to be?

VINCE: I’m Vincce!  Your grandson!  You’ve gotta remember me.

DODGE: Vince.  My grandson.  That’s rich!” (p 32).

  Vince tries to leave the family, taking Dodge’s two dollars and driving as far away as he can, but the family draws him back.  He realizes that he belongs with them,

“VINCE: I was gonna run last night.  I was gonna run and keep right one running” …“I could see myself in the windshield.  My face.  My eyes.  I studied my face.  Studied everything about it as though I was looking at another man.”…“And then his face changed.  His face became his father’s face.”…“And his father’s face changed to his grandfather’s face.  And it went on like that.  Changing.  Clear on back to faces I’d never seen before but still recognized.” (p 71)

By seeing his own face transform into the faces of his ancestors, Vince is realizing his heritage—the legacy that lies behind him.  It is only after he comes to this understanding that he turns the car around and goes back to the house.  He returns to claim the house for his own, which Dodge allows, finally accepting him.  After Dodge’s barely-noticeable death, Vince takes up the old man’s spot on the couch without a word.

            Vince is a better example of the effects of such a family than his girlfriend, Shelly, because despite both of them being outsiders when they first arrive, Vince is part of the family—he isn’t able to escape like Shelly is.  Shelly manages to get out, but Vince cannot, he returns after running away and becomes deeply involved. 

            In Long Day’s Journey into Night, the Tyrone family is rife with old hate and bitterness, especially in relation to the character Jamie.  Jamie has become an alcoholic, and is enormously jealous of his brother Edmund.  In a drunken confession, he says to Edmund of his bad influence;

“Did it on purpose to make a bum of you.”…“Made getting drunk romantic.  Made whore fascinating vampires instead of the poor, stupid, diseased slobs they really are.”…“Never wanted you to succeed and make me look even worse by comparison.  Wanted you to fail.  Always jealous of you.  Mama’s baby, Papa’s pet!” (p 339).

QUOTE.  Jamie has experienced an horrific amount of emotional trauma in order to become the way he is now—cynical, bitter, drunken.  He knew about his mother’s morphine addiction long before Edmund did, and had to endure Mary’s belief that he deliberately murdered his little brother Eugene out of jealousy.  That kind of accusation, coming from your own mother is awful, and it’s no surprise Jamie turned out the way he did.

            Another character—this time from Buried Child—that shows the outcomes of abuse, is Bradley.  He shows his skewed psyche in the rather disturbing scene where, after Shelly yells at him to “Shut up!”  he puts his fingers into Shelly’s mouth;

“BRADLEY: Open your mouth.

SHELLY: What?

BRADLEY (Motioning for her to open her mouth.) Open up.  (She opens her mouth slightly.)  Wider.  (She opens her mouth wider.)  Keep it like that. (She does.  Stares at Bradley.  With his free hand, he puts his fingers into her mouth.  She tries to pull away.)  Just stay put!  (She freezes.  He keeps his fingers in her mouth.  Stares at her.  Pause.  He pulls his hand out.  She closes her mouth, keeps her eyes on him.  Bradley smiles.” (p 49).

There is definitely something sexual about this scene, but it is so disturbing because it’s against Shelly’s will—it’s a rape.

            Now, rape is not about satisfying a rapist’s sexual desires, but rather his desire for power.  Why should Bradley, a hulking and intimidating figure, have such a desire? 

The vast majority of abusers were one victims of abuse themselves.  

“BRADLEY:  Hey! Missus.  Don’t talk to me like that.  Don’t talk to me in that tone a voice.  There was a time when I had to take that tone of voice from pretty near everyone.” (p 49)

Bradley’s abuse centers around his prosthetic leg, which, if taken away, can leave Bradley hideously crippled and powerless. 

“DODGE:  Bradley?  (Looks at Bradley)  He’s a push-over.  ‘Specially now.  All ya gotta do is take his leg and throw it out the back door.  Helpless.  Totally helpless.” (p 53)

The fact that Dodge repeats this very personal information to Shelly in such a nonchalant way shows how little his son means to him.  Bradley seems to have been the butt of the family joke.  He mentions how he hated being treated that way—having no power.  So he attempts to assert power over Shelly when they first meet. 

But it only lasts for a while, because Shelly takes away his wooden leg, leaving him pitifully and comically helpless.

“(Shelly suddenly grabs her coat off the wooden legand takes both the leg and the coat D., away from Bradley.)  Mom!  Mom!  She’s got my leg!  She’s taken my leg!  I never did anything to her!  She’s stolen my leg!  She’s a devil, Mom.  How did she get into our house?  (Bradley reaches pathetically in the air for his leg.)” (p 63)

  Bradley cries for his mother like a child, whining and sniveling—he seems to have regressed to the level of a young child—perhaps the age he was when this torment began.

Both of these families, through neglect or outright cruelty have twisted themselves into monstrous entities that seem incapable of anything good.

 Just kidding, I love my family!

 

3 Little Thingies...

...for my Intro to Drama final. Part one - modern drama.  Part two - an interesting character.  part three - ...so what?
A formal tone was not required, so I really let my professor have it.  Hopefully, he has a similar sense of humor and doesn't fail me....enjoy

Does 20^th Century Drama redefine your idea of what theatre is about?

            Yes, it does.  In particular, the play Six Characters in Search of an Author by Pirandello really challenged how I thought theatre could be done.  It took my sense of the reality of the stage and turned it upside down.

            The notion that characters are their own creatures and can exist without an author to think them up is mind-boggling.  What is a “character” then, if not some form of a human’s imagination?  As I was reading it, I kept trying to put things into one concrete reality—were these “characters” simply insane actors?  Was this some sort of joke being played on the theater company?  When the director started taking them seriously, I couldn’t believe it.

            In the end, I just stopped thinking about it.  I suppose that I feel safe in a world where things are concrete, quantifiable, and easy to understand.  Six Characters showed that there can be multiple realities operating together on the same stage.  Perhaps what made this play so challenging was the fact that Pirandello never gave an explanation as to how these characters came to be—if he had said that they were drawn straight from an author’s brain into flesh and blood by some mystical process, that would have been easier for me. 

            But I’m glad he didn’t.  Pirandello bends reality and offers the audience no easy-way-out for us to quantify the experience.  I just didn’t know that plays could do that.

 

            Another play that changed and challenged my views about theatre was Peter Weiss’ Marat-Sade.  Though it existed in a conventional reality, Marat-Sade challenged how I thought information could be presented.  Its aesthetic was disturbing, gritty, and rough.  I have encountered films and novels with a similar ‘feel’, but I had never thought that this kind of thing could be done onstage.  Theater seemed to be slightly more sophisticated and refined than that.

            Wrong.

            Theater can be just as much of a hot mess as everybody’s favorite cult classic movie—Natural Born Killers, anyone? 

            I didn’t even consider that that kind of grungy, dirty aesthetic would work on a stage.  That’s kind of foolish of me in retrospect, but it’s true.

            Another thing about that play that was pretty cool was the amount of incredibly intelligent philosophizing that was going on amidst the chaos of the asylum.  There were two levels of operation in that play; Sade’s play-within-a-play, full of heavy discourse about the nature of humanity and heavy political things, and then the degenerate, ugly mess of the ‘real world’ filled with the people of the asylum and the Revolution, with anarchy and madness brewing right below the surface.  That’s kind of a terrifying duality there.  That’s something I’ve never seen thrown into such stark contrast before.

 get iiiit?  Tony Stark..

 

 

 

 anyways.......

 

 

Part 2

 

Eugene, from George Bernard Shaw’s Candida holds great interest for me.  While reading, I wasn’t sure what to make of him, and now I still have questions.  At first I thought he was some horrifically florid weakling who needed to grow up a bit and stop talking so much.  When Morrell threatens him with physical violence, he blows things astronomically out of proportion.  I had no respect for him at all.

I couldn’t take him seriously when he said more sweet-nothings than a drunken, love-struck Shakespeare-wanna-be.  It was like he wasn’t even from planet Earth—to quote one of my favorite drag queens, Latrice Royale, “Good God! Get a Grip, Girl”.

 I couldn't resist, there's just so much sass!

At that point in my Eugene-experience I didn’t understand or respect Candida either, so I didn’t see why he would be so stricken with her.  She just seemed like an airhead, so I couldn’t respect Eugene as a person, and now also, I had no sympathy with a boy so smitten with such a woman.  But either way—airhead or not—Candida is a married woman, so Eugene should just get over her and go on with his strange, pathetic little life.  I thought it was so presumptuous and out of line that he was actively and confidently threatening Morrell.

My view of Eugene started to change for the better when he exhibited some maturity.  He and Morrell become allies in Act Three right before Candida gets the truth out of them about their spat earlier that day.  There is camaraderie between them, and that I found very interesting and a rather attractive situation.

When Candida does her speech about how she chooses her husband over Eugene, saying that Morrell is a weaker man than Eugene, I had to go back do some re-evaluation.  The points that she brought up about Morrell were excellent and I realized she wasn’t a servile and dumb creature, but that she actually was the puppet-master that controlled the domestic world.  Candida had won my respect, and therefore Eugene’s attraction to her was validated.

Maybe Eugene’s poetical nature—which may mean more than he uses too big of words too often—is the reason he’s so out-there.  When I went back and looked at some of his lines, I saw the real Shakespeare in the wanna-be.  That’s just how Eugene thinks and looks at the world.  He exists in a sort of higher plane than the rest of the characters, and everything in this plane should always be lofty and beautiful.

Being a poet is not so much an occupation as it is a state of mind.  And, as a representative for that state of mind, Eugene does very well.  He sees things differently and reacts to them directly from the heart, which leads to his rather ridiculous emotions.  Now that I understand that about him, he fascinates me. 

For one who considers themselves to be of a somewhat poetical nature (at least in my head) examining a fellow poet is incredibly intriguing.  What does it mean to “be a poet”?  What is this poetical nature I’ve been talking about?  Do I have to be like Eugene—slightly crazy and overly emotional—to be a proper poet?  I’m still working on an answer, but maybe there isn’t one.

That’s what my Eugene experience has come to mean.

 

Now, on to Part Three…

   at this point I just have nothing better to do.

 

 

Dear Mom and Dad,

            I know college is really expensive, and sometimes you wonder where your money goes, but I have to say, this Introduction to Drama class I’m wrapping up is…

            Simply smashing, my jolly old fellows!

 

            No, but seriously, it’s been a pretty cool and eye-opening class.  The plays we looked at were all very good ones—duh—and they really made me think.  I have a bunch of new things to draw on for when I want to write my own stuff. 

            Studying what has come before you is one of the best ways to learn.  Imitation is what it is I suppose—imitation and modification-so-no-one-knows-you-snagged-it-from-someone-else.  That’s what I think art is—a giant form of collage, where bits and pieces come from a hundred other people’s works that you’re familiar with, and the artist’s job is to fit them into something coherent and try to leave your own mark on them.  The more bits and pieces I have to work with the better.

            And isn’t that why I’m here?  So I can be a better writer?  I sure hope so.

            That’s how you learn a craft—you’ve got to watch the masters at it so you know what you’re doing.  Apprentice writer.  That’s so cool.  I guess you never stop being an apprentice though; you can never be satisfied with what you’re doing, because you can always do it better.

            Okay, now back to this specific class, I’m a really big fan of the way it is conducted.  All we do is pretty much group discussion of what we think about what went on in the various plays.  That’s a nice, refreshing change from High School.  Granted, we did some of that listen-to-your-peers thing back then, but not nearly as much.  It’s so nice to hear what someone other than the teacher/professor thinks about the play.  There is no wrong or right way to interpret things—because it’s art.  BAM.

 

            And that’s awesome.  That’s a very important lesson for an artist of any medium to learn.  If I want to really be a good artist I’ve got to create things that are specific enough to get a point across and yet open for wild interpretations.  I think that, to get the admiration of the general public, there’s a ratio of specific to abstract that you have to get right.  If you err on the side of too specific, you’re going to be boring and meaningless, but if you get too abstract you’ve confused about half your audience out of giving a damn.

            That’s something I think I’ve picked up on in specifically this class.  This one play we read was just too screwy and mind-boggling for me to get comfortable with—Six Characters in Search of an Author, now, it was a good play, but I just couldn’t get into it.  It was too abstract for me.  I can’t think of a play that got too specific and too concrete for me—probably because we read plays that were, you know, good. 

            So I hope you don’t think I’m blowing your money to just fool around for four years as a last hurrah before I have to behave like a real adult.  Let’s face it—will I ever be a mature adult?  Nope.

            This is an intense learning phase—I’m here to acquire skills and knowledge that I can use when I’m trying to make it as a writer in the ‘real world’.

            Love,

            Your Dashingly Darling Daughter

 that's right. I'm not actually a human being - I'm a dog.

 

Why Star Trek Should Be Taught In College

Again, this essay is mine, but good luck trying to steal it.

The idea is that I created an awesome class, and I think my college should offer it, because they're changing their whole General Education system around anyways (that's what "ICC" means), and because it's awesome.  And I wrote this essay about it.

 

“For God’s sake, Jim!  I’m a doctor not a teacher!”

— A New Freshman Seminar for ICC

The U.S.S. Enterprise is under alien control, speeding away at warp-who-knows-what towards the planet Charon.  Commissioner Bele, a humanoid whose skin is colored half black and half white has been chasing a fugitive from his planet around the galaxy for over 50,000 years.  This fugitive, Lokai, has the exact opposite skin coloration as Bele.  Eventually, Captain Kirk and the crew manage to beam the two humanoids down to their home planet.  The episode closes with images of Bele and Lokai chasing each other around a flaming, deserted city (Coon).

Though it aired for only three seasons, Star Trek’s impact on pop culture was immense.  Created by Gene Roddenberry, the show explored contemporary Earth problems by substituting alien cultures and idea in for ones a little closer to home.  It is, essentially, a beautiful piece of social commentary that is engaging and entertaining to watch.

In addition to being a good source of entertainment, the television show Star Trek could provide the basis for an engaging freshman seminar course as part of the new ICC, going into effect next year—more on ICC later, however. 

I suggest a seminar-style course in which the ethical and social dilemmas that are brought up in the original series Star Trek television show. Students will study the various situations that the Enterprise crew is placed in during contact with an alien society and culture, but also how the American culture of the 1960's influenced the issues brought up in the show and how they are dealt with. This class would be discussion based, centering around the ‘world of systems’ theme with a perspective of creative arts.

The ‘World of Systems’ theme focuses on how humans exist and think within the various systems that exist in our lives—“physical, political, economic, technological, social, and creative at both local and global levels” (“The Integrated Core Cirriculum”).  The only system listed that one might have a hard time relating to Star Trek would economic, but, with a stretch it is feasible. 

Possible topics of discussion centering around the political and social systems could include; how the crew interacts with an alien society, how that society functions, how the crew interacts with Spock, the power structure of the crew itself and how that is put under pressure in certain scenarios.  How the American public of the time reacted to the episode, how we react to it now, what has changed and why.  Also the course can look at the show from a historical perspective and try to find references to events and controversial issues of the time.  They can also examine what the show says happens in humanity’s “future”—the time between the 1960s and the time when the show is supposed to take place. 

For example, the description of an episode I started off with, “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, is about racism.  The two humanoids are the same except for their skin color,

 I really wanted to put that in the essay

 the very fact that the colors chosen were black and white is an obvious reference to the discrimination and segregation that was, despite newly enacted laws, still very much a part of American culture.  The episode ends with a sort of warning—Bele and Lokai have been at this for 50,000 years, and during that time, their civilization has destroyed itself.  The civilization on Charon sends a very clear message about where things will go if the US continues down the path of hatred.  This is, of course, just a basic analysis of that episode, but that’s the general idea.

The class would be assigned a specific episode to watch for homework, and to come to class prepared to discuss what they observed.   The students would also read reviews, both of the time and contemporary, of Star Trek, and examine the relevant issues that existed in the American culture of the time.  They would read materials by the creator of the show and the writers, about the show (hopefully these texts exist), and watch interviews with the cast.

Students will write short papers about the things discussed in class, and these will be a mixture of response and research.  There will also be a short quiz at the beginning of the class on details of the episode so as to make sure the students actually watched them.  These will not count terribly towards their grades, but they will contain details that are not included on various summaries of the episode. 

As a final project, students will have to create an outline of a hypothetical episode.  For example, the student could write about the issue of abortion.  The Enterprise encounters a culture that has harshly banned the practice of abortion, and yet the women still practice it.  Perhaps they encounter a woman who is dying due to a botched procedure, thus exposing a particular concern about the banning of abortions.  The student could choose to end in episode in whichever way they want to—Dr. McCoy could miraculously save the dying woman, or she could die and Kirk would angrily explain the benefits of making this procedure safe and available to women. 

The student, by writing this outline, would utilize the techniques used by the writers and designers who worked on Star Trek and use them to create a work of art.  They would create a sort of social commentary, or raise philosophical questions about the nature of reality, or human nature. 

This course has enormous potential for creative expression and student enjoyment, while still providing a powerful in-depth learning experience about the impact of a piece of American culture.  The objective here is to learn how the show functions as a piece of art, and then also to dive into the questions it raises.  The students will learn how to ‘think deeper’ about works of art in ways they haven’t before, as a social commentary, and as a muse. 

There is an immediate need here at IC for more freshman seminars—students in all the various Schools will be taking them, not just the Humanities and Sciences.  This proposed course would work to directly satisfy that need, but there is also a greater need in education today.  Students, as a general rule, feel apathetic to courses they don’t see as relevant to them—a tragedy, in my opinion.  Presenting students with a course they find entertaining sparks interest, motivation, and genuine desire to learn.  The proposed final project, as opposed to a dry and analytical paper, is something that the students are more invested in.  By sketching out an outline of an episode, students are exercising their ability to be creative, which is an absolutely crucial skill to have.

This course would create a more well-rounded student, who has knowledge and experience in the creative arts.  Also, the students would have been exposed to the art and practice of social commentary—important to one who lives in society, that is to say, everyone.  Even for those not particularly interested in pursuing a career in the Arts, this course holds interest.  Who doesn’t like watching good TV?

What a lovely essay…So what?  Creating engaging and interesting courses is one of the toughest jobs an educator has, therefore, a course that is student proposed, fits the requirements of the ICC, should be offered as a part of this new educational plan. 

Writing Music in Graphic Notation

So, for my seminar (which I'm going to miss next semester!) we had to compose a piece of music - okay, more like percussion - and write it down in a graphic notation of our own design.

This was pretty easy, because there's none of that tricky music theory stuff that comes in with the addition of actual notes to a piece.  Don't tell a percussionist I said that.

Anyways, the first idea I had was to use the stuff I have in my viola case.  One of these things:

which is what I stuck with.  There was this really cool swooshy sound that is made when I pretend like my bow
 is a sword or magic wand or something, and wave it frantically.  Think Ron Weasley's first attempts at Wingardium Leviosa, and that's the general idea.

 

But that idea never made it into the piece because it got trampled by another one.  I was thinking about opening up my viola case before the first rehearsal with a new group.  You're (or at least I am) looking around and sizing people up, trying to figure out the skill level of the other players and whatnot.  Maybe that's just me..but it makes for a good idea.

 

I thought of a tango.  Something a wee bit sexy, and kind of like a lion circling around another animal.  And I was off.

 

The distinctive tango rhythm pretty much is going steady throughout the whole piece.  The person who plays it is going to be lightly and carefully tapping my viola in certain places that produce a different pitch.  This job may end up being mine because I'm afraid someone will hurt my instrument.  Maybe.

 

Hmm...I just realized that everybody else's parts kind of suck.  (Meaning they dont have a lot of fun stuff to do)  Oh well...not changing it now.

 

So anyways, I was sitting up in my favorite spot last night - the TC Lounge - and I wrote this little thing in probably about fifteen minutes.  That probably says something about its quality, but I happen to like it and I'm proud of it.  So there.

 

It's kind of ethereal, not a real fiery thing, to say the least.  Kind of laid back, but not really.  Also kind of hard to describe.

 

My instruments:

- The tappy thing. (Fingers striking viola body) main voice, beat

- The shakey thing. (Someone shaking my shoulder rest, causing loosened screws to rattle)

- The swishy thing. (A silk cloth that covers my viola while it's in the case, rubbed against itself)

- The thooink-y thing. (A plastic tube with two little rubber caps, makes interesting noise when caps are removed.  First cap removed produces a lower pitch than second one)



requires someone to hold the tube while two other people pull off the caps

My process of composition was to play around with the rhythm by weaving some different sounds in together, while making it sound like a coherent thing.  As opposed to a godless cacaphony.

 

My graphic notation:

I wanted it to be reminiscent of traditional notation;

which is why I kept the idea of lines in my notation (also because I originally wrote it on lined paper)

 

and also because the lines correspond to a pitch - which is a pretty universal and 'duh' thing that everyone knows about music.  I didn't want to have to explain the snot out of whoever is going to be playing these parts. 

 

The little curly things on the start and end of the notation, in addition to being pretty, indicate the start and end of the piece (like in traditional notation).

I noticed that a lot of the other notations that people in my class had used gave each part its own seperate...well part.  Each instrument had its own line of notes or whatnot to follow.  I wanted them to be all in one thing so the players can see - literally - how their parts fit together.  They'd play it better.

I hope to have someone in my class take a video of the "performance" tomorrow so that I can put it up here, because it's one thing to look at the notation of a piece, and it's another thing entirely to hear it performed.  I'll bring my camera, and make some technologically savy person show me how to upload a vide off of it.

Anyways, here's some more pictures

going over my pencil score in pen.

 turn your head sideways.  I wanted to make it pretty, so I doodled.

 

 doodle closeup

 doodle closeup II

 

THE FINAL THING

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

Losers, Sleep-Drooling, and Naps

Sorry I haven't been up here in a while....I'm a loser

I am shamed...

I don't know what to say!

I started watching this movie the other night (Dumb and Dumber) but I couldn't even finish doing that...

At least I'm closer to the end of the semester...so I can go home and do this:

 yes, I'm going to grow a beard and become a man.





No.  I'm going to nap like there's no tomorrow and sleep-drool. 
 This is just too cute to pass up.  Little toddler sleeping in pre-k or daycare or something.  Sometimes, I feel like this.


A Good Thing About College
The ability to nap! 
Back in High School I'd nod off during class, like, four times a week.  But now that I can nap during the day - because I'm not at school (I live here) - I've only nodded off once...in this entire semester.  I never noticed that until just now.

Hah, take that Mom!

A Somewhat Unclaimed Poem and What My Mind Does If Left Unsupervised

So, this reading we got for class is a whole bunch of poems about musical creativity and whatnot with no one directly attributed to them.  That's irritating.  I have a feeling that they're written by the same person, because I found an identical line in two different poems, but I would like to have a name....
Anyways, this is a poem - nice and short because I'd really rather be sleeping now - that I'm going to ramble around.

Composers pay attention to daydreams.
A wandering mind is creative.
When your mind wanders, follow it.
Remember where you have been.
Memory and imagination are partners.

It's short and to the point.  I like it.  It's not some flowery Ode to the Virtues and Beauty of Our Lady, Music. 
My favorite line, though I like them all, is "When your mind wanders, follow it." it's a cool anthropomorphism, but only half of one, because were talking about a human mind...
It's also very good advice for anyone who aspires to be creative, or just a happier person in general.  It is also very prudent to follow your mind when it begins to drift off so as to prevent this:
 happens to the best of us.
But seriously, the way a mind leaps around from place to place is fascinating, perhaps a bit more so for me because I have ADHD so the skipping-around nature is sort of hard-wired into me.  But really anyone can do it. 
Kind of reminds me of a frog on lily pads
there they go!
They're off to the races!

reminds me of the old-timey car race
like the one in Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang
Musicals!
Dick VanDyke
Marry Poppins
Julie Andrews
 I always mix her up with Julie Andrews
Sound of music

 the hills are alive!

 

 

the Hills Have Eyes

creepy demented radiation-poisoning creatures

Chernobyl

 

Boom.  That's a window into the rushing stream of consciousness that lives in my head.

that's why I need to follow my mind - or else it goes to Chernobyl...and that's just not good.

Examination of Genesis 27

This is the paper I intend to hand in tomorrow for my Hebrew Scriptures class - it's kind of short (not really) but I am proud of it and I'd say it's the best paper I've done to date (maybe?)  This is my intellectual property and I mean it to contribute to the current discussion about the story in Genesis 27. This is not intended for someone to steal it and hand it in as their own work, and I do not condone that behavior. With that said, enjoy:

Perhaps the text most infamous for confusing its readers is the Hebrew Bible, or the Old Testament.  Thousands of individuals have devoted their lives to understanding its intricacies.  In fact, one can squeeze an enormous amount of information out of a single verse.  A perfect example of this phenomenon arises when one reads Genesis 27.  In this chapter, Jacob, prompted by his mother, employs trickery in order to receive the blessing Isaac intends to give to the elder son.  There are many questions and issues raised by the events in this passage, and there are exponentially more hypothesized answers to these questions—only some of these possible answers, however, will be explored and discussed here. 

            The most obvious question, as Joseph Rackman points out in his 2001 article Was Isaac Decieved?, is “whether a blessing can be stolen”.  Rackman raises this point in the opening of his article, but then never answers it definitively.  He compares it to a hypothetical scenario in which Jacob steals sheep from his father, “by law, the sheep would not have belonged to Jacob.” he asks whether a blessing ought to function the same way.  But that seems to be all the answer that Rackman can give.  The text itself gives a reply—in the eyes of the characters in this story, it is clear that yes, a blessing can be stolen.  Neither Rebekah nor Jacob take into consideration before undertaking their ploy, that the blessing may not be effective—their only concern is being discovered before the blessing is given.  Isaac himself says to Esau, “you brother has come deceitfully and he has taken away your blessing” (Gen 27:35).  There really seems to be no contest as to the idea that a stolen blessing is as good as one given properly. 

            In their 1985 article, Jacob the Trickster and Heir of the Covenant: A Literary Interpretation, Victor H. Matthews and Frances Mims explore how the character of Jacob relates to the motif of the “trickster figure”.  The trickster is a “universal literary character” according to Mims and Matthews, and they cite such mythological figures as the Greek hero Odysseus and the Norse god Loki to support this statement.  Mims and Matthews also present a number of various trickster roles ranging from the fool, to the evil trickster, to the hero.  Jacob can fit into a number of these roles at various points in the narrative, and during the same event, depending on how his actions are viewed.  By tricking Isaac into giving him the blessing for the eldest son—the superior blessing—Jacob can be seen as an evil trickster, for playing his elderly and blind father, and also for cheating his brother out of the blessing that was due to him. 

            But at the same time, Isaac’s intent to bless Esau could be interpreted as a threat to Jacob’s success in life—and therefore, the will of God, because God had said “the elder [Esau] shall serve the younger [Jacob]” (Gen 25:23).  He could be viewed as a hero because he prevents something that could threaten the fulfillment of the divine wish.  This idea of trickery for the greater good not only applies to Jacob, but to his mother as well—for she was the one who suggested the whole plot to reverse the detrimental effects of Isaac’s misplaced blessing

The notion of Isaac making a mistake with his choice of blessings is supported by those who favorably interpret Rebekah’s actions in this story.  It is stated in Genesis 25:23 that the destiny of the twins was revealed only to Rebekah; “And the Lord said to her,” (emphasis added).  There is no explicit mention of Isaac ever knowing God’s intention for his sons.  Rebekah, according to Mary Donovan Turner’s article Rebekah: Ancestor of Faith, “early Jewish interpreters” said Rebekah was “a courageous woman who wished to keep her husband from the detestable act of blessing the wrong son.”  Turner says the same of the “early Christian interpreters” who “sensed in Rebekah’s actions a faith and loyalty that should be emulated.”  This favorable view of Rebekah continued into the time of the Protestant Reformation of the 16^th century.  Turner says that even Martin Luther saw her in a good light.  Very clearly, by going against her husband’s wishes, Rebekah had done the right thing—perpetuating God’s will.  Rebekah is characterized as brave when she says to her son that she will bear the burden if their plan is discovered; ‘Let your curse be on me, my son; only obey my word’ (Gen 27:13).  In order to realize the plan that God has, she is willing to be persecuted as a dishonorable cheat.  

            Another important aspect of Rebakah’s role in this story is the part she plays in “insuring that the blessing to Abraham’s descendants is continued” (Turner).  When she first is mentioned in the narrative, she marries Isaac, so that he can have a proper wife, since then, she has served him well.  Rebekah also gives birth to the third patriarch and ultimately, the start of the Israelite nation—as Jacob’s twelve sons become the twelve tribes.  She warns her son of the danger to his life, “Your brother Esau is consoling himself by planning to kill you” (Gen 27:42).  She sends her son off to save his live, but also to save “the covenantal promise, for murder would have meant exile for Esau and the elimination of the other possible heir for Isaac’s line” explains Matthews and Mims in their article about the Jacob cycle of Genesis. 

 

When Jacob flees, his mother sends him off to Laban, where he will marry within the family.  It is undesirable to marry into the local population, which is Jacob’s alternative if he remains in Isaac’s house. 

“I am weary of my life because of the Hittite women.  If Jacob marries one the Hittite women such as these, one of the women of the land, what good will my life be to me?” (Gen 27:46)

laments Rebekah to her husband, in a somewhat melodramatic fashion.  Rebekah set in motion the events that led to the creation of the Israelite nation.  Indeed, the case can be made that Rebekah is in fact the symbolic mother of the nation—Jacob, later in life, is renamed Israel.  She can be seen as both the literal and figurative mother of Israel.

In a sort of opposition to the idea of Rebekah being the one who salvaged the situation, an excellent and controversial theory is raised by Rackman.  A section of his article is titled “Isaac Intended All Along to Bless Jacob”.  He goes on to explain this theory by exploring exactly what Isaac’s various blessings entail.  This theory hinges on the blessing Jacob is given in chapter 28 when Isaac is certain that it is, in fact, the younger son with whom he is dealing.  Although this piece of text does not lie in the chapter I am examining, it is absolutely crucial to its understanding, and therefore must not be ignored. 

Rackman explains the different natures of the blessings Isaac gives.  The first two, both intended for Esau, are focused on material things, or things of the earthly world, such as ‘the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine.’ (Gen 27:28), ‘let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you’ (Gen 27:29) in the first blessing.  And also in the second blessing, though Esau will no longer have material wealth, ‘away from the fatness of the earth shall your home be, and away from the dew of heaven’ and his life will be hard, ‘by your sword shall you live, and you shall serve your brother;’ he has the hope of redemption—‘but when you break loose, you shall break his yoke from your neck.’ (Gen 27:40)

The first two blessings stand in sharp contrast with the blessing that Isaac has prepared for Jacob.  The third blessing is concerned with “Isaac’s spiritual legacy from Abraham, now clearly intended for Jacob” (Rackman).  This is suggests that Jacob is to be the next patriarch, not his brother—there is no mention of carrying on the lineage and increasing in number in the Esau blessings.  ‘May he [God] give to you the blessing of Abraham, to you and your offspring with you’ (Gen 28:4).  This is a clear statement of Isaac’s intent to make Jacob his heir—at least the heir to the covenant between God and Abraham.  The commentary in the New Revised Standard Version says the first four lines of chapter 28 are “a Priestly parallel to the preceding story (27.27-29) where Isaac was not tricked into blessing Jacob, but intended from the outset to bless him in the process of sending him away to find a proper wife”. 

This assertion sums up the idea that Rackman was describing, though Rackman did not mention the different origin of the third blessing, which the commentary says comes from the Priestly source.  I assume that they are basing that judgment off the phrase “God Almighty” (Gen 28:3), which is, according to a footnote in that edition, “El Shaddai”, in Hebrew.  A name which, according to Michael D. Coogan’s book, A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament, is a variant of “el shadday” which is characteristic of the P source, occurring “five times in the…narrative in Genesis” of which, 28:3 is listed (p77).   

The origins of Genesis 27 in the commentary of the New Revised Standard Version are described as “non-Priestly”, thus leaving the possible source as either the Yahwist or Elohist source—since the Deuteronomic source “is found entirely, or almost entirely, in the book of Deuteronomy” (Coogan, 45).  One of the ways to determine the source is by examining the various names of God that are used (like “El Shaddai in chapter 28).  There are three different ways God is referred to in Genesis 27, they are “the Lord”, ‘the Lord your God’, and simply “God”.  These different titles are consistent with both the Elohist and Yahwist sources—“the Lord” being translated as “YHWH” and “God” as “Elohim” (Coogan, 44-45).  Coogan addresses in this section of his book, situations such as this, where the two sources are almost inseparable, saying that some scholars “prefer simply to speak of JE, recognizing that while there probably were originally distinct sources, they cannot easily be separated” (p. 44).  So, following in this line of thinking, it can be said that Genesis 27 is a JE text. 

The amount of interpretation that can be pulled from the Bible is absolutely staggering, even if it is just this small section of it.  Just one story—how Jacob received the blessing intended for his brother opens up worlds of the mind and the imagination.