I’ve not been able to do much reading lately. Or rather, when I have been able to read, I have been pouring over the big plant sale catalog (an annual fundraiser for the Friends’ school) and mapping out my plant-buying trajectory for Friday. In order not to get bogged down in the mass of mad gardeners, one has to have a plan.
School has also kept me busy. We have now moved on to learning how to use LexisNexis Academic. I can’t say that I like it very much. Instead of being able to type in the commands, I have to choose from drop down lists and check boxes. Blech. I know that’s supposed to make it easy and user friendly, but I hate it. It looks messy and I feel like my search is not entirely in my control.
I did get to read more of Larry McMurty’s Books: A Memoir at lunch the other day. It continues to be enjoyable. He writes like we’re talking over coffee; the conversation hops from here to there and then over there and then winds its way back to where it started only to move out from there in a different direction.
Since I’ve not had much chance to read of late, I thought I’d toss out a bit of the passage I mentioned not long ago–last week was it? or the week before?–on Homer in Josipovici’s Goldberg: Variations. The passage is very long and involves Golberg expounding on The Odyssey and the character of Odysseus and why Homer depicts Odysseus as a liar. After doing some comparing and contrasting of Odysseus, Achilles and Hector and why Odysseus finds lying necessary (homecoming, it’s all about homecoming and very well put too), we come to this:
You ask me, Goldberg says, why Homer makes Odysseus a liar, and how he can square that with his presentation of him as the hero of his epic. The answer, I suspect, is that only he who holds firmly to a course of action he knows to be right can lie well. Mētis, cunning, requires the ability to keep silent when need be, and the ability to lie convincingly when that is required. However, I am sure you are right in suggesting that Odysseus seems to take pleasure in his lies in ways we would perhaps find reprehensible today. But is it not perhaps we who are at fault? asks Goldberg. Do we not have too anxious a relation to truth? Earlier ages, which trusted more in providence than we do, were not afraid of lies, saw them, in fact, as being necessary as speech itself to man in his dealings with others. The source of Odysseus’ lies is the same as the source of his cunning and endurance: an energy which is confident in its goal and relishes all challenges. For there is no doubt that Odysseus goes out of his way to seek adventures, whether in the den of the Cyclops or even, disguised, in his own home. The protection of Athena gives him the confidence to scheme, disguise himself and lie. Or perhaps Homer merely calls such confidence the living of a life under the protection of a goddess.
I still don’t like Odysseus, but after that, I feel like I understand him a little better.
So for Odysseus, as long as the gods are with him, so he can do no wrong? Heh? He still seems a little woobly on the ethics here.
‘In order not to get bogged down in the mass of mad gardeners, one has to have a plan’ - hilarious!! How you make me laugh, Stefanie. Between work and school and war zone plant-buying strategies, I can see you haven’t got much time left over for reading!
You make me want to take up The Odyssey right away. While I was reading The Iliad I kept thinking of The Odyssey everytime Odysseus was mentioned - I kept thinking, yes, yes, I know you have your own story coming up, I’ll get there soon enough!
My class wasn’t fond of LexisNexis either. It was difficult to use.
Interesting quote on Odysseus. I think that it is correct in the assertion that our current relationship with truth is anxious…we are too black and white in our thinking. I chalk it up to the confidence of being under a god’s protection. Why should you tell the truth, refrain from cunning and scheming, etc. if you know that you are favored pretty much no matter what you do?
I usually only plant flowers in boxes for my porch. I seem to be just a tiny bit less enthusiastic each year as each year the I can’t fight against the humidity and bugs–they ruin my pretty flowers. I need to find some heartier flowers I guess. But I love the idea of a garden! The planning part sounds wonderful!
I’ve enjoyed your posts on that Goldberg! It’s really great to have someone read the same book you have and see the different things that strike them as interesting. Gives me new things to pay attention.
Dark Orpheus, I hadn’t looked at it that way. But this also comes after a long discussion about rage and and Achilles, so it is a little out of context. But yeah, the ethics are still a bit wobbly.
Litlove, ha! Imagine a a book sale where you can get books, good books, for really cheap and not just your run of the mill best sellers. Imagine having a catalog of the books that will be at the sale, each entry having a little teaser description. Now imagine lining up with several hundred other book lovers who may or may not want the same books as you, but in any case, supplies are limited and everyone wants to be sure they get their top choices. That’s what this plant sale is like.
Verbivore, yes, it is interesting reading The Iliad and getting glimpses of Odysseus knowing that there is going to be a whole epic about him.
Bibliophylia, it is easy to be confident when you know you are favored by a god. I am intrigued though by the idea of our culture having an anxious relationship with truth.
Danielle, planning a garden is about 80% of the fun. Then you have to do the work. Much gardening can be done in boxes and other containers. There is hardly any weeding that needs to be done but I find that having to water container plants is a daily chore in the heat of summer because they dry out so fast.
Imani, I remember when you read the book and your posts about it were so interesting. I agree with you, it is always fun to see what various readers of the same book discover.