Group Presentations Day Three

Just a few minutes ago, we all had the pleasure of watching groups 5 and 6 give their presentations and I must say, they both did a great job!

Group fives reenactment of the story of Persephone's abduction and Demeter's frantic searching was pretty funny. I found it quite amusing when "Demeter" puts the baby in the fire and there was a picture of fire on the wall. Very entertaining! And their rendition of the Elusinian Mysteries was very cool. I liked the can of corn. =P
And everyone had awesome finger-snapping abilities!

Group six's show, Whose Myth is it Anyway? was very well done! The dating show was very cute and the party was excellent. I really liked their buddhist-Irish ho-down song at the end.

All in all, great performances! Now off to finals and a warm, sunny summer! Hopefully! =)

Course Conclusion

The Past Possess the Present.

I think "and the Future" needs to be added on to the end of that statement.

So many things in this class connected to so many other things in my life and it was crazy how my eyes were opened to it. Before I learned how to see how things happening now had already happened, I just went through life day by day. Nothing seemed that important and I never really realized how many things connect to each other, even if those things are polar opposites. Between seeing Ovid's Metamorphoses and Lucius The Golden Ass in all the things I do and all the people I know and seeing the conflicts in Antigone in all the conflicts of today, I now know how nothing is unimportant. Everything connects to every other thing just as the past connects to the present and the present will connect to the future.

Dr. Sexson's Classical Foundations in Literature class has opened my eyes to new worlds and connections that I would never have thought possible. In reading the classic works that we have throughout this course, I feel much more enlightened to the broad world out there. Nothing is original except for the voice it has. There can be thousands of translations of one piece of literature, yet each one can sound different. Each one has their own flare. I've always been afraid to write certain things, because it I feel as if I'm not being original. Truth be told, I'm not being original, but the unoriginal will become original because my own voice gives it life.

Thank you Dr. Sexson, for such a wonderful semester. This truly was my most enjoyable class and it was always a treat to attend classes and listen to the connections being made along with the discoveries we all made as a group.

Cheers. =)

Donald "Midas" Trump

For our groups project, we decided to put a modern spin on the story of Midas. Since Katie had prior plans on the due date of our project, we decided to make a video and it turned out great.

We wanted an over the top, ridiculous and funny video with a lot of different references. We made Jesus the character to give Donald the golden touch and also to take it away while also referencing another religious culture by including the golden buddhas.

Most of the video, I thought, was pretty self explanatory. We didn't get too far away from the original story, but still presented elements of our modern times like the text messaging instead of the whispering reeds and the baldness of "Mr. Trump" instead of giving him asses ears.

It was a lot of fun to make and very enjoyable to watch. I really wish whoever has the video now could post it on youtube or maybe burn me a copy? Heh.

Group Presentations Day Two

Group 3 and 4!!

Group three was great! It looked like they put in a lot of work to come up with their play scripts and rehearsals! Out of the three plays they performed, I have to say I enjoyed "Mark and the Toilet" the most. I thought it was really entertaining and even funnier when we found out that it was based on a true story. The Sparagmos Dance was also very amusing! I think Rio should become a beatbox.

Since I'm in group four, I'll just say I thought our video was very entertaining. To be honest, that was the first time I got to see the entire thing all put together, so I really didn't know just how funny it was going to be. I thought Brian was a very good Donald Trump and Zach was a pretty good Jesus. =P

Now on to groups 5 and 6!! Good Luck!

Group Presentations Day One

I loved groups 1 and 2!!
The symposium of group one was hilarious! And I was really surprised to learn that they hadn't rehearsed their speeches. They all just wrote them on their own and read them. I would have thought that at least one or two of them would have been really similar, but they weren't! Each had their own take on love and each of them was interesting and entertaining! I really liked that Kayla breifly came down with the hiccups. =P

Group two's game show was fun! It was quite funny to watch people act out a charade for their team to guess the answer to. I found it a little unfair that my team lost by a LOT! Haha, but no worries, it's the fun you have playing the game that counts.

Group three and four are up next on monday. I'm in group four, so we'll see how that goes.

The Golden Ass

Ah, the Golden Ass.

Where to begin?

I must be honest and say that, behind David Malouf's An Imaginary Life and Ted Hughes version of Ovid's Metamorphoses, this is probably my third favorite book we've read for the class and it ranks pretty high on my list of favorite books of all time.

I enjoyed how many problems Lucius got himself into by being no better than a common ass. The story of the eunich preist probably made me chuckle the most out of all of them. All of the stories that are told throughout the story of Lucius' metamorphoses were very entertaining and I'm very happy with the ending. The Goddess Isis is fascinating and I've been meaning to research her more thoroughly since I've read a couple of other pieces of literature that mention her. The fact that she intervenes with Lucius and allows him to transform back into a man made it a happy ending. And as he becomes Isis' servant, he is transformed in another way and the ending is made even happier.

Who doesn't love a happy ending? Happy endings give us happy feelings.

But there are those stories that a bad ending works wonders on. I couldn't count how many things I've read with a tragic ending that just made the story that much more enjoyable. Those are usually the books I read again.

The Transformation of Lucius otherwise known as The Golden Ass by Apuleius was a good read as well as inspirational.

And another note on this class as a whole, usually I struggle with things that I've been assigned to read. This class, however, was the exact opposite. I enjoyed reading every piece of work we encountered.


Good show!

Presentations Day Three

So I missed Individual Presentations Day 2 to go dance like a monkey for my neurologist. What fun. Elizabeth took wonderful notes, though, so I was able to overview what went on with those.

Today's presentations were great! I especially enjoyed Jake's take on violence in the media and the relation between the past and present violence and Bizz's take on metamorphosis between Lucius the golden ass and Gregor the insect. (I really liked that she referenced the His Dark Materials Trilogy-I'm in love with that series!!) I also liked Nick's power of the eyes. Eyes have always fascinated me. My notebooks consist of thousands upon thousands of doodles involving eyes. Looking at something or someone really is powerful.

Now I'm really looking forward to the group presentations on Friday. I'm curious as to what the other groups came up with. :)

Good luck with presentations!