28March2007

The Redemptive Power of Art:

I love to sing, and I love to write. I believe that these are two of the greatest expressions of the soul. Some people feel great after a two mile run. I however get the greatest high from perfoming in front of an audience. I also have horrible stage fright, and prefer being in a choir, but the exileration is the same. I am terrified at the thought of someone reading something special that I have written, and yet when that reading occurs, it seems to give my life purpose. Being successful in art seems to justify my existance. That may sound odd, but as we know from this class, art does not only effect the mind, it effects the soul. Music can change your outlook on life, and a single chord can give me chills. I am strictly a vocal person when it comes to music. I like that it has a mystery about it, as disecting it would bring the composition down to a scientific level. Anyway, on with the notes:

Budda - wittnessed illness, death, and old age.

We must redeem the world through acts of art.

Shakespeare and Joyce are the two authors other than Ovid who have the ability to transform you.

Finnegans Wake - One of the many sources Joyce drew from is the Ancient Egyptian story of Osiris, who was torn apart by his brother or son Set, and the pieces were gathered and reassembled by his sister or wife, Isis, with the help of their sister or daughter Nephthys. In this narrative, their other brother or son, Horus, emerges to slay Set and rise as the new day's sun, as Osiris himself. Osiris's night journey through the otherworld is described in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, a collection of spells and invocations to enable the recently deceased to join Osiris and rise with the sun.

A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man : Joyce's novel traces the intellectual and religio-philosophical awakening of young Stephen Dedalus as he begins to question and rebel against the Catholic and Irish conventions he has been brought up in. He finally leaves for Paris to pursue his calling as an artist. The work pioneers some of Joyce's modernist techniques that would later come to fruition in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake. The Modern Library ranked Portrait as the third greatest English language novel of the twentieth century.

Weave = art

Imagination changes similes into metaphors.

Tragedy - Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus may be Shakespeare's earliest tragedy. It depicts a fictional Roman general engaged in a cycle of revenge with his enemy Tamora, the Queen of the Goths. The play is by far Shakespeare's bloodiest, taking its inspiration from the Senecan Tragedy of Ancient Rome, the gory theatre that was played to bloodthirsty circus audiences between gladitorial combats. The play lost popularity during the Victorian era because of its gore, and has only recently begun to revive its fortunes.

After Ovid - Rewritten Ovidian tales. *wink*

Pan Pipes - is an ancient musical instrument based on the principle of the stopped pipe, consisting usually of ten or more pipes of gradually increasing length (and, at times, girth). The pan flute has long been popular as a folk instrument, and is considered the ancestor of both the pipe organ and the harmonica, or mouth organ. The pan flute is named for its association with the rustic Greek god Pan. The pipes of the pan flute are typically made from bamboo; other materials used include wood, plastic, and metal. Another term for the pan flute is syrinx, after the sound-producing organ in birds. The plural of syrinx is syringes, from which the modern word syringe is derived. (Pan pipes is both singular and plural.) Other names for the instrument include the medieval fistula panis.