Great Works I: Remixing Memory

The 1995 film adaptation “Othello” directed by Oliver Parker incorporates memory flashbacks when Othello is giving his speech to the assembled senate and Duke. These memory flashbacks provide the viewer with a more detailed point of view that one cannot get out of the written text. It specifically illustrates how Othello and Desdemona caught each others eye from the first time they had spotted each other, and how Desdemona was intrigued and showed pity for the obstacles and experiences he had gone through in his past. She is seen in a flashback memorized of his tattoos and markings that were all reminders of his past experiences in battle and war, sharing a kiss with him at the end. These flashbacks help tie together Othello’s meaning behind his speech. The movie itself seems to cut down upon the original text lines but the main ideas are still intact and fall very close to how the original text goes according to plot. The movie also initially shows how Brabanzio is already being haunted by something in his sleep before the news of Othello and Desdemonia reaches him. These small additions help the viewer get the mood of the scene better than if they were simply reading the text.

The Painting above illustrates the scene when Othello stood forth in front of the assembled senate, accused by Brabanzio that he had stolen his own daughter from him by the use of witchcraft. However this accusation does not stand long; Othello fully backs himself up to the senate by explaining that he had won over Desdemona through the tales of his adventures in times of war and travel. Othello’s argument is sufficient enough for the Duke and the senate to find it reasonable and truthful. To back this up even further, Desdemona enters the room as well to defend her own reasoning in marrying Othello. After hearing all of this, the Duke wastes no time in telling Othello that he is needed in Cyprus in order to provide aid in the fight against the advancing Turks. Desdemona is found kneeing in this painting because she begs the Duke to allow herself to join along-side her own husband, Othello, on his trip to war. She does not want to be left behind and miss the action, this could be her one and only opportunity to experience something like this.

There are quite a few differences I noticed between the difference translations of the single poem by Li Bo. W.J.B. Fletcher’s translation called “That Parting at Ch’ang Kan” was initially extremely difficult to understand due to the fact he used old style of writing that is not common today, such as “o’ver” “lo” or the word “aye”. This is mainly due to the fact that the translation was created in 1919, which would explain the old style of english writing. Another difference I spotted was Shigeyoshi Obata Translation called “Two Letters From Chang Kan-1” in which the translator was the first one to mention that the poem was written by a river-merchant’s wife (first line in the poem), which helps the reader visualize the scene ahead of time, something that none of the other translation did. Also Shigeyoshi was the only individual that  translated phrases into questions towards the end of the poem. For example, he wrote “Did you hear the monkeys wailing Up on the skyey height of the crags?….and each and every one is filled with green moss?“, instead of simply putting them into statements. Lastly, “Ch’ang-an Memories” translated and written by Wai-Lim Yip seems to be the most simplified version of the poem and the most straight-forward one, each of the poem lines is accompanied by a number as well, sometime that is not seen by any the other translations. I found this translation to be the most understandable one out of all of them. For example, when the other poems explains in several lines about the growing moss on the footprints, this translation sums up the same idea in three simple lines: “Before the door your footprints,  Are all moss-grown,   Moss too deep to sweep away”.

I will be analyzing and looking to the passage in Book 9:  “In the One Eyed Giant’s Cave”, on the pages 226-228 from lines 530-590. Throughout this section, Odysseus and his remaining men had successfully made a cunning escape from the grasps of the now blind Polyphemus. By taking advantage of Polyphemus’s lack of sight now, the men were able to cling upon the livestock that belonged to the cyclone and make it safely back onto their ships. Once they were safe aboard, Odysseus decided to call back out to the land they had just escaped from to reveal his true identity. Unable to reach them, Polyphemus prays out and seeks his father’s assistance in seeking his revenge to Odysseus.

Why did Odysseus feel the need to reveal his identity? Did he not know that the cyclone was the son of the almighty Poseidon?

It is not until reading up to this part of the book that one will finally realize why Poseidon has such hatred towards Odysseus. Initially in the beginning of the book, It seemed strange to the reader that every god except Poseidon seemed to pity Odysseus and wanted him to return safely back home to his loved ones. Now it finally makes sense. I feel as though Odysseus brought his misfortune and brutal treatment onto himself by foolishly revealing his identity to the cyclone. Lines 548-549 which states “I began to taunt the Cyclops-men around me trying to check me, calm me, left and right: ‘so headstrong-why? Why rile the beast again?…” shows an important point. Why did Odysseus feel the need to reveal information and further taunt the cyclone when they could simply escape now with no consequences? Even his own crew questioned his intentions and were cautious about the consequences, but this seemed to not affect Odysseus in any way.  I believe that Odysseus had his mind clouded with over-confidence and a lack of thinking when he spoke back to the Cyclone. Driven to self-boost himself as a powerful and “cunning” warrior, Odysseus’s actions would later cost him the lives of all his remaining crew members and a lot of suffering and torture at the hands of Poseidon. I believe that Poseidon is so enraged because an immortal decided to make a mockery out of his own blood line and that is why he is so desperate to seek the most brutal revenge to Odysseus. Odysseus’ own clever scheme of giving his name as “Nobody” is ruined by his tendency to bolster his own self image.

-Maurice Studer

Poseidon, on his return back from a trip, discovers the extent what the other gods had done in his absence. He is overwhelmed with fury and decides to stir up an enormous, dangerous storm that nearly swallows Odysseus whole. I am confused as why only Poseidon strives to bring death upon Odysseus while the rest of the Gods pity him and seek his safe return home to Ithaca. Without the help of the Goddess Ino, Odysseus would have most likely perished in the storm waves. Goddness Ino seems to find herself asking the same question, “ahh poory man, why is the god of earthquakes so dead set against you? Strewing your way with such a crop of troubles”(page 163).

 Within this page, Odysseus seems to be plagued with paranoia and doesn’t seem to trust anyone. He states “I fear another immortal weaves a snare to trap me,…” (page 163), and decides to go along with his instincts rather than take the advice of others. Poseidon feeds off of this vulnerability, since Odysseus clings onto his ship still, by sending another round of huge waves in an approaching storm. Does Odysseus know that Poseidon is the one that is causing all these obstacles for him?  If so, does he know why specifically Poseidon is trying so hard to get rid of him through death?

-Maurice Studer

In the Phaedrus, Socrates, voicing his strong opinion, criticizes the use of writing when being compared to the natural knowledge of an individual. Socrates puts forward the point that writing given in a speech situation has its limitations. Socrates states that if an individual has natural intelligence, “the speaker always gives one unvarying answer” (1) when being faced with any question. However, he says this is not the case if the individual doing the speech is relying on writing. Socrates states that once the ideas are written down, “they are tossed about anywhere among those who do and among those who do not understand them.”(1) I personally do not agree with the point that Socrates expresses. In my own experiences, writing allows an individual to express his or her ideas in a tangible form. Without this tangible form, most of the information an individual obtains will eventually be forgotten over time. Writing allows an individual to reflect upon his or her ideas at a later point in time, while stimulating one to extend their line of thought beyond the first impression when they were first presented the information.

Within the article “The oral world vs. The written Word”, Plato ironically contradicts himself in his belief that writing has its setbacks, even though he was the one that had written the “Phaedrus”.  This article written by Nicholas Carr points out the obvious flaws that oral education has. Without the use of writing, the ideas of Socrates and Plato would have never survived and be discussed today. Nicholas Carr states that “both Plato and Socrates recognized in their different ways, a shift that was set in motion by the invention of a tool, the alphabet, and that would have profound consequences for our language and our minds.” (4) Therefore the use of writing is essential to pass down the information we have learned through trial and error to the future generations. The world would not be the way we know it today if information and things were not written down and passed along. Instead the valuable information would have been buried in history, allowing for no advancements in society.

The last article, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr shows a disturbing change in the way human’s process information in recent years due to the rise of the web.  I do personally agree with Nicholar Carr in the fact that the use of the web has been making individual more prone to be “lazy”.  Since humans have such a vast, endless amount of information at the end of their fingertips, individuals have the tendency to take advantage of this. They no longer read deeply into things when they can simply google it and received the information they need in the matter of seconds by skimming. In a sense this does dull ones brain since the information can be obtained so easily, with little to no mind effort. Nicholas Carr states that “even the adult mind is very plastic. Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones…” (9). The brain like any other parts of the body needs to be ‘exercised’ regularly. However on the other hand, the easy access to the vast amount of information found online is responsible in helping create the technology’s and advances that we are grateful to have today.

-Maurice Studer