IOP Thoughts (5)

It's the day before. I'm finalizing my powerpoint and finding relevant pictures. Could it be? I'm having FUN! I'm excited to share my ideas with the class. Yeah, my argument of happiness within The Stranger is..."different"...considering the other IOPs we've had this week--proving existentialism, analyzing absurdism, even examining the name--but hopefully it will be a refreshing and lighten-ing change!

Journal No 3

The final act of this play, like the rest of the work, is largely symbolic. Commentary on the developing events is given by three Woodcutters who speak to each other about the events much as a Greek chorus would speak to the audience about Oedipus and his moral frailty.

Journal No 2

Several ideas stand out in Act II but most vividly for me is the poetry of this act. And the main kind of poetry in this act could be called the epithalamion (also epithalamium)--which is a poem or song written or performed in celebration of a wedding.

IOP Thoughts (4)

The New York Times says, recently, "Levels of social trust vary enormously, but countries with high social trust have happier people, better health, more efficient government, more economic growth and less fear of crime (regardless of whether actual crime rates are increasing or decreasing)." [30 March 2010/David Brooks]

Journal No 1

Minimalism. This is Blood Wedding, so far. Each character is reduced to elemental or minimal signs. It's like a Christmas tableaux. A silhouette.

IOP Thoughts (3)

Historians use the word presentism to describe the tendency to judge historical figures by contemporary standards. As much as we all despise racism and sexism, these isms have only recently been considered moral turpitudes, and thus condemning Thomas Jefferson for keeping slaves or Sigmund Freud for patronizing women is a bit like arresting someone today for having driven without a seat belt in 1923.

Journal 4

RELL. [to Gregers] Yes. Yours is a complicated case. First of all there is that plaguy integrity fever . . .

RELL. While I think of it, Mr. Werle, junior—don’t use that foreign word:

IOP Thoughts (2)

Feelings don't just matter. They are what mattering means. p. 71 Stumbling on Happiness.

So Meursault feels constantly.

IOP Thoughts (1)

I have been examining the subject of happiness because the thesis for my critical paper on The Stranger was that defining or looking for happiness is one theme of Camus’s book.

Journal 3

HEDVIG (throwing herself, sobbing, into GINA’S arms). Mother. Mother!

Journal 2

Comparing an element of Oedipus with The Wild Duck . . .

Many areas of the two plays could be compared and contrasted but one which definitely stands out is in comparing the conflict—and thus the tone--of the two plays.

Journal 1

Nothing in Act II so captures some of the themes of The Wild Duck so well as Hialmar’s conversation with Old Ekdal and Gina when they discuss names and the happenings at the dinner party.

Questions about Oedipus

What evidence do we have that Oedipus is arranging facts--using only some of them--to suit his case rather than looking at all of the facts logically and undefensively?

Is Oedipus the victim of fate or is he responsible for his downfall because of poor and confusing habits of though which betrayed him step-by-step?

Journal #4

Topic: fatalism and its debunking

Oedipus the King is fatalistic, essentially, and this is an area of the play which makes me uncomfortable.

Journal #3

Topic: self-knowledge and intuition as related to paying attention

Oedipus the King is not so much about the plot—a crazy one of killing your father and marrying your mother—as it is about more important questions. Oedipus is proud and hasty to anger. He’s opinionated and changeable. And he doesn’t know who he is.

Journal #2

How does the background information on Greek Theater and History inform your reading of Oedipus? Use specific examples to explore the connections between context and content.

When I read Oedipus I expect to find several things happening that I do not expect in a stage play at Tigard High School.

Journal #1

Tiresias says to Oedipus:

You are the king no doubt, but in one respect,
at least, I am your equal: the right to reply.
I claim that privilege too
I am not your slave. I serve Apollo.
I don’t need Creon to speak for me in public.