tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725975489373372070.post6036854874446145974..comments2024-03-02T17:35:58.818-08:00Comments on Spike is Best: Locus Focus - A Family HomePaul Stilwellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04446241126728692642noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725975489373372070.post-33651594642872790272010-07-12T10:08:42.274-07:002010-07-12T10:08:42.274-07:00+JMJ+
Oh, my shady past . . . That post you remem...+JMJ+<br /><br />Oh, my shady past . . . That post you remember is just about the Big Endians and Little Endians of Lilliput and the Struldbruggs of I forget where.<br /><br />Which is to say, yes, I mean Jonathan Swift's <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>. =P<br /><br />Now I wonder whether Swift was deliberately drawing that contrast between Odysseus and Gulliver.Enbrethilielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03414765854670926854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725975489373372070.post-16326092173161088932010-07-12T09:34:03.850-07:002010-07-12T09:34:03.850-07:00Bat, I agree, Odysseus, and everyone else for that...Bat, I agree, Odysseus, and everyone else for that matter, are very much as Homer rhapsodizes, being at his helm. Maybe a little too much at times. The excerpt quoted wasn't in the redux?<br /><br />Enbrethiliel, is that Gulliver's Travels? I haven't read that yet. Preferring to sleep in the stables; what a bastard.<br /><br />Wait, I seem to recall somethig about Gulliver's Travels on the sidebar at Sancta Sanctus, something about it being anti-Catholic, if I remember right.<br /><br />Tonight I think I'm going to go read that.Paul Stilwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04446241126728692642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725975489373372070.post-10112670675440406212010-07-12T06:07:24.986-07:002010-07-12T06:07:24.986-07:00+JMJ+
A family man as the best adventurer? Hmmmmm...+JMJ+<br /><br />A family man as the best adventurer? Hmmmmm . . . Now I want to do a proper "review of related literature"!<br /><br />But the only one who comes to mind as the moment is Lemuel Gulliver, who is kind of the anti-Odysseus. We don't really think of him as a family man until the end of the novel, when he returns to his family after he let himself be brainwashed by Houhynhymns. (<i>I'm not checking my spelling on that one!</i>) Well, okay, I think his family is mentioned once or twice in other parts of the text; but this is the only time we really see him with them . . . and we see him preferring to sleep in the stables because he has become too cool for his family.<br /><br />And that is the difference between a true adventurer (unwitting though he may be) and a vehicle for satire.Enbrethilielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03414765854670926854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725975489373372070.post-12205658119886133262010-07-11T22:58:41.373-07:002010-07-11T22:58:41.373-07:00Goodness me! Now, why did that man want to hear t...Goodness me! Now, why did that man want to hear the Sirens? As it happens, I'd be more surprised if he <i>didn't</i> look beggarly after all his meandering travels, but Odysseus will be as Homer rhapsodizes. This little vignette didn't make it into my HS greek mythology redux; I'm glad to have read it, now.Belfry Bathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00514867101036143597noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725975489373372070.post-20109670583887172812010-07-11T15:33:01.701-07:002010-07-11T15:33:01.701-07:00I like your analogy with the olive tree. I wonder ...I like your analogy with the olive tree. I wonder if that is what makes him such a good adventurer - that he is a family man.<br /><br />Ah, three would have been the charm! I look forward to a future Locus Focus post from you about Wendy's Neverland tree house (and I don't think I'm being too presumptuous in thinking you will be posting about it). :)<br /><br />We have a tree in the front hall of our house. It's a "fig", but it's not a true fig. I'm not sure what kind it is.Paul Stilwellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04446241126728692642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1725975489373372070.post-82814068120258657842010-07-11T06:21:05.116-07:002010-07-11T06:21:05.116-07:00+JMJ+
It's easy to forget that Odysseus is a ...+JMJ+<br /><br />It's easy to forget that Odysseus is a family man, isn't it? He could have settled down with Calypso or Nausicaa and tried to make a new life with either of them; but like the olive tree, he is rooted in the land where he made his home.<br /><br />The first word <i>The Odyssey</i> is MAN, and this moment, one of the last scenes, gives us the epic's best insight into the human heart.<br /><br />(Paul, you're the second person to write about a home that has a meaningful tree. Now I <i>really</i> wish I had done Wendy's little house in Neverland for this week. How many other family homes have a tree growing in the middle of the main room?)Enbrethilielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03414765854670926854noreply@blogger.com