Blindness Cave

[gibsondodds]

inflicted
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Does anybody actually 'get' Oedipus? So far,
it makes no sense whatsoever to me..

Whats with the random chorus, or singing things?

I thought Oedipus liked Creon.. does he suddenly hate him now?

And lastly.. why is he making such a big deal out of the
slaying of the previous king all of a sudden...
especially in the midst of a plague?
Is the plague not more important?


gibsondodds
Site Admin
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Well, I'm not sure I "get" Oedipus entirely either,
so don't panic. You will understand more as we read
more. As far as the chorus goes, they are like the choir:
they echo what's been said and reflect on it. They
celebrate and worry outloud, so to speak. They are the
town elders, so some productions have them wearing
judicial robes to reinforce that. They represent the status
quo, which is not always a bad thing.

The reason Oedipus is suddenly focussing on Creon is
because of what Tireasius has said. Remember, Creon
came back from Delphi with news about the previous king
Lauis. The prophecy said, find out who killed Lauis and then
banish him and then the plague will go away.

Don't hesitate to ask these kind of questions in class:
if you have them, chances are that everyone has them!

Scott

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fitnessdepot
Posted: 11 Sep 2006 03:09 pm Post subject:

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Readings like Oedipus or any kind of Greek literature
will never make sense to me. I find myself reading these
books and scriptures several times and nothing really
clicks in my head. Stuff like this doesn't really interest me,
so I find it hard paying attention to the whole plot.
I would find myself asleep in class if it weren't for
Gibson Dodd and his brilliant reading/acting skills.

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12Sprocket
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fitnessdepot wrote:
I would find myself asleep in class if it
weren't for Gibson Dodd and his brilliant
reading/acting skills.

hehe. I think old Literature is actually kind of interesting.
I think its cool to see the stuff people thought about
thousands of years ago, and how a lot of it actually still
applies today!! Maybe not the 1000 of gods and funky
names, but the same ideas are still there. but I so know
what you mean by the acting thing. It actually helps me to
understand the play better when he does his wierd accents...
and the pole thing was hilarious. Props to Mr. Dodd. As for
being really confused, there are a few things i don't understand
yet, but i've read/heard the story a couple times, so i have a
fairly good idea of what's going on but i'm not so sure that i get the "deeper meaning", that people are always talking about.
i just kinda listen, and whatever i take out of it i do... i usually
don't even realize it until we're done, and i can erlate to other
things better. It's like the blindness thing... you don't realize ur
blind until you catch on later, or learn something new. hey, i
actually just made a connection!! lol. anyways, good luck to
all of you who are still confused.

inflicted

Post subject: Re: Getting Oedipus
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gibsondodds

[Ms.Tudor]

First impressions: A very dark play. This made me wonder-- if it was not in a "shaksperean" literature play form, would we be allowed to read it as a novel study in school?

What I mean to say is, were this play rewritten by an extraordinary author, who'd had previous books okay'd by the gov't to be read in class, and he came out with this plot line in a modern day form, would it be censored? I've read similar plot lines to this, but would it be taboo to read it in class? I'm not sure how far censorship extends in the public school system, but this widely known play, acknowledged for it's brilliance and depth includes a widely touchy and taboo subject: incest.

That question has been on my mind since we read it. Pretend instead a son in New York killed his father on a subway, and instead of a choir, there was a type of Jimmy Cricket on the shoulder of the son and the story unraveled from there (Use your imagination...). Would it be considered wrong or too violent and gory for us to handle? Would the gov't be blind to the depth of the plotline and ignorant to it's brilliance?

Anyways, let me know if I'm totally out there!
-Ms.Tudor

[gibsondodds]

This is a great article about censorship and Shakespeare in high schools. It originally came from the Alberta Teachers Association Newspaper a couple of years ago. He addresses some of your questions!

Ban the bard
By Dale Wallace
I have taught English in a Calgary public school—perhaps one of the most controversial subjects to tech. Parents are often unhappy with the content of the course; some believe too much emphasis is put on novels that have undesirable subject matter. Take the novel Catcher in the Rye as an example. This story is about a high school dropout who runs away to New York. Throughout the novel he thinks about sex! Really, is this what we want our impressionable youth exposed to? Don’t they get enough of this stuff on TV without is being promoted in the classroom?


The problem with the content of the English curriculum came to head a couple of years ago when Conservative MLA Victor Doerksen wondered if John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men should be banned from the school curriculum for taking The Lord’s name in vain (breaking the third commandment, of course). I’m sorry to say Of Mice and Men is probably one of the mildest books studied in Alberta English classes. When we look at banning certain authors, we had better start with the 16th century sex-meister himself—William Shakespeare.
I cannot believe someone hasn’t exposed this villain previously. Every one of his so-called comedy plays (like A Midsummer Night’s Dream) are packed with lusty and bawdy innuendoes. I feel they are too risqué for our already hormone-charged youth. Look at how easy it was for Woody Allen to take that play and make a titillating little spin-off movie from its premise (A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy). Imagine what a Grade 10 class could do.
Then there’s the violence in Shakespeare’s tragedy plays. In some of his plays there are more murders than in a Stephen King movie. Look at Macbeth--- at least five or six murders. And in Hamlet, darn near the entire cast dies in the final scene. Is this proper for our already blood-lusty youth? Romeo and Juliet is filled with death, and in the big finale Juliet actually kills herself. Look at what happened when Kirk Cobain of the rock band Nirvana killed himself. Shouldn’t we be a little bit worried that our young people could copy Juliet’s actions next time they lose a lover?
Let’s not forget the prejudice and racism that’s upheld in those plays, too. The character of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice is conniving and Jewish. No, no, no, not the impression of a minority we want our youth to have. There’s also Othello, the Black Moor in the play titled after him. He goes on to murder his wife—again not the stereotype teachers want to be portraying to the impressionable youth of today.
To top it all off, though, are Shakespeare’s so-called romance plays. Woe-be-gone any teacher that tries to teach a play like The Tempest. These so-called romance plays are laced with fairy-like characters that whisper little ditties in the main characters’ ears as they are sleeping. A blatant promotion of homosexuality, and I don’t care if it’s Shakespeare, we need some morals in this province. Enough is enough!
Perhaps students could study The Bible (or the Koran if they are Muslim) a bit more. At least in The Bible there’s not as much sex and violence. The only thing is we’ll have to avoid certain parts like the Song of Solomon, or the Book of Joshua or those bits when Jesus gets crucified. Of course, we do want to give the youth of today the right morals.

Dale Wallace teaches behaviour adaptation
at David Thompson Junior High School in Calgary

[ideaspeak]

I think Oedipus is quite the riddle and a little mind boggleing. At the same time I have a huge respect for it. I think that it is beautiful that the message encoded in this play is still relavent to this day. The message can be interpreted in different ways, and some of us are having a hard time with that, but it is amazing to think that this play is so ancient and still so current. This play is a prime example of why we study literature. Human nature is and always will be a facinating subject of study, a complex riddle that we have not yet, and may never grasp. I have a great respect and facination with the story of Oedipus, because even though none of us lived in this time period or have had children with our parents, it has a meaning for every individual.

[gibsondodds]

Wonderful: now what does it mean to you!?

[Garth]

to be completly honest i was able to get into this play. i had a hard time keeping my eyes open when we read it in class. but the part about the incest (sp?) was really weird. wouldnt the children be deformed or something??

[gibsondodds]

No, it would be the succeeding generations who would suffer the deformities, from my limited understanding of genetics.

[Ms.Tudor]

Mr. Gibson Dodd:

Super interesting article! It says exactly what I was thinking. We teenagers aren't silly and impresssionable all the time. We have a general grasp of real life concepts and even sometimes (gasp!) watch the news. A little credit in our direction please!

Anyways, I figured I should answer the question you initially implied on the forum: What does it mean to me?

I feel as though it is yet another representation of morals and values. It sort've dictates the types of standards one maintains when they're young and how they change as one matures. Oedipus' guilt leads him to suddenly have some sort of... I don't know, revelation? I mean, he stabs himself in the eyes for goodness sake! So, I got the feeling that the author was trying to show us a development of morals and values with age and wisdom and a little bit of self doubt.

Have you heard about the ten (?) year old in the states? He killed a younger boy in a daycare without really realizing what he was doing. He suffocated him with a plastic bag or a stuffed animal. I can't remember. Anyways--not the point. He's sixteen now, and is once again going to trial for murder. Now the family of the victim believe he is guilty, but don't want him sentenced to harshly as he was only a child. The boy's family has actually given up on him-- he was put into foster care at the age of thirteen. So, I thought about Oedipus when I was watching this on the news. It's amazing after the murder of his father and the sex with his mother-- plus a little bit of drama of course-- caught up with him and drove him mad. It made me wonder if this boy, a murderer, would confess to being one hundred percent guilty for his crime? Because he obviously doesn't remember what happened clearly, but is know fully aware of how wrong it was.

--Ms.Tudor

[Route_Sixty-Six]

Ha ha ha. I have laugh. Everything discussed in this class really does go hand in hand with everything else. I don't think I've ever had an english class with everything so intertwined....or maybe I just didn't know. Hmm...what Jedi mind tricks are these teachers working on us that we're (I'm) so blind to?!?

((Sorry to go off topic, I had to mention it))

[RedHouse]

This play certainly was different than most we typically read in English. I find it surprising and sort of funny that a story of murder and incest would be so well known among children in countries such as Greece. I guess it relates into today’s class discussion about reading children nursery rhymes and how horrible most of them are.

[gibsondodds]

Everything IS intertwined! I've just gone to pains to draw connections from outside sources so that you can pull it all together when it comes to writing your essay on Blindness. Now, you're going to have to focus it, which is what will be achieved through presentations and through the class where we sit and write theses for the novel.

[kitty]

This play was so interwined with all the ideas that we are learning in english. It can be easily connected to the novel we have been reading called Blindness. The ideal that you see what you only want to see is really connected to these pieces of literature. Since, they were interwined with each other it makes it easier to understand the ideas the authors were trying to get across.

The play is a two thousand year old riddle that is still reavent today. It really makes you wonder just how much society has changed over the thousands of years. We are still learning many of the same lessons than the childern who studied this play in earlier generations.