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ALL HAIL THOTH -- EGYPTIAN GOD OF SCRIBES & WRITING
Thoth by Marianne Dixon Thoth is the name given by the Greeks to the Egyptian god Djeheuty. Thoth was the god of wisdom, inventor of writing, patron of scribes and the divine mediator. He is most often represented as a man with the head of an ibis, holding a scribal palette and reed pen. He could also be shown completely as an ibis or a baboon. As with most Egyptian deities there were many different stories regarding the parentage of Thoth. Many sources call him the son of Re, but one tradition has him springing forth from the head of Seth. This latter story is reminiscent of the birth of the Greek goddess Athena, who like Thoth was the patron divinity of wisdom. Myths concerning Thoth show him as a divinity whose counsel is always sought. His most significant role is during the battles of Horus and Seth. Thoth is a staunch supporter of Horus and his mother Isis, maintaining that Horus' claim to the throne is just and the murderous Seth has no right to the kingship of Egypt. Elsewhere Thoth is a reliable mediator and peacemaker. When the goddess Tefnut had a dispute with her father Re and absconded to Nubia, it was Thoth that the sun-god sent to reason with her and bring her home. Thoth was also present at the judgement of the dead. He would question the deceased before recording the result of the weighing of the deceased's heart. If the result was favorable Thoth would declare the deceased as a righteous individual who was worthy of a blessed afterlife. Thoth was also a lunar deity, and whatever form he took he wore a lunar crescent on his head. Some Egyptologists think that the Egyptians identified the crescent moon with the curved beak of the ibis. It is also suggested that the Egyptians observed that baboon was a nocturnal (i.e. lunar) animal who would greet the sun with chattering noises each morning. As he was messenger of the gods Thoth was identified by the Greeks with their own god Hermes. For this reason Thoth's center of worship is still known to us today as Hermopolis.
Technorati Tags: mythology,Egypt,Thoth,Ra,Seth,Hermes,Hermopolis,Marianne Dixon,heiroglyphics,Egyptian mythology,Isis,Horus,Tefnut May 17 MY HUMOR COLLECTION -- PRESERVING MY SANITY SINCE 1991Being a writing teacher in a border community is like trying to "draw out Leviathan with a hook". So when the going gets tough, the tough get reading. Laughter is a panacea for many modern ills, not the least of which is being pissed off after a tough day of trying to explain that commas and periods are not interchangeable. Neither are they optional. Some of these are on my Shelfari space. However, I'm having second thoughts about committing myself as I don't really find the groups very enthusiastic. So from here, you can take the titles and go to your fav book marketplace. Caveat -- some are old and out of print.
www.shelfari.com -- look for me under "BL_D" May 03 EPIPHANYOkay, I'm really, really really gonna try hard to not order more books for a while. But I have to tell you, I think I've found my writing niche. It's literary slapstick. Full-on, sarky, snarky cynical, jaded, and yet, reluctantly hopeful.
This week I got:
2 dark-hunter books: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON, DEVIL MAY CRY
THE ILIAD translated by Robert Fagles and containing another freakin' long-ass intro. (word to the windbags -- if your introduction goes longer than 2 or 3 pages, call it something else. Or just call it what it is -- Chapter One -- Overview. Not glamorous, but honest.)
2 McSweeney's books: THE MCSWEENEY'S JOKE BOOK OF BOOK JOKES
AND
Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren't as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn't Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out.
My hand to God, if I'm lyin', I'm dyin, that's the name of the book. Holy Shit. It doesn't even make a good acronym (NOUBSOTTASMDHYFALLSCCTSPWDPAMNLFAOOSWCQFSMYCHUO)
Anyway, absolutely LOVE it! For all you graphic artists out there, this book -- not even the story yet, but the design is A-mazing. Every space is taken up by some form of design element that pokes fun at books. It's a Rococo masterpiece of graphic design. The cover transforms into an envelope with spaces that command you where to put stamps and return address. The book itself has the words "HOLD ME" embossed on the cover -- on which is printed a photograph of a giant cactus pear-looking alien with its arms out as if to say "hold me." And it has a crossword puzzle at the back. WTF??? And I haven't even started reading the stories yet. Who the hell published this? Monty Python's Flying Circus Publishers? It's insane. If you get this book -- and I don't mean "buying it" -- you are one of the sharp tacks on the bulletin board. If you don't get it, go back to Harold Bloom or Northrop Frye. If you don't get it, you won't get any satisfaction at having it explained to you.
Don't even get me started on TMJBoBJ. The back cover is the front cover and vice versa. Cute. A nod, perhaps, to the Aramaic languages like Arabic and Hebrew? I dig it. The rubber chicken is smoking a cigarrette and smoke is coming out of its neck. Hee! I neglected my students to read "Winnie the Pooh is my co-worker". Laugh-Riot! John Hodgman's introduction is the DAS KAPITAL for the entire sub-sub-genre. I want to write like that dude.
In some of the entries, I sense warning rumbles of a well-meant, but eventually harmful dumbing down of simple creativity. That poor muse is being bitch-slapped by zealous writing amateurs unsure about how to bridge the gorge between dabbling dilettante and risk-taking professional. Comments on a first draft of THE ODYSSEY from Homer's writing group -- funny and sad. "Feedback from James Joyce's Submission of ULYSSES to His Creative Writing Workshop". It makes me want to cry.
I've worked to become a better writer. I've given and received what I thought was helpful feedback. But for what? This really hit a sensitive spot. Maybe I'll find them funny later, but right now, I don't want to laugh at these. It's a massive prick in the balloon of my ambition.
ROOTING OUT BLOOM 3: Where Shall Wisdom be Found?
Rooting Out Bloom 2: The Western Canon Rooting Out Bloom's Writing Roots OBSERVATIONS UPON READING WSWBF
And that's just the first chapter! Think about the classics of literature you've had to read in college and high school and what not. Threads of Biblical wisdom, especially OT references, thread finely and intricately through the works of European authors, yet draw attention to themselves by majestic King James syntax, or appearing in their original language (the italics immediately drawing the eye and signaling that this is important), or invoking the Bible as a sort of muse, or, more simply, extolling Biblical virtues. (Notice I did not say Christian -- for the simple reason that The Bible is a compendium of both Christian and Hebrew wisdom. And where literature is concerned, it's not unusual for them to overlap.) I especially enjoyed the chapter on Cervantes and Shakespeare. Firstly, what a great combination to compare/contrast. It was a delight to feel someone as accomplished as Bloom in awe of Cervantes and his two most famous characters. As a writing teacher, I can tell when my students genuinely like their topic. Their writing style shows more care, more detail, and they are willing to take more chances with style. Writing about something you love vs something you don't give a tinker's toss about is like the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. (I think Mark Twain said that. If he didn't, he should have.) I've never been one of those tiresome, pointlessly anarchic fools who think Shakespeare didn't write his plays. He wrote them. Live with it already. This bit in particular resonated in my mind -- like when you are searching for the last word in the crossword puzzle, and it hits you just as you're ready to give up: You cannot locate Shakespeare in his own works, not even in the Sonnets. It is this near-invisibility that encourages the zealots who believe that almost anyone wrote Shakespeare except Shakespeare himself. I wonder if that's a skill that ever comes up in Shakespeare courses. Also in the book is the de rigeur inclusion of Greeks -- Plato and Homer. The uber-Euros Montaigne, Francis Bacon, Johnson, Goethe, Nietzsche (being paired with Ralph Waldo. How piquant. Bloom calls him "our American Goethe. So why not put him in the Goethe chapter? I'll have to re-read those sections.), Freud (there's that tingly feeling in the naughty bits again), the Gospel of Thomas, and St. Augustine (excellent choice; should have been given a more prominent place in the book) Oddly enough, there's no Romans. No Cicero, no Seneca, no Marcus Aurelius, no Ovid. Some explanation on that gap would have been nice.
Technorati Tags: Harold Bloom,philosophy,history,literature,Bible,library of Congress,reading,writing,Cervantes,Shakespeare,Francis Bacon,Nietzsche,Goethe,Plato,Homer,St. Augustine,literary criticism
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