Pictures of Eros

Eros

There are many ways in which you can interpret the story of how Eros came to be. After reading through the website I found that Eros was born from the world egg at creation. Eros was also known as phanes and is not really even considered as being part of the ancient religious beliefs of the Greeks. The website said that "EROS was the Protogenos (Primordial deity) of sexual desire who emerged at the very creation of the universe. He was the driving force behind procreation in nature-http://www.theoi.com/Protogenos/Eros.html." After reading this, I have a different look on the symbolic "Cupid".

"Verily at first Khaos (Air) came to be, but next wide-bosomed Gaia (Earth), the ever-sure foundation of al1 the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympos, and dim Tartaros (Hell) in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them." - Hesiod, Theogony 116

Comments

I really enjoyed reading through both Mariah's and Kate's posts. I found that they had some of the same thoughts about love as I did. I enjoyed reading about what other people had to say about certain topics and I will continue to keep reading classmates blogs. To look at these blogs just go to this website, http://121-12.blogspot.com/, and look for their link on the right.

Love Poem

(I am a terrible poem writer)

Love
It's the feeling people get
deep within their heart and soul
Its a wild roller coaster
that will tie your emotions in a knot
some people thrive on it
while other seem not to care
everyone seeks love
whether it be from some else
or perhaps a passion
everyone feels love

Love Free-Write

Love. Its a very difficult question for most. I personally take it very seriously when using the word, while others throw it around freely with no meaning. It aggravates me when I hear people who are dating say "I love you" to each other when they have only been dating for 2 or 3 months. I mean come on, don't tell me that you truly love them after such a short amount of time. I don't know maybe i am just being cold hearted and stubborn, but people just use the word to freely. And I'm not talking about when people say it just kidding around, but when people use it in a serious way but don't truly mean it.

"Lost Book Found"

I found the video "Lost Book Found" by Jem Cohen to be a very interesting portrayal of what the city streets in New York are really like. After searching the web I found that after using only a 16mm camera, Cohen created a video based on a notebook that was filled with all kinds of listings of places, objects, and incidents. Cohen said that the notebook suggests that there is a hidden city with unconsidered geography. In an unusual way, it seems like the creator of this notebook may have been using it as an escape.

"Its beauty is quite ineffable. It's the sort of visual experience that transforms everything seen by the viewer for several hours afterward. . . What it actually does is capture the subconscious of the city itself, the dream state of the whole past existing in simultaneous disarray."—Luc Sante, Low Life and Evidence

This quote from the website, describes how the notebook captures images in the cities dream state. This would directly relate to Borges's thoughts about the world being made up of dreams.

The website I used was http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$tapedetail?LOSTBOOKFO

Borges vs. Stevens

Although these two authors seem very different, they both seek for an escape. Stevens uses the mountain as his escape from reality, while Borges uses dreams.

Metaphor's From Borges

"the world is a mental activity, a dream of souls" - "Break of Day"

"the sky the pinkish color of a leopard's gums" - "The Circular Ruins"

"Break of Day" and "The Circular Ruins"

I found both of these pieces, by Jorge Luis Borges, to be both interesting and unusual. The idea of dreams actually creating what surrounds us is very unusual. Although it is an unusual idea, I find it to be very fascinating and interesting. I like to think that dreams are very symbolic and have a much deeper meaning, but I have never thought about it in such a way that Borges does. Although we know that this life is not created by dreams, it is interesting to think about what it would actually be like if it were. Overall i enjoyed both pieces.

Break of Day

"I recalled the dreadful conjecture of Schopenhauer and Berkeley which declares that the world is a mental activity, a dream of souls, without foundation, purpose, weight or shape."

Jorge Luis Borges' poem is a very very interesting indeed. Throughout the poem, Borges brings up the thought that our active lives that we lead during the day are nothing compared to the lives we lead in our dreams. I had a difficult time understanding where he was going with this poem but the lines above lead me to believe that the world is just a bunch of mental activity that numerous people have declared to be true, therefore making society believe that our lives are not part of our dreams.

METAPHOR

A metaphor is a comparison between two or more subjects that seem to have no relation to each other. Unlike simile's, which compare two subjects using the words "like" or "as", metaphor's usually compare two subjects using the word "is". A metaphor can best be described as being a symbol or an emblem. Example: "The snow is a fluffy cotton."

Escape

Escape: to slip or get away, as from confinement or restraint (www.dictionary.com). At some point in ones life, one must escape from reality. Even if only for a few moments, it is necessary for every human being. This could be as simple as day-dreaming or as drastic as taking a vision quest somewhere in the outdoors. Why is it that people feel the need to escape from the reality of their repetitive lifestyles and allude to another world, whether it is a “real world” or a “made-up world”? Wallace Stevens, the writer of the poem “The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain”, and Chris McCandless, the main character in the story Into the Wild, both find it very necessary to escape from the hustle and bustle of their busy lives and go to a place where they feel free.
In the poem “The Poem That Took the Place of a Mountain”, Wallace Stevens describes how he climbs a mountain and looks out over the sea. Although the poem makes it sound like he is just taking a hike, there is a much greater meaning to all of it. “The exact rock where his inexactness would discover, at last, the view toward which they had edged, where he could lie and, gazing down at the sea, recognize his unique and solitary home” (Stevens 1). In this excerpt from the poem, Stevens explains how this mountain is his solitary home, where he can escape from his business life and focus on writing.
In the book, Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Krakauer re-lives Chris McCandless’s journey through the wild Alaskan wilderness. Throughout the story, Krakauer realizes how ill-prepared McCandless really was, and wonders why anyone would ever attempt to do something like this with very little knowledge of the wilderness. Although Krakauer is disappointed in some of the choices McCandless makes, he begins to understand why McCandless did what he did. McCandless didn’t just go out on this journey just to say that he survived in the wild for a few months, he wanted to get away from it all. The Alaskan wilderness was his escape from reality, a place he could go to clear his mind and soul and just be free. McCandless wasn’t seeking fame; he was looking for an escape from the real world.Getting away from our usual, routine lives is key to a successful life. You cannot always focus on your job, school, or whatever it is that you are doing. Everyone needs to escape and do something that they enjoy. Stevens uses his mountain as an escape to work on his poetry and focus on what is really important to him. McCandless escapes reality by traveling through the Alaskan Wilderness and living off of nature. Although he dies in the end, he learns a lot about himself and he enjoys the feeling of being free. We must all escape reality to be free.