Humanities 13A: Myth, Symbol, and Folklore

Welcome, Humanities 13A Students!

Dylan Eret — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 12:00:16 +0000

Thanks for visiting our course website. Here you will find updated materials and events, including curious questions and comments (from the weekly readings), and in-class notes from selected students.

ALL readings will be found in our two required texts or online within the password-protected FLEXBOOK page.

I look forward to working with all of you this semester.

Your instructor,
Dr. Dylan Eret

P.S, You may download the WordPress Application for the iPhone if you have one of these devices. In this case, after downloading the icon, you can blog from your phone at any time.

IMAGE: The Churning of the Ocean of Milk (from a Gita Govinda). Opaque watercolor and gold on paper, ca. 1785. Pahari school, Kangra. (18.02 cm x 26.67 cm) Edwin Binney 3rd Collection.

JOB BLOG 9

Dylan Eret — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:01:00 +0000

Blog 9

Sita Sings the Blues

“A woman like me.” Cat goes crazy to get fed on ladies head. The two people go to make love and cat sits quietly. Man is working and gets a job offer in India. There are three story tellers who are trying to figure out the story of Sita together. They agree to disagree on a few detales but mainly are on the same page on how things occurred. “I cannot live without you”. They use American songs to describe the love scene. The white man leaves for India to do his new job. Sita is Ramas wife. The lotis flower is used to describe how beautiful she is. Sita asks Rama to capture a golden deer for her. He goes out to capture it. Sita is madly in love with Rama. During the singing the characters are depicted in an American sence of beauty. For instance sita has big boobs, small waist and a Betty Boop shaped head. Rama has a buff cut body with a handsom face and broad square chin with a pearly white smile. Don’t challenge these stories. The three storytellers continue to share different sequences of the story in a comical manner. Rama asks his servant to go find Sita. Back in San Francisco the wife wonders when her significant other will be back. He tells her to go with him to India. She goes to India to be with him. While she is there she gets a job offer in New York. She goes to New York and while she is there she receives an e mail from her significant other: “don’t come back”. Her heart is broken. Rama must now get rid of Sita because he cannot rule with the people doubting him. The white woman cries herself to sleep. Sita becomes pregnant. The white lady begs to get him back. While the three narrators discuss this tale you begin to see that there is a different perception of the story between men and women. Sita proves her purity by going back to the pit of mother earth.

This story to me shows the unconditional love of a woman. Many times women fall in love with men who do not treat them well. In the end it is the man who is missing out on a wonderful woman. The story shows how mans ego gets in the way of his love and he makes irrational decisions. Power comes first and love comes second in this story. As for the American couple, it is a similar love story. Work drives him away from the woman that loves him and she suffers without him. In the end it seems the women stand strong and do not let these men hold them down any longer.

Q1: How many versions of this story are there?

Q2: Do woman and men view this story differently?

JOB BLOG 3

Dylan Eret — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:48:19 +0000

Blog 3

-Knowledge is what we perceive to be real. I feel like we use the word knowledge as something that is fact. Not all knowledge is fact. I believe that most “knowledge” is un-true. Your knowledge may be different from my knowledge. The stories, myths, legends and folktales that we believe or don’t believe, shape our knowledge. Knowledge is an agreement with yourself. When telling stories, the story teller has already heard the story or lived the story in their head. As they tell the story you are able to get a sense of what they agree with, what they do not agree with, aka their knowledge. The reactions by the listener will give away if he can believe this story or not. If they become happy, sad, mad, burst out in laughter, this shows that the listener either believes this story or do not believe the story is possible. We use our “knowledge” to determine what is real and what is un-real [while much of it
has little if any hardcore evidence to back it up]. Our beliefs or what I like to call our “knowledge” is mostly gathered from stories told by others or experiences throughout life. Our life is one big story of experiences and situations that we believe to have occurred. You have a story about you, I have a story about me, and even if I don’t know you very well, I still have a story of you, filled with my interpretations and expectations of you.
QUESTIONS:
1. what is the fundamental difference between a tale and a legend?
2. What is the primary objective that folklorists want to accomplish in studying stories?

JOB BLOG 2

Dylan Eret — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:47:23 +0000

Blog 2
- At a young age [2-5 is the age the article gives] young children are more likely to state what is real. Such as: daddy cuts food, daddy get boo boo, daddy goes to doctor, daddy gets band aide. The young girl simply states what is real. Now her reactions and the way she says it can reveal more information than what is being said. If she is crying you can assume that she is sad, if she smiles and laughs you could assume she thought it was funny. These assumption become our knowledge and if we do not clarify our assumptions, our knowledge may be untrue or not real. As children get older and develop a stronger vocabulary, they begin to manipulate or distort stories. They have gathered much more knowledge and beliefs than a younger child because of more experiences aka much more stories. The older you are the more you have heard. The ones you show emotions to [sadness, happiness, angry etc], either change your beliefs, or further prove to yourself that what you believe is truth. Just because we believe that something is true or real, does not always make it so. Many stories told to and by children have a clear underlying message that the storyteller would like for you to believe. In my opinion many stories are used as propaganda and a means of control. Controlling your beliefs and creating a false-truth. This is my knowledge, this what I believe to be true, but does that make it so?

JOB BLOG 1

Dylan Eret — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:46:14 +0000

Blog 1

The word myth is defined as a story or word. Myths are defined as “tales believed as true”. Religion is a myth. Does that mean it is true or not true. I don’t know the answer to that question nor does anyone have the evidence to fully prove or disprove it. If you believe in the bible, the stories in it are the myths you believe in. If you do not believe in the bible then there is an alternate set of myths that you believe in. It seems to me that myths were created by symbols and language. Two people who hear the same exact sentence could come up with two different meanings and symbols in their head. They hear the same words yet gather a different meaning. This is where myths can get very dicey and unclear. Just because you heard what that person said and you came up with a conclusion does not mean your right about it. We do not have the luxury to go back in time and clarify, for ourselves, what these stories meant or if they were true or not. We only have faith and arguments and the way we were raised to come up with our assumptions and beliefs.

In my opinion, myths are imbedded in us as we begin to learn language and symbols as a young child. We learn what certain objects are such as a ball or car. We learn that there is a right word and sound for objects in our life. When you hear the word tree, what do you see. You see a tree. But how big is that tree? How many leaves does it have? Does it even have leaves? Many of us will picture a different tree then someone else, thus giving the word “tree” a different symbol or meaning to you then is has to another person. We grow up with these myths that some people are ugly, that some people are pretty, some are fat some are skinny, some are tall some are short. Are these things really true? What is reality? Reality is things that are real. I am real you are real. We grow up believing we are a certain way because of what people tell us, what our past tells us, and culture tells us. It is true to us because we believe in it. I feel that we have myths in order to fill a void, and a sense of being lost. As babies, before we learned to speak, we instinctively knew what we liked and didn’t like. We laughed or smiled when we liked something and we cried when we didn’t. I feel that as babies we truly understood what was real. When myths got involved through language and symbol, it distorted what made us happy or un happy. New beliefs were imprinted in our minds instead of just feeling what is real.

1. What is real?

2. Is there one root concept in every single myth? If so is that what is real?

JOB BLOG 15

Dylan Eret — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:44:18 +0000

Blog 15

Jokes and disclosure on disaster

The message of jokes. Jokes have been viewed as sexual and aggressive in its intention. They are funny because they have two incongruent categories are matched up into one situation. In order to understand a joke the audience must have some prior knowledge of the topic being discussed. Common experiences also allows a joke to florish because the audience feels like this has happened to them before.

Joking in my opinion could be a way of persuasion. If you can get people to laugh about a certain topic you can almost guarantee get them to agree with you central message in your joke. Laughter is a very powerful tool and if used wrongfully it could be very devastating for whomever may be laughed at.

Q1: What if you think a joke is very funny but inappropriate to laugh at?

Q2: What was the first joke ever told?

JOB BLOG 14

Dylan Eret — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:43:36 +0000

Blog 14

Illnesses call alters identity. Deep illness brings the notion that you will be deeply ill for the rest or your life. Deep illness is deep so it is all based on the person’s perception of their situation. You can drag yourself out of this deep illness by looking at the positive. You are alive and can still speak. You can use your mind and imagination you can communicate with others. You can give and receive love.

Several studies describe the ill as storytellers. Being empathetic and listening to these stories can help the ill get out of the deep illness. Attending to stories is a functional part of clinical work. Just simply giving attention is necessary. Moyer: “I think the greatest thing you could give someone is your attention”. This story reminds me of the movie Patch Adams. I had the pleasure of meeting the real Patch Adams and the message he portrays is one of listening. He listened to his patients; he talked to them and loved them.

Q1: Can a patient with skitsofrenia be its own listener?

Q2: Should doctors be certified listeners or are they far too busy? if so should we have specialized listeners on spot?

JOB BLOG 13

Dylan Eret — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:42:38 +0000

Blog 13

7 sins of memory

In Yasunari Kawabatas explains how sometimes we can forget the past, and other times we can distort it. Some memories haunt us for years. Memory is in our everyday lives. We often take memory for granted, until the day comes where forgetting or distortions demand our attention. Memory errors are as fascinating as they are important. Memories can create a wide range of problems but we can learn to harness them to help us with these issues.

Memory can make or break you. You can look at something with many different perspectives and draw a conclusion about something. As you get older the conclusions may differ from your original thoughts. I like to look at my memories as my knowledge. Knowledge does not mean something is true but instead it is simply an agreement I have made with myself. I make these agreements so I have the power to alter my knowledge. I could use this knowledge to help me and to wrong me. With this knowledge I must always do what I think is right so that I do not live with countless demons. If I felt like I always try to do what’s right I can alter my memories to more enjoyable and proud moments.

Q1: Can any two people have the same exact memory of a particular event?

Q2: Who am I speaking to when I re run memories in my head?

JOB BLOG 12

Dylan Eret — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:40:50 +0000

Blog 12

“It is only when we wake up that we realize something was actually strange.” Why is this? Dreams are distortions of reality. Dreams are normally a modified repetition. Reproductions of real sceens rarely appear in dreams. The content of dreams does not just include situations but includes disconnected fragments of visual images, speeches and even bits of un modified thoughts. Each train of thought is accompanied by its contradictory counterpart.

This is a very confusing article for me to understand. What I have gathered from this is that dreams can correlate things that in the “real world” seem un-relatable. It can put new meanings to things we think we understand and could possibly show us more of the truth then real life.

Q1: Why do we sometime remember dreams and sometimes don’t?

Q2: Why don’t we realize we are dreaming until we wake up?

JOB BLOG 11

Dylan Eret — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 12:29:44 +0000

Blog 11

La Llorona “the weeping woman” is a well known story in the Spanish culture. This haunting tale has put fear in many peoples eyes. There are many different types of this story but they all share the same central structure and theme. It is argured that La Llorona and La Malinche were the same person. Basically the tale could have been based on a true story.

The weeping mother is looking for her long lost children. How her children have gone missing is up to the storyteller. She has been reportedly heard by numerous people. This story somehow uses a religious aspect into getting people to change their ways. I feel many stories use religion to their advantage. No matter how you tell this story no mater what message you gather, it becomes your reality.”Each head it in its own world”.

Q1: Who was the first to tell this story?

Q2: What is the intention of this story from the point of view of religion?