Dive Into Culture

Library Poster

I attended this lecture earlier this week. Why? The short answer is because I want to grow my cultural awareness. I never read (or studied) this book in school. Of course, many of the stories are embedded in our culture. My closest exposure to the story was watching a video tape (borrowed from the library) of an episode of Wishbone ("Homer Sweet Homer"). I believe I noticed several references to Robert Fagles' translation somewhere in the blog, The Mathisen Corollary (but I can't find anything specific enough to link to at the time I am writing this).

The poster above succinctly explains what I experienced: a lecture/presentation by a college professor and an overview by the artistic director of the dance company that will be presenting their (her) interpretation at the beginning of October. Overall, it was worth the hour and a half.

Another objective that I had for attending this lecture/event was to, hopefully, meet people that share an interest in culture and fine arts. Apparently, this is no longer in vogue because once again I felt like I was the youngest there (and I'm no spring chicken). It felt to me like half the audience had been dropped off my a nursing home and the rest were homeless people taking a break from the outdoors.

For all the talk about The Odyssey being taught in high school and college (and Sonia said she fell in love with the story when she read it in Middle School!), there was no sign of anyone of that age or even 20s, 30s, or 40s. I suspect the couple in front of me might have been close to my generation. Sonia and Professor Nina were actually probably the youngest present.

1966 version
by Robert J. Milch of Brooklyn College
(1997 printing)

I have been mulling over the possibility of reading The Iliad and the The Odyssey for several months. The poster (above) at the library caught my attention and stirred up my motivation. Last week, I picked up a used Cliff Notes version (see above). In addition, I've been reading the SparkNotes summary online.

I haven't decided if I want to attend the dance version (it's only being performed one weekend). Modern dance is not really my thing but perhaps its worth a stretch. What do you think?

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Links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAKZLV6a23Y
http://mathisencorollary.blogspot.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iliad
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/odyssey

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Written Saturday 26 September 2015