Posts Tagged: The Iliad

Writing — 2 Comments
2
Dec 10

In Which I Get To Be Hector

An actual gchat conversation. All names have been changed to protect the guilty.*

paris: you watched the wire recently?

ive seen it like 5 times

hector: all five seasons five times?

or five episodes?

paris: all seasons 5 times

lol

hector: yeah, well it’s fantastic

i just watched the final episode

paris: if you look at daniels face when he’s around rhonda, he has that “i love white girls” look all the damn time

the pink nipple fascination

final montage is the greatest

but yes, i agree, the wire is the greatest

imdb gives it a 9.7, higher than sopranos

making it the best show ever, behind david attenborough narrated planet earth

hector: i’ve never watched the sopranos.

i assume it sucks

paris: sopranos? lol

it’s also excellent

required watching, in my book

quintessential mob drama

hector: well, i might give it a try now.

paris: it’s like watching 6 seasons of the godfather

hector: i’ve got nothing to do with my life now that i’ve finished the wire

paris: hahaha

except watching it 4 more times

also, i liked inception

i didnt care about the plot holes at all

the ending was just a blur of nonsense

hector: don’t get me started on inception.

it’s dead to me

paris: however, the movie itself is the dream, and the audience is the dreamer

movie theaters = dreamlike

dark, nothing but you and the screen

hector: if that’s the case, i’m having a dull dream with a crap story and no character development

paris: dream within a dream within a dream! ten layers of dreaming!

hector: i totally understand your point. it could very well be nolan’s intention, to say the whole movie is a dream

but the movie is still crap story telling

paris: yes, but to say that is to say that over 95% of all movies are crap story telling

which they are

so it’s a redundant point

oh im a father now, too

more crap story telling

hector: i heard

paris: babies start off at level 0

hector: congrats

paris: total n00bs

my baby probably has like 10 xp now

hector: babies are stupid. good luck with yours

paris: had to teach him how to suck at my girl’s nipples

i thought they knew automatically, but no

also, i didnt know babies cant smile

until like… 1+ months

hector: that’s a true fact.

it’s learned behavior

paris: lol

interesting, to say the least

my kid takes like ten shits a day

mroe than that

im changing diapers half my non-work hours

im fucking wiped out

hector: thanks. i always enjoy reminders of why i don’t want kids

paris: how are things in gayjing

hector: gay

less gay now that odysseus left

paris: lol

his gay gene is recessive, but still awkwardly present

hector: so true

paris: i saw him in nyc a couple of times this year

pretty magical

hector: is he really going to school?

paris: yeah

hector: i always expected he was lying.

paris: postbac premed shit

hector: it was a front for something

paris: trying to get into med school

i saw him organic chem books lying around

hector: but i couldn’t figure out what it was a front for

paris: haha he’s trying to get an MD i guess

it’s going to be a magical day when he can prescribe me things

hector: oh, everything makes sense now.

paris: he’ll be in school for another year or two

hector: he’s in school to get you meds sometime in teh distant future

paris: and IF he gets into med school, another… 6?

he’ll basically be 40 before he finishes

not to mention residency and all that

wish my dad was willing to send me to school for another decade

that would be the best

Please note: All gchat conversations are the exclusive property of Google, Inc.

*Fuck the innocent

Writing — 6 Comments
25
Feb 10

The Most Exquisite Works Of Art Ever Created

Benjamin Franklin coined the phrase “Beauty, like supreme dominion, is but supported by opinion.”* But Franklin was wrong.

According to my friend Science, beauty is a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or form, that pleases the aesthetic senses. Using a complex algorithm that has been thoroughly supported through experimental research, Science has definitively ranked the most exquisite works of art.

#11 Guernica

Creator: Pablo Picasso

What sets it apart: Picasso’s most famous painting, he applies his Cubist style to the bombing of the Basque village of Guernica. The painting graphically exhibits the atrocities of war. Since its creation, Guernica has become a symbol of peace, and is frequently touted as a monumental anti-war emblem. Every leader should have to sit in front of this painting for an hour before voting their country to war.

#10 Ryoan-Ji Temple

Creator: The Sound Of One Hand Clapping

What sets it apart: The pinnacle of Zen architecture, Ryoan-ji, located to the Northwest of Kyoto, houses the famous Karesansui Garden. Everything about the temple espouses its main theme, “What one has is all one needs.” The key ingredient in true art is artlessness.

#9 The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Creator: T. S. Eliot

What sets it apart: If nothing else, the lines:


Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
for decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

Eliot elegantly summarizes the paradox of human existence, that an entire lifetime can be contained inside a single moment, yet all our seemingly endless days are not enough to fulfill us. We look forward at our beginning, and look backward at our end, and never make full use of the moment at hand. Maybe we should spend more time in Ryoan-ji

#8 The Iliad

Creator: Homer

What sets it apart: In one, beautiful, elegaic, epic poem, Homer summarizes what war and love and pride mean to an entire culture. In Achilles, the tragic hero, we have literature’s greatest example of the defiant one, who refuses to bow before his king in the face of injustice. But his defiance costs him dearly, and he eventually throws his life away in the name of avenging his slain companion. In so doing, Achilles reveals the greatest secret of The Iliad, that we in fact have the ability to determine our own fate.

#7 Citizen Kane

Creator: Orson Welles

What sets it apart: Sure it revolutionized filmmaking, with its use of deep focus and special effects, but the real importance of Citizen Kane is the inspiration it provided for Charles Montgomery Burns.

#6 Snow Man, 1989

Creator: The Scott Family

What sets it apart: In the aftermath of the great blizzard of ’89, and clearly inspired by Calvin and Hobbes, Walter Scott, his wife Diane, and their children, Richie and Hannah, set about building the greatest snowman of all time. The fact that it melted 3 days later only adds weight to its poignancy.

#5 Hamlet

Creator: William Shakespeare

What sets it apart: Any truly great work of art, from The Epic Of Gilgamesh to Snowman, 1989, centers on one theme, and one theme alone, the futility of human existence. Hamlet, thanks to the perfidy of his Uncle, contemplates suicide. Instead, he decides to expend his life fighting for love and justice. But in the end, does it really matter?

#4 The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha

Creator: Miguel Cervantes

What sets it apart: Don Quixote: madman, idealist, the butt of jokes. But he didn’t care, because he truly understood the human condition, that we create our own reality.

#3 Dogs Playing Poker

Creator: Cassius Coolidge

What sets it apart: Subversive without being demeaning, Dogs Playing Poker points out the animal in all of us. More importantly, the painting symbolizes that working class art has a place in our culture, despite what certain pretentious art critics might say.

#2 Requiem Mass In D Minor

Creator: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

What sets it apart: The Requiem is scored for 2 basset-horns in F, 2 bassoons, 2 trumpets in D, 3 trombones (alto, tenor & bass), timpani (2 drums), violins, viola and basso continuo (cello, double bass, and organ or harpsichord). The vocal forces include soprano, alto, tenor, and bass soloists and an SATB mixed choir.

#1 David

Creator: Michelangelo

What sets it apart: If all the works of art ever created suddenly sprung to life, and they subsequently fought in a gigantic cage match, David would totally win.

*Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

Please note that this blog post was published posthumously

Writing — No Comments
16
Feb 10

The Most Classic Chinese Classical Novels

In honor of Spring Festival, every list this week celebrates Chinese culture. We’ve already done Tigers and Oscar Wilde, and today we look at the best of China’s classical literature.

I have read each of the four classic novels, in translation of course, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. Start at the bottom of the list and work your way up. It always pays to save the best for last. If you thought Twilight was good, you’ll love these:

#4 Dream Of The Red Chambers (红楼梦)

Author: Cao Xueqin

Date: 1759

Why You Should Read It: Provides a detailed look at life for wealthy magistrates during the Qing Dynasty. Covers all the major art forms, including poetry, calligraphy, painting, lantern-making and riddles. One of the all time great love stories. Makes Gone With The Wind seem like a short story.

#3 Romance Of The Three Kingdoms(三国演义)

Author: Luo Guanzhong

Date: Pre-1400

Why You Should Read It: Classic military story comparable to Sun Tzu and Machiavelli. China’s Iliad and Odyssey rolled into one. You have inspiring warriors battling perfidious traitors in order to rule all of China.

#2 Outlaws Of The Marsh(水浒传)

Author:Shi Naian

Date: Pre-1400

Why You Should Read It: Rivals The Count Of Monte Cristo as the greatest action-adventure novel ever written. A group of noble outlaws strive against injustice and a corrupt system, a la The A-Team. Li Kui fights with two battle axes while drunk and completely naked.

#1 Journey To The West(西游记)

Author: Wu Cheng’en

Date: 16th Century

Why You Should Read It: The compelling tale of Monkey and his companions escorting the Tang Priest to India in order to receive the Buddhist scriptures. Laugh out loud funny, especially when Monkey invades heaven and defeats all the gods in combat. Based on a true story.

Writing — 3 Comments
5
Feb 10

The Best World War II Novels

Literature has a long tradition of producing war stories. Starting with The Iliad, every great period of literature corresponds to one of history’s great wars. War And Peace details the Napoleonic Wars. The Red Badge Of Courage takes place during the American Civil War.

But the greatest period of literature matches the greatest of all wars, World War II. To kick off our month of lists at The Chaos Factory, here are the most celebrated novels about World War II:

(Note: Each list that appears on The Chaos Factory has been exhaustively researched. Experts are consulted, comprehensive surveys conducted, and precise algorithms created, all of which insure the lists are accurate and complete. No arguments necessary.)

#6 All Quiet On The Western Front

By the German author Erich Maria Remarque, this novel tells the story of German soldiers in the Great War and their alienation from civilian life. In the same way that World War II was a sequel to the first World War, the subsequent novels on this list owe their existence to Remarque’s groundbreaking realism.

Favorite Quote: We have lost all sense of other considerations, because they are artificial. Only the facts are real and important to us. And good boots are hard to come by.

#5 The Thin Red Line

I never actually read the novel. But I did see the Terrence Malick movie, and it was almost as good as Saving Private Ryan.

Favorite Quote: War don’t ennoble men, it turns ‘em into dogs. It poisons the soul.

#4 The Quiet American

Set in the Vietnam front of the war, Graham Greene presages the cold war with his tale of a CIA operative fighting against communism. Before reading The Quiet American, I never knew that Vietnam was so central to the outcome of World War II.

Favorite Quote: Find me an uncomplicated child, Pyle. When we are young we are a jungle of complications. We simplify as we get older.

#3 The Diary Of Anne Frank

A young Jewish girl’s diary illuminates readers on what it means to retain hope in the face of oblivion. It may be possible to deny the Holocaust be what cannot be denied is that Anne Frank is the most accomplished teenage author of all time.

Favorite Quote: I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.

#2 Slaughterhouse 5

World War II meets science fiction in Kurt Vonnegut’s most acclaimed novel. The novel is actually pretty crazy, sometimes hard to follow, and prominently features time traveling aliens. But its rhythmic invocation of the fatalistic motto, “And so it goes,” appropriately captures the essence of both life and war.

Favorite Quote: And so it goes.

#1 Catch-22

Joseph Heller crafted not only the greatest commentary on the pointlessness of war, but also one of the funniest novels of all time. Both the movie and television show M*A*S*H were based on it, and the phrase Catch-22 has become ingrained in our language. The novel would have made Kafka proud.

Favorite Quote: He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt.

Writing — No Comments
8
Jun 09

We All Share A Measure Of Wretchedness


In school, I rarely enjoyed being forced to read long, boring novels from the distant past. Even worse was being told what to think about them. Thus, I never did well in English class.

One of my few favorites was The Iliad. The character who always stood out the most was Achilles. Of course, the other name for The Iliad is “The Wrath of Achilles,” which summarizes nicely what drew me to the story. The world’s greatest hero, feeling wronged, refuses to fight and would rather bring doom down on everyone around him than to succumb to injustice. It spoke directly to my anti-authoritarian sentiments. I would rather fail than let someone force me to read something that did not appeal to me. How dare they waste my genius?

Of course, in the end, Achilles realizes the price for fighting his fate is too high. His best friend is slaughtered by Hector, Achilles laments his pride and vows revenge, and he rejoins the war knowing that he will die soon after Hector.

I just finished rereading The Iliad. I picked it up again after reading “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer” by Keats:

Much have I travell’d in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen;
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told
That deep-brow’d Homer ruled as his demesne;
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene
Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold:
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star’d at the Pacific–and all his men
Look’d at each other with a wild surmise–
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.

I wanted to see what Keats saw. I wanted to be dazzled, because how often are we really dazzled by a work of literature.

As it turns out, the 400 year old translation is a hard read. It uses so many archaic words, and the constraints of writing in meter make for convoluted sentences. It took me more than six months to get through the 400 pages. I wished I had picked up a more modern prose translation instead.

But for all the difficulties, it was worth it in the end. The narrative is just as fascinating and powerful as an adult as it was as a teenager. But this time, the aspect of the story I was most drawn too was not Achilles and his anger, but instead the final book, when Priam comes to beg Achilles to release his son Hector’s corpse for a proper burial.

With the help of the God Hermes, Priam sneaks into Achilles tent at night, and reminds the young warrior of his own father. He says:

Achilles, fear the gods,
Pity an old man, like thy sire, different in only this,
That I am wretcheder, and bear that weight of miseries
That never man did, my curs’d lips enforc’d to kiss that hand
That slew my children.

Achilles relents, as he realizes an important truth. All men are destined to suffer a mix of fortune and misfortune. Both Priam and Peleus, the father of Achilles, enjoyed long fruitful lives, only to see their sons stricken down in their youth. He learns that the enemies he has been fighting for ten long years are no different from himself. His anger assuaged, Achilles finds respect for the king of the Trojans, and grants him 12 days to proffer the funeral rites for Hector, before resuming the war.

I find a measure of comfort and affirmation about humanity to find that a lesson taught 2500 years ago can still be so applicable in today’s world.

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