Notes 1-27

For next meeting: read the first story from The King and The Corpse, Daphnis and Chloe

Some tales separate from the reading list that we have talked about:
The tale of the ending of the Odyssey where Odysseus and Penelope engage in the most erotic act: storytelling.
The Hymn of the Pearl: 1001 earthly distractions for the main character; reminded of his mission when he reads a letter

All literature is displaced myth: deteriorates
The medium: myth--epics--romance
The characters: gods--heroes--men and less than men
Mythology of the declining ages: gold, silver, bronze, etc.

Literature moves from the mythic to realism and reality (the rise of the novel)

Today, value of literature is judged on its conformity to the real world, so how to explain the popularity of Harry Potter, Tolkien? Satisfies the imaginative need.
Imagination does not need reality but without the other, imagination is vaporous, reality impoverished.
Metaphor: stretching against a tree--need to push off of reality to stretch imagination
This present time is concerned with usefulness, practicality, utilitarianism.

For the displacing a fairytale assignment:
1. Be crafty. Use realistic terms but do not betray the source.
2. Clues will be in structure.
Some examples of fairy tales: Little Red Riding Hood, Little Mermaid, Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and Gretel, etc, etc.

(pg 3) Frye: "Sentimental romance begins..." Breathless quality of storytelling--parataxis in Ephesian Tales, where everything in the sentence is of equal weight. Repetition and redundancy...

The Bible is the originating point where everything else ripples out from--secular scripture.

Looked at Conference of the Birds (where a Hoopoe bird is featured)