Trackign down the source of Engel on the keys to Western CUlture

[rocking]

Originally Posted by konungursvia

Well, think of Oedipus: the most intelligent man alive (the first and only ever to solve the riddle of the Sphynx) he was damned no matter how hard he tried to avoid his horrible destiny, to kill his father and sleep with his mother. As a child, his feet were bound so he couldn't get away and run.

Forrest Gump is the anti-Oedipus. The stupidest man alive (among those who can still function). His feet were bound when young, so he couldn't run. He caused his mother to get laid and his real father was already dead. His surrogate father he almost kills, then saves his life. Despite his low intelligence, he is blessed with success, no matter how foolish his actions.

Both plays ask the question: do we receive our fates, and merely live them out, or make them?

Brain-stimulating to learn!
Does an average native viewer automatically spot out such a mythological element nowadays? Or is the film meant to remind its audience of their remote cultural origin?

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by rocking

Brain-stimulating to learn!
Does an average native viewer automatically spot out such a mythological element nowadays? Or is the film meant to remind its audience of their remote cultural origin?

I didn't. But I haven't read the Odyssey.
I don't know whether that was an intentional effect in Forrest Gump. Even if it was, I think the box office takings would not have reflected the influence of the small number of patrons who would have understood those allusions.

But I'm sure it's possible to do a Greek Mythological reading of any text, just as one can do a Marxist, Feminist, Psychoanalytic, Post-Colonial or whatever other trendy interpretive reading one could be assigned.

[konungursvia]

Originally Posted by Raymott

I didn't. But I haven't read the Odyssey.
I don't know whether that was an intentional effect in Forrest Gump. Even if it was, I think the box office takings would not have reflected the influence of the small number of patrons who would have understood those allusions.

But I'm sure it's possible to do a Greek Mythological reading of any text, just as one can do a Marxist, Feminist, Psychoanalytic, Post-Colonial or whatever other trendy interpretive reading one could be assigned.

Hi, it wasn't from Homer, but Sophocles: Oedipus Rex. I agree you can do any reading you like, but I think this screenplay was modelled deliberately after the Oedipus story.

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by konungursvia

Hi, it wasn't from Homer, but Sophocles: Oedipus Rex.

Yes of course. Silly me. I guess I'm not sufficiently Westernised.

[rocking]

Originally Posted by Raymott

Yes of course. Silly me. I guess I'm not sufficiently Westernised.

Enjoyed your joke - in this connection, maybe we can all be a little cynical because we all seem to lose some language or cultural traditions along the way (however unwilling we are to let go of them).

There's nothing wrong to catch up with the trendy -isms, and there's nothing wrong either to feel nostalgic. The shame would be that people do not have a nostalgia for anything.

[konungursvia]

I'm nostaligic for Japan between 1903 and 1957.

[rocking]

Originally Posted by konungursvia

I'm nostaligic for Japan between 1903 and 1957.

Hello - Japan during part of the span was unfortunately blemished by war. Personally I love Japanese culture and I respect every good individual human being regardless of their nationality although my upbringing and my country's relationships with the rest of the world in history shaped me in a slightly biased way.

Now that this brilliant forum has brought us togetehr to undersand and help one another, would you mind telling me about your cherished memory of Japan? Thank you.

[konungursvia]

Sorry, I meant except for the war periods, and I myself was just thinking of its architecture, clothing, gardens, arts and crafts, and the like. I view that country's attacks on other Asian countries as a huge mistake, and unconscionable. Mine was only a humorous remark.

[rocking]

Originally Posted by konungursvia

Sorry, I meant except for the war periods, and I myself was just thinking of its architecture, clothing, gardens, arts and crafts, and the like. I view that country's attacks on other Asian countries as a huge mistake, and unconscionable. Mine was only a humorous remark.

Are the gardens and architecture still seen today or are they in the history books? I don't like it when people in my country always try to find resemblance and making comparisons with our own. Or maybe they are somewhat alike?

[konungursvia]

If you take a stroll around the Gion neighborhood in Kyoto, you'll see the charming type of place I was thinking about. But in the vast majority of Japan, these things have all been replaced by Western equivalents, which of course, I can see here.

I don't understand your sentence "I don't like it when people in my country always try to find resemblance and making comparisons with our own."