An Imaginary Life

We have read several poems that tell of metamorphoses of some being. These poems are written by the poet Ovid. An Imaginary Life is written by David Malouf. I believe the main theme of this story is the metamorphosis of the master of metamorphosis, Ovid. He begins the story as a begrudging prisoner of this desolate village, unable to understand the language or customs. Ovid has been exiled and is unable to return to his normal life. Instead, he has been unwillingly integrated into this life that could not be more different from the one he is accustomed to. He finally finds solace in his obsession with a feral child he spots during a hunting excursion. He is brought back to his childhood by this sighting of what he believes to be no ordinary child, but The Child. Eventually, the child is captured and is put under Ovid's supervision and care. After an excruciating couple of weeks, Ovid begins to become close to the Child. He then begins to teach the Child normal human behavior. At first glance, this bout of knowledge gain and development seems to show us the apparent metamorphosis of the Child, but in truth we are seeing the metamorphosis of the Child’s teacher, Ovid. Ovid has now accepted his fate and concerns himself solely with the development and protection of the Child. Further into the relationship, Ovid and the Child must face the trials and tribulations that come with the Child’s instinctual animal-like characteristics and the village’s lack of acceptance of such a strange creature. After a taxing sequence of sicknesses and an old woman’s acute paranoia, the Child and Ovid must leave the village. This journey of two separate beings becomes the journey of one entity. Ovid morphs from the teacher into the pupil. He is now in the Child’s world, and what he knows from his past life will do little to help him survive. In the end, the Child must take care of Ovid, who has become an old man. We have seen the metamorphosis of a man into a child, a teacher into a pupil. A beautifully written, profoundly intriguing story, An Imaginary Life is a trip for the imagination. In this story, Ovid is not viewed as a creator of amazing yet horrifying works of metamorphosis, he is himself morphed into a humble student. He manages to find an ability of great compassion for another being that, if he were not exiled, would never have come to fruition.

Arachne

I found the story of Arachne quite boring after hearing the colorful depictions of the other poems in Ovid Metamorphoses. There is a lack of juiciness, so to speak, that is undeniable. There is no incest, rape, murder, or cannibalism to be found. Suicide is an interesting topic, I suppose, but we are left with attempted suicide. I am not sure how to make this one exciting but I certainly will try.

I think my main problem is my inexplicable need to relate these stories to my life. I want to find a moral. The morals I came up with upon hearing these stories seem a little....well, ridiculous. "Don't eat your children", "Don't sleep with your father", "Don't talk shit to someone who could potentially turn you into a spider", etc. I don't think someone with even the most tumultuous life could make sense of such ridiculous morals. This is not saying anything unfavorable about the text. In fact, there are few texts as colorful and as interesting as these. I am merely relaying my mindset whilst reading said text. Truthfully, I don't even think what I just wrote makes much sense, once I actually read through it. So be it.

Flyting

My sister and I have had a few insult-flinging matches, and I am happy to say I usually win. The most recent one was because I asked her if she got the mail because I had asked her to earlier that day. She flipped out because she apparently thought I was asking so much of her. She called me a lazy bitch because I hadn't been cleaning the house enough. I told her it was because I was dealing with 19 credits, a part-time job, and being sick. She then proceeded to scream at me because I "am always sick" and she even said "why the fuck do you always get sick, we have pretty much the same immune system." I then called her a stupid whore and explained to her that I don't like being sick. She then informed me that I was a lazy piece of shit and I left because I couldn't stand the stupid insults anymore. Luckily, we reconciled and everything is okay now.

Platonic Love

At the end of Wednesday's class, the subject of platonic love came up briefly. One person voiced her opinion that platonic love does not exist, and this comment caused quite a stir. My first instinct was to disagree with her. Men and women can have relationships with each other sans sexual tension....right? Upon further consideration I have decided that I agree with this person-there is no such thing as platonic love. I thought back to every male I have ever had any sort of a relationship with and I thought about the entirety of said relationship. I have never had a relationship with a male that was completely devoid of sexual tension of any kind. I don't think this says anything about my personality or natural sexual identity. If everyone thought about as in depth as I did, I think they would agree. I do believe there are exceptions. I lived with a homosexual guy. We never had any kind of sexual tension between us whatsoever. There are other exceptions, of course, but what we are referring to is people of the same age group who could potentially be attracted to each other. In that case, I believe there is no exception. When someone claims to have had a relationship with someone of the opposite sex that was completely platonic, he or she is not thinking of the other person's feelings. I have had relationships with males in which I was not attracted to them in any way, but this does not mean they have never thought of me sexually. If you want to test an apparent platonic relationship, get drunk with someone. People may act differently when enebriated, but they are not different people. They may do things they regret, but some part of their mind was in on it.

Intoxication

Intoxication can a good thing and a bad thing. One can become more social and "come out of their shell", or one can become too social and piss everyone off. This topic interests me because I was just discussing what goes through ones head when her or she is nearly black-out drunk (completely wasted, but still conscious of action). My theory is that one reverts back to the way he or she thought as a child. Think about what was going through your head when you did some idiotic thing children are prone to do. I can remember one in particular. I was 5 years old. I had a golf ball and a spoon. I put the golf ball in said spoon. I then proceeded to hit the end of the spoon, causing the golf ball to fly up and hit me in the eye, blackening it. For some reason, this memory is extremely vivid to me. What was I thinking? It seemed like a good idea at the time. The previous phrase is a classic motto for a then-drunk-now-hungover person. "I really wanted to tackle my roommate down the stairs. It seemed like a good idea at the time." That is actually a direct quote from yours truly. When people are drunk, they turn into the stupid little kids they once were. Personally, I become far more dramatic (as if I am not dramatic enough in real life) and I tend to perform absolutely outlandish acts. For instance, as mentioned in a previous post, I physically assaulted my boyfriend's roommate last week. I had been drinking and he pushed me to the brink of insanity, and I completely snapped. I fell upon him in blind rage, kicking, punching and screaming unidentifiable obscenities. Luckily for the victim, my boyfriend is a trained bouncer, and was able to pull me off of him (no easy feat), before I could do much damage. I guess if you learn anything from this post, learn that it is unwise to harass a heavily intoxicated person to the breaking point, because said person, in his or her drunken state, may forget completely how to use discretion.

Love

There is no set definition for love, but this is mine. Love is when you can be profoundly irritated by someone but still want to spend every minute with them. It is when you can feel comfortable talking about past relationships and current relationship problems. Love is also when you can wake up hungover looking like absolute shit and not feel self-conscious in front of your partner. There is my definition of love. Not too exciting.

Argument With My Boyfriend; kind of funny

I realized that I am a little short on posts and I thought this would be an interesting one, since I just had and interesting argument with my boyfriend.

(last night I had a slight altercation with my boyfriend's roommate, which involved my boyfriend dragging me downstairs because I was trying to beat his roommate up)

Matt: How are you today? (alluding to the previous night as I was seething with rage)
Me: I'm okay, I have calmed down a lot, but I'm still pretty pissed at Hill (the roommate)
Matt: You need to talk to him and say you're sorry.
Me: F*** Hill, I don't want to talk to him.
Matt: I can't have you throwing haymakers at my roommates.
Me: I lost my temper but it was his fault, he was picking on me.
Matt: Hill always picks on you, you just have to deal with it. He was just messing with you.
Me: I don't give a sh**, I told him to stop and he wouldn't.
Matt: At least talk to him, you are over at my house all the time and you need to get along with my roommates.
Me: Okay, I will talk to him.
Matt: Try to add something in there about being sorry for the physical assault...and mean it.
Me: I am not sorry, he needed to know how mad I was.
Matt: At least say you're sorry for trying to kick him in the balls.
Me: Okay, fine, I'll say it but I still think he deserved it.
(then we went to class, and in the middle of class he texted me)
Matt: How many women blind with rage does it take to screw in a lightbulb?
(when I got out of class, I asked him what the punchline was)
Matt: 300. One to screw the lightbulb in and 299 to assault the entire staff of the electrical company

Obviously, considering he was making jokes about it, we resolved the problem. I have not yet talked to his roommate about last night, but I am hoping it won't end in any more violence.