Potential Mid-Term Topics PDF

LEC: Oct. 7th Monday - Deconstructing Odysseus + Uses strategic language by making sure the cyclops is the villain + Like a conductor of an orchestra (odysseus) + The cyclops species are neighborly/check up on each other which is the opposite view that o...

LEC: Oct. 7th Monday - Deconstructing Odysseus + Uses strategic language by making sure the cyclops is the villain + Like a conductor of an orchestra (odysseus) + The cyclops species are neighborly/check up on each other which is the opposite view that odysseus gives about them to the phaeacians + Cyclops don’t care about the gods except for Poseidon and this god heard his prayer + The bond between Poseidon/polyphemus was that strong + Brutish monster or tender goatherd? + Exchanges loving words with animals, treats fav ram like a pet + The world is yours is the way odysseus thinks/retells - Odysseus violates xenia + Steps of Xenia: 1) Invite guest in 2) Offer them a meal 3) Ask for their name 4) Exchange of gifts 5) Offer guest same escort home + (Step 1) by going inside his home/exploring the abode (host invites the guest in) + (Step 2: the host offers the guest a meal) odysseus violates this + (step 4: gift-exchange) the cyclops gives a gift to odysseus (eating him last) this observation of gift-exchange is not violated + Odysseus gives wine to polyphemus, but had the forethought to use it as a strategy for anyone he encounters + Uses this to make polyphemus drunk, in some sense is a poison + Lotus: induces forgetfulness of homecoming, a symbolic death for odysseus and his men (this prevents them from doing anything with their life so mentally they are dead) + Wine: induces a drunken stupor and facilitates the cyclops’ blindness/symbolic death + Most important step of xenia is the fifth step/ this is perverted by both the cyclops and Odysseus + Initiator of the crimes are Odysseus and his men + Why should he expect anything from his host? + The colonizer spirit (odysseus and his men) + Deserve anything and everything/they don't’ care/wants to seduce listeners/voracious - Odysseus’ Name  + From Outis to Metis to Odysseus “Nobody (outis) that’s my name. Nobody (outis).” “What, Polyphemus, what in the world’s the trouble?” [...] “Nobody (OUTIS)is killing me now by fraud and not by force.” “If you’re alone... and nobody (METIS)is trying to overpower you now—look it must be a plague sent here by mighty Zeus and there’s no escape from that.” (450-459) Outis means: a literal translation of no one or nobody in Greek Metis means: wisdom or cunning “Cyclops—if any man on the face of the earth should ask you who blinded you, shamed you so—say Odysseus (ODYSSEUS),raider of cities, he gouged out your eye, Laertes’ son, who makes his home in Ithaca.” (558-562) + Evolution: Outis, Outidanos, to Odysseus + Outidanos: “what a dwarf, a spineless good-for-nothing” but literally means a little nobody + Polyphemus is trying to belittle Odysseus - Odysseus’s Construction of the Cyclop + Physically huge: a terrifying cross between human and nature + The name “Polyphemus” means much-talked-about + Culturally alien: a devourer of guests and raw-food/neither a farmer nor sailor + Politically aberrant: a loner living in a lawless community bereft of assemblies + Heedless of religion: unafraid of Zeus and any other god - Odysseus’ Construction of Himself + Physically small and intellectually robust + Culturally sophisticated + Politically savvy + Mindful of religion - Homer’s Construction of Polyphemus + Physically big shepherd + Minds his own business + Lives in proximity of his peers + A tender shepherd + On good terms with his father (Poseidon) - Homer’s Construction of Odysseus - Matrix + Red vs. Blue Pill + Red: matrix, never go back + Blue: stay where you are, forget what you learned + Connecting it to Plato’s Cave (might be on exam) When liberated from cave supposed to go back, but in matrix you can't go back Mission to save the world Cannot go back to past state of understanding The cave in the outside world is good and natural but in the matrix is horrifying and dark (not a reward of getting outside of the cave) Waking up in a dark reality Matrix is more complicated than the Cave where the ones who are free are struggling constantly and life is not as blissful than the description of the free in the Cave Offered the choice to liberate instead of the forceful liberator + Worldbuilding (might be on exam) Color: How do colors help to construct the worlds in the Matrix? ➔ Red means excitement ➔ There are colors that represent the dystopian ➔ Red is significant (woman in red) bc is goal for Neo (exit of the Cave) ➔ Cypher is choosing ignorance (the steak is red) ➔ Red traditionally symbolizes danger and temptation ➔ Woman is a fantasy, illusion ➔ Allure of the assimilated world/something that is associated with illusion (Cypher’s steak) ➔ Lady could visual representation of illusion in matrix, represents what is desired but unattainable ➔ Choice of color conveys a complex message, implies that freedom acquired after breaking free of prison implies sacrifices/might not be free in choosing/freedom of choice might be an illusion ➔ Choice of color can destruct or undermine the message that the real world is better than the imagined world Space: How is space constructed? How does the spatial construction shape meanings about the worlds in the Matrix?  ➔ How big and expansive Neo’s world was but when had escape he was only in a pod and it was cramped ➔ Symbolizes confinement and that we are trapped ➔ The Cave when they are born is all their world, until one of them gets free and sees the real world (connection to the Matrix) ➔ Matrix might seem infinite but it is actually a womb or space of enclosure ➔ Is a generative space bc it is still stimulating the world/the characters action generate this world ➔ After Neo takes the red pill he goes down rabbit hole (similar to Plato’s cave) by making a new discovery of his confined state/confusion/uncomfortable truth/feeling of chaos ➔ Spatial decline/do we see spacial or spiritual ascend? ➔ Gender: How is gender constructed in the movie? How are women represented? - Ship Simile/Analogy (read this and go back to sem slides) (pg. 162 book 6) + Everyone on ship wants control over it, tries to overthrow captain, uses drugs/more, executes anyone who says that navigation is teachable + Their attitude towards the captain/being one symbolizes peoples’ attitude to the true philosophers + Ships resemble cities + Ship is owned by ignorant man (knows nothing of seamanship) + Sailors are left to own devices/fight over control of the rudder (ship) + That person who wins/becomes the pilot still does not know true seamanship/ but the true pilot is unconcerned w/ the other sailors and competition + Binary opposition of philosophers and all others (no one else is fit to rule other than philosophers) + In this passage socrates is responding to an allegation from Adiemnatus (most philosophers are useless/vicious) + “Moreover, they call the person who is clever at persuading or forcing the shipowner to let them rule a “navigator”, a “captain”, and “one who knows ships”, and dismiss anyone else as useless”(162). + Portrays the sailors as barbarians/power hungry + Uses ethos rhetoric by appealing to philosopher-kings and how they are vital to a ⭐⭐ functioning society ⭐⭐ + What kind of appeals is Plato making? (this will be asked in midterm) + Why do We need the Cave/PLATO’S rhetorical strategies (this will be asked in exam) + Cave is necessary bc it is a story w/ hierarchy, has hope that they will come out of the Cave (open to the light), it has only one exit so if anyone were to escape one would have to leave from where they came came from (symbolizes regression/oppression) + Mimics structure of heaven and hell + Expresses fear by the prisoners being in the dark ubiquitously + Underground cave symbolizes as something lowly bc something high up is always better (heaven up/hell down) + Cave shows how difficult it is to go from ignorance to knowledge which is not ⭐⭐⭐ represented in the Line + Cave represents antagonist (line is just making way up) but in Cave you have to think beyond the oppressors, calling to the existence of puppeteers, using emotional appeal regarding manipulation and calling for your agency, there is implicit logical appeal and has a call to action