"In the Land of Women"...chick flick extrordinare

So, I went to see a movie with my friend called "In the Land of Women". I liked it right away because I could see that this man (so cute Adrian Brody) who was lost in life was going to find himself with the help of three women: his grandmother, his next door neighbor (meg ryan), and the neigbor's daughter named Lucy...a budding teenage girl. How could he fail to find himself when he's surrounded by the Tripple Goddess: The Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. He comes to know them all on a personal level, and even helps them a little in return for all that they end up doing for him.
It was the ultimate chick flick because it wasn't just for women, it was about women and their mystery, power, compassion, and passions. I think that if any man wanted to understand women he would seek out such a situation. We are complicated, but not beyond understanding.

cupid and psyche

While many people might say they are motivated by money, or power, I suggest that everybody on earth is motivated by LOVE. Love is part of the soul, and to have a moment of self-realization where the soul finds love is not only poetic but the ultimate peak of happiness. If one loves power or one's self, even that qualifies...but it is far from realization.
The quest for the soul to find love is the most arduous and gruelling journey in life. To find true love one must expose one's self and find one's self and love one's self. This is harder for some than it is for others. My sister was born loving herself, but she has a hard time loving others because she can't let herself go or give herself over for fear of ridicule or rejection.
To find love is to find yourself as you were before the world did things to you, like made you think a certain way, or made you give up on dreams you've always had. To find love and posess it and know it clearly in the light of day is to metamorphoses into a being that you have always been but never been either.You will be more yourself than you have ever been before.
ps
loving can be anything. You can love people or you can love skiing or running. ANYTHING, that's what's so beautiful about it.

rape/abduction...is it bad?

Is rape and or the abduction of girls bad? Apparently not to the great writers and myth weavers of ancient greece. And apparently not to children's book authors, and apparently not to Disney. (yeah, yeah, we shouldn't listen to Disney, but it's there! Even if we do ignore it)
One of my favorite books of all time is Peter Pan by James M. Barry, but this is nothing more than an abduction tale and could easily be renamed The Rape/Abduction of Wendy. She leaves her mother of her own free will to follow the cocky, cute, boy Peter Pan to Never Never Land where she will remain the Maiden forever. She is kidnapped and coaxed but choses the boy over her family...where have I seen that before?
I have very veheminantly disliked the "rape" stories because of the action that takes place without concent and added it to the list of reasons why the Greeks were perhaps the most perverted of all great societies (with the exception of our own, perhaps. But it is generally aknowleged that rape is a bad thing, so I think we dodged that bullet) Anyway, I recently realized that Peter Pan is simply another story of the abduction of a young woman and began to think differently of it. However, I am stubborn, and chose instead to change my opinion of the "rape" stories present in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Pheraps it is merely the angle from which the story is told that made it so horrible to me. Perhaps the woman wanted to be taken...and don't we all want to be caught and seduced by a God, even if he may leave us in Europe?

Soul Mates

I have a personal reason for identifying with the Symposium story of soul-mates. The story goes that in the begginning, people were attatched to eachother. Really, though, we only think of them as attatched. They were whole. There were men, women, and androgynous beings. But the gods couldn't handle the humans so they were split down the middle and sewed up. The belly-button is where they were attatched. Now we are all looking for our other half, male or female depending upon who we used to be.
I like this story because ever since I was young I have played with my belly-button. I pet it, and find it soothing. I used to, and still do, do this when my tummy hurts. My boy friend thinks it's weird. I don't blame him.
But this is why I like the story.

"THIS IS SPARTA!"

So, like every person I've spoken to so far, I loved the movie 300. Due to my experiences in Classical Lit class, however, I'd like to think that I enjoyed it a little more than most. First of all, it was a myth, mythos, a tale. One told by the sole survivor of the 300 men. The actions of all characters were enhanced as in a tale, the wolf's eyes, for example, the ugly old priests on the mountain, and the height of the Persian King are only a few examples of the mythic quality of the movie. They also mentioned "hubris" the tragic downfall that comes from assumed greatness and imperviousness. In short, assuming you are a god and are not suseptable to the pitfalls of humanity. I liked that part.
The King of Sparta faced the delima of Individual vs Society because he could not disobey the oracle or the counsil's decision to hold a festival to the gods instead of defending hearth and home, yet he did. And that is why he fought with 300 "volunteers" instead of the army.
His wife faced the battle of Man vs Woman because she was not welcomed to speak in the arena on her husband's behalf soley based on her sex. She could also not fight with him nor ask him not to.
The general who lost his son went mad when he died. So he was haunted by the dead.
In short, though it's not "factual"...and what good story is?...300 was a good movie with many classical elements.

The Courtesean and the Anadonis

Let me begin by saying that I have nothing against The Courtesean. I liked Nicole Kidman's role in Mulin Rouge; I read and enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha; and I love the mystery of Maralyn Munroe (aka Norma Jean). But I despise Anna Nicole smith and think her undeserving of the title courtesean. I would call her, much more vulgarly, a gold digging whore. Despite her title as Playmate of the Year, she was a stripper, who married for money and did nothing with herself when her husband died. She was on drugs, she was a joke. She was a joke until her death made her a victim. And this is what I hate, that people are trying to make her death tragic. I even heard from some media source or other that she died of an "accidental drug overdose."
Now, this is just me, but I can't see the tragedy in this. It's almost a relief: she was finally put out of her drunken/drugged out embearassment of a life.
I think of a courtesean as a woman who had no other options and capitalized on her value as a woman. The tragedy of the courtesean is that she never gains her freedom and cannot live her own life. Anna Nicole wasted her freedom and her life.
Elvis died of a drug overdose on the toilette: a true Adonis. No one thinks the less of him. He is The King.
Conclusion: even I play into the double standard that has been set. Elvis died on the crapper as a hero; Anna Nicole over dosed and I find it a release. (Steiner rears his ugly head once again to point out the conflict of Man vs Woman).

sex and the polis

While reading Lysistrata I suddenly realized why the play seemed so familiar. I believe that Samantha Jones, Carrie Bradshaw, Charlotte York, and Miranda Hobbs have had similar conversations about bikini waxes, the ideocy of men, and the power of sex.
When the show first appeared on HBO, critics and viewers alike raved about the audacity of the show to portray women as the equal of men when it came to sexual desires. As seen from Lysistrata, this is not a revolutionary post-feminisim idea. Sex and the City was one of the country's top commedies for six seasons and Lysistrata continues to be taught as an example of comedy.
as always, Girls Rule