ENG328Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 40: The Good Place, Spinning Wheel, Bildungsroman
The Comedians
Better to do evil than to do nothing
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Private comedy enfolding within the confines of the greater social tragedy
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Published in 1966
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Purpose was to fight the horror of orthodox dictatorship
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Archetypal motif
Descent into the underworld
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Secular connection with Dante's Divine Comedy
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Medea - vengeful bitch from Greek mythology - kills her children to avenge
her husband's betrayal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medea
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Watches over their journey
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Medusa has 'iron grey waves in her hair'
Wife is a type of medusa
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'she would have given me paralysis'
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27 references
Henry James reference included (pg. 254)
Last night in hotel - it was a good place for a while
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The good place is a kind of imaginary place that all of us project to an
extent
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Self-consciousness narrator with elements of metafictional self-reflexiveness
Identity fictionalised by his own narrative
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Theme of monumentalisation and commemoration
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Pink gin - what all officers drink - cocktail
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Mr. and Mrs. Smith have a great love for coloured people
Think meat and alcohol cause acidity
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Acidity and passion cause vegetarianism
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Tarts vs. toffs
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Thanatoptic image of the pool as a place of death
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Brown's life is one of abandonment
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Goddess Fortuna - ideal maternal figure + idea erotic figure
Combining the erotic and the maternal protection
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Image of the perpetual spinning wheel
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No one really begins in randomness
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The house always wins
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Mother fixation
All women are agents of redemption
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Mini Bildungsroman
Older woman unlocking the next step
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Return to where the journey began - back to the hotel
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Both Medea and Medusa's allure is one that may mean death•
Hotel becomes a sexualised tourist's paradise
Consummation of erotic dream
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Vision of great good place seems rather juvenile
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Acutely aware of the fact that he is recounting a comedy within a tragedy•
Haiti is a country of death, a vast metropolis•
Lecture 40
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
1:14 PM
Document Summary
Better to do evil than to do nothing. Private comedy enfolding within the confines of the greater social tragedy. Purpose was to fight the horror of orthodox dictatorship. Medea - vengeful bitch from greek mythology - kills her children to avenge her husband"s betrayal https://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/medea. Medusa has "iron grey waves in her hair" Last night in hotel - it was a good place for a while. The good place is a kind of imaginary place that all of us project to an extent. Pink gin - what all officers drink - cocktail. Mr. and mrs. smith have a great love for coloured people. Thanatoptic image of the pool as a place of death. Goddess fortuna - ideal maternal figure + idea erotic figure. Return to where the journey began - back to the hotel. Both medea and medusa"s allure is one that may mean death. Vision of great good place seems rather juvenile.
