too lazy to write about new orleans much more (maybe after next week) but poach's first of three (or more!) new orleans installments is up so look here for them in the meantime. her entry reminded me about the beads though. i went and looked in my bag (haven't unpacked) and there they were, a glittery long string at the bottom of my bag. our cemetery tourguide cukie gave all the people on our tour one string of beads each, choice of purple, gold or green. i picked green, and poach gold. gold is for power, green, faith and purple, justice, she told us afterwards. that's why she let us pick our own beads, she explained. in a way, i'm not surprised i picked green. it fits. power doesn't interest me, and justice - i think i have a strong sense of wanting fairness, which has to do with the struggle between reason and unreason, and i did nearly take up a purple string, but living by faith, to trust and believe in someone, something, that is very like me.
went upstairs but someone's in the shower so i am back here to wait my turn. hey paper ideas: i'm writing about metamorphoses 1, together with met 5. it has to be met 1. because i want to work from the latin text, not english alone, and i didn't want to translate 700 fresh lines, so it was either met. 1 or ars armatoria 1. i wish i had ars amatoria before doing any chaucer!! it would have been a great help. the ars is very funny and full of aphoristic bits like ut ameris, esto amaribilis! (in order to be loved, be lovable!) and spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae (they come in order to see, and they come so that they themselves are seen) professor kovacs said he can't imagine augustus taking any serious offence at the ars because it is so witty. christoph ransmayr doesn't think it's the ars either; he says that the carmina that got ovid exiled was the metamorphoses itself, and the error has nothing to do with julia, but the failure to address augustus when making a public speech. i wonder if there is a paper in that. no, i'd better not start rereading ransmayr. met 1 has the daphne and apollo bit, and pan and syrinx, and met 5 has the abduction of persephone and also a bit about arethusa, which recalls daphne's chase and transformation. there's an easy feminist paper on chastity and autonomy and gender power yadayada. although if i can avoid that i will. i was thinking about the distinct hunt imagery in both chases, well that's not new of course, not even for ovid, i saw nearly the exact same description in the ars 1 as well. but what about the fact that they are both worshippers of diana, hunters to begin with? someone was saying that when syrinx becomes the panpipe she becomes a phallic symbol, the thing which she was not. when daphne and arethusa are threatened, the hunter becomes the hunted. but doesn't this also have to do with the actaeon story? the hunter becoming the hunted. when chastity is involved, everyone becomes the opposite of what they were, it all depends on whether you are a goddess or just mortal. and when diana flings water in actaeon's face, that has something to do with ceres flinging water in stellios' face, in her search for the lost persephone. none of this makes sense i wish i had time to think about it last night but anyway i hear no more water i better go up before someone else gets in the shower i am going to be late. oh yeah. nohrnberg quotes, revamped with this semester's quotes, up. my favourite is: "a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what is a metaphor?" okay i run.
drat it is morning and i have simply conked off last night at about 9. i have been unreasonably tired the last few days when i should be healthy and about and i only meant to close my eyes a moment. and i had ambitiously wanted to get greek latin and some paper ideas down last night. is it 8.40 already? i better go shower quickly and do something before 11 when i have to meet my oral partner on the corner. i wish orals were just relaxed conversation style but no! there are these role plays. hm. as usual my glasses are missing. i shall look under the bed in a moment.