As I don't have a blog for my Ulysses group, I hope that all of you will forgive me for so many blogs about the interesting things that happen on my Sunday afternoons. Last week, it seemed like a normal meeting with the normal players. However the discussions took an interesting path that I did not realize the value of until much later (aka today!). We started discussing the public intellectuals within the Joyce's novel. What is the point of having intellectual people (such as those in the group) discuss the mundane life of Leopold Bloom? Why has L. Bloom become such an interesting fictional figure when his life was....well to be honest very very boring? These are just a few of the questions that popped up during our discussion.
These questions led me back to my senior capstone class from last semester. The subject gravitated around the public intellectual and role of public intellectuals (PI). Now everyone in my class came up with different answers to what a PI is and what their role is. I think a PI is a fluid person that adapts to what is needed from them for society. Right now I see everyone in Mythologies and in the Ulysses group as a Public Intellectual. But I also see us as the other common use of the abbreviation PI. We are all private investigators into the fictional and mythological worlds that permeate reality. All of us have discovered new and exciting areas of inquiry from our sleuthing into literature.
One area of my sleuthing has brought me to the idea of the primitive and crude. I have heard these terms many times this semester describing the books that I have been reading in multiple classes and meetings. These two words really really frustrate me. They are always used in a negative context as those to be primitive and crude are bad things. However, I am taking a stand against the negative reputation that has come to surround these words. It is not always bad to be primitive and crude. In fact, at times it is wonderfully beautiful and refreshing. I feel that these two words are directly related to the theme of this class and the idea of the origins of the world. Everything has to be primitive and crude at one point and time. In fact, I am sure that my brand-new MacBook Air will be considered to be primitive and crude in about five years while it is amazingly innovative and wonderful to me today. But without this particular new and innovative advancement, I will not be able to get my new whatever in five years. Thus even the primitive and crude have their value in the economical world.
The discussion that got me started on this rant came directly from Ulysses last week. We were talking about the value of Leopold Bloom and he was thought to be a more primitive character. But what is wrong with that??? He may be primitive yes but maybe he has the right idea. Today, I have been sitting in Barnes and Noble doing homework and everywhere I look everyone is one their phone, laptop, or has headphones in. It has become socially acceptable to shut off from society. Now I'm not casting blame because as I am typing this I too have my headphones in and pounding away on my computer. But how many new friends have I missed the opportunity of making today just because I am now an advanced and technological person? The part of Ulysses that I have read today showed Leopold visiting with strangers on the street and feeding gulls, just because he could. I do not know the last time that I randomly started a conversation with a stranger or took the time to feed the birds. I am too busy in my daily life. So while I might be a PI (public intellectual & private investigator) in my academic fields, I don't think that I am a PI in life. That award goes to Leopold Bloom. With his crude and primitive way of life, he understands the value of human contact and unplugging from life's advancements. So for the rest of today, my goal is to be primitive and crude. That is to go back to the origins in how I live my daily life.
Beyond my personal revelations from Ulysses is the lessons that can be learned from Ovid. Looking at the stories overall, it is easy to say that the plots are very basic. A couple synonyms of basic are primal, primordial, and original. Again we are back to the theme of mythologies. Joyce and Ovid have realized the value of creating stories that are primordial. Society needs these stories as a reminder to how we should live our lives. Now comes in the roles of the Public Intellectuals. We are all Public Intellectuals as we are all choosing to read the works of Joyce and Ovid. Now most of our contemporaries would not undertake such daunting tasks as these two works of literary art are very time consuming and at times just mind boggling. Thus it is our jobs as Public Intellectuals to tell of the Greek gods and heroes and to tell of Leopold Bloom's seemingly boring day in the hopes that it will help people to value the primitive and crude aspects of life.
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