myth and moment

[rivendellrose]

Interesting discussion of myth on NPR here. I'm listening to it right now, so I can't judge for the whole thing just yet, but it's certainly off to a good start. I especially like her discussion of the hero trope in mythology, and the fact that she recognizes theater, movies, books, etc as our modern equivalent of myth. A lot of folklorists seem to miss that, despite the efforts of Joseph Campbell to fix that oversight. Unfortunately, it's Talk of the Nation, so it might turn to quackery as soon as they start taking calls... ah well.

I had all sorts of grandiose plans to write an opinion article of sorts about Imbolc, but we'll see whether or not that happens. For the moment, I'll just say that I'm happy to welcome the very beginning of spring and see the trees around here starting to grow out again. In honor of that, I have a lot of dross and dead-wood sort of feelings to get rid of, and a lot of stuff I'll be working on - not least of which is paying significant attention to this holiday which, despite being the feast of one of my most beloved goddesses, often gets neglected since it's not associated with any secular holiday. It shouldn't matter, but it means that a lot of times I find I feel a lack of time to really pay it attention, and that's disturbing to me. So, I'll do better this year.

And now, I'm told that the class listings for next quarter have finally been posted, so I'm off to figure out what I'll be taking.

ETA: Mixed results. I'll be taking either "Principles of Scociocultural Anthropology" or "The Culture Concept" for my 201-210 requirement (ugh, entry-level), and I'll finally be able to take "Comparative Study of Death" with Professor Green. Yay! I'm also hoping to con Professor Fitzhugh into letting me take the Lab Technique practicum with him. So that's all good stuff. But alas - Professor Conroy only seems to be teaching one 500-level class, and it seems to be in Icelandic. So... damn. :( I'd really had my heart set on "Northern European Ballads" or something like that as my last class. And, of course, Intro to Norwegian is only offered in the fall. So it looks like I'm stuck with something from the Anth or English departments, probably. They're offering Sci-Fi/Fantasy again, but I'm not sure I'm really all that interested....

ETA2: Curses, foiled again. Lab Technique is not being offered next quarter, which means I will graduate without the opportunity to actually learn anything potentially applicable to future honest-to-god work in this field. Fuck. This. Shit.

Comments

[gurny.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Culture Concept *groan*

Don't have too much fun there. My biggest beef with that dept. is too many intro classes, and not near enough interesting stuff. Some of us were foolish enough to major in this, throw us a bone!

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I thought I remembered you as having taken that class. I think I'm gonna go with the Sociocultural Anthro class... just for the virtue of it being something potentially new. Which it won't be, of course. But I can trick myself for a little while.

Tell me about it. And it's worse if you want to specialize in Archy, where there is practically nothing ever offered. Especially if you don't want to focus on Native America for the umpteen-fucking-billionth quarter in a row. Archaeology happens in parts of the world not related to South or North America. In fact, it started elsewhere, and still happens more often out there, too. It's just that you can't tell from the UW course listings.

Oh, and the Lab Technique practicum? Not happening. It was a time schedule error. Argh.

[gurny.livejournal.com]

Ugh. Sorry to hear about the Lab. Nothing like loosing out on something that might (god forbid) be unique and interesting.

The class I enjoyed most in Anthro was probably the graduate level one I snuck into. No screwing around with the basics everyone knows already. It was specialized, complicated, and tons of fun. I wish Anthro had offered more like that. Archy is even worse, and is a bit too specialized in the North/South American angle. Field schools always seemed the way to go to have fun with that, but are a big pain to actually do in the rela world.

The "Principals" class I wish you the best of luck on, I hope you end up with a good Prof.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Oh, I won't fool myself - I'd be sorting dirt from Taginak Springs, if I'd gotten to do it. Which would thrill me so much, of course. But still - having actual practical experience in something might've been nice for a change.

I loooved my class on comparative family structure (400-level, 12 people on a day when aboslutely everyone was there), and also my class on gender and sexuality in Japan. But the rest have been some degree of "bleh."

Me too. At the very least, I should have fun in the death class.

[gurny.livejournal.com]

I always wanted to take the death class too.

Even sorting dirt would have been more exciting than the 200 level cultural anth class :p