Your Odyssey Reading Schedule
odyssey 1 2/6, 2/7
Everything I ever learned about being a real man I learned from reading Homer’s Odyssey.
My introductory lecture on Homer’s Odyssey.
Why are we reading this poem? What will our focus be?
I’ll also introduce to you the cosmogonic cycle.
You’re reading Book 1 for our next class. I highly recommend you listen to the Ian McKellen reading of the poem above as you read. You may find it very helpful to stay focused as you read. Follow the links in YouTube to the remaining videos as we continue reading the poem.
odyssey 2 2/10
Today, after the quiz on Book 1, we’ll return to my packet of notes to talk about the conventions of epic poetry and where we see some of them taking place in the poem so far.
What are the questions Telemachus asks Athena when she’s in the guise of Mentes? Why are they important?
Lesson 1 from the Odyssey.
odyssey 3 2/11, 2/12
Today, after the quiz on Book 4, we’ll discuss in greater detail why, in the poem after which he’s named, we’ve yet to meet the title character, Odysseus.
Let’s begin to compile a list of every parallel narrative in the poem so far.
odyssey 4 2/13, 2/18
Book 5 is one of my favorite books of the Odyssey. We’ll talk today mostly about the importance of Zeus’s requirement for Odysseus to build his own raft in order to travel from Ogygia to Scheria. It’s an extraordinary episode that I’m confident will teach us a valuable lesson.
We’ll also have a bit of a different type of quiz today. You’ll see.
odyssey 5 2/18, 2/19
Nothing really beats Book 5, but Books 6 and 8 will have to do for today. Yes, we’re having a quiz. It’s a bit shorter, and hopefully now you’re getting the hang of them. Let’s talk today about the function of Demodocus’s songs and Odysseus’s encounter with Nausicaa.
odyssey 6 2/20, 2/21
What an extraordinary part of this poem Book 9 is! Today we’ll begin our discussion of Book 9 but will surely need to continue later. One thing we’ll certainly notice is that Odysseus’s encounters at each of his stops forces him to confront a part of himself that needs shaking off. His shortsightedness is at the heart of his encounter of Polyphemus, he who is both literally and metaphorically myopic.
odyssey 7 2/24
Today we’ll continue discussing Book 9 of the poem before delving into a busy Book 10.
I’ve also reserved time for you to work quietly on your poetry project in today’s class.
odyssey 8 2/25, 2/26
odyssey 9 2/27, 2/28
odyssey 10 2/28, 3/3
poetry project 1 3/4, 3/5
Report to the Parsley Center for the presentation of your poetry project.
The first 8 presenters will go today.
poetry project 2 3/6
Report to the Parsley Center for the presentation of your poetry project.
The next 8 presenters will go today.
poetry project 3 3/9, 3/10
Report to the Parsley Center for the presentation of your poetry project.
The remaining 7 or 8 presenters will go today.
odyssey 11 3/11, 3/12
odyssey 12 3/12, 3/23
odyssey 13 3/24, 3/25
odyssey 14 3/26
odyssey 15 3/27, 3/30
odyssey 16 3/31, 4/1
odyssey 17 4/1, 4/2
NEW RULES
Gentlemen: I’m instituting new policies in my courses, amending last semester’s syllabus. Please pay close attention to the following four changes. Know I’ve been thinking about these for years and thinking about them in earnest over the past few months. Also know that I truly believe these rules are for your benefit as fledgling adults.
(1) No more rewrites. I know, I know. This is what allows you to succeed the most in this class. Well, it became a crutch for far too many of you, and I no longer think it demonstrates the mastery of content I assumed it would demonstrate when I implemented the policy. Rather, I see students submitting mediocre work, intending to rewrite after the fact, which puts an unbelievable burden on my time. What I thought would be an effective way for students to learn has morphed into what education has really become about: grades, grades, grades rather than learning, learning, learning.
(2) No more extra credit. See above. Also, students aren’t actually doing the reading required to earn the extra credit. You’ll still have bonuses on quizzes, but nothing major. Do the course work; that’s credit enough.
(3) No more questions during assessments. You need to learn to struggle; you need to learn to figure things out and use a little bit of common sense. Students ask too many obvious questions during assessments. My dear students, you’re unnecessarily nervous about everything because you’re not asked to struggle enough and to be okay with that struggle. I wrote you instructions on the assessment or the assignment. I was thoughtful about those instructions. That’s what you get, and it’s enough. Have a question? Figure it out. Don’t understand a word? Intuit it. Don’t know where your response should go? Use your ingenuity. You don’t need help with everything. Be a person. Be logical. My dear boy, figure it out.
(4) No more e-mails.What?! This is an outrage! Well, no actually, it’s not. My students have lost their e-mail privileges for the remainder of the year after the barrage of unaddressed, unsigned e-mails to me at the end of the semester as though I were not an adult in your life to be treated with respect. More than that, as I consistently said all semester, you need not send me an e-mail to request a meeting or to tell me you’re going to be absent or to ask me a last-minute question about an assignment or to request an extension. I said these things can and should be done in person. You are always welcome to come into my office to make up a quiz, to discuss a paper, to go over a quiz. You need not schedule. And if you are going to be out due to sickness, it’s your responsibility to find out what you missed from a classmate. It’s on you, young man, not me. It’s your responsibility. It’s for you to handle. So handle it.
You may, however, send me an e-mail only if you are going to be out for an extended absence and need written clarification on assignments. Beyond that, for any other reason, come talk to me in person. That has always been and will continue to be enough time between student and teacher.
On a related note, if you are trying to see me and have been waiting outside my office, unfortunately there’s not much I can do about that. You’ll just have to sit on the couch or in a chair in the department offices, do some work, and wait until I’m free.
“In the realm of narrative psychology, a person’s life story is not a Wikipedia biography of the facts and events of a life, but rather the way a person integrates those facts and events internally—picks them apart and weaves them back together to make meaning. This narrative becomes a form of identity, in which the things someone chooses to include in the story, and the way she tells it, can both reflect and shape who she is. A life story doesn’t just say what happened, it says why it was important, what it means for who the person is, for who they’ll become, and for what happens next.”
