Classics in Contemporary Culture

Frontier Classics

Aaron Kelson, prompted by seeing two 100-year-old busts in a theatre in Gilbert, MN, contemplates the significance of Sophocles and Aeschylus for early-20th-cen. settlers in the Mesabi Range:

...Their works reveal a profound understanding of human nature. Their philosophies helped to provide the foundation of our own beloved nation. I wondered what Sophocles and Aeschylus would have thought about the production “Casey at the Bat.” Surely they would have been pleased, as Sophocles once wrote, “Whoever neglects the arts when he is young has lost the past and is dead to the future.” This ability to connect the present with the past and the future is critical to humanity. We call the ability to see beyond the present “vision.”

Our region has long been blessed with vision. Just two years ago the city of Gilbert celebrated its 100th anniversary. By 1911, when the city was only three years old, a school literally on the frontier of the United States dared to align itself with the greatness of Sophocles and Aeschylus. I have tried to envision what the presentations of those statues must have been like. Where were they purchased? On what dirt roads were they hauled to their destination? How did students whose families were largely linked to the back breaking, endless toil of logging camps and truck farming have the audacity, the fortitude, the vision to connect their own experiences and education to such notable philosophers? In 1910, Northern Minnesota wasn’t exactly the center of the western world. Yet, last Thursday evening, Sophocles and Aeschylus gazed solemnly at the audience gathered to watch “Casey at the Bat.”

 

Give It Up for Lysistrata!

In a modern re-interpretation of Aristophanes' Lysistrata, the girlfriends of the basketball players of "Athens University" give up "giving it up" to their boyfriends until the latter break a 30-year losing streak...Coming soon (May 2011) to Off-Broadway, it's Lysistrata Jones...As Patrick Healy reports (NYTimes), there's been a change from the original script, in that the women were originally cheerleaders, and now they're to be simply girlfriends:

One factor in dropping the cheerleader angle, Mr. Beane said, was that there was already a major musical looking to come to New York that many people were more likely to associate as “that cheerleading show” — “Bring It On: The Musical,” which was based on the popular movie starring Kirsten Dunst that was released in 2000. “Bring It On: The Musical” is set to start performances next month in Atlanta.

Mr. Beane said that as he thought over his musical, he decided that the cheerleading angle was unnecessary to set up the sexual and power dynamics between the women and their basketball-playing boyfriends. “It’s really about sex and relationships and basketball, not cheerleading,” he said. “Though we do have one cheerleader. And a mascot.”

A review of a prior run in Dallas probed the logic and message as follows:

Their rationale doesn't quite ring true in the update. Does anybody actually know any jocks who don't play to win? Although Beane sometimes creates witty parallels to his model, he's really after something else entirely. Ultimately, this is a dual love story about finding something deeper than sexual attraction in a mate. And about making us laugh, which the show does often and heartily.

Glenn Beck: US and Rome

Under the George W. Bush administration, the "US = Rome" trope as it appeared in media tended to carry an anti-Bush message; under the Obama administration, the trope is still useful, from the opposite perspective.  Glenn Beck recently put forth some thoughts on the subject:

Now, if we knew our history, we would take lessons from once legendary civilizations that fell before us, because they all fall in the same way. The Babylonians, the Soviet Union, Germany, France — France during the French Revolution, hugely important to us today — and Rome.

This is a pattern I highlighted in my book "Broke," in the first six pages, we start go on to Rome because it's spooky how much we are doing like Rome.

Here's the bell curve of history. There's the expansion and the contraction. Regionalization, people come — people start coming together, the ascension into an empire, you start to grow, you mature, you become overextended, and decline, and legacy. It happens over and over and over again, same way.

...

Former comptroller of the U.S., David Walker, explains and he knows because he'd seen all of America's books. In fact, he has served both to Republicans and Democrats and was frustrated with both of them, and that's why he left government service. He said, people have to know the truth. He knows how deep the rabbit hole is. He says, quote, "There are striking similarities between America's current situation and that of another great power from the past, Rome. The Roman Republic fell for many reasons, but three reasons are worth remembering: declining moral values and political civility at home." How are we doing on that one?

...

Wait, is he saying that political civility caused the fall of the Republic? Aha--now I see the grand strategy for restoring the American Republic through the use of vitriolic rhetoric! It all makes sense now!

[Thanks to DPT on Classics-L.]

Dress Modern / Dress Ancient

Just noticed a few interesting pages at the Metropolitan Museum website on the phenomenon of modern fashion adapting styles of dress from Ancient Greece:

• Classicism in Modern Dress
• Classical Art in Modern Dress
• The Chiton, Himation and Peplos in Modern Dress
• Contemporary Deconstructions of Ancient Dress

Fashionistae, take note!