|
Author
|
Comment
|
Midori
Unregistered User
(8/24/03 10:51 am)
|
Calligraphy Folktale
All right everyone--you were all so fabulous in helping me put together interesting readings on the folklore and short fiction relating to Tattoo, I thought I would ask about the same for Calligraphy. I will use the film Kwaidan (the lovely story about the blind priest who sings nightly to the ghosts of the Heike--and then gets buddhist prayers written over his whole body--except his ears which the ghosts rip off), a selection from "Woman Warrior" by Hong Kingston on Fa Mulan. The Jewish fairy tale about the demon ripping the skin off the back of a young rabbi on which to inscribe the Torah...
Really, anything related to calligraphy would be fabulous..and from any culture whether Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Sanskrit (hmmm...maybe Ganesha here and his tusk, recording the Mahabarata).
I really have to thank everyone again for the great suggestions on tattoo--I've put together a killer unit of readings from the suggestions... my students think I am waay cooler than I am!
Heidi's note: Midori's wish is my command.......I edited a typo for her.
Edited by: Heidi Anne Heiner at: 8/24/03 1:28 pm
|
Aliera
Registered User
(8/24/03 5:22 pm)
|
Re: Mystical Writing
My heritage is pretty mixed but my husband's Icelandic so I wondered:
How about Runes?
A man shall utter wisdom, write runes. sing songs, earn praise,
expound glory, be diligent daily.
(Anglo-Saxon Maxims I)
Just a little sidenote:
The Buffy Season 6 Finale contained a quick shot of runes in Rack's
place. I spent some time the following Summer trying to track this
reading down (unsuccessfully… darn that Joss). Joss (or one of his
crew) has used tarot, numerology, and many other references on the
two series. This little puzzle remains!
This weekend is busier, so these are mostly ungrokked links from a quick search, but perhaps a place to start:
A Rune with a View: An Introduction to the Visionary Alphabet by Ari Berk I think... www.endicott-studio.com/forrunv.html
Anglosaxon Heathenism (visually nice site):
www.englishheathenism.hom...runes.html
A site from Sweden www.canit.se/~griffon/diverse/runes/
D. L. Ashliman's' Runestones and Picture Stones from Scandanavia
www.pitt.edu/~dash/mythlinks.html
and Odin's Stone www.pitt.edu/~dash/monuments.html
A nice set of links: www.nordic-life.org/nmh/runepages.htm
There is also a section on the Hungarian Rovas and possible connections. Those runes were pervasive.
my.execpc.com/~gronitz/futhark/myth.html
www.geocities.com/cheryl_...ology.html
It seems the phrase rune etched sword or drawing runes in the air is fairly common in fantasy, and books and games have rune in either the title or central; but hopefully one of the more well versed posters can fill in the gaps here!
Best wishes! And I'd love to hear more about the class when you get it put together. It sounds wonderful.
|
Heather
KT
Registered User
(8/25/03 11:15 am)
|
Re: calligraphy
In Christopher De Hamel's "Medieval Craftsmen Scribes and Illuminators" there's an illustration of the legend of St John the Evangelist, where the devil is trying to steal his inkpot and pens to stop him from writing the Book of Revelation.
The Getty Museum in L.A. has a current exhibit called "Illuminating the Renaissance" - their website should have more resources on medieval calligraphers.
Also, it looks like S.Y. Agnon's "The Tale of the Scribe" (in _A Book That Was Lost and Other Stories_) would be good. Very interesting commentary about it at
www.jhom.com/topics/letters/scribe.html
And, of course, in LOTR, when Gandalf throws the ring into the fire at Bag End, writing appears on it.
I'm with Aliera-- your class sounds fascinating. Will the course reading be posted someplace?
Heather
|
Jess
Unregistered User
(8/25/03 5:56 pm)
|
And are you thinking about including cartography
Just a related thought, but aren't there a lot of stories - folklore about maps? I am not just thinking Treasure Island either. It would seem an appropriate subtopic.
O.T. - Ironically, Kwaidan is the movie I was going to watch tonight.
I will give the topic of "writings" some thought. There are some stories on the tip of my fingers. Since literacy was often the mark of the nobility or educated, I wonder how many of the oral-style tales include writings. Also, it would seem if they mention them, it would be as a means to identify someone "high-bred".
Jess
|
chirons
daughter
Registered User
(8/28/03 7:05 pm)
|
Re: And are you thinking about including cartography
There's a strange story, I think it's Japanese, and it's not exactly calligraphy but magical drawing. It's called "The boy who drew cats", about a boy who -- well, drew cats, all over the place, on the walls, and they just think he's clever but dreamy and not very useful, and they'd be tolerant of him except there's a giant rat who is invading the village. . . well, you can guess what happens with the hundreds of cat drawings once night falls and the rat appears.
www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/...wcats.html
This version has it as a goblin, not a rat, as I heard it, but it is the same.
Edited by: chirons daughter at: 8/28/03 7:07 pm
|
RymRytr1
Registered User
(9/4/03 11:24 am)
|
Re: And are you thinking about including cartography
(This message was left blank)
Edited by: RymRytr1 at: 9/11/03 11:17 am
|
Midori
Unregistered User
(9/7/03 5:43 am)
|
thanks
Thanks you everyone for these great suggestions! I will be hunting down materials this week--and following many of your excellent leads. Cartography is a cool idea--but I am not sure how I would fit it together...hmmm, treasure maps? Calvino's "Invisible Cities"? (maps inscribed not with real places but emotions? not so much with landscapes but evocative images? This reminds me of Peter Sis's work--especially his Red Box of Tibet )
The class is fun--weirdly strange--but rather interesting. Part of the challenge is to ask students to connect the dots between odd and to them very unfamiliar work. So far just in the exploration of the tattoo they have traveled from Kafka to Tanizaki to John Berger's "Ways of Seeing," Flannery O'Connor to Sylvia Plath to prison Memoirs. This week seven different groups will be giving presentations (with tons of visual aid in the form of powerpoints with only images, no text) of Samoan, Maori, Convict, Sailor, Japanese Yakuza, Contemporary Pop Culture and Antiquity tattooing. I had them design their own tattoo (to serve as a metaphor for either who they believed they were now--or hoped to become)and write an explanation of the design--it was amazing to see how many of their designs reached back into the archtypal images of mythology and the fantastic --everything from the Lion of Judah, Japanese gods, a few imps, a small giant, cosmic third eyes, and in our own contemporary mythology a Kermit and Jim Morrison. I think they are beginning to enjoy being off balance. They have no idea what I am going to ask them to do...and quite often neither do I until I walk in there. When the class is over (by Christmas) I'll be happy to post a list of the readings--I should have figured it all out by then!
In the meantime I really appreciate the contributions of ideas from the board. This class is of interest to the students because the readings are so varied and interstital--even though the thread of tattooing or calligraphy runs through the pieces--each piece by its very uniqueness from the others seems to reinvent a new meaning to the idea or give n new layer of possibilities--which is what I want. The more intellectually off balance the students are, the more open and expansive their thinking becomes (it takes a lot to break through suburban complacency!) and for me as a teacher, the more interesting their work and responses to this great, weird and wonderful stuff.
|
Aliera
Registered User
(9/7/03 7:24 pm)
|
Re: the class
Thanks for the update, Midori. It all sounds quite wonderful.
|
chirons
daughter
Registered User
(9/11/03 6:48 pm)
|
Re: the class
Yes, it's exciting to hear how this is playing out. Interstitiality is the best part -- the borderlands between big defined disciplines or areas of thinking are fertile (kind of like the hypnagogic part of "falling asleep"), and a little rough and twisty, and you are right, there is a different kind of balance required, or maybe a heightened tolerance for offbalance. I wish I were in the class, and I truly hope to see another update!
|
|
