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Odyssey 9
Odyssey 9
Physical or Metaphorical Sight?
Physical or Metaphorical Sight?
The way in which the metaphorical and sensational versions of sight interact with each other and serve Odysseus in painting his story intrigues me. Throughout his story, Odysseus references physical and abstract inhibitions of sight. For example, they arrive to the Cyclops' island during a "pitch-black night," surrounded by a thick fog (158, 159). Upon landing on the island, Odysseus and his crew already lack physical sight thanks to these inhibitions. This directly correlates to Odysseus' own inability to wisely engage and see with clarity. The Phaeacians, listening to Odysseus' story, depend on his sight for their own. This gives his lack of clarity a platform on which he can expand his manipulated perception of happenings. In the end, they stab a stake through the eye of the Cyclops. By doing this, Odysseus minimizes his own lack of vision by literally blinding the Cyclops. There are many other instances in which this motif is used to allow Odysseus to manipulate his story, and I would be interested to delve deeper into this usage of sight or lack thereof.
The Importance of Sight in Other Works
The Importance of Sight in Other Works
Throughout Oedipus Rex (also known as Oedipus Tyrannus or Oedipus The King), Sophocles associates physical blindness with knowledge and metaphorical blindness with ignorance. By doing this, he creates a counterintuitive idea that to see truth more clearly, people must get over their physical vision. More specifically, they must get past what is only right in front of them. Oedipus looks only at what is right in front of him, which creates a metaphorical blindness of ignorance for him to overcome. He is blind to his true origin, and this results in a life of ignorance that ends with severe consequences. As Oedipus finds truth and knowledge, he becomes physically blind from his own hand. By doing this, he eliminates his dependence on his immediate surroundings and accepts the big picture of his life—he overcomes his ignorance. In order to find knowledge and truth, people must see further than their immediate obstacles and ambitions.
In the 2009 movie Coraline, physical sight takes two different forms. Characters see either through regular eyes or button eyes. The button eyes, however, represent a loss of self. When Coraline finds herself in a new, idealized world that parallels reality, her "Other Mother" entices her by making up for the shortcomings of Coraline's real mother. From Coraline's perspective, this world is perfect. This changes when the Other Mother offers to sew buttons into her eyes. Coraline's vision of the world and perspective of her life has already been altered by the Other Mother, but the button eyes, which she opposes, would create more permanence and solidify her new view of the world. When she meets past children who agreed to the button eyes, they explain how losing their eyes consequentially results in the loss of their lives. This movie offers a concrete example of how the physical changing or loss of sight parallels figurative sight by giving two forms of eyes that contrast each other metaphorically.
Frederick Knott's 1966 play Wait Until Dark features a blind woman, Susy Hendrix. This play highlights Susy's blindness and illustrates how her ability to see a situation clearly exceeds that of seeing people. Her antagonist, Mr. Roat, will stop at nothing to get what he wants. He invades Susy's apartment and psychologically (and eventually literally) tortures her. Susy gains the upper hand, however, when she shuts off all sources of light from her apartment. Having the figurative sight to get around her apartment with ease and the intelligence to act with quick, calculated actions, she wins this battle. In contrast, Mr. Roat's inability to see the big picture is given physical confirmation when he loses his physical ability to see thanks to the darkness. These characters contrast each other as Susy's physical blindness is insignificant in comparison to her intellectual insight, and Mr. Roat's metaphorical blindness outweighs his physical ability to see.
Your Sight is Important Too!
Your Sight is Important Too!
While your metaphorical sight and wisdom might take some more time and work on your part, you can easily take better care of your physical sight right away! According to the CDC, vision loss and impairment is a real threat to Americans. The number of people experiencing problems with their vision has been increasing, and it is predicted to increase as long as corrective action is neglected. Unfortunately, many Americans neglect their eye health and lack knowledge on how to prevent common vision problems. While so many people suffer from various issues with their eye health, "It is estimated that half of visual impairment and blindness external icon can be prevented through early diagnosis and timely treatment." Don't neglect taking care of your eyes!
Here are a few tips on how to maintain healthy eyes:
Schedule regular comprehensive dilated eye exams
Wear sunglasses to protect from ultraviolet rays
Follow the 20-20-20 rule to reduce eye strain
Wear protective eyewear
Clean your hands properly before touching your eyes
Clean your contacts properly if you wear contacts
Check on your eye health with a quick online test!
Check on your eye health with a quick online test!
This is not recommended as a substitute for a comprehensive eye exam, but it's a good place to start.
This is not recommended as a substitute for a comprehensive eye exam, but it's a good place to start.
Worldbuilding in Odyssey 9
Worldbuilding in Odyssey 9
The lectures provided insight on how Odysseus, through his storytelling, builds his own world in which he is a hero, regardless of whether or not that might be true in the real world. By emphasizing the Cyclops' monstrous, possibly untrue, traits, he creates his own version of the Cyclops that inhabits the world that he is building. By emphasizing the Cyclops' inhumanity, it increases his own perceived sense of heroism. He also complicates the story by glossing over his own faults. Because he has full control over the narrative, he can construct whatever story, and thus world, he chooses.
What Odyssey 9 Says About Worldbuilding
What Odyssey 9 Says About Worldbuilding
Through storytelling, people can create any world that comes to the imagination. This can be a tool of creating great, imaginative, and more beautiful worlds than our own. Through the powerful method of storytelling, this can lead to real progress in the world we know. As in the case of the Cyclops episode in the Odyssey, however, storytelling can also be used for manipulation. This can lead to the destruction of worlds and the uprising of harmful worldbuilding. With the power to build an entirely new world, storytelling is an impressive tool that is usable for many outcomes, wanted or unwanted.
Captain America: Civil War Uses Storytelling to Build Worlds Similarly to Odysseus
Captain America: Civil War Uses Storytelling to Build Worlds Similarly to Odysseus
In this movie, the United Nations decide that the Avengers must be held accountable to destruction they cause while trying to protect the world from various attacks. This scene showcases how each of them have their own perspective. They are split on whether they have created a safer world or a world that incites destruction.
While they all live in the same world with the same circumstances, the way they view the situation and tell their stories varies tremendously. They each see a different world within the same one. As they argue over their heroism, we see how storytelling can create beautiful worlds and dangerous worlds alike.
Captain America, or Steve Rogers, views the Avengers as heroes. He is opposed to this accountability, because he believes they have made the world a better place. In his perspective, they have created a world of safety and justice.
Vision mentions how violence has increased since the Avengers has gotten together. In his view, perhaps they have created a world that invites challengers and incites violence. He sees the world they have created as one that emphasizes conflict.
Tony Stark, recently learning about Charles Spencer, a victim of their last battle, realizes that they have acted without limitations for too long and that perhaps they created a world that fights wars without caring for victims.
Natasha (aka Black Widow) argues that they need to regain the trust of the common folk. She believes that they have created a world in which they insight fear in the public eye.
While they all see their world in very different ways, each of them are right in their own respect. This goes to show how storytelling can not only create different worlds, but also interpret different worlds from the same world. Within their argument, each of the Avengers paints themself as a hero in some way, just as Odysseus does. Each of them identify key elements in their conflict that reveals their intentions to do what's best for the world. They disagree on the method of getting there, but they all want to create a better world. They simply have a different perspective for how to create this world.
In Summation
In Summation
Worldbuilding and storytelling are almost interchangeable. I'm not arguing that they are the same thing, but they definitely go hand in hand. Storytelling is a powerful tool that is almost always present in effective worldbuilding. The way someone tells a story results in a world of their own creation. Odysseus creates a world in which he is a hero--his imaginative and persuasive storytelling allow him to do so. As the Avengers argue, they each reveal the world that they have built in their mind based on their reality. Storytelling gives us the power to communicate different visions of what the world is and what the world could be.
Storytelling opens our eyes to a world of endless possibility and an endless possibility of worlds.
References
References
Informational Sources
Informational Sources
“Essilor.com.” Essilor Group, 2 Mar. 2021, www.essilor.com/en/vision-tests/test-your-vision/.
Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by Robert Fagles, Penguin, 1996.
Knott, Frederick. Wait until Dark. Dramatists Play Service, 1995.
Selick, Henry, et al. Coraline. 2009.
Sófocles , et al. Oedipus Tyrannus: A New Translation, Passages from Ancient Authors, Religion and Psychology: Some Studies, Criticism. Norton, 1996.
“Sokovia Accords Debate: Captain America Civil War (2016): Movie Clip.” YouTube, 16 July 2017, youtu.be/JmjRhmk800U.
“Vision Loss: A Public Health Problem.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 12 June 2020, www.cdc.gov/visionhealth/basic_information/vision_loss.htm.
"ZEISS Online Vision Screening," ZEISS, 16 March 2023, https://visionscreening.zeiss.com/en-US.
Photo Sources
Photo Sources
“Black Widow.” Death Battle Fanon Wiki, deathbattlefanon.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Widow.
“The Button Box by Guitarher on DeviantArt.” By Guitarher on DeviantArt, www.deviantart.com/guitarher/art/The-button-box- 209640176.
“Captain America Chris Evans PNG Transparent Image.” PNG Arts, www.pngarts.com/explore/276431.
“Civil War Vision - Transparent Background! by SpeedCam on DeviantArt.” By SpeedCam on DeviantArt, www.deviantart.com/speedcam/art/Civil-War-Vision-Transparent-Background-605088568.
Feeney, Steve. “Theater Review: 'Wait until Dark' Adds More Noir to Frederick Knott's 1960s Success.” Press Herald, 20 Oct. 2015, www.pressherald.com/2015/10/20/theater-review-wait-until-dark-adds-more-noir-to-frederick-knotts-1960s-success/.
“Iron Man (Marvel Cinematic Universe).” VS Battles Wiki, vsbattles.fandom.com/wiki/Iron_Man_(Marvel_Cinematic_Universe).
Roomland, Clark, and Alice Wilfert says: “Why Did Oedipus Blind Himself?” Ancient Literature, 14 Apr. 2022, ancient-l iterature.com/why-did-oedipus-blind-himself/.
Rubens, Peter Paul. “Ulysses and Nausicaa on the Island of the Phaeacians, C.1627 - Peter Paul Rubens.” Www.wikiart.org, 1 Jan. 1970, www.wikiart.org/en/peter-paul-rubens/ulysses-and-nausicaa-on-the-island-of-the-phaeacians-1627.
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