Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

“Witzel’s opus is not simply an exercise in applying the method of historical comparative linguistics to the vast but largely disconnected research on myth and folktale that accumulated in the last century and a half. As strongly articulated is a solid knowledge of history, archaeology, and (what is new) physical anthropology, the history of food production and pastoralism, geological theories of continental drift and glaciation, and, crucially, population genetics and its links with language families. This is part of a larger movement in the humanities and social sciences to take natural and applied sciences seriously. Most explanations of myth, he shows, are monolithic and unilateral, attempts to read individual myths and comparative mythology through a single methodological lens. Witzel’s considerable armamentarium is designed to include all evidence and, as noted, time spans so vast that they have never been incorporated in the history of scholarly discussion of mythology, except by a few stray ethologists who have posited myth and quasi-religious ritual to prehominid apes. However, Witzel argues, both data collection and positive science have advanced to the point that all of these perspectives, particularly geological history and genetics, must be included in the discussion.”

Frederick M. Smith, University of Iowa

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Next

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Originally Posted By: BOOT

Flex, thanks for sharing your wide ranging knowledge here. Do you ever wonder whether this site is the best channel for your communications? These are some important ideas and should be enjoyed by a wide audience!

 

Yes, Scott, Michael is honoring us with these fine essays. He’s also (I think & hope) inferring that we ARE a worthy audience, as the students of GA are students of mythology.

 

I am always excited and honored whenever he updates this, and would love to see him tell it elsewhere/ keep a copy of his research offline for later enjoyment! (thumbs u

 

we ARE a worthy audience

It sounds good in theory...in practice, I'm hopeful.

 

I think all one can ask of anyone is to have an open mind. I'm just a student of these matters myself, after all.

 

Surprisingly, it's not the words that take the time, it's matching pictures to the text that can be endlessly diverting. I put a lot of thought into that.

 

Just how much can I layer meaning through that process? How many nuances enfold in the space between? How much tension create between words and pictures without snapping the connection? I don't think it always works - and I can happily spend hours looking for just the right image without quite knowing what I'm looking for - and then sometimes, bang, something pops up out of nowhere... or I just give up in frustration, and settle for something that doesn't quite do what I'm looking for.

 

 

 

While a lot of the text is mine, I'm also quite happy to collage in chunks of other people's writings which I shamelessly don't bother to credit, so long as it steers us somewhere interesting. "If it works, don't fix it."

 

If I were writing for an academic audience that simply would not pass muster. And that would stop me having all this fun.

 

 

Wikipedia and other sources have also really helped refresh my recollections of books read many years ago - and then enabled me to revise and update my knowledge.

 

 

And invariably, as I've said, I learn as I go.

 

It's also interesting for me to see the way the various, multi-layered strands have unfolded, almost like excavations, hardly any of which was pre-planned!

 

As much as anything, it has become a journey - a search really - the destination of which is uncertain but has to do with the nature of truth - and I definitely didn't plan that!

 

I view each set of words and pictures as stepping stones.

 

 

The really astonishing things turn out to be closest to what might actually have happened.

 

We don't need Mu or Atlantis to tell a fabulous story. We have complex vanished civilizations in the rain forest, and a mythical structure perhaps as old as the human race.

 

For example, if city-based civilizations emerged spontaneously (and more or less simultaneously) in no less than 6 locations we know about around 3500BC, what was the trigger?

 

The story of humanity is wonderful, complex and surprising without having to be reinvented.

 

I wonder what will happen next?

 

.

[ForlornOutcast]

As a young student, symbolism fascinated me for its intensity -

 

 

 

Böcklin: The Isle of the Dead

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for posting this. That painting was so awesome I had to read the wiki... ok interested...then I did a google Image search for H.R. Giger's homage to it, and under the image search I saw Curiator.com pop up a few times, so I then checked that out... It seems like an awesome art sharing website! Im stoked!

 

Sorry for all the rambling, just wanted to say thanks for the rabbit hole man!

[Flex Mentallo]

Arnold Bocklin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

This is the haunting English Cemetery in Florence.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Bocklin painted five versions of The Isle of the Dead, partly inspired by the English Cemetery, where his baby daughter Maria had been buried.

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

He painted many other highly evocative landscapes.

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

But the Isle of the Dead is the picture for which he is chiefly remembered, and it remains an inspiration to this day. It has an uncanny atmosphere, yet utterly convinces us that this imagined island is a real place - even if not exactly of this world. Other artists were moved to paint homages.

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Including H.R. Geiger.

 

 

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Sergei Rachmaninoff saw the painting in Paris in 1907 and was inspired by it to compose a symphonic poem, Isle of the Dead, Op. 29, which is considered a classic example of late romanticism.