So, people like me (people who do not come to class very often) often have to make themselves known in classes where the teacher has told you outright that he will fix your grade based on class participation. So, if the teacher noticed you making comments he will push the grade up a substantial amount. Anyway, I am usually very good at this. In fact this is how I got through high school...making myself known as a smarty. I�should repeat: I am
usually very good at this. I am very bad at this in my anthropology class. Since I�missed some 2 weeks of class due to sheer apathy, I sort of have to make up for it now. Iapos;ve been asking questions and making comments and even coming to class. Well, I�come in to class a few days ago (late unfortunately) and he has a woodcut of "Baba Iaga" up on the projector. He is explaining the symbolism..."Here is Baba Iaga riding a boar, which represents WAR, and she has a pestle which represents her shamanistic healer nature. She is confronting a cat, which relates to the myth of the Brave Boy and Baba Iaga."�
The image is this one:
In a larger version you can clearly see the text, which is something between modern Russian and Slavonic. Anyway, some funky letters but otherwise not hard to read. You can also clearly see that there is no cat in the picture...it is a fox-man of some sort.
The text above says (clearly)
"
Yaga Baba rides to fight the Corcodile, with a pestle, on a swine,
and under a bush they have a glass of wine."A quick google search reveals that this is a satyrical woodcut from the late 17th century. What does this tell us?
A- This is not nearly as old as my professor thought it was.
B- The "crocodile" is Peter the Great, the Yaga Baba is Catherine. This is a political cartoon not a religious drawing or a written history of a myth.
C- That is most definately not a cat.
Anyway, I�cannot let these things slide. As I broke the news to my remarkably arrogant professor, I did not notice anything particularly out of the ordinary, but I was later informed that he was shaking with fright. To me, however, he seemed genuinely interested in the true history of the woodcut and asked me to email him the details and my sources...he may be scheming or I may get a good grade yet. Weapos;ll see
That was pretty much the hilight of my day...scaring my crazy professor.
School went well from there. Not badly anyway.
My brakes had been making a horrible scraping sound for about a week now so I�finally stopped by the auto shop to get a free brake check. I ended up having to get new brake pads, because I clearly did not have any left. They gave me a nice discount and waived the disposal fee because there was sadly nothing to dispose. Still, thatapos;s 200 bucks I�didnapos;t really have. Then, not especially eager to drive 25 miles in stop-go traffic, I called Keith and told him that if he wants to celebrate Nietzsche Day with me heapos;d have to drive up here...so we quarreled.
I came home, listened to some Wagner operas and read my favorite of Zarathustraapos;s speeches.
"Thus Spoke�Zarathustra" is like a Bible to me. Zarathustra is a greater prophet than Christ ever was. Hah.
Before bed I will probably listen to Straussapos;s tone poem of the same name and fall asleep angry and discontent.� How Nietzschean of me
Happy Nietzsche Day, everyone.
�
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