As indicated both in our course syllabus and in our "overview of course requirements" (both found in the "START HERE" section of our course site), with our "thought experiment" assignments, students will reflect PERSONALLY on the ways in which the experience of the pursuit of imperishabilityin ART (i.e., in literature/film) might relate to the student's own personal experience (or lack of experience) with the pursuit of imperishability in LIFE.
So for "Thought Experiment II" we will see if we can make connections between (1) that uniquezone of imperishable wisdom / truthwhich gets released into the world throughThe Myth of Philomela, a mythwhich we encountered in Eliot's depiction of it in his poemThe Waste Land.
I'd like you to (1) simply Google "The Myth of Philomela"; (2) make apersonal attemptto understand the imperishable wisdom (meaning) that that myth seeks to communicate to us; and (3) finally reflect upon the ways in which the wisdom / meaning of that particular myth can enrich the project of civilization as we engage that project right now in contemporanaety. (ForEliot The Myth of Philomela was about the plight, the condition, and the metamorphosis of two women who, to Eliot, have something to offer all woman of all ages.)
This is an informal assignment. Don't stress over it. Just reflect out of your own personal humanity about one myth from Classical Antiquity, a myth which aims to release an imperishable truth (wisdom) into the souls of persons of all times and all places. In other words, the social service that myths (i.e., extraordinary otherworldlystories) aim to perform is nothing short of the service of making the world a finer place to live in.
Approximately 400-500 words.