Anti-Oedipus part 2 *

Summary

Questions

"There is no such thing as either man or nature now, only a process of that produces the one within the other and couples the machines together. Producing- machines, desiring-machines everywhere, schizophrenic machines, all of species life [la vie générique]: the self and the non-self, outside and inside, no longer have any meaning whatsoever" (p. 2)

Notes

‘One must not look for a ‘philosophy’ amid the extraordinary profusion of new notions and surprise concepts: Anti-Oedipus is not a flashy Hegel. I think that Anti-Oedipus can best be read as an ‘art’. (...) Questions that are less concerned with why this or that than with how to proceed. How does one introduce desire into thought, into discourse, into action? (...) Anti-Oedipusis a book of ethics…’ Michel Foucault, Preface to Anti-Oedipus [ * ]

"Oedipus X," "Oedipus05," "Anti-Oedipus" -- I still didn't make my mind about the title. All three represent connections with the present, but most important to explore "The American Age" themes. American dsstiny, fate, curse. Especially in the light of 9/11...

American came to rule the world after killing its father -- The Old World. Envy and jealousy. The whole world. The king of the 20th century. The last act of the tragedy?

America is unknown to itself.

Sphinx -- the media! Blinding itself -- 24 hours of news.

Deleuze (Foucault, Baudliard, Virilio) -- all about "America"! How to tell OUR story through the Sophocles' tale?

I place the location somewhere in African, Middle East country only because every "nation" today is another state of the USA.

music file(s) * [ more on the page ]

ZEUS: The son of Cronus and Rhea, he was fated to dethrone his father... Rhea; Daughter of Uranus and Gaea, she married her brother Cronus, who swallowed all their children except Zeus, whom Rhea concealed. Zeus then overcame Cronus and restored his siblings... [ Cronus = Time ]

Titan -- in Greek mythology, any of the children of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth) and their descendants. According to Hesiod's Theogony, there were 12 original Titans: the brothers Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus and the sisters Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys.

Gaea, also called Ge -- Greek personification of the Earth as a goddess. Mother and wife of Uranus (Heaven), from whom the Titan Cronus, her last born child by him, separated her, she was also mother of the other Titans, the Gigantes, the Erinyes, and the Cyclopes (see giant; Fury; Cyclops); hence literature and art sometimes made her the enemy of Zeus, for the Titans and Gigantes threatened him.
Juno (Latin) -- the wife of Jupiter, queen of heaven, and goddess of light, birth, women, and marriage -- compare HERA... the wife (and sister) of Zeus!

Even the Christian concept left the myth of mother who gives birth to her Father!

Images = Symbols = Ideas : Sphinx came after they gave the child away (to die). Why couldn't Laios face the Sphinx? Did Jocasta sense that the boy is alive? Hoped? Should I bring in the ghost of Laios? And gods appear?

Deleuze and Guattari: Two Meditations ***

The Willingness to Ignore the Truth: When Oedipus and Jocasta begin to get close to the truth about Laius’s murder, in Oedipus the King, Oedipus fastens onto a detail in the hope of exonerating himself. Jocasta says that she was told that Laius was killed by “strangers,” whereas Oedipus knows that he acted alone when he killed a man in similar circumstances. This is an extraordinary moment because it calls into question the entire truth-seeking process Oedipus believes himself to be undertaking. Both Oedipus and Jocasta act as though the servant’s story, once spoken, is irrefutable history. Neither can face the possibility of what it would mean if the servant were wrong. This is perhaps why Jocasta feels she can tell Oedipus of the prophecy that her son would kill his father, and Oedipus can tell her about the similar prophecy given him by an oracle (867–875), and neither feels compelled to remark on the coincidence; or why Oedipus can hear the story of Jocasta binding her child’s ankles (780–781) and not think of his own swollen feet. While the information in these speeches is largely intended to make the audience painfully aware of the tragic irony, it also emphasizes just how desperately Oedipus and Jocasta do not want to speak the obvious truth: they look at the circumstances and details of everyday life and pretend not to see them.

The Limits of Free Will: Prophecy is a central part of Oedipus the King. The play begins with Creon’s return from the oracle at Delphi, where he has learned that the plague will be lifted if Thebes banishes the man who killed Laius. Tiresias prophesies the capture of one who is both father and brother to his own children. Oedipus tells Jocasta of a prophecy he heard as a youth, that he would kill his father and sleep with his mother, and Jocasta tells Oedipus of a similar prophecy given to Laius, that her son would grow up to kill his father. Oedipus and Jocasta debate the extent to which prophecies should be trusted at all, and when all of the prophecies come true, it appears that one of Sophocles’ aims is to justify the powers of the gods and prophets, which had recently come under attack in fifth-century b.c. Athens.

Suicide

Sight and Blindness

line 14: Oedipus speaking to the priests about him sensing trouble ahead; "I would be blind to misery,"

line 28-9: Priest responding to line 14; "Our city-look around you, see with your own eyes-our ship pitches wildly,"

line 70-1: Same subject as above; "I see-how could I fail to see what longings bring you here?"

line 119: Oedipus speaking of the killing of their former king; "I never saw the man myself."

line 150: Oedipus speaking of how he will try and solve the murder of their former king, Laius; "...I'll bring it all to light myself!"

line 216-7: Chorus pleading the gods for help; "O golden daughter of god, send rescue radiant as the kindness in your eyes!"

line 323: The leader of the chorus speaking of the blind prophet Tiresias; "Lord Tiresias sees with the eyes of Lord Apollo."

line 344-5: Oedipus speaking of Tiresias; "Blind as you are, you can feel all the more what sickness haunts our city."

*line 360: Tiresias speaking of the problems that the city wants solved; "How terrible-to see the truth when the truth is only pain to him who sees!"

line 425-7: Oedipus scolding Tiresias for accusing him of being the curse upon the town; "Blind, lost in the night, endless night that nursed you! You can't hurt me or anyone else who sees the light-you can never touch me."

line 441-2: Oedipus again, "going to town" on Tiresias; "...this fortune-teller peddling lies, eyes peeled for his own profit-seer blind in his craft!"

line 470-1: Tiresias "responding" to Oedipus's attacks; "You with your precious eyes, you're blind to the corruption of your life,"

line 477-9: Same as 470-1; "...their footfall treading you down in terror, darkness shrouding your eyes that now can see the light!"

*line 517-9: Same as previous two quotes, this time foreshadowing Oedipus's fate; "Blind who now has eyes, beggar who now is rich, he will grope his way toward a foreign soil, a stick tapping before him step by step."

line 552-3: The chorus is expressing concern over the fight which has just ensued between Oedipus and Tiresias; "...I'm lost, and the wings of dark foreboding beating-I cannot see what's come, what's still to come..."

line 567-70: Same as previous quote; "No, not till I see these charges proved will I side with his accusers. We saw him then, when the she-hawk swept against him, saw with our own eyes his skill, his brilliant triumph..."

line 672-3: Creon, after having been accused of killing Laius and treason, Creon defends himself; "A man of sense, someone who sees things clearly would never resort to treason."

line 822: Oedipus infers to his wife (and mother...) Jocasta that he may be cause of the trouble, prompting Jocasta to be afraid; "I shudder to look at you."

line 878-80: Oedipus is recalling past events in his life, how he was prophesized to be the downfall of his parents; "...always running toward some place where I would never see the shame of all those oracles come true."

line 919-20: Oedipus prays to the gods that he is not the victim of fate (that he will bring the downfall of his royal family); "Oh no, not that you pure and awesome gods, never let me see that day!"

*line 1070-1: Jocasta gives us her theory on man and wisdom; "Not a man on earth can see a day ahead, groping through the dark."

line 1168-9: Oedipus wants the truth about his mysterious past; "I must know it all, must see the truth at last."

line 1190: Oedipus foreshadows his own fate; "I'll never see myself disgraced."

*line 1306-8: Oedipus finds out the truth that he 1) killed his father, Laius, the former king, and 2) he slept with his mother; "O god-all come true, all burst to light! O light-now let me look my last on you! I stand revealed at last-"

line 1315-7: The chorus sums up and philosophizes on the fate of men; "...who seizes more joy than just a dream, a vision? And the vision no sooner dawns than dies blazing into oblivion."

*line 1341: Chorus gives us a nice summary of what has happened; "...Time, all-seeing Time has dragged you to the light..."

*line 1350: Chorus foreshadows the fate of Oedipus; "...and now you bring down night upon my eyes."

*line 1358-9: The messenger adds to the chorus's speech; "Such things it hides, it soon will bring to light-terrible things, and none done blindly now..."

**line 1402-09: In the climax of the play, Oedipus finds out the truth about his past. This is probably one of the most important (if not the most important) sections of this play; "He rips off her brooches, the long gold pins holding her robes-and lifting them high, looking straight up into the points, he digs them down the sockets of his eyes, crying, 'You, you'll see no more the pain I suffered, all the pain I caused! Too long you looked on the ones you never should have seen, blind to the ones you longed to see, to know! Blind from this hour on! Blind in the darkness-blind!'"

*line1432-42: The chorus is talking about the wretched site of Oedipus after having gouged out his own eyes; "O the terror, the suffering, for all the world to see, the worst terror that ever met my eyes." "I pity you but I can't bear to look." "...so much fascinates my eyes, but you... I shudder at the sight."

line 1498: The chorus, speaking about Oedipus, falls prey to the same ignorance that Oedipus does earlier in the play; "Better to die than be alive and blind."

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After seeing almost all of the quotes having to deal with sight, darkness, blindness, etc. it is obvious that they represent something deeper than their literal meaning. Most of the early quotes using the word "blind", represent the paradox that is presented with Oedipus and the "blind seer" Tiresias. Oedipus keeps pointing out the fact that Tiresias is blind, but fails to see (impossible to escape the word...) that, in fact, he himself is blind to the circumstances that are going on. Throughout the entire play, the only one who can clearly "see" is Tiresias. The chorus, Oedipus and the others can all "see" literally, but cannot see the "truth".

The double asterisk passages are of special importance. They parallel Plato's Allegory of the Cave practically to perfection. Line 1306-8, "O god-all come true, all burst to light! O light-now let me look my last on you! I stand revealed at last-" to me, symbolizes Oedipus having broken the chains of the cave, bursting towards the light (the truth). Since the light is so bright, he is blinded; he suddenly does not want to see the light, so he gouges out his own eyes. After having done so, Oedipus has descended back into the cave, into darkness...

In lines1432-42, "O the terror, the suffering, for all the world to see, the worst terror that ever met my eyes." "I pity you but I can't bear to look." the people of the town cannot look at the light (the truth), that is Oedipus; in fact, they state that, "...so much fascinates my eyes, but you... I shudder at the sight." This sounds exacly like the shadows playing upon the wall of the cave that occupies their time; they cannot look away from the shadow, and cannot look at the light-the light would bring them pain. In the final quote that I have added, line 1498, "Better to die than be alive and blind.", the crowd finalizes their ignorance on the subject of truth. Since one is blinded by the light after emerging from the cave, the people would rather die having been occupied by shadows than to face the real truth.

Graves and Tombs

Oedipus’s Swollen Foot

The Three-way Crossroads

Oedipus Rex Themes for revision

 Consult Loxias, one of Apollo's (Phoebus) priests ("ministers"). (Tiresias serves Loxias and is described as his chief servant).

On being told that the child is cursed to kill his father they cast the child away. Notice that at this point they do not doubt the oracle at all.

A crucial ambiguity is that Jocasta implies that Laius could not bear to do this himself (lines 700 - 725) and that the actual casting away was done by a servant. Yet the shepherd (lines 1158 - 1231) says that Jocasta herself gave it to him.

Were Jocasta and Laius wise... or selfish?

Was Jocasta's love for her husband, above that of her own child, wrong in some way:

Oedipus - "swell-foot" has riveted ankles in this casting away.

1. He is thus stigmatized from birth.

2. Riveted ankles are a traditional mark of the slave: Oedipus is thus enslaved/marked:

Is it surprising that Jocasta at no time recognizes the mark of "swollen-feet" and her inevitable physical resemblance to Oedipus -- "the son she never had...." ?

 Polybus the Corinthian and Meropé the Dorian adopt Oedipus because they themselves are childless -- and through their generosity bring him up as their own son and deny to his face that he is adopted.

Notice the symmetry -- one set of selfish natural parents, one set of selfless adoptive parents -- whatever the differences of motivation -- both help fulfil the will of the gods.

 The killing of Laius happens at Phocis where the road divides to Delphi or Daulia.

Delphi -- the Oracle at Delphi was the most famous in all Greece -- symbolizing respect for -- and submission to -- the will of the gods -- Oedipus takes another road:

The murder itself -- Laius seizes for a weapon the driver's "two-pronged goad" -- used to drive animals -- the fork a symbol of the crutch, of deception, of the rage of the elderly man -- Oedipus equally quick-tempered ("like father, like son") uses his "staff in his right hand" (right the traditional side of goodness --"staff of life"/phallic symbol/physical prowess of young male) to kill his father -- a generational symbolism.

The confrontation is at noon -- the sun is Apollo's symbol and noon the height of Apollo's power. At noon one should see most clearly, but in fact are blinded by sunlight and shadow -- a clear admission of the impotence of human senses before the power of divine creation -- at the height of his youth, in the fullest possible daylight -- Oedipus is blind.

The mood of the play from the beginning to the end is of devastation, destruction and gloom. The play opens with Thebes suffering from a severe plague due to an unresolved murder. This mood of suffering and pollution is emphasized as the play proceeds. That the whole kingdom must suffer for the sins of one man reveals how dynamic the universe in Greek tragedy is. Everything is interconnected and vindication must be sought in order for the kingdom to regain its normalcy. The suffering which begins as a phenomenon in the kingdom eventually concentrates on the pain and suffering of the royal family.

...