{"id":1657,"date":"2008-10-05T01:49:52","date_gmt":"2008-10-05T01:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/?p=1657"},"modified":"2017-09-04T01:36:50","modified_gmt":"2017-09-04T01:36:50","slug":"oak-leaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/oak-leaves\/","title":{"rendered":"Oak Leaves"},"content":{"rendered":"

In ancient Greek legend, the cave-dwelling Cumaean Sibyl, a famous prophetess, wrote the future on a series of oak leaves.\u00a0However, every time supplicants came to ask of their fortunes, they would open the door to the cave and the West Wind would blow in, scattering the leaves.\u00a0\u00a0Thus was the future known\u00a0yet not known.<\/p>\n

Much could be read of this frustration, of how we never know where we will end, of whether our efforts are worthwhile or will be doomed to failure\u2014that we can hope for little more than failed communication.<\/p>\n

The poet Shelley, too, lamented the problem of communication, suggesting in his \u201cOde to the West Wind\u201d that tumultuous forces prevent our communication:<\/p>\n

O WILD West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being\u2014\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Thou from whose unseen presence the leaves dead\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, (1-3)<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Shelley\u2019s ability to write, to reveal his experience, flees beyond his control.\u00a0\u00a0However, I prefer the story of the\u00a0Aeneid\u00a0<\/em>where, in seeking the Sibyl\u2019s advice, the hero Aeneas has a simple solution:<\/p>\n

Chant the sacred verses<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

With your own lips; do not trust them to the leaves,<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The mockery of the rushing wind\u2019s disorder (6:83-85).<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Our lives are rushed, the pile of \u201cTo Do\u201d items scattered, and it seems just when we get a handle on where we wish to go, the wind catches us.\u00a0\u00a0But Aeneas reminds us that solutions abound; all we have to do is ask.<\/p>\n

Too simple, perhaps.\u00a0\u00a0But this much is certain:\u00a0\u00a0the more we remain silent, the more failure we must inevitably encounter.\u00a0Our futures are produced by words, by language, broken or no.\u00a0\u00a0Every moment we choose to avoid the discussion is another futured moment lost and a scattered present lived, often in anxiety.<\/p>\n

In discussion, in dialogue, we produce meaning, create new opportunities, learn the world.<\/p>\n

The Romans understood.\u00a0\u00a0The Cumaean Sibyl offered King Tarquin nine books of prophecies, but her price was too high and he refused.\u00a0\u00a0So the Sibyl destroyed three of the books and offered him six.\u00a0\u00a0Again he refused so she burned three more.\u00a0\u00a0Finally, he understood and bought what was left.\u00a0\u00a0Seize language.<\/p>\n

To do so is frightening.\u00a0\u00a0With language comes responsibility for its use: it\u2019s easier for us sometimes to abdicate control or power over our present.\u00a0\u00a0To talk is to confront it, to make active our place in the world.\u00a0\u00a0Who else can we blame when our own words are cast before us?<\/p>\n

But this much seems certain: in language lies consequence, our wills, our selves.<\/p>\n

The same can be said of our writing, of course.\u00a0\u00a0But not just any writing.\u00a0\u00a0The school assignment is merely that, a designed exercise trapped in a closed cave.\u00a0\u00a0It pretends to be assertion, but until the door is opened to the world, private writing protects itself from examination, from dialogue.\u00a0\u00a0This is why the most powerful and important writing is that which readers encounter and to which they respond.<\/p>\n

Down with readers of television who passively absorb!\u00a0\u00a0And down with mere consumers of text who do not engage it with their own words.<\/p>\n

Worst of all fall those writers and speakers who language recklessly, without critical responsibility for their words.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWhat does it matter?\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s just words.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s just my opinion.\u201d \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean anything.\u201d The\u00a0ethos<\/em>\u00a0of any writer stems from her consciousness of the responsibility for the words.\u00a0\u00a0Ethos is character, is ethics.\u00a0\u00a0Ethos is writing and speaking for truth.<\/p>\n

King Tarquin is a fool.\u00a0\u00a0Shelley begs for power against the chaos.\u00a0\u00a0Aeneas heroically demands the dialogue. And another writer will be forever unknown because he chooses not to write.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In ancient Greek legend, the cave-dwelling Cumaean Sibyl, a famous prophetess, wrote the future on a series of oak leaves.\u00a0However, every time supplicants came to ask of their fortunes, they would open the door to the cave and the West Wind would blow in, scattering the leaves.\u00a0\u00a0Thus was the future known\u00a0yet not known. Much could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247,309,385,256],"tags":[558,512,718,553,555,556,557,554],"class_list":["post-1657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chizblog","category-literary-criticism","category-mythology","category-politics-and-ethics","tag-cumae","tag-language","tag-literary","tag-mythology","tag-poetry","tag-shelley","tag-sybil","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2017\/08\/cumean8.jpg?fit=427%2C301&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":815,"url":"https:\/\/www.chisnell.com\/chizblog\/on-movie-sequels-superman-and-michigan-ice\/","url_meta":{"origin":1657,"position":0},"title":"On Movie Sequels, Superman, and Michigan Ice","author":"Steve Chisnell","date":"2008 Dec 10","format":false,"excerpt":"You don\u2019t pump anti-lock brakes.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m still not used to that.\u00a0\u00a0As my car skidded a bit across the December ice, I remembered to turn into the spin and bring it around straight again.\u00a0\u00a0Not so the driver behind me who began to fishtail before he remembered and corrected. 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