This afternoon @ 4pm in @UMBCLibrary, @DMendelsohn1960 will read from his award-winning work, An Odyssey: A Father, a Son, and an Epic for #humforum18. This memoir recounts a father and son's journey through Homer's great epic.
Books will be available for purchase.
Books will be available for purchase.
David Rosenbloom, Professor and Chair of @AncsUMBC, introduces Daniel Mendelsohn and describes him as his own personal literary siren. #humforum18
Mendelsohn: This book is the third in which I use ancient texts to reflect on personal narrative. The Elusive Embrace examines my gay identity, while The Lost examines my search for relatives who were lost to the Holocaust. #humforum18
Mendelsohn: Seven years ago, I received a phone call from my 81 year old father asking to sit in on my Odyssey course.
Mendelsohn: After the six-week course ended, I received a suggestion from a friend to take a journey with my father on the Retracing the Odyssey cruise. #humforum18
Mendelsohn: When my father first called me, I had mixed feelings. My father was a scientist, but he had studied Latin in his youth. I kind of knew that he would be ok in the class, but I also knew that....he was my father. #humforum18
Mendelsohn: 38 secs into my opening spiel, my father blurts out: “I don’t know what’s so great about Odysseus! He cheats on his wife, sleeps with all these sirens, and he cries all the time. If he was in the military, he would be court-martialed!” #humforum18
Mendelsohn: The Odyssey starts with Telemachus, Odysseus’ son who has not seen his father in 20 years. He embarks on a journey to learn more about him. #humforum18
Mendelsohn: I realized during the course that I was embarking on a similar journey to learn about this cranky, old man sitting in my class. The ultimate question of the Odyssey is about identity. Having him in my course and going on the cruise made me see him with new eyes.
Mendelsohn: My father taught these students two things: his constant opposition to me in the classroom emboldened them to be more independent-minded & the continuation of the joy of learning. #humforum18
Mendelsohn: You might wonder who woumd want to go on a cruise that recreates the Odyssey? The ship was crawling with people my age and an octogenarian parent!
Mendelsohn: The joke of the Odyssey is that he once he arrives to Ithaca he has to prove he is the same person who left 20 years ago, but he isn’t. Travel changes who you are, as well as time. #humforum18
Mendelsohn: The thing my father hated the most about Odysseus is that he got help from the gods: “If he was so great, he wouldn’t need help!” #humforum18
Mendelsohn reads from a passage in which his father remarks on the small things between people that can be the foundation of great things long after a person becomes unrecognizable. #humforum18
Join us for our next forum on 10/18 @ 4pm for the MEMS Colloquium Lecture with @JonathanHsy on “Visualizing Deafness: Language Manual and Manual Languages in Premodern Archives”
my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/dresher…
my3.my.umbc.edu/groups/dresher…
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