Comments on: Call Me Penelope http://www.oleoptene.com/2008/04/10/call-me-penelope/ A blog for Mara Collins Sun, 20 Nov 2011 04:12:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: jenny http://www.oleoptene.com/2008/04/10/call-me-penelope/comment-page-1/#comment-1600 jenny Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:19:36 +0000 http://www.oleoptene.com/?p=158#comment-1600 oh, for the love of God, you two are way too literate! All this talk of Atwood and Bolen and Estes - you make me feel like the joker Adam in the Reduced Shakespeare Company who refuses to perform dry, boring, vomitless Shakespeare. (In other words I feel kind of stupid. You guys are intimidating!!!) But I love the purse you made (is that something you knit?!) and the scarf is beautiful. I also love your comparison with Penelope. I always thought she was one of the most interesting characters in the story and wished that there was more written about her. I was always kind of jealous of that girl who, in our freshman year at St. John's, decided she was going to go by the name Penelope. Wasn't her real name Kirsten or something like that? Life is a lot like navigating between Scylla and Charybdis, the narrow straight between two treacherous places. It seems like I often have to bounce from one extreme to the other, though, before I'm able to find the middle ground - the safe passage. I guess it's nice in a way that life keeps offering up opportunity after opportunity for us to try to get it right and lately I'm very thankful that the monsters I veer between aren't nearly so vicious or bloodthirsty as they were just a couple of years ago. As I get older it seems that my extremes get less extreme. (which would have seemed HORRIFYING to me in my 20's! "oh no! You mean I'll actually start to like the calm passage more than the turbulent waters? How boring!") oh, for the love of God, you two are way too literate! All this talk of Atwood and Bolen and Estes – you make me feel like the joker Adam in the Reduced Shakespeare Company who refuses to perform dry, boring, vomitless Shakespeare. (In other words I feel kind of stupid. You guys are intimidating!!!)
But I love the purse you made (is that something you knit?!) and the scarf is beautiful.
I also love your comparison with Penelope. I always thought she was one of the most interesting characters in the story and wished that there was more written about her. I was always kind of jealous of that girl who, in our freshman year at St. John’s, decided she was going to go by the name Penelope. Wasn’t her real name Kirsten or something like that?
Life is a lot like navigating between Scylla and Charybdis, the narrow straight between two treacherous places. It seems like I often have to bounce from one extreme to the other, though, before I’m able to find the middle ground – the safe passage. I guess it’s nice in a way that life keeps offering up opportunity after opportunity for us to try to get it right and lately I’m very thankful that the monsters I veer between aren’t nearly so vicious or bloodthirsty as they were just a couple of years ago. As I get older it seems that my extremes get less extreme. (which would have seemed HORRIFYING to me in my 20′s! “oh no! You mean I’ll actually start to like the calm passage more than the turbulent waters? How boring!”)

]]> By: Mara Collins http://www.oleoptene.com/2008/04/10/call-me-penelope/comment-page-1/#comment-1597 Mara Collins Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:41:12 +0000 http://www.oleoptene.com/?p=158#comment-1597 If he's a pluot aren't you a pomegranate? Athene was first to my mind, too... Have always had a soft spot for Penelope, and wondered about her version of events, and was so disappointed in the version of her Margaret Atwood gave. Have never read Bolen -- would I like her better than Pinkola Estes? Waiting patiently... If he’s a pluot aren’t you a pomegranate? Athene was first to my mind, too… Have always had a soft spot for Penelope, and wondered about her version of events, and was so disappointed in the version of her Margaret Atwood gave. Have never read Bolen — would I like her better than Pinkola Estes?

Waiting patiently…

]]> By: unreliable narrator http://www.oleoptene.com/2008/04/10/call-me-penelope/comment-page-1/#comment-1596 unreliable narrator Sat, 12 Apr 2008 01:24:30 +0000 http://www.oleoptene.com/?p=158#comment-1596 It's you! :oD If the Brujo is Pluot, then that makes me Proserpine, whom I suppose I'd rather not be (whycomes I can't be Athene, eh?)....though Jean Shinoda Bolen makes the point that neurotic Persephone-type often matures into introverted hearth-goddess Hestia. Who is NOT boring. She said defensively. Who never wants to leave the house again, because now you can order fabric on eBay. Tomorrow....tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be no papers to grade and there will be Things to Ask and to Tell. Until then (and afterward), love love love! and lots of hearts. (As well as a decent night's sleep, hopefully....) It’s you! :o D

If the Brujo is Pluot, then that makes me Proserpine, whom I suppose I’d rather not be (whycomes I can’t be Athene, eh?)….though Jean Shinoda Bolen makes the point that neurotic Persephone-type often matures into introverted hearth-goddess Hestia. Who is NOT boring. She said defensively. Who never wants to leave the house again, because now you can order fabric on eBay.

Tomorrow….tomorrow. Tomorrow there will be no papers to grade and there will be Things to Ask and to Tell. Until then (and afterward), love love love! and lots of hearts. (As well as a decent night’s sleep, hopefully….)

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