[lit-ideas] Glory
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <Lit-Ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2007 12:09:22 -0800
Achilles knew before he ever joined the fleet heading for Troy that if he
went, he would almost certainly die there. His mother Thetis, according to
legend tried to hide him away amongst some girls. But clever Odysseus
found him, and convinced him that the Greeks couldn't win unless he fought
for them. Only he could defeat Hector. He knew he would live to a ripe
old age and have a happy life if he stayed in Phthia, but if he went to
Troy, he would be covered in so much glory and fame that his name would
never be forgotten. He decided to go. A short glorious life in war was to
him preferable to a long life of peace.
Achilles revisits this decision in Troy after Agamemnon gave him a very bad
time. He would like the glory but there was no glory in being humiliated by
Agamemnon so he rounded up his Myrmidons and prepared to sail back to
Phthia. But the usual suspects come after him once again and urge him to
stay. They know they can't win against Troy unless he fights for them.
Agamemnon won't apologize for insulting Achilles, but he does try to bribe
him. That doesn't help and might anger Achilles further if he had not
already lost all respect for Agamemnon. But the arguments cause him to
decided to stay and wait until the Trojans threaten his ship and then he
will fight. He sends Patrocles out in his armor to scare the Trojans away
from his ship because he isn't quite ready to fight them. But then Hector
makes the mistake of killing Patrocles and that changes everything as far as
Achilles is concerned; so there are extenuating circumstances. It isn't
just glory, but Glory is extremely important.
The Iliad is said by Homer to be about the "rage of Achilles." But it is
also about Achilles choice to seek glory rather than a long life. I recall
poets, novelists and playwrights who made similar decisions. Perhaps with
them it wasn't described so baldly, but they clearly sought fame and glory
and what they felt they needed to do to achieve it shortened their lives.
There is a whole host of writers who felt they couldn't write decently
unless they were high. That was a common belief, and many ended up ruining
their health or just killing themselves (which is much easier, I understand,
if one is in an alcoholic stupor).
Perhaps no poet was so devoted to poetry and to alcohol as Dylan Thomas.
The alcohol-as-a-tool theory breaks down if the writer becomes an alcoholic
and can no longer help it. The need soon outweighs the tool. Dylan Thomas
was clearly out of control when he visited America shortly before his death.
Another poet, John Berryman, tried to recover from Alcoholism but couldn't
manage it - and wasn't sure he really wanted to, at least not permanently.
Another complication has to do with a writer's feeling that his life is
essentially over if he discovers that he can no longer write well. There
is some medical justification for the idea that we can will ourselves to
death if we try hard enough - or perhaps just not try hard enough to keep on
living.
Another group pulls the plug when they decide they can't write well enough
to achieve their ambitions. Did Sylvia Plath make that decision? And what
about Hart Crane?
We may or may not be able to include those who go insane. Robert Lowell was
I believe manic-depressive. Delmore Schwartz was, if memory serves me,
paranoid, but they were both extremely ambitious. They both wanted literary
glory.
We can expand this subject and include presidents who set up libraries in
their names and worry about their legacies. They want their legacies to be
glorious.
Questions,
1) of what value is glory, whether military, literary or political?
2) Why do some of us seek it?
3) Does Shelley in Ozymandias have a point?
4) and was Achilles right to make the choice that he did?
Lawrence
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