#classicsproblems

[whatshouldwecallhomer]

I love 95% of classicists but the other 5% are like:

[rejectedthesistitles]

The Return of #ClassicsProblems, and a Musical Interlude

I was having lunch the other day when a fellow diner asked out of the blue, "So I have to ask... how did you ever discover Dr. Palmer?"

Now, Dr. Palmer is a self-proclaimed "poet" whose sex ed album, 'Sex Poetry #1' is made up of songs filled with helpful explanations of sexual harassment, hermaphrodites, adultery, and incest, among other topics.  And, as I explained to my interlocutor, I managed to find Dr. Palmer because one night, I had been doing a lot of readings about Classical Mythology with a friend who was reading Game of Thrones.  This is a dangerous combination indeed, since between the two of these, searching Spotify for songs about incest seemed to simply make sense at the time.

And while I'm not sure what we thought we were going to get, I'm glad to have Dr. Palmer's music in my life.  Would it be going too far to call him the best praeceptor amoris (teacher of love) since Ovid?  Probably, so I won't.  But you can listen to these highlights and decide for yourself.

[rejectedthesistitles]

Guest Submission 2: #ClassicsProblems

As a person who spends a fair amount of time obsessing about the distant past, I can safely say there are times I've been amazed by the sorts of ridiculous things that seem completely normal to me at this point.

One time, I was reading for a mythology seminar and saw something along the lines of "No evidence for a ritual sacrifice exists, though there do appear to be signs of an elaborate cheese stealing ritual."  That's not the direct quote, but you get the point.  Really bizarre stuff, and I'm sitting there nodding being all, "Ah, yes, of course."  But right-now me wants to go back and point out to back-then me, "NO, NOT OF COURSE, THAT MAKES NO SENSE!!!!!!"

This is relevant because I think that this week's guest submission, which comes from Classical Languages major Florencia F., gets at these Classics problems very nicely.  Florencia is opting not to write her thesis on:

"Honey, I Killed the Kids!": Why Disney Waters Down Myth, or a Sympathetic Exploration of Euripides' Medea

Yes, for a Classics major, horrendous crimes like infanticide are all too commonplace - you're dealing with that stuff all the damn time.  I admire the way that this topic embraces that.  And honestly, it's got plenty of potential - I'm kinda secretly hoping that Florencia ends up actually writing this.  I know that's one presentation I couldn't wait to sit through.

As always, I'll take this opportunity to remind you that YOU can be the next guest submitter to Rejected Thesis Titles, regardless of your actual academic status or field, by hitting up the Submit link on the sidebar.

Yours in peace, love, and ancient cheese stealing rituals (but not infanticide - you gotta draw the line somewhere),

Jacob