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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: George S. Montgomery who wrote (24442)	8/18/1998 11:54:00 PM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Well-here is my defense of what you obviously saw as no more than a frivolous exercise in word play and then I am heading back to DAR because I'm not very comfortable right now. I'm really not good at current events discussion-I prefer the scope of myth and dream and feel as if I see things from a different planet or something. Then I feel guilty and dumb. I had a good time trying to fit Clinton into the Tragic Hero shoebox but more importantly, it also helped me place him into some sort of perspective after that very upsetting speech. I didn't mean to diminish what you were feeling in any way or be metaphysical. Semantics is the only way we can be exact with what we mean. One has only to spend a small amount of time here to realize that many people have good, valid thoughts and ideas that don't make it into clear, concise communication because terms aren't defined prior to battle-either between the participants and sometimes not even by the writer to himself. The misunderstandings begin before the first idea is expressed. When all we deal with are the words on a monitor, it's very easy to be misunderstood. I believe that often society communicates using universal concepts, often mythological in nature. From our understanding of these we interpret our world and the people around us. In this instance,I think people are hurting from the very confusion that you deny --the discrepancy between the jester and the man who has at times earned their respect (if only by the office which he holds). The nature of the Tragic Hero mythology--at its root- is that it provokes not just sympathy, but empathy for the man (or woman). I don't think Christine was using the term in the sense of Clinton's being admirable (I KNOW she doesn't admire him!) but more for purposes of definition. Several commentators last night made statements that were direct attempts to turn Clinton into this tragic figure. (I wonder if it was intentional?) James Carville said he couldn't judge his friend by the same standards as others implying that regular men are less fully hero, that Clinton IS greater. Many people feel that he is a great leader. I never have, but nonetheless I found myself very upset last night also. You have dealt with it in your way--declaring him simply, unequivocally, an idiot. I agree with you, but for me, comfort and resolution comes in categorizing him in my personal mythology, deciding he is perhaps a Tragic Court Jester, or just a Failed Don Juannabe, it would take some doing for him to achieve anything resembling Tragic Hero status. Is the definition of TH shifting as society shifts? Sure at least that's what I was trying to say.- and BTW, I agree with you about poor Willy Loman. Think and feel-I LOVED that quote!!! You took it so black and white!!!! Like placing love opposite hate. I think it just means that when you think, you detach to some extent and are able to be amused by life in all its variety.(Comedy)When you are empathizing--feeling-with the TH or whatever, you start to identify and are engaged in the situation (tragedy). I don't think they are mutually exclusive and certainly no person is an either-or. More sliding scales. We all deal with things so differently, look at the world from in such vastly different ways! Respectfully and fondly, p