Classics » Alumni http://classics.blog.gustavus.edu Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:21:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Greek tragedy and ‘The Wire’ http://classics.blog.gustavus.edu/2009/04/10/greek-tragedy-and-the-wire/ http://classics.blog.gustavus.edu/2009/04/10/greek-tragedy-and-the-wire/#comments Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:05:56 +0000 Yurie Hong http://classics.blog.gustavus.edu/?p=326 Thanks to my persistent brother-in-law’s recommendation, Sean and I just finished watching the acclaimed HBO show ‘The Wire’ a couple of weeks ago.  Each of the five seasons is loosely structured around a single wire-tapping case in Baltimore that sheds light on some aspect of the city’s institutions (drug trade, unions, real estate/politics, education, and journalism).  This is what the creator had to say about the way he conceived of his project:

In a few opening remarks, Simon repeatedly cited Greek tragedy’s influence on “The Wire,” explaining that in the place of the meddlesome Greek gods who randomly ruined people’s lives he subbed in modern institutions. In what seemed a preemptive nod toward any outraged [...] fans in the audience, Simon also leaned on the same source to explain the fate for some of his show’s most popular characters. “Those who want to know why [...] had to die, why [...] had to die,” he said, “Strap on a helmet, get in the game and read Antigone. Read Medea. It had to happen.”

A lot of work has been done recently on the Western as America’s version of Homeric myth, there’s a scene toward the end of season 3 depicting a tense stand-off between two charismatic urban gunslingers, if you will, who meet in the shadows of a dark alley rather than at high noon in the town square.  The Iliad’s codes of male conduct and the rituals of combat always seem to hover in the background of any form of warfare, whether it takes place in another country, in the Wild West, or in the streets.

Structural resonances aside, there are a couple of sly allusions to the show’s Greek tragic inspiration–a reference to Ares and a mysterious Greek drug smuggler who sends text messages in, not surprisingly, modern Greek.

Also, I wonder if the show’s title, “The Wire” has some significance. As a tool for trying to access the truth, the wiretap kind of functions like the poet, who expresses the engimatic words of the Muses.  It’s not a perfect analogy, but the parties on both ends of the wire (the drug dealers and the cops) are to some degree defined by their ignorance because the drug dealers don’t know they’re being tapped, and the cops have to decode and interpret their verbal transmissions.  But even when the whole situation comes to light and goes to trial, neither side really knows what will happen and what significance the wire and the communications it records will have for their respective cases.

In any case, stuff to think about.  (Click here to see what Obama thinks.)

]]> http://classics.blog.gustavus.edu/2009/04/10/greek-tragedy-and-the-wire/feed/ 0 Alumnus John Albertson’s (’06) first-hand account of underwater archaeology in Black Sea http://classics.blog.gustavus.edu/2007/08/14/alumnus-john-albertsons-06-first-hand-account-of-underwater-archaeology-in-black-sea/ http://classics.blog.gustavus.edu/2007/08/14/alumnus-john-albertsons-06-first-hand-account-of-underwater-archaeology-in-black-sea/#comments Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:43:28 +0000 Eric Dugdale http://classics.blog.gustavus.edu/2007/08/14/alumnus-john-albertsons-06-first-hand-account-of-underwater-archaeology-in-black-sea/ Dear readers,
I’ve been asked to write a brief account of my doings since graduation in ’06, and thus you find this post. I’m writing from the stark, stony beauty of the Crimean coast where I’m currently working with the Centre for Underwater Archaeology of Ukraine’s Taras Shevchenko University. Upon leaving Gustavus I actually spent a year working as an English teacher with the JET program in Hiroshima, but that story has little relevance to our field; suffice it to say that several boats, buses and trains later I arrived for my second season of excavation here in the north Black Sea. The main area of research, as it has been since 2002, is the wreck of a trading vessel roughly 100 yards off the coast of the resort town of Novy Svet. Recovered pottery, some unique enough to bear the title of “Novy Svet ware”, dates to the late 13th century A.D., and tentative identification with a Pisan vessel recorded as sunk in these particular waters in 1277 has collaborative dendrochronological and ceramic institutes investigating.

Life at the site is invigorating. The main camp is built on an ex-WWII German gun position, so our kitchen is a bunker and our shower the (appropriately) excavated ammunition shed. Life is conducted under two large US military tents, one holding our equipment (suits, B.C.’s, regulators, tanks, computers, compressors etc.) and the other our cots, which we often carry out along the cliff face for the cool sea breezes and the incomparable stars. The day begins at sunrise, either with a swim, cooking, or paperwork, followed by a breakfast of kasha and tea. The dive team will then load the vehicles and head the 3 kilometers to a stony beach just off the wreck, where we assemble whatever equipment we’ll need for the day. This generally includes a hookah compressor (a floating air compressor that allows four divers to go to depths of 35 feet without the encumbrance of tanks and B.C.’s and extending bottom time to up to three hours per dive), a small surface boat for the dive manager and whatever cameras, lift bags or DPV’s (diver propulsion vehicles) will be necessary.

We’re in the water by 9:30 and back at base between 2 and 5, depending on the conditions. We lay the new artifacts out, sometimes leaving the more delicate ones in salt water for preservation. They’re drawn, photographed, recorded and some of the hardier pieces are reconstructed. Video and photographs are compressed, paired with explanations, and posted to the Centre’s website (http://www.fieldschool.univ.kiev.ua/fs01.html) and our interactive dig hosted by the AIA (http://www.archaeology.org/interactive/blacksea/).

The end result of the excavation season is a summary report finished during the Autumn and early Winter. Often, presentations are given at the annual EAA conference, which will be held in Zadar, Croatia this September. This year the team’s Ms. Yana Morozova is organizing the EAA conference session entitled “10 centuries of Byzantine trade: from the 5th to the 15th centuries A.D.” and I will be presenting an overview of the Centre’s work entitled “Salvaging History: International outreach and collaboration in the north Black Sea”.

If you’d like more information about the excavation or would like to participate during upcoming seasons, please browse the above mentioned websites and feel free to email me at ndianajohn@yahoo.com.
Best wishes,
John Albertson
johnalbertsoncolosseum.jpg

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