What is the Hoard of Wisdom?
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A major feature of success in English literature is what you could term "cultural literacy." Broadly defined, cultural literacy is the set of common literary, artistic, historical, musical, architectural, cinematic, and current references that most people in a society expect other people to just know from school, common experience, or to have heard about it somewhere at a party.
For instance, if your friends refer to a person of particular pulchritude as an Adonis or a Venus, they expect you have some familiarity with Greek mythology. If they describe your prom date as a real Romeo and his friend as a Judas, they think you’ve read Shakespeare and the Bible. Lest you think cultural literacy is only for the aristoi and not the hoi polloi, consider this: In The Simpsons, when Bart goes to Camp Krusty – an experience that quickly devolves into uncontrolled, lawless savagery – the camera pans past a group of wild, screaming boys running past a pig’s head on a stick. Bottom line, Matt Groening (the Simpsons’ creator) expects you to know the allusion to Lord of the Flies. To use another example, Kanye doesn’t have to explain what he means by building Rome in one day in “Clique” because he expects you to understand the allusion. Bottom line, if you don’t get the reference, you don’t get the joke. Or the scene. Or the songs. How You Should Very Probably Study Although you are free to study these terms or questions and do the work entirely on your own, my strongly-urged suggestion is that you play Scavenger Game with members of a self-chosen group. (For example, if there are twenty terms and four people, each person can be responsible for looking up the information on five of the questions and then distribute his or her answers to the rest of the group.) Please be aware that however you choose to study for this work, you will be assessed individually about your knowledge. Therefore, choose the members of your group wisely. If Bob from the next seat over tells you that Athena is the goddess of war (but leaves out that whole “goddess of wisdom” stuff), neither you nor Bob will be happy with your grade. As for the myths and stories, you are welcome to use whatever works. I would NOT actually recommend film versions of the Odyssey or the Iliad because they actually do a great deal to distort the story. (Don’t even get me started on the Disney version of Hercules or the dreadful Rick Riordan.) I’ll make recommendations. You’ll notice that in some cases, I’ve recommended the kids’ versions of the stories. Please don’t feel offended or talked down to: quite often, these are lushly illustrated and faithfully-done retellings that are worth a look even by dignified teenagers. In short, they’re really cool. Please see the drop-down menu under the Hoard of Wisdom link above for specific lists to study! How You Should Very Probably Study
Although you are free to study these terms or questions and do the work entirely on your own, my strongly-urged suggestion is that you play Scavenger Game with members of a self-chosen group. (For example, if there are twenty terms and four people, each person can be responsible for looking up the information on five of the questions and then distribute his or her answers to the rest of the group.) Please be aware that however you choose to study for this work, you will be assessed individually about your knowledge. Therefore, choose the members of your group wisely. If Bob from the next seat over tells you that Athena is the goddess of war (but leaves out that whole “goddess of wisdom” stuff), neither you nor Bob will be happy with your grade. As for the myths and stories, you are welcome to use whatever works. I would NOT actually recommend film versions of the Odyssey or the Iliad because they actually do a great deal to distort the story. (Don’t even get me started on the Disney version of Hercules or the dreadful Rick Riordan.) I’ll make recommendations. You’ll notice that in some cases, I’ve recommended the kids’ versions of the stories. Please don’t feel offended or talked down to: quite often, these are lushly illustrated and faithfully-done retellings that are worth a look even by dignified teenagers. In short, they’re really cool. Please see the drop-down menu under the Hoard of Wisdom link above for specific lists to study! |