Now What Did We Learn Today?
Mar. 31st, 2009 08:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xanithofdragonsI do not like the story of Dido and Aeneas (at least as it is told by Vergil in Aeneid.) Why? It's a trainwreck. TRAINWRECK. It's such a trainwreck that it can still be called a trainwreck even though it was written in and took place in a time that didn't have trains. Humans, gods, EVERYONE makes mistake after mistake, and then (SPOILER ALERT) it ends in suicide. Miserable, lonely, hopeless, pointless suicide. And I'm left asking over and over again, why was this mistake not averted? Why did neither Venus nor Juno realize the Aeneas/Dido would not work out? Why did both Anna and Dido think it would work out when they'd heard MORE THAN ONE TIME that MORE THAN ONE PERSON had prophesied that Aeneas kinda sorta needed to go to Italy (and NOT Carthage)? Why did Dido think that she and Aeneas were "married" when Aeneas had said no such thing? Why didn't Aeneas or Dido suggest that Dido go along with Aeneas? Why didn't Dido decide that she could live on without Aeneas after he left? Why does no one have a brain except for maybe Iarbas, Jupiter, and Mercury? Why was this story even told?
Now, I'm assuming there's supposed to be some lesson that we learn here. What is it? Don't go for guys who're gonna have to leave anyway? Don't recklessly get into romantic relationships? The gods rule your life anyway, so who cares? Carthage sucks? I can't figure out what I'm supposed to learn with all of this. Which mistake am I supposed to avoid? Can I avoid these mistakes? Am I screwed in life 'cause I'm a woman? If the people reading something are supposed to learn something from it, but don't learn what the writer wanted them to learn, then that writer has failed his or her purpose, which nobody knows anyway... Great...
Now, it might just be me, but I think that if people really wanna teach us something in a story, they should teach it with happiness and success, not misery and death. I can tell from Crime and Punishment that the author wants us to follow Christianity, but I can't tell anything for certain from Book 4 of Aeneid what Vergil wanted us to do or even if he wanted us to do anything.
Sure, sure, "There's more lessons to be learned from failure than from success" or whatever it was. I disagree. I don't think there's necessarily any more lessons to be learned from failure than there are from success. We do need to be reminded more that there's lessons from failure than we do that there's lessons from success, however, but that's psychology. We learn more easily from reward than from punishment. When we're rewarded, we do what we did to get rewarded, but when we're punished, instead of not doing what we were punished for, we may instead learn how to not get caught doing it. When we see other people rewarded for doing something, we know that it must be a good thing to do, but when we see someone punished for doing something, what do we do? Do we not do the thing, thinking that we, too, will get punished? Do we do the thing regardless, not caring about the punishment? Or do we figure out a way to do the thing without being found out, so we won't get punished?
This may be somewhat simplified from how an adult reacts to information and makes decisions, but I think the essential points still apply. If you want to teach someone something, reward them, or in the case of telling stories, show them someone who was rewarded for doing what it is you want them to do.
So tell me a happy story! That'll teach me!
Now, I'm assuming there's supposed to be some lesson that we learn here. What is it? Don't go for guys who're gonna have to leave anyway? Don't recklessly get into romantic relationships? The gods rule your life anyway, so who cares? Carthage sucks? I can't figure out what I'm supposed to learn with all of this. Which mistake am I supposed to avoid? Can I avoid these mistakes? Am I screwed in life 'cause I'm a woman? If the people reading something are supposed to learn something from it, but don't learn what the writer wanted them to learn, then that writer has failed his or her purpose, which nobody knows anyway... Great...
Now, it might just be me, but I think that if people really wanna teach us something in a story, they should teach it with happiness and success, not misery and death. I can tell from Crime and Punishment that the author wants us to follow Christianity, but I can't tell anything for certain from Book 4 of Aeneid what Vergil wanted us to do or even if he wanted us to do anything.
Sure, sure, "There's more lessons to be learned from failure than from success" or whatever it was. I disagree. I don't think there's necessarily any more lessons to be learned from failure than there are from success. We do need to be reminded more that there's lessons from failure than we do that there's lessons from success, however, but that's psychology. We learn more easily from reward than from punishment. When we're rewarded, we do what we did to get rewarded, but when we're punished, instead of not doing what we were punished for, we may instead learn how to not get caught doing it. When we see other people rewarded for doing something, we know that it must be a good thing to do, but when we see someone punished for doing something, what do we do? Do we not do the thing, thinking that we, too, will get punished? Do we do the thing regardless, not caring about the punishment? Or do we figure out a way to do the thing without being found out, so we won't get punished?
This may be somewhat simplified from how an adult reacts to information and makes decisions, but I think the essential points still apply. If you want to teach someone something, reward them, or in the case of telling stories, show them someone who was rewarded for doing what it is you want them to do.
So tell me a happy story! That'll teach me!
