Where are we going?

The Metamorphoses is now more than 2000 years old but here we are in the year 2009 reading Ovid’s work proving once again that “All that is past possesses the present.” Proving this point with more emphasis is the book An Imaginary Life, because the book takes a really event, that is somewhat of a mystery still, and makes it into an imagined tale of events. The writer, Malouf, seems to be conscious of the fact that Ovid knew that his poetry would still be read today. Malouf’s book takes a fictional look into Ovid’s life after exile. Malouf being aware that readers still read Metamorphoses he wrote, “I cast this letter upon the centuries, uncertain in what landscape of unfamiliar objects it may come to light, and with what eyes you will read it. Is Latin still known to you?”(18). The past becomes the present for us, every time we read the past becomes the present. Of all the things we have read we seem to have many reoccurring themes popping up. In Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis we see Agamemnon have his own daughter killed just for the pride of his brother and people. In An Imaginary Life we can observe these lines: “After a century of war in which whole families had destroyed one another in the name of patriotism” (25). Certainly the vision of young Iphigeneia’s death pops into my mind while reading these lines.
In class we have been passing around a rock so that we can begin to love, so that we can begin to learn how to love. We must begin at the bottom rung of the latter in order to make our way up the latter of love. Malouf recognizes this simple idea and he writes about in his book. “Embrace the tree trunk and feel the spirit flow back into you, feel the warmth of the stone enter your body,…” (28). Malouf talks about loving the tree the rock and later on he even talks about loving the clouds. He seemingly makes this a turning point in Ovid’s life in exile, when he finally finds himself. Much later in the novel Ovid tries to feel as the young wild boy must feel. “I try to think as he must: I am raining, I am thundering, and I am immediately struck with panic,…”(96). The reason Ovid is struck with panic in this scene is because he is worried about losing control of his soul. It is his soul that he saves by capturing the young, he recaptured his childhood that he lost at his brother’s death. And it is his soul and the soul of the child that accompany him to the other side of the river (the river in the underworld).