I'd like to give a shout-out to my neighbor, two houses down. He's an amazing man. To begin with, he entertains the neighborhood to no end by walking, jogging, or biking his dogs around several times a day. One of these dogs is an Irish Wolfhound the size of a small motorcycle. It's a wonder to behold. Impossible not to stop what you're doing and stare every time they go by. But this man does more than entertain. He's got some sort of tendre for the community. He picks up after everyone else's dogs. He gathers their litter every week as he makes his rounds. And right now, in the beastly pouring rain, he's standing on the corner fishing dead palm fronds out of the gutter with a rake so that the streets will stop flooding. I feel like I should be bringing him hot cocoa, but he's too busy to drink it, and his hands are full. Cookies, perhaps. Or some of that gingerbread already made. Everyone else is at work. No one knows what he does but me, curled up with a blanket and coffee. So I'll thank you, Michael. Thank you very much.
because you were all wondering what I'm writing my dissertation on, here's a brief synopsis of my 'research context': When James Macpherson published his Fragments of Ancient Poetry in 1760, he went to great lengths to make the Fragments appear to be authentic remains of an ancient, heroic oral tradition. His reasons for this were largely political, and as such, influenced the content of the epics themselves. As an attempt to establish a particularly Scottish identity, the poems were quite effective. However, to do so required both a simplification and a manipulation of traditional mythology. Stripped of anagogical significance, the Ossian epics more or less represented an Enlightenment version of history, tradition, and mythic heritage. The stories themselves were changed by their very purpose and in turn changed the manner of representing myth in future narratives. Moreover, the emphasis on the Ossian epics as authentic tales from the past, as ‘fragments,’ served...
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