Henderson the Rain King paper

“You could never convince me that this was for the first time.” –Henderson (p.318)

Upon finishing the book I couldn’t help but feeling that a burden had been lifted off of me. It could possibly just be that the stress of finals was reduced by checking an item off my to-do list, but I think it was more than that. I think that I was experiencing Henderson’s own change; the sublime feeling of a new beginning.

            All throughout the book I was repulsed by this pompous ass. He was so…American. He felt that he knew everything, could help anyone, and always had to get in the way. I realize that the author made him this obnoxious on purpose. But something else amazed me; the fact that I kind of liked him. He reminded me of me in a way. How you have high hopes and the best of intentions but you can’t see beyond the trees to take-in the entire forest. He was an old guy just trying to make sense of his life and find a purpose. The purpose to life; now that is a huge question that most of us tend to ponder when in our lowest days. This purpose and truth is what I chose to focus my paper on; how doses of truth represent mythical eschatology that happens in each of our lives on a daily basis.

            Initiation, Separation, Return. The second stage is by far the longest and the hardest. But there are always glimpses of hope, reminders of metempsychosis, and truth presenting itself in blows. Henderson experiences these mythical apocalypses all throughout the book. These “phases of a hero” do not occur over one lifetime, like mythological eschatology they can happen again and again. He is continuously evolving. He views his world a certain way, something happens, and his view of that particular world changes entirely. It is a cycle; a cycle that we are all caught in; a cycle that only occurs while we are neck-high in the conflict.

            And Henderson is definitely neck-high. He can’t explain it but he has an urge to get out of the daily routine of his life. The inner-voice is started to be too loud to drown out. He has to discover just what it wants. What he finds is an apocalypse of his old self and an “awakening of his spirit.” He first notices this when he enters Arnewi land. He describes it as “entering the past—the real past, no history or junk like that.” (p. 49) He talks with the woman of Bittahness and she perceives him with grun-tu-molani, wanting to live. He agrees with her and does some soul searching but is cut short because being his egocentric, ignorant self he ruins the opportunity and must move on to the next village.

            There he meets Dahfu, the King of the Wariri, and since this king is well-educated they indulge in some very eye-opening conversation. Henderson explains that people who have found truth are be-ers but people who are still searching are becomers. These two distinctions are the differences between separation and return. You must learn to be in order to “arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.” (T.S. Elliot) Henderson exclaims that “every man born has to carry his life to a certain depth;” the more of a be-er you become, the deeper you can go, and the more truth will be revealed. Henderson explains that witnessing this truth leads to living in reality. “It wanted reality. How much unreality could it stand?” (p.298) This was the final answer that Henderson came to addressing his inner wanting. He wanted an apocalypse of his current view of the world; he wanted his “soul to be awakened.” Henderson feels this awakening in many instances throughout the book and each of these instances represents a mini-apocalypse. He goes from being a human to a pig to a lion and in the end, he returns home a far different man than when first left for Africa.

Something that interferes with the discovering of truth is fear; “Fear is a ruler of mankind. It has the biggest dominion of all.” (p.243) Henderson is most scared of Dahfu’s lion, Atti. This fear is what he must overcome in order to witness reality and change. He makes references to Moby Dick a lot in this book. Since I have never actually read the book (I know, bad!) I cannot really comment on Ishmael and the whale but another “animal-fear” story comes to mind; The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway. In this story a spineless man goes on a water buffalo hunt in Africa (hmmm, a pattern emerging?) with his quick-to-degrade wife. He is paralyzed by fear on their first outing, but on the second outing he confronts his fear and kills the buffalo as it is charging him. His wife, however, accidentally shoots him and he dies in his greatest moment of glory. Macomber’s buffalo is Henderson’s lion. Once they both get over their fear, they are both changed by the experience, Henderson the luckier of the two because he can discover the new depth he has acquired during his metamorphosis whereas Francis only knows his happiness of truth for a few fleeting seconds.

            This continuous changing of Henderson is precisely why Dahfu introduced him to Atti in the first place. Although Henderson didn’t totally buy in to the mind being the total controller of how we physically and mentally grow and change like Dahfu did, he did agree that change is possible. There is a quote that I really enjoyed; “And as man is the prince of organisms he is the master of adaptations.” It reminds me of my science teacher. He was a really really really (three really’s is totally needed) odd man but he had this quote on his podium “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.” (Yet another Ernest Hemingway reference). Through all these trials and tribulations of the middle, Henderson realizes that inside him is the power to change, and it has been there all along.

            I’ll try to wrap-up this totally disorganized paper by shortly addressing the final return, death. But more than just death, immortality. Henderson’s reaction to this notion is “But these dead should go. They make us think of them. That is their immortality. In us.” Another powerful reminder of how humans truly can live forever and how important our role is in the cycle of life. We continue to face trials, not just so the poets have things to write about, but so we can overcome them, change our perspective of ourselves, and immortalize the concept. We discover our depth and our reality and then we wake up the next day and discover a whole new depth and reality. This suffering, these cyclical apocalypses, these powerful blows of truth is our daily lion. The question is whether or not we put our best foot forward to go to Africa and catch it or just stay in our own comfort as ignorant, pompous swine.

one minute Ovid

Perseus and Atlas:


Perseus is this young cocky kid who thinks he's the shit because Zeus is his father and he has wings. He has also just defeated the gorgon Medussa and he carries her head around like a medal to show everyone how awesome he is. So he's flying along and decides he's tired and wants to bed down for the night. So he asks Atlas, the land owner he happens to be flying over, if he can stay.
Atlas is this huge Titan and his land is vast and wide with plenty of room for a visitor, but Atlas long ago was warned that a son of Zeus would come and despoil all his trees of their golden fruit. Thinking that Perseus is this son (in actuality it is Hercules) he insults the boy by saying, along the lines of, "no you cannot stay here. you are not the son of zeus. and you are not awesome!"
Well this pisses dear Perseus off so he throws a punch. and soon the two men are throwing each other around in a pushing match. but Perseus is getting his ass kicked because he is no match for the Titan. so as a sore loser he says "okay okay i'll leave. but before I go, here is my farewell present." and he lifts up the head of Medussa.
It is too late for Atlas to turn away and he stares into her eyes. He is transformed into a huge mountain mass, his hair and beard become trees, his arms and shoulder blades become the ridges, his bones become stones, and his head must hold up the heavens and stars forever.

*In modern days, this story repeats itself, for me, most visibly in assuming. "You know what happens when you assume- you make an ass out of u and me" OR you insult a powerful prick who turns you into a mountain. potatoe-potato!

Ovid Book XV

MYSCELUS:     The son of Alemon follows Hercules' instrutction and constructs a town.
PYTHAGORAS:      A wise man who warned against killing and eating animals--"For all things change, but no thing dies."
NUMA:      A follower of Pythagoras teaches his Latin state the arts of peace.

EGERIA & HIPPOLYTUS:      Numa's wife cannot be consoled by learning of other's anguish and she continues to cry until she is turned into an eternal spring.
TAGES:     A clod turns into a man who teaches people to read the future.
CIPUS:      A man is ashamed of his horns and cannot enter the city but are given land outside of it.
AESCULAPIUS:     Apollo's son can transform into a snake and stops at the Island to make his shrine and brought good health.

CAESAR:      The great ruler cannot be spared from human plots but is taken up into the sky and can still look down on his son.
EPILOGUE:    Nothing can stop Ovid from being immortalized; writing gives him life--"I shall have life!"

Ovid Book XIV

GLAUCUS, CIRCE, SCYLLA:     Circe tries to woe the creature but fails so instead turns his love into a sea creature feared by boats.
THE CERCOPES:     The father of the gods turned his people into monkeys and stripped them of speech.

THE SIBYL:   Aeneas enters the underworld to get the Golden Bough and learns that Sybil was granted long life but forgot to ask for youth.
ACHAEMENIDES:     A survivor of the monstrous Cyclops was shown mercy from a Trojan ship and escaped the island.
AEOLUS, ULYSSES, CIRCE:       Right as the men were about to get home they got greedy and opened up a bag of wind which pushed them in the opposite direction and landed them with Circe who turned them to pigs.

PICUS & CANENS:     A nymph told of a story where Circe captured a beloved husband and the wife filled with grief withered away in a spot that then was named in remembrance of her.
DIOMEDES:     Explains that he cannot help in a fight because his men pissed of Venus who sends storms and turn all his men into birds.
THE APULIAN SHEPHERD:     An arrogant douche is turned into a tree for mocking nymphs.
AENEAS' SHIPS:    The ships destroyed at sea were turned into Naiads who still hate the Greeks.
ARDEA:       A city falls and as it does a bird rises from the ashes and gets its name from that place.
AENEAS:     Aeneas is made into a god by his mother Venus' plea.
VERTUMNUS & POMONA:      A satyr dresses in disguise to talk to a gardening nymph.

IPHIS & ANAXARETE:     A young man falls in love with a bitchy tease and then kills himself to appease her and she turns to stone, cold like her heart.
VERTUMNUS & POMONA:     He reveals his true self to the nymph and she falls for his godly beauty.
THE FOUNTAIN OF JANUS:      Venus asks the Naiads to flood the fountain and add hot sulfur so as to stop an attack and let the other side have time to prepare for a bloody battle that ended in a tie.
ROMULUS:     A great King is made into a deity--Quirinus
HERSILIA:     Romulus' wife is filled with grief and begs to be reunited so it also turned into a deity--Hora

Ovid Book XIII

AJAX & ACHILLE'S ARMOR:     Ajax says that he single handedly defeated the Trojans and deserves glory.

ULYSSES & ACHILLE'S ARMOR:    Odysseus is much more humble in his plea for keeping the armor.
AJAX:    After losing the armor he kills himself with his won sword and Hyacinth appears.
THE FALL OF TROY:     The war is over and as the men get killed the women are drug away by the Greeks.
POLYMESTOR & POLYDORUS:     The King was supposed to hide Priam's son but instead cuts his throat after the war has ended.
POLYXENA:     Achille's shade makes the virgin his sacrifice and she is murdered to appease.
POLYXENA & HECUBA:    The poor mother is left with no sons or daughters and taken captive.
HECUBA, POLYDORUS & POLYMESTOR:     When she learns of her son's death she rips out the lying King's eyes and begins to howl with despair.
AURORA & MEMNON:     The deities son dies and is turned into Memnonides while she continuously weeps and creates dew.
THE VOYAGE OF AENEAS:     One boat of refugees flees Troy in an attempt to  be spared.

THE DAUGHTERS OF ANIUS:      Daughter's trying to flee are turned to white doves.
THE DAUGHTERS OF ORION:     Therses sends Anius a cup with an engraving of how the daughter's sacrificed themselves to save their city from plague.
THE VOYAGE OF AENEAS:       The men sail all over the place and eventually end up at Messina's sands.
GALATEA & ACIS:    A beautiful women is coveted by the Cyclops who kills her husband who then became a river god.
CLAUCUS & SCYLLA:     A monstrous sea god tells his story to a prospective love who breaks his heart by running away in fear.

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book XII

IPHIGENIA:       The fleet in pursuit of Helen cannot continue until the sacrifice Agamemnon's virgin daughter but she is spared at the last second.

RUMOR:     She lets the Trojans know that the Greeks are coming!
ACHILLES & CYCNUS:     Two men who seem to be immune to physical pain in a fight.
CAENIS/CAENUS:      A beautiful women gets raped and wishes to be a man so that nothing can hurt her again, Neptune grants the wish and also gave her immunity to wounds.
LAPITHS & CENTAURS:      Being drunk has its consequences for the centaurs who get a little too frisky; they all get killed rather grotesque and violently.
CYLLARUS:     A handsome centaur also perishes and his wife, distraught, casts herself on the same spear.
CAENUS:     The massacre is ended when the centaurs gang up and suffocate their killer, but before he is crushed completely be becomes a bird and flies off.

HERCULES & PERICLYMENUS:       The old storyteller confesses his hatred of Hercules for killing his brother while he was in the shape of an eagle flying away.
THE DEATH OF ACHILLES:      Neptune is still angry over Cycnus' defeat that he calls upon Apollo to guide one of Paris' arrow into the susceptible spot.

One big bang vs.repeated cycles

All this talk about the "lifting of the veil" and the zombie/nuclear/alien/rapture-tribulation end of the world have got me thinking about whether or not I believe in literal or mythical eschatology. And I don't claim to know which one is right and which one is wrong. Like most contradictions in this (like to believed) black-and-white world, I feel that the answer lies somewhere in the middle.
I do go to church though, so that causes some biased opinion on the whole reincarnation-metempsychosis thing and therefore I don't buy into the cyclical eschatology in regards to coming back as different objects/beings. Although once again, I do not claim that this view is neither wrong nor right.The thought of not eating meat intrigues me since it IS possible that the life form is my great uncle, but that won't stop me for devouring and digesting it. But I do think that the important life lesson out of metempsychosis is the idea that we need to have respect for all things. whether that be animals, or nature, or even a brick wall; respect is the key. But I digressed (or maybe not).
The balance between the two (for me) is the notion that cyclical mythology occurs when our perceived view of the world around us changes. and I think that in that aspect, I have suffered many apocalypses already! and then my Religious upbringing kicks in (Protestant, not Jewish) and I believe that when Christ comes back he will bring an "eschatological" end for the earth as we know it as well. Both will occur, and one has been and will continue to be occurring all throughout my lifetime.
I realize that there are a LOT smarter people than I in the universe that will think what I just said is complete rubbish, and that there are also a LOT dumber people that will view it as complete bull shit as well. *The respect thing comes into play here; it doesn't matter if your view is different than someone else's because your view will change. and in the end regardless of which apocalypse you believe in we ALL die.
I think that how I continue to perceive my world will change a few more thousand times before I kick the can. Especially during the phase where what my parents taught me to believe differs from what I'm discovering to believe. An example of both occurring is the notion that we measure everything in years. I just had a birthday and every single person asks "Do you feel older than last year?" Why LAST year. Why last YEAR. why can't it be two days ago or 10348634098623409863098345 minutes ago? We already perceive our world on a cyclical yearly basis. But I think everyone will agree that it is not the actual 365 days that make us feel older or give us a new outlook, it's the events; the mythological eschatology, changing of our minds, witnessing something sublime, fearing death, taking on a new identity, losing weight, getting married, getting divorced, having kids, etc. THOSE are the apocalypse. and although change is scary, it should not be feared to the point of debilitation and so for all those zombie and radical end of the world freaks, calm down! You have nothing to fear. I guess maybe the rapture will bring forth a literal end but I'm guessing that I'll already be dead by then and those on the earth that are left can create their own interpretation of what's to come. the important thing is that what's to come has already been done before and will change something within you. What's to come is Mythology!

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book XI

ORPHEUS:       The poet is attacked by a frenzy of women and is torn from limb to limb but bitter sweetly meets his love in the end.
THE BACCHANTES:        The God is saddened by Orpheus' death so turns the followers who killed him into oak trees.
MIDAS:     The foolish king asks for gold but then learns his lesson only to witness a lyre contest and be cursed with the ears of an ass.
TROY:     An untruthful king pays for not following through with paying some in-disguise Gods.
PELEUS & THETIS:       Jove is warned to not sleep with the Goddess so he gives the task to Peleus, his grandson, who must tie the girl down to win her as a bride; how romantic.
CEYX:       Peleus accidentally kills his own brother and seeks refuge in Ceyx's city.
DAEDALION:       Ceyx's own brother is a hawk who leaped to kill himself after his foolish daughter's downfall.
THE WOLF:      Revenge gave birth to a ravage wolf who was only stopped by Thetis' mercy for her husband.
CEYX & ALCYONE:      The king goes on a voyage and never comes back but both are turned to birds so as to still be together.
 
AESACUS:    Hector's brother is at fault for the death of his lover so he tries to die as well only to be turned into a bird who forever dives to feel death.

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book X

ORPHEUS & EURYDICE:    A man wishes to get his wife from the Underworld but looks back too soon and loses her forever.

CYPARISSUS:     A young boy accidentally kills his beloved stag and wished eternal mourning as a tree.
ORPHEUS' PROLOGUE:      Stricken with grief the musician begins his a song in a meadow.
GANYMEDE:     Jove now rapes (kidnaps) a boy who prepares Jove's nectar.
HYACINTHUS:      Apollo's love for a boy is the destruction and H's blood turns to a flower.
THE CERASTES:      Inhabitants that used to sacrifice strangers are turned into savage bulls.
THE PROPOETIDES:      The girl inhabitants were cursed to prostitute their grace and then turn to stone.
PYGMALIOM:     A man despises women so much that he makes his own out of ivory and falls in love with her.

MYRRHA & CINYRAS:     A daughter seduces her own father and turns into a tree, pregnant with his seed.
THE BIRTH OF ADONIS:      The beautiful babe is born of a tree full of disgrace.
VENUS & ADONIS:      The goddess warns her lover to not hung courageous beasts.
ATALANTA & HIPPOMENES:       The race for either a wife or death ends in good spirits with the help of three golden apples, but he forgets to be thankful and both are turned to lions.

THE FATE OF ADONIS:     The boy fails to heed the warning and hunts a boar who sinks him in the groin and as he dies Venus turns his blood to the floor anemone.

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book IX

ACHELOUS & HERCULES:     Both men want Deianira's hand in marriage and fight for her, but Hercules strength overpowers the river-god and a cornucopia is used by Abundance made of his horn.

HERCULES, DEIANIRA, NESSUS:     The evil satyr tricks poor D into believing her husband is cheating but as he takes her across the river, Hercules shoots him, and his dying breath is to give a shirt of "magic."

HERCULES & DEIANIRA:      The poor girl thinks she is giving a love spell and instead the shirt of flame burns chunks of flesh and cannot be taken off.
ALCMENA:      Hercules' mother tells her granddaughter the story of his delivery and how Juno had not been successful with her attempt to prevent the birth and had taken her anger out on a poor maiden.
DRYOPE:      The granddaughter tells of her poor sister who ate berries off the wrong tree and was turned into a tree herself.
IOLAUS:     Hercule's nephew was given the gift of rejuvenation and all the other gods and goddesses wanted it for their children as well.
BYBLIS & CAUNUS:      A sister falls madly in love with her brother and goes too crazy to function so is made into an eternal fountain.
IPHIS & IANTHE:       A baby's sex is hidden so as not to be killed and on the eve of the wedding, she is changed from a girl to a man to wed his bride.

Ovid's Metamorphoses Book VIII

SCYLLA, NISUS, MINOS:     Out of love a daughter betrays her father and loses the war to Minos, who rejects the girl as both of the betrayed turn to birds.
DAEDALUS, THE MINOTAUR, THESEUS, ARIADNE:     The haughty king neglects to sacrifice all the bulls and is punished a half-bull son who he locks away until Theseus with help from the king's own daughter slays him.
DAEDALUS & ICARUS:    The father creates wings but the naiive son flies too close and falls to his death.
 
DAEDALUS & PERDIX:     The nephew was proving to be a better innovator so Daedalus pushed him to his death, but he was spared and turned into a bird who is afraid to fly too high.
THE CALYDONIAN HUNT:     Diana's wrath has a huge boar killing hunters but Atalanta and Meleager kill the beast.
ALTHAEA & MELEAGER:       A mother wants vengeance against a son for killing his brothers so burns the symbol of his life and then kills herself as the daughter mourn and turn to guinea-hens.

THESEUS & ACHELOUS:     The river God begs Theseus to rest for the night.
THE ECHINADES & PERIMELE:     The river God turned 5 nymphs who had forgotten to invite him to a party to islands and a sixth is his lost love whose father threw her from a cliff.
BAUCIS & PHILEMON:     An old couple gives shelter to Gods in disguise and become priests of the temple and then die together and become trees.
ERYSICHTHON'S SIN:     A stupid man cuts down a sacred tree of Ceres and another who tried to stop him.
ERYSICHTHON & FAMINE:      Ceres calls upon Famine to curse the sinner, making him always want more.
ERYSICHTHON'S DAUGHTER:     She gets sold for her father's addiction but changes shape to deceive her masters.

ACHELOUS:     The river-god reminds the group of how he can change shapes as well and shows his missing horn.