Session 21 - Which Gave Shapes to Hoops, Sight to Blindness, and Names to the Unknown

We began with Sticks, real ones, diameter about the same as one of those large chocolate coins that Santa, Master of Reindeer and Gifts, leaves in your Christmas Stocking, height about that of the tallest Ten-year-old in the Class, the one that has to stand in the Back Row for Photographs.

We threw them all perfectly at the same Moment, in Unison. This became Rhythmic. And then we moved one step to the Left and caught the Person to our lefts. Again all perfectly in rhythm and unison and of course No-one dropped any ever.

We then did the same with Green Hoops. And then Sian Who Can Translate the Movement of the Spheres did a marvellous thing and created a pattern with them so we all became interlinked with the Hoops like DNA. Or the Olympics. And then added a Rhythm to the Pattern and steps too with the empty Beats and an Up-Down bit. And we were all very pleased and exclaimed at the Beauty of it for a while. We tried different Tempos.

We did some clapping together in Circles and then with our eyes closed and then moving and then Spread Out. Counting was important.

We did another Rhythm with our interlinked circle but this time it was 3 steps forward, 2 back, like an incoming Tide.

We divided the Circle and moved at different speeds like two parts of Charybdis. Then in partners, with one Hoop between us, we took turns making up a different rhythm and Leading or Following our partner through the Space.

We took Different partners and took turns being led and Blind with only the hoop between for Guidance. We also got to observe some partners.

We then took Different partners again and told any Book to them, A telling, B Blind, no Umming or Hesitation or Boring I'm so Unconfident Mugging allowed. I was with Scott Who Trusts in the Universe and I told him The Book Mainly About Circe (But Which Also Contains a Huge Amount of Other Very Important Journeys). The first instruction from TC The One Who Fires Up our Brains Until They Become a Collective Furnace was to just tell them the book but we only had 5 minutes to do it in and he told us when we were halfway through and 2 mins to go, 1 minute, 30 seconds, 10 seconds left. I talked very very quickly and still only just made it and only very factually and basically (much like this blog).

Then we swapped and B had to tell A the Book again in 5 minutes but from the perspective of someone else in the book. Scott Who Trusts the Universe started off in a growly exhausted dirty gruntle of a voice and it soon emerged that he was a Sailor on Odysseus' ship that had untied the Bag of Winds and seen everything unravel as a consequence. He did this Cool Thing where by the Time he told me about being Turned into a Pig he was already so full of Self-Loathing and Guilt and Filth and Disgust at himself that he was almost one already. He didn't want to go to the Land of the Dead at all.

Then we swapped again and the instruction was to tell the Book from yet another perspective, in 5 minutes, and to call on our powers of Exploitation to make the most of having them a Blind Captive. I positioned Scott Who Trusts the Universe by the Piano but didn't end up using it very much, mostly whispered and wrapped a grey jersey round his head. It emerged I was Circe in the moments before he woke convincing his Dreaming Self to stay with me.

Then we swapped again and B had to interpret the sounds that TCThe One Who Fires Up our Brains Until They Become a Collective Furnaceand Sian Who Can Translate the Movement of the Spheres were making at various different moments around the room. Scott told me about the Bag of Winds which had sounded like a bunch of Keys, Aeolas pushing over a spear in Anger at Odysseus' mistake after his generosity, the snuffling of the pigs as they rooted in the earth, the pop in the air as Hermes appeared suddenly on the path to Circe. 5 minutes and we were through the Book again.

Next we Improvised a Dialogue straight away, both Blind, but every no and then and Intervention would occur, TCThe One Who Fires Up our Brains Until They Become a Collective Furnacewould say something like 'someone is going to laugh..now' or 'someone is going to get angry..now' or 'someone is going to give someone a piece of advice' or someone is going to make a prophecy' and we had to include them straight away without Hesitation. I became Hermes and Scott Who Trusts the Universe was Odysseus and he got offended at me saying that Moly (the White Flower with a Black Root that Protects him from Circe's Charms) was difficult to dig up for a Mortal. What was weird was that all the things that intervened happened at exactly the Right Time. Maybe the Odessey is just packed with people getting annoyed and giving advice and parting?

Then we Shared the Cool Things our Partner Had Done. Please feel free to add more of these here, I didn't write them down, I remember that someone had told a Book from the perspective of Penelope's Pillow which just proves how memorable either the Image of that is or Alliteration in general. Please add the ones you Remember.

Then we made up Epithets (not the same as Epilets which was how my Head Remembered the Word until I went back to my Notes but I suppose they must have something in common - something about being Shiny and Standing Out?) We got given a character from the Book With the Great Bow including some that might not have realised they were there, and wrote their Epithet on a piece of paper. Then put them all into the Middle and picked another, crossed that one out and wrote a better one (unless we liked that one so much, then you just had to write it out again). Then we repeated that, and then repeated it again. While we were thinking and writing TC, The One Who Fires Up our Brains Until They Become a Collective Furnace, did this Cool Thing where talked about little Anecdotes while we did it, it sort of relaxed a bit of your Brain a bit while the other bit did some work. Like a Dolphin sleeping half its Brain at a time Underwater.

Here's what we ended up with:

Odysseus, Who Rules His Own World
Eurycleia, The Tireless Mother to All
Telemachus, Lost in His Father’s Shadow
Penelope, Who Can Stop a Room
Melantho Who Always Thought She was Wiser than All
Eurymachus, The Best of the Boastful
Eumeus, The Faithful One
Amphinamus, The Less Corrupt of the Needy Ones
Theoclymenus, Whose Deeds Often Go Unremembered
Philemeus, With a Song of a True and Loyal Heart
Antinous, Who Was Afraid of the Poor
Phemius,Large of Voice, but Small of Stature

I was Given all the bits of Paper at the end - here's what some of them look like (if you can Imagine the first two of each crossed out):

Telemachus The Steadfast and Loyal Son

Telemachus The Lost and Searching Son

Telemachus, Lost in His Father's Shadow

Eurymachus, Who was as Welcoming as He was Faithful

Eurymachus, The Faithful, Enduring Carer

Eurymachus, The Faithful One

Antinous The Corrupt and Tactical Wrong-Brain

Antinous Who was so Afraid of Life that He Beat Up Beggars

Antinous Who was Afraid of the Poor

Melantho Who Thinks Her Promiscuity is the Key to Good Fortune

Melantho Whose Creamy White Thighs Led to Her Own Demise

Melantho Who Always Thought She was Wiser than All

Then Fed The Quick Brain and Scott Who Trusts the Universe told us the Book of The Great Bow Contest and every time they mentioned our person we had to give their Epithet. It was really interesting because like the Patterns we had made with Hoops earlier on Rhythms started emerging and it kept you hooked and sort of almost hypnotised by the story, and you felt part of it.

Which is a very Cool Thing.

Maddy