Breakfast with Pandora

Was C.S. Lewis Hephaestus?

Over at this site, a lovely discussion about the Myers-Briggs personality type of Christian scholar and author C.S. Lewis. Most people say INTJ. The author of the blog says INFP.

For Myers-Briggs newbies, go here.

I find a lot of variation in laypeople who discuss Myers-Briggs. Some of it I agree with, and some of I find just plain strange. Like typing Barack Obama as an extrovert, for example.

Image of C.S. Lewis from here.

As to C.S. Lewis: I am an INFP, and by virtue of my personality, I know a lot about myself. INFPs are constantly evaluating themselves, constantly trying to find meaning for this day, this hour, this moment. We are probably the most nitpicky people about ourselves as ever anyone can be.

So I think I know something about being an INFP. So if C.S. Lewis was an INFP, I think I'd be able to see it.

C.S. Lewis was not an INFP. Not purely, anyway.

Let's look at the examples from Greek mythology, shall we?

Hephaestus, in Greek mythology, is the representative of INFPs. He is very gifted, very creative, makes beautiful things, has wonderful ideas. He creates ingenious metal artifacts. He invented robot helpers. He is very interested in harmony: in the Iliad, when Zeus and Hera quarrel, Hephaestus attempts to lighten the mood by soothing feelings and taking on the role of cupbearer, which is below his station:

So he spoke, and the goddess, white-armed Hera, smiled, and smiling took in her hand the cup from her son. Then he poured wine for all the other gods from left to right, drawing forth sweet nectar from the bowl. And unquenchable laughter arose among the blessed gods, as they saw Hephaestus puffing through the palace.

translation from here.

Hephaestus is not interested in power, and his lame leg and physical unattractiveness prevent him from attaining it. Though he is married to Aphrodite, the most beautiful goddess in the world, she does not love him, and regularly has affairs. Hephaestus the super-gifted is also Hephaestus the hamstrung.

INFPs are dreamers and artists. They are quiet teachers and healers. But despite their gifts, they are also cursed with indecision and self-doubt.

The author of the blog post quoted above cites a bunch of different reasons why C.S. Lewis may have been an INFP, including his inability to do math. But I think all his arguments miss the boat.

To be so sure of yourself as to become the mid-20th century's most celebrated Christian apologist-- as C.S. Lewis became and was for over a decade-- you must be able to break free of an INFP's self-doubt. NFPs would break under the strain of trying to justify Christianity because we can never be sure of anything. That type of systematic thinking just evades us. And we would want to see the other's point of view, even if we were (and many of us are) deeply committed Christians.

So I do agree with the majority that C.S. Lewis was probably an INTJ. Just because someone is mainly a thinker and systematizer does not mean they don't feel deeply, and don't, later on, consider the errors of their overly logical ways, as Lewis did. But that type of iron-clad know-it-allness that comes out in works like "Mere Christianity" is NTJ stuff. 

Who is the INTJ Greek divinity? Athena, of course. Highly intellectual, highly sure of herself, she concerns herself with the practical side of thinking-- politics, warfare, warrior-coaching, textile fabrication. Where the rubber hits the road. C.S. Lewis was an intellectual Christian who wanted everyone to see the practicality of the faith.

So, you judge. C.S. Lewis, Hephaestus or Athena? Well, maybe it's not so cut and dried. These two divinities complement each other well. The city of Athens celebrated Athena as their patroness, but they held Hephaestus in ultra-high esteem as well. That is because they saw the worth of systems and practices that kept their city running well, but they also prized the arts and creativity. Athena and Hephaestus are two reasons Athens had a great golden age.  So maybe we can say, in some ways, C.S. Lewis, being as gifted as he was both in argumentation and in creativity ("The Chronicles of Narnia," e.g.), could have had the gifts of both of Athens' favorites.

This is gorgeous

Take a look at this video and tell me in the comments, honestly now, if you saw this video as a commercial on TV or on the Internet, would you think it came from a self-publisher?

 

For those who can't click on the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUN_3AoyMcs 

And yet it does. UK imprint JJ Books is the property of one John Jackson, the 82-year old "chairman of a solicitor's firm" (chief partner in a law firm, for us in the States), according to his publicist Jonathan Knott. 

Having available a lifetime of earnings as an attorney, plus connections and friendships, must open a lot of doors in self-publishing.

• How much did it cost to have this video made? This isn't your average YouTuber on his webcam.
• The illustrator is superbly talented. I hope she did not come cheaply. 
• The blurbs have name recognition ("Times" of London, no doubt).
• Creating the book as an "app" for the iPad must have also cost.  

I love that there are beautiful children in the video enjoying the book almost as a toy rather than just as a book. A paper book doesn't read to you, doesn't have animation, doesn't have buttons to push. This is very appealing.

To be published on February 28 of this year, "Tales for Great Grandchilren"  is a free download, and one story is included. Each additional story costs 99 cents, and there are a total of 13 stories in the collection.

John Jackson clearly has a leg up on most of us in terms of resources. Will this book, "Tales for Great Grandchildren," be a sales success? Does John Jackson, who has accomplished so much in his life already, need for it to be a sales success? What is his goal?

In self- and e-publishing the goal may not be to make a million dollars and become a famous author. It may be simply to do what you want to do.

J.A. Konrath, self-publishing superstar, says the key to making money in self- and e-publishing is to have a lot of things to buy at a small cost. He was a traditionally published author with a large back list, and he makes tons because his old books sell well online. It reminds me of that once-popular get-rich-quick scheme of taking out tiny ads in magazines that say, "Best chili recipe ever, $2.95" and your address. If you have enough different recipes in enough magazines, you will eventually get 10,000 people to send away for your recipe. and make something like $20,000 from a piece of paper.

Such an approach to e-books is not conducive to high quality literature, but to each his own.

A beloved teacher of mine who is also an acclaimed novelist once said that she could not handle the tyranny of having to write books solely for money. The income she got from writing was always a supplement to her family income; she did not produce work frequently enough for it to be a breadwinner's share.

Self- and e-publishing allows everyone-- those after the big gold strikes, and those panning a small stake upstream-- to take writing and publishing at their own speed, and to invest in marketing at whatever level is comfortable. John Jackson's beautiful marketing video may not translate into big sales, but it is what he wanted to do and he went for it. That's gorgeous stuff.

Latin and Greek textbooks: do it yourself

To the continuing saga that is the publishing industry today, we add the mini-drama of self-published Latin and Greek textbooks.

It's a mini-drama because such books are in a niche market at best. I don't go many a day without someone saying they're pleased that "Someone is still teaching Latin."

(In fact, there is currently more demand for Latin in schools than there are qualified teachers.)

And the drama, albeit on a small scale, is real.

Take the example of Geoffrey Steadman, Marine reservist and Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh, who has launched an ambitious publishing program of Latin and Greek textbooks. He writes in his bio that he is currently teaching Latin to 180+ public school students, has three kids and a wife, and still has time to have written several textbooks ranging from Caesar's "Gallic Wars" to the "Histories" of Herodotus, Book I.

The Caesar is going to be especially valuable because it is the only self-published, author-responsive textbook I know of right now that includes a text and commentary for all the selections in the Advanced Placement course on Caesar (and Vergil) that is new for 2012-13.

Where does the drama come in,beyond the trenches of American high school Latin classrooms? Read this, from Steadman's bio page:

Traditional publishers play a vital role in peer-review at this moment, but we should not forget that amid their noble aims their purpose as middle men is to make money to cover their costs and perhaps a profit. Such a purpose is at conflict with the aspirations of the authors and the needs of the readers. Books are rejected not simply because they fail to pass the peer-review test but because publishers cannot envision a way to recoup their own costs in the project in the time that they require. In other words, many books are rejected by traditional publishers not because of their lack of quality or lack of usefulness but because the books cannot make the middle men money. Are such middle men really necessary?

No, they're not. In a niche market like Latin and Greek, few books are going to pass the marketability test. The cost of making a high-quality print book that has gone through the editorial and peer review process is time-consuming and costly. Many very specialized books that are only going to be read by a handful of professors in a handful of research libraries cost a hundred dollars and more per copy.

It makes perfect sense for teachers, who are constantly creating their own materials anyway, to go into business for themselves, market their stuff on a print-on-demand basis, with very little upfront investment but plenty of potential for readers to benefit.

So the e-publishing and self-publishing revolution marches on.

It's true that the potential for errors in a text such as this are numerous, not only because of typos but because classical languages are complicated and not every idea, observation, or translation made by one person is going to be perfectly sound.

Steadman escapes that dilemma by making his books available for free electronic download to anyone, so that they can be read, commented on, and given a critique. Through "crowdsourcing" and collective editing, the book becomes better.

Those who want a paper book can buy one, and teachers can order sets for classroom use.

I don't see a downside to this model. I can easily envision my using this textbook as a way to encourage students to read more actively. "Where on this page might there be an error, something unclear, or something you would want to add?" I might ask. This practice engages students as editors who have a kind of ownership of the learning in the book, rather than solely consumers who are receiving the knowledge of an infallible expert.

A long time ago, when I was still an active member of my professional classicists' association, I suggested to someone well connected in the field that it was about time to make all scholarship freely available on the Internet. He disagreed, saying that scholarly publishing was a valuable, money-making activity that needed to be preserved.

Scholarly publishing certainly can continue as long as there is a market for it. But I commend Geoffrey Steadman for bringing the self-publishing revolution to another corner of the reading world.

Teenage heroes and teenage hubris (long)

You may not have seen the latest (the first?) viral parenting video of the 21st century, but if you're the parent of a teen, you probably should.

It's extreme, and it's controversial.

I will not summarize its contents-- you can probably find it by googling extreme dad video, or you can keep reading. I give my thoughts below.

First, for the purposes of this post, I'm going to assume that what the father says is pretty much the truth, and what his daughter says in her expletive-filled Facebook post is exaggeration. At second hand, you can't tell who's being more honest, but there are some details in both their versions that point to the dad's essential honesty.

The details also point to an interpretation that hopefully will both make sense and show how ancient mythology can illumine everyday realities.

I have shown elsewhere how the life of teens often resembles that of heroes in Greek mythology. Adrift in a chaotic wilderness that is the liminal state between childhood and adulthood, teenagers often go adventuring, in a variety of ways. These forays into the wilderness accomplish several things in the teen's mind:

• Confirm their sense of leaving their protected childhood behind
• Give them glory among their fellow teenage heroes, their proto-adult community
• Give them a sense of adult individuality and self-determination

 All of which, really, is a search for boundaries.

No one-- not even authentic Greek heroes-- really likes being in the wilderness with its hazy borderlands between death and life, divinity and mortality, wilderness and civilization.

No, everyone pretty much wants to get Home.

Problem for teenage heroes: home is not back in childhood, and it is not yet in adulthood. Hence the search.

The young lady in question here was not, thank goodness, guilty of the kind of self-destructive behavior into which some teens venture. Her sin was extreme public disrespect of her parents. It's the kind of thing that would get my daughter grounded for eternity.

The teen thought she was posting this message only to her friends, thinking that her parents would not see it-- although, as the dad points out, he is an IT professional who had just spent 6 hours updating and upgrading her laptop.

So it was clear he was going to find out-- and I believe the teen knew that. She was not really ranting and cursing for the purpose of complaining about a horrible life. She was trying to find the place where her father would react hard and decisively, showing her the limit.

She found it.

The situation reminds me of hubris stories in Greek mythology, and especially the story of Niobe. In Greek mythology human beings are constantly putting themselves on the level of the gods (displaying hubris), and the gods are constantly knocking them down. It's a given in the Greek ethos that gods are jealous of their top dog status. They will impose limits.

Niobe boasted that she should be given worship instead of Leto, the local mom goddess worshipped by Niobe's people, and the mother of the Olympian divinities Apollo and Artemis. I have 14 children, she crowed. Leto only has 2.

The result? Apollo and Artemis shot dead (with arrows) Niobe's children and turned her into a boulder with water (tears) constantly seeping out.

This type of story helps Greeks find their limits and, in a world where life is difficult and fragile, help them accept their powerlessness.

So the dad of our video has imposed a limit, and has insisted on respect from his daughter. As the person who provides for her materially and (we trust) has sheltered her in a household of love as well, he deserves that. 

So, too, the Greeks felt that the gods gave humans everything, and were deserving of respect.

I hope the punishment of the young Niobe of our current viral video will be beneficial to her. If it were me, I would go about it a different way, though I completely understand the father's rage.

But the main point, to me, is that when a teen comes to that point of disrespect, it is usually because they have been wading through a hazy wilderness and they are trying to find some clarity.

The father has written on his Facebook page that his daughter is privileged materially:

The second lesson I want her to learn is the value of a dollar. We don’t give her everything she asks for, but you can all imagine what it’s like being the only grandchild and the first child. Presents and money come from all sides when you’re young. Most of the things she has that are “cool” were bought or gifted that way. She’s always asked for very few things, but they’re always high-dollar things (iPod, laptop, smartphone, etc). Eventually she gets given enough money to get them. That’s not learning the value of a dollar. Its knowing how to save money, which I greatly applaud in her, but it’s not enough. She wants a digital SLR camera. She wants a 22 rifle like mine. She wants a car. She wants a smart phone with a data package and unlimited texting. (I have to hear about that one every week!) 

She has not had to pay for anything. She doesn't have to reckon, like an adult, on the cost of things. She is still being given things, as if she were a small child.

This is her particular wilderness, or in-between world: endless material gifts (childhood), no sense of what it costs to own them (adulthood).

I agree with the dad that the next electronic device the daughter uses should be one she pays for. If she does not understand the incredible gift she's been given in comfort, security, and material wealth, then let her experience the effort and sweat it takes to obtain such.

The dad is doing the right thing by pointing his daughter more definitely toward adult responsibility. The method he used to get his point across, to me, is excessive, and if you want to discuss why in the comments, I'd be most happy to.

Finally, and thanks be to you if you have read this far, this video has reminded me that parents of teens are hamstrung in a lot of ways. Most of us spend a lot of time with other parents when our children are young. We have to: we are at their baseball games, their dance practices, their violin lessons, waiting to shuttle them to the next stop. There's a lot of downtime, a lot of time to compare notes and commiserate and strategize.

When the teen years hit, we tend to scatter. Our kids don't want us around. Kids transport themselves by sharing rides, taking the bus, learning to drive. They stay after school for their activities. That means, for many of us, an information blackout. I was surprised to hear from another dad about his daughter's disrespect of him. She always struck me as a sweet, cheerful and forgiving person. But for him, there was nothing but disdain. We obviously need still to compare notes.

It's tough being a god to teenage heroes. Especially since, at some point, we're all going to be demoted from god status. But then, apparently, the reward is promotion to grandparent status.

I'll look forward to that. 

ENFPs I have known

With thanks to ENFP Haven, a Yahoo group that links to BwP.

The ENFP is among my favorite MBTI types, but I must say, I admire them at a distance. Some ENFPs work very hard to be charming, flirty and irresistible. Then, when you have become a fan, they move on to the next set of potential fans. (Emphasis on the some.*) Not fun for those introverts among us who believe that when you have met one nice person, that should be your one friend, and you can spend your time reading together.

(Boh-ring! We introverts should get out more.)

Image: Detail of Botticelli's Venus found here.

Aphrodite, "lover of smiles," the ancient Greek goddess of love and beauty, is the "archetype" ENFP personality. Is it any coincidence that the links on ENFP Haven are mostly about love and relationships?

This goddess might be the most powerful of all the Olympians outside of the Fates. Her particular power is to cause all creation to fall in love, even her father Zeus, who is famous for his numerous affairs.

The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite is a charming example of Greek mythological poetry and chock full of details about Greek divinities. It is not a hymn such as you would sing in church, but a story that would have been accompanied by music, in honor of the goddess.

The tale is told that Zeus was a bit ticked that Aphrodite was so able and willing to use her power to strike desire into others, so he found a way to make Aphrodite fall in love with a human being, Anchises, as a bit of shame and humility.

Anchises was a fine catch, however. "To look at him and the way he was shaped," sings the poet, "was like looking at the immortals." So Aphrodite gets all dolled up and seduces Anchises, who is more than willing to be seduced.

Then she tells him not to boast about his evening of love, and leaves him for her next conquest.

I sure hope he wasn't an introvert.

But Aphrodite gives Anchises a gift: a son, Aeneas, the hero of Troy who is claimed by Rome as their founder. In the Aeneid, the finest poem in the Latin language, Aphrodite turns into Venus, the Roman version of the Greek goddess, and her attitude becomes much more maternal, much more political, much more responsible. She still has that power of seduction-- and deception-- but uses it to make sure Aeneas gets what he is due from her father Jupiter.

Aphrodite is in fact perfectly happy and comfortable with her role as power broker, which doesn't jibe with the classic and/or stereotypical ENFP, the aspiring Broadway actress. Young female ENFPs radiate a vulnerability and neediness that Aphrodite only feigns. It is true that multitalented, endlessly cheerful, beautiful (inside and out) young women often come into tragedy and trauma early in their lives, but their nature is to cover over this pain with the irresistible optimism that comes so naturally to them.

So Aphrodite should be inspirational to all those ENFPs who feel less power in their lives than they should-- and a warning to all those who tend to use their seductive powers for less than wholesome purposes. Aphrodite is out for herself, which is both a good and a bad thing.

*See addendum in comments section. Thanks, Joni of ENFP_Haven.

(Inspirational quote found here, with hopes that the author will change the "frist.")