Middlesex+journal+entry+6

1. Donizetti (203): Gaetano Donizetti was an Italian composer (which makes sense in context next to the "Athena olive oil"). He composed many compositions I can only attempt to pronounce. (see our good old friend, wikipedia, a distant cousin once-removed of wikispaces...see my joke there?) He helped lead the bel canto opera. Seersucker shorts (200): They're a type of shorts pictured below! It's cool that I can picture him now.. http://www.zappos.com/nautica-classic-seersucker-short-beach-sand (I'm going to look up better, deeper concepts next entry)

5. I feel bad for Father Mike! There is often that character in books that kind of gets pushed off to the side so that other characters can pursue their actual love interests. (Social trap? Psychology connection?) It's weird that he is still involved in the family though..I think the author is trying to make a point of how complicated and intermixed the entire family is. He does this in his "recap" on page 198.

7. Throughout this reading assignment (166 to the end of book 2), I saw a lot of Greek vs. American dichotomy! For example, when Milton tries to become literate in Greek as he goes off to war (writing letters to Desdemona). This is an example of him attempting to return to his roots. However, "No matter how hard he concentrated, however, by the time his letters arrived at Hurlbut Street something had been lost in translation" (190). This suggests that even though he tried to return to his roots, he could not help but become distant from his heritage (this is also symbolized by his joining of the Navy). The narrator returns to greek when he talks about "deus ex machina" on mage 196, a Greek drama concept (even though I believe this is latin). He also includes Greek in the following chapter title of "Ex Ovo Omnia" (except I'm pretty sure this is Latin..still, European roots though!). Then we find out that they named their child, "Calliope," which I am assuming is a Greek name. (They named their son Chapter Eleven though..which we still have yet to figure out). Also, returning the circle metaphors/imagery throughout the book. When Cal refers to eggs throughout the "Ex Ovo Omnia" chapter: "Everything comes out of an egg" (198) - Life is a circle, everything comes back around "Then more eggs; eggs being cracked, fired, flipped, scrambled; eggs..." (204) I'll look more into the significance of this.

4. "There was no need for secrecy anymore" (194). I thought this was funny/ironic, considering a lot of this plot line is based on a family secret..