Abstract
If we are to keep ourselves to ourselves, besides first needing to develop a self, that self has to be rational, realistic, and understand truth and beauty in a context larger than the individual. Odysseus hid his identity from all he encountered until he knew where he was, who he was with, and how he needed to be and then he did not alter his identity (you can’t), but allowed Athena to numinously reveal it in such a way that his host was either pleased or the danger had been escaped. The thrower-away wears the masks of social acceptability and does a job that would horrify or alarm most people, even those who recognize the landfills of bureaucracy that threaten us and our environments.
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Notes
Grace Paley, Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (New York: Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, 1960). All references are to this edition.
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© 2013 W. S. Penn
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Penn, W.S. (2013). The Life of Swans. In: Storytelling in the Digital Age. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137365293_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137365293_14
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
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