tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post7472731635051956316..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Fretting about The Song of Hiawatha -what is an "Indian epic"?Amateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-9683224822839437142010-07-29T21:35:52.260-05:002010-07-29T21:35:52.260-05:00stefanie - You have a much better reason to read H...stefanie - You have a much better reason to read <i>Hiawatha</i> than I do! It's short - shorter than <i>Sartor Resartus</i>! Ha ha ha!<br /><br />CB - The complication is that Hiawatha fulfills a lot of consciously chosen mythological roles - he's a culture hero, for example, and a monster-slayer. So Longfellow is up to date on his anthropological treatment of mythology. I don't detect any Rousseau, but now that you mention it, I wonder. Cooper is openly mythological, too.<br /><br />And Behn, of course, is 100 years before Rousseau, so I shouldn't need him to think about the, should I? I plead ignorance.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-56960775186624065542010-07-29T08:56:58.100-05:002010-07-29T08:56:58.100-05:00I am a very bad Minnesotan because I have never re...I am a very bad Minnesotan because I have never read the whole of the poem. I keep intending one of these days to sit on the banks of Minnehaha Creek above the falls near the statue of Hiawatha carrying Minnehaha and read the poem, but alas, I have not done so in spite of always being reminded about it. I live only a couple blocks from Lake Nokomis and Minnehaha Creek, a ten minute bike ride from the falls I mentioned, and regularly drive on a street called Hiawatha as well. Oh, the neighborhood surrounding the falls is called Longfellow and its boundary is shared with my neighborhood, Nokomis East. There are probably lots of other things in my area related to the poem that I have not noticed for my lack of having read the poem.Stefaniehttp://somanybooksblog.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-118756771190944012010-07-28T15:21:47.892-05:002010-07-28T15:21:47.892-05:00Do you think Longfellow's poem fits right in w...Do you think Longfellow's poem fits right in with the "noble savage" image that was so prevalent during his day, and before as well as after.<br /><br />It sounds very much in league with Oronoka by Aphra Behn, Last of the Mohicans, and others. <br /><br />I'd love to hear what Native American critics have to say as well. <br /><br />This has been an interesting series of reviews. Thanks.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06906212382849291562noreply@blogger.com