Around this
time last month, I was preparing for a trip to Warsaw to take part in a
congress on Cicero. As I mentioned in this posting, of 10th
December, the key thing I was going to do was to add a short outline for my autism
and classical research project to a session that Professor Katarzyna Marciniak was going
to present. In the current posting, I shall outline what I said. I shall also
add information about the one thing I kept out of the December posting, namely
the surprise I mentioned:
"The image here is a high-quality vector drawing by Steve Simons of a
Choice of Hercules chimneypiece panel in the Adam Room in Grove House in
Roehampton in London. This drawing, along with a series of others by the artist,
has been created for the activities on Hercules' choice for autistic children
which I am creating as part of the ERC-funded Our Mythical Childhood Project.
During the Congress, I will briefly introduce the activities through the lens
of Cicero's De officiis where the Choice is linked to 'the most
difficult problem in the world' faced by young people on the path to adulthood.
The presentation will include an animated surprise."
As Katarzyna
had explained beautifully, the Our
Mythical Childhood project concerns classics and
children’s culture. I then explained that my work is exploring classics in the
culture of a particular group, namely autistic children, who often love myth
including the myth of one particular figure: Hercules.
I summarised
how I am creating a set of activities on an episode where Hercules, in a
strange place, is faced with a choice between two contrary paths in life: the
way of ‘virtue’ or hard work and the way of ‘pleasure.’ I mentioned how the
activities are based around a chimneypiece panel in Roehampton from the 18th
century, redrawn by Steve Simons. I outlined how
the activities include how to make choices – which can be hard for anyone but
which can raise particular difficulties for autistic people. I then spent a
minute or so outlining how Cicero deals with this choice faced by Hercules in
the De officiis, as part of a concern
with how to live and how to behave, including where conflict comes up between
competing obligations. This is, according to Cicero, ‘the most difficult
problem in the world.’
Having
reiterated that choice-making can extremely difficult for autistic people, I next
explained that, in respect to the choice of Hercules, there is no right choice
and no single wrong choice. As a result the episode gives an opportunity to
reflect on choices, and what the consequences might be of these choices.
I then shared the surprise – I explained how Steve Simons is not just an artist but that he is an animator too. I broke the news that Steve has created an animation of Hercules choosing. I showed the animation – and was so delighted when at a key point people laughed: ‘with’ not ‘at’ what they were seeing.
I had some wonderful conversations after the presentation, including with a participant who told me about a colleague at his university who is working on autism. Also, two of the participants told me about how some of the aspects of Virtue I am dealing with link to ancient Roman representations of Virtue and also possibly to some other eighteenth century ones.
And so I have now shared the surprise about the animation via this blog as well! I’ll be showing it at upcoming presentations on the activities at Cambridge in February and then at Roehampton in March. At some point I’ll share it with the world, though this blog…
"The
presentation I shall make will be on the Choice of Hercules. The exact content
is a surprise, so I’ll keep that a secret for now. Instead, I’ll say a few
things here about Cicero’s take on the Choice of Hercules, as I will refer to
this during my presentation."
This session,
on Cicero for children and on the Our Mythical
Childhood project, took place at the German Historical Institute in Warsaw
in association with the German Embassy in Warsaw. The abstract for Katarzyna’s
paper is here. My presentation was accompanied by a handout consisting of one
of Steve Simons’ drawings of the Choice of Hercules and the following text:
"The image here is a high-quality vector drawing by Steve Simons of a
Choice of Hercules chimneypiece panel in the Adam Room in Grove House in
Roehampton in London. This drawing, along with a series of others by the artist,
has been created for the activities on Hercules' choice for autistic children
which I am creating as part of the ERC-funded Our Mythical Childhood Project.
During the Congress, I will briefly introduce the activities through the lens
of Cicero's De officiis where the Choice is linked to 'the most
difficult problem in the world' faced by young people on the path to adulthood.
The presentation will include an animated surprise."
In her presentation,
Katarzyna had posed the following question: what does Cicero have to say to
children? I asked: what does Cicero have to say to autistic children?
I summarised
how I am creating a set of activities on an episode where Hercules, in a
strange place, is faced with a choice between two contrary paths in life: the
way of ‘virtue’ or hard work and the way of ‘pleasure.’ I mentioned how the
activities are based around a chimneypiece panel in Roehampton from the 18th
century, redrawn by Steve Simons. I outlined how
the activities include how to make choices – which can be hard for anyone but
which can raise particular difficulties for autistic people. I then spent a
minute or so outlining how Cicero deals with this choice faced by Hercules in
the De officiis, as part of a concern
with how to live and how to behave, including where conflict comes up between
competing obligations. This is, according to Cicero, ‘the most difficult
problem in the world.’
Having
reiterated that choice-making can extremely difficult for autistic people, I next
explained that, in respect to the choice of Hercules, there is no right choice
and no single wrong choice. As a result the episode gives an opportunity to
reflect on choices, and what the consequences might be of these choices.I then shared the surprise – I explained how Steve Simons is not just an artist but that he is an animator too. I broke the news that Steve has created an animation of Hercules choosing. I showed the animation – and was so delighted when at a key point people laughed: ‘with’ not ‘at’ what they were seeing.
I had some wonderful conversations after the presentation, including with a participant who told me about a colleague at his university who is working on autism. Also, two of the participants told me about how some of the aspects of Virtue I am dealing with link to ancient Roman representations of Virtue and also possibly to some other eighteenth century ones.
And so I have now shared the surprise about the animation via this blog as well! I’ll be showing it at upcoming presentations on the activities at Cambridge in February and then at Roehampton in March. At some point I’ll share it with the world, though this blog…
 |
| My thanks to Agnieszka Maciejewska for the photo story! |
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