Contextualising the Numinous
I found this quote in a Wikipedia entry for some sad school somewhere:
"Despite references to Prometheus and God in the Institution Anthem, the school is secular. The inclusion of Prometheus is due to the literary allusion to passing the torch, signifying the importance of education while 'God' in this context is a historical legacy of the school's British roots."
So Prometheus, that great Titan who brought fire to mankind, is now a metaphor for education; my opinion is that God fares worse — He has become a post-colonial embarrassment. What can one say about an institution in which the numinous has become, well, institutionalised? Why bother to have a school anthem then?
Did anyone consult the composer of the anthem before saying these things? Why not just remove references to mythical and/or supernatural beings? The last lines of the anthem read:
Let comradeship and fervent hope
With one voice make us pray
Auspicium Melioris Aevi
With God to guide the way.
I guess with all that Latin and stuff, they probably do think that God is British. I mean, just do the substitution: "With 'a historical legacy of the school's British roots' to guide the way." Ho ho, it sounds odd, doesn't it?
"Despite references to Prometheus and God in the Institution Anthem, the school is secular. The inclusion of Prometheus is due to the literary allusion to passing the torch, signifying the importance of education while 'God' in this context is a historical legacy of the school's British roots."
So Prometheus, that great Titan who brought fire to mankind, is now a metaphor for education; my opinion is that God fares worse — He has become a post-colonial embarrassment. What can one say about an institution in which the numinous has become, well, institutionalised? Why bother to have a school anthem then?
Did anyone consult the composer of the anthem before saying these things? Why not just remove references to mythical and/or supernatural beings? The last lines of the anthem read:
Let comradeship and fervent hope
With one voice make us pray
Auspicium Melioris Aevi
With God to guide the way.
I guess with all that Latin and stuff, they probably do think that God is British. I mean, just do the substitution: "With 'a historical legacy of the school's British roots' to guide the way." Ho ho, it sounds odd, doesn't it?
Labels: Legacy, Odd Thoughts, Schools
etched with acid at 12:01:00 am
2 Comments:
would you happen to know what the school colors stand for? because I've been searching for an explanation but none have emerged save the assumption that these were the colors of the original crest of Raffles...which should have some heraldric significance right?
Yes. Black and green have of course got negative connotations, but the positive connotation tends to be fertility, and white tends to be virtue.
So it's like some sort of chaste fertility... *grin*
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