The two texts share a preoccupation with the subject of textuality, experimenting with the presentation of words on the printed page and their effect on the reader. I will argue that the works of young adult writers like Wheatley and Zindel not only make an important contribution to the perpetuation of the Icarus story but also reflect on the tradition of retelling mythic stories and their place within that tradition. Rowling's popular Harry Potter series, draw freely upon mythological motifs and allusions. In addition to the several hundred 'direct' retellings of classical myths that have been published for children and young adults over the last few decades, many other works, including J.K. Young adult literature has come to play a crucial role in the dissemination of myth in the modern age. While drawing upon traditional readings of this well-known story, these texts also use the myth as a launching point to comment on the relevance and the integration of ancient myth within contemporary life and the status of classical studies within the western educational system. This article undertakes a close reading of two retellings of this myth written for young adults: Nadia Wheatley's short story 'Melting Point', from the 1994 collection The Night Tolkien Died, and Paul Zindel's novel, Harry and Hortense at Hormone High, published in 1984. His powers as a craftsman were too great, and, although it was the son who fell, the father was punished. Daedalus too was found guilty: the wings he fashioned violated the natural order. He also should have heeded the wisdom of his elders and obeyed his father's instructions. Icarus should have plotted a middle course across the sky, flying neither too high nor too low. Yet the standard interpretation of the myth frames it as a cautionary tale that illustrates the disastrous consequences of over-ambition. This episode has been greatly rewritten as Episode 1634.Humans have always been fascinated by the idea of flying, and the classical myth of Icarus and his father Daedalus taps into our longing to take to the air. I'm John Lienhard, at the University of Houston, where we're interested in the way inventive minds work. And, someday, inventive minds will find a way to make Daedalus's flight all the way to Sicily - all the way from myth to reality. Somehow, leaving engines behind gives us back the magic - the myth - that we so crave to reclaim. Somewhere, over the rainbow, we crave to fly. This Daedalus seems to have carried a little of Icarus with it. It splashed down safely, just 30 feet from the shore. As the plane approached the coast of Santorini, a powerful crosswind caught it and snapped its tail boom. Kanellopoulos would have to drink about a gallon of the stuff during the flight.Īrmed with this witch's brew, he made it in April, 1988 - 74 miles in four hours - a remarkable world's record. To sustain him on the trip, the team developed a special drink - one that would maintain balances of glucose, sodium, carbohydrates, electrolytes, and water. Now he'd have to burn up his body energy at the rate of one kilowatt for four hours running. They did extensive testing of 24 men and one woman and finally gave the nod to a Greek bicycle champion, Kanellos Kanellopoulos. The team carefully studied anatomy and metabolism. The most serious problem was human endurance.
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And a wild machine it was! It gave a whole new meaning to the word "spindly." It's wingspan outreached the Boeing 727's, but it weighed only 70 pounds. They built an airplane, not of wax and feathers, but of carbon-fiber composites and plastics.
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But even that was over three times the existing world record for human-powered flight. They set out to fly from Crete - not to Sicily, 500 miles away - but to the island of Santorini, 74 miles north of Crete. In 1985 a team of engineers from MIT set themselves a more modest objective, but a fearsome one nevertheless. Rockets have carried us free of the earth but no one's come close to duplicating Daedalus's flight under his own power. In some versions, Icarus flies too high - too close to the sun. He and Icarus used the wings to fly to Sicily and to freedom. When he offended Minos, the King of Crete, Minos threw him and Icarus into prison. Daedalus was a mythical Greek architect and sculptor. The myth of Daedalus and his son Icarus also lays its strong hand on our elemental craving to fly. Why are the lines from The Wizard of Oz so compelling: The University of Houston's College of Engineering presents this series about the machines that make our civilization run, and the people whose ingenuity created them. Today, we mix a magic drink for Daedalus and Icarus.