Ames Library News

Have you been wondering what’s going on with the Ames patio? It turns out that the past couple Illinois winters have wreaked havoc on the drainage systems under the patio, causing certain parts of it to blister up. A number of tiles had risen so much as to think a new faultline was forming, but it was only the expanding frozen waters under the patio.

Nevertheless, those tiles were major tripping hazards, so Physical Plant has done what they can in the subzero temperatures, but we’ll have to wait for warmer weather in order to fix the base problem. In the meantime, have caution when approaching the library – knowledge is contagious.

Thursday, 4 p.m., Welcome Center Auditorium – Faculty Convocation: “Copyright, Plagiarism and International Students” – Kevin Smith, director of the Office of Scholarly Communications at Duke University, will share his expertise on how copyright is practiced internationally, provide some tools to help faculty assist our students – especially those from other countries – to avoid plagiarism, and consider a couple of assignments that help underscore the concepts of copyright. Smith’s visit is supported by the Mellon grant on Writing in the Disciplines and Information Literacy.

Instruction Lab, Room 129, Entry Level

• Tuesday, 7pm – Environmental Studies Senior Seminar
• Wednesday, 2pm – Prof. Lessen’s Gateway
• Wednesday, 3:30pm – OU Training
• Thursday, 10:50am – Educational Studies 320

Meeting Room, 214, Second Floor

• Tuesday, 1pm – Assessment Committee Meeting
• Tuesday, 4:30pm – Star Literacy
• Wednesday, 9:00am – Star Literacy
• Wednesday, 12:00pm – Library Advisory Committee
• Wednesday, 2:00pm – CUPP
• Thursday, 1:00pm – CUPP
• Thursday, 4:30pm – Star Literacy
• Friday, 9:00am – PRC

Beckman Auditorium, Lower Level

• Monday, 6pm – Prof. Folse’s Gateway, film screening
• Tuesday, 1:10pm – International Politics of East Asia
• Tuesday, 4:30pm – Ides Performance & Lecture Series
• Wednesday, 12:00pm – Film Screening
• Thursday, 3:30pm – MCLP CEO Panel
• Saturday, 1:00pm – Anime Club

Tuesday, 4:30pm, Beckman Auditorium – Professor Nancy Sultan will be discussing the similarities between Odysseus and Frank Underwood, a character from the television show “House of Cards.”

From IWU News & Events: “Is “Frank Underwood” a modern-day Odysseus? Illinois Wesleyan University Greek and Roman Studies Professor Nancy Sultan thinks the cunning, deceitful protagonist of the Netflix political drama House of Cards and the hubristic, mercurial Odysseus have much in common.

Sultan will present her research-in-progress on Feb. 24 at 4:30 p.m. at The Ames Library’s Beckman Auditorium. Sultan’s presentation is “Let Us Now Praise Wicked Men: Netflix Series House of Cards and the ‘Fifth Age’ of Television.”

Critically acclaimed House of Cards is the story of U.S. Congressman Frank Underwood (played by Kevin Spacey), who, when passed over for an appointment as Secretary of State, devises an elaborate scheme to gain a far greater position of power. The series follows Frank and his wife, Claire (played by Robin Wright), and their manipulation of power and people in doing bad things for the greater good. The series has been nominated for 31 Emmy Awards. Season three begins streaming Feb. 27.

A self-described “huge fan” of both the series and Spacey’s portrayal of Underwood, Sultan said she’d been thinking aboutHouse of Cards, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad and a host of other popular, critically celebrated programs that feature protagonists who break the mold of the hero as ‘good guy.’ These characters model the opposite of the ‘best tragic hero’ defined by Aristotle, Sultan said.

She noted these modern protagonists seem to go against the very grain of programs from the so-called “Golden Age” of television, when heroes fell into bad fortune because of mistakes, not because they were evil men.

“These new main characters are evil, they disrespect good people, they succeed through hubris, yet we are fascinated by them and we follow their every move,” said Sultan. “I started thinking about Frank Underwood and why we are drawn to him and the show (House of Cards). Frank models the opposite of the ideal Aristotelian hero, which is a man who falls from good to bad fortune not because he is evil, but because he makes mistakes. Frank is a murderer who succeeds through brazen hubris.”

Sultan will draw on several sources, ranging from the 8^th-century Greek poet Hesiod to contemporary British cultural anthropologist Victor Turner. In her reception study, Sultan will argue that Frank Underwood represents an Odyssean trickster figure.

As a hero of the Trojan War, Odysseus is renowned for his cunning and his tactics. “Odysseus succeeds through cunning, but he is not a good guy,” said Sultan. “Everyone privately envies the Odyssean trickster figure because he’s climbed to the top. He’s successful, wealthy and powerful. Yet, publicly, we must condemn him, because he acts with hubris and becomes a threat to democracy.”

The Frank Underwood character invites similar feelings. “As viewers, we know Frank is not a good guy, we know we have to watch out for him because he’s tricky,” Sultan adds. “But in private we wonder, ‘how can we achieve what he has achieved?’ We envy what he has and what he has accomplished.”

Sultan’s presentation will feature clips from the series and will be followed by discussion. The event is free and open to the public.”