Old Creek Rites

Benjamin, Walter. “Picturing Proust.” The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Penguin Books: New York, 2008 (p.93)

ME:

Penelope stays at home creating art that will be unmade or forgotten through her night’s labour. Odysseus struggled to return home for ten years in an epic work that has been celebrated for centuries, only to arrive and leave.

Fictional, after we have picked the myths and heroes from the Odyssey clean for lessons on the nature of humanity, the psychological impact of war, the hero’s journey, archetypes of monsters and gods, and the morals of loyalty and hospitality, Odysseus still leaves his home at the end of his journey looking for more and Penelope remains at home, presumably at her loom. 

To ask if we should perhaps talk instead of Penelope’s labour of forgetting is not a discussion of gender roles or the nature of heroes. Instead, we are asked to change our perspective on narrative and memory. When we talk about memory, we mean the things we remember. The BIG events of our lifetime: personal and cultural. A memoir is our own narrative of an eventful time that had profound meaning. We are the heroes, the villains, the leaders, the sages, the fools, and the gods or goddesses of our epic tales. 

But, to focus on the labour of forgetting, as Penelope did, is not to look at what is remembered; it is to look at what has been lost, buried, ignored, unappreciated, or simply unremembered. The days when we did the same thing, or nothing remarkable happened. The labour of forgetting has rooms filled with the items of unimportance, the decisions of seemingly little impact, and the trash of what is unappreciated. 

When we speak of the forgotten, what language should be used? What happens when what is lost is regained by memory? Is this something to be desired or avoided? Should we cultivate the labour of forgetting just as we exercise our memory? What are the consequences for history and for criticism? In an age where artificial intelligence and social media will forget nothing, will we right forgetting into the code? Who will hold the access authority? 

There are no muses, sacrifices, or goddesses to pave Penelope’s way; her presence is merely a suggestion. With the conditionals of should and perhaps, the question to follow in Penelope’s labour is left far away from the imperative. Odysseus has remained in our memories as an archetypal hero, while Penelope’s weaving and unweaving has been an anti-hero: a labour of forgetting. What happens to our own epic stories when the hero is forgotten? Will the labour still be celebrated?

ChatGPT:

The idea of recontextualizing Penelope’s weaving as a “labour of forgetting” offers a compelling, psychological counter-interpretation to the traditional view of her as solely a “weaver of remembrance” or loyal, stagnant wife. 

While the Odyssey depicts her weaving as a conscious, manipulative tactic to delay the suitors, interpreting it as a “labour of forgetting” shifts the focus to her internal, emotional, and existential state during Odysseus’s 20-year absence. 

Here is how that reinterpretation holds up: 

1. The Shroud as “Unwriting” Memory 

• The Act of Unweaving: Penelope weaves by day and unweaves by night. This daily undoing can be seen as an attempt to prevent the finalization of her loss, but also as a way to unmake the time that has passed in his absence.
• Forgetting to Survive: The “labour” is the exhausting, repetitive, and hidden work of tearing down what she has created. By night, she destroys the evidence of her day, effectively forcing herself into a state of forgetting—a mental erasure of the reality that she must eventually move on.
• Unmaking Time: Critics have suggested her unweaving is an attempt to “undo time and death,” a struggle to reset her life to the moment before Odysseus left. 

2. A “Labour of Forgetting” vs. “Remembrance” 

• The Counter-View: The traditional view is that she weaves to remember and wait.
• The New View: The “labour of forgetting” suggests she is trying to forget the suitors’ pressure, the fear of losing her household, and the overwhelming, haunting thought that her husband is dead.
• A “Penelope Work”: Some literature compares this to a “Penelope work of recollection,” where the day unweaves what the night has woven, implying a chaotic, unconscious process rather than a purely rational strategy. 

3. The Unconscious Dimension 

• Ambiguous Loss: Psychologists might categorize this as “ambiguous loss,” where the “labour of forgetting” is a way to manage the intense emotional fatigue of an endless, unresolved wait.
• A Need for Quiet: Weaving is a rhythmic, almost meditative, and solitary act. It allows her to let her mind wander, which may be a necessary, subconscious method of creating distance from her traumatic, waiting life. 

Summary 

If we view Penelope’s labor as a labour of forgetting, we stop seeing her only as a “damsel in waiting” and start seeing her as a woman dealing with profound trauma, using daily, intense labor to blur the edges of a reality she cannot bear to accept, until the final, shocking, and impossible moment of return.