Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: Parables are generally thought of as stories and legends, used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson.They are allegorical in the sense that a comparison is being made to some other situation or circumstance.The parables recorded in the Bible are, of course, very familiar and have enjoyed a degree of currency, as have those derived from other religious and philosophical tomes.Some ancient stories and myths, which have been recounted in the sense of being a parable, have been passed into both common and scientific usage as a simple word or phrase-a form of shorthand.For example, the term narcissism is commonly used as a reference to an infatuation with self.Its definition, and the inferred dire consequences, is a "lesson" clearly derived from the legend coined in the work of the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (43 BC-AD 17), otherwise known as Ovid (Ovid, 1955).Some scholars, in the social sciences, have drawn upon a parable in order to give a profound insight into something that is otherwise difficult to capture, or has been so well captured to make somewhat redundant the construction of a new narrative/commentary.Of course, like metaphors, tropes and alike, in being used in an allegorical manner, it always needs to be kept in mind that this is a similarity rather than a literal relationship.Caution has been voiced in the organization dis-A reading of Las Vegas is provided in this paper using an optic of critical theory and the heuristic power of Homer's tale of Odysseus and his crew's encounter with the sea creatures called the Sirens.This analysis reveals Las Vegas to be a city remade for visual consumption where the streetscape becomes a fantascape and the arts that are on display are amusement goods-patterned and predigested products for consumption.This paper also argues that the present glitz, glitter and newness of Las Vegas appears all the more meaningful in the light of the archaic.The juxtaposition affords us an opportunity to see ourselves in spite of ourselves, or to be decentered from our historical position of privilege.
Source: M n gement
Author: Adrian Carr
Institution: Western Sydney University
Language: English
Topic: Spatial and Cultural Studies
Subfield: Geography, Planning and Development
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2169977487