The Professor and the Siren

Being unaware of my assignments as I decided to begin my Thanksgiving Break early, I failed to write a blog on the thought-inducing short story, The Professor and The Siren. Well now I will make up for my failure.

The Professor and The Siren contains a quite interesting question of society. It challenges the existence of unique experiences and how they label a person relative to the rest of humanity. The senator, known as Senator Rosario La Ciura had experienced the Greek language personally after hearing it spoken by “the Siren”. His knowledge and recognition of the language places the senator in a unique setting as few amongst him have had a shared experience. “’Poor wretches, anyway; how can they sense that spirit if they have never had occasion to hear real Greek?’” (64). Many may view this as arrogance coming from the senator, when in fact he feels sympathy for those who think they grasp the depth that the Greek language withholds, hence describing them as ‘poor wretches’. The senator views most of society around him as unfulfilled, lacking exclusivity in their lives. This is shown in the senator’s “high regard” (64), of Corbera di Salina (the narrator), for being the “only surviving specimen” (64), of his old family. The senator respects Corbera because he himself has uniqueness in his life, being alone in carrying on his family’s name. There is little evidence that the senator views himself as more prominent than those around him. His pride is rather based around his insusceptibility to implausible self-confidence.