Dear Loyal and Inspiring Followers

I just wanted to post this to let you guys know of something we just created for our project. It is basically a site where you can ask us questions anonymously or by showing your user-name, if you have already signed up for this site. It is very useful and is the quickest way for us to get back to you! Please, ask away!

http://www.formspring.me/CatullusDivided

Why we chose 'Love and Hate'

By this time, you've probably already heard that the theme of our book is Catullus's poetry being split into two major recurring themes: love and hate. His honest style of poetry truthfully depicts the ever-changing feelings inside a person's heart: often having bitter outbreaks of hate, experiences of passionate love, and moments of utter confusion between the two. It is the poetry of a man whose girlfriend cheated on him with many men, and who wished to attain a higher level of wealth though his primary occupation was poet. It is the poetry of a man who was rejected for his informality as a poet, and disgraced by his lust for both women and men. It is poetry of insecurity, jealousy, vengeance, egotism, and whole-hearted devotion.

When Catullus wrote poetry, he did not try to hide any part of his feelings. He does not mind telling readers of his embarrassments, his anger, or his anxiety.

So I guess the question is: if Catullus was so complex, why only love and hate? Because love and hate are the building blocks of relationships, and in real relationships, there's no such thing as apathy; in real life, there's  no room for the colorful fluff that Cicero, Horace or Ovid would be so keen to base their poetry around. 

Update 5/10/22!

FINALLY! We got the live stream working! ( http://www.ustream.tv/channel/catullusdivided ) We will be using this live stream every day we are working on Catullus Divided. We are currently trying to find a way to get our videos that we have recorded from the camera to Youtube, but the computers that we use are taken every time that we are in class. Hopefully we can find a way! By the way our Youtube is
 (www.youtube.com/CatullusDivided) we currently do not have any videos up on our Youtube, but as I said before, that is because we have no way of getting our videos off the camera.
We are mostly just in our preparation stage for the whole E-Book publication. We are just about done setting up and making use of the social media sites that we are using, which are: Youtube, Tumblr, Twitter, Formspring (work in progress), Ustream, and Facebook! Hopefully we will have them all up and running soon!

What we are working on now!

Derrick-This very Blog!
Scott-Publishing the book
Alex-Ustream
Eric-Catullus Divided Biography
Tyler-Pictures
Nick-Love and Hate
Heather-Editing Poems
Adam-Pictures also
Luke-Revising Poem

Catullus Translation: Poem 5 (Love)

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love

and let us value all the rumors

of old men at one penny. 

The suns can fall and rise:

 for us, with our brief light being knocked out ,

the night is perpetual. 

Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,

then another thousand, then a second hundred,

then another thousand.

With these many thousands

 let us feel that we are frenzied,

let our minds not even know ,

and let us ignore what the old critics think.   

Catullus 5- Translated by Eric Ishak


Solar Eclipse (Public Domain)

Catullus and Lady Gaga

Catullus and Lady Gaga, surprisingly, have much in common. For starters, both are bisexuals (see Catullus 99 for proof). Also, Catullus is never afraid to say what he feels, as is Lady Gaga, even if it may offend others. Both also have very intense feelings, as are expressed in their art. Both are also artists in the care they take in constructing their poetry/songs. Both are also seen as unconventional, Catullus being especially down-to-earth and real, especially in comparison to much more "proper" poets like Horace. Lady Gaga is unconventional in that she is a very unique performer and she dresses with a one-of-a-kind fashion. Catullus is one of the few that would include a dare in his poetry like "You think that I would not dare to force you 200 sitters/Together to perform oral sex on me?/Consider this: I'll scrawl dirty pictures all over/The front of your tavern." (Catullus 37) Lady Gaga, on the other hand, has a hit song about loving Judas Iscariot, one of the men responsible for Jesus' death. This could obviously upset some people. 


Catullus didn't have the overwhelming media machine behind him like Lady Gaga currently does. Media does so much for Lady Gaga to get her message out and Catullus didn't have this power. At the time, Catullus was also not writing for his career; he was not writing to impress anyone. His poetry was only written for his immediate group of friends, and therefore, among only those who saw the poetry, he was non-controversial.

Catullus Divided

Hi everyone! My name is Derrick, and I am here on behalf of all my fellow Latin 3 students, including my teacher, Mr. Wojo. What you may be asking right now is, "What is Catullus Divided?" Well, Catullus divided is an E-Book that my class and I are making about Catullus and his poems. We will be going through our own translations, and finding a deeper meaning to Catullus's poems. The main reason that we are doing this, is for our own education, and for yours! For Catullus Divided will be on the internet to download once we are done!

The main point of this blog, is to keep you, and whoever else is following this blog updated on our progress, to ask your opinion, and to learn something from our followers about writing.

I hope you enjoy our blog on Catullus Divided. Please "Follow" us for updates via Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Justin.tv for our live streams!

Have a good day!

Derrick