At the beginning of this semester, I felt as if this was one of the classes that would go on forever and I wouldn't like too much. This class actually proved to be quite helpful in furthering my education and my knowledge about world literature. It was interesting to learn the way different societies and even different religions function in various cultures.

After reading the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh, we found many similarities between their descriptions of evil. In both stories, a serpent represented evil and took away everlasting life for mankind. I thought it was interesting that two separate pieces of literature from separate parts of the world could have such similarities as this.

After that, we studied Chinese literature. We learned all about the religions of Dao, Confucius and Buddhism. We read selections from important pieces of literature. We read parts of the Tao Te Ching, "The Analects" by Confucius, and "Substance, Shadow, and Spirit" by T'ao Ch'ien. I liked learning about  the different religions, but analyzing the literature wasn't as fun for me.

We then studied Ancient Persian literature, Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Roman Literature, Ancient Italian literature and then of course, some Hamlet. I enjoyed reading The Inferno and I really liked the video adaptation of Hamlet.

That is all. Thanks for everything.

Signing off.

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This week we have been reading The Inferno by Dante. I have been enjoying Dante's vile descriptions of people in his hell. In one of the rings of hell, the people are chased by bees and other flying insects while being bitten by them. Then their skin oozes blood and pus which dribbles down to their feet and is eaten by maggots. Gross. In another ring of hell, the people sent to this ring are blown around in a giant wind, never having the chance to rest. That is as far as we have gotten in reading Dante's story. I'm excited to read more of this story next week. It will boost my mood for waiting to be out of school soon.

Epic Blog (not what you might think)

In the Iliad, Hektor and Achilles face each other in battle. At the beginning of the battle, Hektor is too scared to fight Achilles so he runs. He runs around the city three times before he stops. He is convinced by Athena to stop running and fight Achilles. They face off and Achilles ends up killing Hektor in his intense rage.

In the Greek culture, confronting death is considered heroic. Hektor and Achilles were considered heroes because they were willing to put their life on the line. Hektor was heroic because he fought Achilles even though he knew Achilles was much better than him at fighting and would probably kill him. Achilles was heroic because he fought Hektor because he had killed his friend Andromache. He was willing to stand in harms way and fight in honor of Andromache's death.

This connects to modern society in America in some ways. In some instances, facing death is heroic and others, it's quite the opposite. I will outline some of the ideas I think make facing death heroic and some ideas that make it not heroic.

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The troops of America that fight for us are considered American heroes. They put themselves in harms way every day that they are overseas to protect our freedom.

Some civilians have a good heart to save others while putting themselves in danger. This person was saved just seconds before the train came into the station.








There are also ways that I think putting your life in danger is not heroic at all. I will outline some examples of these non-heroic acts

This man is putting himself in extreme danger because he is suicidal. He is also putting his rescuers in danger. This is not heroic because he is risking the live of himself and others for no other reason than personal gain (or loss). He is risking 10,000 Volts of electricity going into his body.

This man is risking his life and others' lives on the highway to make a run for it in a possibly stolen car. He makes it worse when he crashes into the side of another car.








I have given you some examples of people facing death, some for the benefit of others, and some for the destruction of others. Putting yourself in harms way, even though it is considered heroic to the Ancient Greeks, is sometimes the farthest thing from heroic.

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The Aeneid has been a big influence of different cultures. The relationship between Dido and Aeneas has been the model of an "ilicit marraige". People also liked to trace their roots back to the ancient Romans and having the artwork of the Aeneid around made it more believable. His work is quoted often, and even the church used it as a model to show how men should act in the sort of situations like that of Aeneas. The Aeneid has had much influence on many works of art also. There are both paintings and statues depicting different part in the story.

I didn't know that so many things were based around The Aeneid. I thought the artwork was magnificent and it depicted the parts of the story well. It brings a whole new perspective of the story to me because I now have visuals in my brain of what is happening while I read the story.

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This week we read the story of the fight between Hektor and Achilles of Troy. Achilles was mad that Hektor had killed Patroculus even though Hektor did not know he was killing Patroculus at the time. Hektor, after having to show his face to Achilles, decided he was not yet ready to face him, so he ran away. He ran around the city three times. Zeus has decided that Hektor's time has come so Athena goes and persuades him to stop and face him. He then tries to fight Achilles but gets stabbed in the neck and dies.

If I were Hektor, I would run also because I would be scared for my life. I don't think I could run around the city three times without stopping though. I would say that I would try to talk it out with Achilles, but I think he would be a little too mad for that. He was pretty much furious.

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This week we read through the tragedy "Oedipus the King". A short summary of the play would be that Laius the king heard of a prophecy that his own son would kill him and then marry and have children with his wife so as soon as he had a boy, he sent it away to be killed. The servant that took the boy away pitied the boy, so he gave him to a man far away from Laius. He grew up thinking his parents were Polybus and Merope, the people who adopted him. When he was older, he took notice to people saying things about him being a bastard so he consulted an oracle where he found that he was to kill his father and marry his mother. He did end up killing his father at a crossroad without the knowledge of who the man was. Later in his life, when he wanted to know who killed Laius, he sent for a blind prophet to tell him who had done it. He said that it was Oedipus that did this and he was in fact married to his mother. Oedipus did not believe this one bit so he sent for the slave of Laius to tell him of who killed his master. He told him that he did it also. Oedipus then knows it was him and then his wife (or mother) runs off and hangs herself. Oedipus finds her dead and stabs his own eyes out.

Gross.


I was not expecting this to be violent...

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So I ended up finishing The Clockwork Orange and to say the least, it was creepy. It stayed with me for days. I wasn't really freaked out, but I just kept thinking about the different events the main character Alex went through. I was upset when he was being forced to watch those videos to make him sick and the background music was his favorite music. Classical Music. I would hate losing a love for music like that. I would hate becoming violently ill from listening to music. And then towards the end of the book, he was tortured by classical music until he jumped out the window. He woke up and was cured of his correction and could listen to classical music again. I was relieved.

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During class this week, we studied Taoism and Confucianism. 

     We first read through Substance, Shadow, and Spirit by Lao Tzu. This poem is about a conversation between the body, its shadow, and its spirit. The body talked first of how the body will not go on after death, so you must take while you can while your here. The Shadow then argues that you must not take when you can, but make something of yourself  so that your reputation may live on. The Spirit then says to both of them that they are both wrong. He tells them that taking what you can will shorten your lifespan, and no one has to praise you for what you have done, so you should just drift through your life and not worry about when you will go. He says when you must go, go without a fuss.

     We then read through The Analects by Confucius. It tells of the way men should act in their own lives and in government. It says that men should live without bias, learn in the presence of a good man and learn to equal him, and should not procrastinate. It also says that you should make your parents worry about nothing more than your health and let there be no evil in your thoughts.

     I thought reading about Taoism and Confucianism was sort of interesting because I've never really experienced any other cultures' religions or ways of life