extra credit

http://julienneparaiso.blogspot.com/2010/11/othello-part-uno.html#comments
http://vesna2291.blogspot.com/2010/11/othello-part-i.html#comments
http://cutterj.blogspot.com/2010/11/othello-act-i.html#comments

journal 14 final blog

Sadly this is my last journal for this class especially since I didn’t make it to 15, but I believe I will still get an A. First I’d like to say that thanks Mr. B for a great experience in my last English class for my b.s. In this final blog I’m going to discuss all that I liked and disliked about the class content and also about the class in general. First I like that we stuck to the syllabus for the most part. I never really liked reading in school, I was always more of a math person, but after this class I realize that reading isn’t so bad. It all depends on what your reading and how well you can get into the topic. This is where I think Mr. B does his job great; he helped us get into the literature further than the words that we read. I learned to dig deeper into content to base an opinion about a certain topic. In Sakuntala it was all about emotions which isn’t really my preference when it comes to topics, but I got through it pretty well compared to if I read it alone without discussing it in class through the week. The thing that I believe got people going with dissecting these stories was the blogs. Although I know many people did not participate in this part of the class, it’s a very good idea for ways to hear students’ opinions. It really doesn’t seem like a hard assignament to me because every class period we had discussion about what was assigned to read or other content like the movies we watched. If students participate in discussions, or just pay attention at the least they will have more than enough to say in their blogs. I also liked the test in class they were very relevant to the course work and straight forward with most questions, yet there were some times where we had to really use our whole brain. There were some tests I passed just from paying attention in class, because some of the texts that were more difficult to keep my attention, like Gawain, I had to use some sparknotes after reading but class filled in all the question marks I had. We also had 2 essays to write for class as well. Nobody likes to write papers, but it’s not so bad when the topic is something you can easily talk about like the last paper. The first paper required research which is why I personally didn’t like it as much. It was as easy nor as fun as the second which was better because you could write about almost anything as long as you can say why it was pertinent information for compared story. That twist made it fun and challenging. Overall, I liked the class and if I ever take any more English classes I’m going to be looking for Mr. B as a teacher, if not I’ll be fine because I’ve learned enough.

Jounal 13 heroes

Well I named this entire assignment the hero blog, so in this journal I’d like to just talk about the all the goods bads and uglies of the semester’s heroes. I will begin with my personal favorite, if you have kept up with my blogs at all you would know I’m talking about Gilgamesh. He was a pretty decent hero, but who I really like in his epic was Enkidu. He was a beast literally, and when he was tamed he was still a beast but for the other side nature; he’s like when police pay drug dealers to work for the other side of the law. My next favorite came at the end of the semester in Beowulf. Since he was the only outstanding hero in the story I was solely impressed with him. Though Grendel was a bad guy I think he was kind of dominant to cause terror for years without being put to any real challenge. Beowulf had no problem with that villain though; the guy didn’t even wear any armor to beat Grendel. While we are talking about armor I’d like to bring up Gawain who was viewed as a scared knight I guess. No one asked me, but if they did I’d say he was a smart knight. I know it was better to die with honor instead of live with shame in that time but that’s just dumb. I bet some really cool person died over something stupid like that and then afterwards people used that to justify his death and then it became one of those traditions nobody knows where it came from but everyone follows it. Gawain was a hero to me; not only did he get to cut off the head of a big huge green monster, but he got to kiss his lady and got nothing bad in return. Next Othello, I don’t know who or what to say is a hero here. I don’t even think enough people survived to even say anything was heroic. Iago the obvious main character could be viewed as the perfect antagonist role model. To non-heroes he might be a hero that seems kind of ironic but it makes sense to me. In Daoism everyone is a hero and if you think about it nobody is the enemy or villain which makes it kind of hard to be a hero because you have nobody to fight. Doesn’t make sense right? Wrong. It doesn’t make sense because it’s true and I’m a genius for thinking it. I’d say who ever decides not to participate with Daoism is the hero. Oedipus I apologize that I don’t have much to say about because I didn’t read but I plan on doing this after I cover all of the stories in this blog. In the Wife of Bath the fairy was her own hero. She helped the knight out just so she could help herself out with a husband. I’m sure he would have been just as happy dead as we was married to the old hag. Little did he know, she was the woman of his dreams so I guess she was a hero for him too. He really lucked out because he raped a lady which was completely wrong there and got the young beautiful woman that would never cheat on him at the end of the story. And last and possibly least is Sakuntala, the class’s chick flick. I’m going to credit the buffoon with the hero role here. I feel like he knew that one day there would be people reading this saying enough with this emotional crap we need humor; he helped me through that reading. Not all the stories had a hero like I thought would happen at the end of Gilgamesh, but depending on the way you read a story, anything or anybody can be a hero.

jounal 12 Kung Fu Panda vs Matrix..... Daoism again

Ok so this is going back, but I randomly watched Kung Fu Panda last night; it just randomly came on and I didn’t even know what it was until I recognized the Daoism-like theme it had. Then I saw the big panda getting his butt kicked by some other gangster animals and I thought this had to be the movie the class was talking about. The whole movie was pushed on the theory of belief. Anything you believe is basically true, and anything that isn’t true is only not true because you don’t believe it. This is pretty equivalent to the Daoism way of thinking. It makes me wonder if the writer of the movie had Daoism in mind while writing it. I’ve heard that the maker of The Matrix, the other movie example of Daoism didn’t think of Daoism either, but both demonstrate it as best as my understanding can handle. The panda was much less than a warrior but really wanted to be one really bad. He had action figures of all the other kung fu characters because he looked up to them and what they did. The panda is the parallel to Neo in the matrix; both of them were the one to defeat the bad guys in the end but as the movie began nobody would have known. Although he was the worst kung fu student Master Shifu ever had, he was meant to be the dragon warrior because he was the only one who had the ability to defeat Tylon. Originally, nobody believed this other than Oogway, who is the parallel to Morpheus, but since Oogway was something like an ancestor to the rest of the animals. One difference between Kung Fu Panda and Daoism is that in the movie Tylon was the best and most dangerous warrior, but he was the bad guy. He was the one coming back to take the scroll from the village because he believed he was the dragon warrior. And in the beginning master Shifu also thought he would be as well and trained him from his youth to be so. In Daosim they don’t believe in right and wrong or good and bad. So if this was based on the real Daoism theory then Tylon wouldn’t have been a bad warrior he would have just been equal to everyone else and nobody would have thought any different of him. Also I think that since anything a person believes, or animal in this case, is reality and can’t be stopped by anything else. So if Tylon was so much of a better warrior and he really believed it I don’t see why he had to lose. We all seen what kind of warrior the panda was before his father reveals the truth to him with the scroll. The parallel with the scroll with absolutely no dragon warrior truth in it can be compared to the conversation Neo had with the fortune telling lady when she didn’t tell him at all that he was the one but what she did say made him think enough about it to know that as soon as he believed he was the one that he would be the one.

Journal 11Iago and the root of all evil

Today I would like to state my opinion about Iago’s motives for causing havoc in everyone’s life. In the discussion we had in class last Thursday, we came up with many possible reasons for it such as revenge for not getting the lieutenant promotion, maybe he wanted show Othello what it feels like for a person to mess with his girl, someone even stated that maybe he was gay and desired Othello himself. All these things can be backed up with info in the story, but Mr. B had the idea that I agreed with the most; he said what if Iago is just one of those people who causes trouble just because…. There is no evidence that he is one of these people stated, but we all know people like this and I think we are all like that at some point in time. Iago could have simply been very good at it that his hobby made such a big deal that a story was made from it. The twist behind my opinion that makes it different from Mr. B’s suggestion is that I think that is just how things got started and after things began to get complicated and require real thinking he was pushed by money. As he was doing his everyday routine getting under people’s skin he ran across Roderigo who was madly in love with Desdemona. At the same time he was already disappointed that he was denied the promotion. And while all this was going on he had no anger towards anyone nor did he have plans on getting anyone in trouble with anyone. The real trickery began when Iago was offered money from Roderigo and then things got serious and he began to game plan. He had to make a way to take every penny Roderigo, his new business partner possessed which he did because Roderigo sold all of his assets just to pay Iago. We mentioned in class how Iago tells the audience that he was looking for money in the opening conversation with Roderigo, and he brings it up many times throughout the story to prove his desires. Iago made things easy on himself by killing two birds with one stone, literally. He brought two situations that had nothing to do with each other and made it into one story; he made the person who beat him out of the job the same person supposedly getting in between Othello and his newly wedded wife. The genius behind the idea is while Cassio was getting played like a pawn he doesn’t even know. In fact nobody in the whole story knows they are being used and they all get a piece of Iago’s manipulations, but Cassio is the biggest piece to the operation. I think if it wasn’t for Roderigo offering money there would be no big plot. Iago would just still be bothering people for no reason at all and nobody would have died because he wouldn’t have had a reason to go as far as he did into other people’s lives.

Jounal 10 the first of Othello

I have started reading Othello and I like it so far. It is a good drama written by Shakespeare. I read a little ahead and read online as well to compare how other people viewed Othello with to my opinion of it so far. I personally like it a lot but I don’t believe it should have been called Othello, although he plays a large role in the story I believe that Iago is easily the main character. He does the most stuff and starts all of the conflict and is responsible for a lot of the dialogue. I did not know until yesterday that Iago has the second most lines in all of Shakespeare’s writing following behimd Hamlot who also has a whole story written about him. You can probably argue that Roderigo is more important than Iago because he’s the one who sets Iago up to do his deeds, but you would lose. Roderigo stays out of the whole situation and doesn’t really get his hands dirty in the story, since he’s rich he can do that. It’s mostly Iago who is the sneaky, suspect character that the audience watches closely in the story for amusement. A lot of Iago’s actions in the story create dramatic irony because we know what is going on but the people he is tricking do not. We know Desdemona never cheated on Othello with Cassio, or anyone for that matter. We know Cassio is well deserving of his rank (at least in Othello’s opinion) and there was no real reason for him to doubt that. We know all the motives behind why Iago does the things he does because he tells us. We know all of these things and, outside of Iago, none of the other characters know all of this info.
I really wish I would have posted this journal entry before the start of last class because it was almost done and we talked about pretty much everything I wrote in class. To add on to the class discussion, nobody brought up the idea I was thinking that I don’t think there is an active hero figure in this story. Nobody does any saving or spectacular non-human like activity, but I do think that Othello could have been considered a hero if he would have held his ground and done things differently. Instead of killing his wife he should have dug deeper into the statements delivered against her. He could have also prevented all of the deaths as well, including Iago’s, the only person who somewhat deserved to be persecuted. I always seem to compare a lot of characters to Gilgamesh, here, I see that he and Othello are the same because they get the glory of the story being named after them without putting any work in. Othello isn’t even the person with the conflict. Roderigo has the problem in the story which is not having Othello’s girl Desdemona. And he uses Iago to try and get her which makes it interesting, but what compounds the situations is that Iago is already upset about the promotion Othello has given to one of peers instead of him. Iago uses that one person, Cassio, to tear down both relationships and I’m going to leave off there so this doesn’t turn into a summary.

Jounal 9 The thirteenth Warrior

After watching the rest of the 13th warrior, I understand why Mr. B loves Beowulf so much, he is a pretty cool hero. In this blog I’d like to discuss the confusion I had with the movie. I got a pretty decent grasp of everything now that we have finished the movie but a few things are still a little bit shaky in my mind. Before I start that I want say that I plan on watching the movie again on my own time because I admit one that I didn’t start reading the poem until the same day as we started the movie and that I didn’t quite pay full attention to the first part of the movie.
While watching the movie I had to read it like a move and at the same time compare it to what I read earlier that day. It was hard for me to recognize who was the main character and who was actually Beowulf. I expected them to be the same person and I don’t believe that was the case, but I second guessed that thought through the movie so I’m not completely sure. I also expected to be able to distinguish Beowulf from other characters by his appearance; I wanted him to be more macho and look like he the strength of 30 men in each arm (whatever that looks like). I’m still not completely positive who the outcast character of the movie referred to in the book nobody in what I’ve read seemed to be that different than others that they were picked on. And I don’t really recall someone being that much smarter than all the rest of the warriors. He was so smart t that he learned their language all in one day. I think that’s what happened because at first he was the only one who spoke English and then once they said he learned their language everyone spoke the same. That was a kind of drawn out part that confused me for a second.
Compared to other movies, The Thirteenth warrior stayed on track pretty well, a lot better than most other movies of books. Though it changes the names of most characters it follows the plot accurately. It also keeps the Anglo-Saxon background the book demonstrated. And the Viking like ways of the Danes. I don’t rememeber all of the descriptive words that tells us what any of the characters but when watching the movie you don’t need that because it is given to you automatically. The creatures inside the cave where they had to kill the woman at the end of the movie were real intense. If this movie was more modern I know the graphics and the costume would have been twice as descriptive, without using any words at all. On the other hand, many people like the descriptive words in a book rather than what is given in a movie simply because it is given. At that point you can’t use your imagination anymore and since movies usually come after the books Ideas are already formed. If you watch the movie and the picture the director paints doesn’t live up to the picture you painted in your head, the movie is not as good as the book. In my opinion the movie is just as good and it helped me to understand the book more.

Journal 8 Beowulf and a small comparrison with Gilgamesh

I got so caught up writing my background paper I neglected reading for about a week and because of that I got very behind with reading Beowulf. Since we are watching the 13th warrior in class I got a chance to catch up with my reading this weekend and I’m glad I did. Finally, another story with a lot of action and fighting, egos, and all the other things I enjoy as a guy that have somewhat been left out since Gilgamesh. First we have a perfectly fine city that dreads the most gangsta evil villain they had ever seen. He came through the Danish people’s spot repeatedly slaying folks left and right. They say Grendel was made of barbwire and couldn’t be harmed by any weapon just to prove his evil authority. But of course the mighty, powerful, all-knowing Beowulf gets the word from thousands of miles away and comes to the rescue like a true hero should. Beowulf’s name lives on from his father which gives him the respect to walk right into Hrothgar’s mead-hall and handle business. What I like is how confident Beowulf was about killing Grendel when he came that night, there was no doubt in his mind that he wouldn’t have trouble with the demon or even that he would need to use armor while doing it. Beowulf being the hero he is killed Grendel and hung his arm in the mead-hall where they celebrated the victory for the city. I somewhat think that Beowulf is kind of cocky about his heroics, which isn’t a problem at all because the people still love him. He brags a lot and even reiterates how he would fight Grendel without any armor. He is the biggest and best thing that the Danish have going for them and he lets them know that. Comparably, Gilgamesh was also the best hero of his story and could boast for himself but he did it in a different way. He took charge and bullied the people in his story and didn’t care how they felt about it. They are alike in many ways; they both went on journeys to take on new competitors and make justice. At the same time they are very different, the difference between them is though Gilgamesh did a lot, he wasn’t always loved by his people. Not only do Beowulf’s people love him now Hrothgar and the other Dannish people love and appreciate him as well. Another difference is that Gilgamesh a partner to help him along his journeys, and his friend kind of stole the spot light. Enkidu came into Gilgamesh’s story for the purpose of the people so he was bound to steal the show anyway. Hopefully as I finish up the reading this story Beowulf won’t offend anyone or make a huge group of people hate him because he is a very likeable hero and I don’t want him to blow it like other heroes in past readings.

Journal 7 More Wife of Bath in Canterbury

I wrote my paper on the background of the whole Canterbury Tales since we read a story from it which was the wife of bath which I blogged about yesterday. Doing my research I found some interesting things about the very diverse section of a bunch of tales and The Wife of Bath in particular is the best of the best. I found that out of all the many tales, the reason The Wife of Bath is one the most impressive is because of how full its story line is compared to the rest of the tales. Out of the very different plots and characters in the Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath has a little bit of everything to make it great such as a righteous knight, a long journey (the infamous year and day), fairies and secular minded characters. These things are found throughout all of the tales which make the whole collection good but also makes The Wife of Bath Stand out. That was what I read about the story; I personally thought they all had a lot different aspects to them that was specific for the particular story and not found much in all the other tales. Besides, all the stories are about journeys from a place going to Canterbury and are set in King Arthur’s Court and most share the same characters so I didn’t really see how this one is so highly recognized. Maybe the fact that I have only read this one and partially looked in to skimming through a hand full of other tales plays apart on why I don’t see the value of the work, but like I said as of right now, knowing what I know about the whole collection they are all about the same to me.
I personally hate prologues because I think they can add that into the story instead of giving me two different things to read and they’re usually not even the same type of language or feeling of literature. Nevertheless, the majority of Canterbury stories had to have a prologue as far as I know because I have yet to find one not having one, but the prologue for this story is a lot different than the others. Chaucer took twice as much time preparing the story to be read in the prologue because it is twice as long as the story given to us. People think that Chaucer put a lot of work into making this story and the characters in it as well. He got the ideas from over half his stories from an older work written by Giovanni Boccaccio. I wonder if this tale is part of that percentage because he gets a lot of credit for creating this incredible, strong, female character and placing her in the story in a way it makes sense and is acceptable to the time era and people hearing the stories. No doubt in my mind that he deserves credit for all he had done, but was it all on him? As far as we know, that character could have been the exact same or even more complex before Chaucer got to it and translate it to what his people could read.

Journal 6 -- Wife of Bath and Characters

Ok so the Wife of Bath…. there is so much to say about her. Well I understood the story a lot more in depth than the prologue, but from what I learned in class the prologue was full of a lot of good information. I realized that Allison is the same lady as the same lady in the prologue, and now that we’ve talked about it should have been obvious, though it doesn’t straight out say that anywhere. The wife of bath was a woman who was married five different times which and was known as a black widow for obvious reasons. We haven’t had any female characters with that strong of a background and meaning to the story yet. I like to look at the stories we read and put them into today’s reality. I personally wouldn’t marry a woman that had been married many times before, and after knowing the reputation she had like being a serial killer you’d think the men would think twice about her. I like the fact that Chaucer doesn’t exactly come out and say specific things like who the woman from the prologue is, what the big deal was about the book, or if she really killed all of her passed husbands and why. Leaving things unsaid gives the tale a spark by itself. It probably helps that I like to add my own twist to what is happening too. The assumed reasons for her killing her husbands is to gain riches and it seems she got what she wanted form them, because she would marry them become the rich wife and somehow she always becomes a widow. To compare the 1300s to today’s world, not much has changed with the race of females. There are so many women like that now days, minus that will do anything for wealth, fame and their own free will (just like the women in the tale explained to the knight). Maybe the killing part is a little much because it is a lot harder to get away with murder now, but there’s no doubt in my mind that it happens. To call this type of women evil, I accept; but I also think they are very intelligent women and Chaucer was very intelligent as well by creating a character such as Allison. Another thing I noticed about the characters in the Wife of Bath, excluding Allison this time, is they were very undeveloped characters If I were a girl I’d probably share some of the traits as the characters that didn’t have a strong roll to the story. The knight did but he wasn’t your average knight. One, he raped a girl which pretty much never happened and he never took a stand to anything he felt. I think Chaucer almost wrote this one with backward gender status because it’s usually the opposite. Maybe it was on purpose to make the story stand out or maybe it could have been Chaucer used all of his talent in making Allison that he didn’t have much in him for everyone else.

Journal 5 --The Matrix = Daoism???

Once Mr. B told us we were allowed to blog about The Matrix I made the decision that I would take advantage of writing on something I really like and had prior knowledge on. After watching the first portion of the movie I realized I didn’t have too much prior knowledge of the real plot of the movie because I didn’t remember much of it. Before today what I knew about The Matrix was it’s a movie about fighting some agents and Neo, friends, along with the agents, could virtually do anything, but Neo was better at anything than anyone else because he was the one. That sounds like a very kid-like summary and I realized why…. It’s because the movie was made either in or before 1999, I was only 8 years old then. I don’t think I have seen this movie in the last 7 or 8 years but I did remember that I liked the movie so I was excited to watch it. Mr. B told us to watch the movie as we do when we read our text and I’m thinking like this isn’t going to be anything like what we read because it is about guns and fighting and superficial things. Watching the movie I listened to his instructions and now understand why; Daoism is very similar to the Matrix. There is a margin of belief versus disbelief in the movie especially when it comes down to the part of living in the world of computer programs, but who’s to say that none of it is real? It could very well be unreal and impossible to all of us and the way of life to those who believe in it. This movie illustrates Daoism very plainly to me although it isn’t the exact same idea it is very similar and I believe that’s why we are watching it. I like how Morpheus tells Neo he can’t tell him what the matrix is but would have to show him and then the movie is set in a white room where the setting becomes whatever Morpheus makes it. That is a Daoism way of thinking, minus the fact that Morpheus and his whole team are explaining and showing Neo their definition of the matrix to the best of their knowledge. In the real Daoism I think it says if you know what Daoism is then you don’t know what Daoism is. Which kind of bugs me because I’m learning about it and I feel like I’m in a lose – lose situation. If I don’t know what it is I’m probably not gonna make a good grade and if I do know what it is then I’m just misinformed and just simply think I know what it is, but I’m completely wrong. I can truthfully say I don’t like Daoism at all, but the irony in it is I really like The Matrix and even more after today. I like the way it challenges the mind to believe things that aren’t reality and if I saw this in my life, I wouldn’t even be totally against believing it for truth. Although the theme or message behind the two are closely related, I have opposite reactions toward them.

Jounal 4 -- Gawain and the Green Knight

Ok so I know I should have probably done at least one other post before this but we are done reading the green knight story. I don’t have a lot to say about this one because honestly I didn’t read all of it, sorry Mr. B if you are reading this. The first day it was assigned I was really happy and excited to read it because we had just finished reading Sakuntala which was like a chick flick to me. Like Sakuntala , all chick flicks aren’t terrible and boring, but they all have those touchy feelings in it that girls love, without anything manly things and it’s harder for me to get into. I knew this one was about some knights and there were a few fights in it so I was pumped thinking I’m getting ready to read something full of action, somewhat like Gilgamesh, but more human-like and less imagination required. Of course there was some action packed parts of this one. I mean, who doesn’t find thrill in a normal guy cutting the head right off of this huge green giant? That kind of stuff makes a story interesting but for some odd reason I just couldn’t get into this one like I should have. I did read enough to know what was happening, at least I tried, but after my reading I had to go to sparknotes and back up all of my info. I didn’t have to do this with the other two readings for the class, but this one I did which I find unusual. I believe it could possibly be because of the way the poem was written I wanted it to rhyme so bad that I found myself reading lines over and over. That especially happened after the sections with intended rhyme I goofed up after those parts a lot. I noticed the alliteration in the poem as well it didn’t throw me off wasn’t very consistent as far as I know. Maybe after reading the first day I kind of gave up on liking the story and it went downhill from there, because that was the part of the reading where not much happened in the text; mostly a bunch of descriptive lines about how fun the festival was or how green this armor-less knight is, details galore! After the first two sections of reading was when the meat of the story took place, that’s when the king of the castle went hunting and Gawain was seduced by the Queen. This stuff is interesting, but I didn’t find myself enjoying it while reading it. The story was more interesting to talk about in class. The last reason I can guess why I didn’t like it as much as I thought could be because it had morals and was about lying versus telling the truth. I know knights are chivalrous and they live by their virtues and all but I would have rather have seen some more French-like qualities in the knights as Mr. B explained to us in class. Then maybe he wouldn’t have turned down the queen who he admired so deeply, but then again that could have created some graphic reading I’d rather pass later in that section. Maybe it could have been something else Gawain lied about as well. Now that I think about it, if I could rewrite the plot of this story, or even the character Gawain, I would make him an undercover anti-knight who everyone believes to be a great knight of many virtues but deep down inside is a tricky, sneaky, evil person who always does the wrong thing. Then he would do all the bad like sleep with the queen, lie to the king, steal from the king, and even lie to the other knights when he got back to Camelot. I think the bad guys should sometimes win.

Jounal 3 -- "The buffoon"

I’m going to approach this entry a little differently than the others I’ve tried before. I’m not positive that it will work out for Mr. B, but the idea is creative and I believe it is worth a try. I am going to retell the story of Sakuntala from the point of view of the buffoon. Well first off, the buffoon is a character in the story that brings a comedy relief and does a good job of it. I think his role could have been bigger in the play to make it more interesting and fun, but I wasn’t the director so my opinion doesn’t count at the end of day. So in my effort to get the buffoon more credit this is his version of the play Sakuntala: Ok… so I really have to leave my freakin comfortable bed at the mansion filled sexy girls, good food, and of course nice gear? I was living like Hue Heffner’s side kick and now I’m out here playing Kunta Kinte for this wanna-be crocodile hunter. We finally get to stop and chill and we’re in this bummy place where they don’t even drink Fiji water and the food really sucks too. I’m tired of being here I wanna go back home where we belong but mister King here has his eyes locked on this chick and wants to stay. Doesn’t he have enough wives by now? If not I’m sure he’s had relations with many women he has no relationship with, such as the girls carrying his stupid oh so precious bow and arrow.
Now, in pain, I gotta listen as he tells me all these lovey dovey chick flick-like stories about this girl Sakuntala and I pretend as if I care and it’s way different than the last 50 times. No, no your kingliness, you are good enough for her, who wouldn’t want such a manly man like you? You deserve her and her beauty and her obedience to almost any and everything you say and all the other things she comes with. Wait did you say that your mother needs some assistance back in the city? In the place where the food is delicious, the work is easy and no more galloping around shooting animals? Aww sir don’t feel pressured to make a decision….. now of course I will go back to Paradise, I mean home, for you to talk to mom. I mean she thinks of me as one of her own right. No problem let your wishes be my dreams! You just take care of your little situation here, update your roster of wives and I will catch back up with you on the other side where the grass is greener.
Ok now this really sucks, you come back so soon and act like nothing ever happened. Did you fun in that ghetto, and how did it go with the honey you were checking out? Oh yea, I figured it was just going to be another fling sir is that the end of the story? It’s not, there’s more? What do you mean she tried to trap you? Well is it yours, I mean I don’t put it past you, I mean you are the king and stuff that’s what kings do right? Oooohhhh so she claims not only that you’re the baby’s daddy but you married her too. Is this girl delusional or something? OMG so your telling me this whole time the whole story is true and now your in funky mood because of it? This needs to be on Maury!

Journal 2 -- The format of Gilgamesh

As good as the story of Gilgamesh has been so far, there was a lot of stuff left out of the version that is in the text book we have, and it can get somewhat annoying. A few lines being missing isn’t that bad, but not knowing what happened in the 40 passages missing or the entire last part of the biggest fight scene of the story so far just completely not being mentioned kind of bothers me. I’m sure the translator could have guessed what the originator was trying to say, and if he or she couldn’t then I would have much rather him or her just make up something real tight. Nobody really knows where this stuff came from anyway so it could all be made up. The one good thing I can definitely point out about them losing pieces of the story is it is a heck of a lot shorter. Imagine if all of those lost passages were put into our version….. It would take us twice as long to finish!!! (and I don’t like super long stories). Also, another negative I found with the structure of Gilgamesh is it can get aggravating reading the same lines over and over and over. There are many sections of Gilgamesh that are repeatedly repeated and the repetition wares out the reader. I know it is suppose to emphasize the thoughts or actions, but the author or maybe the translator reiterates himself more than needed in the story. It’s like come on, we get it by now Gilgamesh is going to wake up and ask Enkidu why did he wake up so urgent, was he touched, did a god walk by or about his muscles trembling and bla bla bla we got it the first five times. I think if they wanted to put some extra stuff in the story they could have just filled in the original content where it was suppose to be. Not only could it get more intense and interesting, but then it wouldn’t be so stretched out, but more full. Since Gilgamesh is as old as dirt, literally, I can’t blame it for its flaws, besides there could be a lot more wrong with it. The bible is just as old and it is so much harder to read and understand. So I’m thankful for the way Gilgamesh was presented as whole and that’s just my views of the way the story is being presented to us. Many other people would probably rather it not have more made up parts because it wouldn’t be original, but me, I don’t care about that as much I want to read exciting things. As far as the plot of the story goes, it is already very fascinating so I can’t talk too bad about the negative sides without going into depth on the positive sides of Gilgamesh as an epic. The positive feedback outweighs the down sides in my eyes because no story is going to be perfect to anyone. So to please a reader such as me (a non-reader) as much as it did made it successful piece of work.

Journal 1 -- Beginning of Gilgamesh

After reading the first 5 tablets of Gilgamesh, I’m no longer worried about it being some old ancient story written in such a way only the teacher would understand. I usually have a problem reading things older than me which isn’t very good since I’m only 19, but the story of Gilgamesh was different. I believe anything can be easy to read to anybody as long as the literature can keep the interest of the reader. Gilgamesh is actually a very interesting epic to me because I can relate to the main characters in it. I have a best friend and we are also equal yet opposite likewise with Gilgamesh and Enkidu. I now see why Mr. B is so excited for us to read it. I know he is kind of a geek like he said, but after enjoying what I’ve read, I guess we all have a little bit of geek in us. Honestly, who doesn’t like a real good story/movie with a larger than life, superior, non-realistic hero that controls the story? To make it even better, there were two super beings and they conquered things together that’s like double the fun in one. We see it in all action movies, all comic books, some TV shows, and all the epics (so I’m told). It makes it better to know that I can find interest in things other than entertainment I choose, especially when its in a class I didn’t particularly choose.
What makes Gilgamesh even better than the other epics is it has two idealistic heroes that take over the plot. Gilgamesh and Enkidu, they can both be looked at as the main character in the story. I perceive the two as equal but opposite best friends who are similar in some ways but opposite in many as well which is very common and real life and gives the story ammunition to spark readers interest. They are both supposed to be stronger than anyone, smarter than anyone, both loved by the gods, unbeatable; except they stand for different beliefs so far. The way the interpreter makes them so much greater than an average human also makes it an epic story in my eyes. I say an epic story as in something to remember not in the sense of the literal definition of epic, though it fits that as well of course. We don’t really see them being best friends until the end of the scheduled portion for us to read and it happened after their one and only fight. I remember when me and my best friend had that same fight. It was like the mark between being friends and best friends after that day. Their different views on Gilgamesh’s sex habits were the start of the whole situation and I read it as neither one really won. If one would have won or loss, there probably would have been another fight and not as good of a story.

#1

This is just a test to see if im doing this correctly.