Post 28: The best blogger(s)

                    Of the people that kept up with their blogs consistently, there are a few people that came to mind as far as the "best blogger" goes. The first name that I thought of was Andy Ferguson, since his blogs are often concise and offer plenty of detail and originality. His understanding of the text is clear and you will probably end up thinking about the assigned piece differently after reading his take on it. However, Lauren Bagwell's posts had that same clear understanding of the text, as well as her own personal voice that spoke through the posts. These two are the most exemplary bloggers from our class.

Post 27: A piece I would reread

                    One piece that I always wanted to read and dig deeper into was Dante's "Inferno". It's not a piece that I would normally read outside of a classroom setting, despite my interest in it, but I always wanted to read it and discuss it in a class setting. When I noticed we were assigned Inferno, I naturally got excited about it, but the assignment following the reading were fairly ambiguous and were sort of vague in terms of the reading. We also didn't discuss the story in as much depth as I would have liked to. So, I'd probably find myself rereading Inferno in my spare time to satisfy my interest in the story.

Post 26: Hamlet as a modern hero

                    Hamlet is more of a modern hero than an epic hero because he exhibits more "humanistic" traits. Hamlet isn't portrayed as a God or someone gifted by the gods to complete a task; in fact, he is incredibly human and displays human-like wants and desires.Ultimately, everything that Hamlet does in the play is for his own agenda and not for the greater good. This also makes Hamlet more of a modern epic hero because he is more relatable than an Oedipus or a Dante. His conquests are desirable and appeal to human emotion and instinct.

Post 25: Hamlet in comparison to other heroes

                    Hamlet is an archetypal hero, just like the other protagonists that we have read about and discussed in this semester. He does not begin the story in a bad way, he actually begins with several things to look forward to, specifically being heir to his father's throne. As time passes in the story, he falls from grace and it eats him alive and exposes some of his flaws as a hero. This fall from faith could be compared to Dante, as his actions lead him to traverse through the circles of Hell. Hamlet could also be compared to Oedipus as far as the royalty archetype goes.

Post 24: Utopia in comparison to the United States

                    Thomas More's Utopia is a story of a "perfect" nation that was created separate from the other nations of the world. The main premise of the nation that More writes about is a place that is free from debt, religious difference and persecution, and racial equality (Despite the existence of slaves). Although the United States aims and strives for such things, they simply fall short. Distinctions between the rich and poor still exist, some religions are still thought of as ludicrous or pagan if it does not coincide with Christianity, and racial inequality is still very prevalent throughout the nation.

Post 23: Leadership as written by Machiavelli

                    Machiavelli's ideas of leadership are strong indicators of what a good leader is in today's society. In many facets, according to Machiavellian literature, Donald Trump would have received some slight criticisms, but all in all he would have been considered a great leader. An important quality that Machiavelli would commend President Trump for is his nation's self sufficiency. Although we rely on others for several of our goods, we are ultimately self reliant, and we have the power to increase our already large military force. Machiavelli "[considers] those who are able to support themselves by their own resources who can, either by abundance of men or money, raise a sufficient army to join battle against any one who comes to attack them[...]". By this notion, we are more than self sufficient because our army is strong and can hold their own against most any military threat. President Trump's men are also "Well-organized and drilled", another facet which complements his military strength.
                   

Post 22 : Beauty in Song Lyrics

                    One of my favorite songs was released last year on Bon Iver's album, 22, A Million. The album features a very particular and obscure sound, and the same can be said about the lyrical content of the short album. The song that I want to discuss lyrically is 715 - CR∑∑KS, which is found early on in the album. The most interesting thing about this song is that it has no instruments, only extensive vocal harmonies, leaving the vocals and lyrics very exposed. The lyrics of the song are very vague and ambiguous, which leaves room for interpretation. The full lyrics are displayed in the video, but they are also located here. 

                    The lyric has a ton of imagery in lyrics such as  "Down along the creek

I remember something" and "low moon don the yellow road". Also the lyrics feature a narrator who is obviously distraught about something that is left to interpretation which is displayed more in Justin Vernon's voice than anything else. His crying vocals on the "turn around you're my A-Team" lyrics are almost physically felt. The most beautiful thing about this lyric is that it is almost entirely up to the listener on what it means, and the delivery of the entire song.

Post 21: Beauty

I had not known beauty before I knew you,
I thought I did, but I did not know how wrong I was.
In the damp morning mist is when I met you
And saw your face.

It has been eight months since then
And now I realize that beauty and love
Are nearly synonymous;
I cannot seem to realize the difference.

Because within the beauty of you
Is where I discovered love
And now it is nearly impossible to
Differentiate the two.

Where beauty lies, love has to also rest,
It is impossible to recognize beauty
Without also noticing love somewhere nearby;
Either within, or without.

Post 20: Socrates

Socrates was convicted at the age of 71 for "[corrupting] the youth of Athens, sophistry (fraudulent teaching practices), and heresy"[331]. It's not very shocking that he was criticized for his teachings, since they violated every standard that was established in Greek philosophy at the time. Contrarian thinking has never been a socially-accepted practice and everything that is considered outside of the ordinary is a negative form of thinking. However, it's safe to say that Socrates could back up everything that he said to his following.

It's important to note exactly what Heresy is, however, especially since it is one of the lower circles of Hell (http://historylists.org/art/9-circles-of-hell-dantes-inferno.html). Merriam-Webster has two definitions of Heresy. The first is "adherence to a religious opinion contrary to church dogma". The second one being "dissent or deviation from a dominant theory, opinion, or practice" (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heresy). Since Socrates violated the ways of thinking in Ancient Greece, by definition, he earned his seat in the sixth circle of Hell. However, one question that rises in my mind is, "Is disagreeing a sin?" Socrates chose to teach lessons based on what he believed, and since it was considered outlandish, he was scorn by many and executed. However, it would be impossible to have every human agree to one method of teaching.

Post 19: Hell and Suffering

                    Dante's concept of Hell is what seems to be the generally accepted Hell, as far as literature goes. It involves a gradual descent into the "9 Circles of Hell", which are, in order, Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery (http://historylists.org/art/9-circles-of-hell-dantes-inferno.html). In a metaphorical and lyrical sense, Dante has to go through Hell in order to reclaim Beatrice. It also shows that Dante was willing to go through anything to rescue Beatrice, which could be one of the appeals of suffering. The fact that suffering and pain doesn't normally last forever and usually, after experiencing it and going through it, one is rewarded for enduring it is almost always enough to make it worthwhile.
                    Although a common sexual practice throughout most of history, domination and punishment, masochism and sadism, commonly known as BDSM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BDSM), is a sex practice that is seemingly growing in popularity. It involves, most commonly and most technically (without getting into much detail) one partner being subject to emotional or physical torment by the other partner. This sexual practice is seemingly common among millennials and others, and is often used as a means of spicing up a couple's relationship. It can be said that there is something appealing about suffering, as stated above, since it seems to always offer a reward in the end.

Post 18: Jesus in the Quran

                    Jesus' role in the Quran and the Islamic faith varies from his role in the Christian faith and in the bible. He is referred to as a "messenger" in both texts, but it seems to take a more literal approach in the Quran, since he literally delivers the message from God to the people of the land. However, it does not seem that Jesus in the Quran performs miracles such as the ones that are performed in the bible. In fact, it seems that in the Quran, Jesus is not meant to be revered as a holy being like he is in the bible. The quran states that "If God should touch you with adversity, there is no remover of it except Him[...]" meaning that God alone is the figure that should be praised. Also, the Quran makes a statement that says "O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, ‘Take me and my mother as deities besides God?’” He will say, “Exalted are You!" meaning that it is clear that God is the only figure to be worshiped. 

Post 14: Gods in Modern War

                    God and Gods played a very drastically different role in war from ancient history to now. For one, in ancient times, the gods directly impacted battlefields and characters in the war. If a God thought that a warrior or soldier was too strong, the god would debilitate the warrior or soldier in some way. Gods would also offer divine protection to warriors or soldiers in some cases, which could be compared to war in the modern era. Although a God does not directly impact battle nowadays, many soldiers and families of soldiers still do pray for that divine protection. Religion in general is also a reason that several countries to this day still go to war. Although God is not necessarily a physical factor in modern war, the concept is definitely still disputed.

Post 13: The War in Iraq

                            The Iraqi war in 2003 occurred for several different reasons. Some believe that it was an attempt to gain access to one of the largest oil reserves in the world. Some believe that it was to hinder the attempt of a nuclear attack on America. It is also believed that we invaded Iraq to debunk terrorism and to maintain governmental freedom in Iraq. In retrospect, many believe that this attack was just post 9/11 paranoia. (http://www.e-ir.info/2015/03/09/one-war-many-reasons-the-us-invasion-of-iraq/)

                    The Gita’s justification of war is based on the Hinduistic belief that good souls and bad souls will ultimately end up where they need to go. The ultimate goal of Arjuna after consulting with Krishna was to eradicate evil within his family and land. In this sense, the Iraqi war was justified because Bush believed that Iraq was a clear and present danger to the sanctity of the United States, and he wanted to hinder the plague of nuclear weapons from entering into the United States.

                    The Art of War was moreso a strategy guide to war. Morals were only considered if it was a beneficiary to the war effort. One of the main strategies of The Art of War was to gain an upper hand in any way possible, regardless of the circumstance. The Art of War also states that no one has ever benefited from prolonged warring because that only dulls one’s armor and weaponry. In either sense, The Iraqi War was not justified by the Art of War since it strategically only made sense in one of many aspects. America had the upper hand throughout the entirety of the war, but the time spent there was more counteractive than anything.

Post 12: A Tragedy

                    Kobe Bryant, during his NBA career, was a phenomenal basketball player. He won several NBA championship titles in his long 20 year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, broke several records and scored high points in several games, and he even went to the Olympics in London during that time and won a gold medal. Even though his numbers and statistics spoke for him as far as him as a basketball player, what makes this hero a tragic hero was his ego, which often got the best of him on and off court.
                    On the court, Kobe was historically considered a "ballhog", or someone who didn't pass to his teammates very often, even if he was not necessarily performing great that night. Also, he was very hard to work with, especially with his teammate Shaquille O'Neal. Throughout both of their careers, the two teammates had several disagreements. At the middle of both of their careers, Shaquille O'Neal even went as far as to write a "diss track" song towards his teammate. As far as off the court, the superstar Kobe was accused of sexually assaulting a 19 year old hotel employee. After both of these incidents occurred, his performance on the court deteriorated significantly until his retirement in 2016. Although his performance on the court began to diminish, his superstar hero status never completely went away.

Post 11: A Personal Narrative

                    I can recall almost scene by scene that day. I couldn't have been any older than five or six, so this occurred roughly fifteen years ago, but still I remember it as vividly as it happened. As a kid, you normally do whatever your older family members tell you to do, probably to gain some sort of "acceptance" from them. Let's face it; they were "cool". My uncle took my older cousin and I to the playground after school, and everything was normal. This was until, of course, my older cousin convinced me to go up the largest slide in the playground, backwards. Meaning, I was to climb the actual decline and step down the ladder that brought you to the top.
                    Safe to say, this did not turn out very well. When I triumphantly climbed to the top and jested to my older cousin below me, I neglected to notice the steps underneath me, and I slipped off the apex of the slide, landing hard on my back. In retrospect, I could have caused a lot more damage than I did, but I only dislocated my left thumb. Strange how someone's impact on you can cause you to make stupid mistakes.

Post 10: A Modern Hero, in comparison to an epic hero

                    My take on the modern hero versus the epic hero was sort of touched on in my last post, but I think I'll use this post to clean it up here. To me, an epic hero is one who does over the top, godlike heroic tasks, such as slaying beasts or speaking with or through the gods, or even completing a sort of epic journey. A modern hero, however, is someone who is revered for helping someone out in their community or doing something humanly good for another human. An example that I saw in several blog posts was the nurse being a sort of modern day hero, since it's their job to save other people's lives. However it is their job to do this, so I don't believe that they could qualify as a "hero" in the general sense. An epic hero did not necessarily look for recognition when it came to doing the things they did; however a hero nowadays has to do what they do in order to bring home a paycheck.

Post 9: A Modern Hero

                    If you're asking me, there is no such thing as a "hero" in the 21st century. A hero nowadays is someone who goes out of his or her way to do a "good" deed. I guess to define what a "hero" is, you'd have to also define what a good deed is, because the definition of a hero has definitely changed from historical times to now. In any time before the 21st century, a hero would be someone who slayed beasts (such as Gilgamesh), someone who is a decorated war veteran or captain {George Washington, for example), or someone who spearheads an entire social liberation of a people (Martin Luther King Jr.). 

                    It seems that you don't see very many "heroes" to this caliber in this day and age. Nowadays, a hero is someone such as a firefighter or a police officer. The problem with this is that this is their job to be a "hero". A hero would normally do heroic actions without having to receive a pay check for doing those actions. Another modern day take on the hero is a person who does a good deed, or a "local" or "hometown" hero. The issue with this is that it shouldn't take recognition of a good deed to define someone as a hero; it should just happen. Humbleness defines a hero, not recognition.

Post 8: The Pillow Book

                    The Wikipedia page that I'm choosing to do my edits on is The Pillow Book. I'm choosing this article because it isn't exactly as in depth as any of the other full length stories that we have read thus far. I like how it mentions that there are other pillow books that exist in the world and that were written back then, but I feel like it didn't explain the pillow book that we read about in class. But I do like the comparison that is made to The Tale of Genji, the story that we also read in class. I plan on adding more details not only about the story, but about Sei Shonagon, the author, since there are very little details about her in the article or her role.

Post 7: The Birth of Modern Romance

                    It is commonly believed that romantic love gets its roots from the richer Aristocratic courts of Europe, India, Japan, and India. There are a couple of theories as to why this is the case, and I've narrowed it down to two that I'm going to discuss in this post. One idea that I developed is the concept of some form of "hero" in romantic stories. Take Gilgamesh, for example. Although Gilgamesh ultimately declines Ishtar's offers of love and romance, it is not until Gilgamesh proves himself as a "hero" that she offers herself up to him. Although an example from an older text, this same concept is prevalent in The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon, especially when she writes of the samurai. Samurais are typically considered heroes or protectors in Japanese folktales, which plays nicely into my theory. 

The Wife of Bath from The Canterbury Tales was a promiscuous, sensual woman who loved sex and the idea of sex; so much so that she had five different husbands. The next theory that I have is that the aristocrats would have probably rejected this on grounds of holiness and cleanliness, since being virginal is and was considered clean in the romantic era. Marrying an honest man or woman pretty much assures that he or she (but probably she) is virginal, which was a sought-after trait in the romantic time period.

Post 6: Sex with the Wife of Bath is so Amazing

                    The song that I chose to compare to The Wife of Bath is Sex With Me by Rihanna. I feel like the content matter is about the same, in regards to loveless sex. In the song, Rihanna uses lyrics like "We're not making love, we're tryna get nasty" and "The sex doesn’t get any better, make it long, let it be all night" to not only describe how nice she is with sexual relations, but it also states the requests that she wants from the man that she is having sex with. Seems like a song The Wife of Bath could relate to.Here's the song if you'd like to listen. (Does contain explicit language)

Post 5: Wife of Bath.... Romantic?

                    When I was reading The Wife of Bath, several thoughts entered my head, but not one of them was "romantic". I don't think that I'd describe her as romantic. despite her possibly romancing five husbands in her lifetime. I don't think that she displayed anything more than meaningless sex, and she made that quite clear in her dialogues.
                    Despite this, I believe that she could be a reflection of modern dating. The hookup society is pretty prevalent in this day and age, especially with the technology that we have and apps like Tinder to help people meet up for short flings. Although this is not classically "romantic", that is the society that we live in today.But, at least she got married before deciding to have sex with her partners.

Post 4: Archetypes in Metamorphoses

                    Metamorphoses, the collection of stories by the Poet Ovid, is a story that in itself is a creation story. It not only gives details on how certain things got to be how they are today, but Metamorphoses also offered answers to complicated concepts and non-explainable phenomena. It also contains archetypes, which are found not only in real life, but in other creation stories from various cultures.
                    One archetype found in Metamorphoses is the concept of love. Love is found in every aspect of human life, from love to another person or one's self, to love of an object or an idea. In Metamorphoses, Apollo discovers his first love in Daphne [733], although not through his own will. It is due to "Cupid's fierce anger" [733] that Apollo falls in love with Daphne, and conversely causes Daphne to reject Apollo continuously. This can be seen as a real life archetype, as rejection is a common thing in love, and sometimes a person will chase another person until it makes very little sense to do so (Daphne being turned to a laurel tree [734], for example.).
                    An archetype that is found in several creation stories is the concept of a great "doing away with" of the human race due to them displeasing the gods. This is found not only in the Bible with the Great Flood and Noah, but also in Metamorphoses when Jupiter floods the earth due to his anger with humanity [732-733]. Gods displaying power in a way to punish humans was a very common archetype in creation stories.

Post 3: Archetypes in Every Day Life

                    In my short nineteen years, I have experienced several types of archetypes or concrete things in my life that have not really changed and probably will not change. As a kid, I moved around quite a bit; one of the things that has not really changed in my life is the support of my family. Regardless of any endeavor that I have taken in my life, my family has always been there to offer support and advice to me, despite them not necessarily always agreeing with the paths that I have chosen or not chosen to take. Also, my family always tells stories about their past and what they had to endure in order to end up where they are at this very moment. It rarely has to be a large event for an older family member to tell the younger ones in the family about their lives. The stories often offer a significant amount of insight to my life and these stories impacts on me very rarely change. 

                    Another archetype in my life is the church, and this is a physical archetype that I am in every Sunday. Whenever I move around, my family and I have always at least attempted to stay in church every Sunday. We go to church to get insight on ourselves, and we also use it as a place to meet up and converse with our peers. The church is a physical archetype that has a good amount of symbolic and emotional impact on my life.

Post 2: Creation and How it Molds Us

                    I feel as though creation stories give a simple answer to questions that are not simple in the slightest. Creation stories range from vast and deep ideas that are often scientifically theorized, such as the creation of the entire galaxy with the Big Bang Theory, to much simpler concepts that are still difficult to rationalize and explain, love, for instance.                                          
                   
                    Interestingly to me, though, is how similar many of the creation stories are. They all share certain archetypes that are recognizable across all of the stories.Take the books of Genesis, the stories of the Cherokee, and the stories of the Pima, for example. They all feature the earth existing as sort of a vast mass of nothingness. In Genesis it is described as "without form, and void"[8, vol 1.] The Cherokee Indians say that the world was submerged underwater [332 vol 3] and the Pima state that the Earth did not even exist until Juh-wert-a-Mah-kai (The Doctor of the Earth), decided to create it so that he or she or it would have something to stand upon [350]. Regardless, all three of these stories are outlandish and are true if you believe them to be, but they are also all understandable to their culture and are able to be retold. If you are a Christian, you were probably told at some point that God created the earth and you believed it. Not because it was factual, but because the idea of creation is so vast and nearly inexplicable that it has to be converted into something that is easy for someone to understand. And I believe that is what creation stories do; give answers to questions with no straightforward answer.

Post 1: Creation

                Creation has always been a sort of touchy subject for me and it's not something that I openly discuss around my family, who is normally extremely religious and convinced by their ways. I rarely discuss it with my friends either since they're often times uninterested in this sort of topic. But my understanding of creation is that most people have a scientific belief system regarding it and other people have a more religious belief system in regards to it. In that sense I guess my views on how the world was created and how we got here are atypical, since I believe there are elements of both meshed into how the world was created.

                 I believe that it is uneducated to deny the science of how humans, life, and the earth we live on, simply put. I also believe that is short sighted to deny the possibility of a life higher than ours. I feel as though there had to have been something to "create" that science, or something used the literal science to his, her, or its advantage in order to craft the world that we know and inhabit. Either side of the spectrum should be taken with a grain of salt since their is no way of proving something like that and there isn't much evidence to back an argument on either side, so it is almost impossible to make an argument that isn't strictly opinion, and my opinion is that a god or godlike being created the universe, but with science that he or she or it created.