Final Post

http://thespacebetweenthespace.blogspot.com/2011/09/bible-and-me.html

In this post The Bible and Me I wrote about my own personal thoughts and feelings about the bible.  I discuses my own personal religion and reflect on my personal beliefs.

http://thespacebetweenthespace.blogspot.com/2011/09/enuma-elish-and-metamorphoses.html

In this post The Enuma Elish and Metamorphoses I compared the two texts.  I used examples from the text to drive my point’s home.

http://thespacebetweenthespace.blogspot.com/2011/10/was-beowulf-crazy.html

In this post Was Beowulf crazy?  I examined the text to find if Beowulf was crazy.  I looked at key points and evaluated his actions.

I chose these because I find them to be my best work.  They represent a verity of different type of writing I did from over this semester.  In The Bible and Me I did some self-reflecting.  I had to look in words to discover some self-truths and face my own prejudices I held.  In post The Enuma Elish and Metamorphoses I did comparing of two texts to find the similarities and the differences of them.  I did a good job at finding key elements in the story’s that supported my thoughts.  This is one of my best because I feel like I got the best text from the story to support me.  Finally in my post Was Beowulf crazy?  I had to examine a story and draw my own conclusions about it.  I found I did a good job of reading a story and interpreting it.  I demonstrated knowledge of the text and that I am able to analyze a text.  I find this is one of bet posy because of the level of analyzing that had to be done and I had to find the right examples to prove my hypothesis.

I have taken different literature classes in the past so I feel like my thoughts on it are the same.  I have always loved literature and this class just reinforced that.  The readings we read where written a long time ago and yet they remain.  These stories have stranded the test of time.  The thing I learned from this is it does not matter when a story was written it can be relevant at any time.

How would I evaluate myself? Well I feel like I did a good job on my blog assignments.  I always try hard on them and I feel it turned out nice.  I feel like whenever I have something to say I do it well.  Also when I set my mind to something I feel like I can do very well on it.   I may not have done the best on my first essay, but that was my fault.  I feel like I could have done better on that essay and for that I feel like that was my biggest weakness.  I tend to put everything off till the last minute to do it.  I always get my stuff done but it makes me stressed doing it at the last minute.  Also my spelling and grammar are weak but that is something I have always struggled with.

I feel that I should get an A in this class.  I feel that way for a few reasons.  First off the bat I show up every day and on time.  That in itself is a big things saying by the end of the class some people stopped showing up all together.  Next I try my best on my work.  I might not always have a lot to say but I get my point across when I do.  Also you get the privilege of teaching me twice.  That in itself is awesome.  Because of all of this I feel I should get an A in your course.

Punishment

This Idea of Punishment is huge in the Inferno.  Everyone in hell is being punished for whatever reason.  For some the punishment is never knowing god’s love and for other it is pain that fills every second of their life.  The only constant in hell is that everyone is being punished.

Even Satan is being punished for his sins.  No one is exempt from punishment.  Satan is trapped in ice and has to live in it forever. Always freezing cold and he can never get any warmth.  That is because he is as far away from god as possible.  Because of his treachery he is banished from god’s grace completely.

In the upper levels of hell the punishments are not a severer as the lower depths.  In the first level of hell their only punishment is not being by god.  They live virtues lives but they never accepted god as their savior and Jesus as their savior so they can never go to heaven.

Even Dante in the story is being punished.  He has to go through hell and experience everything.  He has to see everyone suffering.  He has to have the knowledge of the pain everyone is going through.  His love is in danger and he has to save her.  His punishment is the journey he must go through before he can reach god.

Dante put his own views into the story when making the punishment.  He was a man who loved his land and was banished.  He felt betrayed so because of this the punishments reflect that.  His personal anger is felt in his writing.

Response to Matt

I will be responding to Matts open post on Dante http://lwithforce.blogspot.com/.  I agree with his statement that “that its version of Hell is the scariest I have ever seen.”  The story is that of a visual experience.  Dante holds your hand through a very real and scary place.  Matt talk about it being so scary because it is all individualized.  Dante touches on topic and fears that are still relevant today.  I find his writing to hold up extremely well for how old it is.  He gets to the core of the human mind and is able to put every reader in their own personal hell.  To me that is one of the biggest things this story has to offer.  Everyone can take away their own things from the story that some on ells might not have really looked at that hard.  It is stories like these that really inspire people and survive because it will always remain relevant.

Dante’s Inferno

I found this to be a very interesting story.  It is one I have read already just for fun last summer.  The story revolves around Dante on his quest for true love.  The mental picture that is painted by this story is just so vivid.  The hell he described becomes this tangible place where you can really see the people suffering.  Each level has its own distinct feel to it.  No two punishments are the same and each reflects the sin that has been committed.

The first level of ell did not seem to be too bad.  There was not punishment except for not being with god.  What I found the most interesting part of this section was the massive amount of baby’s.  This is where all the unbaptized baby’s go too.  Back in the day al of baby’s die young so this level would have a lot of baby’s in it.  That would be the worst part of being in this level.

What I found to be especially interesting took place in the 7^th level of hell.  That place is reserved for suicide.  The people there come back ass trees.  When Dante was in the 7^th level he went through a forest.  In that forest he saw strange trees with black leaves and thorns.  Upon breaking of a branch the tree started to cry and it said “Owww! Why’d you do that, man?” and then it bleed black blood not sap.  Dante was horrified by this.  He did not know that this was the forest of suicide.  But if Dante had listed to Virgil earlier Virgil would not have let that happen.

Response to “What happens after death?”

As Jake talks about in his blog http://jakeslitblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/what-happens-after-death.html what happens after death is on everyone’s mind.  Death is an inevitability that everyone must face.  Some people spend a lot of time thinking about it, while others try to avoid thinking about it.  But any way you look at it death is important.  And the reason people think about it because of the afterlife.  There are as many different beliefs about the afterlife as there are different groups of people

Jake talks about the Christian views on the afterlife.  Being that one must turn their life to Christ to be saved, and if you don’t you will be sent to hell.  As he says “men only die once” and that “eternity is a long time to spend in hell” that is true.  That is a very powerful statement.  Hell is a power deterrent in Christianity.  If you mess up you go to hell.  If you warship the wrong deity you also go to hell.

There is much to learn from the christen views.  I personally do not follow them but I can respect them and learn from them.  The idea of being a good person is an important one.  People need to live their life to the best of their ability’s.  That is a cove value that everyone can learn from.  I may not follow the same set of rules as Jake but as long as everyone try’s their best to be good people it does not matter what religion you follow.

Afterlife

Death is something that people have always struggled to come to terms with.  Just about every culture out there has their own myth and beliefs about what lays on the other side.   There are just as many different afterlife stories’ as there are different cultures. Some people take solace in their religious beliefs on death while others feel like death is the end of the road.  The two I find most interesting is the Buddhist beliefs and the Egyptian beliefs.

In Buddhism death is viewed differently than other religions.  It is not a bad or even a scary thing.  In Buddhism when one dies there soul is judged based on their karma or their personal actions.  Then the soul is put into a new body and the quality of life they will have in their next life will depend on the quality of person they were in their past life.  This means that even animals can become human and vice versa.

After doing my research for presentation this week I now want to talk about the Egyptian afterlife. Originally the pharos where the only ones that got an afterlife.  They were mummified and preserved so that their souls could come back in at night and recharge.  During the day the souls would go the underworld ruled by Osiris.  Every morning they would raise with Ra the sun god and go with him on his journey before entering the underworld.  Latter it was changed that everyone could have an afterlife.  Their souls would have to be pure to achieve it though.

To me both these topics are important.  Being Buddhist I would care great deal about their afterlife.  Reincarnation is something I have thought a great deal about and find it fascinating.  Also I have always had a fascination with ancient Egyptian culture.  So much so I have the eye of Ra tattooed on my body.

Small-Group Discussion

To prepare for the small group discussion I had to do things a little differently.  I read the questions before I read Beowulf so that way I knew what to look out for during my reading.  And when I found it I marked the page and made a mark in my book to show me where it was.  I had to explore the text more to come up with questions I had and try to know the text in case I did not get a question I wanted.  Witch ended up being a good thing because I ended up getting a question I did not have pages for, but since I knew the text and questions I was able to answer it.  Other than that I actually finished the story a few days before class.  I normally put it off as long as I can but not this time.

I learned from this experience that it is ok to join in the discussion.  I normally am fairly quite in discussions but I need to speak my mind more.  I have things to say I just never feel like speaking up.  Also Beowulf has a whole lot of filler in it.  The good parts of action seem to go by fast and we are left with a whole lot of filler.  I also learned that I should not put off my reading to the last minute because it causes way to much stress.  I for once finished this story a few days early and it was so much less stressful for me.  It also gave me time to revisit parts of the story.  I found this means of discussion to be better for me.  It forced me to be part of the discussion and give my point of view.  That is something that I would probably not have done without it.

Beowulf response

As Jake states in his blog http://lwithforce.blogspot.com/2011/10/beowulf.html Beowulf is unlike any other story we have read so far.  There are heavy supernatural occurrences yet there is really no intervention from the gods.  People are fighting monsters but other than that the world seems to be grounded in reality.  It is odd to have a seemingly normal world with monster running around but that is what is happening in the story.

Jake also draws connections between Beowulf and Gilgamesh.  I agree with this because both stories revolve around two leaders who go out and kill monsters.  There man difference is Beowulf is a better leader.  His people and fellow warriors love him.  His acts of courage inspire people and he even gave his life to save his people.  Gilgamesh really quested for his own personal glory.  His big quest was for eternal life Beowulf’s was to save his land.  I agree with jakes post on all the points he made.

Was Beowulf crazy?

Beowulf was a warrior.  He also liked to jump into any challenge.  He had a lot of pride but it could have been something more.  His lust for battle and glory could have steamed from a deeper problem.  The man was nuts.  He seems to have very strong self-destructive tendencies.  Either he is the world’s bravest man or just plain crazy.

In his fight against Grendel he wanted to defeat him using nothing but his grip.  He grappled with him and used his strength to rip off Grendel’s arm.  He went into the battle planning to defeat him using only his manly strength.  He did not even have a plan of attack.  He just winged it.  Grendel was a monster known for his power, and he wanted to test his skills in battle.

He also goes to fight Grendel’s mother with no course of action.  She is the mother of a monster.  Feared across the land and he has no plan.  Just runs in and dose whatever comes to mind.  To him his death will be his and if he is defeated then so be it.  He really does not seem to care if he dies in battle.  He just wants the challenge.

He swam the ocean holding a sword just in case he needed it.  It is bad enough he swam into the middle of the ocean, but he had to do it holding a large sword.  He could not have even strapped it to his back he had to carry it with him in his hand.  That just seems like a bad decision to a normal person.

To wrap it up he is either very brave or just mad.  Someone who was not mad would have thought things out better.  He just ran into every change without a care in the world.  I could be reading too much into this but he just does not seem all there to me.

The Tragic Hero

The tragic hero is a something popularized in Greek tragedies.  But what if the Greeks where not the first with this idea of the tragic hero?  In the epic of Gilgamesh the main character Gilgamesh is in fact a tragic hero.  He shares many characteristic with the Greek tragic hero and in fact he shares similarities with Creon from Antigone.

This concept of hubris is “excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance.” According to dictionary.com. This is a major character flaw in both of these Hero’s.  Creon said “You’ll never bury that body in the grave, not even if Zeus’s eagles rip the corpse and wing their rotten picking off to the throne of God!”  This is such a prime example of hubris. 

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh’s pride is the thing that kills him.  He is self-destructive and he really does not get it until the end.  To me he is a prime example of what it means to be a tragic hero.

I want to argue that Gilgamesh is the first recorded tragic hero in literature.  I will break down what it means to be a tragic hero, and compare these to the Greek tragic hero’s to Gilgamesh. 

Antigone

Antigone is a tragic play.  There are some key elements that make this a tragedy.  Also there are two possible candidates for being a tragic hero in the story, but one to me stood out more as the true tragic hero. 

There are many different tragic elements in this story.  First of death is a common theme in the story.  Antigone’s brothers die, and so does she.   Creon also losses his son and then his wife.  “I killed you, I, god help me, I admit it all!”  Another big thing is that most of the death could have been avoided but the characters where to flawed to do so.  The main characters had flaws and that is big in Greek tragedy's.  also the tone of the story was grim witch is a common theme also.

I personally feel that Creon is the true tragic hero of this story.  Antigone did voluntarily do something knowing it could end up killing her.  She had to bury her brother even though her sister warned her about the outcome. She never really had a revelation or a turning point she just maintained her same level or spirit through out the story.  “You chose to live, I chose to die.”  She comes to a tragic ending and had her fatal flaws, but she is not the tragic hero. 

Creon not only dooms himself but he dooms his family with his arrogance and pride.  It is because of this he is the tragic hero of the story.  “You’ll never bury that body in the grave, not even if Zeus’s eagles rip the corpse and wing their rotten picking off to the throne of God!”  It is this pride that his down fall.  His own son came to him to ask him just to spare her.  He could not do so and because of that everything in his life went to hell.  His character finally wants to set things right, but by the time he dose it is all too late and he cannot bring back his loved ones for his own pride killed them.



The Bible and Me

For me this was my first time reading any biblical stories.  I have only heard of them from various places, but I never took the time until now to read any of them.  I used to feel like they would not be relevant to me at all.  After reading some of it one quick relies that there is a lot to take away from those stories and they can see the importance of it.

Last year I became a Buddhist and part of Buddhism is being excepting of other religions.  Before being Buddhist I was atheist and a bit of a dick about it.  I never grew up with a set religion when I was younger so I never got the point of religion.  I did see the point of it, and how it can help people.  I only saw the pole on T.V quoting it.

The bible has a lot to offer to people of any faith.  It just gets a bad rap because some people use it to push their own views on others.  Taking quotes from it and use it to try to justify their own views.  From what I read of it and I understand now it’s not meant to be taken literally it is a guide not an instruction manual.  It is meant to show you examples of positive ways to live your life and that is what I take it as. 

I probably would not have read any of it if it was not for this English class, but it was a worthwhile experience.  If only to just get a better understanding of what the Bible is about.  I found things I can take away from it and feel better informed because of it.

Homer vs Biblical Authors

Auerbach compared Homers writing to that of biblical writers.  He was comparing the literature to see who the better writer was.  He claimed that “Homer can be analyzed . . . but he cannot be interpreted”.  To understand that we must know what those words mean.

Analyzed- To separate (a material or abstract entity) into constituent parts or elements; determine the elements or essential features.

Interpretation - An explanation of the meaning of another's artistic or creative work.

Now given these definitions from Dictionary.com I would have to agree with Aurback.  Homer spells everything out in his writing. No stone goes unturned and nothing is leaven to the imagination.  “His mother’s father-a great thief and swindler” Homer even has to explain the back story of people who just make an appearance in a flashback.  There is nothing left to interpret because he holds our hand and tells us everything we need to know.  All we have to do is analyze it by looking at all the pieces in the writing.

The biblical writers took a different approach to this.  In Abraham and Isaac it says “Behold, here I am”.  That was god talking to Abraham, and we are given no context to where god is or even if he is in a physical or astral form.  “and they came to the place which God had told him of,”  again in this it is just a vague place that we do not know about.  We can interpret the bible and analyze it.  People can fill in the blanks and find meaning in it because everything is not feed to us.  People can take away different meaning from it because we interpret it and that is something we all do differently.

Auerbach felt that the biblical authors did a better job than Homer did.  Homer had to explain everyone motivation and everything that happened.  The biblical writers did not have to explain everything in their stories.  They left things up to interpretation.  Homers stories are entertaining but that is all they are.  The biblical stories are meant to teach us and make us think.

Enkidu

Enkidu is a character that is interesting to me.  He starts off innocent and at one with nature.  Then he becomes that of a civilized man.  Then he goes off and becomes an adventurer.  He dose through these phases so fast his character is very dynamic compared to everyone ells in the story.

“Enkidu ate grass in the hills with the gazelles” That says allot about his purity.  He just hung out with the animals and they accepted him for he was pure of heart.  He had no ill intent or malice in his heart.  He acted on instinct and was more beat than man.

That all changed when he lay with the harlot.   “When the gazelle saw him, they bolted away” He was rejected by the animals after he had embraced the women.   After he had no place left to go she showed him how to become a proper man.  She took him back to her temple and clothed him.  She fed him, and turned him into a real man.

After he met Gilgamesh they became good friends.  They went on adventures and relied on each other for they were two half’s of the same coin.  Enkidu even helped slay the bull of heaven he ‘seized it by the horns”.  The bull charged him and knocked him over so he gets up and restrains it by himself so Gilgamesh can kill it.  That is not something he would have done if he was still a feral man.

Enkidu to me was a really interesting character and noteworthy.  He was such a dynamic character in a story filled with static one.  When he died for me the story was less interesting because I did not really care about Gilgamesh.

Differences In Flood Story’s

Both the Hebrew stories and the Epic of Gilgamesh contained flood stories.  They stories have some similarities to them like a great flood happened, but they are very different at the same time.  The stories differ on three key things.

Length of Flood

In the epic of Gilgamesh the flood did not last that long.  “For six days and six nights the winds blew, torrent and flood raged together like warring hosts.”  After that the gods felt bad for man and stopped the flood.  They rushed their decision of the flood and after six day and seven nights they could no longer go forward with killing everything.  In the Hebrew story the flood was much longer. “And the flood was forty days upon the earth”.  God knew what he wanted to do, and he followed through with it.

Motivation

The motivation for the great flood’s where completely different.  In the Hebrew story god flooded the earth to wipe out evil.  In that story god said “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”  He had to cleans the earth of evil.  While in the epic of Gilgamesh the gods just where tired of hearing us. “The uproar of mankind is intolerable and sleep is no longer possible by reason of the bable.”  And their solution to this well it was to just flood the world.  It was a more selfish reason then the Hebrew story.

What was on the Ship

In the Hebrew story Noah brought his family his son’s wives and two of every animal in the world.  “And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark”.  God told him this is what he needs to start the world back up after the great flood.  In Gilgamesh god said to “Take up into the boat the seed of all living creatures.”  Also craftsmen where taken into the boat so they can rebuild after the flood.

Noah

While reading this story I was struck by something.  Noah was six hundred when the great flood happened.  Does that mean he built an ark big enough to hold all the animals at such an ancient age?  Also when he died he was almost a thousand years old.  That just seems weird to me.   For a man to live that long but that is not for me to decide.

Why would god have someone so old build his great ark?  I have been trying to figure this out, because most people once they get old have a hard time doing physically demanding activities.  For one to be able to build the ark at such an old age he would have to have the strength and energy of a younger man.  If he did not have the energy to do it alone dosed that mean his kids helped him do it?  If I had able bodied sons I would have had them help me do it.

That leads me to my next thought.  Dose everyone in biblical time just live a really long time?  I feel like that was just the norm back then because Noah’s family would have been really old too, and the age really did not matter at all.    Everyone just lives a long time and stays productive longer in biblical times I guess.   I just don’t know why they picked such arbitrarily large number.

God

The Flood story was a practically interesting one.  God played a complex role in it.  He both wiped out and saved humanity.  He was Vengeful and at the same time he wanted to save man.  Here are the three attributes that I saw that god had in "The Flood".

Vengeful

“I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of earth: both man and beast… for it repenteth me that I have made them.”  He wants to cleanse the earth from all life and start over.  He was disappointed in the way mankind has become.  We strayed away from the richest path and for that we must face the consequences. 

Also god said “The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”  This is my favorite quote from god.    He is angry and vengeful to the point where he decides to kill everything. 

Powerful

In the story god had all power.  He had the power to flood the earth, and wipe away all the wicked it held.  “And God saw that the wickedness of men was great in the earth”.  He had the power to not let that go on for he could change it.  He then chose he man to protect the good, and then he wiped out all the evil with his all mighty power.

Compassionate

Then God has a more compassionate side.  He decided he does not want the world to completely end.  So he chooses the best man to start the world over.  Noah was chosen by god to be the one to save humanity.  “Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.”  Noah was a truly good man so god felt he was the best of mankind.

The Enuma Elish and Metamorphoses

creation myths Enuma Elish and Metamorphoses are two very different story's. These story's where told by two completely different groups of people at different times. Yet they share allot in common with each other, and have things happen in a very similar order.

In the Enuma Elish it says “when skies above were not yet named Nor earth below pronounced by name”. This correlates to a passage from Before the ocean was, or earth, or heaven, Nature was alike, a shapelessness, Chaos”. This is saying that in the beginning both opened up with chaos. From the chaos order can be born. The gods come into existence and they deliver the world from chaos.

There was a very similar chain of events that happened in the story's as well. Started out in chaos. The gods show up. The gods start creating things. They start to make more life forms. Then through acts of violence peace can finally happen.

In both story's acts of violence lead to order in the world. In the Enuma Elish a god was riped in half and from her created the boundaries of the world. In the Metamorphoses giants where slayed and there blood got the ocean pregnant. From that man was born into the world. The violence's was needed to give birth to man and finally end the chaos. There needs to be death in order for there to be life.


Water plays a important role in both story's. In Enuma Elish water is what the gods where born out of. The water god is also killed and helped divide up the earth. Water is a driving force in both story's. In the Metamorphoses story it helped shape the face of the earth. The ocean also gets pregnant from the blood of giants and gives birth to man.

This is a depiction of Marduk killing Tiamat from the Enuma Elish.

Creation

There is a few things i did not quite get in the creation myths.  The first the gods all seamed to make man just because they where board I don't get it.  It just happens and they almost always seem to not be worth it.  Also war seems to follow creation.  If god created them in his image then dose that mean the gods are no better then man?