English Journal

Week 1

I have always loved mythology. So it was easy for me to take time out to read Gilgamesh. I have come to notice a few things. In a sense, the myth parallels the bible with the flood and the creation Gilgamesh. If God created Adam in his own image, the gods made Gilgamesh ten times better than Adam. The story takes place before the flood. When I read that, I thought about the flood in the bible. I know this was written before the bible, but I could not help but to think of Noah and the ark.

Now because, Gilgamesh was perfect, the people were complaining. That makes me think of something new coming along, such as the wheel or the airplane, and people rejecting it at first. The people of course complained to the creators about Gilgamesh. So, what to do? What to do? The solution was a simple one. This is where Enkidu enters the story. He is one of my favorite characters. He starts out like a child of innocence and then as the story goes on, he begins a man of the world. In a sense, he is like a normal human being. We all start out innocent in this world, but once we grow up, we become filled with the knowledge of a cold and sometimes bitter reality.

My favorite in the epic is Enkidu and the harlot. This tale brings a sense of seduction into the story. Romance and sensually always seems to play a role in mythology. They make a man or bring them to complete ruin. The harlot is what brings Enkidu into the world of the world and materials. After he sleeps with her for six days and seven nights, he loses his speed and animals all walk away from him like he is a total stranger. The harlot in return becomes his lover and companion. Sex had soothed the savage beast in Enkidu. He became civilized.

I did notice that Ishtar, goddess of love, was a bit of a brat. She lusted after Gilgamesh and wanted him for herself. However, he rejected her and she was purely angry. She tries to kill Gilgamesh and Enkidu by sending down the Bull of Heaven to crush them to death. However, they destroy the bull and Ishtar and all the loose women of the world mourn the loss. The love goddess is so devastated that she puts a curse on Enkidu and kills him. This is all because that Gilgamesh turned her down. The only I could not stand in the story was book two and some of the quotes in the book. I found them too long. But other than that, I really did love the story of Gilgamesh.

Week 2

Gilgamesh is an interesting story. It was happiness, but now it has taken a serious tone. The title character is turned human after the death of Enkidu. He is still strong, but he is weak in the heart. Seems like I was not the only one crushed by his death. Gilgamesh now wanders the wild in skins. He is scared of death. So, what does he do? The king goes on a quest to find eternal life from Utnaposhtim. That reminds me of the search for the fountain of youth. Both seemed to be next to impossible conquest. Humans desire to be youth and live forever, but everyone knows that it is not meant to be that way. If it was, everyone would be gods.

Gilgamesh arrives at his destination in the garden. This place is beautiful! The whole garden is made out of jewels. A jewelry store would probably kill to have it. However, all is not well in this beautiful garden. The people do not want Gilgamesh there and they do not want to give him eternal life. They do not even believe that he the great king Gilgamesh himself. However, the good old king refuses to give up. He fights them down and makes it to the end of his destination. Even then the good old king proves that he is weak and does not get that prize he was hoping to seek. His need for sleep proves to be too much for him. However, he does get a plant that makes him young and strong again. In the end needless to say, Gilgamesh dies and it is greatly remembered by all that loved him.

Stories five through seven were pleasantly short for me. I am not big on reading. So to my surprise, I got through those stories without any problems. The only thing I did not like in the end was the repetition. They could have cut that out in the book. There was one thing that caught my attention however. The story of the ark in Gilgamesh and the story of Noah and the ark in the bible parallel each other very closely. I even think that the Bible may have taken the story of the flood from Gilgamesh used it for their own. It is just my theory however and I could be wrong. However, I did love the whole story of Gilgamesh and would like to read it again in the near future.

Week 3

Again, I love mythology. Greek and Roman mythology is my favorite. The gods and goddesses have always fascinated ever since the sixth. Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, first got me into the myths. Ever since then, mythology plays a huge part in my writing. The Odyssey is a well-known epic by Homer. It takes place after the great war in the Iliad. Odysseus, hero of the Trojan War, angers Poseidon and is punished by taking ten years to get home. As usual with stories like this, there are a few obstacles.

Odysseus is like a rock star in a sense trying to get home. He is faced with many temptations along the open seas. His crew is the main problem. To be blunt, they are idiots. The men kill Polyphemus’ flock and kill some holy cattle out of greed. As punishment, they make the journey home take even longer. Odysseus seems to be the only one in the group to have any good sense to get out of the jams his men cause. However, his men aren’t the only problem in this story. Odysseus and his crew run into problems with women. Why is it that women are always part of the problem in epic stories? Men back then have always cast women as the bad guy. But yet in reality, women are far more superior to men. Men need women more than anything in the world. The Odyssey is living proof of that. Odysseus tries to get home to his wife and uses Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom, to get home again.

The Odyssey is a very good story. Even though it does not have Aphrodite in the story, The Odyssey has some romance in it. Odysseus fights through everything, including the offer of being made immortal, all just to get home to his wife and son. The message is clear: love with always rule out in the end and bring lovers together at home.

Week 4

Imagine coming home after a long time and finding thousands of uninvited guests in home eating your food, sleeping your beds, and trying to get a date with all of your relatives. That is what Odysseus dealt with when he finally made it home to Ithaca after ten years. The common question came as followed, what was he going to do next? The fact that Odysseus used his head the whole time until the big fight makes him a better man than I would ever be. I probably would have lost my mind if I had thousands of suitors in my house coming after my mother. I would have gone insane and started attacking everything in sight. But that is not what Odysseus did. He waited it all out until he found the right moment to attack.

This reminds me of the Iliad years before the Odyssey. Both involved fights that were about a girl. The Iliad’s war was over Helen. The Odyssey’s fight with the suitors was over Penelope. It seems that in both stories are worth fighting over. I have one theory why. Even though it was a man’s world in ancient Greece and Rome, the women were the source of power. The Iliad and the Odyssey are both proof of that. Even though women did not have that many rights, they still proved to be far more superior to men. Even the goddesses are the ones that pull the strings half of the time.

I am proud of the fact that Penelope stayed loyal and true to her husband after all of those years without him. That kind of love is just hard to find nowadays. Usually people give up after a long while. When people do stay in love like Odysseus and Penelope have, everyone else has the hope to make their relationships last long until the very end of time.

Week 5

I never knew that there were some books missing to the Odyssey. Back in my freshman year of high school, the textbook just skipped over so parts of the epic and just gave us the important details that we needed to know. Books XIII-XV seem to be important filler books in this long epic. They cover Odysseus’ return to Ithaca after twenty years. As usual, Athena comes to his aid. Someone in my literature pointed out an interesting idea to me. They suggested that Athena was in love with Odysseus. I always thought that she just felt sorry for him. The idea of her in love with the protagonist makes the epic more interesting.

Books XIII-XV build everyone up for when Odysseus fights the suitors and reunites with Penelope. As I said in my last journal, Odysseus has to wait in order to attack. So he is disguised as a beggar and does not tell anyone that he has returned. If he did, that would ruin the element of surprise. Part of his plan calls for surprise. If it did not, he would be a dead man. Odysseus is lucky that he is not his dense and greedy men. Otherwise, he would be dead just like the rest of them. Also in these missing books, Poseidon is once again angry that Odysseus managed to get home trying to get home. So he punishes the people of Phaiakians by turning their ship into stone. He is still bitter! I just want to tell the god to calm down and just let his rage go. I think he has punished Odysseus enough now and just needs to let him get home to his wife and son. Because now, Poseidon is looking like a spoiled little child. He is almost just as bad as Ishtar herself. Both gods and goddesses from Gilgamesh and Geek mythologies are always throwing tantrums and doing petty things to get revenge. They make ordinary humans look more humble.

Weeks 6 and 7

Was it all worth it in the end? That is the only question one could ask in the end when all is said and done. Was it all worth it? Was it worth all of the headaches, set-backs, blood shed, and time lost just to make it back home again? Was this whole journey worth all of the tears and break? Was it all really worth it in the end? Some in Odysseus’ position would have given and quit. A few might just start over fresh in another land. But, the king himself kept trying to make it home again. But, for what? Just to be home with his wife and child.

Some would have called that crazy. But, Odysseus is just highly loyal to Penelope and Telemachus. He loved them very much and refused to give up trying to see them again. The man braved through many storms, traps, and mistakes that his men put him through just to get home again after so long. He even turned down the offer of immortality from Calypso just to be back home with his wife and son.

The Odyssey proves one thing to us all. Love conquers all in the end. Odysseus proved to the world that one can still be loyal with love to their home, spouse, and children after being away for so long and so many miles. He beat all of the odds against him and rose above to get back to his home. The king even killed many suitors in his home to prove that he still loved his wife. So, was it all worth it in the end? For Odysseus, the answer was yes. It was worth all of the headaches, set-backs, blood shed, and time lost just to make it back home again. He loved his wife and son that much!

Week 9

I have always loved Japanese culture. My love for the culture and country started in 7th grade. Anime and my 7th grade English teacher started up my love. I even hope to live there one day. So, I am on a mission to experience everything that is Japanese. The Pillow Book is a good way to start into loving Japan. It is a diary about a woman in a palace back in ancient Japan. She writes about Japanese life back then. Most of the sections I read are about life in the palace. It would seem so interesting to be there. The author provides a great insight to everything. The topics include life at the palace, nature, and romance. She includes some beautiful poems as well. I fell in love with every word written in the Pillow Book. The author even puts a mood to everything. She talks about things she likes, hates, make her sad, and so on and so far.

The whole thing about this diary is elegant. Japan has always been so beautiful to me. Even the ugly and harsh parts of Japan still strike me as beautiful in a strange way. The words also have a nice flow to them. It is all like the calm and beautiful river that Japan is in a sense. Every story weaves into each other with perfect beauty and grace. My favorite one is “To Meet One’s Lover.” This one has the most beauty and grace to it. The story takes on romance from a woman’s point of view. It is romantic, but not sappy. There is even a sense of eroticism to it. “To Meet One’s Lover” is also inspiring to me with my own love stories that I write. The story just gave me some new ideas for a honeymoon story I want to write so badly. I will get to it one day. As a matter of fact, the whole Pillow Book is inspiring. All of the stories we read gave me some fresh ideas to start my own pillow book.

There is an interesting view on women as well. Like in other countries back then, women did not have as much rights as the men did. But yet, they had some sense of a strong power over the men. Geisha were the source of relaxation. Women had to be elegant and charming to attract the men and be the escape from the harsh reality in times back then. The times may have been different, but the women still were superior. By the time they were thirty, the women were consisted to be middle-aged. Even so, the women have a stronger power than men in Japan in a quiet way.

There is nothing fake about this story. It is all human and real. I and many other people can relate to her easily. The author is just a real person to see, touch, and behold. All of the stories are beautiful overall. Just like everything to do with Japan, the Pillow Book parades it own beauty to the reader. But ironically, the author doubted her success. In fact, she regretted when her diary became public. It is quite a shame. I really do love the Pillow Book and want to read it over and over again.

Week 10

As a writer, I try to approach different stories with an open mind. I have to in order to get new ideas for my own work. Sometimes I do so with success. Other times, not so much. This week’s reading was no exception to the rule. Indian poetry was just fine. The Prince on the other hand, not so much. The Indian poetry was really nice. They mixed spiritual, physical, and art together in their work. They do it with everything else that they do. The culture is mysterious in its own spiritual way. Even love in Indian poetry is spiritual in its own way. I was purely impressed by the way the poetry was written.

The Prince on the other hand I did not do so well with it. It talks about how a prince should be. To be frank, I found it to be pretty dull. I just do not know what it was. I just could not connect with the words. It just did not hold my attention too much. I know I am not supposed to say things like, “This story sucks!” But I just did not like The Prince at all. I am supposed to be proper in what I think about every piece of literature I am supposed to read each week. But this one is very hard. Well, half-hard to be exact.

All writers need to look everywhere for inspiration, even if the place where they are looking is not the best place in the world. On the up side, I can say that I gave The Prince a try. Not because I had to, but because I was trying to look for new ideas for my work. I may be able to use the Indian poetry however. Those were decent enough to use. I do not know. I guess I will have to keep looking until the semester is over.

Weeks 11-12

Don Quixote is known all around the world. It follows an old man who is convinced that he is a knight. The story was a little slow for me at first. The prologue is what put a damper on my excitement. But yet, I like the author. He refuses to dress up the truth from the reader. He also does not want to be nice and is too lazy to do some research. I noticed that the author shows like me in a sense. I too try to write out the truth, no matter how ugly it is. The truth should never be dressed up at all. But yet, I do a little research now and then. I just write on an impulse. However, the author is stuck on how to write the story. Writer’s block is a nasty little thing. It hits the best of us when we are down. With no where to turn, the author asks his friend for help. The rest of it is just tossing around ideas. There is not really anything special about the prologue. It is just there.

Then, we come to the story. It starts out with describing Don Quixote. He’s just a typical rich old man with WAY too much time on his hands. He just reads about knights all day. He soon believes himself to be one. It is just plain and simple to explain, Quixote loses his mind and becomes a “knight.” Simple as that. But yet, there is a little more to this transformation. To me, it is a cross between a mid-life crisis and someone trapped in a fantasy land. Quixote develops an itch for an adventure and acts on it almost immediately. He gets himself armor and a horse. It is all just like a mid-life crisis. But yet, Quixote cannot seem to tell the difference between fantasy and reality. This might suggest a mental illness. But who can say really? We all just enjoy the story and laugh when Quixote and Sancho Panza get into trouble. Even Sancho goes along with him just to humor his “master” on his adventure. It is the only thing he can do at the moment, seeing as Quixote does not care and is lost in his own little world.

Don Quixote is just really silly and light-hearted. It reminds me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail in a sense. Both are just there to make you laugh.