Response: D'aulairies book of Greek Myths

     Now, recently, I've happily been treating myself to flipping through the pages of what is probably my favorite work of literature. "D'aulaires Book of Greek Myths." For years now I've been reading this book (on and off) and it just never seems to get boring.  D'aulaires book of Greek myths is a collaboration of what to me almost seems like an infinite amount of myths. They consist of both Gods and Heroes, but I like reading about the Gods. To me, their lives just seem so much more complex and intriguing, and that's what I wanted to write a response about.

      What I've come to notice about the Greek gods is that, the Greeks created them as imperfect creatures. Non of them have it all, they all have their flaws, and thats what defines them. I feel like that's what makes their stories so complex. Zeus, is ruler of the universe and has all the power possible, but can't control his temper which causes him to compromise many of the lives of the people who worship him. He does not have a good state of mind... Aphrodite, the goddess of love herself doesn't even have what we would call an "idealistic" marriage. She was forced to marry Hephaestus, who she'll never love and because of that she ends up having affaires with Ares which leads to having her caught and humiliated by the other Gods. And Ares God of war, was not only strong and courageous, but also a coward, he retreated his battles the instant he started to get hurt. He also was ruthless and had no value of life destroying others without even realizing it.

      What I love about these interpretations, is that they resemble reality. Life isn't perfect and it never will be, so if we had to place beings that rule and create our universe it just wouldn't make sense to have them be perfect specimens. If they were, life would be perfect too. Wouldn't it? I mean, power is overwhelming and can make you go crazy, make you lose control, like Zeus. And love can't be "Idealistic" or perfect. It's flawed and difficult and risky, like Aphrodite's relationships. And, wars don't only consist of victories, there's defeat, and after every war lives are lost, innocent people are killed, and there's destruction that never was meant to happen. I think Ancient Greeks were brilliant because they were able to create characters that do resemble the elements of life. They weren't fake.

      These fantasy's aren't just meant for entertainment. I really do believe that they can create an incredible state of mind in culture. I think if we did believe in gods like this, we would have a better mentality. A mentality of imperfection, and acceptance. As Americans, many of us (not all of us) grow up with Disney and Fairy Tails and I hate to say it but, a God that's "perfect" (well at least for me when I went to sunday school we learned that god makes no mistakes ex...). Maybe I'm wrong, but what I'm trying to say is that this whole ancient Greek conception of having imperfect Gods creating a flawed universe is interesting to me because I think that allows people the answer to happiness. Don't expect perfection and don't have an ideal symbol/god/whatever that idolises perfection. Because, if you do you'll never be happy. nothing will ever be enough. 

       Thank you D'aulairies!

reading response: perfect chemistry and many other stories...

   Recently I have been contradicting my taste in books, and have kind of forcefully been reading "Perfect Chemistry" by Simone Elkeles. I actually chose this book randomly without even looking at it when we had a reading period last week, and just as I saw the cover I rolled my eyes and laughed mockingly because their are hundreds of "dramatic teen romance novels" out their and I find them utterly cliche and frustrating to reflect on, because they lack of creativity and don't provide any ideas that make me question our world and society ex... plus the literature is usually boring or mediocre, and I get to many vibes that the author is trying way to hard to be "dramatic."

   However, despite my negativity towards teen romance novels, reading the book "Perfect Chemistry" has been very appropriate to our Romeo and Juliet study and class, and doing reading responses. (note: I'm not saying that a book called "Perfect Chemistry" could compare to Shakespeare's literature, I've just found that I've been able to connect one element I noticed in Perfect Chemistry and elaborate off of it, which also connects to Romeo and Juliet.) 

   So basically, I want to talk about forbidden love, and look at it through a different perspective. Could the certain love be created because it's forbidden? In the book i'm reading, the two main characters are from opposite backgrounds and are forbidden to be together, (ones poor ones rich) and just like in Romeo and Juliet they fall in love so quickly without even really knowing each other. I do feel like it's the fact that these people are not meant to be together (in the eyes of society) that becomes the foundation of their relationship.

   Besides "Perfect Chemistry" and "Romeo & Juliet," recently I've also stumbled upon an old classic that also fits into this topic. The Little Mermaid! Pretty much everyone knows the story, and what happens is Ariel falls in love with a human.  I do think that Ariel fell in love with the prince because he was human. She even sings about wanting to be human constantly, its her want. 

   What if with all these stories there isn't any love at all but just personal desire. Like Romeo wanting to forget about Roseline, Juliet wanting to defy her controlling family, the characters in my book wanting something different, or Ariel wanting to be human. I feel like there's just something about being human that makes us want what we can't have. Something that makes us want to do something different or crave the "forbidden fruit."

reading response: Pretties

     Iv Currently started to re-read the book "Pretty's" by Scott Westerfield. So basically Pretty's is about this future-istic world where our society becomes even more vain and takes plastic surgery to an even farther extent. Recreating yourself becomes the point of life, and a persons only purpose in life is to be beautiful.
     I appreciate Scott Westerfields idea of creating a dystopia based on a vanity dilema our society is facing today. The problem with people in general, is that we as people think we're right, and normal. And it's always been like this, each generation thinks their superior and hip, but after a while they'll just get laughed at or frowned upon in the future by a new generation of young people. Hundreds of years ago in China women would bind their feet, and we look at this with disgust now, but back then of course they thought what they were doing was right. They thought it was necessary, why else would they go through that pain?  Generation, after generation new "fads" become popular, it can be styles in history so far away from our world, that may seem more extreme like, foot binding, corsets and toxins for whitening the face. Or it can be be more recent trends like sagging pants, and the obsession Americans go through over weight loss. There are 60% of Americans who are obese, and I think that it would be normal for them to want to lose weight, but I think our society has a strange perception on what size is considered beautiful. And people of healthy sizes are striving to be thinner trying to reach a place they'll never be, and doing vile things to their body which leads to eating disorders and mental illnesses. I really do believe that as time goes by, the future generations are going to look back at us and frown.
     But how do we realize what we're really doing to ourselves? I think that writing and reflection is the key. When Scott Westerfield wrote his dystopia Prettys, all he had to do was set his story into the future and just exaggerate what's happening to us now in order to get the attention. Now, reflecting on it we can understand what us as a society are doing.
      Looking back at history can also help us fix our mistakes because history does repeat itself. The answer is to just look upon a different society and judge them. Because naturally we don't judge ourselves, but realizing things about others can make us think about ourselves. And its ignorant not to realize that we're wrong. We are only human, so obviously we can't be perfect and fads will come and go. Small fads like bobs, perms or even sagging pants aren't much of an issue, but when we do something thats physically going against nature and hurting our bodies we're just destroying ourselves over vanity. Vanity is a normal trait, but it shouldn't be taken to the extent where your physically hurting yourself . I think that not only do we have to observe the past, but we can question the present. Questioning the world around us is one of the smartest things we can do, in order to realize what we're doing wrong we have to start with questioning, and create our own philosiphies about the world.

     I thought the most helpful thing that Patrick did to me was explain how I felt about the facts I was listing (and adding more previous fads).  Because of writing about how I felt about weight loss, I was able to finish stronger, connect to the world, and explain when vanity goes to far.

reading response to shakespeare's tragedy's (preferably macbeth and romeo&juliet)

      As you already know, in class we've been reading the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare. Also, I've recently been reading the tragedy of Macbeth as well, so the passed couple of weeks have kind of been dominated by Shakespeare's most famous tragedy's. I've recently realized, I really enjoy tragedy's.
      So basically Macbeth is about this power hungry couple who kill people in order to get to the throne, like friends or people who have helped them ex... and by the end of the play the guilt eats them alive, making them go crazy which leads them to their own downfalls.
       Romeo and Juliet also ruin themselves when they're love becomes even more forbidden then it was, and they attempt to run runaway together, to escape. Sadly, just because of lack of communication, the elaborate plan Juliet and frier Lorence made that would allow Juliet to runaway with her Romeo failed epicly, when Romeo himself wasn't notified, and thought that the love of his life was actually dead. And, we know that this causes Juliet to kill herself, ending the passionate love that these two lovers shared.
       And its passion that inflicts the tragic endings of these plays, the strive for power and control, or the heat and the connection with another person that love brings. These characters, just like any other characters in a tragedy go to far. The strive and desire they need takes them way over bored, and kills them. Its almost like you can't keep living after becoming so alive. Or like, "living fast, and dying young."
        But what I noticed is that its not the tragedy at the end of the story that needs to be thought about, its what leads up to the climax. In Macbeth, the witches just give away the entire story, and in Romeo and Juliet theres an actual prologue that states the death of our two main characters. So even if your not familiar with these famous stories you know whats going to happen. I don't think a good tragedy should be suspenseful. In class when we read the prologue to Romeo and Juliet we talked about how it makes us "feel" for the characters, and its true. We feel sympathy, and we feel smarter as if we're let in on a secret, like we know more about their story then they do.
        I want to also focus on another aspect that I mentioned before. Because we know we're in a tragedy. If we can already infer that its the whole living large with passion theory, that killed these characters then, we have an entire play to let our minds wonder how this is going to happen. And even after reading these plays a million times our minds cant even help themselves we feel the need to unravel the story further. We want to know "what if" they had survived? What love could possibly be so passionate? What kind of people would strive and kanive for power at such an extent? What kinds of actions would characters have to do that would cause they're lives to end so harshly, what would they do to make the world around them want to destroy and eliminate them. Why do these people crave absolute control, or the need to be with someone?
        That is what I like about tragedy's.