New Independent Reading Book. Yay.....

We had to pick out new novels to read unfortunately it has to be a classic literature novel. Out of my choices I decided Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy.

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This was probably the least difficult choice out of them, considering some of the choices are Shakespeare and Machiavelli, or from ancient greece. Anyway I thought it would be the easiest but the words are all packed on the pages and I've been reading and reading and reading, but i have not gotten to a part with Tess in it. Basically her father is a farmer and a drunkard by the name of Jack Durbeyfield and spends every bit of money he makes on liquor. This no doubt has a negative effect on the family. They are dirt-poor and have to live off the land. It turns out as a clergyman passes by Jack one night that they are descendants of a once great family: the D'Urbervilles. What makes me angry about this is Jack is a simple man but immediately after he learns of his heritage, although he has gained no lands or money, he instantly, and I do mean instantly, becomes arrogant. He begins ordering people about left and right and spending what little money he has. That is a very, very stupid person right there. Thats basically how far I've gotten, which isn't very far but I already hate Jack. He is incapable of taking care of his family, if someone is going to start a family they had better be able to take care of them.

On to less aggravating things, we finished the ancient greek play Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex). One thing I would have to say about the ancient greek plays I've read is they are not very good at building suspense. You can guess what is going to happen at the beginning, then you know the entire play and its just not as rewarding to get to the end. Another thing i would have to say about them they enjoyed having quite a bit of incest, murder, and self-mutilation in their plays. It just makes me wonder if they enjoyed those kinds of things... Anyway Oedipus the King = predictable, wouldn't recommend it but if you are in high school you will most likely have to read it, not much of a choice there. There was one interesting thing that happened that I didn't guess was going to happen, Oedipus stabs out his own eyes when he doesn't want to see what he has done. I don't want to spoil anything further even if it is predictable, that would make it even less fun to read.

In conclusion I will read more, blog more, repeat.

Confucianism = respect

So this week we learned about Confucianism, one of the main systems of beliefs in China. It is a bunch of philosophical ideas generated by the Chinese philosopher Confucius (551-479BC). It is now the dominant ethical, social and political philosophy in China. Confucius believed in strong morals (knowing the difference between right and wrong, being a generally good person). He also believed that people in positions of power should hold themselves to extremely high moral standards (a boss or "master" should take care of and respect his subjects/workers) and that everyone has their place in the working world and they should be respected for the job they have to do. I believe the saying "treat others how you wish to be treated" is just a condensed version of Confucianism, it's basically respect other people, their position, their property, and respect the world and animals around you.

On another note, I unfortunately haven't had much time to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. I've only gotten to the point where after Alice falls down the rabbit hole she is stuck in a hall of doors and all the doors are locked. She finds a small key on the table and it doesn't unlock any of the doors. she then finds a door behind a curtain that's only about the size of a rat hole. She can't fit in it so she finds the potion and drinks it, it makes her small. I don't know why but she leaves the key on the table. She eats the cake and gets way too big. She sees the white rabbit and scares him. He drops his fan, she picks it up. Shes been crying and shes enormous so it start flooding the ground. The fan the rabbit dropped is somehow making her smaller, and she shrinks to the point she has to swim in her own pool of tears. When she gets smaller she realizes there were a bunch of creatures that were in the room and are now swimming in her pool of tears too. She starts talking to a mouse, and that's where I stopped reading. The part of the book I read kind of shows how Alice is pretty inconsiderate. Not on purpose that's just kind of how children are, but she decides to have a pity party and nearly kills all theses creatures(who in this book talk and have conscious thoughts). Although she is in a very strange situation she seems to be overreacting. At least that's how it seems to me.

Folk Song

This week we were supposed to write a poem or a folk song. This is my attempt at a poem, I had some help from my buddy Dominic.

  

The Apple

Eat me not, for I am sin.

Trust not in your logic,

place your faith in

your creator of myth.

And do as you 

are told

Eat me not, for I am sin.

Listen not to serpents.

Close your eyes and

do not let temptation in.

Obey.

No questions.

So cast me out from paradise.

I will not close my heart

or close my mind.

Strength in love, not in god.

I will trust in my logic

for my faith is lacking.

So my soul is flawed

if I won't believe

what is not seen?

Love in actions, not in words.

The serpent speaks for nothing

for my eyes are open.

The light seen is within

my right

to question.

A folk song is pretty much what you make it, it doesn't seem to have many definable qualities. They tend to be about nature, with some deeper meaning behind the words, some message/story that the writer is trying to tell you. While I'm decently creative with art, I'm not very creative with words. Once again Dominic helped me out. He's pretty awesome.

Taoism v. The Force (yes, like in Star Wars)

George Lucas completely created the Star Wars world, he came up with everything in those movies in his head. He actually had to create some of the technology for the earliest movies, but by far the most impressive thing he created was The Force. The Force is somewhat close to what would be considered a religion, but unlike in real life The Force allows you to manipulate the world around you (for those very gifted in The Force). Taoism, I believe, closely resembles The Force in the way that you're supposed to be able to draw or see the energy in everything in the natural world around you. I've watched all the Star Wars movies but I'm not really one of those people that know every little thing about it, so i don't want to look like a dummy and make statements about it that aren't true so I'll just leave it at this: yes, I believe George Lucas's creation The Force closely resembles Taoism.

Intro

Yeah, so this is my super awesome blog and I'm not quite sure what to put in it other than my basic book info. I'll try to inject some humor into it to make it less dull but sometimes it might just make it awkward, but oh well thats just how I am.

Okay, so my first book I will be reading is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I managed to get an annotated version that also has Through the Looking Glass in it. Well, first I'd just like to talk about Lewis Carroll. I've decided he was basically a pedophile even though many sources say there was no evidence of sexual interaction between Carroll and his "child-friends". Why I believe this is because in the introduction of the book I'm reading it says this, directly, word for word, "Carrol's principal hobby-the hobby that aroused his greatest joys- was entertaining little girls. 'I am fond of children (except boys),' he once wrote. He professed a horror of little boys, and in later life avoided them as much as possible. ... He thought the naked bodies of little girls (unlike the bodies of boys) extremely beautiful. Upon occasion he sketched or photographed them in the nude, with the mother's permission, of course."

I find that passage extremely disturbing. What kind of mother would allow their young daughter to be sketched or photographed in the nude, obviously not a very good one. I hope you understand now as to why I find Lewis Carrol such a creepy man. Knowing this adds a much more disturbing undertone to reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.