Ap 1it

[adamgongolahs]

The librarian was not helpful

[adamgongolahs]

Overall

My previous posts were pretty big analyses on the book, really picking apart the book and doing all the un-fun things to a book that really ruin the enjoyment of reading. In this one I thought I would ignore all that boring nitty-gritty crap and talk about what I thought of the book my second time through.

The first time I read this book was 4 years ago and it was kind of like riding a bike. I didn’t remember everything specifically but you never really forget what happens in a book once you read it. I’ve always been a big fan of greek mythology and the stories that are within it. It seemed only natural that I would read these classics of mythology, The Illiad and Odyssey are seen as the powerhouses of greek mythos. While the author or authors has been debated the general consensus is that Homer --a poet-- wrote the majority of the collection. While I’m not sure if I am a fan of his style of writing or the Fagle’s translation itself; I believe that his storytelling method is very interesting and exciting to read. My favorite part of the collection is in book 9 with the cyclops. Odysseus has the chance to kill the cyclops while he is asleep but he stops himself realizing that he will never be able to escape the cave due to the heavy rock blocking the doorway. Instead he uses cunning to trick the cyclops into moving the rock for him allowing for his escape, however his success is soon ruined when he trash-talks the cyclops who then asks his dad --a god-- to curse Odysseus so that he will never return home, starting the whole shebang

overall 8/10 pretty wordy, good stories

[adamgongolahs]

Tone

Homer writes with all the gravity that you'd pretty much expect when reading about epic heroes and their long dangerous journeys. Odysseus's suffering is endless; Telemachos risks his life to find out news of his father; the god's ponderously debate about what to do to the mortals next, and Penelope wishes she were dead. The whole things resembles much of a modern day soap opera. Ya know the ones that never seem to end even if they kill all the characters they somehow mange to keep going. The Odyssey is a lot like that but a little more drawn out and a little more Greek. While reading the story it definitely sounds like an old story written in an older tongue even though this is the Fagles translation. I believe that this changes the way you interpret the story. Instead of reading it as any old book, the tone plays a major role.

[adamgongolahs]

ibeTray ofyay omputersCay

I start my day like anyone else my age would. Force myself out of my bed at 6 am (so I’ll have time to get coffee) and walk around in a almost drunken stupor because I’m operating on 4-5 hours of sleep. From my house I’ll either go to Tim Horton’s or straight to school --after checking my phone a few times of course. Once at school, I usually have about 20 minutes of time before I have to begin my real day so I’ll sit down and whip out my computer and do some unrelated work while making some top tier banter with friends. 

The next 6 hours looks a little something like this:

1st - math (bleh)

2nd - lit (better)

3rd - AP poster making (good/computer time)

4th - ??? (computer time)

5th - APUSH me off a cliff (sadness)

6th - taco time (meh)

7th - freedom (computer time or I have class... which is based on computers soooo)

On a day that I don’t have class or some NHS trash to do I’ll be home by around 1:50. From that time to about 6pm I will be up in my room working on my computer on various things that I can’t explain cause I don’t even know half the time. 

[6-8 gym]

get home around 8:30ish and will head straight back to my room to my computer where I will spend the rest of the night either doing homework or wasting my time talking to other people [See aplit16querencia] This will go on from anywhere between 11pm - 1 am from which time I will turn my computer off, --at this point I’m exhausted-- get into my bed, relax, fluff my pillow, get all comfy just so I can be on my phone for like another hour until I literally pass out.

Wash.

Rinse.

Repeat.

Tribe of computers

[some days are more exciting]

public void Highschool( int i ) 

{

 while (I_hate_waking_up_early == true)      

        { 

 System.out.println(”38 more days of school bby”); //its an infinite loop like highschool     

         } 

 }

[adamgongolahs]

Main Character

The character of Odysseus is a straight bro, he is yolked. This is the man you want to invite over when you're moving, because you know he's going to be lifting that L-shaped couch you regret buying. This is the type of dude who hides dumbbells around the house so he can always get a solid pump in to look huge for the greek goddesses. Menelaos tells us that "no one of the Achaians labored as much as Odysseus labored and achieved" (4.106); Eurylochos says "You are a hard, man, Odysseus. Your force is greater, your limbs never wear out. You must be made all of iron" (12.279-80). The character of Odysseus can be seen embodied by many people in the modern world, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, a strong leader and strong dude.  

It's not just that he's strong; he works harder than anyone else. He never asks his men to do anything that he won't do, and he actually asks more of himself. This quality makes him a good leader. He's not some slacker sitting on the couch bossing people around; he was out there with the boys working the ship and stuff. 

Still reading

[adamgongolahs]

Setting

Much of the action in the Odyssey takes place on the sea, where Odysseus must battle against Poseidon, the sea God, but the last third of the story is set in the town and countryside of Ithaka. Ithaka is the home of Odysseus, our hero.  The setting is a geographical hodgepodge of what was important, mythologically, in Homer’s time period. Scholars have tried to correlate various places in the Odyssey with real locations in the Mediterranean, but there’s a lot of guess work involved in this. It’s very possible that Homer based his hero’s wanderings on real geography but extrapolated and manipulated to suit his narrative purposes. 

Aiaia (Aeaea): The island home of one Circe, a sorceress. Aiolia: The island ruled by Aiolos, god of the winds. Elysion: The Odyssey’s version of heaven. Ithaka:  And how Odysseus made it home there by the longest route ever. Ismaros: The first place Odysseus and his men land after leaving Troy. This is the land of the Kikonians. Lakedaimon: Another name for Sparta. (Technically, this refers to the surrounding area of which Sparta is the capital.) Lamos: The land of the Laistrygones, the giant/ogres/weirdos, and King Antiphates, drinker of blood. Needless to say, Odysseus and the Ithakans leave this place pretty quickly. Well, except for that one guy who was chugged by Antiphates. Mount Parnassos (Parnassus): Where Odysseus goes hunting with his uncle when he’s a little boy. This is where the boar/thigh-scar incident took place. Mount Olympos (Olympus): The god’s home. Ogygia: Kalypso’s island, where Odysseus is held for seven years. Pherai: Telemachos and Peisistratos spend the night here on the way to Pylos from Sparta. Pylos: The first place Telemachos travels in his search for news of his father. Here he dines with King Nestor and his son Peisistratos before leaving for Menelaos in Sparta. Scheria: The island of the Phaiakians. This is Odysseus’s last stop before he reaches Ithaka and also the location where he tells his tale. Thrinakia (Thrinacia or Trinacria): The land where the sun god Helios keeps his super-duper cattle. The Underworld: The land of the dead. Odysseus travels here to speak with Teiresias, the dead, blind prophet. While there, he converses with many other "shades," including his war buddies and his mother.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey  ---- Links for locations

[adamgongolahs]

Written down sometime between 800 and 600 BCE, the Odyssey is of the best known and most interesting works of ancient literature. Composed (maybe) by a poet named Homer (maybe), it tells the story of a man trying to make his way home from war. But not just any man, and not just any war. Its hero is Odysseus, who is basically the Leonardo DiCaprio of Ancient Greece: smart, strong, attractive, brave, beloved by the gods, and way cooler than you are.

In a way, the Odyssey is a sequel to Homer's Iliad, a poem about the decade-long Trojan War. However, they are more unrelated but with a similar story line than a linear story: the Iliad and the Odyssey may have a lot of the same characters, but they're more like fraternal than identical twins.

The Iliad is all about achieving glory and fame through warlike deeds, a concept the Greeks called kleos. Basically, it's full of pages of heroes doing heroic things. Which is awesome in its own way, but even warriors have to go home eventually, and the Odyssey is all about the desire to go home: to see a familiar face, to kiss your wife, and to give your old dog a pat on the head.

[adamgongolahs]

There are many definitions of what a querencia is. For many it is where they feel they belong, for others it could be a place that they have special memories, or just a place they really really like. My querencia is all of the above. While it may not be a physical place it it still has all of the characteristics of one. The teamspeak is just a server that people can join to talk to each other on much like Skype. The reason I consider it to be my querencia is because there is always someone in the teamspeak. Also, most of the people that are on there are Avondale alumni from classes spanning from 2012 and up. From the time that most people wake from the time they go to sleep the team speak client is open, especially in the summer. Andy can be quoted as saying, “im literally on the team speak longer than you are awake”. Referring to the weekends where from Friday to Sunday night it will be open. The reason it is so important to me is because of the companionship it offers. Whenever you’re feeling down, ts will cheer you up, whenever you’re bored ts is there to entertain you, whenever you feel like you wanna go on tumblr, instead go on ts.

Here’s the address for anyone who wants to join: ts5.freets3.net:10075

talk to me for the password  

[adamgongolahs]

Silko Milko Wilko Pilko

While Ceremony was certainly important in the 1970s when it was first published, it's perhaps even more relevant today. Due to the United States having its first multi-racial President (Barry B himself), and more young Americans are identifying themselves as being of "mixed race" than ever before. While the reason for young Americans referring to themselves as being of ‘‘mixed race’’ may be unknown I believe that is has something to do with the fact that there is less of a negative stipulation surrounding you now if you aren’t white. Shit even now it can be beneficial NOT to be white. Silko a visionary man.

[adamgongolahs]

Silko

The vibes I am getting at the end of the book about racial divisions in his society are extremely serious, and Silko doesn't let white people off the hook for the ways they have historically mistreated Native Americans (despite white people’s best efforts). But this novel is about healing, and learning to forgive past wrongs in order to move forward. Forgiveness is a difficult lesson to learn. After all, nothing feels quite as tempting as revenge. But Tayo eventually learns that you don't have to take vengeance on the people who treat you badly, and that sounds pretty liberating to us. In fact, it may be the only way any of us are going to make any progress, after all, we're all in this together whether we like it or not.

[adamgongolahs]

it could be the fact that I am falling in and out of consciousness while trying to read the last 30 pages or so I had but this book is really “meh” to me. The story itself is really uninteresting to me, The way she tells the story without any chapters or no real indication of when there is a change in who the narration is about just over complicates things. I guess it’s different in the idea that not very other books do it, but its not that special because other books do do it. Maybe the second half of the book will turn it around for me but I have my doubts.

[omgrachellewalker-blog]

Okay I’m not trying to be mean but when we talk about commanders wives I always think about Kim Kardashian. We sit there talking about how they don’t really do anything but bitch and I’m just like… exhibit A. Literally all she does is complain and occasionally she takes pictures of herself. I don’t really want to insult her because lets be real she’s sexier than I’ll ever be (even though it’s all fake) and she’s richer but like what does she do? Like what exactly does she do to positively affect the world? I’m sorry I do love the show (simply because I enjoy knowing I’m not that pathetic) but she doesn’t really do anything. Honestly she’s only famous because her father got off OJ Simpson and her stepfather is an Olympian. So yeah I need her to step up her game. 

[adamgongolahs]

https://www.looktothestars.org/celebrity/kim-kardashian

[adamgongolahs]

Forgot to do this follow up post a while ago, but alas here we are.

I ended up picking The Odyssey. 

I’ve read this before, I can’t remember if I read the Fagles version or not as I could not find my copy of it but I felt it would be my best course of action because I already have a grasp of the story and of its key aspects. Also, I figured it wouldn’t be all that difficult to find criticisms on it since it’s super old. Although I do dread having to interact with that OU librarian again...

[adamgongolahs]

I’m like 60ish pages deep into this book (I swear) and the one outstanding aspect of the book to me currently is not what you would think. You might think I’m talking about the deep elaborate poems that interject the plot, or the eloquent descriptions of what life as a native american soldier in world war two was like, or even just the emptiness that the protagonist experiences out right.

But nope,

I would summarize the first 60 pages of this book as, native american veteran throws up a lot.

Seemed to me that every few seconds this dude would be throwing up about something. The only thing that helped him was when the magic man came and gave him some blue corn and nasty sounding tea.

Weird. 

[adamgongolahs]

My question for Margaret Atwood would be, why create such a vague ending? With the initial “end” to the story of Offred (stuff before the historical notes) it’s uncertain of what happens to Offred. Then with the historical notes, it is even more confusing as to what happened following the end of Offred’s story. What does this serve in the scheme of things? Is it just lazy writing? Another dystopian novel that this reminded me of was The Giver because of vague ending as well. In that case, author, Lois Lowry stated that the vague ending was to be left to the imagination of the reader (despite the sequel that came out years later) was this the reason for The Handmaid’s Tale as well? 

[adamgongolahs]

In class we discussed the purpose that commander wives serve in the story. If you think about it they have no practical purpose, they don’t perform some integral role in the society, they merely exist. Some would say that they have roles in the ceremony among other things. However, what was the real purpose of including them and giving them the characteristics that they have. It seems like another jab at woman and how they are self-destructive in nature. 

[adamgongolahs]

Power and Purpose of Aunts

It feels like every post ends up being about the same idea regarding women. As always it seems that Atwood has created some sort of distinction that each class of women clings to as their form of power. Again we discuss the purpose of this and most eloquently stated by Brennen “For what Purpose?” In my opinion Atwood is staying in line with the other ideas we discussed about “being a wake up call”. Women need to stop fighting each other and direct their energy on the real oppressor, males. I find it funny in class that every time we bring up something about men being the oppressors or “having the real power” all the guys either stay quiet or nod their head in silent acceptance. Not in a shameful way, but in a understanding one. Kinda