End of the Year

So this I'm guessing is my last entry, because it's the end of the semester, and we are not reading any more books. We are doing presentations this week, but I do not need to do the presentation, because I (being smart as I am) wrote the easy movie reviews throughout the semester, so I can use this time to study for finals and finish up the last of my homework.

I am very glad I took this class, because it had a lot of readings from books that I have heard about, and books my high school teachers talked about and used examples from, but I have never read from them personally. I really enjoyed MOST of the readings. There were a few that were better than others, and a few I wish I never read, or that I did not want to read. Clouds was my favorite book. It was so modern and comical I really enjoyed it. Dante's Inferno I wish we could have read more of for class, because it was very interesting. I liked it. My mom recorded the puppet show version on vhs, and now I can watch it and compare it to the book. I'm excited for that. It was strange at first, but I kind of like it now.

I would have to say that the Funeral Oration was one of the most difficult ones to read. It was very very confusing! Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus was very interesting, as well as the Plato readings. The Illiad is a story I read exerpts from in high school, and I really enjoyed them, so I was glad when we started with that reading this semester. It helped to start with something that I am already familiar with!

The City of God exerpt was pretty good. I like allegorical stories. They always have such beautiful meaning. Even if the story is gruesome, the meaning is good. I really enjoyed most of the readings, and I am a little bit sad that this class is ending, because there are so many classical books I would have liked to read and discuss.

Canto XXIV

So according to Dante's Inferno, there are 9 circles of Hell. Each circle represents a sin somebody committed. The further down you go, the worse the sin you committed. The first circle is paradise compared to the 9th circle, so to speak. In class we discussed how Dante and Virgil were climbing down satan, and Virgil twisted himself around, which cause the entire world to flip around too.

So they were still climbing towards his feet, but this time they were climbing up. So North turned to South, and so forth. So South was upwards. This is kind of what happens in Pirates of the Carribean, the third movie, where they have to rock the boat. Up is Down. They have to flip the boat over and then at sundown they are actually facing up. Weird.... It's a mirror image of nature, like toliets. We flush our toliets one way, and on the other side of the world, they flush theirs a different way.

But we also discussed how there are 3 faces, just like God. The trinity is blood red-for Christ, yellow for the the Holy Spirit, and Black for the Father. The reason it is black is because when you think of God, he is white. He is pure. So for Satan, he is black, the exact oposite of white, holy, and pure.

It is almost like when they climbed out, they climbed out as new people. It seems to trigger a resemblance to baptism, or even just birth. They make their journey, and then emerge in a new place, but in the same place at the same time. They traveled down, then back up, but still ended up on the other side of the world.

It is very confusing how it works, but it is interesting just the same.

Dante's Inferno

So we started reading Dante's Inferno, and it is hard for me to follow. The language is beautiful, but I guess I just do not quite get what is going on completely. I failed the reading commentary, because I totally thought that Canto V was on something else. I knew that is was about these two lovers, and that the woman was married to her lover's older brother, but I thought it was talking about those who kill their kin. Since her husband killed them, I thought the whole chapter was on that, not about them per say.

I also cannot believe that I missed the fact that they were in whirlwinds and never to touch each other again. I understood all of that once the teacher explained it, but somehow when I was reading it, I missed that part, or something.

I like the language of the story, and how it is set up, but I am not sure if I like it yet or not. It is kind of confusing, and hard to follow, and I have never really liked death stories. I think they are interesting, but I don't really like them. I like happier stories, like comedies and romances. I like action movies too, but I just have never been into the more gorey, sad, hate, or death stories.

A Story in Black and White

A few weeks ago, we watched the movie "Andrei Rublev" at the coffee shop on second street. We did not watch all of it, simply because it is a three hour movie.

The movie is about Theophane, a master painter, who needs help painting. He asks Kirill to help him paint, but Kirill promises to help only if Theophane sends a messenger to ask for him. The messenger asks for the wrong person and Theophane gets Andrei and Daniel instead.

The movie is very confusing, and names are hard to remember, but it was still kind of interesting. There is a scene where Kirill gets tied to a pole and watches all of these naked people running around singing, dancing, and making love. Its just a free for all lovemaking ceremony.

Another scene involves Kirill traveling the next day and sees two of the naked people getting arrested because they are pagans and were hiding from the religious law. It was weird, and kind of sad.

Later in the movie, Andrei is confessing to Daniel that he would rather go home and quit because nothing has been painted. They waisted all of this time for nothing, and everybody was bored. The prince they are supposed to be painting for hears about the group leaving, and that some of them are going to go paint for his brother. The prince orders his guards to go and gouge out all of the painters' eyes. He was one upset prince!

The last scene we watched was very confusing to end on. I think everybody was raiding some abandoned or beaten town. They were all on horseback, and some had flags with them too.

My two favorite lines in the movie were both spoken by Theophane right in the beginning of the movie.

"As long as something is beautiful, you can grasp its essence."

"He who increases his knowledge, increases his sorrow."

Beautiful lines!

The Grail.... The Grail!

So.... I'd have to say this is one of my favorite comedies. It is so.... whimsical lol. There are so many random moments in this movie. I love the part with the black knight. He is so desperate to win, he keeps going even after all of his limbs are cut off. (Like that would ever happen!) The big and scary rabbit is pretty funny too. You got this innocent little bunny that pops out of the cave.... and then devours anything that tries to come near it.... That one makes me giggle.

I would have to say though, my favorite part hands down, would be how the soldiers traveled.... On coconut horses.... aka the soldiers themselves gallop as they walk and somebody gallops behind them clapping coconut halves together. That is the funniest element in the entire movie. I definitely would have never thought about that before.

I was very excited to see that we had to watch this movie for this class for a couple reasons. First, I knew I would have to work the night of the showing. Second, because I own the movie. Lastly, I haven't seen the movie in a few years, so it was passed due to be watched! lol

On top of comedy it does have some educational points. It is a midieval comedy, and it does follow the rules, so to speak. It is just funnier than the obviously serious movies set in this time. I like movies with happy endings, which is why I loved Gladiator until the end of the movie... Stupid ending...

Anyways, I do think it was funny that this whole movie, the main characters were on this search for this grail. Just because it was the ultimate of ultimate.

In the beginning of the play and the end, the script reader added several random things to the screen, and the narrator all stated how he was firing people for adding random things. That was pretty funny.

The reason I am jumping around, is because the movie jumps around kind of too. This movie is not meant to be serious at all, so this blog isn't meant to be serious at all (in the terms of following an order and being grammatical lol).

All in all, it is a great movie, and I love watching it. I always laugh, even if it's a stupid part, or I already saw it.

Gladiator.... RawR!

So I finally got to watch Gladiator. It took me forever to get a hold of this movie. Seriously though... it did. I think I've seen this movie once before, but I never really paid attention, so I wasn't sure what was going on. Since I had to pay attention this time for a class assignment, I was able to figure out what was happening.

The theme of the entire movie is "The General who became a slave. The slave who became a gladiator. The gladiator who defied an empire." These words were spoken by Commodus, the King's son. Now Commodus was pissed off because the King was about to die and he was giving his kindship over to Maximus, who wasn't his son, just a general to his army. The King loved Maximus as his own son, because Maximus wanted to do the right thing for the people.

The King said before dying, "Will the King be remembered as a philosopher, a warrior, a tyrant, or an emperor who gave Rome back her power?" By this he meant that when he died he wanted the power to go to the Senate instead of a dictator. He wanted Maximus to be the head ruler because he is not yet corrupted by greed or power. Because of this, Commodus killed his own father by suffocating him as he hugged him. He was crying while doing it because he knew it was wrong, but he was jealous.

After the King's death, Commodus, also known as Caeser now, ordered for Maximus's arrest and execution. Maximus kicks everybody's ass and survives. He had a vision of his wife and son, which woke him up, but when he got to them they were burned to a crisp and hung. He broke down. He buried them and slept.

When he awoke he was being carried by a group of men with animals. He was sold to Proximo and was now a gladiator. Maximus refuses to fight anybody and he ends up cutting out his tattoo that signified he was a general of the Roman army.

For the people's enjoyment, Caeser orders day after day of gladiator games. He says that people will love him for victories and death. Maximus ends up killing everybody by himself during one of the games. He then yells at the crowd telling them their disgusting, and then they cheer for him. Proximo, his owner, was once a gladiator. He becomes friends with Proximo and is taught how to win his freedom. He simply has to "win the crowd."

With this, Caeser tries everything in his power to have Maximus killed. Nothing works. Maximus has all of the gladiators work together, and most of them end up surviving each game. After one game, Caeser's sister visits Maximus to make a plan for his escape. (She is worried about her son dying because Caeser threatened her.)

After Maximus beats the undefeated Champion Titus, who was retired for 5 years, he is now known as "Maximus the Merciful," because he refused to kill Titus when Caeser gave the thumbs down.

Caeser decides to fight Maximus himself. Right before he rasing them up to battle, he stabs Maximus in the lower part of the stomach. He then orders for his wounds to be hidden by his armor. (Dirty bastard) They then raise the platform and they begin their duel. Caeser sucks ass pretty bad, and Maximus ends up killing Caeser with Caeser's own hidden blade that he used to stab Maximus before the duel started. After he kills Caeser he dies peacefully because he can see his wife and son waiting for him on the other side.

This is the stupidest ending in the entire world. Why the hell did he have to die??? He totally liked the other woman and her son too. He should have lived and been able to rule, since he went through all of those hardships. Good movie. Stupid movie ending.

On the Shortness of Life

Seneca wrote a book called "On the Shortness of Life." In 41 C.E. he was exiled in Corsica. And exiled person should feel two things: 1. Shame (towards himself and his family) and 2. Fear for his life, and fear for his family.

Now in this book, he writes a letter to his mother. He writes to her because he is worried that she is worried about him. He writes about how she might have arguments against exile, and and he tries to respond to all of them. Two examples would be that she could say how it is unbearable to be deprived of one's country. To this he would say that there are more foreigners than natives living in the empire, and that everthing is in motion. (Why is there anything bad about somebody moving to a new place?) She could then say that an exile would miss his clothes and his house. Well to this, he simply says that the human body needs as little coverings as he needs food. It's simplicity to the fullest. (No pun intended)

This book can make somebody feel very sympathetic for him. And when they find out how he really lived, then they can get pissed off. This man lived nothing like he did in the book. He is technically a hypocrite.

I thought this book was sort of bland, and kind of boring. I am glad we did not have to focus on it that much!