Reflection

Dante's Inferno

I've always been told that all sin is the same in God's eyes, and suppose that if you really think about it, that makes sense (except blasphemy I guess). Sin does all have the same terrible and inevitable end result--the ability to separate us from God. In Dante's Inferno, the author, Dante Alighieri, attempts to rate and categorize  each sin in a very curious manner, an occurrence not very surprising  from a man who decided to put so much time and effort into imagining, in vivid detail I might add, the goings on of Hell and the suffering that takes place there. Like many, I would assume that violent crimes, such as murder, would be placed in the lower circles of Hell, but it seems Dante had different ideas. He has reserved such a special place for those of his choosing, particularly those who have committed fraud or betrayal.

For each category, as well as each subcategory, Dante has a assigned a specific punishments, some of  which seem generic and bland, like burning for eternity (a description that's  been used no less than a hundreds of times before when describing Hell). Among his most creative punishments, though, are those for cantos 4, 7,  20,and 23. Canto 4 is where he has put philosophers and their punishment is to be in darkness. I believe this is truly fitting because they are people who believed in art and thrived in the light (knowledge), but are now forced to exist in total darkness. Those found in Canto 7 are guilty of avarice, or the greed of material things and the waste of money on frivolous items. For this they must continually push rocks against each other, getting nowhere, much like they did in life. I agree, this seems like a very fitting punishment. All who reside in Canto 20 are guilty of a different kind of fraud, Sorcery, evident by  the presence of  fortune tellers  and sorcerers among those in this Hell. These unlucky people have their heads placed on backwards, so that they may only see see the past, whereas they always tried to see too far in life. Finally, in Canto 23, are the hypocrites, guilty of prevaricating their religious views. One of the most fitting punishments of all is the one they are forced to endure. In this canto, the guilty must to wear large, elegant cloak lined with lead, destined to walk a single, narrow path for eternity. This is perfect for their sin, because their garb looks beautiful on the outside, but is truly, quite awful when one cares to look deeper.

Dante Alighieri

Hell

My personal perception of hell would be a place of suffering, extreme suffering. A place where people are reminded of their mistakes. Where people are tormented by everything they did wrong. And sometimes, remembering the truly terrible things they did, in a place where remembering, and suffering, last for eternity.

Freeday Fri-write

     The calm days after Christmas Break have continued with a short and sweet four day week.. So, as this     week comes to a close and a new week begins, let us brace ourselves for the worst, 'cause who can say   how long this will last. It's the "calm before the storm," and it's about to break. Here's something to think about as you go through your week.

                                        "The only easy day was yesterday."
                                                 
                                                                                    -Navy SEAL Philosophy

                                                                              

Fate or Free-will?

     No, I do not believe in fate, I believe in free-will. I believe that God has given us the ability to choose for ourselves, but that He knows us so completely that  He knows what we will choose. With this same knowledge of every person, He can see further, knowing what choice will be made and how it will effect everyone else. Some people say that no one can know everything and that's s good thing. If we knew everything that was going to happen, we wouldn't learn from our choices.From our mistakes. If we knew only good, there would be only one answer, one way, and no choice.

Writing and Me

     As I was reading through the entries in my journal, I started to notice a pattern. For the most part, my analysis-based entries seem dry, poorly written and/or short. One such example would be the following excerpt from a response I wrote after watching the video "Teenage Afluenza is Spreading Fast." "The video...literally talks about Erin's life, exaggerating how hard it is and compares it to life for kids in poor countries." In this particular entry the word choice is extremely lacking and the response is over all poorly written. On the other hand, entries that have a less rigid criteria, such as Friday free writes, I'm able to get more excited (well at least, in this case more emotional) about. "I need to learn to relax again. I want to be able to just read a book and not worry about my enjoyment of it being  temporary. I want to be able to live in the moment, day by day, and not have to think ahead so far. To not have the next few weeks already busy and full when I haven't even started this week." With entries like this, I really enjoy the creative freedom. My style is more creative writing oriented than expository.

(*A great book series FYI)

Like I mentioned before, my expository writing skills are severely lacking. I find that type of writing very bored and that often seems to bleed through into my assignments. My analysis usual seems very short and not well developed. An early analysis I wrote of Ralph from Lord of The Flies is one such example. "He is a very immature character and is not the smartest. People pretty much only follow him because he is the stereotypical 'ideal male.'" Although my analytical writing has improved in the past couple of months, I still have trouble coming up with more in depth  writing. Also related to this is my inability to produce well thought out, "deep" analysis in a reasonable amount of time. More often than not, I psych myself out worrying about the amount given to write, feeling that I am trapped, for lack of a better word. As the new semester progresses, both of these skills will be areas I hope to focus on.

I wouldn't consider myself to be one who suffers from claustrophobia (unless, of course, I'm stuck in a small place) but, for some reason, when writing at school, I begin to feel increasingly claustrophobic. When at ever possible, I would rather write at home, or any place that I choose to write at (choice of surroundings seems to be a major factor in my "classroom claustrophobia"), because that's where the words seem to flow best. As far as inspiration goes, I am often inspired by a variety of different things. In a journal entry from late September in which I discussed my writing, I found an excerpt that neatly sums up my most common sources of inspiration. "I get inspire from all kinds of things, whether that be a *book I've read, or a show I watch. Sometimes it's as simple as something I saw...", for example a rope burn I got on my finger caused me to decide that a fake suicide attempt would be used to frame my main character, Rachel, for murder. I find examples like that to be really exciting because, it proves that inspiration can come from just about anywhere.

Literature in Our World

For the most part this semester, I loved studying world literature. I realized it was the expository writing is the part that I did not love--my brain is more creative writing oriented--not the material itself. The material is pretty much all interesting, especially those pieces that I'm able to make important connections with, such  as realizing the duality in humanity while reading Golding's Lord of the Flies, or during class discussions when the ideas of others spark such connections, but my favorite epiphany, if you will (hence the commonly recognized "light bulb going off in one's mind" analogy), is my realization that world literature is important.  That by extension, it isn't just a bunch of boring work by a lot of dead guys that I have no hope of ever understanding, as I previously thought.  Its importance, as I see it, boils down to the concept that world literature provides a window into the minds of people, past and present, that have experienced and/or do experience different cultures and hold different opinions than I do. World history may provide the facts, but it is world literature that provides the human prospective. 

"Whether you call someone a hero or a monster is all relative to where the focus of your consciousness may be" (Campbell 127). 

In this excerpt, Campbell uses the phrase "the focus of your consciousness" as a way to say prospective, or in this case, how one views other people's actions. By doing so, Campbell expresses that one's perspective determines which side of an issue one will take. The use of the opposing words "hero" and "monster" suggests that there are two sides, the differences between the them very obvious. 

"Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant consumers for infants flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and christenings..." (Swift 7).

Here, Swift uses a kind of verbal irony when discussing the possible events at which eating infants would be appropriate. By giving examples such as "weddings" and "christenings", celebrations of life and change, he is emphasizing how disturbing the suggestion of eating dead children truly is, in order bring attention to problems in society that, though not as obviously gruesome as his "modest proposal", he believes need to be brought to the public's attention. 

"...Ralph went to Piggy and took the glasses from him...Piggy stood behind him, islanded in a sea of meaningless color..." (Golding 72-73).

When Piggy's glasses are taken away, the world becomes "a sea of meaningless color", expressing that they are a symbol of clarity. Golding uses the word the word "islanded" to emphasize how isolated one feels when unable to understand the world around oneself.

Moment

  Moment

  Fear arising. 

  Back Up against the wall.

  Instincts on overdrive.

  Fight or flight?

  Do I give in or give all?

  Back still up against the wall.