The Odyssey 5-8

I was reading other peoples blogs and noticed a common trend. No one likes Telemachus. I don't know why I think he's amazing. What I don't like though about this part of the book is that I was really focused on Telemachus and Pistachio that when it switched to Ulysses it felt like I was starting a completely new story. Though it was nice to start hearing about him. Some things that I put little notes in my book about were,

- I hadn't realized Calypso was a goddess

-The messenger for the god's is called Mercury in this translation but I couldn't remember what his name was in the Greek translation

-I laughed at a lot of the phrasing when Mercury was talking to Calypso cause it sounded so strange

-When Ulysses was building his raft there were a lot of words I didn't know

-How can the gods keep an eye on everyone is they pay so much attention to individuals? 

I still really enjoy the story. Especially when my science teacher thinks I'm really smart for reading it in homeroom :D

Write, Just Write

I finally decided on a topic for my hero's journey. I am really excited about it. Last year the stories I wrote really weren't that good but this year I am really passionate for the topics of my stories so far. But I can't take all the credit the basis of my hero's journey is a scary story my friend Madison told me about cannibals in Allegan woods. The rest of it is completely made up. I hope this year I can elaborate on a topic that is a major part of my life. It has been the result of several poems and inspiration for my character sketch. I want to be much more "me" in my writing this year. I feel that to accomplish this I need to just write what comes to me not trying to sugar coat it. Just being real I guess is what I'm trying to say. This makes me think of the movie "Precious" which I viewed last night with my parents. How her teacher tells her to just write. She didn't say this quote exactly but I expected her to say "Write, just write so that I can know your story."


Oh my mom told me that she did say that exactly but I still don't think she did. 

The Odyssey 2-4

I am so mad at all the characters (well not all of them)! Why does no one support Telemachus? It seems like almost everyone is against him. I love Minerva though. She has such great authority over everyone. Then we come to Nestor. I almost fell asleep at the first part when he was introduced because he started telling stories that were getting to no point at all. Then finally! I found a point to his stories and I let out a long "Ohhhhhhh!" The best part for me was when Nestor was telling Telemachus about Ulysses not knowing that he was speaking with Telemachus. I love this part so much because of the emotions I felt. When he started to cry I almost did as well I just wanted to reach and and give him a hug! This is definitely turning into a very enjoyable story, dare a say a favorite?

What I've Read This Week

Nothing. Unless school papers count. 

The Odyssey

Well that was quite a difficult read. I hope they don't add a billion more characters. I found that it helped to rewrite the first several paragraphs in a more modern english. It helped to understand what was going on at first. I had a couple quick comments. I really liked Minerva she seemed to be a mother type figure, very compassionate. Also I liked that Telemachus stood up to those suiters (what pigs). Here are the first three paragraphs that I rewrote just in case it might help you in any way (I realized how long it would take to rewrite the whole thing once I got to this point).

So some guy defeated the town of Troy. Visited many cities and learned a lot of cultures. Further more he suffered a lot on his boat trying to keep everyone safe. But they were stupid and ate the Sun-gods cattle (Sun-god=Hyperion). So Hyperion said they couldn’t go home. 

Everyone who escaped death in battle or in a sinking boat got safely home. Except this guy named Ulysses, even though he wanted to go home to his wife, the goddess Calypso kept him in large cave because she wanted to marry him. Years later the gods let him go home to Ithaca (is this were he lives or the name of his wife?). Even when he was with his own people he still had troubles. Despite this the gods pitied him except for Neptune, who would not let him get home.

Neptune had gone to the Ethiopians, who lived at the world's end (Africa? And I think it’s saying it has miraculously split in two). He went to accept a Hecatomb (A public sacrifice, originally of a hundred oxen) and was enjoying himself. But the other gods met in the house of Olympian Jove, and the male leader of the gods and people spoke first. He (Whoa way to throw in a random character) was thinking of Aegisthus, who had been killed by Agamemnon’s son Orestes; so he (again who is this “he”) said to the other gods:

Summer

My summer's are typically not productive in any way. Well this summer I am proud to announce... is no different. I think I read maybe four books.


The first book I read this summer was Be More Chill (The authors name has successfully avoided me). It was 280-some pages of freakish reality that I would not care to revisit.


I also found a really cool resource at the library. Quote books. They are exactly what they sound like. Huge books filled with quotes. I found them to be very interesting. Not necessarily a novel but it was indeed "a written or printed work consisting of pages glued or sewn together along one side and bound in covers" as described by the dictionary built into my laptop. One of my favorite quote's was "Make yourself necessary to someone" (Emerson, Conduct of Life:Considerations by the Way)

Now I am not sure if this next book was one I had read this summer, or at the end of the school year but I will include it none the less. It was called Snowflower and The Paper Fan. It was about a little girl growing up in China. It brought us through her life from the young age of foot binding to her lonely old age. Along the way she became a friend with another girl her age. It was a noble honor. I can't recall what they called this type of friendship but I would describe it as an arranged best friendship. It was a wonderful heart-breaking story.


I am ashamed to admit this next two books. Yes I am talking about the Twilight Series. This summer I reread the second and third installment of this terrible series. The only way I can describe my reasons for reading these mindless stories are that it's like a car crash. You can't just look away. You have to keep watching.


Finally to cleanse my literary pallet I read the most breath taking story that has ever existed. It was titled The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It was set in Nazi Germany during the second World War. It was told through the eyes of death. And followed the life of Lisel Meminger. A young girl who's mother couldn't care for her and her younger brother. She and her brother are sent to live with a foster family. But on the way her brother falls ill and dies. At the grave site she sees a book. Even though she can't read she "stole" the book anyways. And the story unravels from there. I must stop myself before I explain all the wonders of this story.


I don't believe I have read anything else this summer. If I had it obviously wasn't good enough to be remembered.