Yesterday I listened to a couple chapters of Anne of Green Gables and read a chapter from The Book of Lost Tales part 2 (The Fall of Gondolin!). Not too much I'm afraid. I was running around getting my hair cut and shopping. To clarify, I wasn't running while my hair was being cut. ;)
For my Play On challenge, Books in Translation challenge and Pre-Printing Press challenge I read the Greek play Agamemnon by Aeschylus.Synopsis from Wikipedia: The play Agamemnon details the homecoming of Agamemnon, King of Argos, from the Trojan War. Waiting at home for him is his wife, Clytemnestra, who has been planning his murder, partly as revenge for the sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia, and partly because in the ten years of Agamemnon's absence Clytemnestra has entered into an adulterous relationship with Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin and the sole survivor of a dispossessed branch of the family (Agamemnon's father, Atreus, killed and fed Aegisthus's brothers to Aegisthus's father, Thyestes, when he took power from him), who is determined to regain the throne he believes should rightfully belong to him.This play is confusing. Especially if you don't know your mythology. I read a lot of Greek and Roman mythology when I was younger but apparently the information has fled my brain because I was entirely lost. Thankfully halfway through it I stopped to eat lunch and my sister filled me in because her memory is far better than mine. Once I understood the setting, I was able to enjoy it a lot more. So my recommendation if you read this play is to find out about the setting and about the characters before you start it. It will make the reading experience ten times better. :) Just reading that above synopsis would have helped me a lot while i was reading it.... unfortunately I didn't. :(
For the Classics Club, the literary movement challenge, alphabet soup challenge, pre-printing press challenge, author a-z (unknown) challenge, books in translation challenge, back to the classics challenge, full house challenge and the Mount TBR challenge I read Beowulf. Yes, that's a lot of challenges it counted for... but it needs to because I'm signed up for a lot of challenges. :)Synopsis from Goodreads: The earliest extant poem in a modern European language, Beowulf was composed 400 years before the Norman Conquest. As a social document, this great epic poem reflects a feudal, newly Christian world of heroes and monsters, blood and victory and death. As a work of art, it rings with a beauty, power, and artistry that have kept it alive for more than twelve centuries.I was very pleasantly surprised by this book. It was a pleasant mixture of the epicness of Tolkien and the format of Homer's The Odyssey. I whizzed through this in one day, something I did not expect to do. It actually kept me riveted the whole way through. I enjoyed the Christian aspect to it and the unquenchable bravery of Beowulf. If you like Tolkien I think you'll love this as well. Tolkien actually wrote a translation of it but unfortunately that's not the copy my family had. Someday though I'm sure I'll re-read it and be sure to get that copy. The translation I did read was from Burton Raffel.
I was entirely shocked at this book when I first started but as I went along I became more sensitized to it as I got used to the setting of the story. When I thought about this, I realized that this is what has happened to the world too. The World, I'll think specifically of America here since I'm American, has become progressively more depraved and we've reached the point that we're so sensitized to evil that it really doesn't strike us as too terrible anymore. Have we gotten to the point of Brave New World yet? No, but I think we are far closer than we are comfortable admitting.Synopsis from Goodreads: Far in the future, the World Controllers have created the ideal society. Through clever use of genetic engineering, brainwashing and recreational sex and drugs, all its members are happy consumers. Bernard Marx seems alone harbouring an ill-defined longing to break free. A visit to one of the few remaining Savage Reservations, where the old, imperfect life still continues, may be the cure for his distress...
"But if you know about God why don't you tell people?" Asked the Savage indignantly. "Why don't you read these books about God?"That last line for me is the cruncher. What difference does that make?
"For the same reason as we don't give them Shakespeare; they're old; they're about God hundreds of years ago, not about God now."
"But God doesn't change;"
"Men do though."
"What difference does that make?"
“Isn't there something in living dangerously?'
There's a great deal in it,' the Controller replied. 'Men and women must have their adrenals stimulated from time to time.'
What?' questioned the Savage, uncomprehending.
It's one of the conditions of perfect health. That's why we've made the V.P.S. treatments compulsory.'
V.P.S.?'
Violent Passion Surrogate. Regularly once a month. We flood the whole system with adrenin. It's the complete physiological equivalent of fear and rage. All the tonic effects of murdering Desdemona and being murdered by Othello, without any of the inconvenience.'
But I like the inconveniences.'
We don't,' said the Controller. 'We prefer to do things comfortably.'
But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.'
In fact,' said Mustapha Mond, 'you're claiming the right to be unhappy. Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer, the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.' There was a long silence.
I claim them all,' said the Savage at last.
Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. 'You're welcome,' he said.”
This quote in my opinion really pertains today in a world of instant gratification and where we have incredible resources and for some of us, we don't really work for what we get (I know I am guilty of that sometimes). “The Savage nodded, frowning. "You got rid of them. Yes, that's just like you. Getting rid of everything unpleasant instead of learning to put up with it. Whether 'tis better in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows or outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them...But you don't do either. Neither suffer nor oppose. You just abolish the slings and arrows. It's too easy." ..."What you need," the Savage went on, "is something with tears for a change. Nothing costs enough here.”
This quote really goes into "happy" and what that means. “Actual happiness always looks pretty squalid in comparison with the overcompensations for misery. And, of course, stability isn't nearly so spectacular as instability. And being contented has none of the glamour of a good fight against misfortune, none of the picturesqueness of a struggle with temptation, or a fatal overthrow by passion or doubt. Happiness is never grand.”Just reading back over these quotes I'm reminded how scarily real this book is and how America is truly creeping this way. Have you read Brave New World? What did you think of it? I would love to hear your thoughts on it. Do you agree or disagree with me? Let's start a discussion! :)
This is where you can link up your review posts for the 2015 Hard Core Re-Reading Challenge. If you don't have a blog feel free to use Goodreads or any other medium and if necessary you can just comment your review. :)
This is where you can link up your review posts for the 2015 Birthday Month Reading Challenge. If you don't have a blog feel free to use Goodreads or any other medium and if necessary you can just comment your review. :)
