Rituals

I my opinion rituals are a necessary evil. In society we judge people on their success and their deeds. This being said there is on surefire way to ensure that in a community everyone is equal. That is to have everyone subjected to the same process usually involving extreme amounts of mental distress and physical pain. Now in today's society the physical pain is not really sanctioned as an acceptable method of initiation unless of course you take into account specific groups such as the military. This is not the case in many small rural communities outside of America. For example the Brazilian Satere-Mawe method of initiation for their young boys to become men is not only painful but arguably the most painful thing that a human can undergo without dieing and they have to do it 20 times. To become a man these young boys must wear gloves inter laced with up to 50 bullet ants for a half an hour.

This is a bullet ant. The sting that this ant can give is literally the most painful sting ever recorded and has been compared to 30000 bee stings at once, and is rated as more painful than the Tarantula Hawk Wasp

Ouch!!!!!!!!!

Initiation

Equality only comes into being through initiation. It does not exist in nature, and society wouldn't be able to conceive of the idea if it weren't structured and articulated by initiation. Calasso pg. 250

When I first read this I thought to myself no way that's not true just think of the equality in today's world that was accomplished through diplomacy and general human kindness. As I continued reading I found myself coming back to this particular section in the book thinking about it and mulling over all of the examples that i had given myself to contradict this statement. Then it hit me it's true. There is no equality in this world without initiation the Spartans knew this and that is why their youth had to undergo Krypteia an initiation that involved killing helots. through this initiation all Spartans were equals allowing them to be open in their society without fear of punishment.This sort of initiation is no longer government sanctioned however there are a few initiations that the government has for example the initiation that a new citizen must go through to become a citizen. In addition to this there are copious examples of initiation to become part of a group in fact every time you join a new group of friends there is an initiation even if its just verbal.


Sorry about the italicized font but i could not change it back to normal for some reason.

For those of you that are done with the Magus i am wondering whether you share my frustration at the ending and the text leading to the ending. I feel as though John Fowels owed us at the very least a little closure at the end of the book. Instead he leaves it up to your imagination which by the end of the book is so skewed that you cannot possibly determine how the story ends. I cannot wait until everyone has read this book so we can discuses it in class. Furthermore for those of you still reading it you might feel as though the book is done around page 450 but you are in for an infinite amount of frustration and confusion. Enjoy