Confounded

The crime of the heroes, perhaps, lay not so much in their treading the earth but their detaching themselves from it. Calasso pg. 358

This passage reminds me of the Magus especially Nicholas. In the novel once Nick notices that he is in a labyrinth he seems to believe that he can out think the game. What he does not realize is he is assembled against the top psychologist of the world, at least in this book. This proves to not be the case as I though that it would however the story took so many turns before Nick realized that he was outmaneuvered.

Most people in this class my self included have expressed their dislike of the ending of the book. I have come to realize after reading Jerrod's blog that the end was not the important part of this novel it was the journey that Nickolas and the other characters experienced. I knew that the end of the story was not the important part before i read his blog but i was so hung up on the ending or the lack of an ending that i could not see the importance the journey. Throughout the story i found myself relating to all of the characters at some point or another. Nickolas was the main character in this story due to his predominance in the story. This does not mean that he is the most important character in the story. In my opinion Alison was the brick that held the whole story together. She is integrated into the whole story and I as the reader did not even guess at her importance. This might have been because i was rooting for Nickolas and Julie or should i say Lily. That was not the case and never could have been under the circumstances. In fact that was one of the biggest twist in the story when i figured out that Lily was just another actress. The next big twist was when Alison turned out to be alive. As soon as I learned that Alison was not dead the overall picture of the story took shape in my head. If she was part of the god-game then there was no limit to what was real and what was simply a veil that the book put over your eyes. In the end i realized why the book ended the way it did and i can appreciate that method of story telling. In fact the ending of this book allows for virtually endless endings allowing the reader to go down any path that their imagination leads them.

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

Shedding Light on Helen

When the Greeks needed to appeal to an ultimate authority, it wasn't a sacred text but Homer that they went to. Greece was founded on the Iliad. The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony pg. 91. As those of you who have read chapter four know it is probably the longest chapter in the book, and for good reason. This chapter addresses the story of Helen and the god and goddesses that were in the background. Helen was the only daughter of Zeus and had two mothers. Zeus as always raped a women by the name of Nemesis and while Nemesis was sleeping Hermes took the egg and placed it in Leda's womb. Helen was pretty much the most beautiful women on the face of the earth and a bi-product of such beauty was an endless amount of suitors. Helen had five husbands including Achilles. They were however not married while still living but after both were spirits. These two met while the Greeks were attacking Troy to try and get Helen back form Paris. The ironic thing about this whole story that we have all heard before is that Helen was not even there it was only a specter of Helen. The real Helen was with an Egyptian king. This fact is commonly left out of the popular story because Homer thought that this fact would make his epic story not so epic.

Chapter 3 continued

Throughout the bloody night, torch signals were exchanged among the hills.The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, page 66. As i have been reading this book i have been playing with the idea that the gods are not exactly entities but rather a way for humans to explain there feelings. I seem to recall this being discussed in class but i am not positive when. If the gods are indeed merely human feelings given a face then the second half of the third chapter is most definitely the feeling of lust. In fact sex is the main topic of this chapter ranging form rape to sacrificing yourself for a loved one. This feeling is shared by both gods and humans in some cases the gods literally forestall a humans death for love something that is unheard of. In addition to the gods loving humans this chapter tells us that it was the hero's that defined love by resisting the social norms and actually sharing love with their companions both female and male. 
 

Hugging a Mighty Big Tree

This picture was taken this summer in California were i encountered some of the oldest living trees in the world the mighty redwoods. I did huge a tree in Bozeman bu the picture did not really turn out so i grabbed this off my computer. I am on the the far right and the other two people are my sisters. at a combined arm span of roughly 18 feet we did not even come close to giving this ancient being a proper huge but none the less we tried.