Percy Jackson and the knightly virtues

Compose a character study of a favorite character (from any contemporary book, movie, or TV show) as seen through the seven knightly virtues. Your reader response essay should describe what the chosen character does throughout the course of the movie/story that indicates how he or she demonstrates at least three of these virtues. The essay should describe the sacrifices the character makes in order to remain true to these ideals, and how the knightly virtues are central to the conflict of the story line.

The contemporary code of chivalry has 7 aspects: Courage, justice, mercy, generosity, faith, nobility and hope. I'm going to focus on courage, hope and justice.

The first book of the Percy Jackson series is Percy Jackson and the lightning thief.

 Percy Jackson is obviously brave- even when he's absolutely terrified, he's willing to stand and fight, even without any previous training. This is shown when he fights Mrs. Dodds in the first chapter, and again, even more prominently, when he fights the Minotaur- without any weapons, even- to defend his unconscious friend.

He also has to be extremely brave to accept the quest to find Zeus's lightning bolt, which leads into the idea of his sense of justice. While his justifications lie in simply wanting to clear his name and bring back his mother, he is still going on a quest to locate and return something stolen. The quest is extremely dangerous and it would have made more sense to take a less dangerous quest at a later time.

Despite this, Percy's sense of justice- he has been falsely accused, and something important has been stolen- outweighs this, and his bravery combines with this to encourage him on his quest. He is shown to break some rules, however, this mostly seems to occur when there is a clear and present danger to others- such as the Chimera at the St. Luis Arch.

It should be pointed out that there is a parallel between Zeus and Percy in this book: Something central to Zeus's power and identity has been stolen, and Percy's mother, who is central to Percy's sense of self and life over all,  was kidnapped. Percy goes on the quest more out of a desire to free his mother, but the parallel still exists.

On the surface, Percy is extremely pessimistic and sarcastic. Deeper down, though, there is a sense of hope- he never gives up on the thought of bringing his mother back from the dead, even with the lack of a successful precedent. So even if he is pessimistic regarding his chances of passing a math test, he holds out hope for the things that do matter.

Percy is an unconventional display of the knight's virtues, but nonetheless they are present and the subversion to the expectations regarding his actions and character make the series an engaging read,

King Arthur and Canterbury tales

We are reading Arthurian myths in English. I like them a lot primarily because they've never really ended. Even today, you can find new versions of them all over the place.

BBC recently had a version that I particularly enjoyed, although it wasn't exactly accurate.

Even in music, it shows up. The song "Mordred's Lullaby" by Heather Dale was surprisingly accurate, though it was told primarily from the perspective of Morgan Le Fay.

The Canterbury Tales was written by Chaucer. The one thing I find most impressive is that all of the characters seem like they could actually exists. They aren't characters you would forget.

What I found equally fascinating is how a lot of themes were developed, especially how marriage was a motif. The concept of lies and deceit came up a lot, in almost every story, simply because they were telling stories. Every story, whether fiction or non-fiction, is a lie of some sort. Non-fiction is still filtered through the consciousness and prejudices of t he person telling it, leading to a form of self-deception.

There is a character in the Canterbury Tales called Chaucer, and at times I wonder if he was included as a joke.

The character and author are vastly different people. The character is accused of being sullen and silent, a far cry from the author. He is also the narrator, writing it all from memory. No one seems to want to hear the character's story, even though people from all over read the author's story during high school. It seems like the author is poking fun at his own points, by showing such a blatant example of misrepresenting himself in a story that has multiple layers. Not only are the characters all misrepresented by themselves, they are misrepresented even more by the narrator, who is himself a misrepresentation of the author.

I'm not sure if anything I just typed makes sense, but if it does, or doesn't, please let me know in the comments.

general recap and Dante's inferno

I just realized I've skipped over Everyman and the Canterbury tales.

Anyway, just as a general recap- Everyman is a morality play about how every man will inevitably die and that worldly pleasures can't accompany you into death, just your good deeds. It is pro-church.

The Canterbury Tales were written by Chaucer and are about a group of people telling tales while on a pilgrimage. Chaucer is surprisingly critical of the church, with the only clergy member who is good being the parson.

We are also reading Dante's Inferno, which I have mixed feelings on. It is an exceptionally well-written poem, but it's not really the piece of art its often held up as. The Inferno is part of a larger work known as the Divine Comedy, and it wasn't meant to be art so much a it was an act of revenge.

In Pope Boniface VIII's reign, the republic of Florence was pretty divided over whether or not he was a good person.The Neri (black) Guelphs felt that the pope was good and the Bianchi (white) Guelphs were wary of him. Dante was a Bianchi Guelph. Anyway, when the then-pope appointed Charles De Valois as a general peacemaker for Tuscany, Dante traveled to Rome to talk to the pope about it. while Dante was there, the pope ordered Valois to enter Florence with an armed militia and overthrow the established government with a more religiously appreciative one. It should be pointed out that Dante was a politician. The pope then fined Dante for being in Rome, and the new government of Florence decided to ban him from ever returning. (This decision was not repealed until 2008.)

This is when Dante started to write the Divine Comedy. 

Dante is really good with rhyming and can make things stick in your head, which is one way to ensure his story got remembered.

What is especially important is that there were many dialects of Italian at the time, but there was also another division: there were 2 separate  and very different versions of Italian, both with their own individual dialects. One was spoken primarily by the nobles and one spoken primarily by the commoners.

Dante wrote the Divine Comedy in common Italian.

Even with a lot of people unable to read, and without the printing press, the story still was heard and and passed around. In fact, it's seems likely that Dante himself read it to commoners to ensure that it spread. He was, after all, the one who would primarily benefit from others hearing it.

Now onto the actual story and how it's just a particularly well-written bit of revenge. Dante had every reason to hate Pope Boniface VIII when he wrote the poem. In the poem, the then-pope has a special place in hell: circle 8. Dante comes across Pope Nicholas III in the third sub-ring, the one that represents simony, who mistakes Dante for Pope Boniface VIII. When the confusion is cleared up, Nicholas III comments that he foresees that Boniface VIII will join him soon. Later on in the poem we are reminded of Pope Boniface VIII's feud with the Colonna family, leading to the destruction of the city Palestrina, the death of 6,000 innocents and the destruction of both Julius Caesar's home and a shrine to the Virgin Mary. Boniface VIII's fate is confirmed by Beatrice, when Dante finds her in heaven.

Also in the poem Dante meets St. Peter, who denounces the papacy, calling it a blood-filled sewer with a vacant throne.

It should be pointed out that the 8th circle contains those whose misdeeds are second only to that of Judas. One has to wonder why the pope didn't send an assassin after Dante.

Dante was probably laughing in his grave when Italy became a single state, and had to decide on a single unifying language, because they chose the language of the Divine Comedy for it, ensuring that his work lived on forever. He also, probably, got another laugh when Florence decided to repeal the ban and asked for Ravenna, the city Dante moved to and died in, to exhume his body so it could be buried in Florence. Ravenna has refused to this day.

Sources:

http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/circle8a.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Boniface_VIII#Posthumous_trial

http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/textpopup/inf0601.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/return-of-dante-the-guelphs-and-the-ghibellines-850012.html

http://www.literarytraveler.com/articles/dante_florence/

1 in 7 billion

Mrs. Jarman had us watch the discovery video from 2011 about the rising population and the problems that causes.

The land mass of earth is 57,308,738 square miles . There are roughly 7 billion people on earth, meaning that the population density of the entire planet is 123 people per mile, so about the same as North Carolina right now.

This means that land is not the problem; resources, infrastructure and education are.

So which of these gets addressed first? Should any of them be placed above others in terms of importance?

Personally, I would say no. 

Resources, infrastructure and education all need to be improved and all at the same time:
A poor infrastructure means resources don't get distributed correctly and it means people would have trouble getting to their schools. Resources mean that people won't be able to live because they don't have food or water, etc. Education is necessary because that would allow the citizens to create for themselves what they need. It's that whole "teach a man to fish" idea. It is also necessary because fertility and education have an inverse relationship.

When these three things are set up, all else follows.

There is more information here in this blog if you are curious:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/01/seven-billion/kunzig-text

Thor comics and Beowulf

I like comic books, Thor comics in particular. I also like Beowulf.

While reading Beowulf it occurred to me that it was really similar to the basic plot of the Thor Comics.
As I've already stated, Thor is pretty much the most human-like of the gods, and Beowulf is pretty much the most god-like of the humans.

There are many similarities between the two:

 Both are portrayed with blond hair:


http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11115/111150906/3805463-2230489458-Thor-.jpg



http://schoolworkhelper.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Beowulf.jpg

Both start of arrogant and wanting glory (with a desire to defend others as well):
Thor in the comics and the movie is banished form Asgard for excessive arrogance, but despite this, a lot of the time he fights is rooted at least in part in a desire to defend others. In the movie, he didn't attack the Jotuns until they invaded Asgard, and went initially to Jotunheim to investigate whether or not it was a planned attack or a group of extremists. Clearly, that plan fell to pieces.

Beowulf is fighting Grendel partially for glory, and partially as a favor to Hrothgar, in order to help defend Hrothgar's people. His motives are just as mixed as Thor's, but there is still noble intent.

 Both are high up in society:
Aside from the fact that Thor is a god/super-powered alien, he's also a prince.
Beowulf is a member of King Hygelac's court and related to him, giving him a claim to the throne.

Both are big and have super strength:
Thor is a god, so super strength comes naturally, in fact this is why Stan Lee designed for him to be a god/super-powered alien in the comics, to justify him being stronger than any human.

In the poem, Beowulf is described as having the strength of 30 men.

Both are portrayed being big and muscular (see pictures above).

Both mature over time:

The plot of Beowulf is action-packed and interesting, but just as important is that Beowulf matures into a wise king.

Thor comics show him maturing into a wise king as well.

Even how they mature is similar, they go up against a lot of foes and learn from them.

Given how similar these two are, it seems highly likely that Stan Lee drew inspiration for the Thor comics from Beowulf.