Even though I’m as far from religious as someone could possibly be, it was still quite interesting reading the book of Genesis. I learned about the stories in Genesis during my many years of being forced to attend Hebrew school, as well as seeing many different interpretations of these stories on television in shows like the Simpsons. My parents are fairly religious themselves, and did their best to get my siblings and I to feel the same way. But I don’t necessarily think it’s correct to push religion upon your kids, I think that people should allow their kids to formulate their own thoughts and opinions on faith instead. I enjoy the fact that religion brings family and friends together, and also teaches you how to live morally, but I guess there’s just something about it all that doesn’t sit well with me.

I read and understood Genesis as an interesting and entertaining story, instead of thinking of it as a religious text. Though I can see why people would find religion interesting, I tend to take a more scientific approach towards things like evolution. I have a pretty strong opinion regarding religion, and would not want to offend anyone by being too open about my thoughts. I feel like this was a strange and controversial choice to be added to the reading list for Arts One, and I was initially surprised that a large public university would assign a book from the bible because of the general belief in separation of church and state.

Anyways, I look forward to the lecture on Monday, and also discussing the reading with my small Arts One group. I always find it interesting hearing other people’s differing opinions on controversial topics such as this one.

Sorry about the late post!

Even though Medea was much shorter and to-the-point in comparison with the Odyssey, I can still safely say that I enjoyed reading the Odyssey much more. The Odyssey may have been a much more difficult and time consuming read, but I think that Medea is a lunatic, and the fact that she was going to kill multiple people was almost too obvious from the very beginning.

Medea made it abundantly clear early on that she was going to kill in order to get revenge on her husband that broke her trust. With comments such as “Children of a hateful mother! Perish with your father!” The nurse seemed aware that Medea was going to resort to drastic measures too, “Go into the house, children, all will be well. And you (to Tutor)… Don’t bring them near their angry mother. For I just now saw her casting savage looks at them”.

I found the plot device known as Deux ex machina very interesting, because I did not know of its existence until after it was explained in yesterday’s lecture. Deux ex machina is when an apparently unsolvable problem is abruptly and unexpectedly solved. After Medea kills Jason’s wife, father-in-law, and his two children, Jason finds Medea to punish her. Medea seems hopeless, but seemingly out of nowhere, a chariot sent by Helios the sun-god appears and takes her to safety. This plot twist was certainly strange and unexpected.

I honestly found the story to be pretty strange, and I think that Medea is a total nutcase. The appearance of the chariot at the end of the story also definitely confused me. I look forward to hearing everyone else’s opinions about the story in class.

After learning a few days ago that I was assigned to read the entire Odyssey by Monday, I made it my mission to set aside some time every day to relax and enjoy the story of Odysseus, instead of binge-reading in only a sitting or two. Reading the Odyssey would have been more pleasurable had I been allotted more time to get through it. Even so, I thoroughly enjoyed the story as a whole, as well as some specific parts of the epic poem that struck me as interesting. Specifically, I enjoyed the use of repetition and personification throughout the story. For example, the sun rise was always paired with the line, “When young Dawn with her rose-red fingers shown once more…”. Lines are often repeated throughout the poem, and this is apparently because the story of Odysseus began as a tale passed orally from person to person. Repetition in the story was used as a memory aid for the story-teller.

Something I found very interesting was the intense respect that mortals paid to the gods each and every day. Sacrifices and libations set aside for the gods by the mortals were plentiful in order to show respect to the immortals on Mount Olympus, and to keep them on their good side. Also, most characters that were encountered in the book proved to be strangely generous towards strangers and guests. If a stranger would roam up to a king’s palace, the king would usually demand that his guest be treated to food and wine before even asking the guest his name or his intentions. Nowadays, it would be pretty extraordinary for somebody to welcome a complete stranger into his home and offer him gifts, food, and drink before even asking who he was or what he wanted. If I knocked on the door of a house, and demanded the finest steak and wine that the family inside had, I would have the door slammed closed on me faster than you could say “Homer!”. Enough rambling, but the stark contrast between our current society and the society that Odysseus lived in is extremely interesting. Aside from homicide meaning little to nothing back in the day, it seemed like Odysseus was living in a society where many lived lavishly lazy lives, the lives of royalty. The Odyssey was an extremely interesting read, and I look forward to discussing the story further in class.

Hey everyone!

My name is David Goosenberg, and I’ve lived my whole life about a half an hour outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I love music of all different kinds but I’m specifically in love with British Rock and Hip-hop. My favorite artists are the Arctic Monkeys, and the Hip-hop collective, Odd Future. I also love watching baseball and spending time with my family and friends. Unfortunately I have no idea what I’m interesting in pursuing as a career, so I’m taking a variety of classes in hopes that I eventually stumble upon my passion. I really look forward to meeting all of you, and I know that this will be an amazing year! Peace.