Arvin Padua
To be honest, that last time I had a blog was when Myspace was popular. So it was probably during my sophomore year in high school. I don't think you can call Facebook or Twitter blogs, but I guess that doesn't really matter.
When I first chose this class, I was told it was better than Eng 232 because most of the reading in Eng 231 were already covered in high school and the literature in Eng 232 is a little difficult. Especially since most of the readings in Eng 232 are from around the world, it may be hard to understand.
When I first came into class, I noticed there were that there were a lot of people so I assumed that the class was a requirement. I also noticed that the professor was wearing a Captain America emblem belt buckle which made me to suspect he might be a fan of super heroes.
Boy was I right. One of the first things he talked about was American super heroes and I was very pleased. Out of all my professors, I've never met one that had an interest in Batman, The X-Men, Superman, or even know who The Green Arrow was. It was after he called role he started to make a list about what makes a super hero. During both class sessions, we discussed how today's super heroes were violent, had complex personalities, a complicated past, were very attractive, well fit, and a symbol of justice.
What the professor was trying to tell us was these were the attributes of what makes a super hero. It also tied in back to the reading we had to do. Beowulf was the first known poem that told the story of Beowulf, a brave and fearless hero who slayed powerful monsters in Scandinavia. By discussing the list of attributes of what makes a hero, it helped me to understand how people saw heroes back in the 8th century.
When I first attempted to read Beowulf, I had a very hard time to grasp what was being said or what was happening in the story. I actually had to look online to understand who the characters were or what was going on in a particular scene. I learned that these poems were originally read aloud to people in a giant room, so I tried reading the poem again but this time I read it out loud. It was a big improvement and I was able to grasp what was going on.
After I finished part 1, I tried to compare the story to a modern day super hero story. Beowulf was very wordy, especially when it takes a whole page to express how you feel at a certain moment. I felt like I could have summarized the whole reading onto one page. But besides that, I could see why this poem is such a masterpiece. A brave and powerful warrior from a far away land comes to rip the arm off of a demon and rids the people of fear and despair.
All in all, it was a good reading but I would have wished it was easier to read. Especially since my foreign friend is also in the class and he was having trouble reading the story. Maybe the next story or the story after will be easier to read.
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I agree with you, the story seems really "clouded" with unnecessary information, but like Mr. Bahlman said, thats how they conveyed vivid descriptions when TVs didn't exist. They had to go into long, wordy passages just to set a scene or mood. Not too much fun to have to read, so I feel ya there. I also agree with you, Beowulf is a masterpiece. Its more entertaining than 90% of "modern literature".
ReplyDeleteI also got a little annoyed at the repetition (I mean how many times in a poem do you have to brag to show your manliness?). However, I also figured that they included the detail and repetitions not only to make it seem more realistic, but because of the time and place that the poem was usually recited. The scop would be in the meadhall reciting the poem for other thanes' entertainment. During this time people are no only eating and drinking, but are probably going in and out of the mead hall. I think that by having the repetitions (for example Beowulf repeating how he killed Grendel the number of times he did) it made it easier for people to pick up on what's happening.
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