Arthurian Lit Challenge Update

So I thought I'd give you a little update, because I'm changing my Arthurian Lit reading plan.

No, I'm not changing the books I'm reading. I'm just changing how and when I'm going to read them.

Right now, I'm nearly done with The Mabinogion, but because I posted that essay I wrote, I don't think I'm going to write another post/review on it.

I've also started Yvain (The Knight with the Lion) in Arthurian Romances, because that's my next lesson in the Arthurian lit course I'm taking. See, the thing about this course is that we don't read ALL the stories in the books. I read all the Mabinogion stories, but they weren't ALL assigned. But I need to move forward in the course, and books start piling up if I try to read them all in their entirety. So this is what I am going to do with Arthurian Romances:
I am going to just read Yvain and Lancelot, which are what we will be reading in the course, and post about them.
LATER, I will read the rest of Romances. Just not now. Because they are relatively short stories, I think I'll read them here and there throughout the summer, and write about them then, so I can truly say I have completed the Challenge.

Regarding the other books, such as Le Morte d'Arthur, I WILL read them in their entirety. It's just that reading extra to the assignments for Romances is going to be a little tough right now.

So - sometime this week or next, you can look forward to an essay on Yvain and Lancelot, and maybe some ramblings comparing Welsh literature (Romances) to Celtic literature (Mabinogion).

~Sophia

The Bible Project: Week 13 (Ruth; 1Sam 1-12)

So this is our first week that we have two different books involved. And somehow - it worked, because I found a connection between them.

We're looking at family here. Those people who put the Bible together knew what they were doing when they put Ruth right before Samuel.

Ruth, in it's four chapters, is ultimately about filial fidelity. Ruth becomes the greatest daughter-in-law ever, and follows Naomi, her mother-in-law, back to Naomi's home town. By marrying Naomi's son, Ruth becomes Naomi's daughter, and does not give up that role even after her husband is dead. Ruth gives up her religion and culture entirely, because now Naomi's culture is her culture, and Naomi's God is her God.

(Chapters 1-12)

Poor Eli's sons, on the other hand, do not live up to his expectations. They're off breaking priestly rules and mooching off the townsfolk. And, in the end, God punishes them and they die in battle. Samuel becomes high priest after Eli.
But Samuel doesn't have much luck with his kids either. They take Eli's sons as examples and "sought illicit gains and accepted bribes, perverting justice." (Sam 8:3) So Samuel has to appoint a king.

So I suppose the moral here is - be good kids. :-)

Ummm, that's all I have for now.... I'm in a bit of a crunch, and I suppose I'll talk more about Samuel next week when we finish the book.

~Sophia

The Mabinogion: The Celtic Hero

Hey there!
So I'm not done with the Mabinogion quite yet (it's taking a while because I'm not only reading it - I'm super-analyzing it for my Arthurian Lit class), but I thought I'd share with you an essay I wrote for said class on three of the stories within the book. If you didn't know, the Mabinogion is a collection of Celtic tales, and the title Mabinogion refers to the birth, naming, young adulthood, and marriage of a hero. This post is on the concept of Celtic heroism, and what exactly that entails.
Oh, and any page numbers are from the Everyman edition.

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Within The Mabinogion, there are numerous characters who take up the position of Hero. The four heroes – Pwyll, Culhwch, Owein, and Arthur – within the stories “Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed,” “Culhwch and Olwen,” and “The Lady of the Fountain,” all define the concept of the Celtic Hero. Though these four characters are not identical, they all contain certain characteristics that are constant throughout the Celtic tales of heroism – primarily, the aspects of growth, fortitude, and honor.

Pwyll disguised as a beggar.
(Artist: the fabulous Alan Lee)

The character of Pwyll undergoes the most obvious growth process of all four heroes. He begins as a young, naïve lord, who does not follow the chivalric laws of hunting and permits his dogs to feast on a stag which another pack killed. Arawn scolds him: “Greater discourtesy have I not seen in man… than to drive away the pack that killed the stag and bait thine own pack upon it.” (p. 4) Pwyll apologizes, having now learned his lesson, but he can only regain his honor by exhibiting fortitude in the face of difficulty and temptation. He does so, by fighting and defeating Arawn’s enemy, and by keeping his vow of chastity with Arawn’s wife. Even after he has gained Arawn’s friendship, Pwyll continues to persist in other hardships – he must undergo many setbacks before he finally obtains Rhiannon as is wife.

Culhwch, though he also starts out in “Culhwch and Olwen” as a young lord, is not nearly as naïve as Pwyll, and not at all dishonorable in any way. Culhwch definitely does undergo a growth process, however, and proves his mettle through physical fortitude and persistence. As he is inexperienced in the ways of war, he wisely asks the more experienced warrior Arthur for help in gaining Olwen’s hand in marriage, and, through the completion of the tasks set by Ysbaddaden the Giant, Culhwch entirely proves his worthiness for marrying the Giant’s daughter. In addition to these clear aspects of the Celtic Hero, Culhwch is also emphasized as heroic by being helped in his tasks by a majestic retinue of Arthur’s best men, including Cei, who could hold his breath for nine nights and days or grow as tall as the tallest tree, among other peculiarities. (p.90)

Young Culhwch, setting out on his quest.

The story of “The Lady of the Fountain” begins with Owein, our third example of a Celtic hero, setting out on a personal challenge – to overthrow the black knight that had defeated Cynon.  This reveals his strong sense of honor and chivalry even more than in the previous two heroes, and throughout the story, we find many more examples of Owein’s honor. After he breaks his promise to the Lady of the Fountain, and does not return for three years, Owein imposes a harsh penance on himself: “And thus he was wandering thus till his clothes perished, and till his body was nigh perished, and till long hair grew all over his body…and therewith he grew so weak….” (p. 144) This penance almost makes a mockery of the trials that Culwch had to undergo – Owein had no King’s retinue to keep him safe and alive. This also reveals a different view of marriage from that of the other two stories; Owein is not only expected to honor his liege lord, but also to devotedly and unfailingly honor his wife.

Arthur and Owein (playing Gwyddbwyl, a sort of chess)
(Artist: once again, Alan Lee)

Arthur is the final Hero portrayed within these three stories, and though he takes the position of a supporting character, his two appearances in “Culhwch and Olwen” and in “The Lady of the Fountain” are very different indeed. In “Culhwch and Olwen,” Arthur is shown as being a sort of rowdy, good-hearted leader – the kind who can never turn down a good feast. However, he is nevertheless a powerful chieftain, and has a devoted retinue which will follow his every command. But the Arthur in “The Lady of the Fountain” is not the same – in this story, he becomes more of a revered emperor, and Owein is portrayed as being stronger than he.

These four men – Pwyll, Culwch, Owein, and Arthur – all emphasize the characteristics of the Celtic Hero. Through these tales of their adventures, we can see that the Celtic Hero undergoes a period of growth, exhibits a strong fortitude in the face of adversity, and exemplifies honor and chivalry. 

Liebster Award!

How pleasantly surprising to open up my email a few days ago and see that I had been nominated for the Liebster Award by Cleopatra from Classical Carousel! I am so excited and grateful.

The Rules:

1. Thank the blogger that nominated you and link back to their blog.
2. Display the award somewhere on your blog.
3. List 11 facts about yourself.
4. Answer 11 questions chosen by the blogger who nominated you.
5. Come up with 11 new questions to ask your nominees.
6. Nominate 5-11 blogs that you think deserve the award and who have less than 1,000 followers. You may nominate blogs that have already received the award, but you cannot renominate the blog that nominated you.
7. Go to their blog and inform them that they've been nominated. 

11 Facts about Me!

1. I am 100% Ukrainian, but have never been to Ukraine (and neither have my parents).
2. I am going to university this Fall, and am majoring in Chemistry and minoring in Creative Writing (because I just couldn't ignore that literary part of me!).
3. I have a tree house in my backyard that my dad, my sister, and I built a few years back.
4. I love paperwork and organizing documents and papers and shopping for school and office supplies.
5. I am a Grammar Nazi, but I am an undercover one, because I don't want people to hate me. 
6. I can recite Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll by memory.
7. I will also gladly sing you the Major General song from Pirates of Penzance (I might need a quick brushing up - I haven't done it in a while), as well as a few of the other famous songs from that operetta.
8. I wrote my first book when I was 8. It was self-illustrated, and involved a family of children who's names all started with the letter "S" visiting their Great-Great-Aunt. She was very spry for her age.
9. I have a lot of nerdy math and science T-shirts. 
10. I have a younger sister who is my best friend. She is awesome... though she still hasn't forgiven me for the time I basically spoiled a good many books for her when we were young, because I so desperately wanted to discuss them and she hadn't read them yet.
11. My handwriting drastically changes depending on my mood. I have around five distinctly different handwritings.

Cleopatra's 11 Questions:

1. What book(s) are you currently reading and what do you think of it (them) so far? 

I'm actually sort of in-between books right now, having finished The Island of Doctor Moreau and not yet begun Madam Bovary. However, I am in the middle of The Mabinogion, and I do think it is an interesting book, though I am getting a little bit tired of it. This is most likely due to me taking an actual course dealing with Arthurian literature, so I've sort of analyzed it to death.

2. If you could only read books from one country, which country would you choose? 

Oooh that's a tough one! My first thought was England, because I ADORE British lit, but then I would miss out on all the great American literature, like Poe and Twain and Fitzgerald... And then what about France? And my darling Les Miserables? 

If pressed, though, I would probably pick England.

3. Can you name a book that you've read and expected to enjoy, but ended up hating it?

I rarely hate books, but one that I absolutely hated was Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant. I love Maupassant's short story The Necklace, but Bel Ami just bugged me. I actually wrote about it on a Top Ten Tuesday once... you can read about it HERE.

Oh, and also, Moby Dick. That book was boring. I didn't HATE it, per se, and Ahab is one of the most famous characters when discussing motivation, but I just was so BORED by it. 

4. Can you name a book that you thought you'd hate and ended up liking? 

This one's a bit harder. I'm going to have to say - no. I never enter any book with expectations of it being bad. And if it is a book I've heard SO much bad stuff about from people I know have similar reading preferences to mine (ahem, Twilight, ahem, Fifty Shades of Grey, ahem), I just don't read it.

5. Where is your favorite reading place?

I will read ANYWHERE. If I get lost in a book, I will ignore cold toes or uncomfortable seat backs. In fact, this has been made fun of so much in my family that I wrote a post on how I would die. Don't worry, it's not morbid, and does have something to do with the topic at hand.

But if I picked a spot, I do like the couch in our front room. It's very sunny in the middle of the day. And if it's warm, we have a screened in porch with a comfy wicker couch we got last summer. 

6. Do you have any "bad" habits when reading, such as dog-earing, writing in books, talking to the books, etc.? (although I'm not sure if any of those are "bad" habits! :-) )

I do dog ear, particularly because I somehow just can't use a bookmark. I have a nice collection of bookmarks, but - here's another "bad" habit - I fidget with my fingers when I read: with the edge of the page, with a strand of my hair, or with the aforementioned bookmark. I don't want to destroy them, so I end up just not using one. Which is a pity, because I have so many nice ones.

7. If you had to live as a character from a book, who would you choose and why?

I'd like to say it would be someone exciting - like Eowyn from LOTR or a character in Narnia.
BUT, I think that I'm too much of a coward for that. :-) I KNOW I live in a place where I'm never faced with much danger, and I appreciate that heartily. I read books to be able to temporarily travel into another mind, another world, with more danger sometimes - while always staying safely in my nice, safe house. Soooo, I'm a bit too scared to actually choose a character - unless I can be assured of not dying. Then, I'd probably pick Thursday Next from the series by Jasper Fforde. She has an awesome life and gets to interact with Bookworld and characters from books. She also has an adorably sweet husband that's just as much of a literary nerd as she is.

8. Would you/have you challenged yourself to read in a genre or era that you wouldn't usually choose? Which one?

My slow transition to contemporary literature (especially YA) might be considered a sort of mental challenge. I used to NEVER read books that weren't expressely recommended to me by someone with similar reading tastes, or that weren't universally popular (like Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, Eragon, etc.). I am now more willing to pick up a random book at the library that looks decent. It's just that I hate wasting time on a bad book.

9. Can you think of a popular writer (or two) with whom you were unimpressed?

A lot of the popular YA books that I have read (again, Hunger Games, Eragon, Divergent) are good, but not great (Harry Potter excluded). So I would say I was unimpressed because my reaction to them was just "meh" - I definitely wasn't impressed.
Also, see  Q.3.

10. If you could live somewhere other than where you live now, where would that be?

Well, I do adore Chicago, and I think it is the best city in the US, so anywhere else in that country is out of the question. But I think I would like London. I've been there before, and it's cool.
Quebec is nice, too, but a bit too small for me. But it would work.

11. Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

An introvert. But an introvert that generally appears extroverted, because she isn't shy.
A word in defense of introverts worldwide: introvert does not mean shy. Introvert means that I don't mind going a day without seeing people. Or even a week, most likely. Socializing is not what drives me, like it drives extroverts. I can be social, but it requires a bit of preparation beforehand.

Questions for My Nominees:

1. If you could meet any author - dead or alive - for dinner, who would it be, and why?
2. What is your most prized possession?
3. How many books do you read at once (on average)? If you read more than one - do you have a special way of managing it?
4. What is your least favorite book and why?
5. What book(s) are you reading right now? How do you like it (them) so far?
6. What is your least favorite literary cliche?
7. If your house was about to burn down in a fire, which five books would you grab immediately (assuming you had time to do so)?
8. If you could take a vacation in any fictional world, where would you go?
9. If you could have one fictional character as your best friend, who would it be?
10. What book completely changed your life?
11. Do you prefer writing with a pen or a pencil? Why?

YAY! Off to go nominate awesome people!

~Sophia

UPDATE: I will be linking up to the various blogs that I nominate as I nominate them. Go check them out! Remember, this list is incomplete as yet (I'll be notifying a few more nominees over the next few days or so), so feel free to check back to this post to see whom else I picked!

My Nominees So Far!
Kayla at The Thousand Lives
Elyssa at Unscripted 
Lauren at Books, Tea, and Me
Mitchii at Aeropapers
Ruth at A Great Book Study

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Bucket List

As always, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.
Today's topic is Top Ten Things on My Bookish/Blogging Bucket List. (Some of these are more like resolutions, rather than bucket list to-dos. Oh well.)

1. Get a Twitter account for my blog. This will happen soon, don't worry!

2. Read all the Harry Potter books in one grand marathon! ...planned for this summer...

3. Give more books as gifts. I don't know why I don't give more literary gifts - this goes against my inner being.

4. Actually MAKE a TBR list. As of right now, it is only a jumbled list in my head. Not good! I need to sit down and write out a complete list, to make choosing my next book easier!

5. Make a Recommendation list - a list of my absolute favorite books, with bullet points about why. Then, if someone needs a good recommendation, I can look over my list, and think about which book would be right for them.

6. Have my own library. Right now, I share bookshelves with the rest of my family. They are not very organized, and have lots of textbooks that aren't being used anymore. When I get my own house, I'm going to devote one room to huge oak bookshelves...

7. Meet an author! I have never met an author of a book that I have read. This is probably due to the fact that I read mostly classics and am only recently branching out into more contemporary areas of literature. But now that I am reading more books written in the last couple years, there is a higher possibility of my actually meeting the author.

8. Publish a book. aka, become an author myself... :-P
Well, I suppose I AM an author already - just an unpublished one. So become a professional author, would be a better way of putting it.

9. Go to the library and get ALL THE BOOKS that happen to catch my eye or my fancy. ALL OF THEM. And then READ THEM ALL one after the other.

And, last but not least...
10. Read all the books on my Classics Club list. Which will hopefully happen somewhere within the next four and a half years.

The Divergent Movie

I saw the Divergent movie last night. I'd compare it to the book, but for some reason the book is a bit of a blur for me, so here goes...

It was a decent movie, which is what you can expect from a decent book. Nothing spectacular, but neither was the book. Very entertaining for the moment I was watching it, but probably not going to stay in my mind for very long. Considering the book was the same way, I'd say the movie lived up to the book excellently. You may remember my review on Divergent a bunch of months ago - I mentioned that the book fell into the Good category, but not quite Excellent, which is reserved for books like Les Miserables and LOTR.

I thought again about this whole Faction business. It's a bit illogical to think that anyone would be anything BUT Divergent, isn't it? Shouldn't the non-Divergents be the rare ones? I don't think that there are many people who are well enough defined as one Faction. I know I'd probably be Divergent: a combo of Abnegation and Erudite, and maybe a tad bit Amity. My sister would probably be Erudite and Dauntless. My mom would be Abnegation, Candor, and Amity. NO ONE is perfectly defined. Everyone seems to think that this Faction thing is a perfect system - it's not, it's terribly flawed, and not just because Erudite went bad.

I suppose it makes sense that Erudite would be the ones to go bad - knowledge is power, and a thirst for knowledge could lead to a thirst for power, in certain individuals. And Dauntless going bad also makes sense - the concept of bravery could be convoluted to meaning taking mindless risks and harming yourself or others just because you don't want to be seen as "cowardly." I feel that this twisting of the idea of being brave isn't focused on enough in the movie. It needs to be emphasized - Four stands up for the IDEAL of an honorable, chivalrous, truly brave Dauntless faction; and Eric, his rival, is the personification of the twisted concept of bravery, which isn't true bravery at all, just bullying, which is a form of cowardice. This is an IMPORTANT MESSAGE. You don't have to be careless to be brave.

One thing I LOVED about the movie (which I'm sure the tween girls sitting a few rows down from us didn't) was that they underplayed the romance between Four and Tris. One kiss (very passionate, mind you) was all. And a lot of comfort-hugging. But comfort-hugging just comes with post-apocalyptic battles.
In the book, it seemed like Four and Tris kissed to eliminate their troubles - oh, I'm confused, and worried, and scared for my life? Let's kiss passionately on your bed. That'll make us feel better. But here, their relationship seemed secondary to more urgent matters... like survival and all that.

Oh, and talking about those tween girls a few rows down - they literally screamed and clapped when Tris and Four kissed. Like "WOO WOO WOO" and all that. Gosh. One of them was also curled up sobbing near the end when everyone was dying - which I forgive her for, because I also shed a few tears... that's just what emotional deaths in movies do to me, especially if other characters on screen are crying as well.

I AM looking forward to Insurgent, though that book is slightly even more of a blur for me than this one was (seriously, I can barely remember what happened. I think it needs a reread). I also have Allegiant on hold at the library, but I'm somewhere around number 12 on the hold list, so that might not happen for a while.

~Sophia

Did you see Divergent? What did you think? If not - are you going to go see it?

The Bible Project: Week 12 (Judges)

Well! Judges is one big book. Big, not in the sense that there are many chapters, but big in that there is so much going on!

Ultimately, the book of Judges tells the history of the twelve "judges" (or, war leaders) of Israel. Though the deeds of half these judges are only skimmed over, the other half have very detailed narratives. We have the extremely interesting (and somewhat funny) escapade of left-handed Ehud to kill Eglon, the fat king of Moab. There's the one woman judge, the prophetess Deborah, who helped the warrior Barak overcome Jabin's army. Gideon, along with having an awesome name, is an excellent war leader who, with God's help, takes over so many lands and has his revenge on those who killed his brothers. And everyone knows the story of Sampson and Delilah.

The storytelling here is at it's finest. It's not always just "they gathered up their armies and, with the help of the Lord, defeated their enemies," (though that still comes up very often). For some reason, I really enjoyed the story of Ehud (Jud 3:15-30) - it was something new and had a kind of personality to it.
The story of Sampson and Delilah is of course also wonderful. I just wonder - Delilah asked Sampson THREE TIMES what his secret was, and he lied to her THREE TIMES, and THREE TIMES the Philistenes tried to weaken him using what Delilah told him, and THREE TIMES Sampson broke free. Why the heck did he tell Delilah his real secret the fourth time? Don't you think he would have caught on by then? He seems like a guy who is physically strong but not exactly the smartest.

After the history of the Judges, the book ends with a story of the the Levite from Ephraim, and his concubine. This is a strange story, tagged on at the end, about the reasons for 11 of the tribes of Israel banding up against the Benjaminites because of what the perverts in Gibeah did to the concubine and her husband. I'm not really sure what to say about this narrative... It's really weird and slightly gruesome. Uh...

Well, the book of Judges was definitely an enjoyable read (most of it, at least), though a bit "all over the place."

I'm looking forward to the nice, short book of Ruth!

~Sophia