Our National Dialogue on Terrorism

Why do they hate us?

They hate us because they are evil.

That’s it, huh? That’s the entire story?

Yes. They’re evil and they hate us because of our freedoms.

I know they’re evil. I was just thinking that maybe if we understood what specifically seemed to trigger the–

Why are you apologizing for the terrorists?

I’m not. They’re evil. You have no quarrel there. It’s just that maybe if we understoo–

Why are you on the terrorists’ side?

I’m not! I hate the terrorists. I was just saying that we might be able to prevent the next–

Three thousand Americans are dead. How can you defend al Qaeda?

Believe me, I was not defending them. What they did was horrific and inexcusable. They’re evil. I was just–

Then why are you apologizing for them?

I’m not. I’m trying to say that maybe there are lessons we can–

Why do you hate America?

-Taken from Al Franken's book Lies and the Lying Liars who tell them.

I'm just posting this in response to our discussion in class today. I won't argue that Franken is politically biased to a ginormous degree, but this makes me chuckle whenever I see it.

Poetry eludes me.

A brisk autumn morning, the perfect cure

For stress, and hardships, and hoping that life will

At last go your way, even for just one

Obscure moment, one minute of your own.

Of all the mornings grace showeth itself

On today, blissful rays of sun are shone

And though we wake not knowing, miracles

Are happening, where you’d least expect them.

- Two four line stanzas written by myself.

Honestly, I wish I had a better comprehension and capacity to write poetry. It has never and probably will never be my strong suit. I spent at least two hours hammering out eight lines of poems that will be most definitely outshined by those of my classmates.

On the bright side, of all the poems I've ever been assigned to write in high school and now in college, I feel these are probably my strongest. They adhere mostly to the rules of iambic pentameter, and not even Shakespeare follows the exact rules for EVERY line of his stuff, so I think I'm okay, even if I'm not as consistent as he is.

But I guess if I was I wouldn't be a student in college, I'd probably be living in a mansion somewhere. Oh to dream.

I suppose I should probably name my stanzas or poems or whatever you'd like to call them, but I can't think of any good names at the moment. I'll probably come back later and edit them in.

I'm looking forward to class and reading some real poetry written by all of you :) thanks for reading!

Dan

Arabian Nights

"The uniting theme between these completely different works of literature comes down to a racial intolerance that is befitting of several hundred years of slavery and ignorance. The world has not always been a blissful place for the minority, and these works illustrate a history that extends beyond a Shakespearean world, or a dreamed up set of fairy tales and proverbs, and strikes at the very core of human nature. The authors setup and use the issue of race, albeit in different ways, to further the plot and also to instigate emotion from their respective audiences." - Me, taken from my conclusion in my rough draft.

I've always wanted to quote myself. I feel so important.

I wrote on the issue of race within Othello as well as the A Thousand and One Nights piece. I went in feeling rather indifferent about the paper and my topic, but now I feel I have a better understanding for the complexity of race that's used within the stories. When I first read the works, I underestimated the importance and the relevance of the race of several characters. Now I feel I'm much more in tune with what the authors had in mind.

Then again, maybe I'm still completely clueless.

I procrastinated for the majority of this weekend, but I still managed to get this paper done at a fairly reasonable (1 AM the night before) time. I don't know why I wait so long to do things like this. I guess it's just in my nature. The first paper is always the hardest.

To be truthful, I'm really excited to be moving on to some contemporary literature here soon. I don't do nearly as well with interpretation of classic literature. I guess I can't get into it like I do some of the contemporary stuff I can relate to just a tad bit easier.

At any rate, I'm excited to finish our discussion on A Thousand and One Nights in class tomorrow. See you all then!

-Dan

A Whole New World?

Picture of Daniel Vitkus's Turning Turk

“Conversion to Islam (or Roman Catholicism) was considered a kind of sexual transgression or spiritual whoredom, and Protestantism proclaimed the same judgment – eternal damnation – for all those who were seduced by either the Pope or the Prophet.” - Page 145-6 of Daniel J. Vitkus’s Turning Turk in Othello: The Conversion and Damnation of the Moor

Hello!

I hope everyone had a really wonderful weekend, as well as getting the chance to read up on the two pieces of literature we had to delve into this weekend.

The Vitkus piece, as promised, was difficult and tough to read, but I felt it provided an extensive amount of background information on the time period we're dealing with. Prior to reading this, I thought race and religion were but small points in William Shakespeare's Othello, but now, I realize it is much more emphasized than I would have ever realized. Furthermore, location has become more apparent to me as an important factor in all of these things. Gender, well, that was something that was readily apparent from the very beginning.

I also liked the literary analysis into the 'contradictory terms' that I missed out in reading Othello the first time around. For example, I didn't understand that "The Noble Moor" was contradictory (though I did pick up "the honest whore", that one was a given.)

Overall, I really enjoyed the article, but finishing up Othello was definitely much more of an entertaining read for me.

I figured when I started reading this that everyone of any real importance was going to die. Shakespeare has the tendency to kill off anyone and everyone. I guess they don't call them Shakespearian tragedies for nothing.

I can't wait to talk about this tomorrow, but Iago is such a wonderfully awful character.

At any rate, I'll see you all in the morning, bright and early!

-Dan

Classwork: 9/12 - Cassio

Thought I'd post this on my blog just for personal reference. Patricia, Linda and I decided that these were five good adjectives that could be used to describe Cassio from Walt Shakespeare's Othello.

Dutiful – Act 2 Scene 3 Lines 4-6 : “Iago hath direction what to do / But notwithstanding with my personal eye / Will I look to ‘t.”

Persistent – Act 3 Scene 3 Lines 8-28 : “Bounteous Madam, / Whatever shall become of Michael Cassio, / He’s never anything but your true servant […] Ay, but, lady, / That policy may either last so long, / Or feed upon such nice and waterish diet, / Or breed itself so out of circumstances, / That, I being absent and my place supplied, / My general will forget my love and service.”

Flirtacious – Act 3 Scene 4 Lines 190 : “Not that I don’t love you..”

Gullible – Act 2 Scene 3 Lines 310-312 : “I think it freely, and betimes in the morning I will beseech / the virtuous Desdemona to undertake for me. I am / desperate of my fortunes if they check me.”

Honorable – Act 2 Scene 1 Lines 45-49 : “Thanks, you the valiant of this warlike isle / That so approve the Moor. Oh, let the heavens / Give him defense against the elements, / For I have lost him on a dangerous sea.

One Jump Ahead

A picture of Iago, from Walt Disney's Aladdin

"And what's he then that says I play the villain?
When this advice is free I give and honest..."
-Taken from William Shakespeare's Othello, A2S3 Lines 316-317

I've gotta tell you guys, I went and bought a copy of Othello and read three acts of it today. My favorite Shakespearian play is Hamlet, but Othello is becoming a fast favorite of mine.

People often make the connection between Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Walt Disney's The Lion King, as there are several distinct similarities between characters in both mediums, and the story is very much similar. As for reading Othello, "honest" Iago reminds me entirely of the characters Iago and Jafar from Aladdin.

But, as we all know, Iago isn't quite so honest in Othello. I'm only through the third act, but Iago has done all sorts of terrible things to both Cassio and Othello. Iago is quite possibly the most manipulative character I've ever read about in any work I've ever had the good fortune to read, and I must says his scheming reminds me very much of Jafar's attempt to overthrow the sultan in Aladdin, though I'm sure that's slightly more than coincidental.

I plan to read the rest of the story after writing this blog, and I don't want to ruin the novel for anyone who may not be where I am right now, but I will say that I'm quite excited for our discussion tomorrow, and I feel this work is much easier to understand and comprehend in its entirety in comparison to the first two pieces of literature that we've taken up in reading.

As for a link worth taking some interest in, I did some reading on Wikipedia on the Moors, as it is our connection from our focus on Middle Eastern literature to the play we're reading.

The link can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors

There's an extensive amount of reading to be done there about many aspects of what being a Moor actually means. I hope you have time to read it!

I can't wait to discuss all of this with you tomorrow and see what you all think on your blogs this evening.

Shalom!
Dan

Kingdom of Heaven

Saladin as played by Ghassan Massoud in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven

Hi English 1100 and anyone else that may be reading. Welcome to my blog! I must admit, the summer season was lengthy, and I'm not at full literary strength, but I'm happy to be back, and excited to be in an interactive English class with all of you!

After reading the assigned literature for the weekend, I'm definitely feeling a trip to Movie Hits Plus to pick up Kingdom of Heaven and watch it for the umpteenth time.

It took me a while to get used to the different styles of writing used between the Decameron work, as well as the Canterbury Tales section. I tried reading the Canterbury Tales piece in the Middle English language, but I got through about 50 lines and dropped the idea. The point that I picked up from the different readings we had was the varying interpretation of Saladin, depending on the author. Our classmate, John Novak, does a really wonderful job of describing that, and you should definitely reference his blog if you're interested in reading more about that.

As for websites regarding the Middle East prior 1400 A.D., I found a really neat map on the website for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. You can find the site here:

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hm/07/wa/hm07wa.htm

You can click on the different sections of the map to find out more information about the individual countries.

Good luck to everyone with the reading and blogging! See you all Monday!

-Dan

Edit: After taking some to think about our discussion we had last class, I've decided to make an edit to my original post, which can be read from this point forward.

I felt as though I didn't add anything too substantive to our group dialogue in Monday's class, and I want to apologize for that. I don't feel that I completely understood the reading in its entirety, and I'm sorry I could not add more to the conversation.

That being said, I'm excited about the way we run class period, in the very open fashion with which we share our ideas. It allows for good thought processes, as well as a good flow from point to point, with direction from Allen on where we should take our comments and ideas.

I eagerly await the time where we can work on more contemporary literature, because I feel I can get a better understanding of those works, it's just more up my alley, per se.

At any rate, for anyone that's reading this, feel free to read my next post on Othello. Thanks!

-Dan, again.

Hi! I'll work on this soon!