Week 14 Lab

Man it's been a wild ride this whole semester. I am adding one more story to my storybook before I go though! I will end it with Patrick reaching his home. I'm going to reread Fagles's version of Odysseus's encounter with his father and skip a few scenes to when he cleans out the suitors from his house. The story will be the end of the 'nostos' journey and will focus on how he achieves that in 3 distinct scenes: The scene with his nurse who recognized Patrick's scar, the scene with his father who was crying and beat himself up, and the scene with his wife as they recognized and tested him over the source of the tree bed!

Bibliography:
The Odyssey translated by Robert Fagles

the nurse recognizes and realizes it is Odysseus

Reading Notes Week 14: Part B

That ending is terrible! Southpark totally ripped an episode from the Decameron unit where the lady ate her lover's heart! In some ways, these stories have an interesting contrapasso or maybe that's the wrong word to describe it, but there is a nice twist for the mora crimes that the characters permit. The stories are both funny and tragic at the same time. I think this is achieved because it mixes in an element of surprise with humor so you never expect what is happening. And then once you start to suspect it, and your beliefs confirmed, it makes it even worse. These Decameron stories are hilarious.

Bibliography: The Decameron by Boccaccio, translated by J. M. Rigg (1903)

Lady eats Guillaume de Cabestaing's heart

Reading Notes: Week 14 Decameron Part A

The stories in the Decameron remind me of Aesop's fables. Most of the tales told in these formats have some type of moral message to it and is neat seeing how this one blends Catholic religious morals and fables. The language in these stories is very catholic, specifically the story about Ferondo and he's going to Purgatory. The only other reading of purgatory that I've ever read was Dante's Purgatorio. Nonetheless, I am glad I chose the Decameron because the tales are interesting and funny.

Bibliography: The Decameron by Boccaccio, translated by J. M. Rigg (1903).

Ferondo cuckolded by his wife and the Abbot

Week 13 Story: Patrick and the brothers

Running swiftly from the woods I ran to town to inform everybody of our treasure!

"Boy, we will be rich now! I no longer have to toil and slave away my life for a living!" I thought.

I ran past a tree and tripped and fell flat on my face.

"Oh, stupid me! I always fall for things like this!" I said as I got up.

Then it clicked, what if I somehow could trick my brothers into giving me the rest of their gold? I mean, after all, I was the smartest one of the bunch. I graduated from Starfish University in Bikini Bottom and almost had a five-star GPA.

As I went into town, I was greeted by fellow pedestrians.

"Sir Patrick! You've arrived! We have been waiting for you! Where are your brothers? Are they not to be seen anywhere?" they said.

"Hey everyone, yeah my brothers are right behind me, I just forgot some wine for our picnic! Also, I've been feeling kind of sick, do you know if the apothecary is open today?" I asked.

"Yes, Dr. Strange is in his office right now, swing on by whenever, he is such a nice man!" they said.

After grabbing a few bottles of wine from the house, I swung by the apothecary's house.

"Dr. Strange! How are you? Listen, so I've had this problem lately in my backyard with some vipers? They're really sneaky and I think they might be up to something. They're pretty gullible though, do you happen to have any poison I could mix in some food and give to them?" I said.

But Dr. Strange looked at me strangely.

"Patrick, this is a medicine house not a game place. You will have to go somewhere else for your poison." he said.

"But Dr. Strange, I need it today! The vipers might be gone the next day! And everyone said you were the best Doctor in town and always willing to help! Please won't you help me find a way to get rid of them!" I harked back.

"Okay, here are some pain medication. It is extremely lethal at high dosages. Also, it tastes just like wine! Try mixing This into some wine and leave it out for the snakes. Perhaps they will drink from it." He said.

"Perfect, I will do that! I promise when I come back I will pay you a hundredfold!" I said as I ran out the door.

Grabbing my bottles of wine, I quickly mixed the pain medication with the wine and left one clean.

As I was running back to my base, I was ambushed by my two other brothers, and they clubbed me to death. It turns out, they also had the genius plan of splitting the gold amongst themselves. However, after my murder, they celebrated with the wine.

"Gosh Spongebob, this wine is super wine tasting!" said Squidward.

They both died.

alphabet soup scene from spongebob

Author's notes: I focused on the reveler's tales within the Canterbury tales unit. I thought it was cool how the brothers plotted to kill each other and in the end, they all died. I chose to focus on the dialogue of the younger brother and the quick-changing mindset of how he can go from living a more comfortable life to straight-up greedy. I replaced the brothers with Patrick, Squidward, and Spongebob, and the apothecary with Dr. Strange.
The new moral of the story is money can change a person for the worst.

Bibliography:

The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan

Reading Notes Week 13: Canterburry tales Part A

The Canterbury Tales unit blew me away. I've never read any of these stories until now and they remind me of Aesop's fable a little. Although a lot of the stories contain tricksters, most of the stories seem to also have a moral message to them. Specifically, the stories about the Reveler's stood out to me and the guide notes on tops help form a conclusion a head of time that the brothers would kill eachother in search of death. That was probably the most fascinating. On the flip side, there were also stories that I thought ended very abruptly, but that's fine too. The theme of death and desire also seem to loom in these stories pretty often which probably connotes to a cardinal vice of lust during these times.

The older brother plotting to kill the young one

Bibliography: The Chaucer Story Book by Eva March Tappan (1908).

week 12 lab

I did some research on Odysseus trip into the underworld. There he met Tiresius and Achilles. My next storybook addition will include Odysseus's encounter with Achilles. The reason why this ties in well with nostos is because Achilles, unlike Odysseus, chose Kleos as his theme. The thought to be forever remembered in the books, despite losing his life, was his virtue. However, upon meeting Odysseus, all Achilles could say was basically if he could do it all over again, he would have chosen a regular life and lived instead of only being remembered and dead. The theme relates very well with Nostos as Achilles is the antithesis of this. Unlike Odysseus who will eventually have his reunion, Achilles will never experience that again.

Achilles

Bibliography:
The Odyssey Robert Fagles

Reading Notes: Part B Beowulf

This week I reread some of Beowulf! I am continually amazed to think that these stories did not have an original author that we know about. I specifically focused on the way that they portrayed evil in the world this time. It is pretty amazing how the town hall that everyone goes to for drinking and community is also the only place of civilization in the world of Beowulf. Pretty much everything outside is darkness and in some sense, Beowulf's choosing to fight Grendel, Grendel's mom, and the dragon are telling in a way that we need someone or possibly God to keep the evils away from civilization.



Bibliography: The Story of Beowulf by Strafford Riggs with illustrations by Henry Pitz (1933).

Week 11 story: Patrick's Marriage

And Patrick went out and married a manta ray.

"Now that we're married, I can practice my shape-shifting skills!" said Patrick as he looked at his best man.

And with the ceremony done, the only thing left to do was go home.

"Patrick, it's time to go. Take your beloved wife with you and come," said Manta Ray.

Patrick changed into the Manta Ray and followed the school. At first, things were going well, and he had no problems. However, after a couple of hours, Patrick's fins started to tire out. And then he started to lag. Manta Ray looked back and told the rest of the school to slow down.

"What's wrong Patrick? Why are you so slow? This is the regular trek for our species." said Manta

"Oh I know, it's just that I have had a hook in my heart ever since the war," said Patrick as he flapped his fins harder.

His wife, Manti Reyes, looked at Patrick's chest and could find no puncture wound.

"Strange. He says he got wounded in his heart, but yet I see no wound?" she whispered to her sister, a corporal in the manta ray legion.

Patrick once again got tired and started slowing down. This time, however, Manta did not notice him at all and kept flying. After a few hours, the legion looked back and Patrick could not be seen.

"We'll wait here," said Manta ray.

And the legion of manta rays waited for hours. The hours turned into days. and the days turned into a week.

"We have been waiting here for over a day! Where is my husband?" cried Manti Reyes.

"Perhaps he got attacked by an octopus! We must find him at once!" yelled Manti's sister.

"Silence! If Patrick is truly to become part of our legion, he must make this trek himself, free from assistance," said Manta Ray.

A couple of minutes later, Patrick came flapping towards them, saying,

"Guys! Sorry I was late! but look what I found!"

Out of his pocket, he pulled out a cool rock.

"What the hell! We waited for a whole week and you were out there looking for a rock? That's it! I've had it with you! I want a divorce!" yelled Manti Reyes.

And with that, the divorce was settled then and there. Patrick would gain half the legions as was the law at the time, the wife must pay husband support, and Patrick flapped away down to bikini bottom with his rock.



Bibliography: Myths and Legends of Alaska, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).

Author's notes:
The story is an adaption of Raven's marriage to the geese. In the story, Raven, our shape-shifting protagonist, marries a geese. They end up flying somewhere and for a really long time. Raven eventually gets tired out and slows down and stops a couple of times. Eventually, he even tells the geese that the reason for his slowing down is because of an injury to the heart awhile back during the war. However, the geese saw no evidence of this.
Raven was in some sense a trickster. he did shapeshifted his way into the ranks of the geese, and then possibly lied about his injuries.

For my story, I replaced raven and the geese with Patrick and manta rays. However, I added a twist,. Patrick stopped because he found a cool rock. And that's how Patrick found his home in spongebob squarepants.