The Flame Alphabet

I am writing about the whole first chapter in general for a couple reasons. The first reason is that the first chapter is so descriptive in the context that you can picture what is going on in the text without really knowing the epidemic that is going on. The first chapter makes you want to read more into the text to find out what is happening and it gets you into the text right away. The second reason I chose to write about the first chapter is that it reminds me of The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The Road was an amazing book and the beginnings are very similar and that entices me to read more.

Ragnarok

'I know that I hung on a windy tree

nine long nights

Wounded with a spear dedicated to

Odin

Myself to myself, on that tree of which 

no man knows

From where its roots run.

No bread did they give me nor drink 

from a horn,

Downwards I peered;

I too up the runes, screaming I took

them

Then I feel back from there.

Nine mighty spells I learned. . . 

Although this is a relatively short passage, I found much relevance in it. From my understanding it is describing the torture that the God Odin went through which in turn strengthened him. While reading about Asgard, I saw a connection between Odin and what the Christian faith would call a demon. There was no surprise that later on in the text he was described as the God of Death and Battle, which I find ironic in itself. In the text it is mentioned that Odin accepts human sacrifices in a pretty gruesome way, and that is obviously where he got some of the ideas from. 

Quran Readings

Throughout the entire text I felt like I could have been reading the Old Testament in a King James Version of the bible. Being unfamiliar with the Quran and not having read a bible, besides the readings for class, in so long made them seem very related. I found them related as in content and in language. For example, in the readings assigned, one of the interpretations of the Quran brought up Jesus as being the son of Mary and also a prophet. Although the old testament does not mention Jesus, the new testament is all about Jesus and his story. As for the different translations of the text, I did not find them very different at all. Most of the time they interpreted the text pretty similarly but used  different selection of words.

Apocalyptic Books

Growing up in the Christian faith I was aware that the book of Revelation was apocalyptic literature and that it is a prophecy about how the world would come to an end. However, what I did not know was the apocalyptic features of the book of Daniel. When you analyze the two books you will find similarities between the two. One similarity were the beasts that the two prophets saw when they had their visions. They both spoke of the leopard, bear, and lion. Another thing that appeared in both books was the son of man appearing on a cloud. The book of revelation and the book of Daniel seem to be the same book just written by a different person.

Babel

After reading Babel, my first response was that God was punishing the people for attempting to be on his level. Another side of me believed that God was afraid of the people so he scattered them around the world. The second one is least likely to be the reason. I find it interesting that this seems to be the way that language has spread throughout the world. During the reading I was questioning the motive for separating this group of people. After reading this, I gained a clearer explanation of the word "babble" and I'm assuming this is where the term comes from. Overall the text was very short but interesting to think that early civilizations believed they could reach the heavens.

The Epic of Gilgamesh

Shortly after starting the video of the Epic of Gilgamesh, I could tell that this would be an interesting story. Starting off with the fact that he was 2/3 divine and 1/3 human. That fun fact sparked interest in me. Then one of the commentators said that he pictured him to be around 8 or 9 feet. That made me wonder, how would someone who is 2/3 a God and 1/3 human appear. Would he be invincible, is he similar to a modern day superman and has a weakness? Then it really got interesting when they said that basically a clone of Gilgamesh was sent down, from what I understood as the Heavens. They then come across each other and have a battle that lasted 40 days and 40 nights. If I was to meet my clone, I would have definitely handled that situation a little differently. But after the reasoning behind the fight and the story of Enkidu and him having sex, I realized that this epic has some very valuable lessons. One being that a person needs to humble their self and the other lesson being that a man is nothing but a wild animal without a woman.

Religulous Response

In Bill Maher's documentary Religulous, he makes it more than obvious that he against religion in all ways, shapes, and forms. Throughout the whole documentary he continued to discredit and talk down on religion and the followers of the religion. If the idea of the video was to point out the flaws in each religion, then I believe that he could have done this in an entirely different way. I also found this video to be quite ironic. Throughout the documentary, he says that everyone feels that they are right and in fact are wrong. But in fact, he is very arrogant and seems confident that his beliefs are right. What makes Bill Maher, a comedian, be the all knowing man for religion.

Y: The Last Man

After reading Y: The Last Man, it left me feeling unsatisfied. Although I was unsatisfied with the way it ended it definitely captured my attention and was hands down my favorite reading thus far. Unlike many of the other readings I wanted to read more when the selection was finished. I am really curious as to what happens to the world as a whole with Yorick being the only known man left on the planet. I was really into the reading to say the least. However, I still do not see where some of the characters fit into the whole story. It is as if they were introduced near the beginning and then forgot about. I really enjoy movies and fictional topics that deal with the White House or some sort of rebel group. In this case both were main topics in the plot. I am really curious to see how Hero and Yorick react when they see each other, because I KNOW it is going to happen. I will probably search for the rest of the series online.

Shock Doctrine Response

    After reading the Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein, I realized some really valid points that she brought up. In this book, the topic of "shock" is introduced and discussed throughout the text. She mentions that the government uses tragedies as a way to do things that they wanted to do. While reading this I was quite bothered about how some people looked at these disasters. Saying that "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did" is very insensitive to say. It is taking the end of many lives and the destruction of homes and turning it into a positive thing. I understand that it is positive to look at the glass "half full" but I think that making their lives better should be the main priority, but not trying to profit off of a civilizations downfall.

The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse

Before reading The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, I thought that it would be the same topic as what Zizek. However, shortly after beginning the reading I found out that they had two different views on the four horseman of the apocalypse.  While Zizek's four horsemen were ecology, economy, biology, and society and Burrough's four horsemen are famine, plague, war, and death. These two different ideas may at first seem very unrelated, but after careful thought, I found them to be very related in their own way. Burrough's four horsemen of the apocalypse refers back to the four horsemen that were brought up in the book of Revelation in the bible. However, I think that Burrough's views on it differ from that of the bible and has a more modern appeal to it.

Zizek Response

While reading and watching the video, I found myself having to re read parts of the text and re watch parts of the video. Trying to fully grasp the idea that Zizek was discuss was a difficult task for me. One thing I like about Zizek is that he is a different type of thinker. He talks about topics in ways that they are not usually discussed. He brings up the way that an average person would perceive nature. He mentions that we know that catastrophes can happen, but generally think that they won't happen. know this is true, in my case. I cannot imagine a life changing event happening in Michigan, not in a million years. Another thing I received from Zizek was his way of looking at catastrophes. He mentions that it is better to look at these events as a punishment from God and not as some random occurrence. The last thing I want to comment on was his ability to make seemingly unrelated ideas come together for a great comparison or analogy. 

Response to The End by Chad Harbach.

In this issue, Chad Harbach gives his rendition or summaries of a few popular post apocalyptic books. I found his summary of The Road by Cormac McCarthy to be the most interesting mainly because of the fact that I have also read this book. All throughout the issue Harbach's very descriptive language could possibly be considered as unprintable or offensive, especially when he goes on to describe the futuristic Jamestown.Throughout some of the text I must admit that I was a bit confused by some of the language that he used. After reading this, I will definitely take time out to read at least one of these books.