Ottoman
There was a lot of pride in being loyal to the state. This is why I was most interested about the exemption of the peasant families in the system. This could be a way to prevent poverty, but sending children away to be converted to a different religion and becoming slaves is too immoral for me. I wonder , did this idea to unintentionally not harm , but to serve the state, turn into an influence to raise young boys to become killing soldiers in countries like Congo today? I felt that Hurrem Sultan was an important part of this passage. Her and her husband set up a great influence of companionship for the public to look upon to. This change of history was also helping other women feel like an necessary piece to this society. The idea of being faithful to one woman seemed like a taking a huge step into the future since their was a culture during and before this time to have multiple wives and lovers.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Dante
With all the hatred spoken about Muslims and their Islamic faith, the Christians back then were not being very Christian. Over the years I think Christian views have improved by being more open minded and forgiving. Even if the Christians back then thought the Islamic was of like was barbaric, they should of made the effort of at least just leaving the Muslims live their own life instead of targeting their anger and violence towards them. The Christians were pretty much creating their own sins, making their nasty views on the Islamic religion known. I thought that the passage "the more extreme Christians moved north and the remaining Christians coexisted peacefully with their Muslim neighbors", was kind of funny because, it just seems like if you were an extreme christian you would be more forgiving and offer everything you have, trying to kindly convert the Muslims to their way of living , but in this case it means more hatred to those who are not Christian.
With all the hatred spoken about Muslims and their Islamic faith, the Christians back then were not being very Christian. Over the years I think Christian views have improved by being more open minded and forgiving. Even if the Christians back then thought the Islamic was of like was barbaric, they should of made the effort of at least just leaving the Muslims live their own life instead of targeting their anger and violence towards them. The Christians were pretty much creating their own sins, making their nasty views on the Islamic religion known. I thought that the passage "the more extreme Christians moved north and the remaining Christians coexisted peacefully with their Muslim neighbors", was kind of funny because, it just seems like if you were an extreme christian you would be more forgiving and offer everything you have, trying to kindly convert the Muslims to their way of living , but in this case it means more hatred to those who are not Christian.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Decameron Day 2
Whether you see it is as a lack of trust or a test of faithfulness,the "Tenth Story of the Tenth Day" definitely went to the extreme when Gualtieri was testing his wife's honesty and unconditional love for him. From God and Abraham, to Odysseus and Penelope, these souls seem to put in a lot of effort to what they morally believe when it comes to trust and love. I saw Gualtieri's test was like some sort of sick game. His empowerment over women was an outrage to me, because if Griselda ever stood up for herself and her children , she would be shunned by her own husband, not having any sort of women's right at all. And what would happen if Griselda did not accept to support Gualtieri's to his own daughter? Would Gualtieri go through with marrying her?
All the women seemed to suffer in all these stories. Even though the nuns and the Abbess had their way with Masetto at first, in the end Masetto ended up being successfully wealthy and got what he wanted, leaving the nuns and Abbess unsatisfied. In the "Eighth story of the Seventh Day" the widow is also left miserable in the end because of her actions in the beginning. Just like the poems and stories we have read in class, Rieneri was willing to wait and do anything for the widow, because love makes you go mad. He also went mad with revenge, using manipulation on the widow for being manipulated by her. Just the the mountain girls and the priest, they tried to fool each other to get what they want. It's like a game of karma.
Whether you see it is as a lack of trust or a test of faithfulness,the "Tenth Story of the Tenth Day" definitely went to the extreme when Gualtieri was testing his wife's honesty and unconditional love for him. From God and Abraham, to Odysseus and Penelope, these souls seem to put in a lot of effort to what they morally believe when it comes to trust and love. I saw Gualtieri's test was like some sort of sick game. His empowerment over women was an outrage to me, because if Griselda ever stood up for herself and her children , she would be shunned by her own husband, not having any sort of women's right at all. And what would happen if Griselda did not accept to support Gualtieri's to his own daughter? Would Gualtieri go through with marrying her?
All the women seemed to suffer in all these stories. Even though the nuns and the Abbess had their way with Masetto at first, in the end Masetto ended up being successfully wealthy and got what he wanted, leaving the nuns and Abbess unsatisfied. In the "Eighth story of the Seventh Day" the widow is also left miserable in the end because of her actions in the beginning. Just like the poems and stories we have read in class, Rieneri was willing to wait and do anything for the widow, because love makes you go mad. He also went mad with revenge, using manipulation on the widow for being manipulated by her. Just the the mountain girls and the priest, they tried to fool each other to get what they want. It's like a game of karma.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
From reading the Decameron, I would like to focus on how religion is used for a mask, only revealing what people want to see and covering whatever may be sinful. Sir Ciapelletto does almost anything and everything to displease God and those around him.He even has the guts to fool a holy man, the Friar. Sir Ciapelletto made one confession after the other, making it sound like he was just making innocent mistakes, but in truth Sir Ciapelletto's sins are made with every intention for his entertainment and survival.And after hearing all the confessions, the Friar admitted that even the holiest men do wrong. I thought back to the other stories where priests and monks would go out and enjoy drinking and sex, but then still try to enforce God's rules on others. Everyone is a hypocrite. I think this story also proves that God is true to his word, about forgiveness. With all the awful stunts Sir Ciappelletto pulled, he still confessed and made the "effort." And since he did take the time to ask, God took the time to forgive. Some people will never understand this concept,like those who thought that Ciappelletto he ended up in hell rather than in Heaven. I believe there always has to be at least someone out there who unconditionally save you, because it gives people hope, if they decide to change their ways.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Book of <3 #2
After reading the first two poems of the mountain girls for the first time, I believed the arch priest was talking about the same girl. The second poem, the arch priest seems to create a story for entertainment of his own experience with his acquaintanceship with the mountain girl in the first poem. I saw the second one as a story for entertainment because he would insult her looks, emphasized details that were not mentioned before, and then adding his sexual fantasy at the end. I believe these women represent reality over fantasy. Imagine if these mountain girls were absolutely beautiful, would they then receive the gifts they were promised? Would the arch priest hesitate for one second to give them what they desire? I feel like these ladies really need guidance and those who won't give them the time of day are ignorant. Sometimes we over see who in this world really needs us, because we are only looking toward our goal of riches or our own success, rather than helping those who could help us.
It was difficult to tell if the non-living things had human characteristics , or if the human beings were the ones given animal and other object characteristics. Which ever one it is, the names were symbolic , and instead of representing one, the names were representing a whole group of people . In my opinion I believe Carnal were the non-religious people who lived in great sin, being lustful and glutton. I think Lent represented the Catholics, who tried to do good and follow God's rules and ways.
After reading the first two poems of the mountain girls for the first time, I believed the arch priest was talking about the same girl. The second poem, the arch priest seems to create a story for entertainment of his own experience with his acquaintanceship with the mountain girl in the first poem. I saw the second one as a story for entertainment because he would insult her looks, emphasized details that were not mentioned before, and then adding his sexual fantasy at the end. I believe these women represent reality over fantasy. Imagine if these mountain girls were absolutely beautiful, would they then receive the gifts they were promised? Would the arch priest hesitate for one second to give them what they desire? I feel like these ladies really need guidance and those who won't give them the time of day are ignorant. Sometimes we over see who in this world really needs us, because we are only looking toward our goal of riches or our own success, rather than helping those who could help us.
It was difficult to tell if the non-living things had human characteristics , or if the human beings were the ones given animal and other object characteristics. Which ever one it is, the names were symbolic , and instead of representing one, the names were representing a whole group of people . In my opinion I believe Carnal were the non-religious people who lived in great sin, being lustful and glutton. I think Lent represented the Catholics, who tried to do good and follow God's rules and ways.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Book of <3 #1
The prologue in verse is filled with reasons why God deserves the highest respect and why he should be feared by everyone. Many of these reasons is because he has freed those who were in helpless, from the slaves in Egypt to Jonah and the whale. Since he has the power to free people from trouble, he will free our souls from evil if we choose to follow God.These reasons were proof for people who needed to understand God's saving power. In the prose version of the prologue, it seems to me that people were mentally unstable if they could not understand God's ways and the consequences of sin. But some people are not feared by God because they are disabled, but because they were either not strongly educated about God's saving ways,or just lack faith in him because they are in need of evidence of his good deeds. And since we all lose faith once in awhile it is we all have a "defective memory", said by the reading. Because of our inability to retain what we should and shouldn't do, we have paintings and sculptures to remind us of God's wishes. It is implied that life is naturally filled with more evil, causing a human being to naturally sin. This makes me see life is a game; the goal is to have a pure life and live in heaven with God forever once you reach death, but in order to do that, you must defeat evil's challenge by choosing not to sin.
The prologue in verse is filled with reasons why God deserves the highest respect and why he should be feared by everyone. Many of these reasons is because he has freed those who were in helpless, from the slaves in Egypt to Jonah and the whale. Since he has the power to free people from trouble, he will free our souls from evil if we choose to follow God.These reasons were proof for people who needed to understand God's saving power. In the prose version of the prologue, it seems to me that people were mentally unstable if they could not understand God's ways and the consequences of sin. But some people are not feared by God because they are disabled, but because they were either not strongly educated about God's saving ways,or just lack faith in him because they are in need of evidence of his good deeds. And since we all lose faith once in awhile it is we all have a "defective memory", said by the reading. Because of our inability to retain what we should and shouldn't do, we have paintings and sculptures to remind us of God's wishes. It is implied that life is naturally filled with more evil, causing a human being to naturally sin. This makes me see life is a game; the goal is to have a pure life and live in heaven with God forever once you reach death, but in order to do that, you must defeat evil's challenge by choosing not to sin.
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Holy Mary
5
Whoa, whoa , whoa, where are the woman's rights in this son? I see a continuous theme of sexism in this as the empress repeatedly suffers abuse from demoralized men . She tries her best to obey he husband as well as trying to save a faithful relationship with him by denying to commit adulatory with the emperor's brother. Yet, it is the brother who is listened to by the emperor. In this song many men were attracted to her and couldn't handle rejection, so unlike the poems we read prior to this song where the men just grieve over the love they can't have, they use violence against the woman. From rape to false murder, the woman suffers for no reason other than she looks beautiful, which she really has no control over. Today in the media whether it is politics to the red carpet, the woman always has an image that is either used to her advantage or is used against her. I think what is trying to be said in this poem other than the Holy Mary will never fail to serve and protect you, is that a woman who is pure and honest like the Virgin Mary shall receive what she deserves if she has faith and trust in Holy Mary, the mother of God. ( at least in the final outcome of the situation.)
11
In this song , the Monk who committed sins was seen as an unfortunate man, rather than a bad human being for what he did. But why? Is it because if you work for God ( as in a monk or nun) , you will be saved , no matter what the ungodly situation is? Or was this to explain the fact that even godly men make mistakes, and the Holy Mary, mother of God will save those who are weak. This song implies that even as a man coveted by sin, is given a chance to be saved as well, because if Mary only saved those who did good, the people who suffer from sin will never learn their lesson. I think the monk drowning in the river was meant to happen so he can be acquainted with the devil and be saved so he can become fearful to not make wrong decisions anymore.
The songs represent deep respect for Mary to prove she is a powerful figure that can save you.
5
Whoa, whoa , whoa, where are the woman's rights in this son? I see a continuous theme of sexism in this as the empress repeatedly suffers abuse from demoralized men . She tries her best to obey he husband as well as trying to save a faithful relationship with him by denying to commit adulatory with the emperor's brother. Yet, it is the brother who is listened to by the emperor. In this song many men were attracted to her and couldn't handle rejection, so unlike the poems we read prior to this song where the men just grieve over the love they can't have, they use violence against the woman. From rape to false murder, the woman suffers for no reason other than she looks beautiful, which she really has no control over. Today in the media whether it is politics to the red carpet, the woman always has an image that is either used to her advantage or is used against her. I think what is trying to be said in this poem other than the Holy Mary will never fail to serve and protect you, is that a woman who is pure and honest like the Virgin Mary shall receive what she deserves if she has faith and trust in Holy Mary, the mother of God. ( at least in the final outcome of the situation.)
11
In this song , the Monk who committed sins was seen as an unfortunate man, rather than a bad human being for what he did. But why? Is it because if you work for God ( as in a monk or nun) , you will be saved , no matter what the ungodly situation is? Or was this to explain the fact that even godly men make mistakes, and the Holy Mary, mother of God will save those who are weak. This song implies that even as a man coveted by sin, is given a chance to be saved as well, because if Mary only saved those who did good, the people who suffer from sin will never learn their lesson. I think the monk drowning in the river was meant to happen so he can be acquainted with the devil and be saved so he can become fearful to not make wrong decisions anymore.
The songs represent deep respect for Mary to prove she is a powerful figure that can save you.
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