18.June. 2007 [+ Reading Responses]
1. I like walking. Not running. 1) Because it gets me outside. 2) I like the motions of my body. Walking seems a lot more fluid than running. (As the L.L. Bean lady pointed out things jiggle)
2. An Abridgement of The Secret Doctrine (H.P. Blavatsky). It was required reading last semester but I wanted to take time to really read it. In an overall sense I understood what she was saying. Sorta the basic different stages of human spirituality/evolution and all that Atlantis werid stuff. I got her general points. The particulars were difficult. I could understand broadly what she was writing but looking at the individual particular sentence and what it meant was hard. I guess I didn't understand all the meaning of all the words but I got the gist of it.
Werid. Very werid book. Interesting, not my thing but I'm glad I read it to expand my mind.
Also, I found parts of it could be used to support racial superiority. There's this cycle of Spirit and Matter with humans gaining increasing more matter until there is a balance and then starts in reverse (increasingly spirit).
"We are only in the Fourth Round, and it is in the Fifth that the full development of Manas, as a direct ray from the Universal MAHAT--a ray unimpeded by Matter--will finally be reached. Our race then has, as a Root-race, crossed the equatorial line and is cycling onward on the Spiritual side; but some of our sub-races still find themselves on the shadowy descending arc of their respective national cycles; while others again--the oldest--having crossed their crucial point, which alone decides whether a race, a nation, or a tribe will live or perish, are at the apex of spiritual development as sub-races." (220-1)
In fact I read about Blavatsky in reference to Nazi's in Tibet. It's the first time I've been so aware of the...ramifications of what was being written. Of the inherent biases within the author. Or at least how a biased person could interpret them. Maybe it means I'm becoming more "critical" (seeing more) in reading.
3. The Aeneid (Virgil). This was surprising good. Very, very good. I thought it was some Roman knock off of The Odyssey (and The Iliad) but it is a good work of art in its own right. Sure there are LOTS of similarities to Homer's work but it's still its own piece. Mostly I think Virgil was a really good writer (or at least this translation made him one--that's right I didn't read this in Latin. I should be able to if I kept up my studies >.>) Virgil would use just great phrases, mostly ones derived from nature which created a very clear image in my head (which I love). The war scenes are nasty, icky, and violent which is good since he presents war as it really is (according to the intro).
It's also fun to think about the political motivations behind the poem. To create legitimacy to Augustus (Octavian) rule. Virgil would throw it things, subtle and not so subtle (in the Underworld Aeneas' father tells him all about all the great deeds of his descendents--the Romans in particular the Julian clan). The poem also serves as a justification of conquest. It is the divine will of Jupiter that the Romans will build this great empire. Fascinating...
And there's Dido a fascinating character. She seemed so strong and sure but then she goes crazy with love and Aeneas leaving and all that. Lots of emotion through out the poem, too.
I recommend this immensely.