May Reads
(Mostly Greek Mythology)
"Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity. And so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we are gone and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?" - Odysseus from the movie Troy which is based on The Iliad. My favorite movie quote and it definitely fits this story and the characters.
For the month of May, I decided to again read classics. This month became an almost complete reading of Greek Mythology classics because of how they were picked out (I had my brother decide on the order that I read my classics these last couple of months). It was an interesting month of reading and I am so glad that I spent my month reading these classics. The stories are ones that I have known for most of my life and are ones that I enjoy so much. This month I read four classics: The Iliad, The Great Gatsby, The Odyssey, and Troilus and Cressida.
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This epic was so brutal and I loved how great the tale was. I have known this story my whole life. It is the tale of the battle of Troy. The Iliad is considered one of the greatest war stories of all time and I can see why. This description of it does not even begin to describe this story. It begins around nine years into the battle. The Greek (or the Achaean) forces captured many women for their war prizes. Achilles has Briseis as his war prize and Agamemnon takes Chryseis as his, which causes many problems for the Greeks. Apollo sets a plaque on the Greek camp because they took his priestess, Chryseis. After many of the men die, Agamemnon finally has his men bring the priestess back. He then decides, stupidly, to take Achilles' war prize, which makes Achilles angry. He believes that he is being insulted so he refuses to fight in the war any longer for them. And this is what starts all of the problems for the Achaean army.The story continues on after this with the Greek Gods choosing sides in the battles and causing problems for each side based on their own opinions. It does not cover the beginning of the war where the Greeks come to Troy to rescue Helen, the wife of King Menelaus of Sparta after she was abducted by Paris, a prince of Troy.
Achilles is a character that I cannot help but love. Yes, he does not have all great qualities but his want for honor is something that I can really understand. He and his mother Thetis, want him to have honor for what he is doing and Agamemnon does not even realize what he is causing by making his choices.
There are a lot of brutal scenes throughout the epic that surprised me a bit. This goes into great detail of the many deaths with the descriptions getting quite graphic. I loved the detail that was put into this. I listened to the audiobook with the Samuel Butler translation and that was remarkable. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed this tale
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald- Read May 10th
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" 'If it wasn't for the mist we could see your home across the bay,' said Gatsby. 'You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of your dock.'Daisy put her arm through his abruptly, but he seemed absorbed in what he had just said. Possibly it had occurred to him that the colossal significance of that light had now vanished forever. Compared to the great distance that had separated him from Daisy it had seemed very near to her, almost touching her. It had seemed as close as a star to the moon. Now it was again a green light on a dock. His count of enchanted objects had diminished by one. " - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books of all time and it is definitely my favorite classic. This story is something that I could never get enough of. Gatsby is a character that I love so much and his story is one that I adore the most. The novel is set in the 1920s and is the story of Jay Gatsby. He is a lavishly wealthy man who tries to use his wealth in his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, the woman that he loves. Gatsby's story is a representation of the people at that time and shows a man that does everything to make someone love him. Even at the expense of those around him and himself. It is a story of a man's want for the American Dream and how unattainable it is.
This is the second time that I have read this novel and I cannot get enough of it. It was so much better the second time around. I love it with all my heart.
" 'They're a rotten crowd,' I shouted across the lawn. 'You're worth the whole damn bunch put together.' " - Nick Carraway to Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Odyssey by Homer- Read May 13th-16th
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It's funny that every single time I read The Odyssey again I love it even more than the first time. I love this epic poem so much. This is the third time that I have read it and this time I listened to the audiobook which I enjoyed immensely. I listened to the one read by John Lee. He was the perfect reader of this and I could not stop listening to it at times. I know the story by heart but that did not stop my interest in it.The Odyssey is the story of Odysseus, a cunning man on an overly long journey just trying to get home to his wife, son, and kingdom. Odysseus is on this journey for twenty long years (this is not a spoiler. It is literally mentioned on the first page). His voyage is not only long but is also very taxing on him and his men. The truth though is that his troubles are caused by his own hubris and his mistakes because of this hubris. Yes, Odysseus makes many mistakes and so do his men but his determination to get home and his cunning ability to think on his feet are something that I cannot get enough of. This was the third time that I have experienced this tale and I can honestly say that I was listening to the audiobook waiting for what would happen next. I love this tale so much.
Troilus and Cressida by William Shakespeare- Read May 29th
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I looked forward to this play when I had first heard that it was about the Trojan war. When I started to read it though I could really tell that it was not something that I was going to enjoy. I love a good amount of Shakespeare's plays but this is one of the worst to me.
The love story was not something that I could ever get into. It was similar to Romeo and Juliet, in the aspect that both Troilus and Cressida "fall in love" quickly. This love story though I believe is even worse than Romeo and Juliet's story, which I have never enjoyed. Cressida and Troilus never show their love for each other other than compensating it with a sexual act that her uncle wanted to happen. Gosh, I hated both of their whining attitudes. I'm not going to say what happens with their relationship but really it did not matter to me.
Also, every character in this play becomes very unlikable. I will say that I am biased towards The Iliad and The Odyssey. I love Greek Mythology and have always loved it since I had first watched Disney's Hercules and books that I had read about the Greek tales. So many of these characters are not morally right or wrong. They have a gray area that makes them have good qualities and not so great qualities. Shakespeare, I could tell did not like that many of the characters, like Odysseus and Achilles, are considered heroes. He took out every single heroic quality from these characters and many others and made them basically villains. I'm not saying that Achilles or Odysseus do not have their flaws because they do, but it bothered me to see his depiction of them. Achilles does have a reason for staying out of battle which I put in my Iliad review but Shakespeare takes this out. This makes him seem horrible for what he is doing.
He takes a lot of the most powerful scenes in this story and makes them anti-climatic. There is a point to why he did this because he does not want to glorify these characters. These scenes such as the battle with Achilles and Hector at the end are made to be something he barely even mentions. I understand that this was his adaptation of it but I did not like these changes to the stories that I have grown up. These are stories that I have been reading since I was around nine years old and it disappointed me to read something that sort of undermines it. Also, this was more of a Roman take on the story which I have never really enjoyed, to begin with. He focused on both sides but it was obvious that he was on the side of the Trojans completely (he made Hector the only character that was redeemable).
One other detail that bothered me was the fact that the Greek Gods are not characters in the play. They are mentioned sometimes but they are not active players in the battle. In the original myth, the Gods hold an active role in the tale. They cause a lot of the issues to occur and are the reason that so many things happen in this. They are not even in this play at all! I assume this might have been because England at the time that this was written was Protestant but this changes the story so much.
This was not a piece I enjoyed much at all. There are some great lines in this play that I liked reading and I can understand why many of said that there are beautiful lines in this. This does not make me enjoy this play though and was not enough for me to say that I even liked it. It was okay but I certainly would never recommend it. At least I can now say that I have read eleven of Shakespeare's plays. I have a lot to go.
This book also got me to my goal on Goodreads!
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