Earlier this week, the Ducks claimed their second ever Pacific Division title and clinched the second seed in the West. In the next two days, the standings will sort themselves out and the Ducks' first round opponent will be revealed. It's gonna be San Jose, Detroit, Minnesota, or Columbus. If it's San Jose, Jason, you should probably/definitely spend all the money you have in your pocketses and go to a game with Amanda.
On to less important things, like school.
Paradise Lost is pretty crazy/awesome/absurd. Satan is quite the character. Much more human than Adam and Eve. You really see where he's coming from. God is a royal douchebag. The Son of God (never Christ, always just the Son) tries to deliver an inspiring pre-battle pump up speech, and a day may come when He is as good at that as Aragorn, but it is not this day.
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| Satan entering Paradise for the first time. |
There's this crazy scene where the Son of God defeats Satan and his army and casts them down from Heaven, and they fall to Hell. But they're falling for nine days. Milton makes that explicitly clear. Nine days! Reminds me of the Fly of Despair.
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| This episode, which happens to be my favorite ever, was banned in the UK and Australia because it was deemed too scary for kids. I'm not making this up. |
So that's what's going on in lit class. History . . . oh, yeah. We read a little bit of Steinbeck's journalism about migrant workers in California during the depression. Kinda depressing. Also talked about Japanese internment in the 40s. Not much better.
Geopolitics of the Middle East is still my most interesting class. More so now than ever, because of the recent developments going on in Syria. Obama kinda blew it with all this "red line" talk. If he backs up his words, we're going to war. If he doesn't, we set a precedent for not backing up our words, and don't think Iran isn't paying attention to that.
How about something a little less bleak? Chuck's sister visited Middlebury last weekend. She's a lot like Chuck, especially her smile. And she's a huge Bob Dylan fan. So she sang along with us when we hijacked the iPod at a party and put on "Mr. Tambourine Man", like we always do until they turn it back to another bad song.
Oh yeah, last Saturday I ran the 5k at our home meet, and I did really, really, really poorly. My season is over, but later today I'm getting on the bus and I'm gonna watch NESCACs (a very important meet). Looking forward to cross country so I can forget about this track season.
On Tuesday I argued with friends about time travel, the history of science, free will, God, some crazy Borges quotes, and hockey for a total of around five hours, spread out just a little across a period of six or seven hours. Definitely worth not getting any work done that night.
Announcement for those who don't know: Rachael has finally started reading The Name of the Wind! It was only a matter of time, really, until she fell to the power of the Rothfuss as the rest of us have.
Two weeks left of classes, then a week of finals, then home.
Oh my god NoTW. But anyway, you've made me resolve to read paradise lost. I was hoping it was in the syllabus for my Hum class next year, but alas, I'll have to take it into my own hands.
ReplyDeleteI'll let you borrow my copy when I get home. You'll have to deal with my marginal commentary, though.
ReplyDeleteMarginalia? Unacceptable.
ReplyDeleteNo one else knew, so thank goodness the word that I am reading NoTW got out there. There will certainly be comments to that end tomorrow. Harry Potter is better. Harry Potter vs. Kvothe? Kvothe would win. J.K. Rowling vs. Rothfuss? We'll just have to see.
ReplyDeleteAnd Dumbledore vs. Kvothe? Don't make me answer that, it's too obvious.
I get Derek's PL after Rich.
ReplyDelete