Summer Reading Reflection

I think instead of ending with my top 1-3 topics, I'll start with them. I'm going to chose love and morals. After reading the book, they just ended up being the topics that intrigued me the most (women is my third choice and fate comes next, but I'm just not as crazy as I once was about them). I don't really have a good reason except that I really think I can find a lot of really interesting ideas in the Aeneid about these two topics. "Love is the closest thing we have to magic" on Earth, and I guess I've always been intrigued by it. There are so many examples of so many different types of love in the Aeneid and what it does to people, that it seems like a topic I could pursue endlessly. Morals and ethics are so unexplainable that I'm intrigued to delve deeper into how they are perceived and how the effect the characters Aeneid. It is a topic that really relates to everyone's lives, and instead of debating over what is right and wrong, I could look more into the psyche of characters and understand what drove them to make the choices they make and why. That might help me understand better how they influence people today, and also how people apply them.

My other topics, what happened to them? I guess they just fizzled out over time. I still put effort into researching them, but I thought about love and morals a whole lot more. They also seemed to be the more popular topics within the group and I'll admit it, I wanted to be different. Fate and divine intervention I still have a lot of questions about, and I'm hoping to bring them up in the socratic seminar because I think so much better when I talk to other people about ideas. Aeneid in Augustan Rome, well I actually still have an interest in that, but it's changed a little. I really like Reader Response literary criticism, and it'd be really cool to look at the reception of the Aeneid throughout history, but I don't know enough about history in general to pursue this, and to be honest, I don't feel like doing the research on my own. I feel like when I first chose my topics, I didn't know enough about the book to really chose what I wanted to do. I mean, I had a stable introduction, but I feel like I thought about a lot of new topics after I finished the book. I forgot to mention the women topic. I still do like that topic a lot, and maybe I can incorporate it into my research somehow like Mr. V. suggested in the beginning. However, I'm going to admit, I'm actually excited to do this project with the topics I have, I just have one small request: PLEASE give us due dates for steps in the process, so I don't put it all off until the end and scramble to get it done. PLEASE I'M BEGGING YOU MR. V. I'M MUCH TO GREAT OF A PROCRASTINATOR FOR YOU TO DO OTHERWISE.

So overall, I really liked the book. I'm actually seriously considering reading it again, only this time, straight through. It was a really great read because it explored soo many ideas and really made me think, you know? At times, yes, I wanted to put it down because it got a little boring, but in general, it kept my interest the whole time. The blogs weren't even that bad. Just a little time consuming. I'd MUCH rather do these than an essay, because I can feel like I'm talking, and I'm a much better talker than I am writer. I know this may be childish to discuss, but my favorite characters are Dido and Camilla, and my favorite part was when Aeneas and Sibyl visited the underworld. I admire strong, independent women and Dido and Camilla really portrayed them for me. I never really felt any connection to any males in the novel, except, I know they're random, Pallas, Nisus, and Euryalus. Their brave last acts really moved me, and to me, that's what glory is about. It's not always about winning, it's about failing with style (that might be too optimistic). Anyway, the only times that the epic was hard to follow was when I wasn't familiar with all of the names he used (especially during the war). The language wasn't too difficult, but sometimes I had to reread parts just to make sure I got it. I'm glad this book was chosen as the summer reading assignment because this was probably the subject (out of all of the ones that I had summer work in) that I was most optimistic about finishing.

My further questions: What on earth is the research project that we will be doing? Are we doing it as a class, and if not, can we at least have some time to discuss with other classmates? Really, I think other people's opinions are very important, especially when discussing topics that are very opinionated. Can topics be opinionated? I don't think I used the right word there... Also, do we know how Aeneas dies? I don't know why, but I'm curious to find out. Also, when did the beliefs in Roman/Greek mythology fizzle out? People don't still believe in/worship the gods now, but they did in the past, so what happened there? Also, this is unrelated, but will we use Edmodo for anything other than reminders? Also, can we do more work on mythology this year? I think that wraps up all of my questions. I'm sorry that so few of them were book related, I've done a lot of work on it and my mind needs a little break.

I'M ON MY LAST PARAGRAPH OF MY LAST BLOGPOST. It's a little depressing actually. I'd never admit it, but they were actually kind of fun (see what I did there??). I like blogging. Okay, now down to business. I'd just like to wrap it up with how this epic effected my summer. First, I totally connected it to all of the other reading I did. Also, since I'm taking psychology next year, I started to examine some of the characters in the epic from a psychologist's point of view. This really helped me read a little closer into the book, and think of things that I might not have thought of otherwise. Furthermore, the epic really got me thinking about a lot of aspects of life in general. Love, morals, religion, fate vs. free will, war, gender roles, and death are just a few of them. I really wish that I could sit down and talk to Virgil about what he was thinking about during the writing of the Aeneid, because I think I'd unlock so many more secrets and pick up on so many more ideas that the epic has to offer. I wonder if the finished product would have been dramatically different from what he left when he died. It's a shame that we'll never know. I wish I had the capability to just know everything. I really like to learn, I just go about it in a very lazy way.

Well, I guess I've said everything I have to now. It's over...onto my english essay and gov/pol....
How do I wrap up a blog I'll never use again? I feel like 'bye' is too informal...
Vale?
Eh..
Now is the time that I wish I could think of something utterly clever that would impress everyone.
Eh I'll just stick to this:

Hope you've enjoyed my blogposts! Seee you tomorrow!!