Esther

I have some mixed feelings about the story of Esther.  One part of me enjoyed the fact it was one of the better told stories in the old testament, as in it wasn’t dry and more powerful than a sleeping pill.  On the other hand though I didn’t like how hypocritical it came off as being.

The first thing I find to be just utterly stupid is the whole idea of the king finding a new queen and wanting her to be a virgin yet the king gets to test out each of these women in the bedroom first.  The whole idea of women being objects doesn’t sit well with me, I don’t like when any person is treated as less than a human being. 

The other thing is Esther hiding her heritage so the king wouldn’t look unfavorably upon her but then when her people are in trouble she’s all too willing to announce it and come to their rescue.  The one redeeming quality there is that this is quite brave because the king could have just as easily decided to put her to death for being a Jew instead of helping her.

The last thing that troubles me with this story is why could the king not have just sent out another decree saying that they are no longer to attack the Jews on that day?  Why did he send out messengers to tell the Jews to now fight back and essentially slaughter them all?  It just seemed like unnecessary bloodshed and killing, there was really no point or purpose for it.

I was a big fan of the video we watched on Wednesday, I thought it was fantastically well made.  I enjoyed the beginning with the dogs running.  It definitely set the tone for the movie, the post apocalyptic feel, the destruction, even the danger a pack of wild dogs present.  It definitely grabs your interest right off the bat.

The color scheme the movie adopted was phenomenal, I really felt as though it captured and displayed emotions very well.  It definitely helped draw your eye to important parts or people talking.  I also liked how it changed to fairly normal colors when he switched to his interviews to kind of show that we are now back in the present day real world.  It made the movie easier to follow as well, which was nice.

The story in and of itself was a very good one as well.  I really enjoy hearing about the psychological effects of war and not just the Hollywood movie hero deal because real war, from everything I have been told and read, is more like this movie or Jarhead or Home of the Brave.  The true, or at least based on true events, stories are the best ones.  They show that soldiers are still just humans.

My one big complaint of the movie is this, I cannot stand subtitles!  I really feel that you can never get the full movie if there are subtitles because you have to focus on reading those the whole time and you cannot pay as much attention to the scenes and images of the movie and I think those are more important than any words.

The Rabbis Cat

(503):

Things you are not allowed to do while im gone: sell cats on ebay, put cats in freezer again, shave cats like lions, dye cats pink/blue, try to light cats on fire to"wake them up from their nap" agian

This is a bit off topic I guess but I found it on the popular college website www.textsfromlastnight.com, where people send it ridiculous text messages they got from friends and family.  This did kind of remind me of the Rabbi’s Cat in a roundabout way that really doesn’t have much to do with the story at all.

I might be able to get away with saying that it’s a bit on the ridiculous side like how I’m sure the people would have probably viewed the Rabbis actions in the novel such as eating the non-kosher foods, drinking milk with them and all of that.  So too is this a pretty ridiculous text that someone would need to send but, I being less than a fan of cats, found it to be extraordinarily funny, a bit cruel yes but that’ll happen with a good joke.

I can’t say I cared particularly much for the book, while I did like the artistry quite a bit and the use of color the story line was at times a bit hard to follow.  Also I just have a general dislike for cats and also stories that are created around them.  Back to the drawings themselves though, I especially liked how the author kind of made things melt at the end and also making everything red for a few frames.  I find those techniques to be very interesting and help give a little extra to the stories. 

I would like to comment on the Nicole Hollander interview today.  First off I have never heard of her or her comic strip before and when I started reading about her being part of the feminist movement I decided I probably will never read a strip but that’s just my personal opinion on feminism and a whole other topic.

I like the answer she gave where she said her father was atheist but he believed in community which I think is fantastic.  Personally religion just seems like a way to create community because let’s face it we have no proof of God, only very old books that speak of fantastic things.  But the one thing over the thousands of years religion has done was brought people together and that provides strength, hope, help, and any number of things that I’m sure has very much helped the human race through many hard times.  To relate this post to our class the holocaust being a major hardship in recent history.

I found it interest also that the interviewer brought up the point that some things that were relevant almost a decade or more ago are still relevant now, most of these things being issues.  That kind of upsets me that we are still dealing with the same things now and have not yet fixed them.  The quote “What surprised me was that our memories are so short. But what dismayed me was the number of different ways we could repeat the same mistakes as a nation,” really got me thinking and it is quite true.  With the exception of 9/11 you don’t often here about the tragedies of the past unless you’re an avid watcher of the History Channel. 

Maus 2

I enjoyed the Maus 2 just as much as Maus 1 although it did take me a little longer to get into Maus 2.  That was mostly due to Art’s father, the way he was acting in the second book really got on my nerves.  For one thing the way he talked, switching words around and leaving out certain ones to make the sentences so choppy was not very enjoyable to read.  I also noticed a lot of misspellings, especially in the back half of the book.  This bothered me to no end!

It seemed to me that there was a bit more of the present in this novel.  I feel like we got to know more about Art’s father as he is now, as the war had made him.  I’m not too sure if I could handle talking to a person like that, with all of his complaints it would drive me up a wall in no time. 

Something I did find fascinating was that his father returned half eaten and already opened food because he wasn’t going to eat it.  I understand not being wasteful but that is just ridiculous.  I couldn’t imagine eating half a box of cereal and then returning it to the store.  I understand what his father went through and being hungry for so long but without actually having gone through it myself I just can’t quite grasp the need to be that frugal with everything.  I think it would be quite interesting though to explore a little more into the psychology of being starved and having so little for so long.  Not necessarily the holocaust itself just a lack of everything.

Maus 1 again

I really enjoyed the discussion on Wednesday about Maus 1.  I feel as though the class really got into this one and a lot of people had a bit of input.  I think the fact that it dealt with the holocaust peaked a lot of people’s interest or at least feelings which was made for a very interesting class period. 

What I liked most about Maus was that it had some good history behind it and it was something I could relate to more.  I’m not a huge comic person, I honestly don’t think I’ve ever read one cover to cover before so it’s been hard to relate and put anything substantial in up to this point.  With my interest in World War 2 I actually know a little bit about what’s going on and can throw in a word or two now.

To reiterate my last post I’m really enjoying the style of the story, how it’s a talk between a father and a son.  It reminds me a lot of the talks I’ve had with my grandfather in the past about his time spent in the Army serving over in Europe.  I’m sure it must have been a very good bonding experience for author and his father.

With the talk that occurred on Wednesday I’m very excited to see how the discussion goes next Wednesday after we’ve all read Maus 2.  I have not yet read Maus 2 so I’m also excited to see where the story goes now.

Maus 1

I really enjoyed Maus 1, it’s probably been my favorite out of all the readings so far.  The story itself was fascinating, the father’s journey through the war.  His fight, his time as a prisoner of war his escape and reunion, all of it was told very well and very moving.  I thought it was very cool how the author played it out with him asking his father to tell him stories of that time, getting his dad’s biography.  It must have been a great experience for Spiegelman to hear his father talk about such a huge part of his life like this.  I’ve on a number of occasions asked my grandfather about his time in the Army during World War 2 and all that he has done and it was very moving a lot of times and the rest enthralling.

I liked the drawings in this novel as well, especially over A Contract with God.  I liked how the characters were different animals depending on their background; the Jews being mice, the Poles pigs and the Nazi some type of cat or tiger looking creature. 

Spiegleman’s father was portrayed as a very interesting character; I liked the personality he had.  It was a nice relief every once in a while to cut back to his father yelling at the son about one thing or another, whether it be the pills or Spiegleman ashing on his father’s floor.

After finishing this novel I’m very excited to read the second one and find out where the story goes next.