Pics of Eros

Eros

There are various interpretations of how Eros came to be and who he was. As the first born Eros he was known as Phanes, the primeval generator of life hatched from the world egg at creation. He/she was also Thesis, the spirit of creation, and Physis, nature. Eros was the Protogenos (Primordial deity) of sexual desire. According to the Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, Eros was one of the fundamental causes in the formation of the world and he brought order and harmony among conflicts. In Aristophanes, The Birds 685, Eros sprang from an egg in the darkness (Erebos). He then mated with Khaos (Air) and hatched forth our race. Penia (Poverty considering her own straitened circumstances) lay down with Poros (Expediency) and gave birth to Eros, in Plato, Symposium 178. Eros was not disobeyed, for he established the ordinances of love. "Eros once more ordered all the varied forms of life by the girdle, sowing the cirlce of the well-plowed earth with the seed of generation." -Nonnus, Dionysiaca 24.325

Love Poem

Love is something
no one can live without.
It overpowers
our minds and bodies
to a point where we
can't function.
Love is harsh
Love is cruel
Love is daring
Love is stressful
Love is something
no one can live without.

What is Love?

Love- caring, friendship, trust, honesty, kindness, affection, passion, lust, longing, anger, hurt.
Nobody can really define love. Everyone has a different idea on what it is and what it is like to love, be loved, or fall in love. Love is waking up in the morning and knowing someone else is thinking about you. Love is small pleasures like breakfast in bed with your loved one, back massages, long walks, heart-to-heart talks. Love is knowing and feeling that no matter where you are, someone loves you. Love can be sad and hard and it takes a lot of work. It takes communication. Love presents itself in various ways, and it is unexplainable even if you do experience it. Love is finding someone you never want to live without.

Comments

Reading other classmates' blogs was very cool. It was interesting to read other people's takes on the various stories and poems we have read as a class. I commented on both Obie's and Adam's blogs...you can connect to their links through the English blog homepage:
http://121-12.blogspot.com/

"Lost Book Found"

I thought the short film "Lost Book Found" by Jem Cohen was really good. It was very interesting and unique and left the viewers questioning and wondering "what next?"
Here's a site to search for background on it:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0230468/
I googled it and there are tons of sites for more information.

Connection: Borges to Stevens

Both works by Borges, "Break of Day" and "The Circular Ruins," present themes dealing with nature and discovery of oneself and one's own existence. Compared to Wallace Stevens' poem, both authors enforce the theme of nature. While Stevens uses writing as an escape, Borges uses writing to search for answers to unknown questions. Is the life we are living real, or just another dream? What makes people think and act the way they do? The authors each have a unique style of writing and their works are very interesting and thought-provoking.

Metaphors from Borges' works

"the world is a mental activity, a dream of souls..." -Break of Day

"the sky the pinkish color of a leopard's gums..." -The Circular Ruins

Break of Day, Circular Ruins

Jorge Luis Borges is an extraordinary writer. His style and imagination are very unique. I found both works we read by him very interesting- "Break of Day," and "The Circular Ruins." Each piece questions humans' existence. Are we really here, or is everything we are experiencing a dream? As much as the poem and short story are for entertainment, they do have good points and force their readers to think. My overall reaction to the readings were that I would love to read more works by this author.

Break of Day

"which declares that the world is a mental activity, a dream of souls, without foundation, purpose, weight or shape."

-Do we really exist or is everything in life and the world simply a dream? Are we dreaming all the time and dreaming what seems to be real to us?
-Borges writes a lot about the existence of the world and humans and questions the reality of such things. He writes that each day is a new day and everything is reborn in the morning. Nobody can really know what is real or fake, if what we live is really life with concrete objects and beings. Life brings up constant questions as "how, why, and is it real?"
-Compared to Wallace Stevens' poem, both authors enforce the theme of nature. While Stevens uses writing as an escape, Borges uses writing to search for answers to unknown questions. The authors each have a unique style of writing and their works are very interesting and thought-provoking.

Metaphor

A comparison between two dissimilar things, not using "like" or "as," but usually "is."
Ex: "The ocean is a mirror." "Life is a circle." etc.

-A metaphor casts a first subject as being or equal to a second subject in some way (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor).