Arabic Poetry

While reading this weeks assigned readings "The Dove's Necklace" the themese relating to love were all descrpiptive and used great evidence to support these themes. The themes/ideas that most interested me were 1. Supporting your lover always and 2. How one changes to please their lover. When the story opened it first started talking of how when you love someone you will believe them even when they are lying, agrees with him even though he is wrong, testifies on his behalf for all that may be unjust, and supporting whatever line of arguement he may adopt. I read through this and completely agreed after seeing examples like this happen everyday, but I could only describe it in one way- Love can make you do thing. The force that love hold over people can turn them into a liar to protect there lover (real life example, lying on the stand in court in favor of your lover), builds a trust that may not be as strong as you may believe (believing lies), and taking on arguements that are not your own to protect your loved one. These beliefs are things that people are expected to do when they are in love, marriage signifies people at this stage doing all they can to protect and please there lover which in turn looks bad on them. There was a long very versatile paragraph of how people change to become what there lover is looking for some of the examples from the readings are the scowler relaxed her frown, the sloucher smartened up and the stinker transformed himself into a elegant dandy. These are all examples of how people change who they are to become who there lover wants them to be. Love has a way of taking over people, it is very powerful and always something that is very hard to get under control. Love is a beautiful thing if it is used in the right way.

Islamic Art

While reading through the Art and History of the different Islamic era's I found many similarities that directly resembled other cultures techniques. Starting in the Early Islamic period they talk of how Islam uses certain ideas from Judaism and Christianity such as their prophetic tradition which is any form of written or spoken prophecies most commonly relating to religion ceremonies. Art in this period created a cosmetic glass container mounted on the back of a donkey was taken from a type of Roman glass vessel using the same technique and for the same function. Islam’s also began to imitate the Chinese porcelain’s in the ninth century. In the Early Mid evil Period Islam and Turkish culture was inherited into Anatolia after Turkish rule in Asia Minor was followed by their victory over Byzantine Army. From the waves of Turkish tribes migrating into Islam, Persian language and culture were adopted in Islam. Lastly in the Late Mid evil Period as a byproduct of the Mongol invasion new Chinese techniques where inherited into Islam like new vocabulary.

Metamorphoses by Ovid (Book 1 & 3)

Book 1:

The opening of the text is all about how the earth was created. This story although it resembles books from Genesis it goes into much greater detail in explaining each part of the earth from the ocean to the mountains and trees. I really enjoyed reading of how the seasons were developed, but when Jupiter came into the picture I was honestly just confused. He rapes Lo who I believe to be innocent and almost irrelevant to the story. When Jupiter’s wife comes down from Heaven to confront him and Jupiter’s instantly turns Lo into a cow. Jupiter a "noble" god, is sneaky, a liar, a cheater and his job to influence humans he is not setting a very good example.

Book 3:

Reading about the Narcissus was a very quick and compelling read. As he sees his reflection in the water he instantly falls in love. The Narcissus is really only in love with his reflection as we come to find out when he hears his echo he is actually frightened by it and does not love his voice or personality. The Narcissus does not want a relationship with himself but he is almost star struck at his physical appearance and good looks at he believe he may be in love with himself.

Plato's Republic

Throughout this story I found multiple things ironic, the most ironic thing was the talk of the government. Transformation from Oligarchy to Democracy was all about money and how rich people could actually get, democracy allowed men to become as wealthy as possible back then. Today the democracy has a wide spread from wealth to poverty democracy today is not head start or the right path to wealth, but a path to fairness and equality. I agreed a lot with Jessica Brey where she said "During Plato's time politicians were discussing important matters that we are still trying to fix in our on government." I picked up on these similarities right away with the thought and confusion of if "democracy" was such a change and upgrade how are the problems from Plato's time still a problem without any solution today? Only a small minority of people during Plato's time and today can be considered "wealthy" this binding issue concerning money in all social classes has yet to be solved. I actually appreciated and agreed with the statement of the people creating government reflect their character in the different forms of government. Today republicans vs. democratic is all about the character of a person (beliefs, morals, and individual advancement); these factors make up the two sides of this government system. All the rules, regulations, and especially beliefs of each government system are created by someone, they reflect someone’s morals and how they believe a state should be run (government isn’t run by itself; there are working people behind the scene pulling all the strings.