Sunjata

Alrighty welcome back for another edition of Chris' corner! This week I will be discussing the african folk tale Sunjata.
The thing that stuck out to me the most was the way in which the story was told. In Africa, there are men called griots who have the role of singing the local stories. In one way they are there for entertainment but they also were responsible for preserving many stories specefic to the African culture. In reading the text, it often seemed like the author was repeating his words. I found myself saying okay I get it, no need to repeat...But then I remembered that these words were being sung! In today's pop music, there is almost always a chorus, a few words or a phrase that is repeated in a song. I believe this is what the author, the griot, is doing when he repeats his words...he is making the story more melodious and pleasing to the ear.
Another thing that interested me was the character flaws in Sunjata. Two examples come to mind 1) Sunjata steals the strip of cloth that is worth one shilling and six pence from his brothers 2) He becomes prideful when he boasts that he will shoot the cotton tree and it will fall down if his mother was pregnant with him for seven years and never had a fright. Although Sunjata does show strong character qualities, such as confidence, wisdom, and leadership qualities, he does fall short in the two examples listed. These flaws allow the reader to relate with Sunjata a little bit more through his humanity. Ah one more thing that could be seen as a flaw...when he was a baby he refused to stand up because he was angry that he was denied the kingship! I mean come on, your really going to crawl around for seven years just because your pissed you didn't get to be king? Life's not fair Sunjata, get over it, get off your butt and make something of your life!

Genji

There were definitely some slow parts in The Tale of Genji...At times I really wish there had been a more affective way of communicating other than sending short two lined poems back and forth by way of messenger. At first it seemed mysterious and interesting but then it became boring and I just wanted to get on with the story.
The story picks back up when Genji meets up with the lower class woman. He has been talking to her for a long time and has been wavering the whole story as to whether or not he should pursue her. He questions his feelings and can't believe that he is attracted so much to her. At this point in the story the reader finally sees that Genji has the capability of having more than a superficial relationship with a woman. Even after he sleeps with another woman in the palace, he wakes up in the morning saying "Though loath to be taxed with seeking fresher blooms, I feel impelled to pluck this morning glory." Genji straight up tells her that he is looking for someone new and "fresh". This new person is the lower class woman, she is not amazingly beautiful and she is not that educated but she is something entirely different than all the other women Genji has been around, and Genji becomes greatly attracted to her.
I felt extreme sympathy for Genji when the girl that he loved tragically died. He felt that it was his fault that she died, because of the evil spirits of his dreams. After all the talk of not being able to find a woman that is worthy to be married in the beginning of the book, Genji finally finds a woman that he is pleased with and actually loves! Yet he doesn't ever really get to solidify this love and enjoy it...it is taken from him before he gets a chance to make something of it. I sympathize with Genji over the loss of loved ones, it is one of the hardest experiences we as humans have to face in this life. We cannot always control life though and like Genji we have to learn to move past our troubles even though we won't forget them.

Courtly Love

The love poetry we read from various poets from Spain and South France were very interesting works to read. They each had their own dinstinct views of love and the different aspect that contribute to what love really is. I think everyone can in some way or another relate to love, it is a topic that almost everyone has or will have at least some experience on the subject. It is one thing that we as human beings long for, to be loved by another with an burning passion. I also believe that we want to be able to show our love and faith and loyalty to another person, we as humans want to have that person who we can form a "spiritual union" with, as it says in The Dove's Necklace. The Dove's  Necklace tried to put into words the characteristics of love, and in some way try to define what true love looked like. It was interesting that Ibn Hazm had been through so much pain in his life, such as his the death of his father and his first love as well as his home being taken over by an opposing army, yet his heart was not hardened and he still was able to write a passionate love poem like the Dove's Necklace. My companion, I am going to make a vers that is refined also interested me because it wasn't talking of the same courtly love that was characteristic of the time. It was kind of funny that the man Guillaume IX was comparing his two different female lovers to two of his prized horses. After writing that work I'm sure no woman would ever to talk to him again, so it seems like Now when we see the meadows once again was an attempt to clear his name.

Thoughts on The Book of Margery Kempe

I found The Book of Margery Kempe to be an interesting read. Throughout the story I was left wondering, Is this woman looney? or is she really receiving some kind of visions/instruction from God. It seems that when she is possessed by demons and has to be locked away, that she could very easily be insane. However, I do believe that there can be demonic powers that can possess persons, so who knows, she really could have been possessed for a while. After she recovers from being possessed however, she doesn't seem to normalize any. Her personality and ideas seem to be literally all over the place. She wears extravagant clothes to be recognized and esteemed by the people living in her town, yet she becomes upset when others are just as respected as she is. She also randomly decides to have her own brewery and grain mill, which seems odd today, but think about how much more odd it would have been in that time for a woman! Im sure women of the day didn't go about starting their own businesses in order to make money, i feel like most men of that time would not have wanted their wives out trying to make money for the family. It was the man's job to bring in money for the family, not the woman's. Another part I found interesting was the withholding sex from her husband, which if God really did appear to her and tell her that she should refrain from having sex with her, it would seem to be contradicting what God says about sex in the Bible...Whether Margery really did have these visions or not is totally up to the reader to determine, however, the loyalty and determination to follow her beliefs is respectable regardless.