The Ottoman Empire

The complexity of the Ottoman Empire's social, economic, and governmental systems is amazing to me. What is more amazing is that a relatively new religion at the time (Islam) provided the standards for one of the most powerful empires in the world. This is evidence to how powerful Islam became immediately. The  prejudice against other religions is surprising. The fact that they would kidnap young Christian boys and make them into slaves is something I find very surprising, especially because the two religions aren't so different. Once they kidnaped these Christians they also converted them . These must have been very convincing conversions because it seems that the slaves rarely revolted (at least not at first ), even though they were often in places of power ( they were given weapons, and made leaders in the military ). Perhaps the peacefulness was also due to education that the kidnaped Christians received. The Ottoman Empire reminds me of modern economies in many ways: little or no taxation of the rich, companies having a large influence over the governments decisions, taxation of the poor, government aid to companies that serve the public, and so on. The coolest thing I find about Ottoman society is that even though neighborhoods were often segregated, the markets and other public spaces were located where every culture met. I could just imagine the immense amount of cultural mixing that could have gone on in such places.

Inferno

It is amazing to me that since the beginning of time people will make their mind set on one religion and mock anything that is very slightly different. I feel that mocking religions is an empty argument. First off, the criticisms of one religion can often easily be applied to the religion of the criticizer. Secondly, why would anyone ever be so convinced that they know all of the answers. I don't understand. If you ask me, no one really knows yet everyone spends so much time and energy trying to prove to others that they are right, without any tangable evidence. People are so quick to question aspects of other religions that the refuse to question in their own. Wether Dante was showing hatred towards Muhammad, or just making some sort of deeper metaphor in his own search for the unity of the three major religions, I am rather disinterested. What about all of the other religions? No one person's religious beliefs are truly exactly the same as another's. There are as many beliefs as there are people, and animals, and things, so why focus on three very specific belief systems that no one really follows exactly anyway (which is impossible anyway because of interpretations). To me Dante's hatred towards Islam is very obvious in his text, and is very disturbing. There is no such reason for hatred. As the paper discusses it often comes from ignorance. Hatred is also often made up, and has no true justification to me.

The Decameron - Day Two

We once again see the theme of love in these stories. Perhaps even more present however, is the theme of lust.

In the Third Day, First Story, a man pretends to be deaf and mute so that he may successfully fulfill his lustful plan of sleeping with young beautiful nuns, only to find out that they are much more lustful then he, which is something that he is physically not able to handle. In this first story, we also see another sub-theme regarding lust that has come up in the Decameron many times. This sub-theme is of unconventional relationships. The fact that many nun, who aren't even supposed to have sex, are all sharing one man would even today be considered a lustful, unconventional situation that would be scolded.

In the Fifth Day, Tenth Story, a married women cheats on his gay husband repeatedly at the advise of an older women. The married women is very lustful, but then again so is her gay husband who does not please her, but rather pleases many other men. After finding out that his wife is cheating on him, the husband does not get very angry at her, rather he prompts a threesome with the man that his wife was planning on having sex with anyway. Once again, here is a very unconventional relationship situation that would be considered strange by most even today.

There seems to be such an emphasis on sex, even in the stories from tonight that I have not discussed in full. Three are numerous sex scenes, and there always seem to be naked women involved. The Decameron is about ten young men and women who have escaped to the mountain (from the plague), and are telling stories in order to entertain each other. With the amount of sexual content involved in these stories, I wonder if there are any ulterior motives of each story teller. Possibly there is a bigger picture going on outside of just the stories that is between the storytellers ( a bunch of horney young men and women). Does anyone believe that the Decameron as a whole may be partially a commentary on young men and women's state of mind, despite their obvious knowledge?

The Decameron - Day One

For today's readings, focus on a theme that you feel speaks to aspects of the Mediterranean culture/s we've discussed over the semester - travel, religion, ethnicity, education, love, trade, etc. How does this theme manifest itself in the stories? Why? Speak about specific scenes within the text to support your analysis.

The most prominent theme through out this text, not unlike previous texts in the class, is the theme of love. In the first story a terrible man who lived a terrible life ends up being loved after his death because he lyes to a priest and is made out to be a saint. Because the impression he leaves is not a true one, people worship the false memory of him and thus his image is even more false then a true memory. This brings up another point, and focuses the theme even more. Love of an image, is a large part of this text.

The second story deals with a Catholic man who tries to convince a Jewish man to convert. The Catholic man makes out a false image of the Vatican in order to convince the Jew. The Jew is finally convinced but when he visits the Vatican, he sees who terrible the holy men's lives are (in being unjust). He still however converts, amazed at the force of Christianity, despite the earthly corruption. The corruption in the Vatican, by the way, is all based on love of an image. The holy men are told not to do something (like have sex or gamble) so they want to do it even more. They fall in love with an ideal image of a lifestyle that contrasts their own.

Similar can be said about the next story where two monks have sex with a beautiful women despite the fact that they are forbidden. In addition to the temptation of breaking the rules, they also have sex with this women because her image is very attractive. They don't really ever get to know her. The lust is skin deep.

The next story deals with the love of those thought to be family members (although it was a lie), and the love of wealth. Everyone in this town seems to be dying to steal wealth from somewhere. The story ends with a grave robbery, where the main character who is at first a victim, gets a way with a stolen valuable ruby.

The last story teaches a valuable lesson about being in love with the image of wealth and love of the image of beauty. It shows that although many people wish to be beautiful, or rich, both can be an unimaginable burden. A women traveling alone has many man kill each other throughout her whole life, fighting over her beauty. She witnesses murders that have changed her for ever, and is very often kidnapped. On a different note she has sex "perhaps ten thousand times" because so many men instantly "fall in love" with her. What they really love is her outer beauty. Most of the men hardly get to know her.

This is just a brief introduction to all these stories portray the theme of love of an image. I could go on and on in greater detail, and I hope to in tomorrow's class.

Travel

Think especially about the importance of physical space--what does it mean to a woman like Kempe to be in a place where something sacred happened long ago? Think also about the travel itself--a pilgrimage like Kempe's would have taken many months; what does she emphasize about her journey? Is it just about getting to her destination or are there valuable spiritual and cultural experiences along the way?

Because Kempe was such a stung believe, the feeling of being in such significant places much have been and extraordinary slew of emotions. We can see this by how much the woman cries. These places are like destinations on a map of both travel and experience. One can change completely as a person on such a long journey. Because she was having visions about the places she visited, it became personal. For a woman to travel so much, so long ago, often unaccompanied, must have given her such a great sense of freedom. A kind of journey where one finds them selves. She seems to emphasis the main places she visited that had a great spiritual significance to her, the parts of the journey where she changed as a person. She essentially walks though steps of Jesus' life. Religious or not, visions or not, this could impact anyone's view on life, especially if you are visiting sites of the last supper or where the crucifixion took place and so on. Although her main points seem to be about these specific spots that were significant to Jesus' life the experiences she had to actually travel along the whole way. The expectations, excitement and troubles of traveling obviously had a large emotional affect on her. She was literally traveling through teethe life and culture of Jesus. As I mentioned before, this had a lot of spiritual value.

When you read Mandeville's account, think especially about how he describes foreign cultures (especially non-Christian ones), and about the kinds of details he thinks are worth sharing about foreign lands. In his stories, what is the appeal of the world beyond Western Europe for readers who would never see it?

In some ways, the author was very open minded about other cultures and lands. He often pointed out the accomplishments of civilizations and the fascinations with these new cultures. He also often pointed out how intelligent the people were (like the Muslims). The appeal to these lands is that they were so mysterious to the common non traveled person. As we see with the author there were many cultural fascinating differences. Just as if one were to travel today. Spreading ways of thought and advancements from one place to another is always an important thing for the world as a whole.

Book of Love, Day Two

1. What do you make of the "Mountain Girls" section? What do these girls represent? If we read the text as a journey of the human soul or condition, how then do you read this part of the text?

This is very interesting, how the author, a priest wonders around the mountains and gets shelter and food at the price of having sex and giving material items. It is also interesting how his description of the same women will change between the text and the song. This makes me question what the author finds attractive. This section makes women see very materialistic. It makes it seem as if all they want is jewelry and sex. Perhaps these girls represent humans needs, because in order to get shelter and food, the author must also have sex. Looking at this as is a journey of the human soul, perhaps pain, cold, and tiredness are representative of earthly things, while rest (like sunday they day of rest), bread (like holy bread), water (like holy water), and sex are representative of heavenly things?

In the last story, when the arch bishop bans holy men from having mistresses, it is very surprising how strongly the holy men in the story react. They tell in detail of how enjoyable recent sexual encounters have been with their loved ones. One speaks of a bath he had with his love, the other speaks of how his orphan who he has raised is his mistress. He figures that because he has done such a rightful thing as to raise an orphan, he may keep her as his sexual partner. Is she even willing? One imagines she may not be. These holy men really value sex. They want to appeal the rule. They will go up to the highest of holy men on earth and tell them that they do not have the right to stop anyone from having sex. One even said that he would physically harm the arch bishop. Sex is a big deal to these priests. This is very different from today. The nature of the text as a whole shows how open sex was in Catholicism in the past.

Book of Love Day One

It is very interesting how in the discussions between Love and the Archpriest, and Venus and the Archpriest, each non human figure gives strategical advice to the Archpriest on how to make a women fall in love with him. Right away this fable of the Archpriest is interesting, because it seems to deal with somewhat Greek like mythological figures in what I perceived to be a Catholic text. It continues to be intriguing with how much the Archpriest insults love. He has obviously had many broken hearts in the past. He does however bring up good points in his rant. In a way, some of the worlds worst tragedies are caused from love of one's religion, love of one's God, or love of money. Just look at religious extremist groups or corporations and the terrible crimes against humanity they both commit. That is just the start of many examples. Love (the character) then begins to try to satisfy the Archpriest by giving him advise about women. Love systematically explains not only how to "get" a women, but also what type of women. In a way this seems all a bit insensitive to me. Love's wife Venus gives him similar advise. Although they seem to treat love almost as if it is a strategic game in their lectures, Love and Venus do give some sound advice. They speak of balance, respect, and hard work, three things failed relationships often forget about. Lastly, I can help but to notice that this does in a way seem a bit out dated in one manner. For the most part, I would hope at least, that today love is less often about trying to win a rich girl over, and more often a natural thing that occurs simultaneous between two parties, no matter what their social status.