Monday, September 1, 2008

Oh, poor me.

It's far too easy to focus on the negatives. They overpower the positives without effort. I think it's because people are inherently selfish. No matter how much good they have in their life, they always want just that little bit more, just so everything can be "perfect."

I want a bit more money so I can afford to buy comics, or I want this girl to like me as much as I like her, or I wish I could be in Rome instead of Seattle.

Those are just some of the examples that run through my mind at night. I never think about how lucky I am that I already own 1,000 + comics, or that I've been in relationships with girls who were head-over-heels for me (too much, even), or that Seattle is a pretty damn cool city that many people would give the world to live by.

I guess it's just human nature.

Living in America, Part 2

The view from my balcony consists of a paved alley, four garage doors, and another balcony.



Oh,


and the top of a tree.

Thought for the night: 8/31/08

If a group of men got together, wrote, and performed "The Penis Monologues," they would be mercilessly ridiculed.

A random thought about The Iliad

I think most people misinterpret "The Iliad." I know Hollywood did ("Troy," anyone?). Homer's epic isn't about Achilles' greatness, or power, or fall. It's about Achilles' weakness and how it leads to his fall. No, not his heel. His heel was his fleshly weakness, yes, but not his true weakness. It was Achilles' rage that ultimately lead to his downfall.

The Robert Fagles translation of "The Iliad" is my favorite for many reasons, the biggest of which is his strong focus on that theme.

The first lines of the Fagles translation read:

"Rage - Goddess, sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles,
murderous, doomed, that cost the Achaeans countless losses,
hurling down to the House of Death so many sturdy souls,
great fighters' souls, but made their bodies carrion,
feasts for the dogs and birds,
and the will of Zeus was moving toward its end.
Begin, Muse, when the two first broke and clashed,
Agamemnon lord of men and brilliant Achilles.

Very blunt. "The Iliad" is a tragedy about a flawed hero, much like "Hamlet." It's unfortunate that too many see it as a swashbuckling adventure. Thanks for that, Brad Pitt.