Extra Reading Diary: Europa's Fairy Book

Extra Reading Diary: Europa's Fairy Book

I love fairy tales so I'm looking forward to reading half of this unit. It sounds like the author mix and matched different stories and made them his own. It sounds exactly like what we do in this class so I think it'll be cool to see the differences and his techniques.

Beauty and the Beast: I've seen Disney's Beauty and the Beast, but I had never read the story before. This story was a bit less dramatic than Disney's. The way that Belle ended up with the Beast was interesting, but not that great. I did like how Belle found Beast in his garden at the end. This story makes much more sense with the rose, because it's explained in the beginning.

Beauty and the Beast
Source: Europa's Fairy Book by Joseph Jacobs and illustrated by John Batten (1916)

The Language of Animals: I love reading stories about talking animals so I'm very excited to read this story. Ah, I loved this story. I think it's so cool that Jack could understand animals. It made for a very great power since it didn't seem that anyone else could tell what they were saying. I like how the beginning of the story tied perfectly into the end. I also liked that there was a happy ending for Jack and his family.

Reading Diary B: Dante's Inferno

Reading Diary B: Dante's Inferno

I've enjoyed this unit so far and I'm looking to see the rest of Dante's journey. His interpretations have been interesting and I'm expecting more of the same.

Jason and the Demons: I found it interesting how Dante incorporated mythology into what mainly seems to be a Christianized story.  I really liked the exchange that Virgil had with the demons. It was cool to see the demons have some actually dialogue because I feel they are often depicted as mindless evil doers. I hope the story goes into more detail about the hierarchy of demons in Hell.

Structure of Hell
Source: (illustration by di Fruosino)

Satan: I loved the author's description of seeing Lucifer. It was such a striking image. The imagery reminded me of the book of Revelation. There are so many different ways to interpret the symbols. I also liked the Judas was depicted in this story. I think he's an interesting character to explore. In this story it wasn't going too well for him in Hell with Satan.

Reading Diary A: Dante's Inferno

Reading Diary A: Dante's Inferno

I've heard a lot about this story, but I have never read it. I think it's such an interesting concept and I'm excited to explore it. I think that we all wonder what the other side of life will be like and it's cool to see one person's imagining of it. I like afterlife stories as much as I like origin stories. We're in the middle of our life, but I always wonder about the beginning and the end.

Dante and Virgil: I quite liked the beginning of this story. I think it's such an accurate depiction of life when you become self-aware. I think the image I selected is haunting because I think we've all felt lost in the woods with no way out. The story was a little hard to follow just because of the language, but I enjoyed it all the same. I'm interested to see where Virgil is taking Dante.

Lost Man
Source: (illustration by Gustave Doré)

The Gate of Hell and Charon: I think it's interesting how Dante mixes Christian and Greco-Roman ideas of Hell. I think the author was clever by using his characters to explain the situation, so reader could better understand the story's meaning. The depiction of the underworld was very haunting and I was struck up the imagery. I truly felt like I was along with Dante for his journey.