Journals

Journal 11: Shakespeare's Merchant

"In terms of money, we have no money"... or mercy, or respect

One thing that really irked me about this entire story was the lack of everything that was technically valued like money, true love, respect, and mercy.

When speaking about money, the whole premise of this story hinged on the importance of the bonds/loans that Shylock was giving to Bassanio (with the support of Antontio). Ultimately, he did end up earning the money but through the scheming of his wife, Portia, and the miraculous recovery of his ships. He also didn't pay any consequences for defaulting on his bond (illegal business)!

When speaking about love, did Portia truly gain the man that was for her? Or was she also cheated in the end? She has many amazing suitors from all over the world who were already wealthy, but she chose the man who was poor and was low key in love with his best friend? She also did everything for her husband, but was only recognized for her actions because she was doing them when she was a man? I feel like one of the biggest factors in her choice of Bassanio was his skin and religion also. I feel like on both sides here there wasn't respect. Portia didn't even think twice about the eligible suitors that approached her because she always found something wrong with them, whether that be their religion or skin tone or attitude toward money. However, Portia also wasn't cherished for how important her cleverness was for the court case, and ultimately the ending of the play.

We are also posed with the important moral of mercy and how “the quality of mercy is not strained” (Act 4, Sc 1, Line 179). While I do feel like this is a very important message, the way that it was portrayed was so stupid. There was a huge Anti Semitism undertone to this mercy rule and also stipulations to it. They didn't grant Shylock mercy when he needed it, but demanded it of him when it was affecting a Christian man? I also think mercy wasn't granted in the end anyway. There was a huge push from it on Shylock's part, but it wasn't granted in return even when he did end up giving mercy to Bassanio. He got his money taken from him anyway!

April 25, 2024

Also, as someone who plays tennis, I was fascinated by his ownership of a tennis court and the way he used it for profit or his own benefit. When there was a conflict about the ownership of the tennis courts, he tries to tell the guy off who is wanting to take them. And when he hears word that the guy was being difficult, he says, "This hint was enough for me, and next morning I had recourse to arms; and though the job cost me some trouble, I enjoyed it" (Cellini). Like he is so funny, my god. He is so nonchalant about things that should be a big deal, especially when it comes to fighting a guy for a tennis court that the King granted.

Journal 10: Cellini and Narcissism

This man has a familiar air about him that I recognize in a few other men I have interacted with. This man doesn't embody the nonchalance of the time, but rather the oppostie. His arrogance drips off every page. If he isn't complimenting his artwork, then someone else is, or his praise is aimed at a different facet of himself. Now, after all of the nonchalance we have experienced in the Italian Renaissance, this was somewhat of a breath of fresh air.

He also plays the victim card constantly, or honestly he just seems delusional. Like everything that happens to him is someone else's fault or not that big of a deal? HMMM, interesting. Like he has no self awareness either, and I think that is somewhat icky, but also interesting at the same time. I think he plays more into the nonchalance of the time in the way he writes about the events of his life, like the murder, his sexual escapades, etc. When he is writing about the murder of Pompeo, he clearly is preparing to seriously harm the guy, but then he says, " I had not meant to kill him; but as the saying goes, knocks are not dealt by measure" (Cellini). Like HUH? Dude, you legit just killed someone. Then continues on talking about how he must "defend his life" and "put myself in safety"... um sir, you clearly seem fine, especially now that your "enemy" is DEAD!

Although one thing I thought was funny, was that when Cellini wasn't engaging in sexual activities, creating artwork, or bragging about himself, he was always sick, injured, or fighting off men. Like to me, that is clear payback for being somewhat of a d*uchebag. In a slight bit of praise, I wouldn't have been able to make all this cool art if I was downbad like that all the time. So, cheers to the governor!

April 16, 2024

Um highly recommend this (straight, white) man's video! He talks about the nonchalance of it all in a very amusing way.. tehe!

April 5, 2024

Journal 9: POOKIE is looking absolutely Quintessential today!!! (Only if you...)

If you want to be a quintessential pookie, there are a few things you have to do my queen. Obviously, you have to be beautiful. If you aren't, just stop here and continue no further. There is no point.

You also have to be chaste but not a prude at the same time? This is where I think the nonchalance for women comes in. Instead of being "humble" in your nonchalance, as a woman you are essentially turning a blind eye to things. This quality definitely plays into the genderedness of nonchalance at this time, especially in the submissiveness aspect that it takes for women here.

If you are caught in a conversation with men who are not being the courtly gentlemen that they should be, just smile and wave apparently. Also don't gossip? Because apparently if you care too much about stuff then you aren't being nonchalant or men would listen and gain that information (therefore he wouldn't respect you anymore).

"For I believe that many faculties of the mind are as necessary to woman as to man... to avoid affectation, to be naturally graceful in all her doings, to be mannerly, clever, prudent, not arrogant, not envious, not slanderous, not vain, not quarrelsome, not silly, to know how to win and keep the favor of her mistress and of all others..."

Once again, he says the faculties of the mind hold similar standards, but they are so gendered. So, I mean at least he says we should be clever and know how to win... does this mean he thinks we are allowed to have some form of intelligence? Well, that would actually be a no.

On the woes of being an intellectual woman at the mouths of men:

"On the road I have taken, I have found contentment in contemplation." (39)

"Owing to this, I would prefer to be ignorant rather than to know what the fates have in store for me." (29)

"I am happy to have the opportunity to express my opinion about something that may exonerate me from criticism. I preferred to please the crowd rather than myself." (39)

March 28, 2024

Journal 8: Cereta's Rules of Feminism

Be a good friend or family member, especially to the women in your life
Education for all!
Indulge in things both inherently feminine, but also masculine. (Aka, it is okay to enjoy embroidery and also intellectual pursuits).
Trust in God and his plan for you
"... Women can be both a thinker and a spinnner, both a historian and an artistan" (31).
Loss in inevitable, but you must mourn and move on.
Take control of the narritave of your body (37)
Don't be afraid to say what you believe, men will hate you anyway.
Use the hierarchy of men to your advantage (i.e. to get your reputation back). (42).
Be selfaware, but give yourself grace.

This feels like you're at catholic summer camp and every day is confession night, but it's heavily targeted at women.

JOURNAL CONTINUED...

Alright... lets speak about Filostrato. Is this Boccaccio's way of inserting himself in the book? His day being about lost love, and Boccaccio claiming he had a lost love that makes him justified to speak on the topic. Filostrato also says he is a writer and writes for women... another parallel to Boccaccio. He also tries to have the pity party of "oh I'm just a humble, meek writer", but has a huge ego. Oh how groveling, "feminist", narcassitic man of him.

Also the stories on this day were kinda weird and leaned on horror? Did Boccaccio have something like these stories happen to him in real life? Is him inserting himself a coping mechanism or a play on his ego?

Me and my man 😋

Journal 7: Decameron

First of all, this piece has so many similarities in structure and principle to Chaucer's Canterbury tales. The idea of these people traveling together, staying at a place together on their journey, and sharing stories. They also crown the person who "wins" best story to take over as King or Queen the next day. These 'rules' seem SO similar to the Canterbury tales. (After review in class, it seems that the Canterbury Tales was a copy of this book)

Anyways, I am so intrigued by Emilia. Who in the hell and what in the hell is going on with her? This woman is so conservative to the point where she uses her day to reinforce her ideas that men are in complete control of women and even have the right to beat their wives. She also uses every moment she can to either praise herself or give moral advice. However, the most interesting thing to me is that she thrives on control, but on her day she gives up the control and lets people choose the story they want to tell (pg. 555). In her song, she praises herself the entire time, which seems to be the opposite of what she preaches about the superiority of men and the position of women. She is very confusing to me. She sometimes gives me Wife of Bath parallels, but I'm still deciphering her.

Another thing I noticed was the way Boccaccio constantly speaks directly to his audience. He says he wrote this book for women and he constantly speaks directly to them throughout this book. He says he wrote this to give pleasure to women in the midst of the plague and because he recently "recovered" from a love affair, he feels he can speak on it to give solace (Intro and Conclusion). However, he contradicts this through the book by giving sad stories, even to the point of horror, like Day 4 with Filostrato. I wonder if he did this to connect to women who have gone through sad romantic lives. However, something that also rubbed me the wrong way was that this story is a collection of love stories. With his audience being to women, it makes me mad that he thinks love stories are what make women happy. (I mean, don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan of the romance genre, but not every woman finds pleasure in love stories). It also goes to show that Boccaccio thinks women still have a small-mindedness of a few valued topics like religion and romance. He even goes on in the epilogue to explain that he knows there will be objections to his work! Once again, not impressed with Boccaccio.

March 21, 2024

(He's the male who says he is a feminist to either get in a woman's pants or shame them)

Journal 6: On Famous Women...

"If powerful Medea had closed her eyes or turned them elsewhere when she first raised them longingly to Jason, her father's reign would have been of greater duration as would have been her brother's life, and her virginal honor would have remained unbroken. All these things were lost because of the shamelessness of her eyes." (Boccaccio 39)

Sooo many things to say about Boccaccio's On Famous Women, but I'll stick to this one line that stuck out to me. So, still blaming women and still focusing on women's virinigty status huh?

Feminine rage in this story is described so well. If all of these things were happening to me, I too would be in a mad state. However, is her rage and craziness being overexaggerated because she is a woman or because she truly was kinda crazy? I also want to touch on how the men didn't seem to react to her in the story and they just seemed to be the reason she did all of these things instead of the cause. Her feelings were the cause, not the men themselves. At the very beginning he even describes her as a witch, which sets up readers to assume the worst and calls her cruel before that as well.

Also, who is to say that she fell in love with Jason on first glance? What if he was the initiator? Do all women have to be the lustful ones who bring on the destruction of love? Also, was she really so vengeful as to kill her own brother or was her lover, Jason, involved in this? He was the one who was going into her kingdom to steal something anyways and was "famous for his prowess" (37). Would she also kill her own sons? I'm just baffled that she is seen as this crazy monster all because she was in love with a man.

Along with Boccaccio's warning at the end of this tale to not read too much into what you see, maybe he should take his own adivce (38). Instead of pushing this advice into the "lesson" he meant to portray from Medea's story, he should use it in his analysis of these stories he is writing about these women to begin with.

Feb 29, 2024

Journal 5: My Place in Hell (According to Dante)

Dante would have sent me straight to hell. I am a 20-something, romance-reading, woman who is a hopeless romantic, a material gurl, and think Astrology, Greek mythology, and Harry Potter hold some of the ideologies of life. While I am Catholic, my Gen-Z humor and smutty romance books would send me straight to hell. Dante might have sympathy for me, but I doubt he would find my lust for a tattooed, morally-grey fictional man who has faerie wings to be redeemable. I don't know how serious he takes these crimes. But, would all the teenagers who steal from Target be in that bottom layer in fraudulence? Who's to say? Oh, that's right... Dante is.

Well, by his standards, I might end up in that Lust category, or possibly Gluttony or Greed. See, I always have a package in my Amazon cart and on the way. If over-spending is a sin, then OOPS! Catch me in Greed, pushing around those damn boulders. Maybe I'll be skinny then, but who's to say with that metaphysical body thing going on. I'd like to say I would end up in Lust though, blow around till Judgement Day. I wouldn't mind spending eternity with Dido, Heloise, and Cleopatra. If Dante were to take one look at me, he might send my obese soul to Gluttony to be rained on. Let's hope his judgement goes further than skin-deep, but who's to say? His categorization of people tends to a little erratic.

In conclusion, if his layers of hell are real, you might catch me there. But, I might be content to be there if it means those backstabbers from high school are in that 9th circle in the fiery pit (wait, does this thought also send me to hell?). I might be doomed.

February 13, 2024

(The minecraft version of hell that I followed while reading)

Sonnet Fest ND (Extra Credit)

I went for a few lines of Sonnetfest and saw two people read. They both had different inflections of Shakespeare and stressed different words when reading.

There were many people there enjoying it, which I wasn't expecting. I didn't know there was a Shakespeare club at ND and now I know lol.

(This is me if you even care)

Journal 4: Margery Kempe and Suffering

According to Margery, she is suffering. The trials and the scorn she endures contribute to this suffering, but she sees it as something she must go through to signify her journey to Christ. I wish this idea of suffering wasn't pushed onto people, specifically women, at this period and throughout time. She decided to live chastely and in suffering to experience God more fully. I wonder though if this suffering was enough? We know that she isn't recognized in the Catholic church for sainthood even though her devotion to Christ was otherworldly. I wonder if, because she wasn't a martyr or went through significant physical suffering, she wasn't deemed worthy enough to be recognized for sainthood. With how many miracles she experienced, and the people around her did, I feel like she should be recognized more. It also bugs me that stories like hers are being written down and told through the ages, including the Hagiographys we read last semester, and are rejustifying the idea that you must suffer, be chaste, jounrey far, or to through significant hardship to experience God and his love. Even today, people say that "God gives his toughest battles to his strongest soldiers" which is also reinforcing the idea of suffering to eventually get the love, happiness, and goodness we deserve.

I also though feel like people, especially women, shouldn't have to go through suffering to receive God's love, get closer to him, or be recognized for a devotional figure. We already have it so rough to begin with and stories like these just impose justification for further suffering. I wonder how often priests or other religious figures would use stories like hers or the Hagiographys to justifiy the way they view women.

However, in critique, Margery did cry ALL the time... I thought a lot of it was a bit dramatic. Analytically, I felt like she could have been affected by some mental health things, but I also understand divine emotional experiences. I have mixed feelings about her, especially when it comes to the importance of suffering in their religious journey.

February 6, 2024

Journal 3: Wife of Bath and Feminist Critique

One thing I noticed from the beginning is her use of scripture. She uses scholarly and holy texts to back up her argument that virginity shouldn't necessarily matter and that having 5 husbands wasn't a bad thing. She also uses it to establish her credibility in storytelling. Even though the scriptures and texts she interprets different or even wrong, it still somewhat builds her credibility to a few people. However, I think the most interesting thing is that this could be a way to mock the people associated with the church. Priests and preachers would tend to twist scripture to favor their rules or ideas, like she did. Especially the subscript saying this proverb wasn't even found in Ptolemy's work (305) !!! Okay, WERK I guess, but WRONG. Most of what she says about her husbands too and the way she spins this initial prologue conversation is heavily teetering toward manipulation, but I still appreciate her in a feminist respect.

While she does seem like a feminist at first, like the whole sexual liberation bit and marrying as many people as you want, it also is counteracted through the piece with some outdated feminist ideas. She did call men out for having multiple wives and the double standard that exists, which was appreciated. However, she's what we would call a white liberal feminist in GWS. She reinforces some internal misogynist ideas. Especially when she says she can sleep with any man (okay... yes that is feminist), but then says because she wants their money only (damn... you ruined it). She also mentioned the submission of her husbands and this just reinforces the idea that men are over women and have to be "dominated" to be subdued. Also hints of ageism? But then her love for the fourth makes me like her and sympathize... cause been there girl! But is she a liar (she somewhat admits it right?)?

However, the way Chaucer wrote this might have been intentional. Women who married multiple times are only seen as gold-diggers and manipulative and witches? HMMMMM, I'm skeptical and also kept this in mind while reading. I like the Wife of Bath, but there are some things that still make me recognize the importance of storytelling as manipulation, interpreting the character for their descriptor but also their story, and also the critique of the author.

On to the description of her fourth husband... SHE IS SO RIGHT. I fell in love with her for this. Women love what they can't have and run from what is forced? I mean she might have some trauma, but I think we share that because... yeah. Legit just had a dream about these two battles LAST NIGHT. We are destined to be fictional friends.

ALSO THE WIFE OF BATH BEING NAMED ALISOUN !!! STUNNA

And her story was so good! She's my winner of the Hunger Games!

January 31, 2024

Journal 2: Canterbury Tales or Gawain?

Gawain and the Green Knight was exactly what I would have expected from a tale of the time. The medieval romance, the "journey", the connection to religion (Christianity), and fantasy elements. It was somewhat written 'by the book' and was a perfect example of the genres we have been looking at for the medieval period. While it was an amazing story and gave me everything I wanted from it, I still feel like because it didn't break out of that mold very much, that I prefer the Canterbury Tales (at least what I have read so far of Chaucer).

The Miller tale? LORD was I interested. While I am not a huge fan of arrogant narrators, this one was hilarious. Also knowing that he was drunk the whole time was just the icing on the cake. Like there is no way I would have been able to string that whole story together if I was drunk. It makes me wonder if he is truly that much of an alcoholic or if he is secretly very smart. Either way, the story was funny... and the ass-kissing and farting and the surprising vulgarity? I CANNOT😅 While at first I didn't appreciate how Miller was presented as a character because of his arrogance, alcohol habits, and the way he spoke about his wife, he grew on me. I can recognize humor as intelligence and he didn't dissapoint me. I recognize that he is probably a terrible person, but if I know that if I was in the tavern, I would have been giggling too. It also makes me reiterate never judging a book by it's cover, because, just like the other characters, I was surprised by the articulate storytelling powers that Miller had. I also wonder if the story he told reflected a personal story that had truth with his own wife, and if this had lead to his drunkeness. It also is important to note that even though his story was terribly innappropriate, he still tied in Christian understandings and moral codes. So, even though it seems that Miller is not a nice guy, I'm starting to have sympathy for him as a character now.

January 25, 2024

Some memes for the tale: LOL

Journal 1: Goals

First and foremost, I want to hopefully survive the semester without Piper attached to my person. I leaned on her heavily during this semester for writing advice and clarification on the readings. We were able to bounce ideas off each other, so I hope to find someone else to do that with this semester.
I hope to incorporate more outside sources, videos, photos, etc. into my journals this semester and continuing. I was good about adding photos to mine last semester, but I want to add more to connect the content across disciplines.
I also want to use more creative writing devices in my journals, like highlighting, bolding, and coloring words to make them more fun and inviting. I also want to include more of my personality into my journals. I only started doing that the second half of last semester, so I hope to do more of it.
I also hope to dig deeper into the texts, maybe even do more direct quoting than I did last semester (even thought I did a lot). But I mainly want to focus more on how these texts related to the time period and what I can learn from them. I'm not good with chronological time and understanding history that way, so this helps me connect things to each time period in a way that is better for my brain.

January 16, 2024

Page updated

Report abuse