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Post date: Apr 23, 2017 6:55:37 PM
It could be my sleep deprived state of having to finish my paper for Shinners while also studying for exams this week, but my first reaction of Benvenuto Cellini's autobiography was just "dude chill." We don't need a made up story of how your family mythically established Florence or how your grandpa lived to be over 100. Trying to be the good hust student that I am, I was curious why his name was "welcome" in English and attempted to look up why. I got something so much better: Urban Dictionary.
Believe it or not, I actually did cut out some of the nonsense and this was the "best" part of their definition. Its use in a sentence is probably my favorite part. Anyways, I think my deep hatred of how much of a "bro" he is comes from reading an early example of an autobiography. We have read other examples of people sorta writing about their life like Dante, Cereta, Petrarch, and Augustine but I guess no one was as happy or excited to write about their life as Cellini. Previous works seemed to focus on the negative parts of their lives and use their stories as a means of "inspiration" for people that hey if my life sucked this much then you can get through how much your life sucks or something like that. However, Cellini's life doesn't really seem to suck and that's why I kind hate him. He writes (dictates) "I intend to tell the story of my life with a certain amount of pride. There are many kinds of conceit, but the chief one is concern to let people know what a very ancient and gifted family one descends from" (2). I picked up some vibes of his familiarity with the stories of ancient Greece and Rome through his use of "descend" and then how his family "founded" Florence.
I honestly don't know what to think of him yet. I am trying not to let my dislike of him cloud my judgement but it is hard. I relate a lot to his sense of humor so I'm hoping to build off that connection as I read more and hopefully understand him.
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