Activity 2

Engage with and reflect on Prof. Shemek’s lectures on Boccaccio’s Decameron and the pastoral setting: What was most memorable or intriguing about what you read or heard about the relationship between the real world and the spaces of storytelling? How does the setting in Decameron compare to that of UCI? How are both spaces good for thinking about the world outside?

• During Prof. Shemek's lectures, she talks about the pastoral setting in which the Brigata choose to surround themselves in when they escaped because it was a get away and area of solitude and peace away from the Plague. This is seen when Pampinea speaks to the Brigata about they place they will be going to find solitude, described as being able to "hear the little birds sing and see the hills and plains turning green" (Boccaccio 13). This description of the setting where the Brigata escape to eclite an essence of peace because the images of hills and hearing birds sing give of peaceful connotations compared to rustling of a town or chaos of the plague. The images of hills being green give off the understanding that this place is fruitful and comforting where nothing is dying, in complete opposition from the plague they escaped from.

• Understanding how pastoral setting takes place in Bocaccio's writing, I feel the pastoral setting was also a home away from home in a way, considering their past home was corrupted with the Plague, they needed a place to feel at home or to feel comforted and the pastoral setting gave them this opportunity to feel at peace not just from the Plague but to openly speak of their desires and their stories. Seeing how such story telling brings comfort, I am able to interpret this further by looking deeper into other spaces of storytelling even outside of Boccaccio's writing. I understand this because I find myself loosing focus of my spaces and where I am when I am listening or reading a story that brings me such peace.

• The most intruiging thing about the relationship with the real world and the spaces in story telling is that they are intertwined. The pastoral setting in a way bridges the imaginary world with the real one, where though the plague is still occuring, they are away from it and at peace in such a beautiful place, and as they tell these stories, they gain a sense of fulfillment and joy and it is brought to the real world as they get to enjoy it openly in front of their group without any judgement.

• Another relationship seen between the real world and the spaces of storytelling is in which stortelling gives aid to help us cope with our own hardships in the real world. Seeing as storytelling serves as an ambigious space for an infinite amount of imagination, through this endless capacity to imagine, we ourselves can consume as much storytelling as we please, in which in turn gives us this sense of fulfillment that we may lack in the real world. One example of this is seen if we look at a piece of artwork. In artwork we find intruiging, every piece holds a significance and a sotry behind it, whether it be a painting of a part of history, a paast president, or of a time and setting of royalty. These piece hold a story behind them, where they cam from and what they refer to, and they also help us not only become so intruiged by it, but we feel so drawn to their story that we loose sight of ourselves and our own world.

  • • • • • One example of a piece of artwork that contains storytelling in which relates to the real world by providing en escape from reality is Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night. This painting explemplifies a different world and time setting, where the sky is painted in beautiful swirls that draw the viewers attention to what the sky is trying to signify.

          • As Van Gogh's painting indirectly expresses his own personal feelings and experiences while he was living under a mental asylum (https://www.vincentvangogh.org/starry-night.jsp). Being aware of this, we viewers can interpret this painting in various ways, one of which is where we are given a storytelling of his life through such beautiful painting and it is portraying the concept that in a way, it was not only to express Van Gogh's internal conflicts but to also simultaneously give an escape route from these conflicts maybe we ourselves also face by being so drawn and mesmorized with the beauty of the art and different space of thinking with its colorful blue, dark colors and yellow hues it gives us compared to being in the real world.

• The setting in Decameron I feel is similar to UCI, where we are still in this real world where there is a lot of corruption, fear, chaos in the world, but as we are inside the campus and we live in here, the campus is shaped in a circle so in a way this encloses us student from the chaos of the world. And though we have troubles such as outside campus with people, friends or family, and troubles in campus with homework, stress, etc, being in this campus that is surrounded specifically with nature and trees at Aldrich, this greenery eases our troubles where we can enjoy such beautiful scenery and be in our own world inside Aldrich park away from the modern setting and the classrooms.

• Both spaces are good for thinking about the world outside because as we live in the UCI campus, we create our own life inside with the people, classes, and we create memories inside this campus in a way where they are completely separate from the world outside such as our families, our past childhood growing up until highschool, they are completely separate yet we are able to reflect on our memories from the past but gives us a greater good to look into our future and what is to come. Similarly in Decameron the Brigata though they are still in the same world, as they are away from the Plague and town and enter a pastoral city telling tales, they get a chance to bring back the happinness they lost in the plague, and as they look back on the world outside where sickness and chaos occurs, they get to see the greater good of leaving with people who think similarly and wish to bring back the joy and fulfillment there once was through telling stories in a peaceful environment.

Works Cited:

• Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron (Norton Critical Edition). Edited and translated by Wayne A. Rebhorn. Norton, 2016. ISBN 9780393935622.

• The Starry Night, 1889 by Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night: 10 Secrets of Vincent van Gogh Night Stars Painting, November 30, 2022 https://www.vincentvangogh.org/starry-night.jsp

Reflection:

As I continue to learn and explore this website and its abilities, I feel confident that through this space provided I can exert my own ideas and thoughts to others. Being able to place my own crativity within my writing, this opportunity strengthens my abililty to persuade or highlight the importance of certain aspects I find throughout the year, whether it be through the works we read or the concept of Worldbuilding itself. SImilarly, at this moment I feel I am only "getting started" on how to express my ideas of World building, but as the year continues, I plan to be accurately knowledgable in both works and the theme of Worldbuilding in which our ideas though may seem small at this moment, but can produce a greater outcome and connection between our imagination and our reality at any given moment.

Is this university really a world apart, a pastoral setting, or does it function largely as a liminal space? Where and how does this university provide spaces for retreating, reflecting, critiquing, and building worlds with others?

I feel this university functions largely as a liminal space. Though we live in this university and it encircles us away from the real world to provide this pastoral setting of nature, at the same time after we build our own individual lives, we will eventually leave back to the real world. In this university we are able to grow idividually away from societal pressures and the choas that is exhibited outside of campus but at the same time we experience a different level of the real world, where there is stress surrounding school and the choas that surrounds our transition from childhood to adulthood in which we experience new things both good and bad to help us grow. Yet, this university provides a space to retreat from our troubles both in the real world and in college, like Aldrich park's pastoral setting that centers around the buildings. We can retreat from our troubles in college by simply exiting the buildings to the center of the park where nature encricles us and we can find peace. We in turn are able to reflect on our lives in this peaceful setting where there is no interupption and critique our troubles to find solutions with the help of a quiet concentrated setting with small animals and the sound of trees swaying with the wind. Through this university we in the end are able to help others and build worlds with others where they are able to enter our live and we theres, and create loving memories and meaningful friendships and relationships with eachother to help us grow indivudally and together.