Journal #1 

Hariot will go on to then talk about how he dropped information about his own religion and how the people of Virgina immediately loved it. Hariot wrote that even though the Bible was not divine in its own right, "... many would be glad to touch it, to embrace it, to kisse it, to hold it to their brests and heades, and stroke all ouer their bodie with it; to shewe their hungrie desire of that knowledge which was spoken of" (p. 40). Hariot had to throw in this embracing of religion to his audience, who were supposedly all of the people back in his country. He had to reinforce the idea that their religion was so much better and that they were so much more advanced, because who could ever believe that a woman was made first?

Raphael takes time to talk to the Cardinal (who I understood to be Thomas's patron) about the idea that people are being hung for petty thievery. That's where I got the main quote for the commonplace; "It seems to me a very unjust thing to take away a man's life for a little money, for nothing in the world can be of equal value with a man's life." 

As a Criminology major and someone who works in the juvenile justice system, this quote really struck home for me. I've read in class about students who have gotten into fights that landed them in juvie, which then ruined the rest of their lives. We aren't hanging people for thievery anymore, but we are incarcerating them and putting a ton of shame and stigma on them that follows them for the rest of their lives. The amount of juvenile delinquents who can't go back to school and who lose out on job and college opportunities is crazy. 

Maybe in a perfect Utopia, this will be fixed. Raphael mentioned retributions from Persia, which was interesting because that is now being discussed as a penal alternative. 

Each color of Post-It Notes represents a different inquisitor of Anne. The amount of questions that she had to sit through multiple times was pretty intense. She then mentions a passage from Proverbs (19) where Solomon said, "That a woman of few words is a gift of God." Before that, she had said, "God hath given me the gift of knowledge but not of utterance." Anne is refusing to answer these questions, not because she doesn't have the answer, but simply because she doesn't want to have to explain herself and her religion to every single person who asks. 

I also chose this because it represents the ideal woman at the time. It reminds me of when people used to say that children should be seen and not heard; the same went for women long before that. Like... imagine me (ME!) as the silent stoic type?! Nuts. I love hearing women speak. 

Out of the few quotes I wrote down, the one I really wanted to focus on was Desdemona's line, "His unkindness may defeat my life, but never my love." To be honest, at the beginning of the play, I wasn't sure how to feel about Desdemona. Her character seemed flat to me. Towards the end, I liked her more; she was a very good friend to Cassio and Emilia and genuinely a good wife. Even when Othello comes at her with an insane accusation, she keeps her cool. Desdemona loves Othello. Even when he's being rude and unkind, she shows concern for him and talks about how she's never seen this behavior from him. She says in the quote that even if he's acting this way, it doesn't affect her love for him. 

The quote Piper chose about "A woman alone was the subject of jest or horror." The fact that women in history have been hinged on men is still happening now. The first time I remember a man being referred to as "x's Husband" was with Simone Biles. But every single woman seems to be referred by their relationship to a man, "This is x's daughter," "x's sister," or "x's partner." It's really frustrating. 

I love how Piper talks about women's sexuality as it has always existed. Still, the overt way Othello and Desdemona refer to it in the text seems different than expected for this period.  But there's also the fact that maybe it's okay because a man wrote it. If a woman had written this work, what would the difference be? But the fact that even the woman's sexuality is attached to a man is insane (thanks, patrilineality). I don't know. I feel like I'm ranting, but I'd almost rather be the subject of jest or horror than have all my characteristics attached to my boyfriend's. 

Desdemona has been played in the minstrel versions as a joke, as someone who is just seeking this "exotic man," and it sucks. There's surely more to her than solely her attraction, and more than what the men see as drawing her attention. 

I composed the background of almost entirely the 'Actor's' inner thoughts. The actor has a name, Keith, but he's never referred to that way in the script itself; he's just an actor. I thought that distinction was really interesting. It allows many kinds of people to relate in a way that doesn't come as naturally to named characters. 

The fact that this script is essentially one big monologue is astounding. I mean, even though he is not 'acting' in the story, the actor delivers much more heartfelt and relatable lines than any version of Othello ever could. Othello is the titular name of the play, yet all of these lines, these emotions, he doesn't get to express them in Shakespeare's play. The themes here are much more overt, with the actor coming out and saying this. But having all of this over the play Othello was amazing. 

I have so many thoughts about this play, I'm going to have to cut myself off. I made another journal page (or have plans to, if I don't get a chance to do it) about some of the lines relating to acting that he mentioned in the beginning. Overall, this is probably my favorite thing that we've read in a long time. My favorite of this tandem so far, for sure. 

Heaven (and its inhabitants are described as having "uniterrupted joy and unrivalled love". While the setting is described in term of riches (what this purposeful? to bring envy to a Satan who covets riches and power?) there is gold and diamond and pearl and jasper. 

Earth is described as overwhelmingly green, "verduous walls" and "steep wilderness" and "vernal delight". Satan (or the poet) even refer to is as Paradise, but we know it's Eden. A Paradise on Earth.

The stem, the place where the flower goes into the Earth, is made up of the passages where Imoinda is killed. The leaf is her bravery right before her death, it's nourishing her death and her bravery was what gave the flower (the rest of her) her basis. I found Imoinda incredibly brave. I actually did like her character. The way she's described as going to her death really haunted me, that's why I chose the quote at the top: "the lovely, young and adorned victim lays down before her sacrificer".

The way that she's referred to as a victim feels like it goes so much farther than just her death. She was a victim of the king, then of a slaver, then of her own husband. It really is tragic. Her character broke my heart a little bit. 

I chose to add fairies from the children's book series Rainbow Magic by Daisy Meadows to represent the childlike nature of fairytales and try to capture that element of the supernatural in a cute way. Each of these fairies were connected to different flowers, some of which did not have a corresponding fairy. So I chose a Rose Fairy (same as name), a Tulip Fairy (same name), a Royal Family Fairy (representing the pomegranate flower), a Unicorn Fairy (carnation), a Reef Fairy (anemone, like what I did there?), a Royal Adventure Fairy (columbine), and a Little Mermaid Fairy to represent to the Fairy of the Fountain (she's in a fountain!). I thought these would all fit into the themes of what happens in the book even though they didn't match the flowers given to the Queen. 

As for the quote, I chose the one where the fairies endowed Desiree with her gifts. Throughout the tale, I was so focused on the fairies. To me they seemed to be the ones moving the story along and they even created the main character (Desiree). One of them was 'evil' and the Tulip fairy acted almost like a Fairy godmother so it showed the wide range of uses for these little creatures. 

The problem that I have with "powerful women" is that it always seems to be derived from some sort of seduction. A lot of strong women in shows or even comics will have the skimpiest outfits and will use their sexual prowess to lure people in. And that's FINE, like GO WOMEN!!! But there's something to be said about sexuality and promiscuous women being seen as the villain or being seen as bad. 

Now onto the quotes that I chose for my journal, you know what I'm supposed to be talking about.  I chose a lot of quotes centered around wealth and how that influences the Sultan's view for example, "[The Sultan] did not even think to discover whether Aladdin's other qualities might make for a suitable son-in-law. The mere sight of such riches... persuaded him that Aladdin had every accomplishment one could wish for". The way that riches and wealth completely change the perspective of someone literally still exists now. At one point Aladdin talks about how deceitful the Maghrebi magician is, but look at him!!! He's flaunting wealth that isn't his and it's working to  change people's opinion of him, like wow, talk about deceit. 

I also wrote "What about Princess Badr al-Badur?" underneath because it seems like such a careless thing for the Sultan to do, to look at riches and not the personality of the man asking for your daughter's hand. I know this isn't an uncommon thing, but it still gets me every time.

The rest of the quote states, "She is an ornament, there to entertain the curious; as a result it only takes an imperious nature to combine with a taste for dissapation, and she will slip into a moral decline, move quickly from independence to licentiousness, and soon aroud the scorn and indignation of men, even though men are inclined through self-interest to tolerate the vices of youth on account of its attractions." Okay, wow. Long quote. However, this is precisely the reason why it was so hard to pick one. Zilia has gone on a rant in her letters to Aza about how the French treat their women for this whole letter (34) and the one before that. It's quite a powerful commentary on French society, which is interesting because during this time there would have been an emphasis on loving the country and saying nothing bad about it (thanks absolutism). The genius is that there's no way a French person would be able to read this from another French person and not think them a hypocrite. So the fact that this is posed as an outsider noticing things about French culture? If the French were worried about appearances to other countries, well they've got their outsider opinion now, and it's not pretty.