Literature

"The Japanese haiku is founded on oneness with the natural world" (p.74)

I like haikus a lot and had to write them often growing up in school even though at the time I might have found them boring or tiresome. However around the end of high school I became pen pals with a girl from Japan and I started to learn Japanese as I helped her learn English. One time she sent me a haiku attached to her letter that she had written at a festival in her hometown and I realized why this type of poem originated from Japan. In the Japanese language they have 3 alphabets which are, hiragana, katakana, and kanji, which are used in various circumstances but almost always are found together in Japanese writing. Two of them, hiragana, and katakana, follow the same style ( the only exception is kanji which consists of singular characters that represent a whole word that can also be written in hiragana ) of all characters, or, letters being a single syllable. This is why haikus written in English often seem broken or awkward because they don't follow the same syllable system as Japanese. However after the letter from her I came to appreciate haikus more because it seemed as if everything made sense all of a sudden.

"What is chanting but intoning words in rhythm and often in rhyme: in short, poetry?" (p.76)

Growing up in a southern Baptist household is a core part of my being as it shaped my religious views to this day. However I never thought of songs that were sang in church as poetry until reading this quote. It makes a lot of sense and thinking back of songs like silent night, and even the basic communion prayer, I have come to realize and appreciate the powerful poetry that can be found throughout scripture. I really have come to appreciate and enjoy poetry more after this lesson.

"Hemingway’s 1940 novel about the Spanish Civil War, For Whom the Bell Tolls, has what many critics have regarded as the author’s most memorable portrait of the stoic, courageous hero, one who is willing to die for a cause that is not his own." (p.84)

I enjoy a lot of writing about conflict as a historian as its a great way for writers to explain to others their feelings and passions in a time were people are killing each other over something that many outsiders would view as meaningless. The Spanish civil war is not only one of the most brutal civil wars to occur in Europe during the last few hundreds of years, but it had many popular authors fight alongside each side for various political reasons. Authors such as George Orwell who wrote books such as, "1984", and "Animal Farm", wrote a book about his time fighting in the war in the book called, "Homage to Catalonia", as well as Peter kemp's who would go on to write, "Mine were of Trouble" from an opposite side of the war. Both of these authors wrote incredible books detailing the struggles and horror of war from two complete different sides of the political spectrum and yet both capture the spirit and values that caused a nation to split apart. I would highly recommend both books to read and found them both extremely enjoyable.