An Ode to Hedgehogs

My Favorite Place...Practically Perfect In Every Way

I have been flying all over the world since I was young, much in part because none of my extended family lives in the United States. As I got older, my excursions got further and futher from East/Southeast Asia and began creeping into the riches of Europe, and whan incredible joy it has been. Throughout my time in Italy, Spain, Germany, etc., I kept retuning to the United Kingdom. London is truly one of the most beautiful and energetic cities I have been to. It is rich with history and culture, making Oklahoma pale in comparison. I have always preferred large cities to the mundane country life, and there is nowhere I'd rather enjoy my years than in the United Kingdom. Image Details: London at Twilight, source: Geograph What better place to feel the pulse of the city than at Piccadilly Circus? (on one side you can see some amazing architecture, and on the other the large electronic billboards always flashing their lights to the busy patrons be...

Reading Notes : Hans Christian Andersen, Part B

ANOTHER FAVORITE. The Little Mermaid is such a classic, and the original slaps. I guess I am old and beaten down now, but this version is my new favorite. The Disney version will always have a special place in my heart and be a part of my childhood, but his original version is so poetic. It is definitely more my style; it leaves an impression when the heroine doesn't get to live happily ever after, which is okay too! The world Hans Christian Andersen weaves is glorious . I could feel the mermaid's pain, urgency, and suffocating need to love and be loved. This is a story that will never get old, part of it due to how beautifully it is written. One of my favorite parts is when he describes the five older sisters and the things they experienced going to the surface for the first time. The scenes he paints makes me feel like I am experiencing those beautiful landscapes for the first time, too. Often time mermaids are fantasized, and it was interesting seeing it from the other per...

Reading Notes : Ovid's Metamorphoses Part B

For Part B of Ovid's Metamorphoses , the stories that interested me most were the ones about Narcissus and Pyramus and Thisbe . What attracted me to these in particular was the tragic endings that befell the characters, one out of pure love and one out of vain infatuation. After reading them together, it is hard to not compare the two. In both, I could understand (but not relate) to the intesity of each person's emotions, which ultimately caused everyone's untimely death. Both stories were not afraid to use the extreme end of the dramatic spectrum to describe the depth of feelings. I like this technique; there is no wishy-washiness and the reader is very clear at where each character stands. Part of this is because the characters take out their emotions on their own bodies, and the consequence is clear. When Narcissus cannot embrace his own appearance, he beats his own chest and bruises his marble-like body. Pyramus, after finding Thisbe's bloody scarf, stabs him...

Mythology and Folklore

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