The Addie Conundrum

We are pretty well into the book As I lay Dying, and we have had a good bit of insight into the lives of the Bundren family. Halfway into the book I thought that I was beginning to understand the family dynamics there, but then Addie's chapter was introduced (even though she's dead...) and I am so confused.

At the beginning of the novel, Addie was not dead yet but she did talk and was too weak to get out of bed. We saw that Cora and others were not very fond of Anse Bundren, Addie's husband, but Cora was Addie's friend so I had no reason to think much of Addie. Instead, my focus was on how Anse couldn't seem to do much of anything right. I also focused on how the children were all kind of weird in their own ways, but I chalked that up to the time period and dealing with their mother being on her deathbed. I figured that, since Anse seemed to be an incapable person in general, let alone as a father, that Addie must have been a great mother and the person to balance out Anse's incapabilities. 

But Addie's chapter (starting on p. 169 in my edition) wiped that theory out of the water.

Addie only married Anse because in that time period the socially acceptable thing was to do was get married and Anse was there. She never loved him, either. She said that Anse could use the word love, but she never would because words obscure reality. Addie had then had an affair with Whitfield, resulting in the birth of Jewel. She then had Dewey Dell with Anse to 'negate' Jewel. She had her last few children for Anse to make it up to him, even though he was never told about the affair or that Jewel wasn't his son. Then at the end of the chapter she said something about how, after she had Vardaman, she could die because she had done her duty. I don't know... it is all so confusing. Basically, Addie doesn't seem to be a good mother, she only has kid's because she's supposed to. I'm now going to have to reevaluate my understanding of the Bundren family.

Odysseus, Y U So Foolish?

[Title inspiration goes to Madeleine Nelson, with her Homer, y u so sad? Madeleine, at this moment I have no idea what your post is actually about because I saw your post title and I got this idea, but I'll read your post as soon as I finish this one.]

Odysseus is clearly supposed the hero of this story, but he does SO MANY STUPID THINGS. Like seriously, his life could be so much easier, and he could actually get home to his family like he claims to want.

But if he wants to get home to his family, why does he sleep with Calypso when she is finally letting him leave?
And why, when he is on King Alcinous' island, does he ask the bard to sing of the Trojan horse if he clearly can't control his emotions?

At this point of the epic, King Alcinous is finally like, "Dude, who the heck are you?" to Odysseus, and Odysseus tells his story, which brings up a lot more questions:

Why does Odysseus stay in the cyclops' cave for longer than necessary to grab some food? What did he think was going to happen, the huge cyclops would come back and invite the strangers who stole his food to a tea party? I don't think so. Well actually, I guess maybe he did expect a tea party since that's how the other kings had treated him, but in this situation Odysseus took advantage of the cyclops in a similar way to how the suitors were taking advantage of his family. Seriously, what was going through Odysseus' head?
AND THEN ODYSSEUS GETS ON THE BOAT AND TAUNTS THE CYCLOPS?! Are you kidding me Odysseus? Your 20 year journey is completely your fault. Seriously the whole thing could have been avoided.

And what was the deal with Odysseus and Circe? He legitimately just was like, "Nope, I'm not going home yet, even though I can, instead I'll just stay here for a year and live in luxury and bed this super hot wicca babe, no matter that I have a wife and child at home waiting for me." He's a king, so I guess his subjects were waiting for him too. I really do not understand Odysseus at this point.

In book 12, Odysseus continued with the trend of foolishness; he wanted to listen to the sirens song just so that he could be the only one to have heard it and survive, and then he went and tried to fight Scylla even though he was told not to?

I really have no idea what to think of Odysseus at this point -- actually, I do, but it's definitely not that he's a hero. I don't see him as a hero at all so far, and I can only hope that he will be a dynamic character and have some legitimate hero moments later on because so far I am not impressed by him.

My Mommy Taught Me Stranger Danger

In class right now we are reading The Odyssey, and a common theme that keeps popping up is hospitality. In books three and four, King Nestor at Pylos and then King Menelaus welcome Telemachus into their homes and feed him and help him, a complete stranger, as much as they can. This also happens to Odysseus in book six and seven. First, Princess Nausicaa gave him clothes even though he was just a random naked dude who washed up on the beach. Then in the next book her parents, King Alcinous and Queen Arete, end up welcoming a random stranger, who just appeared out of nowhere might I add, to their feast. They then offer up their daughter for marriage without knowing anything about this dude -- not even his name. Still ignorant of the name of this complete stranger, they offer him a boat and other such things of value.

That's just kinda weird.

I don't know if that's how people actually were in Ancient Greece or if it's just a theme shown throughout the book to emphasize the way the swaggering suitors are being rude and taking advantage of Odysseus and Telemachus' home and valuables. Either way, this would not at all happen in current times. Nowadays, we are incredibly cautious and if I ran into a naked dude at the beach I would probably be really creeped out. If he asked for my help I'd give him a sweatshirt if he asked while calling the police so they could help him or be able to track my phone if he tried to kill me or something. And lets be honest here, if some random dude just appeared during dinner, I'd probably pull a Rapunzel and hit him over the head with a frying pan.

No Reality Allowed

In class the other day, we engaged in a rousing conversation (well, others engaged, I listened intently) about what our reactions would be if Batman was real. Besides the fact that I don't usually get to discuss my DC and Marvel interests during class time (with permission) it was a really eye opening experience for one main reason:

I realized that if I were to walk down the street and come across Batman or Superman or Spider-Man or Captain America or, oh god, the Hulk, I would freak the fuck out.

I don't mean freak out in that excited fan-girlish way that we witness outside One Direction concerts, I mean I would want to run away screaming in panic and the only reason I wouldn't is that I knew the supposed hero had the potential to catch and snap me in half before I could make it to the next sidewalk square if they really wanted to. The thing is, while the idea of a superhero to help keep the streets clean is very appealing, the reality is much less so. Do you really want someone who seems to be extremely powerful, seemingly uncontrollable and untouchable, walking around? Especially if part of their powerful-ness is special magic-type shiz you've never seen or been introduced to before? Especially if their only weakness is something like Kryptonite, which you can't even get on this planet meaning you're most likely royally screwed? Oh, AND they like to wear tights around just for fun?

You'd think most people would be freaked out.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing on superheroes or anything, they are one of my hidden addictions; I'm kinda in love with Steve Rogers (he becomes so much more bad-ass in Cap 2) and I have a not-so-hidden, not-so-healthy obsession with Harry Potter. The fact that I have read all of the books 20-30 times each, read and write HP fanfiction for fun, have a dedicated Harry Potter shelf in my room for the books, spin-offs, my wand and other HP artifacts, and also based my blog title off of it (thanks Hermione) should be enough proof of that. All I'm trying to say is that if any of the superheroes were to exist in real life we would not know their back stories, or what they do while not in overly-gaudy garb, or who broke their heart back in the seventh grade. The only thing we would be aware of was that they were strong and we were not and thus we would be defenseless in comparison. This may not be the best example, but think Syndrome from the Incredibles; for all we know the superhero could just as easily be evil. And then we would be out of luck. Which would be extremely unfortunate.

I know that isn't really fair to the superhero if all they were really tying to do was help us, but that's just how it is. In fact, now that I'm thinking about it, the writers for all of these superhero books and movies and cartoons seem to know that the public would not be the most welcoming to them. In the Avengers, the Avengers are blamed by the media for the destruction of New York post-battle, despite the fact that they just saved the human race from an alien invasion. In Harry Potter, Harry suffers from the Daily Prophet dragging his name through the mud. In Spider-Man (the cartoons at least) the paper bashes him over and over again because they don't think him being a vigilante in that way is good. That also happens in one of the newer Spider-Man movies with Andrew Garfield (whom I love, by the way) except I know the police have a lot to say about him and not so much the newspaper. I can't think of any specific other examples off the top of my head at the moment, but it is is a very common theme because it is human nature to be wary of those who are not the same as us.

Alas, I guess that although in my head having superheroes around would be super cool, the reality of the situation would not be nearly so pleasant.