Franken-freak

After reading Grendel I am pretty stoked to have a book where I DON'T know what is going to happen and their is actually stuff going on, not just stuff that physically made my brain hurt :( but anywho. So for my research for this week I looked up the Byronic hero. The byronic hero is a fictional and cultural character type popular in the Romantic era and beyond. This character may appear in fiction, poetry, or history. So, I looked up some Byronic heroes: You have Grendel from Beowulf, Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, Edward from Twilight (I would like to point out the irony of Heathcliff and Edward being Byronic characters; one redeeming quality of Stephanie Meyer), Anakin from Star Wars, the list goes on and on. By studying these examples of Byronic heroes I though I could decipher which character in Frankenstein was a Byronic hero, the monster or Victor, but I really couldn't. Both characters are dark/cynical/brilliant in their own ways, they have wandering or searching behavior, the are haunted by some sin or crime, and they appeal to society by standing apart from society. Some of the qualities are more fufilled by the monster and others are more fulfilled by Voctor. Obviously with a tie to Grendel, we see that instead of Beowulf Grendel is the Byronic hero but Victor is more tightly connected to a monster than Beowulf ever was so it is a mystery! I am hoping that over time it will become more clear to me but this is AP literature so I doubt I will ever get a clear answer :p I am thinking they are BOTH byronic heroes... But anyway, I love this whole byronic hero stuff. It's fascinating. I decided to think about some of my friends and figure out which ones were Byronic heroes and it was kind of funny because I actually did find some that fit the card. The other funny thing that I discovered is that I listen to a lot of music that is related to Byronic heroes such as the Doors, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and the Cure. I never knew so many people and characters that surround my life were related to this. I kind of want to be a Byronic hero. Doesn't everyone? to be the cool, sexy, cynical one that no one can figure out? I think it might be tougher than I'm expecting... Another thing that I have noticed is that the Romantic era has never ended. The interest in Romantic "poetry" is a continuing motif in popular culture. Romanticism values imagination and emotion over rationality. And is that not what love really is? All of these Byronic heroes who write music write music that echoes Romantic themes and seem to be reincarnations of Romantic poets. Their music discusses the forever broken heartedness that consumes them but they will never be rational and just quit. *Sigh* I want my own Kurt Cobain.. okay maybe not.. but still the same general idea :)

Grendel is not satan... He is a satanic priest!

So, I have been analyzing Grendel these past 100 pages because the content is getting a little "what in the world are you talking about John Gardner?" BUT, I have come to a conclusion, Grendel is portrayed as a Devil creature, and Satan in Beowulf but is not described that way in the story of Grendel, I believe he is what I would like to call a "Satanic Priest." He preaches of things related to evil thoughts. If the Devil had someone who was the perfect "spreader of his religion" I believe it would be Grendel. Grendel is very smart. Sometimes a little too smart but at the same time he is a tiny bit ignorant. We could say he knows about 90% of what he is talking about, much like Christian priests. You could say that Christian priests only REALLY know about 90% of what their talking about and the other 10% is very much a guessing game. I have an Uncle who is a primitive baptist preacher so I feel like I know a pretty good amount about the life and times of a preacher/priest. My uncle is not the most "holy" man ever. He has a wife, he makes jokes and he is insanely fun to be around, probably one of the funniest people I know. This is important with his job; to be a preacher you really have to be able to tell a story, and tell it well. This relates to Grendel because no, Grendel is not the most evil thing in the entire universe. Grendel actually does have some redeeming qualities (for a Devilish monster), for instance, he does not kill deer, he "takes mercy" on Wealtheow, you could say he has the ability to love. Just like priests have the ability to sin just like other people. Tying this back to the meaning in the novel, their is a large section about Grendel's interactions and feelings about priests. He tries to act like he is so much better than them when actually he is the same, just acting on a different cause. I would also like to tie this into Gardner's exestentialist beliefs.He wants someone to act on the other side. Everyone is always being pulled in the direction of God and "goodness" and I believe that frustrates Gardner. I don't think he actually wants people to support evil, but I do think he wishes that people questioned it. What is the real difference in supporting God and supporting Satan? If you give your time to God, he will bless me. If I gave my time to Satan, would Satan bless me? Did Gardner give Grendel animal and human qualities to push him in the direction of satan? More animalistic than humans, but definetely still intelligent? Either way, Grendel is turning into his own personal form of the Shaper. He is shaping people to be afraid, and to question everything they know, and he does it like an art form. He does not just slaughter people, there is thought, there is study. Grendel is more than just a monster, he is a satan helping, priest, who is furry, and kind of hilarious. Gotta love it?

Grendel. That's all I have to say.

Grendel is a timeless character. Grendel is a Willie Stark and a Jack Burden, he is a Harry Potter and a Voldemort, he is an Odysseus and a Cyclops. But what does that mean? I think it means we need to step back and find the real evil in our society. When I think of evil, I think of people who do things that are morally wrong, such as killing, molesting and emotionally disabling people. PEOPLE specifically. I do not think of monsters because monsters are not real. They just simply do not come to mind. People say that what makes a scary movie truly scary is if the situation could actually become a reality. So, monster movies are not what scare us most. So, why in the book, Beowulf, is a monster the most frightening thing they could think of? I know earlier I discussed how I loved those Anglo-saxons but now I am starting to think that they were quite ignorant. I do not think they were intelligent enough to grasp that the real horrors of our race have to do with our interactions with eachother. And that is what Grendel's story is all about. For about a week I loved Hrothgar and Beowulf but now I find them immature and power hungry. The funny thing is, Grendel is just like us. We kill innocent things everyday for the purpose of nutrition. There is no difference between us going out and buying a steak and him chomping down on some good Anglo-saxon flesh! But we like to make it all out like he's some big bad horrible guy, when actually he's just lonely and has a bit of an eating disorder. Going along with a theme of human ignorance, we are too close-minded to accept things that are different from ourselves. Even in our own race. As a kid I was picked on a lot for being really small. It has affected my entire life. I am not as confident as I could be but I have picked up a very valuable trait from it: I accept everyone. I have never said something negative about someones physical features in my whole life. I know what hurts the most, the things you cannot change. Grendel cannot change the way he looks, or his short comings as a monster. Because we are such an ignorant species we shut out things that do not always look or act like we do. EXAMPLE: aliens. There is a enormous amount of movies based on aliens coming to earth and killing us. Now I'm pretty sure if something green with a large head came striding up to me, I'd punch it and run away. Is that a correct response? NO! You have no idea if that alien is bad at all. Overall, I do not think Grendel is a book for the shallow minded, it is definetely one for the deep thinkers. Ones who questions their own feelings, actions and beliefs. If you are not thinking of these things when you read it, it could be totally worthless for you. I story about how a funny monster lost his life while doing the best he could. I see myself in Grendel. A little lost, but trying to figure it all out. I hope no one slays me :)

Anglo-saxon... LOVE IT.

So I have decided that Anglo-saxon literature is the perfect literature for me :) I really love Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars so this genre of literature was quite approriate for me. So far all I have read is Beowulf but I am definetely going to investigate to find some more anglo-saxon literature to enjoy. I am a woman who enjoys larger than life male protagonists. Frodo Baggins, Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker and now, Beowulf. Anglo-saxon literature also has that mobster feel. The scary monsters are not the only things you have to worry about in the novel; you also have to worry about somebodies sibling coming back to kill you if you accidently dropped an axe on their head. A lot of times literature does not have that bonded feeling. In the Anglo-saxon culture, you will fight til the death to avenge a family member which brings about an idea in literature that you cannot always experience any where else. I also liked the idea that an average joe of sorts could defeat the most deadly creature ever discovered. It reminds me SO MUCH of Harry Potter. A young man defeats the most feared wizard of all time, Voldemort. And also, LOTR. Frodo Baggins, a hobbit, takes the ring of power through Mordor to Mount Doom and destroys it for the good of Middle Earth. Literature blooms out of other literature and I think a lot of the most memorable novels of our time come directly from the ideas of the Anglo-saxons. The only difference between the Anglo-saxon novels and the more modern novels is that in modern novels, the main character always has "help." Harry has Ron and Hermione. Ron is the character with abilities that are not always obvious, but in the end can be very helpful and Hermione is the brains of the operation while Harry is the brawn. In Beowulf, he is all of those things in one person. He is extremely smart, extremely strong and very brave. You could say that modern literature, although still very fictional, is a tiny bit more realistic (but not much). I would also like to look into the fact that there was no love in Beowulf (or in the parts we read). I think that is something that definetely contrasts to modernistic literature. I would say that romance in novels or stories was innapropriate during the 10th century and therefore was not mentioned in novelistic ideas or in poems. Or maybe they were trying to give Beowulf a godlike image? During the whole novel I was think about how he reminded me of Hercules who actually does become a God. But in Beowulf he is still mortal. But his larger than life persona takes him out of the realms of love for me. Either way this is a great novel because it incorporates everything that makes literature great. A hero and a villain.