The Gods

"Very important but assigned to no abode whether in heaven or on earth were The Fates, Moirae in Greek, Parcae in Latin, who, Hesiod says, give to men at birth evil and good to have. They were three, Clotho, the Spinner, who spun the thread of life; Lachesis, the Disposer of Lots, who assigned to each man his destiny; Atropos, she who could not be turned, who carried "the abhorred shears" and cut the thread at death."


This paragraph stuck out to me, because I remembered the Hercules movie that included The Fates. In my mind, they seemed a lot more frightening in the movie than they actually were. The movie, Hercules, was inaccurate, but good in the sense it told some of Greek mythology the correct way. The Fates in the movie each shared one eye, so in my mind, the writers of this film mixed The Fates with The Graiae, because those are the women that shared the one eye, not The Fates. I think that the movie was more interesting this way, but I also wonder why the writers didn't just write the mythology the correct way. The Graiae, the one eye sharing sisters, I think were just a group of sisters that writers of Hercules just wanted something to join The Fates with. Weird, but at the same time, interesting. 

Machu Picchu

"Remove that temporary thirty-foot wooden plank link and the site of Machu Picchu is protected by its isolation. The upper gate to the city is in a formidable wall where, again deliberately, one views Huayna Picchu's sheer peak framed in the doorway above the site. This all adds to its magnetic appeal and enhances the mystique surrounding its status as a "lost" city. What seems more and more likely is that Machu Picchu was probably designed to be remote and difficult to find. Machu Picchu is an example of the greatest Inca stone working genius."


I find this book titled "Ten Discoveries That Rewrote History", interesting, but I find this section on Machu Picchu, much more intriguing. The Incas, the "stone working genius", were a brilliant people. In my opnion, the Incas built Mach Picchu TO keep it hidden, because during that time Spanish conquistadors were invading and looking for gold and settlements. The Incas were smart in their building too, because the location itself is hard to find, being it's on top of a mountain hidden by trees, brush, and protected by nature's creatures. It amazes me to think that before all of us, the generation now, a group of people were so smart and so creative enough to leave a place so beautiful behind, unknowingly. I doubt they imagined it would ever be found by anyone ever again. Machu picchu, which was built in secret, is indeed one of the ten greatest discoveries. 

How to Read Literature Like a Professor.

"A moment occurs in this exchange between professor and student when each of us adopts a look. My look says, "What, you don't get it?" Theirs says, "We don't get it. And we think you're making it up." We're having a communication problem. Basically, we've all read the same story, but we haven't used the same analytical apparatus. If you've ever spent time in a literature classroom as a student or a professor, you know this moment. It may seem at times as if the professor is either inventing interpretations out of thin air or else performing parlor tricks, a sort of analytical sleight of hand."


When I read this paragraph included in the introduction, I immediately realized that I had a huge smile on my face spread from ear to ear. I started ACE Charter in the middle of my freshmen year, and it was a very hard adjustment starting there coming out of public school, especially in regards to language arts. I've always loved reading and writing, but ACE was and still is, a step further than me. I remember being very frustrated with the language arts class, because I didn't "get it', and did think my teacher was "making it up".  I eventually started to gradually get the pattern of the class, and I must say, it's because of my teacher.
Many do not care for teachers, but mine, is great! Of course she is on a different level of understanding, but she's supposed to be. When the author mentioned the interpretations part, I laughed, because my class is always discussing interpretations and their meanings. Even today I think, "How on earth did Mrs. Z, come up with that?" I think this situation for students is a worldwide problem, but a humorous one.