They Cheated? Off With Their Head!

Okay, so here's the thing: Utopia is just straight-up weird. I mean, it's kind of cool but it's just very, very different. The people there seem cool as hell, and it would probably be a pretty interesting place to live, considering the short work days and emphasis on staying in shape.

The thing that I found the most interesting would probably be the fact that the Utopians execute those who have cheated twice. In some cases, I think that would be a little excessive, but at the same time, giving someone that grace period in the beginning and chalking it all up to a mistake would probably be the best way to make them understand that what they did was wrong. I almost agree with killing them on the second offense... Almost.

Anyway, there are some other interesting aspects of Utopia as well, like the fact that they really don't fight unless provoked and hate war altogether. Their society seems to work so well that maybe we should rip a page from their book... But of course I'm sure we'd find a way to screw up that way of life as well. 

Who Is The Squyer...?

So I'm not going to lie, it took me about a solid half an hour just to read the beginning of the prologue to this story. That kind of makes me nervous considering we haven't even started reading the actual story yet, and there are a little less than 400 pages in this version of The Canterbury Tales.

But, that terrifying fact aside, I kind of enjoyed the introduction of Chaucer's story (once I finally understood what exactly was going on) and I'm interested to see where it goes from here. It is slightly annoying that I have to continue looking from the footnotes to the explanations on the right side of the page to the actual writing itself, but honestly I'd be lost without all of the help in understanding Chaucer's language. 

The prologue starts off like practically every other book I've read that was written in Middle English: there's a super cool knight with super cool (almost demigod) abilities and a spotless reputation. So far, so good. Chaucer has introduced us to such a character right off the bat.

However, I have to say, I'm much more interested in this squire guy; the knight's twenty year-old son. I honestly wonder why he was mentioned at all, but I'm hoping that he becomes the central character in this story because he does seem to have a more interesting personality than his dad, who seems to be the stereotypical chivalrous knight from back in the day. Cool and all, but I want some variation, yanno? Anyway, when Chaucer described the squire as a dude that sings and dances, for some reason I couldn't stop picturing Eddie Redmayne in Les Mis. Weird, I know, because this man was no knight and this is the wrong time period and setting, but hey, I'm gonna run with it. 

Basically, I'm just stoked to see what comes out of this squire dude. I feel like he has some solid potential, and if he's as available as Chaucer makes him out to be, there's no doubt in my mind that a lady will be introduced sometime in the near future. Now I'm not a huge fan of sappy romances, especially when they're written in Middle English (sorry Dr. MB) but maybe I could get behind this one considering I've read about twenty lines that talked about the squire and I'm already in his corner. Well done, Chaucer. Well done.

Not Quite The Wolf Guy I Pictured...

So basically I never read Beowulf and quite frankly, I never had much desire to. A lot of my friends in high school read it, but I must have skillfully avoided that requirement, because I haven't had to touch the poem until today. Honestly, I wasn't sure what to expect. I knew that there was a Beowulf movie, and although I have never seen it, I know that the main character is a wolf (at least I think so, anyway). I was kind of expecting Beowulf to be a strange werewolf guy or something of that nature, and I must say that I was a little disappointed when I discovered that this guy didn't have fangs. Lame.

So anyway, after I got over my extreme disappointment, I realized that this poem is actually really cool. My high school friends were totally wrong about it being boring. I do have to say that the old English references are a little rough and the fact that I have to keep checking the footnotes gets a little frustrating, but once you get past that aspect of it, the poem is really interesting. I, of course, got super into it when Grendel was introduced. 

The history of Beowulf was cool and everything, but when I started to read about a "fiend from hell" (101) that was "grim and ravenous" (121) my interest was piqued. Of course, at the end of our reading it appears as though Grendel is defeated... 

Would it be wrong for me to hope that this isn't the case? Aside from Beowulf himself, I think Grendel is one of the coolest characters in the poem. I'm kind of rooting for him, but of course, I have to say that I hope Beowulf comes out on top. I guess I'm just going to have to be patient and see what happens next!