Monday, January 30th, 2012

1/30/2010

Scribe

Happy Monday!!

To start the day we received Frankenstein books from Mrs. Smith and turned in “The Fall of Satan, make sure you get one if you were absent!

Homework: Read Frankenstein vii-xxii, and work on Last Lecture Part one.

The class held a fishbowl with just one outside group (no inner circle). The topic of discussion was “To what extent does a creation have responsibility for his creation”? Think about this topic and see if you can conclude any arguments.

A lot of interesting topics were brought up in the discussion…

· Greed

· What is Success? Who defines it?

· Who is responsible for our actions? Why do we hold ourselves accountable for our actions and not god?

Friday January 27, 2012

Happy Friday!
Smith was gone today so Mr. Rosenberg was the substitute. We started out by turning in the Two Gallants packet, highlighted with the 7 deadly sins labeled. After that we had a really great discussion about today's blog question "what are some of the greatest wrongs that society can commit?" The responses included murder, greed, betrayal, faith vs. no faith and pride. We finally got to the packet and book work midway through class.

The homework for the weekend is to finish reading "Paradise Lost (pgs. 435-448) in the lit book, respond to the blog question "how does a good and just God allow evil to exist?" and work on the first part of your Last Lecture.

*Don't forget that the final discussion for the unit is on Monday! Come prepared with questions.

Good God

WHy does a just and good God allow evil to exist? How does this connect with Milton's belief about humans?

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Once again the usual Hello Class, oh Hello Smith was given.

Finished Reading Divine Comedy, Cantos 5 and Cantos 34

While reading we discussed about how eat sin that was mentioned were two sided, such as love and gluttony. Also, why was hell cold in Dante’s eyes? There is no love or hope that may bring light.

Dante’s Sins

1.       Limbo

2.       Lustful

3.       Gluttonous

4.       Avarice

5.       Wrathful

6.       Heretics

7.       Violent

8.       Fraud

9.       Betrayal

Started reading Two Gallants, highlighted examples of the seven deadly sins and labeled them.

HW: Finish reading Two Gallants-highlight examples of each of seven deadly sins and label. Blog Question, Hooray! What are the greatest wrongs society/individual can commit? And LL part 1

Seven Deadly Sins: Link on class calendar for further explanation on each sin

Wrath

Greed

Sloth

Pride

Lust

Envy

Gluttony

Greatest wrongs

What are some of the greatest wrongs society can commit? Why are they wrong?

Monday, January 23, 2012

Mrs. Smith gave the usual Hello class as always. 

Discussed creation stories: Genesis vs Q’ran

Genesis, just recapped some points 

Moment when they ate the forbidden fruit, don’t recall that whole part because we thought that both Adam and Eve ate the fruit not just Eve.

Interesting when they described god as a sole rather than a human being.

Were suppose to be made in God’s form, but Eve ate from the forbidden tree and that wasn’t the case.

Q’ran

 The same compared to the Genesis, with Adam and Eve are embarrassed to walk around with no clothes.

Allah created Earth in 7 days.

There are consequences for every action.

Discussed about the Guiding Question: 

“To what extent does a creator have responsibility for its creation? When does the creation assume responsibility for its own actions?”

Something to think about in terms of creators

GodàHumansàFreewill/Hope

SatanàSins (7 Deadly) àTemptation/Despair/Consequences

Read Part of the Divine Comedy, Cantos 1, 3, and the beginning of 5

Side Notes

Role of Guide?

Virgil represents reason and logic

Purpose of Cantos 1, set up where Dante is in the dark woods and where he is going next which is the Vestibule

HW: Keep working on LL Part 1

Friday January 20, 2012

It's Friday assembly day!

First we turned in our summary/response on Hell and the homework for the weekend is to read the part of the Quran and to work on the first part of your Last Lecture. Remember it's due February 10 so there are only three weeks left!

We discussed the concept of paying for our decisions in the after-life versus paying the consequences now.  Kati brought up a good point that the way Dante put it, it was more of paying for your personality traits (lust, wrath etc.) instead of for your actions. Connor talked about maybe God has a plan for everyone and he puts you in situations that will help you learn life lessons and he wants to give you the opportunity to get to Heaven.  Molly talked about that the moment you deny God is when you will go to Hell and he gives you a lot of chances to prove yourself. We discussed forgiveness and how the line between Heaven and Hell depends on what you believe in. A question that was asked was how do people have an image of Hell even though no one has been to Hell and back?  We talked about why Satan has the image of red with horns and hooves.  There's also an interpretation of Hell being really cold and how Satan is frozen in ice.

Smith decided that we will not have a test over the Hell unit, instead we will have an "aquarium style" fishbowl where everyone is involved.

Next week we will start reading Dante and Milton.

In the Literature books we started reading the Creation story, Genesis.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Agenda:

We listened to four songs: (lyrics for these songs are on Smiths WEBPAGE)

·      Devil Went Down to Georgia- Charlie Daniels Band

·      Crossroads (Robert Johnson was the original artist) Eric Clapton

·      Highway to Hell (an interesting interpretation of sins and what it takes to get to hell)-ACDC

·      Hells Bells-ACDC

Watching pieces from two movies:

·      Bedazzled

·      Devil’s Advocate

Homework for tonight: SR: NO more than 1 ½ pages due Friday. LL Part 1 due Feb. 9. Also try to do the “Where do you fall on Dante’s 9 circles of hell?” quiz

The following table is just a list of all of the songs and movies we have looked at so far:

Songs	Movies
Sympathy for the Devil	Legend-Ridley Scott
Seven Deadly Sins-Flogging Molly	Satan’s Sweet 16-South Park
The Devil Went Down to Georgia- The Charlie Daniels Band	Bedazzled- Satan as a Female
Crossroads-Eric Clapton	Devil’s Advocate
Highway to Hell, Hells Bells-ACDC

The following are some notes and quotes from the two videos we watched today

Bedazzled: (Elizabeth Hurley, Brendan Fraser)

“I’m not all peaches and cream you know, I have a darker side too.” – The devil (Elizabeth Hurley) to Elliot (Brendan Fraser)

“If you commit one truly benevolent act it voids the contract.” (Hurley) Meaning if you make a selfless wish the contract that states Satan gets his souls is void.

“You don’t have to look very hard for heaven and Hell, They’re right here on earth.” (Hurley)

Devil’s Advocate: (Al Pacino, Keanu Reeves)

John Milton (Pacino) reveals his self to Kevin (Reeves) through an argument. Although he doesn’t flat out say “I am the Devil”. Pacino represents The Devil in human form.

Kevin shoots John but the bullets just bounce off. John sort of messes with Kevin’s mind by teasing him about his deceased wife. The following is a part of the conversation between John and Kevin:

“What are you?”

“Oh, I have so many names…”

“Satan?”

“Oh no, call me dad!”

“Guilt is like a bag of bricks, you just gotta set it down.” (Pacino)

In this version of hell vanity is the devil’s “favorite” sin.

“It’s better to Reign in hell than to serve in heaven.” (Pacino)

**Remember Dante’s Classification of Sins when you’re writing your SR

***Dante talks about hell being a frozen place rather than a hot place

There are THREE significant animals Dante meets. (Remember the lion, the witch and the wardrobe? Well what did Aslan represent? Aslan he represented God and the Witch represented the Devil)

Brainstorming About all of the things we have seen: **think about this question, how do these things relate to Dante? The Creator? Responsibility of the creator?

·      Satan

·      Hell/After Life

·      Sins

·      Redemption

·      Consequences

·      Responsibility of the Creator

·      Under Satan there is no “free will”

·      Satan is tangible, whereas God is not

·      Do we give into temptations

·      Creator vs. Creation

o   God is the Creator: He creates you one way and gives you the choice to do what you want but does not tempt you to do it his way (Selfless acts)

o   Satan as the Creator: he creates you one way and gives you the choice to do what you want but pressures you to do it his way, applies great temptation (Selfish)

Dante needed Virgil to lead him through hell because reason can only get you so far; Faith is the only thing that will get you to heaven

Think about the Seven Deadly Sins in your own life

GOOD LUCK WITH WRITING YOUR SUMMARY RESPONSE EVERYONE J

Friday, January 13th

We started out class...with a quiz on Dante background! So if you were not in class today, see Ms. Smith to make this up.

Next, we found out what the homework is for this long three-day weekend:

• work on the last lecture part 1 (due 2/10)…don’t wait until the last minute to do this…

• summary response for the end of the hell unit, based on the videos, songs, and photos that we look at in class (due next Friday, 1/20)

Then we began watching the videos depicting Satan and hell:

First was Legend, by Ridley Scott:

• hell is shown to be a dark and fire-filled place
• the creatures that remain there are covered in warts, and gross-appearing
• “only your goodness can exist in one place, innocence”
• Satan depicted as very violent, as he is still attempting to take the life of others surrounding him. He has very bright red colored skin, and is enormous in size

Second was a Southpark episode “Hell on Earth”:

• Much more comedic interpretation of Satan, he seems not quite so strong (emotionally), yet still has control over his people
• Hell is not quite as dark of a place in this interpretation, and people do not seem to be as miserable
• At the end of this episode Satan admits to some wrong-doing, but then reverts back to his "old ways" of controlling the people

After watching the two videos we began listening to a few songs, and identifying the parts of them that related to our unit of studying hell:

• Sympathy for the Devil

• Flogging Molly

The lyrics for both of these songs can be found on Ms. Smith's AHS webpage. 

And that wraps it up for today. I hope everyone has a nice three day long weekend! 

January 11, 2012

Hello All,

Today we began reviewing the Background reading we had due for today.

The following are the things we came up with as a class.

-Beatrice-represents faith, She was Dante’s first love

-Dante exiled was exiled from Florence

-In his exile he wrote the Divine Comedy

-Focuses on the number three

·      The trinity (father, son, holy spirit)

·      Rhyme scheme

·      3 parts of 33 (hell, purgatory, paradise)

·      3 days (mimics death resurrection and ascension

-Mentions Virgil (was a poet that died 19 years before Christ was born)-represents how far logic can take you.

Allegory: combined literal and figurative pictures to help the reader, of any time period, relate to the Divine comedy

** Smith mentioned that in the next few days, we will be watching videos of different people’s interpretation of hell, listen to songs, and look at pictures. A Summary-Response on the videos, pictures, songs, and background of hell will be due sometime next week.  You will need to respond to what you’ve learned and what you think of the information we are studying. Smith has not set a concrete due date. She said she would see how far we get to determine that.

Next, We did the virtual nine circles of hell. The beginning is a series of words that are supposed to represent stones that lead the way to hell. The last set of words says “Abandon all hope, ye that enter here”

It begins with the dark woods because this is where Dante began in his journey through Hell

The Vestibule is the next place he went through. Those who lived before Jesus and did not know of Jesus reside here. “The Opportunists “ are the name the souls are given here. Charon is the boatman that drives the boat, which takes you to limbo. It is the only way to get into hell. “It’s not like you can just swim across the river and get there,” said Ms. Smith.

The first circle of hell Limbo. “Virtuous Pagans” is the name given to the souls here. Poets and philosophers live here.

**Dante says hell is shaped like funnel all leading down to Satan.at the center.

Smith gave a great visual of this. She stood with her arms out to here sides. She made the picture that the beginning of hell is above her head and the center is at her waist, or Satan’s waist.

The second circle of hell The Lustful

The people that desired things and gave into temptation. The beast that resides here is Minos. He has a snake like tail, is the judge of where someone goes in hell, how many times the tail circles around Minos is the level in which the person goes in hell. **The symbol of a snake plays a big role in the bible and Greek mythology that is why Minos’ tail is a snake. It is Symbol of sin and temptation. Minos is also displeased that Dante is allowed into hell as a mortal. The souls here are caught in a constant whirlwind; just as they gave up reason to be caught up in their passions are forever caught up in the whirlwind

The third circle of hell Gluttonous

The souls are guilty of Gluttony. The people here live in feces and garbage. In their life the over indulged in eating and drinking. Therefore, due to Divine Retribution they now live in garbage and filth. The beast Cerebus lives here, the dog with three heads.  The souls are tortured and ripped apart by Cerebus.

The fourth circle of hell, The Hoarders and The Wasters

The hoarders amassed their wealth all for themselves. The wasters used up all they had on fruitless ventures and materials. The punishment is the same, great weights boulders they push upon and strain at clashing them against each other again and again for all time.

The fifth circle of hell, Wrathful.

The people hear were angry in their lifetime.  This is where the River Styx (no not the band) is. It is the whole of circle 5 in hell. Use in classical mythology as a river of the underworld. The souls are trapped in the filthy slime of Styx, violently attacking each other. Deep below the surface unseen are also the souls of the Sullen those that shut out the light of sun from their lives.

The sixth circle of hell, The Heretics.

A heretic is someone who goes against the church. They also are those that deny god’s existence the city of Dis (made up of flames) is the capital hell. It is the counterpart of the New Jerusalem in heaven. Guarding the gates of Dis are the rebellious angels, now turned from beautiful to hideous. The heretics lie in tombs made of iron and blazing hot from great flames in and around them. Virgil says that on the Day of Judgment the lids will cover and seal the tombs forever.

The seventh circle of hell, The Violent’s

There are three kinds of violence: Violence against neighbors, Violence against your self, and violence against God. In the Violence against go circle there are three kinds of violent. Violence against neighbors is on the bloody river of Phlegethon: The souls are smothered in the boiling hot river of blood, they caused blood shed, and therefore they live in blood. Violence against self is in the wood of suicides, anorexia, and bulimia. These are people who have destroyed their bodies. They’re made of wood. Birds come and eat away their leaves and they bleed. Overnight they heal. This repeats day after day for eternity. Violence against god. There are the blasphemers. Stretched out against sand feel wrath of god. A slow rain of fire from of above them. Then there are the Sodomites violent against nature. There are also the Usurers violent against art.

The eighth circle of hell, The Fraudulent

This layer is shaped like an arena

There are 10 layers, kind of like ditches.

1.     Panderers & seducers

2.     The flatterers

3.     The simoniacs: followed Simon from the bible.

4.     The fortune tellers

5.     Grafters

6.     Hypocrites

7.     Thieves

8.     Evil counselors

9.     Sower of discard

10. Falsifiers

The final, Ninth circle of hell, the treacherous: Betrayal.

(Dante considers this the worst sin because he was betrayed)

There are four parts

1.     Treacherous to kin

2.     Treacherous to their country

3.     Treacherous to their guests

4.     Treacherous to their masters

Satan is not opposed to god; rather he is opposite to Michael the Arch Angel.

Satan is no longer a beautiful angel. This Satan has three faces, six eyes, six wings and three chins. When you set these numbers side by side you get the infamous 666. He chews endlessly on sinners.

This concludes the notes for the Virtual inferno

The bell rang and we all scurried to our next class

Homework: Review these notes for Friday, and continue Last Lecture Part One!