Enkidu's Peculiarities

Strong/Brave: "for the third time the bull of heaven bellowed and Uruk shook; and Enkidu fought the bull..." (pg. 33) He is brave to risk his own life for a city that is not his own., and obviously has to be strong to do it.

Revengeful/loyal to his principles: " Woe be to Gilgamesh for he insult Ishtar, for Gilgamesh found out and told the foulness of the goddess, and killed the bull of heaven which Anu sent in punishment from heaven to shake the city." Then Enkidu was enraged against the goddess." If I could reach you I would do to you what you have seen me do to the bull of heaven." (pg. 35) He is patriotic, he doesn't let this goddess get in their way. 

Loyal/Fraternal: "Then Gilgamesh and Enkidu together went hand in hand two brothers, to the Euphrates." (pg. 35). Together they are, like brothers from the same mother. 

Regretful/Miserable: When he was sick, dying in his bed reproaching his acts. "As for the harlot who brought me to the city, this is the curse of Enkidu against her." (pg. 39)

Hurried/Precipitated: Sees the glass have empty. I am aware that his death is approaching him, so he might as well thank he was here with Gilgamesh. " Then Shamash spoke and said to Enkidu: " Why do you curse the temple prostitute? Because of her you eat the food and drink the palace affords. Because of her you wear the garments suitable for a prince to wear; you sit in the place of honor nearest to the king; the great ones of the earth bow down before you. Gilgamesh is your friend and your companion. The grief of Gilgamesh for you will be the cause of woe and wailing in the city. Gilgamesh the king will build a statue to celebrate the fame of Enkidu. When you are gone, then Gilgamesh will wear the skins of beasts and hairy bodied wander grieving in the wilderness for you." Enkidu heard what Shamash said to him, and for a time his stormy heart was quiet,. He repented the curse, and blessed the Harlot. (pg. 40 41). Enkidu had not noticed this or thought of it before.  

Ch VI.VII The Fall of Enkidu

I will take the freedom to say, that this two chapters are a sort of a small climax in the poem because a character is on his death bed, because of Gilgamesh. Because of his beauty, and his high talented place. "Be my lover, be my husband," she spoke and said. "Give me the seed of your body..." (pg.29) Gilgamesh, as I come to understanding, and that way disagreeing, or accepting my naiveness about this poem, on my first entry, is a piece in which demons, gods, goddesses, and mythic creatures take place. This is the main aspect you have to have in mind before reading. I also understand now, that Gilgamesh is not only a showoff of a king, and a charlatan as I thought, but he knows what he wants, he is determined,  and is doing. He knows what is best, and what is up to his level. After this comment of the goddess, he says he is not interested. "The king of Uruk  has found out and told about my foulness."(pg. 32) He is a god, he is wise. this is the peak of the tablets; this unleashes the goddesses wrath. Enkidu and Gilgamesh sleighed the Bull of Heaven together. "They killed the Bull of Heaven and killed Huwawa, one of them must die, the one of them who felled the tallest cedar." then Enil said that Enkidu must die, but Gilgamesh the gifted must not die." (pg. 37).  I understand the fact that Gilgamesh is wise, and strong, and the mighty, but we still haven't found out what aspect of Enkidu is what makes him like Gilgamesh. In my point of view, they should both get punished, not only one. It is unfair. Enkidu gets sick, and lies in his death bed. He will die, but will be remembered, and probably Gilgamesh will take revenge of this...

The Truth behind the mask Tablets IV, V

Being a brief story, Gilgamesh repeats its text a lot. It says the same thing at least three times. This is not to my taste because it makes the story longer and dull. But maybe it is just a style, that later on we will understand it better. 

It all happens very quickly, and not even taken into consideration. To read this book I need all my attention on, so I don't miss any important details or sentences, because this is all about anallizing. Actually this is all metaphors, and going deep into the words. This book relates to Ishmael in the way that it can teach us about life and aspects of it, in a fictitious story, that is meant to be this way because if you want to talk about life, you must do it on an outside perspective. 

"Gilgamesh was afraid and Enkidu was afraid"(pg. 26) Gilgamesh previously is shown as the terror, as the mighty, the strong. But here he is as weak asa rat, he is scared. This is a human aspect in the way that we show our selves big, and brave, but many of us in the inside are just as feeble asa twig. Enkidu who is still wild and doesn't know the many faces of normal people, remains true to himself, and honest, as one should really be. 

After reading some more pages, I am getting tempted about this type of writing. I'm starting to appreciate it because it goes strait to the point, and it gives you a pure idea of what is going on but still leaves something for the imagination. What would have inspired this writings? 

Gilgamesh Tablets I,II.III

I have to admit, Gilgamesh (the little I've read) is a very peculiar book. It begins with gods, maybe the creation of a war-like man, son of a god. It is like the creation of Adam, made out of clay. This man is powerful as Ninurta, the god of war. This takes place in some kind of city called Uruk, with its king being Gilgamesh. The hairy bodied wild man, who is Enkidu is freeing  all the gazelles from the trap pits of the grassland, so their is nothing to hunt, by the hunters who live near by. The hunter who saw him the first time, told his father, who told him to leave to Uruk to see Gilgamesh. "Go to Uruk, and there present yourself to Gilgamesh the king, who is the strongest of all, the perfect, the terror. The wise shepherd protector of the people."(pg. 6) And so the hunter went, and he brought back with him a harlot and a temple prostitute, to lie with her, and so he would not be with the wild creatures. He lied with her for seven days. She told him to go with her to Uruk, to Gilgamesh. Enkidu said yes, but he felt that his wild was different now, he was changing, as I see it. Becasue when he alone, he loved the wild, but after having eaten from the tree of humans, the tree of vice, I think he starts to loose that, and so separates from the wild. "His body that loved the range of the fields was now unable to follow;but in the mind of the wild man there was beginning a new understanding."(pg.9) They got to a Shepherd village where he drank beer and dressed in new clothes. He is starting to become each time more of a human. They got to Uruk, were Enkidu met Gilgamesh in a wdding were Gilgamesh could lay with the bride before the husband. This is very strange, this tells me that Gilgamesh is like the alfa male of Uruk, well he is the king but it seems that more than that. Enkidu still being an animal stepped in front of the doorway to the bride. They fought, Gilgamesh and Enkidu like beasts, like gods. "wild bulls, locked- horned and staggering staggered wrestling through the city streets. "(pg. 15) But then Enkidu couln't fight anymore, and so he said that Gilgamesh, was stronger, the terror. So they shook hands and kissed. They proceeded to enter the foret with armor to see who could cut down the cedar tree first. 

This is a very engrossing novel, story, or book, whatever it is. It talks about fable and gods. But again, like the past novel, I'm sure it has a deeper meaning than that, but it seems to me that it will be easier to reach, to find it, but maybe not to understand it. I'll just have to keep on "feeding" myself on this writing...

Takers And Leavers: Definitions

The definitions we put together in class for Takers and Leavers, are very complete since they include the analysis of every one of us, if we wanted them more complete, we would have to ask Quinn himself to give us a hand! The important thing is that we understand the Taker and Leaver concept and what each means. I would add to the Taker definition that the moment that they learned to have food for tomorrow, they were out of the gods hands. This is what marks them as Takers too. To leavers I would add, that they know there is not one right way to live. 

The rest of the piece is fine. 

The Denouement Ch. 13

I can't find the words to describe what I'm feeling, or how much time it took me to write the couple of them I could manage to type. Finally when he decides a plan to rescue Ishmael in the carnival( not really a plan he, is a very spontaneous man), when he arrives there, all he sees is the ground. The carnival had moved on. He asked his bribee, what had happened. This a devastating moment in the story. Ishmael was dead. He had died of pneumonia that night. "Are you telling me that he's. . . dead?" "Dead is what he is , pardner." (pg. 261). So at last our teacher perished. He asked were his body was taken, and the answer was, to the county, were they cremate the roadkills. This is no honorable way to end the physical part of a wise "man" like this. But that was it. He made his way back home, and framed the poster that he had picked up at the carnival (that was from Ishmael's ), and framed it, to see that there were two sides of the poster (would it be only of the poster...). "WITH MAN GONE WILL THERE BE HOPE FOR GORILLA?" "WITH GORILLA GONE WILL THERE BE HOPE FOR MAN?" (pg 262, 263) This to me is the most important phrase in the book. Before I finished the book, my idea of this words, was that the only way for the other species to survive (not only gorillas), man has to die, so it won't do any more harm, and the world can flourish again. And the other side; for man to survive every species has to die, so it can consume the whole world ( what is or will be left of it), and that way satisfy itself. And eventually also die for the lack of resources, and harsh conditions on Earth. But... Man could not live without animals, he would also perish, we need them to survive, but on the contrary they don' need us, they can live on their own, and actually live better than with us around. So it is a tough statement... 

But now that I've just finished the novel (but had enough time to digest it), I can interpret those words in another way (without omitting the previous analysis). The knot, the relationship that Ishmael and the man created, could have been a reason for this poster, and it was meant for the man to find it (even thought the poster was there before the man and his relationship,but maybe it was meant to happen this way, and Ishmael knew this, and so the poster can exist in the hands of this man, this way). So the question this poster asks in my point of view (my second point of view) is that if the man disappears from Ishmael's life, will the gorilla be able to cope with this? (maybe he couldn't cope because when he finished teaching the man everything he knew, they had to separate since there was nothing else to say, and so Ishmael couldn't manage not being with his friend, with whom he was  untroubled, and liked teaching him.) Or if the gorilla is gone will this man be able bear with this?(we don't know since the story ends with these quotations, but he seemed all right). But this is something we will never know, even though we wished we could, and so is left this magnificent story full of knowledge, in utter suspense, as any great novel is left, for someone to continue, or just for the sake of it. 

The Last Lap. Chapter 12

To buy Ishmael,to take him into care wouldn't be an easy task. But the protagonist is out for it, dealing the animal with the carnival owner. For now he is to expensive....

When they got into subject again:

"how did man become man"(pg 236) This is one of the most deep-rooted questions in the hole novel because it takes us back to nothing. We started of as being a bacteria and worked our way up as Australopithecus, when we were hunters and gatherers; Leavers. We accomplished this by living in the hands of the gods. But when we saw that we could have more food, so we didn't have to suffer tomorrow, we immediately shoved off of the gods hands. We immediately became Takers: Homo Sapiens Sapiens. But thanks to living on the gods hands we were able to evolve and were able to say: "we've had enough of living in the hands of gods" (pg 238). So according to the Taker story, when we appeared, creation stopped. but what I really think about this is that creation can never stop, not because we are here, it means we stop evolving. But the damage we are making to Earth, is sooner or later, not stop creation only, but Humanity. "The premise of the Taker story is that the world belongs to man. The premise of the Leaver story is that man belongs to the world." (pg. 239). I agree totally on the Leaver story, because we all came from the same place, and this is how things came to be this way. So why necessarily the world has to belong to men? Do we own a deed or something that demands property? We don't. So I am on The Leaver side, because we, on the other side do belong to the world, either you want it or not. "We were never meant to be the only players on this stage" (pg 242). Why do we keep on damaging the planet, and not going by the peace-keeping law? We are not the only ones here. Why do we have to exterminate other species only so we can have "the right way of living"? I am in total disagree with our culture. 

approaching the end of the novel, He repeats the first line of the novel "Must earnestly desire to save the world" (pg 248) He asks Ishmael how to achieve this; how to save the world. "The story of Genesis must be reversed. First Cain, must stop murdering Abel. This is essential if you're to survive. The Leavers are the endangered species most critical to the world- not because they're humans but because they alone can show the destroyers of the world that there is no one right way to live. And then of course, you must spit out the fruit of the forbidden tree. You must absolutely and forever relinquish the idea that you know who should live and who should die n this planet." "Yes , I see all that , but that's a program for mankind, that's not a program for me. What do I do" "What you do is to teach a hundred what I've taught you , and inspire each of them to teach a hundred." (pg 248). And this is why we are reading this novel. Quinn was our own Ishmael teaching us, so we can teach too. " What you are saying is that someone has to stand up and become to the world of today, what Saint Paul was to the Roman Empire." (pg 249). We are in desperate need of someone that is able to guide us towards salvation of the human raze, and the world. This can be related to the movie Matrix Revolutions, when Neo (Reeves) is the chosen one to save the city of Zion containing all human raze in it. That is just what we need, or at least something similar to it. 

"You understand that I'm finished with you."(pg  253) This is how Ishmael's teachings resolute, and all that our protagonist could do was nod, but deep inside, the reader can tell, he is miserable, because he knows he has become close to this primate, and he doesn't want to leave him. But as far as I know he wont, I'm sure of it.