Tablet 12 of Gilgamesh

THE END!!!

Just kidding

(not really).

:)

Enkidu's spirit was resurected from the Nether World. Gilgamesh asked questions...thats about it folks...

But I wouldn't leave you hanging. Gilgamesh falls through a hole in the floor to what is known as the Nether World, and the sudden image that comes into my head is that of poor Alice going down the rabbit hole. I was a little confused when starting this tablet beacause, as I said before, Enkidu is present, but it took me a minute to see that maybe this place that is starting to remind me of Wonderland is a place where people go to die. I wonder if its the Underworld? It seems t be, the way Enkidu describes it: after he walked through the House of Darkness, vermon started eating away at his body.

Enkidu claims that the fever demon, Ashak, "seized him" into the Nether World. He discovers that it was actually the Cry of Darkness that brought him there, but Ashak brought me back to my Alice in Wonderland theory. At first for some reason, Ashak reminded me of the duches in Lewis Carrol's first book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. When Enkidu said that Ashak had taken him against his own will I instantly thought of the wretched duchess taking people left and right, while yelling "Off with their head!"

All Alice thoughts aside, I felt that what the writer did was good, bringing the dynamic duo, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, together for the last time.

Tablet 11 of Gilgamesh

This tablet reminds me of Noah's Ark. Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh a story of how the Ea spoke to him in the night and told him that he should get rid of his house and build a boat. He also told our dear friend Gilgy to bring a piece of every living thing with him so that they could be saved from the flood that was coming.



Utnapishtim decides to give Gilgy a little test. He has to tie rocks to his feet and basically drown while holding a super thorny plant. The plant was called How-the-Old-Man-Once-Again-Becomes-a-Younger-Man. What a mouthful of a name! Gilgamesh decides toshare his reward with all the old men in the city while still having enough for himself.

Tablet 10 of Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh meets Siduri the tavern keeper and explains the purpose of his travels. He is still questioning his death, "Must I die too? Must Gilgamesh be like that?" It seems as if Gilgamesh has morphed himself into Enkidu. Not literally, but he is now hairy bodied and wearing animal skins. Siduri tells Gilgamesh that only, the sun god, has crossed the sea to see Utnapishtim. She tells him that nobody else has made it alive, but Gilgamesh, being two thirds god, accomplishes it. After crossing the sea an old man tells Gilgamesh that no man can beat death and that it has no known time.

Tablet 9 of Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh is questionin his mortality. He says "Enkidu has died. Must I die too. Must Gilgamesh be like that?" He can feel the fear in the pit of his stomach. I think that because Enkidu has died, Gilgamesh realizes that there will be a day when he will die too, and he is terrified. Gilgamesh has decided to go find Utnapishtim, because he will know how death can be avoided. The journey starts and Gilgamesh must travel in what ia described as complete darkness; utterly lightless, black. Gilgamesh keeps repeating that he is companionless, "He was weeping and fearful, alone, without a companion." Slowly, he started to see gray until the blackness was completely gone and, like the idiom, he saw the light at the end of the tunnel, which was filled with fruits, and trees, and jewels, he could see the sea.

Tablet 8 of Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh is a broken man now that Enkidu has died. Gilgamesh has been standing over the body of Eknidu, weeping, recalling memories they shared tgether; killing Huwawa, fightinf the Bull of Heaven, killing it, and sitting down to rest. Gilgamesh keeps asking, " How was your face made dark?". While Gilgamesh is mourning, he asks the whole city to mourn the loss of his beloved companion. Because Gilgamesh doesn't want anybody to forget about Enkidu, he decides to bulid a statue to honor his deeds. Gilgamesh has also made an altar where he has laid, in different bowls, offerings of honey, lapis lazuli, and butter. These offerings were made to honor Enkidu as a god.

Gilgamesh tablet 7

Enkidu is and has had one of his famous dreams. As in some previous dreams, there are many objects that symbolize something, so I made some interpretations. The dream starts out with a griffin. The griffin is described as aman with the head and paws of a lion, but talons of an eagle. The griffin grabs Enkidu and he tries to fight it off, but it doesn't loosen its grip. I think that the griffen symbolizes death. I think it is trying to say that death is coming for Enkidu, and he won't be able to avoid it. There was also a house of darkeness, The House of No Return. I think that this house symblizes straight up death, because once you die, theres no coming back. In the house, there were bodies of kings and princes from different kingdoms. This shows that nobody can escape death's grip, not even men of high class like kings and princes. Overall, this tablet was about death. Enkidu is about to die and it seems like somebdy is trying to tell him that through the dream.

Gilgamesh tablet 6

Gilgamesh and Enkidu have defeated Huwawa in the Cedar Forest, and they are feeling very victorious. The goddess Ishtar walked in on Gilgamesh while he was cleaning himself up, and she fell in love. I thought it was pretty straight-forward of her to tell Gilgamesh " give me the seed of your body, give me your semen; plant your seed in the body of Ishtar." As it turns out, Ishtar is quite the companion and something bad has happened to all of her past lovers. For example, she turned one of her lovers into a frog and left him alone in a tunnel forever. Gilgamesh, being the wise man that he is, thought that history might have a way of repeating itself and denied Ishtar. I thought it was ridiculous how mad she got after this. Ialso thought that Gilgamesh made the right choice by denying her; who want to end up a tortured animal?

Gilgamesh tablets 4 & 5

As tablets 4 and 5 start, Gilgamesh and Enkidu are already in the Cedar Forest on their search of Huwawa. As the days pass, Gilgamesh keeps having these dreams that have him waking up flustered. He tells Enkidu about them and Enkidu reassures Gilgamesh that they don't mean anything bad. For example, Gilgamesh dreamt that a mountain was going to fall on him. Enkidu interpreted it as the fall of Huwawa. He said that Gilgamesh was going to defeat him and the big monster was going to fall. At the end of the tablet, Gilgamesh defeats Huwawa and he and Enkidu decide to take Huwawa'a head back to the city. They also decide to build a gate from the tallest tree of the cedar forest.

Tablets 2 & 3 of Gilgamesh

This book is a little hard to understand at first, but I love how Gilgamesh and Ekidu got over their quarrel so fast. They literally kissed and made up. Almost like a slap in the back nowadays. Gilgamesh seem kind of arrogant when talking about going to the Cedar Forest. Because, even if he dies, al least his fame will be secure. Im a little confused about the companionship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu though. Are they just buddies, or something more? I know that back then the views of sexuality ran freely. Either way, I like how they sent two very big men to venture the Cedar Forest together. You have Gilgamesh, the Wild Ox who is twwo thirds god and one third man. Then you have Enkidu, the wild man that is twice as big and strong as Gilgamesh. It's a very good combination.

Homework :P

Questions:
1. According to this author where does the word blog come from?
2. Why might the writer object to a book about blogs? What is the difference between a blog and a book?
3. How have blogs changed recently?
4. Why might you read a blog rather than a book, or a magazine, or a newspaper?
5. Is there reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog? Why? Why not?
6. If you kept your own blog, what would you title it?
7. Find three blogs that mention our summer reading.

Answers:
1. Acordding to the author, the wrod blog is a shorter term for web log or weblog. It didn't officially become "blog" until Jorn Barger cut weblog into we blog.

2. A writer might object to a book about blogs because they are an obvious dichotomy. books are tight and slow, and they want you to stay between the covers. Blogs are reckless and fast, and they want you to stray.

3. Blogs and bloggers today are everywhere. they go from blogging, to links to different pages, to videos on youtube. Some bloggers don't even write much at all. They pick and choose things they find on line, and when they cant express themselves correctly, they throw in an OMG! (oh my god!) or an emoticon - :-), :-(, >:-(, ;-)

4. Most people would choose a blog over a book because theres so much to do while blogging. With a blog you can click on a link that will take you to a different page. Or if something in a blog interests you, you can look it up on youtube or on the internet.

5. There is reason to doubt the objectivity of a blog because a blog is the point of view of one person. They will not feel considerate of the topic, therefore they will just say what they feel, whether its good or bad.

6.If i had my own blog, it would probably be about something I like. The title would be related to what the blog is about

7. http://scienceguy288.wordpress.com/2010/01/17/science-soul-book-review-ishmael/
http://www.berkeleypubliclibrary.org/content/?p=324

Intro

Hi I'm Gabriel Geter and I'm in Mr. Tangen's pre-ap english class! :)