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Chad Bagwell
10-23-2002, 01:00 AM
Yep. Homer obviously had alot of time on his hands.

Jaye
10-27-2002, 01:00 AM
I agree with Chris. How can a book so fake and unbelievable be so inspiring. That's saying that if you wrote a book of completely unbelievable things, then you'd inspire people... That just doesn't make sense. All the power to you Chris!

Unregistered
11-23-2002, 02:00 AM
yep he had alot of time on his hands

Unregistered
02-06-2003, 02:00 AM
i think that this is a very narrow minded veiw of such an epic tale. it may not give clear lessons in life in the way that self help books and the like give, but for a poem that was written such a long time ago it has lessons of hope and the importance of the family that in these turbulant times are very apt.

Unregistered
02-28-2003, 02:00 AM
Im a ninth grader in West Monroe,Louisiana and it is required that we read it..........i would be doing just fine with out it!! i mean like i agree with Chris! if i read something then i want facts not some myth but whatever floats your boat! some people enjoy it but teens today just find nothing in it!

Unregistered
02-28-2003, 02:00 AM
Wow, Chris, you obviously need a lesson in lit. because your spelling is terrible!!

Unregistered
04-15-2003, 01:00 AM
I think that everyone has a right to there opinon and that's fine. I just have to say that it's really not my type of story. Yea, some schools make u read it but maybe people would like it better if they weren't forced to read it and just read it for there enjoyment.

Unregistered
04-15-2003, 01:00 AM
your life would be very boring indeed if all you read are war documentaries. at least an epic tale can boost your imagination.

wayfarer
04-17-2003, 01:00 AM
I would say I appreciated it less as a child than an adult. A lot probably depends upon your translation, as well. There is a new one translated by Stanly Lombardo that may be more easy to handle. <br>If you focused, as most do, upon the few far out stories that you mention, then I can understand why it is simply a fantastic tale or bad movie, not even fit for mst3K. But if you look at it as the trials of a man who isn ot wandering merely, but seeking passionatley to get to an objective, his home, then it become a more personal book, with much you can learn from it. <br>For instance, he is seeking to get to his Penelope, his beloved. ALong the way, he is tempted by many differerent women, each with her own appeal, but ultimately a trap or sidetrack from his real heart's desire.<br>Perhaps you simply need a little more life experience to appreciate it more fully. Perhaps you can try to look at it with a fresh eye - just remember, toss out most of the stuff that you focus on in class. If you can repeat about the cyclops and a few other things, yes, you can get an 'A' without reading it (I did twice!), but then what benefit did you really receive?

T.J.
04-17-2003, 01:00 AM
What this book rocks! It is epic and has many ways you can apply this to real life.In our lit. class we have done many projects with it and I have found it to be very enjoyable.

Unregistered
07-27-2003, 01:00 AM
This book seems very much a part of today's world to me. It describes a world in change, with social rules that don't fully provide for those changes. It talks of duty and what it means to be a hero or villian. Not only does this book allow you to view the world of ancient Greece, but also to look at how the ancients would view our world.

Unregistered
07-27-2003, 01:00 AM
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I find it fascinating that in this age of Hollywood blockbuster movies like X-men, the Matrix, etc., that people are complaining The Odyssey is a bad read because of how unrealistic it is. Is it really just that you don't feel like reading, and working through more advanced literature? Just remember--at the very least, reading the classics will make you a better writer, no matter what type of writing it is--and we all have to write some of the time, regardless of your chosen profession.

shauna
09-13-2003, 01:00 AM
I can understand that point of view. However, the human spirit grows and changes through a mysterious process and responds to images and symbols that epxress meanings and experiences that are difficult if not impossible to express in ordinary language. Hisjourney is an interior journey that is reflected through an actual journey of the body. What he experiences are elements of his own psyche. We have parts of ourselves that do show up to us in our dreams and in our day-dreams as monsters, or seductive nymphs or evil sorcerers. We have distorted, underdeveloped, damaged, hurtful part of ourselves and we can show them in fiction in montrous forms and we can see them for what they are when dramatized. Our unconscious mind responds to these and helps us work through things that do not bear mental analysis or scrutiny. A large part of our mental and spritial processes are unconscious. Psychoanalysts use myth and fairy tales and epics to describe and understand experiences of the mind/spirit that somehow cannot be understood or expressed any other way and loses something when analyzed and described.

Patrick
02-21-2004, 02:00 AM
Wow, Shauna, you said it all right there. That is a wonderful interpretation about how Odysseus' voyage is both internal and external. I think I'll use that as one of the points in my reader response that's due in two days. Thanks! (I really did love the book though, I'm not just using that idea because it sounded cool..lol, I'm not that low.)

Isaac
06-03-2004, 01:00 AM
THANK YOU CHRIS! This is an awful book and when my teacher says "This will teach you about life," I think "Would you happen to be on drugs?" If you have enough free time to read The Odyssey out of class, you have way too much free time and an awful sense of what book to read. If you want some good reading materal that will teach you about life, read "The Winter of Red Snow" or a diary like that.

Jason
01-21-2005, 05:58 PM
I read the book and it was boring. So i like this negitive comment lol.

Amber Hnot
03-21-2005, 06:46 PM
OMG this book is so damn awesome. stop dissing on this book. i have learned alot about his book and im young and my whole class loves this book. im not into reading books but after i have read this book i want to read more. so F yall who think this book is not good. you guys are just stupid because you guys dont understand it. so before u read this book you need to know true liturature. i love this book!! peace!! xoxo mWAH

mosh mohnson
03-23-2005, 10:32 PM
i hated this book so much that i was acutally thinking about committing suicide on several different levels. Hanging was my first, but that wasnt painful enough. I decided that i was going to tie dynamite around my body and get hit by a slow moving car. thank you homer for making my life so miserable in reading this horrible excuse for a story. now im going to go kill myself as i described.

Chris
05-24-2005, 06:07 PM
I have read the Odyssey twice in high school and now again in my soph. lit class. I do not see the big fuss about it, what is there to learn about a man who goes on an adventure and has to deal with gods and goddesses. I mean there are mutants in there and what does that have to do with the struggle of life. How is stabbing a cylops with a huge piece of wood going to help you learn about stuggle of life. If you want to get an aspect of a struggle of life read a war document or book, or natural disasters that have taken out popultaions and the recovery of them. Now that will change a persons prepective on life because that is reality. The Odyssey is fictional and unblievable it it not funny. I know there are people that like this stuff but when they start talking about its an inspiration or a way to teach about life that is just insane.

Hannes Kaiser
10-04-2005, 08:27 AM
You see, I can fully understand that you do not like what you call 'fake' stories. Of course, real life tragedies - take Louisiana - bring you more immediately in touch with reality.
However, I would agree with Shauna in that the Odyssee shows internal struggles of the soul against all kinds of things.
What helps (or at least what helped me a lot) is looking at an episode - take the cyplops - and trying to figure out what the cyclops stands for in yourself. After all, everything we encounter is only ourselves.
And regarding myths - all civilisation is based on them. No humanity, no human evolution, no human civilisation without mythology, without the inner urge to come to terms with the meaning of life, the meaning of our true self, the meaning of creative expression in art.
Cheers, Hannes (I hope that's not too much of a sermon ;) ).

joealbarey
07-04-2007, 06:38 AM
I studied this epic when I was in college... at that time I didn't appreciate it. Now, I enjoy it - despite the lengthy narrative, I felt then and feel now the idiosyncrasies of humans clearly depicted by Homer, if the translation I read is faithful to the language used by Homer. The gods having emotions of humans presented the foibles that man possesses despite the advancement in thought and technology....