The Recursive Nature of Dreams

The title of this course is Recursive Structures as we all know. But I don't think that we get how much of a recursive structure this class truly is. At least I don't/didn't. At the beginning of the semester, Dr. S. started the class by asking us about our dreams and had us describe them to the class.

I spoke about a recent dream I had had of the interview process of my future (hopefully) job. This dream as some of you may remember was very similar to Alice's trial in front of the Queen of Hearts. It was horrifying! I was asked all of these questions that I should have known the answers to but couldn't get them out. My inquisitors were people that I previously knew and should not have been a part of this particular journey in my life. Over the course of the semester, I have often thought about this dream job but never have I dreamed about it again. Until last night!

Last night I had a dream that was remarkably similar to the one that I had at the beginning of the semester. I think that it is very ironic that this should be the dream that I have before I write my last blog of the semester. Last night, I had been debating what to write in my summation blog but hadn't even considered using my dream at the beginning of the semester as inspiration. But now I can see that even though I didn't consciously choose to use it, my subconscious had other plans. My dream was not completely the same as it had been before but the general theme was very similar. I was in the interview portion of my job application and it was like I was on trial where there was multiple lawyers cross-examining me about subjects that I had never heard of! This is really not in line whatsoever with the position that I would someday like to have. I have been a part of the organization for over 5 years and am quite knowledgeable about the ins and outs of it. It is highly unlikely that when the interview happens in real life that I will not know or else have a good idea of the answers for the questions put to me.

While considering these two dreams, I have started trying to remember the various dreams that I have had throughout this past semester. Now I haven't done like most people (specifically my grandma) say you should and wrote down all of my dreams right after waking. This being said, I don't truly remember the details of most of my dreams this semester but looking back it seems like I have had more than my fair share of dreams that have caused me to either lose sleep or scratch my head in amazement that my mind could come up with something so bizarre.

When waking from these dreams, I have often wondered why I had them. The questions that ran through my head in trying to figure it out did not provide any answers. Had I had too much caffeine the night before? Did I truly want that ex-boyfriend back in my life? Did I really want to go vacation in Budapest? The answer to these questions in my waking state was unequivocally no to all of the questions and the many more that I did not just list. Oh the sleep that I lost in pondering these questions! I now realize that the cause for all of these dreams can probably be linked directly back to this class.

While none of my dreams were directly related to the contents of the books we read or the discussions we had, I think that they put me into the mind of recursive structures. The possibility that most directly links to this idea is the question of the ex-boyfriend. I will grudgingly admit that quite a few of these dreams (aka nightmares) centered around one of my more unsuitable exes. It really bothered me that maybe on some level I wanted him back in my life but I have firmly dismissed this as an even remote possibility. Instead I now see that he was representing the recursive cycles in life. I am approaching a similar stage in my life when I was with that one particular ex. This has to explain why he has played such a huge role in my recent dreams. Thus it makes sense that he would pop up in my dreams as I prepare to graduate from MSU in May, just as I was preparing to graduate from high school when we were together.

This has been a very roundabout way to prove that the recursive structures and stories within stories that we have examined this semester truly do happen in our every day life. We just don't know it! But now that I do consciously know why he has plagued me, maybe I can get some more sleep so I'm ready for all of my finals. Fingers crossed!

Exploring Initiation Rituals: Final Paper

Introduction

As most everyone knows, religion is a very sensitive topic all over the world. Wars have been fought because of differences in religions. Lovers have not been allowed to marry due to their differing religious beliefs. And various peoples have been enslaved because their religious views were different than the dominant culture’s. But what exactly defines religion? Is it attending church, being baptized, or is it just having something that gives one hope for a life beyond this one? I believe that the last option is the one that most accurately describes the role of religion. And Webster’s definintion tends to agree. Religion is “the manifestation of such a be3lief in worship, ritual, conduct, etc” (Webster 617).  Religion is a very encompassing word that has a multitude of different meanings depending on who is responding to the question. In the eras before strictly organized religions, such as Christianity, people centered their hopes on the myths about heroes and gods. Today, we see religion as Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism. Both ways of thinking are right as the point of religion is to be what the people need it to be. This is in fact the key point that everything changes as time passes, including the rituals and meaning of religions. The changeability of religions cannot be seen by examining current popular religions but by examining the history of the world’s religions. Another way to examine how religions change is to study religions within the confines of literature as a measure of standard of the viewpoints of the time.

Eleusinian Mysteries

            In ancient Greece, the most organized religions were those that centered on the myths of specific gods. However, instead of being called religion, these organizations were more commonly referred to as cults or mysteries. Within any of these religious mysteries, rituals, secret meanings, and stories can be found as the basis of the entire set of beliefs. It is typical to think of the process of joining these religions as an initiation. The term initiation throughout the rest of this paper will in fact refer to individuals choosing to have the experience of learning about specific rituals and their meanings. There are hundreds of these types of mysteries throughout the world. They can be found in the histories of Greece, Egypt, and the Middle East. The most widely known are the cults of Isis, Demeter, and Dionysus . All three of these religious mysteries still have their presence known in modernity, especially in academia and literature.

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa is a wonderful example of how the ancient mysteries still have a presence literature and academia. The novel explores not only the ideas behind how all religions change but more importantly it is an example of someone going through an initiation process. The initiation process, at least in relation to the Eleusinian mysteries, is that something must be spoken (legomena), performed (dromena), and shown (deiknymena) (Meyer 18). The point in these actions is not to necessarily learn something new but to be in a state of mind to be open to new ideas (Foley 69). These three tasks are the core of any initiation, no matter if it is into a class, religion, or political office. One of the most misunderstood aspects of initiations is that the initiation process is very common place. Every single person in the world has been initiated into multiple groups throughout their lifetime. The whole purpose of initiations is not to educate the initiate but to create an experience that transports them into a different state of mind (Meyer 12). Two novels that link initiations to the mundane are A Manuscript Found in Saragossa and Little, Big. In both of these literary works, the main protagonist is an average man in their respective society but through their personal initiations both men become something greater than they previously had been or could have been.

            In most of the ancient mysteries of the world, there is very little known about the actual mystery as the initiates took their vows of silence very seriously. However, there is a decent amount of information known the on processes of the initiations and background information. In order to understand how The Manuscript Found in Saragossa and Little, Big can be compared to the ancient mysteries, we must first explore the mysteries themselves. The one that will be focused on in this paper is the Eleusinian Mysteries. “The Eleusinian Mysteries were the most important of the widespread Greek mystery cults of antiquity” (Foley 65). These mysteries were based on the Homeric hymn, the Hymn to Demeter. This hymn centered on the abduction of the goddess, Persephone, to the underworld and her mother’s quest to get her back from Hade’s underworld. Their story is symbolic of the eternal circle of nature and directly states the beginnings of the Eleusinian Mysteries within its pages. The mother/daughter goddesses are the Greek personifications of grains that were essential to life. The mother/daughter pair is used to symbolize the cycle of young and mature grains and how both are important. The mysteries held the most prominence when the world consisted mainly of an agricultural economy, which was essential to survival at that time. Within the rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries, symbols of Demeter and Persephone were shown to initiates to strengthen their bonds to the initiates. These symbols included a serpent, pomegranates, leaves, stalks, poppies, cakes, and a model of a woman’s genitals (Meyer 19). Just from the list of symbols, it becomes apparent to anyone that the rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries centered around the regenerating cycle of life for nature and the human life cycle. 

            Not only did having these mysteries create the belief that humans had some control over natural occurrences but that they also were able to create a connection between themselves and the mythological. In the Hymn to Demeter, the story goes that Demeter herself came down to Eleusis to live with mortals during her mourning period. After living with the mortals for some time, she then set about giving them the Eleusinian Mysteries as a gift. Through the mysteries, “initiates seem to have experienced in some form the sufferings and reunion of the goddesses” (Foley 68). The importance of this experience is that it helped to create hope for the afterlife because they will have seen the cyclical process of the mythological life.

Manuscript Found in Saragossa

            In the Manuscript Found in Saragossa, Alphonso goes through the process of initiation in a grand experience that pulls him away from his regular life as a Spanish soldier. This grand experience causes him to question his upbringing, values, and himself. The religion that he is to be initiated into is the Cult of Gomelez. The cult of Gomelez is a branch of the Islamic religion. The purpose of this cult to perpetuate the belief in Ali as well as to protect the gold source that provides money and funds for all of the known initiates. It is not until the end of the novel that Alphonso is allowed to learn about the history of the cult. At this point, he has already completed his initiation rituals. The Sheikh of Gomelez has decided that Alphonso has reached the point of the rituals that he would be in the right state of mind to accept what he was being told and not to reveal the meanings to anyone who had not been approved to know the knowledge.

 In order to reach the point where he was trusted with this new knowledge, Alphonso had to hear, say, and experience the rituals of Cult of Gomelez. The first thing that sets off his initiation rituals is the act of listening to the stories of others. None of these stories are educational, in the traditional sense. Not one of the other characters specifically tells Alphonso what to believe but instead puts their own stories into a manner that is subtly compelling Alphonso to change his own beliefs. Though the manner of stories was intended to be subtle, Alphonso eventually did catch on to the point of the stories that were presented to him. “I thought I detected in it the more or less blatant desire to weaken our religious principles and thereby to abet the plans of those who wanted me to change mine” (Potocki 365).   In this portion of his transformation, Alphonso is given many examples of stories that cause him to question his beliefs. These stories include those of the Wandering Jew, the Gypsy Chief, the Geometer, the cabbalist, and the cabbalist’s sister, Rebecca. All of these people have different stories with a wide range of viewpoints. But combined, all of them start to have Alphonso question his Christianity upbringing. One of the accounts that are available from the Eleusinian Mysteries tells about his experience as a new initiate. “I came out of the mystery hall feeling like a stranger to myself” (Foley 69). Throughout the entire book, there are many many instances when it becomes apparent that Alphonso is shocked and appalled that he is indeed tempted to forgo his Christian upbringing.

The next portions of the rituals are more complex. Throughout the entire book, Alphonso sees amazing things but he is never sure if they are real, tricks of his mind, or truly magical occurrences. The most prominent example of this is the scenes of his lovemaking with his “cousins”. In the beginning, after each night of passion, Alfonso finds himself somewhere else with only remote clues to what truly happened the night before. This again leads back to the rituals of Eleusinian Mysteries. Part of the rituals of the Mysteries was to symbolize death and rebirth of self and nature. In The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, a part of Alphonso does die through his supernatural experiences. He becomes able to believe that not everything can be explained through logic. Some things defy rational explanations but that does not mean that they still are not true.

            The second piece of initiation, seeing, closely ties to the third, experiencing. Alphonso is not only not sure of what he saw but he is just as confused about what he experienced. He is never sure if he truly did make love with his cousins, if they are truly his cousins, or if this entire experience is somehow an illusion. It seems odd to us that someone could question something as basic as knowing if one had sex or not but that is truly how Alphonso feels.

“How can I express in words the horror which filled me then? The corpses of Zoto’s two brothers were not hanging from it but were lying on either side of me. I had apparently spent the night with them. I close my eyes and tried to remember where I had been the night before” (Potocki 24).

In this single experience, Alphonso experiences many things that are common in the initiation rituals. The first of which is the association with death. Alphonso wakes from an “apparent death” with two men who were not fortunate enough to have escaped true death. The part of this experience is that he has been touched by the supernatural. Honestly, Alphonso did not know what to believe of his cousins and their actions. He even begins to refer to the women who have become his cousins, lovers, and wives as devils (Potocki 25).

            After going through all of three stages of initiation, Alphonso is told that he has passed all of the tests of his initiations and is allowed to gain the new knowledge that he has been seeking. The key to how this novel relates back to the ancient mysteries is apparent now. Alphonso does not learn the secrets to life but is given the basis to his own life. He learns about his own heritage and how that expands back so much farther than just the years that he has walked the Earth. Again the ending of The Manuscript Found in Saragossa meshes with the Eleusinian Mysteries. One of the perks that are associated with the Mysteries, beyond eternal hope, is that the initiates were more likely to prosper economically in their current life. After receiving access to all of the secrets of the Cult, Alphonso is set up to be financially stable for the rest of his life. Through his new wealth, he is able to reach much higher in his military career, politically, and socially.

Little, Big

         Just like in the Manuscript Found in Saragossa, the natural and supernatural combine to make a type of religion. The religion found in Little, Big, is not as specified as it is in the Eleusinian Mysteries or The Manuscript Found in Saragossa. This religion is more ambiguous and woven into the daily threads of the tapestry of life in Edgewood. The house at Edgewood has belonged to the same family for generations and seems to be the center of the power that they all possess in being able to have extra abilities. For some of the family members, these abilities are made to be very apparent but for some the reader does not quite know what their role is in the scheme of world. As with the other two religions that have been examined in this paper, there are deities that are worshipped. However, the deities in Little, Big are not truly specified except through the use of Them. It is up to the reader to infer who exactly Them is and what their role is in the lives of the humans of Edgewood. The relationship between the natural and the supernatural blurs throughout the entire novel in a way that leads the family to know that they are being used and manipulated by Them for the furthering of the Tale. However, as with the other two examples, the Tale is how Them and the family are able to have a connection that is essential to the hope and happiness of the present and the future for everyone, natural and supernatural.

Smoky Barnable is an ordinary, forgettable, and a little bit boring character, at least at the beginning of Little, Big. However, he does not stay that way! Smoky’s life is after meeting Daily Alice, one of the main members of the family of Edgewood, is one long initiation ritual that ends right before he dies. Before marrying Daily Alice, Smoky has had absolutely no connection to anything that cannot be explained through rational reasoning. Even upon arriving at Edgewood, he is not in the correct state of mind to be able to accept that things do exist that he cannot rationally explain. The wording of this within Little, Big is that similar to a child’s ability to believe in fairies, monsters, and goblins. Thus in order to start being able to become immersed in the Tale, Smoky needs to be able to get in touch with his childhood. As a way to do this, his young wife offered up her own childhood as a wedding present (Crowley 69). This seems like a unrealistic present but it is essential that Smoky understand that one does not have to be a child to have a childhood. Smoky receiving this amazing gift is the start of my approaching the mindset to be able to believe in Them and understand how his experiences help create the Tale, or ritual.

            Smoky’s rituals start not with hearing, seeing, and experiencing but with the rituals that even precede those, even though he does not even realize that they are happening. These rituals are the journey to the sacred place. In all great religions and rituals, the initiates must travel to the sacred sights. Smoky has strict instructions about how and when he is to travel to Edgewood. “On a certain day in June, 19-, a young man was making his way on foot northward from the great City to a town or place called Edgewood, that he had been told of but had never visited. His name was Smoky Barnable…the fact that he walked and didn’t ride was one of the conditions placed upon his coming there at all” (Crowley 3).  These instructions put Smoky, and the reader, into the mindset that a life changing experience is about to happen.

            Smoky’s walk is very much similar to that of the initiates of Demeter. Throughout the various ceremonies that were held during the year to honor Demeter and Persephone, there was much traveling with strict instructions to follow so as to not upset the goddesses. Initiates “left Athens for Eleusis to escort holy objects (hiera) on the following day to the Eleusinian at Athens” (Foley 67). This is just one of the many instructions of that were followed very carefully in order to complete the rituals in the manner that they were designed. Besides for appeasing the goddess, these strict rituals has to be followed so that all of the initiates would be “in the proper mental and ritual state to participate in the final secret rites” (Foley 68). The mental state of mind for the Eleusinian Mysteries and Little, Big are worlds apart but equally important.

            Once Smoky reaches Edgewood, he immediately starts learning about his new life and how he is to interact with his new family.  It is much more simple, yet complex, than his previous existence. He must learn how to meld his life with the lives of so many other people. These new people will become his family as well as his initiators into the mystical realm that Edgewood is on top of, beside, and surrounded by. He develops a close bond with these new people in his life. Again this is one of the goals of initiation. While having hope for an existence after death was important in the Eleusinian Mysteries, it was not the only goal of the development of such a religion. The other goal was “that its blessings came from experiencing and viewing signs, symbols, stories, or dramas and bonding with fellow initiates” (Foley 70). As with many religions that are popular today, there is always a social aspect that is present.

            The hearing portion of his experience happens immediately. In his initial conversation with Great-aunt cloud, Smoky does not understand the later implications of his choice to marry Daily Alice. “My mother and I felt it far more strongly that my father or my brothers. Though they suffered from it, perhaps, more than we” (Crowley 27). This hints towards the existence of the supernatural, or religion, in the land called Edgewood. Throughout the rest of his life at Edgewood, Smoky will gain greater and greater clues to the presence of Them and The Tale. Finally towards the end of his life, he comes to realize that even though he is a part of the Tale, he will never know or experience the ending.

“He didn’t really mind that there was a long Tale being told, didn’t even object any longer that he had been put to its uses; he only wanted it to continue, not to stop to go on being muttered out endlessly by whatever powers they were who spun it, putting him to sleep with its half-heard anecdotes and going on still while he slept in his grave” (Crowley 517).

This realization is explicitly important when in relation to the social aspect of initiation rituals. Smoky had realized that even though he would not journey with his family, he had gotten what he needed from the religion of The Tale. He had found his happiness in the present and hope for the future, just as those who initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries had done hundreds of years earlier.

            Throughout all of Little, Big, Smoky sees a great many things that causes him to feel confused but nothing creates the sensation of confusion more than his wedding trip. The most important part of the book, in relation to initiation rituals, happens so briefly that it can be overlooked by the rest of the interesting parts of Little, Big. After being inexplicably separated from his new bride, Smoky wanders the forest until he finds a little cottage that he thought was to be his destination. In some way it was his destination but not the place that he had sought to seek out. It was here in this little cottage that Smoky would be granted the sight of ordinary objects that had symbolic of his and his family’s destiny. He was given a sack to hold the Daily Alice’s gift of her childhood and a copy of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Just like the symbol of the grain in the Eleusinian Mysteries, these symbols show the roles that Smoky plays in The Tale.

            The experience of Smoky’s initiation was not a single moment or occasion but the rest of his life. All of these experiences built up until the final day of the Tale. On this final day, the symbols of his destiny finally made sense to him. Smoky had reached the state of mind that allowed him to understand the Tale and accept what it meant for him. He knew that even though he would not go to the land of the initiated, he was a part of it. Physically he would not be able to rejoin Daily Alice but he was prepared for the life that would start after his let go of his previous life. In a moment of clarity that is rare for anyone to have, Smoky figures out that he did not live his life for himself but to perpetuate The Tale so that others could live the life that they were meant to. But while he did this magnificently, Smoky, the boring and forgettable character that we had first met over five hundred pages earlier, knew that he had created his own tale.

“He had fooled them. No matter what happened now, whether he reached the place they set out for or didn’t, whether he journeyed or stayed behind, he had his tale. He had it in his hand. Let it end: let it end: it couldn’t be taken from him. He couldn’t go where all of the were going, but it didn’t matter, for he’d been there all along” (Crowley 531)

This paragraph has to be one of the greatest pieces of literature that has ever been written. Smoky’s words show the true meaning of religion and the ideals behind the Eleusinian Mysteries. By realizing that the journey was indeed the destination, Smoky has shown that one does not have to travel to become a worldlier person. Instead one just has to pay attention to what they are hearing, seeing, and experiencing to allow themselves to reach a greater state of mind that permits the supernatural to become the natural. 

Changeability of Religious Mysteries

            In The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, there is a specific story that directly ties the ideas of religion and mysteries to Alphonso. This amazing story is that of the Wandering Jew. The story of the Wandering Jew is a mythical story that goes back into the far distant past. However, it is reenacted and told for the benefit of Alphonso’s transition into the Gomelez. The part of the story that begs to be explored more is the teachings of Chaeremon. Chaeremon is a priest of Isis, which is one of the ancient mysteries that is on the same level as the Eleusinian Mysteries. Chaeremon is a teacher of the young Wandering Jew about his religion, as he knows it. The most vital aspect of his teaching center around the way in which everything changes. No religion, or mystery, is a static entity. “Religions change like everything else in this world” (382). This can be seen in both the Eleusinian mysteries as well as Little, Big. The role of Them changed throughout the generations of Drinkwaters at Edgewood. When the Drinkwaters first came to Edgewood, They had direct contact with mortals. By the time that Smoky came to Edgewood, They were only seen on the periphery of life until the very end. Everyone knew that They were there but did not actually talk and interact with them until they were to journey to become part of Them.

            Through the studies that have been conducted on the Eleusinian Mysteries, the rituals seemed to have changed and expanded according to what the people needed to gain from the rituals. At the beginning of the rituals, men were the main participants but as the Mysteries gained prominence through the world women became more involved as the story of Demeter and Persephone are more closely linked to their lives.

            In Little, Big, it becomes apparent to the reader that big changes are eminent for the people of Edgewood. Even the characters seem to realize that their lives are slowly but consistently changing along with Edgewood. However, it seems that not all of them aware that Edgewood is changing because they need it to do so.

Conclusion

            Through examining Little, Big and The Manuscript in Saragossa with the lens of religion, it is apparent that ancient religions can still be found in contemporary literature. Through that travels of Alphonso and Smoky, we are shown the life and path of an initiate. It is now obvious that the true role of religion is to help create the means for people to find passion that allows them rituals, ceremonies, and beliefs that give them hope for life after death. The key elements to any initiation are to hear, say, and experience something that will create a new state of mind. It is now proven that religion does not have to be a huge organized entity to be a valid ideology for life. And always remember that when one has their personal religion it is their’s for forever. 

What have I learned this semester???

What have I learned this semester that I didn't know before???? That is a really hard question to answer. Dr. Sexson's classes aren't like math classes where I can say I have learned how to run statistical analysis but much more intangible than that.

A few things that I can say that I have learned is that:

 I absolutely love  Little, Big and The Manuscript Found in Saragossa. 

I have learned the even though characters annoy the heck out of me, their presence in the novel is most likely to be necessary.

There are always multiple layers to everything. You just have to know how to look for them. And you have to want to see them.

I learned that connections between seemingly unrelated things are almost always possible. I.E. the Eleusinian Mysteries and Little, Big

The true meanings and purposes of initiation rituals. Along with the fact that initiation rituals can be found everywhere.

That you can absolutely despise a book and love it at the same time.

Religion isn't just a structure form of worship to a deity. It is so much more and so much less all at once.

And sometimes the purpose of a story isn't in the moral learned but in the act of telling the story itself.

Looking at this list, it seems so small compared to what I feel like I truly did learn throughout my time spent studying Recursive Structures. I feel like I learned so much more yet I can't seem to articulate what I want to say. I guess the last thing that I can say that I have learned is that I haven't really learned anything. If I were to say that I know anything about any of the books that we read this semester, I would be completely wrong when looking back through the books to prove it. If I was to do this, I would start the learning process to get where I am right now and I would probably write the same summation of this semester, no matter how many times I repeated this process.

Over the past few days, I have spent more than a significant amount of time reading and re-reading Little, Big and The Manuscript Found in Saragossa for my final paper. While reading these novels again, I have come to see how much I truly missed in both of these novels. Before starting my paper, I had considered these novels to be among my favorites after just one reading. But now I am not sure if that level of praise is even enough for Crowley and Potocki. The depths of the stories and their implications for literature as a whole is astounding. I have been recommending these novels to all of my family this semester and I was planning on letting them borrow my copies. However, now I think that my Christmas vacation might be best spent reading them for myself again.

I have especially enjoyed going back through Little, Big. I am constantly amazed at parts that I missed or just did not understand their entire implications. It makes me a little sad that we were not able to spend more time working on this book because it is a novel that could have been explored throughout an entire semester and not everything would be revealed or understood.

The following quotation is my favorite from Little, Big. I honestly think that it could be one of the most wrenching and beautiful things that I have ever read in my life. The most depressing thing about it is that I do not even remember reading this section the first time that I read through this novel.

"He had fooled them. No matter what happened now whether he reached the place they set out for or didn't, whether he journeyed or stayed behind, he had his tale. He had it in his hand. Let it end: let it end: it couldn't be taken from him. He couldn't go where all of them were going, but it didn't matter, for he'd been there all along."  Smoky

The Manuscript in Saragossa- Part 2

The last time that I wrote I spoke about how everything is interconnected within The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, which is completely true, but I did not touch on the Sheikh's story. One part of the story that appealed to me was his chronicling of his family tree. Now most of us would just skim that part but it is significant in multiple ways.

The first of which is that it leads us back  to the oral tradition, specifically that seen in the Bible. As most of the names came from the Bible and we should have all recognized at least some of them, this is a very obvious connection. However, we need to remember that this book was written to be read in the oral tradition. The Manuscript wasn't published as a whole until after Potocki's death. It was disbursed in days and so very similar to daily columns we now enjoy in our newspapers. I am taking a stab in the dark here but I would guess that this book was read aloud in days at night before families went to be and if it wasn't that was its intended use. We have seen themes of family, honor, loyalty, religion, as well as adventure so I am sure that this would capture and hold the attention if told aloud as a story.

The second thing that the genealogy brings to mind, at least to me, is destiny. I know that several of my classmates are using this as they jumping point for their projects. But by invoking the use of Biblical names from centuries past, it made me think that Alfonso was destined to come and impregnate the Sheikh's daughters.  We have seen how it was destined through the recent events but by now we have the evidence that this was preordained from generations back. When the Sheikh was explaining all of this, it almost seemed like a ritual. He could have just said who he was in lesser terms but the importance of who he was would have been significantly diminished. So to me, at first this ending section seemed almost anticlimactic. But I was wrong. I had just traveled through all of the hardships and stories to be able to reach the right ending. I had the knowledge to understand the importance of the names of ancestors and that destiny does not just start when one is born. Alfonso, the Sheikh, and Velasquez had their destiny determined for them centuries before they were even a mere thought.

These are just a few more thoughts that I had when considering The Manuscript Found in Saragossa. I'm sure that I could go on for much longer. However, I just wanted to bring up a few things that I am not likely to go into too much detail, if at all, in my paper/project.

Thoughts on The Manuscript of Saragossa- Part 1

Well I finished it. I am officially done reading The Manuscript Found in Saragossa! Well I guess I finished it a few days ago but haven't known exactly what I wanted to say about it, even though I'm not sure if I do now. I will say that it is now one of my favorite books. As with Little, Big there were times when I despised this novel but overall it was fabulous. It is one that I am going to be picking up and rereading after leaving the protective circle of MSU. 

Why, you may ask, will I read this book over and over again to try and figure out what it is all about? Honestly I will read The Manuscript Found in Saragossa again because I don't understand it. I have no idea how Potocki could create such an elaborate world. I wish I could ask him how he kept the characters straight in his head. I did do some research to try and figure out how he did it but unfortunately there is little information on his life. However, it seems to be thought that he did somehow have a map of all of 66 stories that brought them all together. All I have to say to that is A-MAZING!  I really would love to see a copy of this map. After finishing the book, I worked with Sara to try to come up with a summary of the book and go through it day by day and let me tell you it is very difficult to keep all of the story lines and characters straight. If I can't keep them straight reading it, I have no idea how he was able to do so writing it. This being said it is worth trying to keep them all straight! Finish/read this novel if you haven't already and if you have read it again!

Even though I love this book there are a couple of things that really irked me. First, Potocki doesn't go back the original story, at least I could figure out if he did. He doesn't mention the frame story of the soldier finding the novel. Not really all that important but annoying all the same. Second and I know that he was crucial to the story but Busqueros drove me up the wall. I could barely stand to read the parts that he was involved in. 

Hopefully this isn't a spoiler for anyone but I was so sad when it turned out that the Wandering Jew wasn't really the actual Wandering Jew. He was my favorite character....I guess that really isn't fair to say. His story was the one that I felt the most drawn to but I didn't really like his personality. I especially connected with the sections of his story that related to the fluidity of mysteries and religions, which at times can be considered to interchangeable. It plays exactly into the conclusions I have been working towards for months but never knew how to express my thoughts. Professor S was definitely right in saying that this was a book for me! Not only has this book sparked new ideas for me but it has also rekindled the passion that I found last spring. I have started re-reading all of the books that I have on ancient mysteries. I guess being on bed rest is good for something. 

That's pretty much most of my thoughts that I have formulated coherently on The Manuscript Found in Saragossa  at this point. I'm sure more will come as I work on my readings and my project. 

Project Proposal

The underlying idea that I would most like to explore with my final paper is the idea of mysteries. However, I don't want to try and unravel any certain mystery that has been mentioned or alluded to in the Manuscript Found in Saragossa but the very concept of mysteries. The best way that I know to try and explain my project is to just write the introduction that has/will be my jumping point for the rest of my paper. So this is what I have so far. I think that I have given a pretty good idea of the areas I want to focus on.

            When one thinks of the word initiation, I am sure that the image of painful and horrifying tasks comes to mind. But once again society has bastardized a term that was used in ancient Greece to mean something very much different. The idea of initiation is not one meant to scare but instead to prompt the initiates into a certain state of mind.

            Many different religions use the term initiation to mean to gain knowledge, not to punish. “In this fragment Aristotle concludes that initiates into the mysteries do not learn anything, but rather have an experience and are put in a certain state of mind (Meyer 12). A few of the ancient religions that incorporated formal initiation rituals are the Eleusinian mysteries and the mysteries of Dionysus as well as Christianity. All three of these systems of beliefs were not necessarily designed to teach people but were “an eye-opening experience that transcended earthly realities and mundane learning” (Meyer 12).  As you can see the

            The rituals of initiation have been performed throughout centuries of literature. One prime example of how initiation takes place in the mundane to create the extraordinary is in The Manuscript Found in Saragossa. The reader is taken through pages and pages of the mundane, even boring, lives of characters.  However, if the reader is intuitive she will see that the mundane is what allows the extraordinary to be able to occur. It is not from the great moments of life that transcendence is created but through the difference of the natural and supernatural moments. This can also be seen in Little, Big. Both of these amazing novels lead to the same realization. If the reader is able to figure out this by the end then that same reader should be intuitive enough to realize that he/she just went through an initiation into the world of mysteries. The reader may not have a particular mystery that they wish to focus on but they have finally been able to see “sacred objects previously hidden from sight” (Meyer 11).

The concept of mysteries is hard to define in any way that makes sense for someone who has not experienced an initiation process themselves. However, the intriguing part of the process is that everyone at some point has gone through an initiation; they just didn't know it at the time. Acclimating to any new job, environment, or culture creates an initiation. In fact, almost everyone who is reading this has been initiated into MSU. According to my findings, initiation happens when someone makes the conscious choice to experience something while being in a certain state of mind, at least according to Aristotle. 

My primary sources of information and guidance will come from The Ancient Mysteries A Sourcebook by Marvin W. Meyer, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter by Helene P. Foley, The Manuscript Found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki, and Little, Big by John  Crowley. There may be more texts that I later add but as of right now my research and investigations will center around these four items.