u/GalahadTech

I was surprised at how easy and short of a read this was. My favorite part of Beowulf is not necessarily the tale itself, but the Scandinavian setting. I loved the atmosphere and relationship dynamics between the Geats, Danes and on a smaller scale, the Swedes.

Additionally, I rewatched the animated film from 2007 afterwards and was disappointed; it made me realize how under-appreciated Beowulf is culturally speaking since the second half of the film veered dramatically and essentially disrespected the source material to promote its animation technology. Altogether, Heaney’s translation of Beowulf has made me interested in exploring the different interpretations of the classic story that exist, akin to the many variations of Le Morte d’Arthur.

A man decides to write about his love for dogs and fascination with the wilderness; the product is a short and exhilarating story of adventure. The title isn’t meant to imply that most classics aren’t authentic, rather that one can truly believe that Jack London’s words are coming from a place of passion in a way that may not be so apparent with other authors. It felt so good to read something simple that also didn’t fail to encourage my imagination in regard to how Buck and the other dogs in the story exhibited human-like traits and emotions.

It’s been a few days since I’ve finished reading 1984 and unsurprisingly, it has a tendency of lingering within the reader afterwards. Parts of the book did seem to drag on and even seem pretentious, though I can’t blame Orwell as he had written 1984 in a time when atomic warfare appeared that it would become the norm and communism was widespread. The dry stretches are perhaps even necessary in establishing the ending of Winston’s conforming to Big Brother.

What has me thinking the most, though, is Goldstein’s message about the purpose of war; how war is meant to legitimize the strength of countries while also limiting the wealth and prosperity of its people to establish control over them. This line of reasoning can perhaps be argued towards most wars in history but *especially* ones following the year 2000. Orwell’s novel is widely seen as prophetic, but I find especially this part to be scarily accurate, and admittedly even more terrifying than the rest of the story.