Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Some myths in literature may come from reality…


 



 

by Ker Than

Dragons are awe-inspiring patchwork creatures found in the myths and legends of cultures all around the world. In Europe, they are nightmarish fire-spewing reptiles, large and lizard-like, with the forked tongue of a snake and wings like a bat. In the legends, they are reviled and feared because they liked to imprison maidens, destroy villages and hoard over mountains of gold.

In the ancient cultures of Mexico and South America, a divine feathered serpent known by various names was believed to renew the world after each cycle of destruction.

In China, dragons are amphibious creatures that dwell in oceans, lakes, rivers and even raindrops. They are revered as life-giving symbols of fortune and fertility, capable of unleashing rain in times of drought. They are animal mosaics, possessing the body of a snake, the scales of a fish, the talons of an eagle, the antlers of a stag, and the face of a gilin--another mythical creature that resembles a deer but whose body is wreathed in flames.

Despite their differences, many of the mythical dragons found throughout the world all began as vague serpentine ideas modeled after real creatures, beginning with a snake or some other fearsome reptile. Over time, they acquired more definite and exotic shapes as they absorbed the hopes and superstitions of the local people and borrowed the traits of local animals.

Our short list of creatures and natural phenomenon reveal what may have inspired the look of dragons as well as creatures that are truly dragon-like.


 

10 Chinese Alligator

Chinese alligators may have been one of the inspirations for the Asian dragon. In Chinese mythology, dragons were closely associated with water: They were the guardians of life-giving rain, but in times of fury were also capable of unleashing punishing floods. Chinese alligators can grow to a length of about 6 feet, and can often be found floating just below the surface of the water, where they stealthily await their prey. The Chinese alligator is one of the most endangered reptiles in the world.


 

9 Frilled Dragon

The frilled dragon is a small lizard found in the forest and woodlands of northern Australia. Like its name suggests, an expandable frill surrounds the dragon's head and neck, which it can open like an umbrella when frightened. If this isn't enough to scare off an enemy, the frilled dragon will rear up on its hind legs and run away-- but rather than fleeing with its tail tucked between its legs, the dragon can simply leave it behind to distract a predator.


 


 

8 Bearded Dragon

The bearded dragon is also native to woodlands of Australia. It has numerous spiky appendages protruding from the skin around its head, and can inflate a pouch under its chin to make itself look more menacing. The bearded dragon can change shades of color, from light to dark, to reflect certain emotional states or to help regulate its body temperature. Like the frilled dragon, it can also rear up on its hind legs and run away.


 


 

7 Python

Pythons are among the largest snakes in the world, and the reticulated python of India may have been one of the inspirations behind dragon lore in ancient times. Pythons are constrictor snakes, which means they squeeze to death the birds and small mammals that they feed on. While traveling through India, the Roman naturalist, Pliny, claimed to have seen a dragon so large it could strangle an elephant. Pliny was most likely describing the reticulated python, a snake that can grow to a length of more than 30 feet. In Pliny's tale, the dragon also dies because it is crushed by the defeated elephant.


 


 

6 Flying Dragon

The flying dragon of Southeast Asia are small lizards that can glide between trees using wing-like folds of skin. They can grow up to 7 inches and they eat mainly ants and other small insects. Their wings are supported by five to seven ribs that extend from their bodies, and they can glide for distances of up to 30 feet. The wings are often brightly colored and patterned with stripes and dots, but they can fold their wings and blend into their surroundings when they want to remain inconspicuous.


 


 

5 Komodo Dragons

The Komodo dragons of Indonesia are the world's largest living lizards. They can grow to 10 feet long and can run as fast as a dog for short stretches. Komodos hunt live prey and are capable of ambushing creatures much larger than themselves. They have a thickly muscled tail and a strong bite. Even a slight graze can be lethal and cause severe infection because of the septic bacteria that live in their saliva. Komodo dragons would have been a great candidate for the inspiration behind the mythical dragons in Europe -- except that Europeans didn't discover them until 1910.


 


 

4Megalania Prisca

Although stockier and shorter than the Komodo, megalania prisca was a much larger animal. It grew to lengths of up to 30 feet and weighed nearly 1,000 pounds, making it the largest lizard the world has ever seen. Megalania roamed the Australian wilderness during the last Ice Age, and could ambush creatures twice its size and 10 times its own weight, killing them with its curved serrated teeth and large claws. It is very appropriate then that in Latin, its names means "ancient giant butcher."


 


 

3Pterosaurs

Of all the creatures that ever lived, pterosaurs probably most closely resemble the dragons of European legend. Reptilian and featherless, pterosaurs flew on wings of hide that were supported by a single long and boney finger. The smallest pterosaur was the size of a sparrow, while Quetzalcoatlus -- named after the Aztec god -- had a wingspan of more than 40 feet, making it the largest flying creature ever. Quetzalcoatlus is shown here.


 


 

2 Sea Dragon

The sea dragon is a close relative of the sea horse. It can be found on the cool rocky reefs of southern and western Australia. While technically a fish, the sea dragon does not swim so much as sway as it imitates the movement of the seaweed and seagrass among which it makes its home. The sea dragon possesses leaflike fins and appendages that are nearly transparent, and a tube-like mouth that it uses to suction in the larval fishes and small shrimp-like crustaceans that it feeds on.


 


 

1 Surprise Entry: Comets

Dragons were often depicted as winged serpents with long tails, and they were often viewed as harbingers of doom or fortune. The name of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl literally means "feathered serpent." To people living in ancient times, a comet streaking through the skies with an icy tail millions of miles long would have closely resembled such a creature. This image is of comet Hyakutake. If comets were the inspiration for some dragons, it could help explain why dragons are ubiquitous in the myths and legends of so many different cultures in all corners of the world.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Looking at Shakespeare… But not too much…

The Language of Shakespeare


 

Shakespeare made use of prose-verse dramatic idiom, a genre which has largely disappeared since. Shakespeare was not only a very good poet, but his prose is amongst the finest in our language. He used the prose spoken by everyday people "heightened" for his dramatic purpose. So successful was his prose that he partly contributed to the eventual development of prose as the unquestioned medium for drama. Earlier dramatists had used prose simply for discussing things that were inappropriate in verse. Prose was used for the speeches of clowns, for proclamations, for letters, to include a character's decline to madness, but he used prose also for the intentional dramatic contrast in his plays. Prose is reserved for the language of villains and people of lower social class predominantly whereas the Shakespearean hero and characters of high rank (socially) speak highly rhetorical verse. The Elizabethan audience was very aware of these conventions and would have recognised the subtleties of Shakespeare's handling of them.

Let's Look at his Language a Little More Closely

  1. Firstly, words sounded different in his day, eg. loin = line, loffe = love, noting = nothing.
  2. Shakespeare uses a wide variety of words changed around. Ordinarily the verb follows subject, eg. we say - Are you calling? Shakespeare said - Call you?
  3. Some of the verbs had different endings in Shakespeare's day, unlike modern verbs, eg.
    he does - modern       doth = old
    she has - modern       hast = old

    In Shakespeare's later plays these endings became less frequent

  4. In modern English we say "I don't know" - This is what we call the auxiliary verb. We seemed to start using it to show emphasis in questions and with "not"
    eg. Modern - I do not know       Shakespeare - I know not
    eg. Modern - What do you think?       Shakespeare - How think you?

    Shakespeare's language obviously did not use "do" in these two cases as our language now does.

  5. Shakespeare tended to use "are" or "were" rather than "have" or "had" in cases such as this with a past participle.
    I am glad you are come.
    People were stolen away = people had stolen away.
  6. Pronouns

    Second person is "you" nowadays for plural or singular. In Shakespeare's day, you was used to be polite or as the plural. Thou was for ordinary use.

    "Thine" and "mine" - used when the following word starts with a vowel. "My" and "they" used when following word starts with a consonant.

    "Self" on the end of some pronouns is used for emphasis, eg. myself. But, it seems that when we (in modern English) would use "self", he doesn't, eg. We will disguise us at my lodging = Shakespeare - we will disguise at my place = us.

  7. Have some fun

    Have some fun with the language of Shakespeare by investigating what a wonderful creator of insults he was.


 

Source : http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/romeo_juliet/language.html


 

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year


We would like to wish all our dedicated surfers as well as the not so dedicated ones a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!


Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Happy Eid El-Adha


To all viewers of this blog, Big Bro would like to wish everyone a Happy Eid-Adha. Big Bro also wishes Happy Eid-Adha to Mr Farish and thanks him for helping Big Bro by creating this greeting card.


Monday, December 10, 2007

Literary Device(s) of The Week

  1. Apologue. A moral fable, usually featuring personified animals or inanimate objects which act like people to allow the author to comment on the human condition. Often, the apologue highlights the irrationality of mankind. The beast fable, and the fables of Aesop are examples. Some critics have called Samuel Johnson's Rasselas an apologue rather than a novel because it is more concerned with moral philosophy than with character or plot. Examples:
  • George Orwell, Animal Farm
  • Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book


 

  1. Autobiographical novel. A novel based on the author's life experience. Many novelists include in their books people and events from their own lives because remembrance is easier than creation from scratch. Examples:
  • James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
  • Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel


 

Harris, Robert. "Evaluating Internet Research Sources."

 
 

     VirtualSalt. 17 Nov. 1997.  04 Dec 2007


 

     <http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm>

Poem of The Week

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.

By William Butler Yeats


 


 

Source: http://www.yeats-sligo.com/html/tour/innisfree.html

Retrieved: 11 December 2007

Short Story of The Week

Return to Paradise

By Eliza Riley

Lisa gazed out over the Caribbean Sea, feeling the faint breeze against her face - eyes shut, the white sand warm between her bare toes. The place was beautiful beyond belief, but it was still unable to ease the grief she felt as she remembered the last time she had been here.
     She had married James right here on this spot three years ago to the day. Dressed in a simple white shift dress, miniature white roses attempting to tame her long dark curls, Lisa had been happier than she had ever thought possible. James was even less formal but utterly irresistible in creased summer trousers and a loose white cotton shirt. His dark hair slightly ruffled and his eyes full of adoration as his looked at his bride to be. The justice of the peace had read their vows as they held hands and laughed at the sheer joy of being young, in love and staying in a five star resort on the Caribbean island of the Dominican Republic. They had seen the years blissfully stretching ahead of them, together forever. They planned their children, two she said, he said four so they compromised on three (two girls and a boy of course); where they would live, the travelling they would do together - it was all certain, so they had thought then.
     But that seemed such a long time ago now. A lot can change in just a few years - a lot of heartache can change a person and drive a wedge through the strongest ties, break even the deepest love. Three years to the day and they had returned, though this time not for the beachside marriages the island was famous for but for one of its equally popular quickie divorces.
     Lisa let out a sigh that was filled with pain and regret. What could she do but move on, find a new life and new dreams? - the old one was beyond repair. How could this beautiful place, with its lush green coastline, eternity of azure blue sea and endless sands be a place for the agony she felt now?
     The man stood watching from the edge of the palm trees. He couldn't take his eyes of the dark-haired woman he saw standing at the water's edge, gazing out to sea as though she was waiting for something - or someone. She was beautiful, with her slim figure dressed in a loose flowing cotton dress, her crazy hair and bright blue eyes not far off the colour of the sea itself. It wasn't her looks that attracted him though; he came across many beautiful women in his work as a freelance photographer. It was her loneliness and intensity that lured him. Even at some distance he was aware that she was different from any other woman he could meet.

     Lisa sensed the man approaching even before she turned around. She had been aware of him standing there staring at her and had felt strangely calm about being observed. She looked at him and felt the instant spark of connection she had only experienced once before. He walked slowly towards her and they held each other's gaze. It felt like meeting a long lost friend - not a stranger on a strange beach.
     Later, sitting at one of the many bars on the resort, sipping the local cocktails they began to talk. First pleasantries, their hotels, the quality of the food and friendliness of the locals. Their conversation was strangely hesitant considering the naturalness and confidence of their earlier meeting. Onlookers, however, would have detected the subtle flirtation as they mirrored each other's actions and spoke directly into each other's eyes. Only later, after the alcohol had had its loosening effect, did the conversation deepen. They talked of why they were here and finally, against her judgement, Lisa opened up about her heartache of the past year and how events had led her back to the place where she had married the only man she believed she could ever love. She told him of things that had been locked deep inside her, able to tell no one. She told him how she had felt after she had lost her baby.
     She was six months pregnant and the happiest she had ever been when the pains had started. She was staying with her mother as James was working out of town. He hadn't made it back in time. The doctor had said it was just one of those things, that they could try again. But how could she when she couldn't even look James in the eye. She hated him then, for not being there, for not hurting as much as her but most of all for looking so much like the tiny baby boy that she held for just three hours before the took him away. All through the following months she had withdrawn from her husband, family, friends. Not wanting to recover form the pain she felt - that would have been a betrayal of her son. At the funeral she had refused to stand next to her husband and the next day she had left him.

     Looking up, Lisa could see her pain reflected in the man's eyes. For the first time in months she didn't feel alone, she felt the unbearable burden begin to lift from her, only a bit but it was a start. She began to believe that maybe she had a future after all and maybe it could be with this man, with his kind hazel eyes, wet with their shared tears.
     They had come here to dissolve their marriage but maybe there was hope. Lisa stood up and took James by the hand and led him away from the bar towards the beech where they had made their vows to each other three years ago. Tomorrow she would cancel the divorce; tonight they would work on renewing their promises.


 

Source: http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/RetuPara.shtml

Retrieved: 11 December 2007