Back Again to the History of Novels

The history of the novel, part two

As I’ve been researching I’ve found that the history of novels is still more complicated than I had previously supposed.  Here is a summary of what I’ve found.

As we discussed in class, biographies are an important and ancient part of literature.  The first Western biography happened to be an autobiography, as we discussed in class, Confessions by Saint Augustine takes the reader through the early part of the Bishop’s life, from his childhood until his conversion to Christianity and subsequent baptism at the age of 33. 

Writing- It's Kind of a Big Deal

So I've basically given up on finding new information on the ancient Kush language... As much as I want to find out more about them, for the time being it appears that they will remain one of the great mysteries of ancient history, at least until some remarkable discovery is made in The Sudan. Sadly the prospects of that seem rather slim because of the more pressing issues they face like slavery, civil war, drought, and genocide, which puts archeological efforts and decoding a dead language pretty much on the back burner.

But as you've probably already guessed, I've found out some interesting stuff about Ancient Egyptian writing! Follow after the jump to find out what!

The First Novel

Romance, travel, encounters with the supernatural, and a hero so perfect he seemed to belong in a bygone age.

                                                                                                                          

Back to the Homeland

I introduced in my last post that I would be going to China to teach English.
I couldn't be more excited! This past summer I began feeling rather dysfunctional. I never before had any desire to travel abroad. In fact, I still do not bear any aspiration to travel. But what I have harbored within me for a long time is the eagerness to help and provide for others. I've always enjoyed service. I joined multiple service organizations and currently am part of Provo Youth Mentoring (You should too! We need more mentors)

But how did I come to the decision of going to China? This resolution came from the spark of interest I found of connecting with my ancestral roots. I use to think I would be just fine just studying my ancestry from the comforts of my bedroom but I realized that for me to truly connect and form a link with my previous generations, I need to physically place myself there. For the same reason that modern day apostles still travel across the globe, for me to be able to forge a bond and have the opportunity to gain an emotional/spiritual channel, I want to go to the land of my fathers.

My brother and I are the first generation to have been born in America. Traveling to China would not only give my the opportunity to be where my dead ancestors were, but where my own living grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, etc. lived for a course of their lives.
I spent a couple of months scouring the internet for programs to go through. One fateful day, what was perceived as ordinary junk mail actually revealed itself to be my answer. International Languages Program (ILP) I explored the website and read everything I could about the different opportunities offered.
After much thoughtful meditation and prayer, I knew that this was the right path to follow, with the right program to go through.
So I started the application process and I'm currently gathering the final materials I need to send the application in.
Here's hoping!

Romances

I’ve found something I really enjoy to write about this week, and I personally feel like it’s germane to the topic. Like many in this class, I’m sure, I love reading.  It’s one of my favorite pastimes; I can easily spend hours curled up with a good book.  Who doesn’t look forward to cold, stormy winter days when you can sit by the fire and read à volonté?  Okay…so maybe I’m a little unique.  Still, I’m betting most of us love a good book.

I'm reading a book, that's what I'm doing!
credit to: xkcd.com 

Those Are Some Fancy Doodles!

A Meroitic inscription

So for this blog post I was determined to find some further information on the written language of Kush (Meroitic). I scoured the web, and I spent a good chunk of time in the library poring over titles on African linguistics and literature. It's safe to say that I came out of that experience a lot more confused than when I went in. I found NOTHING about further research on the Kushite language, and I could hardly find anything on Ancient African languages at all! I did however find plenty of sources analyzing the language families, ancestral connections, and literature of modern day Africa. I didn't spend a whole lot of time looking through those because that's not in the prescribed time period for this course, but I did learn a few interesting things...

Sanskrit: The Priestly Tongue

Sanskrit is an oral language and has no written script of it's own.

What? Then how is it written? Well, with any style of script really. Some examples are shown below.

Sanskrit can be written in a variety of scripts

Writing System? Really?

Japanese writing system is pretty unique and interesting. It uses multiple systems for writing Japanese.

Kanji	Hiragana	Katakana	Rōmaji	English
私	わたし	ワタシ	watashi	I, me
金魚	きんぎょ	キンギョ	kingyo	goldfish
煙草 or 莨	たばこ	タバコ	tabako	tobacco, cigarette
東京	とうきょう	トウキョウ	tōkyō	Tokyo, literally meaning "eastern capital"

The first characters that the Japanese used for writing were originally from China. The Kanji, are the characters that first came from China. The Japanese began using these characters between the 3rd and the 5th century. Using someone else's language to describe write things when you are speaking a different language is not that easy and so the Japanese have changed what they use for their writing system quite a bit.


From the original Kanji, which was not the same language as Japanese is what has come to describe the different aspects of the Japanese language specifically verbs, nouns, and adjectives. (Isn't it weird to think that there is a specific word out there that describes the word verbs, nouns and adjectives in most languages?) The Hiragana is used to describe things that are not included in the original Kanji. Word that are difficult to describe and just are obscure in Kanji are written in Hiragana. Katakana are word that are being translated from another language. For example names or elements are described with Katakana.

While the Japanese did take their language from the Chinese originally(Chinese language post) the Japanese did not decide to use the same amount of characters to be included in their written language from the Kanji. They only use around 1850 characters.

The Japanese did not have a real piece of literature for quite some time. When the did they wrote the, "Man'yōgana was initially used to record poetry, as in the Man'yōshū (万葉集^?)."

The Man'yoshu is translated to mean, the collection of ten thousand leaves, this is the oldest volume of poetry in Japan. It is quite and extensive collection of poems and contains 4500 poems in 20 volumes. The Japanese writing techniques are a unique blend of Chinese characters while at the same time having plenty of things that are used only in their language. Something to look at is how much your own written language is composed of many other languages from around the world.

Zwongwen = Chinese

 When I was younger and had not started school yet, my mother and grandmother taught me how to write in Chinese. Unfortunately, once I got into the public education system my attentions were more focused toward what I was learning in school and I lost some ability to write Chinese. I kept up with Mandarin because that is how I spoke with my family.
As I researched the Chinese writing system, I was surprisingly able to remember many rules of the language.

My Kingdom for a Writing System!

Again, Friday morning finds me returning* to the mountainous island of Crete, to visit the ancient woody kingdom of the Minoans.  This time, though, I’m here to look at ancient writing, not ancient speaking. 

*I wish! An island vacation sounds amazing right now…

Is this a language?  Good question!

Now You're Speakin' My Language... Well, Not Really...

As I'm sure I've made abundantly clear in my previous blog posts on the Kush civilization, no has yet been able to decipher their ancient written language. So instead of making a blog post about nothing, I decided I would turn to another ancient African people whose language has been decoded. Luckily one such civilization, arguably one of the most studied in history, lied just to the north of Kush, and their cultures and language systems were closely linked in many respects - I'm talking of course, about the Egyptians. As we're shifting to the study of written knowledge and educational systems, I think the Egypt is a very interesting civilization to scrutinize because we have uncovered so much evidence about their educational system.

Language Preserved

The Japanese are a culture who gathered many things from its neighbors. Some of the things that people believe are strictly Japanese originally were not. Sushi and the Japanese written language both have this in common.

Road to Success

"The government that seems the most unwise,
Oft goodness to the people best supplies;
That which is meddling, touching everything,
Will work but ill, and disappointment bring."

- Laozi (Tao Te Ching section 58)

Quoting the Iliad

Let me start by saying that I can take no credit for finding someone to interview.  After my best efforts, I had found a few people who qualified as people I could interview, but for various reasons, I was unable to set any kind of appointment with them.  Wednesday morning, discouraged, I asked in my morning prayer for help finding someone to interview.  My first class that morning was Book of Mormon with Doctor Seely, and during our class, that discussion ended up (somehow) on oral functions in the Book of Mormon, and Brother Seely actually recited the introduction to the Iliad in Greek.  Talk about answers to prayers, right?

(This is a reconstruction; Minoan palaces don't look like this anymore.)

Lost in the Sand

The old saying goes, "You don't know what you don't know..." And when it comes to the ancient Kush of the Southern Nile river valley, what you don't know is quite a bit. I've scoured numerous sources, other blogs, newspaper articles, books, you name it, and I've found that the common theme with their take on this once powerful political force, is how much is left to be discovered.  Here's a video that helped me gain a better understanding of this than getting lost in the text of dozens of written articles. (At least for me, an example of an advantage of oral communication over written forms)

Buddism

A jug fills drop by drop. 

All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain? 

An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind. 

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one word that brings peace.
Buddha 

Law and Religion - Indivisible in India

Last week I posted about my findings while reading from the Mahabharata, an ancient epic poem written in India that contains key beliefs of the Hindu culture. I dedicated this week to reading from the Bhagavad-Gita, a sacred scripture taken from the Mahabharata that is so important to Hinduism that it is often treated as a free standing text. The poem recounts a conversation between Lord Krishna (later revealed to be the Supreme Being himself) and a prince named Arjuna who questions the war he’s fighting against his own cousins. As they stand on the battlefield with both sides ready for conflict, Lord Krishna (often referred to simply as “the Lord”) teaches Arjuna his duties as a warrior in the caste system of India and also instructs him on how to live a righteous life. As such, this text allows us to have a better understanding of Hindu theology and the caste system of ancient India.