Reflection on Week 1 (January 1-7)

This week's doc.
 
    I figure I need to take a moment now and then to reflect on how the whole project is going, and break up the doc so it's not 9001 pages. I was leaning towards monthly, but then the Aeneid was 50 pages, and weekly is probably better anyway.

Quick review on this week's readings:

1st Ben Franklin's Autobiography: 5/5 Mostly good advice, and well written. I've read excerpts from this a million times, but I started reading the whole thing last week. Ben Franklin is the guy every Medium/Substack writer wishes they were.

2nd John Milton Juvenilia: 3/5  It was really fun to see that high school poetry basically hasn't changed in 400 years. Unfortunately, that means its still bad. 5/5 for the experience, 2/5 for the writing. Creepily horny for baby Jesus. Going to read some Paradise Lost to see if he improves. 

3rd Cicero on Friendship: 4/5. Agreed with most of it, disagreed with a few parts. Writing in this translation is fine. What bumps it up to a 4/5 (for me) is that it's an ancient philosopher talking about people and not being a total downer. This is probably not that uncommon, but new for me. Go learning!

4th "Fisherman and His Wife" by the Brother's Grimm: 4/5 Slightly generic, but the way it's written/translated is fun.

5th Essay on Byron and Goethe by Mazzini: 1/5 It's just bad. Repetitive, whiny, contradictory. 

6th The Aeneid  by Virgil: 3/5 I'm a sucker for epic poetry, but there was nothing particular here that stands out compared to a good translation of Beowulf or The Odyssey. Might read more in a more modern translation at some point.

7th Introduction to The 1001 Nights: 4/5 Well executed frame story, iffy actual story.

Average: 2.9/5 Honestly, not a great start numerically. I think I'd rate the overall experience higher. Mazzini is really driving this down, but (as I talk more about below) you're "allowed" to disagree/dislike a piece is helpful. A better translation of The Aeneid would probably pull it up as well.

Overall thoughts on the project:

    I think the big thing that I took away from this week is how encouraging the entire idea of T5FSOB is. Any person, with some time and effort, can learn from these things, become a better person, etc. This was very much not the consensus of my formal post secondary education, which was that 90% of people are idiots, that that's impossible to change, and that your station in life, attitudes, etc. are determined by your identity. And  if you have some kind of a "contradictory" identity (atheist Hispanic, masculine gay man, etc.) then you just don't exist. The idea that any person (in fact, most people) is moral, can think, and make good decisions for themselves is refreshing. And probably true.