Author Archives: Jazmine Vargas

Week 6 reading response

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Humans have always been attracted to the “dark and unknown” parts of the world and wanting to defeat “it”. For example in this story is Raymodin and his incessant need to override his promise to Melusine and goes to search for her on Saturday. “The memory of his oath and of all his preceding life forgotten, he slid, fascinated, toward the unknown source of his misfortune and loss”(Knight, 124). The enticement of the unknown and the potential for gaining more control which means more power for Raymodin (or humans). Since, Raymodin fights on the behalf of God, this will be a victory for Christianity as well. The justification of control over new domains is forgiven and encouraged in the name of God. The quote also highlights how Raymodin is ignoring all the telltale signs to turn back and go back to his environment. But, his obsession with Melusine’s unknown secret had turned into an obsession that he need to quench by any means discover the truth. This a reflection of human nature and the curiosity of wanting to gain more knowledge despite having a gut feeling that it will cause more harm than good. The greediness for power/ control of unharnessed beings can take a turn of destructiveness to both parties.

Week 5 reading

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Religion has played a huge part in the myth of mermaids, as we already know. In this story, “The Romance of the Faery Melusine” by Gareth Knight and Andre Lebey, showcases how Christianity is deeply rooted in the portrayal of Melusine and Raymondin throughout the text. Christianity still on a mission to ruin femininity and use Melusine as their example for readers. For example; portraying her as meek and forgiving as her main personality is quite sexist and having Raymondin convinced that Melusine is connected to the devil and he must save her. “Women do not know, know nothing of what we call Honor”(Knight, 138). There goes Raymondin bashing on Melusine and women in general because of her because of her revealed secret that he shouldn’t have been snooping around for! The strange and unnatural image of Melusine horrified Raymondin and instantly turned his inquisitiveness turn into pure hatred. Perhaps its became she isn’t fully a human but a hybrid and therefore has power that he won’t be able to posses within his humanly power? Could this have been avoided if Raymondin and his curious nature had minded their own business? Or, since Raymondin is fully human and humans have the endless desire for power and knowledge that there was no other way for this story to have gone?

Week 4 reading

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Focusing on poem verse 6 on page 11 of “Odysseus and the Sirens”, the carefully cultivated song (with a rhyming scheme of ABAB) to catch Odysseus attention with his greatest desires and fluffed up ego had worked to the point where his crew mates had to tighten Odysseus binds before he escaped and went towards the sirens. Not a sexually charged lure was used in this scene, instead the offer was about having rich knowledge and becoming a more powerful being.

Odysseus is an arrogant warrior and how did the sirens manage to catch his attention? “O pride of Greece!” (line 1) and “Blest is the man ordain’d our voice to hear,”(line 3) are great hooks that captured Odysseus ear. Who wouldn’t want to play a closer ear to someone complimenting them? The sirens praising him for being the extraordinary warrior he is and acknowledging how lucky he is to be hearing their “lay”(line 2). Odysseus knows that the sirens have bad intentions, hence why he’s bounded to his ship and his crew mates have wax stuffed in their ears. The supernatural beings that sirens are and have access to infinite knowledge helped gain their case for how to lure Odysseus their way.

The “Celestial music warbles from their tongue”(pg.11, verse 5, line 3) has me associating sirens as the harbingers of death. These supernatural creatures have sweet songs that convince humans to end their lives for whatever deep desire they have in their souls that isn’t for safe keeping while you’re around them. They know your vulnerabilities and use them against you.

This scene showcases how often humans are tempted to go the wrong route in life that will bring a heavy hand of pain. Or, fight through those intrusive and compelling thoughts and stay true to oneself. The choice is ours.

Week 3 Reading Reflection

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My main takeaway is from pg.xiii from The Penguin Book of Mermaids and how René Magritte painted a mermaid with the upper body of a fish and lower body of an exposed human woman’s legs. Forewarning, I do go off on a small tangent about something that my mind couldn’t stop thinking of later on.. So here we go! 

I searched up the image and golly, it doesn’t seem right. But, that’s because we’ve been fed this whole other image that encapsulates beauty. Meanwhile, this art piece seems abnormal and uncomfortable to look at. Naming it “The Collective Invention” is diabolical, because of how surreal this image looks.It feels sarcastic as like the artist is giving a wake up call for the public to question their own acceptance of mermaids as a common concept in society. Maybe, from a physical characteristic standpoint of why mermaids were accepted other than men are perverted and strongly dislike women. Is that all the mermaids I’ve seen so far have a human face.. familiarity feels safe enough to have some guard down and have clouded judgement on what is considered normal. Just as how Christianity adopted some pagan beliefs to attract / convert pagan followers. Hence, having a bigger following is to gain more power over people and the environment. 

Another theory I have as to why mermaids are portrayed as women from their waist upwards other than already having a merman existing,and human nature with the attraction to female anatomy. Why, for the most part, do mermaids have a woman’s torso and long luscious locks? Encapsulating the breast and hair is widely significant because that is a part of the mermaid’s identity according to society. This question puts me back to how the Christian churches went out of their way to disintegrate femininity but didn’t want to ruin the image of Mother Mary. Is it because she brought comfort and is the mother of Jesus Christ? Is she a hidden reason to have mermaids be shaped the way they are? Why were we told sirens have an enchanted voice? Surely, their voice isn’t the only feature that held the attention of humans? Is it because women bring a sense of comfort to men? Of course, I don’t have the answer but this concept just rattles my brain because disregarding the sexual urges from men regarding mermaids/merepeople and male merepeople already existing .. Why else are mermaids shaped the way they are? Someone tell me why!?! 

Anyways, if you’ve made it this far, I appreciate you for your time! <3

Week 2 Readings Post

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I managed to create a system for my annotations that my brain can comprehend but it might look crazy to everyone else, which often happens. I thoroughly enjoyed chapter 1 of Merepeople compared to the introduction. At the beginning of the chapter, I enjoyed the small story just showing how weak men are about keeping their emotions in check that a carving is bringing out these human natural emotions. The hypersexualization of the mermaid and his hunger / temptation makes it uncomfortable from an outsider point of view that isn’t a desperate man. I was uncomfortable with the narration while reading it, just the objectification was wild and had me cringing about how this man was acting! Unhinged deacon at its finest. I wonder if there are texts out there about a woman having sexual desire for a triton..? But, considering that Christianity and their leaders were trying their hardest to denigrate femininity, I wouldn’t be surprised that it was destroyed or hidden deep. Later in the chapter on page.51, the details were clear on how tritons were perceived, which was more conservative than their counterpart. I had this thought that popped up during our lecture this past Tuesday, that since mermaids are a reflection of humans.. Creating the narrative around mermaids is a soapbox for Christian leaders to passively ruin femininity. An indirect way of criticising women and their feminine attributes. If the church is on a mission to ruin femininity, why isn’t it a sin considering that Mother Mary is a woman too? And my last question that has been bothering me is that on page.40, why would scholars assume “vagina” as another meaning for the fish held by the mermaid? I don’t understand the reasoning for this metaphor. Like the mirror/comb, vanity, but what does the dang fish mean? 

This is how I sum up my takeaway from this week’s reading: in the name of “goodness”, there is plenty of evil doing.

Jazmine V. Introduction

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Hello everyone, my name is Jazmine! I am a junior that has recently transferred from San Diego City College. I am majoring in English and Comparative Literature with aspirations to become a professor. Not sure if I want to teach city college level only or universities as well. Only the future will tell! I am highly interested in learning about literature and viewing it in different lenses. It’s a bit troublesome for me to introspectively look at text and think deeply.I tend to look at literature pieces at face value but that is slowly changing. I think it has to do with topics that don’t peak my interest. But, with each literature class, I gain more practice fine tuning this tough skill. 

Outside of class, you’ll find me, nowhere for the most part. I am a huge homebody! I love to stay in and stream my favorite tv shows. I’m currently obsessed with Taskmaster season 19, Adults on FX and, the entirety of Abbott Elementary. Plus, I play plenty of Stardew Valley on my switch and am actively trying to perfect my farm! I am yearning for an update on Animal Crossing! Funny enough since I am an english major, I should say I love reading books but in reality I’m not an avid reader, I have periods where I am glued to a book and when finished, then I don’t pick up another novel for monthsss! Also, my brain can’t comprehend annotating a book. It doesn’t feel right but I do admire it when I see others with all their colorful tabs and thoughtful notes in the margins. 

Besides all that, I really do look forward to this class with y’all and can’t wait to learn about mermaids and their symbolism!