Happy Reader - Nghìn Lẻ Một Đêm +1CD EPub tải xuống miễn phí

Andres Fernando _ — It's clear that Spider-Man: Reign echoes a post-9/11 world, if not a blatant observation of the Bush Administration following the terrorist attacks and the war against terrorism. Much like the promises of a madman from Texas to make our country safe, Mayor Waters promises New York protection from super-terrorists. The only cost for this freedom is the citizens' freedom and civil rights - the guy even goes as far as canceling the electoral process until his job is done (which, I wouldn't have put it passed Bush to do the very same thing). So while making a Utopia, Waters manages to create the ultimate Dystopia. And who can save the city from itself? Why none other than the friendly neighborhood florist. Peter Parker finds himself as an elderly man working at a flower shop. His glory days are over. He is a widow. Retired from fighting crime. Slowly awaiting death. On the night he is fired, he witnesses a teenager beaten by the Reign - a military police force that now holds the law in New York. Helpless to come to the aid of the teenager, Parker turns his back on the scene and goes home, where an old friend comes to see him. Even the aging J. Jonah Jameson can put aside old grudges against his former employee and scandal maker. Jonah urges the retired hero to take the mask again and save the city from those in charge because he fears that something much darker lurks in Waters' shadow. Something only a spider can overcome. Kaare Andrews brings us the Marvel equivalent to The Dark Knight Returns, showing us that no matter how old we get, a hero still lives within us all. It's probably the best graphic novel I've read this summer - outmatching The Age of Apocalypse arc. The art is haunting and the storytelling echoes with genius - the character voices just pop into the reader's head (I wasn't even trying to give them voices, it just happened). Let's not forget that this by far the most political graphic novel I've read since Watchmen. It's a must for Spider-Man fans everywhere and a great read for those literary nuts out there (myself included).

Gary-wayne Smith soundmind76b7c — The poem starts with a description of the ancestors of Hrothgar and his conquests. It then describes the great mead hall that he has constructed to commemorate his greatness. The demon Grendal however comes from the swamps and kills many of his men. No matter what Hrothgar does he cannot get rid of Grendal. Beowulf, who is the Prince of the Geats (Swedes), hears of this demon and travels to Denmark with his best warriors to kill Grendal. When he arrives the Danes are amazed by his heroic nature and immediately trust him. Beowulf then offers to kill Grendal with his bare hands. The king is impressed by Beowulf’s bravery but doubts his skill. He nevertheless allows Beowulf to fight Grendal but before night falls they have a feast. Then night falls and Beowulf waits for Grendal unarmored and unarmed. Grendal bursts into the hall and expects the weak Danes but when he fights Beowulf he becomes terrified because of the heroes strength and tries to escape. Then Beowulf’s warriors try to kill Grendal while Beowulf has him pinned but no weapon can harm him so Beowulf rips off Grendals arm. They allow Grendal to escape with his mortal wound and keep his arm hung on the wall of the hall. The king thanks Beowulf and then they start to rebuild the hall. They also have a massive feast in honor of Beowulf and the king gives him many gifts. That night though, Grendals mother, enraged by the loss of her son, comes to the hall and carries away the arm as well as the king’s advisor. The king once again needs Beowulf’s help and he tells him of a lake in the swamp that has a dark magic associated with it. He believes that this lake is the home of Grendals mother. They set off to the lake and when they get there it is at the bottom of a huge cliff and is seething with monsters. Beowulf acquires a great sword from the Danes that has never failed in battle and dives in. He swims until he reaches the bottom and there Grendals mother ambushes him. He tries to kill her with his sword but like Grendal it does not hing. She however is just as strong as him. They wrestle until they come to her lair where Beowulf sees and ancient sword that resonates with magic. He grabs this sword and easily kills her with it. Then he takes Grendals head and the sword and returns to the surface. Hrothgar gives Beowulf many treasures and begs him to return soon but he knows he will never see the hero again. Then finally Beowulf and his warriors leave for Geatland. When they arrive he is treated like a god among men and after he tells the Geats of his adventures they praise him for his bravery. After a time though the king, Beowulf’s father, is killed in battle and Beowulf himself becomes king. He rules happily for about fifty years. Then one day a man in his kingdom finds a cave full of treasure. This man steals one golden cup but little to his knowledge that cave is the horde of a mighty dragon and it is not fond of thieves. The treasure is not exactly the dragons but it was buried by a man who was the last of an ancient race who was destined to die without greatness. The dragon merely happened upon the treasure and claimed it. It commenced to emerge from its burrow and wreck havoc on the countryside in search of the thief. When it could not find him it satisfied its self with destroying towns. Eventually the dragon attacks Beowulf’s hall and he decides to slay it. He takes some of his men with him and they search for the burrow. When they find it Beowulf has a premonition of his own death and decides to fight the dragon if it will come out. The dragon comes out and they wrestle but Beowulf is not as strong as he used to be. He breaks his sword but then his loyal servant comes to his aid. The dragon manages to bite him but his servant stabs it in its stomach and then Beowulf strikes the final blow. Only then does he realize that the dragon was venomous and he is dying. He asks his servant to build him a barrow and then dies. Then Beowulf’s servant commands the people to build a massive pyre for the king and then cover it with a huge barrow. Finally he explains how there are many other nations who will try to attack the Geats because without their legendary king they are weak. Culturally the Geats and Danes are extremely different from Americans. They put a huge emphasis on male dominance which one can clearly see by how in all of the feasts the queen merely greets the hero and serves the king. This idea of male dominance was a central part of Swedish culture at this time. There is also the importance of one’s deeds. Everyone bragged about all of the amazing things they could do and naturally the strongest, bravest, smartest man was the most adored because of his deeds. Without these deeds a man was nothing and the people who spread these stories were the skalds. The skalds were the bards of ancient Sweden and they told the people of heroes deeds so they were very valued in Swedish culture. In America we try very hard to not have any gender inequality so we are extremely different in that aspect. We also do not care much about how many amazing things people have done. Now we care more about how much money they have. While the Swedes also cared about money they cared about glory way more. Finally we don’t have skalds to tell the world of our amazing feats, now we just post it on facebook. The purpose of writing any epic such as Beowulf is to give a people a sense of pride. One can clearly see this in the god-like qualities that the main character has. Beowulf in particular was created in the dark ages of Europe so when people heard of the greatness of their ancestors they became emboldened and their entire culture could become more efficient by such a morale boost. It is no coincidence that Augustus had an epic of Rome written that told of their half-god (literally) ancestor, Aeneas. He wanted his people to feel better about themselves much like this unknown author, who was probably a monk trying to do gods will and enlighten humanity. There is hard evidence to prove that this tale was made to glorify a race in the very first line of the epic “Hail! We have heard tales of the Spear-Danes, the glory of their war-kings in days gone by, how princely nobles preformed heroes’ deeds!”. Beowulf also shows how people could be great even in times of dark much like the one that descended on Europe after the fall of the Romans. The theme of this poem has to do with creating ones identity and living forever though it and ones deeds. All through the epic Beowulf puts himself in dangers way to the point of ridiculousness, like fighting Grendel unarmed, for nothing more than glory. He does accept the treasures but it is glory and a name that will live forever that he wants. When the skald taunts him for losing the swimming race he becomes very angry because it takes away from his glory and he promptly tells the “true” version in which he also fought off ten sea dragons. Beowulf also knows that he will die in the end if he fights the dragon but he does anyway because that way he will be remembered forever as the man who slew the dragon that destroyed half of Geatland. Again the first line of the poem shows that because of the great deeds of the “Spear-Danes” we know of them and they are essentially immortal because of these deeds. This poem is not for everyone. Anyone who likes down to earth types of literature that seem real will not like this. The tasks that these characters accomplish are not real and they are more like gods than men. People who like their literature to be larger than life however would be hard pressed to find a better piece of literature. Beowulf is a masterpiece of epic proportions that very few others can compete with. This is due to the type of people that it describes as well as the literary techniques it employs. It was created to be a light of inspiration to people in one of the darkest times Europe has ever seen so naturally it is very powerful.