Dragon+1+(E+Block)

//“The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters.”//
 * Trial: Dragon **

// **Outline:** //
 * __//Matter and motion, simple or complex, in the end it will be all the same because we are finally all going to die.//__**
 * evidence:** "You are mankind, or man's condition: in separable as the mountain-climber and the mountain. If you withdraw, you'll instantly be replaced. Brute existents, you know, are a dime a dozen. No sentimental trash, then. If man's the irrelevance that interests you, stick with him! Scare him to glory! It's all the same in the end, matter and motion, simple or complex. No difference, finally. Death, transfiguration. Ashes to ashes and slime to slime. amen" //(Dragon pg 73)//


 * __//Because I do know when I'm going to die, I have perceived the idea of meaningless world.//__**
 * evidence:** "In a billion billion billion years, everything will have come and gone several times, in various forms. Even I will be gone. A certain man will absurdly kill me. A terrible pity-loss of a remarkable form of life. Conservationists will howl." //(Dragon pg 70)//


 * __//The actions the humans will make no difference to the universe and history.//__**
 * evidence:** "For example, the apparent absence of change within a second of time tells nothing as to the change within a thousand years. Also, no appearance of change within a thousand years tells anything concerning what might happen in, say, a million years; and no apparent change within a million years tells anything about a million million years. We can extend this progression indefinitely; there is no absolute standard of magnitude. Any term in this progression is large compared to its predecessor and small compared to its successor" //(Dragon pg 66)//
 * __//The world will be destroyed.//__**
 * evidence:** "Pick an apocalypse, any apocalypse. A sea of black oil and dead things. No wind. No light. Nothing stirring, not even an ant, a spider. A silent universe. Such is the end of the flicker of time, the brief, hot fuse of events and ideas set off, accidentally, and snuffed out, accidentally, by man. Not a real ending of course, nor even a beginning. Mere ripple in Time's stream." (Dragon pg 71)


 * //__The dragon knows everything, he sees the future.__//**
 * evidence:** "We see from the mountaintop: all time, all space. We see in one instant the passionate vision and the blowout. Not that we cause things to fail, you understand." (Dragon pg 63)


 * __//The shaper saves the people in confusion of what really life is.//__**
 * evidence:** "They sense that, of course, from time to time; have uneasy feelings that all they live by is nonsense. They have a dim apprehensions that such propositions as 'God does not exist' are somewhat dubious at least in comparison with statements like 'All carnivorous cows eat meat.' That's where the Shaper saves them. Provides an illusion of reality-puts together all their facts with a gluey whine of connectedness. Mere tripe, believe me. Mere sleight-of-wits. He knows no more than they do about total reality-less, if anything works with the same old clutter of atoms, the givens of his time and place and tongue. But he spins it all together with harp runs and hoots, and they think what they think is alive, think Heaven loves them. It keeps them going-for what that's worth. As for myself, I can hardly bear to look." (Dragon pg 65)

// **Witness:** // __We see from the mountaintop: all time, all space. We see in one instant the passionate vision and the blowout. Not that we cause things to fail, you understand.__ (pg 63)
 * //__What are your abilities?__//**

This world will eventually end. An apocalypse. There will be no wind, no light, just a sea of black oil and dead things. A silent universe. Such is the result of accidents by man. Eventually, as the time pasts by, everything will die, including me. I will be gone. I see that a certain man will kill me. (pg71, pg70)
 * __//What is going to happen in the future?//__**

Of course. This world is vast. Enormously. Humans, whom only live for about 70 years, the things they do are merely anything in this world. A change within those hundred years tells nothing as to the change in thousand years and so on. __Any term in this progression is large compared to its predecessor, but small compared to its successor.__ (pg 66)
 * __//Then isn't life meaningless, because we will eventually die?//__**

In my perspective, it is all shaper's fault. Absolutely. All men __do sense that from time to time; have uneasy feelings that all they live by is nonsense.__ However, the shaper is who that makes all the values in life through illusions of reality. With all the facts, adding a bit of wit, __he spins it all together with harp runs and hoots, and they think what they think is alive, think Heaven loves them.__ I am certain that those words are confusing the humans, shaper hiding the real truth from them. No matter what, time will destroy everything. (pg 65)
 * __//Why do you think that humans believe in life is meaningful?//__**

// **Statement:** // __The world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters.__ To start off with, life is truly meaningless because eventually everything will perish under the circumstances that time will pass. The dragon, do see the world from the mountaintop, all space, all time. //**("We see from the mountaintop: all time, all space. We see in one instant the passionate vision and the blowout. Not that we cause things to fail, you understand." page 63)**// I do have the power, indeed like a god, the power to see the future. I have seen many civilizations evolve and, on the other hand, collapse. I do understand the actions humans do might be significant for that certain time period, but that does not affect the universe as a whole, which is extremely vast; more than billion billion years. //**("For example, the apparent absence of change within a second of time tells nothing as to the change within a thousand years. Also, no appearance of change within a thousand years tells anything concerning what might happen in, say, a million years; and no apparent change within a million years tells anything about a million million years. We can extend this progression indefinitely; there is no absolute standard of magnitude. Any term in this progression is large compared to its predecessor and small compared to its successor" page 66)**// Dragon, myself doesn't see any point why Beowulf or Unferth, possibly Hrothgar trying to conquer other territories or gain fame and honors. Unfortunately, in the end, they will be purely nothing. The world will end. //**("Pick an apocalypse, any apocalypse. A sea of black oil and dead things. No wind. No light. Nothing stirring, not even an ant, a spider. A silent universe. Such is the end of the flicker of time, the brief, hot fuse of events and ideas set off, accidentally, and snuffed out, accidentally, by man. Not a real ending of course, nor even a beginning. Mere ripple in Time's stream." page 71)**// Those actions will mean nothing and will someday fade away as time passes.

I am deeply concerned that the humans are not understanding the true potential behind all these meaning of life. They do not see in my point of view, and they are confused by the words that the shaper sings with sleight bit of wit. Men might never agree to my position that the life is meaningless because they do believe in the words of shaper and themselves that they live for a certain purpose. //**("That's where the Shaper saves them. Provides an illusion of reality-puts together all their facts with a gluey whine of connectedness. Mere tripe, believe me. Mere sleight-of-wits. He knows no more than they do about total reality-less, if anything works with the same old clutter of atoms, the givens of his time and place and tongue. But he spins it all together with harp runs and hoots, and they think what they think is alive, think Heaven loves them. It keeps them going-for what that's worth. As for myself, I can hardly bear to look." page 65)**// But I do really want to tell them to seek gold and sit on it. Seeking gold and sitting on it, humans may argue, can be the purpose of life, but emotions and meaning of life are two different factors. Everyone can have different emotions, regardless of the meaning of life. Everyone wants to live happy, but does that mean that I find happiness as the meaning of life? Not. What I mean by this is that the happy emotions that I feel towards gold is at least better than suffering from the society like humans. Humans are not always happy, they do fight, have troubles between friends and within the clan. Men suffer from hatred and betrayal, etc. However, I do advise that those feelings and emotions are meaningless because in the end, the suffering won't pay off but fade out like as if it never happened. Rather than suffering and going through troubles, finding something that you like will at least satisfy your own feelings and thoughts. For the rest of the life, you don't have to suffer, but stay happy for the rest of the life. How simple it is!

To end the statement, lastly, I want to remind that this statement will be chaotic to humans in the court. Of course. Men were busy on living their lives; they never had the time nor the opportunity to really grasp what this world is all about. At the court, strong protests are inevitable, but they will understand. As they think about it more and more, they will question themselves, "Why do I live?" Now realizing that shaper is no god-given man who sings all the truth, total confusion will reach their mind and indeed, agree that life is totally meaningless. //**("They sense that, of course, from time to time; have uneasy feelings that all they live by is nonsense. They have a dim apprehensions that such propositions as 'God does not exist' are somewhat dubious at least in comparison with statements like 'All carnivorous cows eat meat.'" page 65)**// Just to clarify, I do see the future.

Therefore, I, the dragon, strongly agree that __the world and everything in it is unplanned accident, existence is meaningless; the past is irrelevant; nothing matters__.

// **Role: Letter Reflection** //

I think this letter really made me think again about the book __Grendel__. Listening to the author changed my whole point of view towards the book. As I read this letter, I thought again what I missed while reading __Grendel__, for example, I should have read the book with more emotions and with minds. John Gardner deeply replied through the letter how he intended to open the imagination to the readers. He claims that he tried to make both pros and cons about the philosophical issue, trying to be as neutral as possible. In this letter, I truly learned the intention of the author, writing the book. Rather than advocating his thought through the novel, he tries to make the readers think deeply of their past life and decide whether they should perceive Grendel's idea or not. Although it is very positive not to become so existentialist, by thinking back of our past, the book guides us to plan better our future.

As reading the letter by the author of the book, rather than finding evidences to support me in the trial, the letter helped in a sense for better understanding of the book.Honestly, __Grendel__ was a really hard book, with philosophical ideas. When I read the book, I had read many parts more than two times to have at least a basic understanding of what it was saying. The letter helps guiding the people and it made me think back of the book and reflect on my thoughts that I had towards the characters: Dragon, Beowulf, Hrothgar, and Grendel. Some ideas from the letter was contradicting to original thoughts that I had, and debating upon myself, thinking more about the topic, I think I developed the understanding the concept of __Grendel__.

The letter helped me a lot understanding the book, and it will also help me in the trial. Now that I have a better grasp of the meaning behind all those philosophical lines, I can better argue my thoughts on the book, much more clearly and precisely.