The Bleeding of the Stone has been my least favorite book so far. I think the main reason is because it focused entirely on one man's story and didn't fit in with the other genre's of books we have been reading. It was a quick read, and easy to follow, but it didn't seem to fit with the other books. There was a lot of language and words that I didn't know the meaning to, and I couldn't even find clues in the text for. Like for example it wasn't until the end of the book I had sort of an idea what a "wadden" was. When Asouf described them grazing with his goats and him not recognizing it is when I kinda formed a picture in my head. I imagined a mountain goat. Because although they look similar to normal goats, they are very different and live in the mountains!
Another interesting term used was the jinni. According to skepdic.com, A jinni is a spirit in Arabic and Muslim demonology that is capable of assuming human or animal form and exercising supernatural influence over people for good or for ill.
We said in class that this book was set in Libya, which is near this regional area. The muslim beliefs are very popular and prevelant throughout this area so this terminology is to be expected.
Wadi Matkhandoush: 
These are some pictures taken from the area in the book they talk about. I don't see how they are so important to Christian's but I guess they could represent biblical times. 
Fatiha: This is what a fatiha looks like. It is described as the first chapter of the Muslim holy book, the Qur'an. Its seven verses are a prayer for God's guidance and stress the lordship and mercy of God. This chapter has a special role in daily prayers being recited at the start of each unit of prayer.
After looking up these various terms it made the book more clear. However because I know almost nothing about the Muslim religion and traditions, their point in the book still had little meaning. This book would have meant more if we, as a class, did a little more research on the Muslim traditions before reading this book. The references are amazing but they have very little meaning to me.
6 comments:
I love your picture of the goat/sheep thing. :) I haven't read yet, so I am not sure what it is, but it is cute... Nice Blog.
I tried to read the book in a few sittings and found myself lost between the stories. Hold on until Johnny Mad Dog, a much better read.
Thank you for finding out about the jinni- I was wondering about the whole time I was reading.
I suspect that as we talk about this novel the beauty of the book will start to come through...
Thanks for finding info on the jinni, the paintings on the stones and the fatiha. Very interesting.
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