Dialectic Journals (Book 1)

You know, resizing pictures is a pain. Lets get this started.
This picture is a flame. A fire represents three things: burning passion, the flames of war, and betrayal. The fire is a beautiful thing, but used for destruction and battles. It can ruin and scar many things, including humans. Elegant, but dangerous. Many can control this element, but if you aren't careful, it will turn on you.


Chapter Four, page 21 –

"This I learned then: there is always fire.

An acrid haze hangs in the air night and day, and sulphurous smoke chokes the nostrils. The sun is the color of ash, and black stones litter the road, smoking. Everywhere one looks, some object is afire. Timber, flesh, the earth itself. Even water burns. The pitilessness of flame reinforces the sensation of the gods’ anger, of fate, retribution, deeds done and hell to pay."

Read the quote. Just read it! I enjoyed each and every word in this paragraph. This passage was incredibly written, it brings you into the world of the Spartans. The pure use of metaphors and descriptive writing is beautiful.
When I read this, my entire world changed from a peaceful, cold bedroom to a dark, burning battlefield. You can smell the ashes, you can feel the heat. You are surrounded by a malicious flame, ready to devour you whole. Everything is burning. Even your comrades next to you.
The blaze of war, happening in front of you, right in your hands. The indignation of one’s wrath, captured in the words in your eyes. You are there, in the “Gates of Fire”.

Chapter Five, page 36 –

“Have your instructors taught you why the Spartans excuse without penalty the warrior who loses his helmet or breastplate in battle, but punish with loss of all citizenship rights the man who discards his shield?”

They had, Alexandros replied.

“Because a warrior carries helmet and breastplate for his own protection, but his shield for the safety of the whole line.”

“I shall be a protector as long as I bear this shield; I shall be a warrior as long as I bear this sword.” It’s a pledge for most knights during the Dark Ages, and the moral reigned through most centuries, even before the Medieval times.
When I read this part, I couldn’t help but think of a bunch of quotes that relate to this. One in particular was from the movie 300, said by Leonidas. How did it go…? “A Spartan warrior fights not only to defend himself, but the man fighting beside him. He protects his friend from neck to thigh [with his shield].”
One of the Spartan battle formations was the doctrine, where all the solders prepare a defense with a wall of shields. “Punish… …the man who discards his shield”, his shield is to protect everyone, not just himself. It is “for the safety of the whole line.”
I found this as an interesting concept. A Spartan must be synchronized and act as a whole, and with one fault the entire formation and defense is lost.

Chapter 6, page 40 –

"I called out again and again to the gods but received no whisper in reply. They had abandoned us, it was clear, now that we no longer possessed ourselves or were possessed by our polis."

“Believe in it, even if no one else does.”
This passage struck me. The feeling of abandonment and loss is something you cannot overlook, especially if you have felt it so many times already. Someone, or something, that you would look up to and ask for guidance, but no signs appear to help you.
When you are completely lost, when you can’t walk on your own two feet, when you really need that sign… then “maybe” kicks in and flips a coin.
“I called out again and again to the gods but received no whisper in reply”, do you really think something you believe in would magically come down and put you on the right path? There is no coincidence in this world; there is only what fate decides. And usually, fate can be cruel.
I’ve felt this way before; I almost said the exact lines too. When you lose all faith; when you refuse to open your eyes to the truth, when you keep denying that you can’t go on without a sign; then you lose all reasoning to go on with anything: with work, with love, or with life.
In the passage, the narrator lost both his hands’ ability to move his fingers. He wanted to protect the ones he loved, and he believed he couldn’t because he couldn’t hold a spear anymore. He lost his family, his home, and now his hands. When he prayed to God, they never replied to guide him (they did, but not immediately). Narrator resolved to end all of his misery, a life of which cannot fight any longer.
When “want” isn’t pleased, then births greed. And with greed, expectations become significantly large. When greed isn’t fed, it leads to distrust.