Last year I spent two weeks in Europe during Spring Break. I went with Soccer International, a team coached by Franco Pertot, who every spring travels with a team of American high-school soccer players across Germany, Austria and Italy, playing local teams and learning about the culture. In this opportunity The Prince and I had a date with Destiny. That may sound homosexual…but then again I am a soccer player.

The plane ride from Detroit Metro Airport to Amsterdam (the airport where we would meet our transfer flight to Munich) was 8 hours long. I figured I should have plenty of books to keep me sane during the trip. I mean, looking at the Atlantic Ocean is only exciting for so long. I went into Barnes and Noble with $20 about a week before my departure. I bought Frankenstein by Mary Shelley because I had just seen the play put on by the Avondale Theatre company. I liked it so much I bought the book. I also bought a book about Venice and with only $5 left I stumbled upon the rack of blue Sparknotes books. I was taking AP Government at the time, and I found politics very interesting. I had heard of The Prince previously and decided I would give it a shot. Regrettably I bought the Sparknotes version- at that time I was unfamiliar with Barnes and Noble and consequently didn’t know they had regular copies of the book. Although I planned to read it on the plane ride, my curiosity wouldn’t let me wait. Two days later I finished the book (and I use the word book very loosely when referring to those horrid Sparknote summaries).

I loved the Sparknotes version (even though it is not really a book), but with a looming AP test I placed it on the back burner to attend to more imminent matters. When Kreinbring told us about the AP English Project The Prince was the first thing that popped into my mind. I mean, merging my two favorite classes (AP Government and AP English) sounded like a great idea.

Almost immediately after compulsively deciding, I had second thoughts. I wanted to read something new, and not so heartless as The Prince. (read the Overview section of my blog, its to your upper left)  I thought of The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand, All Quiet on the Western Front By: Erich Remarque and The Art of War by: Sun-Tzu. I didn’t want to read 800+pages of The Fountainhead, and there wasn’t enough criticism of All Quiet on the Western Front. I also couldn’t keep Joe Jiang on call to help me read translations of The Art of War. I knew that he would choose Bridget over translating Chinese for me (She makes really good muffins). Then I noticed something: The Prince and The Art of War are practically the same book. I was going in circles. The truth was I really did want to do my project on The Prince, I was running away from it is because it is cold and heartless.

In the end I decided Morals are for Sissies and bought the book. It scares me that I like and agree with Machiavelli’s logic, but my curiosity got the better of me. I wanted to know the truth- even if it was grim. To me truth is more important than happiness. I would rather live a truthful misery than a happy lie. Is it just me or does that sound like House?

Is that me?- cold, heartless, logical, calculating. Maybe it’s not. But I know by thoroughly reading and researching this masterpiece I will be able to test my hypothesis. Even if I discover my truth is a miserable one, I will accept it. You cannot change who you are, and if this is me, then I will have my answer.

“The Prince” by Nicolo Machiavelli: $10

Bowl of Chicken Noodle Soup from Panera Bread: $5

Sitting down, reading the first page, then realizing extensive knowledge of European history is required to understand all of Machiavelli’s metaphors: Priceless

I guess that’s what I get for picking a book that is only 74 pages long. I thought it was a good idea, until Machiavelli started comparing Italian politics to Ludovico Sfoco’s conflict with Spain. I had no idea who Sfoco was, let alone his conflict with Spain. Did I fail to mention this was on the first page? I skimmed through the rest of the book, realizing Sfoco was one of the easier allusions to understand.

An obvious task reared its ugly head: I must learn at least 75 years of European history (1450-1525). AND in the introduction another of Machiavelli’s books- Discourses-was mentioned. Apparently it contains Machiavelli’s views on government, including who should lead, how they should lead, and what kind of government should be formed. The Prince was an exaggeration of his actual thought, written bluntly on purpose to get his point across. Politics is heartless-I get it. I also get that I will have to read another book, which is considerably longer than 74 pages. I saw it at Barnes and Noble when I was looking for The Prince. It looked to be around 200-300 pages.

So now I have to be well versed in 75 years of European history and read another book; not that I mind reading. The mass of work concerns me, not the content. Personnally I look forward to learning about European political structures. This probably makes me the biggest AP Gov nerd ever (Carolyn would be proud of me).

A lesson for my fellow AP Englishers out there: the content of your book is only the beginning.

Maybe I’m technologically impaired, maybe my six year old computer doesn’t work very well; or maybe-in spite of Kreinbring’s opinion, edublogs is NOT user friendly. I spent two days trying to create a blog, and 10 minutes ago, by process of elimination I clicked on the link that said “create a blog” and bam, there’s my blog.  Who would have thought you actually have to create one to post entries?? Not me…that’s for sure.

Odds are I’m the problem, in spite of my ranting. I’m just relieved I finally created my blog, so I can start writing!!! But right now it’s 9:54 and almost past my bedtime. So I’ll write more tomorrow.

To Do List:

1. Buy “The Prince” By: Nicolo Machiavelli (that’s my AP book btw)

2. Read book

That’s a good start for now. Peace.