In the Irwin chapter of “Oceans of stories” the fact that almost every story has a link to another does not surprise me in the least. If you think about it, there are only so many ways to tell a fable or to teach a moral to others. Almost every culture has thier own version of Cinderella and if you look at creation myths, they all have roughly the same elements within them. I’m not saying that they are all the same, but the similarites are there.
Another reason these stories may be linked is the simple fact that when people travel together, they will talk and exchange ideas as well as stories to ease the bordom of the trip. This is true even in our own culture, only now we use DVD players instead of storytellers.
On to “History of 12-century Philosophy.” I agree with badspeller about all the name dropping, like he said in class today. (Sorry, can’t think of your name at the moment.) Anyway, Dronke, seems to like the sound of his own voice, and he says a great deal, using elaborate language, so that he can seem above those of us who must suffer through his writing.
Dronke has a few interesting points about how the Arab culture has influnced the western way of thinking. He also has a great deal to say about how the works were translated and how the lingusit at the time did not do a very good job of it. Of course this is true even today if you have a piece of literature translated from its original language to another, you are always going to loose some meaning simply because the person translating the text will do so in his/her own fashion.