Darmok

     When I was reading the article “James Bacon, Journalist and Celebrity Friend, Dies at 96” in The New York Times, I immediately found some connections that I could relate with the Epic of Gilgamesh. James Bacon an Associated Press reporter is very well known as the friend of many famous people including presidents and celebrities such as singers and actors. “Mr. Bacon had a knack for befriending A-list celebrities. He palled around with John Wayne, shared whiskey with Frank Sinatra, was a confidant of Marilyn Monroe and met eight United States presidents.” Similarly, Enkidu has a friend, Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk. Gilgamesh is well known because he goes for many adventurous journeys. “He who has seen everything…experienced all things” (A 59).
     Both of these characters not only have famous friends but are also loyal and trustworthy. For example, James Bacon is able to make friendships with people who can’t make relationships easily. “They just trusted him, Mr. Rosenfield said. If you look at the people he was friendly with — Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor — these were people who didn’t always have friendly relationships with the press.” Similarly, Enkidu is a good friend of Gilgamesh. They both fight together against enemies and experience many adventures. As Gilgamesh says Enkidu is “a friend and advisor” (A 65). Gilgamesh can trust Enkidu and share everything with him. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/arts/20bacon.html

I found connections between the Epic of Gilgamesh and The New York Times article “The Best Two Women Could Do” written by Ariel Kaminer. The article is about a lesbian couple who faces many difficulties. However, they are highly motivated to solve problems together.

Both pieces of writings project very intimate relationships between two people. The Epic of Gilgamesh describes the friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu. They are introduced to each other in a fight; thus, it creates an extremely high connection between them. Gilgamesh’s mother says something interesting about Enkidu (while she is translating a dream) when she asserts that “the axe that you saw is a man, whom you love and embrace as a wife, but whom I have made compete with you” (A 65).  Also, Gilgamesh calls Enkidu a “friend and advisor” with a great respects (A 65). Similarly, “The Best Two Women Could Do” is about two ladies, Ms. Bacolas and Ms. Glazer, who are “introduced by a mutual friend outside a bar.” Then, they fall in love and spend every weekend together. In fact, they went to parties, they went dancing, and “in the mornings, Ms. Bacolas cooked them amazing breakfasts: scrambled eggs with truffle oil, feta and tomatoes on millet toast. After too many years in heavy, doomed relationships, they could not get over how easy it all was” which represents their strong relationship.

In both cases, they are looking to improve their lives which require them to travel. Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel to Cedar Forest to kill Humbaba and become famous for many generations. They know that death takes away bodies but immortality is to be memorable for others. In addition, it is necessary to “establish fame” (A 73). However, they also use their trips as a source of getting cedar wood which is expensive and desired material used for building walls. Similarly, Ms. Bacolas and Ms. Glazer have to travel outside of New York City to make their marriage dream come true. Also, marriage gave them an opportunity to “ protect themselves and their joint property, as they wanted to give Ms. Bacolas the right to make medical decisions on Ms. Glazer’s behalf,” which gave them comfort of sharing and improvement in their lives.

Last but not least, in both examples health condition of one partner seriously affects the other. For instance, Gilgamesh sees Enkidu slowly losing energy as “Enkidu lies down [the] first day, [the second] second day,…[until] Enkidu’s illness grew ever worse” and when he dies “Enkidu’s eyes do not move, as [Gilgamesh] touched his heart , but it beat no longer” and Gilgamesh doesn’t want to burn Enkidu’s body (A 82-83). Moreover, he becomes very upset and behaves in a wild manner. Therefore, he feels afraid of death and wants to find a way to becomes immortal. Similarly, Ms. Bacolas and Ms. Glazer are affected by unexpected cancer. “Ms. Glazer learned she had breast cancer. A double mastectomy followed, then five more operations, along with radiation and chemotherapy.” They face serious illness which can lead to death and separation of their love. So, they don’t postpone important decisions anymore. They also have great opportunity to see the strength of their feelings and fight against the cancer together.

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the people of Uruk are in a very tensed about the deeds of Gilgamesh. He is the king of the city, Uruk, so he has extreme power to do what ever he likes. He takes away the daughters from parents, wives from husbands and sons to put them in the army of the country. The people are very worried and concerned about themselves, so they call the gods and ask them to help them and release them from the suffering. . “ You made him, O Aruru, now create his equal; let it be as like him has his own reflection, his second self, stormy heart for stormy heart. Let them contend together and leave Uruk in quiet.” (1:13) They tell them what their problems are and why they need to be helped away from Gilgamesh.
Similarly in the article, the people of Haiti are writing to help them from the very dire straits that they are living in.“We don’t want to die of hunger and also we want to send our children to school. I give glory to God that I am still alive — but I would like to stay that way!” They recently suffered a very big disaster in the country and now the country is suffering even worst situations. It is very common to the people of Uruk, who are suffering under the rule of Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh can be compared to the poverty that Haitian people are suffering. But in Haiti, the people are writing their pleas and dropping of in the collection box, they are writing their suffering and helplessness in the letter. But in the Epic, the people summon the gods for help. Therefore, I think that the these two text resembles.

There are many stories in real life that can compare to the Epic of Gilgamesh. One article is “Nadal Savors His Latest Role: All-Courts Player” from September 15ths New York Times.

In the Epic, Gilgamesh is victorious. Along with his best friend Enkidu, he takes down the mighty Humbaba on his quest to the Cedar Forest, and kills the Bull of the Heavens when it tries to go after him. Rafael Nadal is just as victorious. This past week, he won the United States Open, a very competitive tennis tournament.

There is no one as strong and triumphant in Uruk than Gilgamesh and Enkidu. The Epic states,

“We grappled with and killed the Bull of Heaven,

we destroyed Humbaba who lived in the Cedar Forest,

we slew lions in the mountain passes!” (p87, lines 47-49)

The same is for the world of tennis. Nadal, along with Andre Agassi are “… the only men to have won the four majors, the Davis Cup, and the Olympics.” (B16) There is no one else like these two tennis players.

A recent article about a proposed ban on smoking in outdoor public location has some similarity to themes in “The Epic of Gilgamesh.” Mayor Bloomberg proposes the idea of passing a bill that makes smoking on beaches, parks and boardwalks illegal. This proposal can be a seen as a continuation of his “journey” to end second hand smoking. Gilgamesh went on a long journey to kill Humbaba.  Both of their “journeys” are tough to complete. Gilgamesh has to kill a fierce some beast. The extent of the danger is shown by the line “In order to keep the Cidar safe, Enlil assigned him as a terror to human beings.”(A, 68) Bloomberg has to gain the support of both smokers and non-smokers while still showing that he isn’t encroaching on their civil rights. Bloomberg is also facing the challenge of disgruntle smokers after the recent tax on cigarettes.

As leaders, both Bloomberg’s and Gilgamesh’s journey has benefits for their society. The killing of Humbaba would allow the citizen’s of Gilgamesh’s kingdom to access the cider trees that Humbaba was guarding. The ban on smoking in outdoor public places further protect children from second hand smoking as  well as allow people to get a fresh air at places that were once filled with smokers. 

“Mayor’s Next Target for a Smoking Ban: Parks and Beaches” (Sept 16, 2010 A26)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/16/nyregion/16smoking.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=mayor’s%20new%20target%20for%20a%20smoking%20ban&st=cse

The Epic of Gilgamesh correlates to an article in the New York Times called “U.S Debates Karzai’s Place in Fighting Corruption.” This article states that the US wants to keep Karzai in power, but the risk of this may add on. Karzai’s previous acts are the debate on whether or not he should take a major part in rooting out corruption. US want to restrain Karzai from too much given power, but at the same time, want to battle the Taliban with him. In the Epic, Gilgamesh is the most powerful and he oppresses all the citizens. The Gods want Gilgamesh to remain in power, but there is a major issue if they continue letting him do so. Therefore, Enkidu is sent to prevent Gilgamesh from his wrong-doings and together they take on a journey to fight Humbaba and even kill the Bull of Heaven. This is very much alike the article in the New York Times, even though there is a suspicion of corruption, US and Karzai are still working together to fight Taliban. “The discussion on corruption, in essence, is really a discussion about our relationship with Karzai,” said one senior Obama administration official. With this being said, Karzai is basically Gilgamesh who is oppressing the citizens of Uruk. Both Karzai and Gilgamesh comes close with others to defeat one main enemy.