Reading Post 8

This week I read another 110 pages of Born at Midnight. Like I said last week, its chick lit, but I like it. Instead of having only vampires or werewolves, it has vampires, werewolves, witches, ghost whisperers and fairies, oh my! Its about a girl who is sent to a camp for juvenile delinquents, but when she gets there, she discovers its really a camp for supernatural teenagers. She happens to be one, but she doesn’t know it yet. Maybe a little suspension of disbelief? I mean, I don’t know about you, but I imagine that if I were a vampire, I would probably know it. Aren’t they supposed to die if they don’t drink blood anyway?

Reading Post 7

Sorry this post is a little late, I was sick last week and forgot to post. But during that time I was sick, I did lots of reading! I decided to take a break from Eon until school gets out, just because it’s the kind of book that you have to sit down and read for an hour minimum. I never really have that much of a block of time, so I end up reading ten pages and getting really confused where the plot left off from last time I read. So anyway, this week I read 180 pages of Born at Midnight by C.C. Hunter. Its pretty hard core chick lit. Not usually my thing, but I thought I’d give it a chance.

Reading Post 6

This week I continued reading Eon by reading pages 184-284. I know, I know, its the bare minimum. I just haven't had much time to read lately. Especially since AP tests are coming up. To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to manage another hundred pages for next week. Too many things are going on at once! But I really have been enjoying my book. The plot's slowed down a little bit, but I think it'll pick up soon. Most likely I'll be reading this book for the rest of the school year. Its about 550 pages, so it'll take me awhile. Maybe that's a good goal. Finish book before finals. There we go.

Reading Post 5

This week I read 48 pages of Tina Fey's Bossypants and another 70 pages of Eon. I found it much harder to find time to read this week because we started reading a new book for AP Lit. Most of the time I really wanted to sit down and read Eon, but I couldn't because I felt obligated to read White Noise for class. I still really love Eon. However, I wasn't a huge fan of Tina Fey's book. To be honest, I thought Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (and other concerns) was funnier. I don't think I'm going to finish Bossypants.

Reading post 4

This week, I read 114 pages of a book called Eon. I really wish I had more time in my day to read, because I love this book. Its kind of like a cross between Eragon, The Last Airbender, and Mulan. Its a fantasy book that somehow doesn't seem farfetched even though it's about dragons. The story is about a society where women are considered to be extremely inferior to men and are not allowed to hold any positions of power. In order to fulfill her destiny, sixteen year old Eona masquerades as twelve year old Eon in order to become a dragon's apprentice, a position of power that is highly rare and respected. I'm really crappy at explaining it, but it's a really good book. I would recommend it to anyone who liked Eragon.

Notes 2 & 3

“You can own the earth and still,

 All you’ll own is earth until

You can paint with all the colors of the wind.”

            In the clip and song “Colors of the Wind” from the Disney movie “Pocahontas”, the soft whispering wind blends with vibrant brushstroke illustrations to symbolize the intangible beauty of nature. As Pocahontas  tries to convince John Smith to treat the Earth properly, she sings about the wonders of nature. Accompanied by a gentle murmuring wind, she mellifluously sings of images of nature such as “hidden pine trails of the forest” and “sun sweet berries of the earth.” With these literal images, the movie illustrates colorful landscapes and vivid environments. However, Pocahontas not only describes visual images, but also imperceptible concepts of nature such as “the voices of the mountains” and  “the colors of the wind.” Because wind lacks visual color and mountains do not speak, she suggests that the wind and the mountains exemplify a greater theme  that not everything beautiful can be seen. By expressing wind as a force of nature both magnificent and invisible, Pocahontas conveys the idea that nature is complicated and not simply something humans can manipulate and use.

“No one can tell me,

Nobody knows,

Where the wind comes from,

Where the wind goes.”

          A. A. Milne’s “Wind on the Hill” depicts wind as a mysterious force that is impossible to capture.  The repeated phrase “where the wind goes” demonstrates alliteration that emphasizes the wispy nature of the quiet wind blowing over the hill. At the same time, when the wind “flying…as fast as it can” is described with the use of alliteration, a sense of urgency emerges. The narrator’s incapability to keep up with the wind emphasizes it’s intangibility, while the conflicting tones of quiet and hurried contribute to the mystery of the wind itself. The narrator’s confusion toward where the wind comes from and why he can not keep up with it establishes his inferiority to the greater forces of nature.

Reading Log 3

Over spring break I read a book called Evermore, which was 320 pages. Not gonna lie, it was pretty much just chick lit. Your basic "absurdly normal teenage girl falls in love with mysterious guy that turns out to be magical" kind of story. I still kind of liked it though. The problem is, it's one of those books that was turned into a long series, and I can't decide if I want to spend my money buying the other five or six books. I'm thinking probably not. Though every once and a while it's nice to just relax and read a book that requires minimal brain capacity to read.

Exercise 3

I pretty much clicked on random links that came up when I hit the review button on Teenread's website. The reviews I came across include Wither by Lauren DeStafano, Try Not to Breathe by Jennifer R. Hubbard, and . Chomp by Carl Hiaaser. I'm glad I read the review for Wither, it made me really want to read the book! All of the reviews begin with a long plot summary, generally the kind of stuff you'd read on the back of a book cover to see if you want to read it or not. They also contained a small amount of commentary about the author, like "She obviously did her research..." or "She succeeds in writing the story from a male viewpoint." Some of the reviews also said what kind of people would like the book, or posted warnings about inappropriate material. When writing our own reviews, it may be a good idea to compare the book to other books that people may have read already.

Reading Log 2

This week I got really close to finishing Mindy Kaling's Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by reading pages 104-205, but I still have a few pages left. I need to start trying to read more because I want to rather than just reading the 100 page minimum. New goal! Its difficult though - I do really love to read, it's just hard to find the time. I will try to find the time though. I only have about 10 or 15 pages left of the book. I should finish it tonight. Its a really funny book and I've enjoyed it a lot!

Note #1

An excerpt from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

                “There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. …the cold winter wind had brought with it clouds so somber, and a rain so penetrating, that further out-door exercise was now out of the question.”

                Wind appears as a motif throughout Jane Eyre in order to establish a dismal setting that represents Jane’s destitute and deprived childhood. The description of the cold, somber winter is one of the first observations of the novel, and creates a dull and gloomy tone. Although young Jane sits inside, protected from the harsh winter winds, she stares outside to contemplate the dreary weather. She is just a young girl at the start of the novel, but her painful circumstances have matured her into a state of mind where she is able to realize how lackluster her existence is. When she reads books that depict all sorts of life elsewhere, she recognizes how monotonous her life is. The presence of the merciless stormy wind not only depicts the setting of the novel, but also characterizes the coldhearted life she has lived.

Exercise 2

5) "Who can't even CONCENTRATE TO WRITE this because her little sister will NOT shut up," announces the narrator illustrating the harsh reality to her life.

6) Lynda uses lyrical words and is poetic.

7)  By the way Barry starts her story kind of foreshadows what the story will be like by what she says, "cruddy time on a cruddy street"

Of the paragraphs I read, I liked Vivir, Sonar, Leer's post the most.  She is very descriptive and uses strong vocabulary.

Exercise 1

Repetition and grim imagery in Lynda Barry's Cruddy establishes a pessimistic tone that characterizes the narrator's aggravated state of mind. Rather than simply stating that her life in general is cruddy, the narrator continuously repeats the word "cruddy" when describing nearly every aspect of her life, including her neighborhood, home, and family. Even though the word "cruddy" is stated over and over again, the dismal portrayal of setting provides descriptive yet dreary imagery of her run down town. However, the narrator also seems to bitterly embellish the miserable conditions of her home. Because the source of her harsh words may merely stem from her being grounded for a long time, her exaggeration of mildly bleak circumstances characterizes her as young and immature.

Reading Log / Reading Goals

My reading goals for this quarter:


1) Finish at least three books. I have a problem with finishing books. Generally, unless I particularly love a book, I only read half of it. So I shall try to read three books from cover to cover!


2) Read one literary/classic novel. I think I'll try Wuthering Heights. I tried to read it once, but only got about 40 pages in. Maybe this will be one of the books I finish!


3) Read one book that I've seen the movie that was based off the book. Perhaps Harry Potter. My mom read those to me when I was four or five, but I've never read all the books myself. I figure they must be pretty good if someone bothered to make movies based off them.

This week I read 103 pages of Mindy Kaling’s Is Everybody Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns). This is just the book I needed to get out of my bad habit of not finishing books. Rather than the novels I usually read that tell a story, this book is a collection of essays that are just downright funny. It doesn’t feel like a chore at all to have to read 100 pages of it. I’m confident that I’ll be able to finish this book by next week. It was very different than what I’m used to reading, and I enjoyed it a lot! I would recommend this book to anyone that likes to smile.

Anthology Theme

Originally I thought that I would pick trees for my anthology theme, but then I decided that it was too obvious and typical for me. I mean, any time I've ever had to do a project where I could pick the topic, I've immediately turned to trees, deforestation, or something of that sort. This time I want to do something different though, while still sticking to a sort of nature theme. I am going to do my project on the subject of wind. Maybe I'll talk about Colors of the Wind.

Reading Response: The Alchemist

Continuing through The Alchemist, I'm finding it more difficult to read. Perhaps it's just the formal writing style that seems rather boring to me sometimes. I may be getting too used to informal modern novels that don't take any effort to understand or decipher. Still though, The Alchemist presents insightful themes based on life experiences that are fascinating to learn from.

"I've crossed these sands many times...but the desert is so huge, and the horizons so distant, that they make a person feel small, and as if he should remain silent."

The Alchemist continuously mentions how much people can learn from nature. When Santiago is travelling through the Sahara desert, he describes it as old and wise, and recognizes that he can learn something from the desert, just as he learned from his sheep when he was a shepherd. Crossing the Sahara is dangerous, and many have died in the attempt. Santiago is maturing above what is common for his age by realizing how insignificant he is in the grand scheme of things. In order for him to survive the journey, he must respect the desert and learn to live under it's conditions. Its refreshing to read about people appreciating the elemental force of the world. Hopefully his humble tendencies will aid him in his efforts to travel the world and learn from everything the world has to offer.

Reading Response: The Alchemist

This week I continued into the middle of The Alchemist. I was quite impressed with the beginning of the novel, and I enjoyed the middle as well. Alhough there is one particular aspect of the story that has me troubled- the character.

At the opening of the book, eighteen year old Santiago was a free spirited shepherd whose only mission in life was to lead his sheep to food and water. He was free to travel Spain as he wished, and he had nothing and no one to answer to. He was charismatic because of his courage to follow his dreams of traveling the world. While so many people ignore their dreams and follow a more practical path in life, Santiago was willing to give up his family and friends for a life of travel.

The problem is, over the course of a whopping five pages, Santiago completely turns his life around and ends up poor and lost. During another typical day of leading sheep around a field, Santiago dreams of a treasure in the pyramids. Santiago considers this to be an omen and decides to go try to find this treasure. To do this, he makes an impulse decision to sell all his sheep (his only posessions really) and use the money to buy a one way ticket to Africa. Really, that's not a very smart decision. Typically it is not wise to throw away your entire life in a spur of the moment decision you make because you had a dream about shiny gold coins.

Throughout the beginning of Santiago's journey, he makes many stupid decisions. For example, he did not stop for one moment to consider the fact that they do not speak Spanish in Africa. Also, from the place where the boat dropped him of in Africa, Santiago has to cross the entire Sahara Desert to reach the pyramids. After meeting a Spanish speaking person in Africa, Santiago hires him to be his guide and gives him all his money to hold on to "for safe keeping." You can probably guess what happens next. Now Santiago has no money, no friends, and no life. But hey, at least he's following his dream!

Claims

The good claims:

From Another Twist, Another Turn: "The stark whiteness of the page is crucial to this work, as if anything had been drawn or painted on it, all impact would be lost."

From Vivir, Sonar, Leer: "The radical range of color schemes, discombobulating object scale, unusual item combination, and drastic angling of geometric shapes combine to form a divine harmony in the middle of a flustering discord."

The claims to be improved:

   "Grantland usually has many unorthodox writers that are not alway worried about being politicaly correct make  for some very intersting articles with insight as to what drives these hysterias"

 "Why is it that whenever people picture there ideal vacation, many choose to picture it on the beach?"

Reading Response: The Alchemist

This one's a keeper. Today I picked up The Alchemist, a novel about a young shepherd who discovers himself as he journeys to Egypt to search of a treasure that appeared to him in his dreams. Though it sounds a bit cheesy, the novel is highly philosophical. It analyzes people's lives, motives, and what they need to do to keep from living with regret.

It's an age old question: what makes life interesting? The book has its own answer. "It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting." Consider it. Dreams give people something to hope for, something to strive for. If there was no hope, no chance of happiness, what would be the point of life? The reason we drag ourselves to school every day is so that we can learn, get smarter, hopefully go to college, and one day fulfill our dreams.

The main character of The Alchemist, Santiago, has many dreams. His parents sent him to a monastery in hopes that he would become a priest they could be proud of. When he was sixteen though, he realized he didn't want to become a priest. He dreamt of traveling the world, so he dropped everything he was doing and became a shepherd. As a shepherd, he has no responsibilities but to lead his sheep to food and water. He can travel from town to town, city to city, and the sheep don't even notice a difference. Because he had the courage to change his life and risk disappointing other people, he is able to live his dream. Maybe if we all followed his example and did what we really wanted to in life, we'd all be a little happier. I look forward to reading this book to the end to see what else it has to say.

Submission #4

Behold the ginger seal pup. Although it appears cute and cuddly to a human being, to a seal, this pup is an outcast and a freak of nature. This particular pup is albino. Because of it'd unusually bright blue eyes, pink flippers, and light fur, it's family coldheartedly abandoned it in the middle of the wilderness. It is not only nature, but also our society that insensitively judges creatures by their outward appearances.

To a seal rookery, an albino is an automatic outcast, a pariah in the animal world. Does our own society do this as well? Consider it. There are albino humans. No doubt when they walk down a crowded street, people turn their heads and stare at their white hair, red or violet eyes, and chalky white skin. People judge them. Their appearance holds no reflection of their character, yet people cannot help but to treat them differently. Whether it's albinos, giants, disabled people, or anyone that does not depict normality, society as a whole judges them. Seeing how a family can abandon the poor helpless albino pup puts into perspective how cruel judging by appearances is. Though it seems unjust when it happens in the animal world, people need to realize that it happens just as often in human society.

Short List

Here's my problem: every time I go on the internet to create my short list, I use stumbleupon.com to find unexpected treasures of the internet. Its just too addicting! I end up spending so much time on such a simple assignment! Here's what I came up with though:

1) I found this picture of an albino seal pup. Cute, right? Its mother didn't think so. Accompanied with this picture was a caption that said because of its unusual bright blue eyes, pink flippers, and light fur, its parents abandoned this helpless animal. Why? In our own way, does our society do this too?




2) Peter Kogler uses creative shapes and lines to create Mesmerising Spaces. Even though the walls aren't pysically transformed, the paint job makes them appear to bend and twist in amazing ways.

3) The Host cover. The cover art of The Host is fairly plain and simple. It merely depicts the close up image of a young woman's face. When it focuses on the eye though, it tells a different story. The plot of the novel centers on the main character's internal struggle against an alien that has taken over her body. As you look at the eye on the cover, you are left wondering who is looking back at you: Melanie or Wanderer?

Submission 3: The Psychopath Test

Do psychopaths walk among us unexpectedly? The psychopath test is a scientific evaluation of a person's mental stability. By asking people about their past, present, and future, it is able to decipher the inner workings of the mind. The question is: how similar is a "normal" person to a psychopath? To answer this question, This American Life investigated the ins and outs of the psychopath test by taking it themselves.


The psychopath test has a more important role than just providing research for scientists. For some people, their score on the test can determine whether they get parole or not. Maximum security prisoner Robert Dixen appeared to be reformed according to the people he came in contact with. However, when he was evaluated to see whether or not he would get parole, he had to take the psychopath test. His incredibly high score on the test proved that he was still a psychopath, just a well behaved one. He is not likely to ever receive parole. In a way, by keeping mentally unstable people in prison, the psychopath test has contributed to a safer society.


To see just how difficult it is to be deemed a psychopath, the cast of This American Life decided to take the test. As they awaited their results, some of them became quite nervous. Because of troubled pasts, their coworkers predicted that although they may not be psychopaths, their scores would be higher than the average person. When the scores were revealed though, each person received... a zero. Despite what some might view as bad answers on the test, such as admitting to having trouble with the law, every person scored no points. Why? Because they all showed remorse for their mistakes. True psychopaths do not emotionally respond to situations in the same way normal people do. By labeling these unstable people as psychopaths, the psychopath test has made the world a safer place.

The Host

Lately I've been skipping around books a lot. I read a little of The Help, a little of Eragon, but I haven't really settled on one book that I really want to read the whole way through. This week, in the depths of my closet, I found a book that I've had for a long time but have been too intimidated by its size to read very much of it. I looked at The Host, Stephenie Meyer's supposed "adult novel".

While Twilight is catagorized as a young adult novel, The Host is listed as an adult novel. Though the novel does have a couple more risqué scenes, the writing seems similarly informal to Twilight. Maybe I'm being overly critical, but Meyer really needs to put down the thesaurus. For some reason, it feels like she uses the word "chagrined" a lot, as she did in Twilight also. Am I the only one thats never really heard that word spoken in real life? Her overly advanced sporatic vocabulary contrasts with the casual informality of the passages.

I must admit though, the plot is far more advanced. Though I'm still in the beginning pages, its evident that this story is a lot more original than Twilight's over done vampire romance. It begins with the struggle of a girl whose body has been taken over by an alien sort of creature. They're both competing to control what is rightfully hers. Amid the confusion of who is actually communicating, the human or the alien, there are also many flashbacks depicting some back story to the situation. The flashbacks fill in some questions, but still leaves the reader wanting to know much more. I'm intruiged with how the story will unfold.

Podcast Response: The Psychopath Test

For the “This American Life” podcast we were assigned to listen to this week, I listened to a riveting story about the psychopath test, a test that pretty much determines whether or not a person is mentally sound. The cast of This American Life took the test themselves and compared it to scores of real psychopaths. In one segment, they tell the story of Robert Dixon, a prison inmate who, although people say he has behaved quite well in prison, may never receive parole because he scored extremely high on the psychopath test. This is because studies show that prisoners who get parole are more likely to commit crimes again if they scored high on the psychopath test than people that got moderate scores. When the low scoring results of the cast are revealed, it is startling to consider how real people can score so high that they are deemed true psychopaths.

Spartan Reader 2

West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, Oklahoma!, The Sound of Music. What do all of these classic musicals have in common? They all contain gorgeous duets that contributed to their rise to fame. Love on Broadway is a playlist that includes the best of the best love songs from the stage.

What is it about all of these songs that make them so irresistible? Though they all share common similarities, each one is unique in its own way. Some, like "People will say we're in love" from Oklahoma! use witty humor to catch the audience's attention. Others, like "That's All I Ask of You" from Broadway's longest running show, The Phantom of the Opera, are strictly serious, using sweet harmonies to make every note sound like a dream. Maybe that's just it- these songs are the stuff of dreams. They are appealing because they are overly romantic. No one in their right mind would really expect their significant other to burst out into a ballad in the middle of a grocery store and declare their love for them, but listening to the songs allows them to live the fantasy, if only for a moment.

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

This week I'm taking a break from The Help and trying to read Eragon...again. Here's the story. I saw the movie many times and loved it, but when I tried to read the book, I couldn't get over how much was different between the two. I only got about fifty pages in before I gave up. But now I'm giving it another shot! Hopefully once I get a little farther I'll start to appreciate it more.

So first of all, props to the author. I for one could not write a bestselling 500 page novel at the age of fifteen. That's a pretty amazing feat in its own right. What's special about Eragon though is not the impressiveness of the author's youth, but rather the incredible creativity that went into its writing. Its a new kind of fantasy. We've all read the sickeningly "romantic" vampire fantasies that are based on complete fluff and prey on teenage girl's insecurities and hopes that they one day will meet their perfect vampire boyfriend. Eragon is set apart from all of these. Paolini creates an entire new world filled with mystic dragons, magic, and daring sword fights. Rather than condescending to the clichéd norms of modern day fantasies, it pushes the limits of imagination and opens the readers eyes to an original story we haven't heard before.

Short List 2

Okay, I love this. Its a playlist of Broadway duets called Love on Broadway. Maybe I'm just a sappy teenager, but in each of these songs there's something classically romantic that just makes you melt. From new musicals to old ones, each one has a different unique style that is simply captivating.


Web Site Story. This is a really funny parody of West Side Story, but they sing about the internet. Its an interesting twist on how modern technology can be coincided with music.


The Hunger Games Cover. The bird, a "mockingjay" is a motif that appears throughout all of the Hunger Games novels. What is its significance? How did it influence the plot of the novel?

Reading Response: The Help

So this week, I began the first few pages of Kathryn Stockett's The Help. I heard that the movie was great and the book was even better, so I decided to try it out. Because I'm only a few pages into the novel, I don't quite know yet what it's about or even what sort of tone the book has. Therefore, I shall instead focus on the setting of the novel.

The Help takes place in August of 1962 in Mississippi. Though it may not seem like too long ago, the social customs of the region were drastically different then they are today (thank goodness). Its a time when racial discrimination was out of control, and the Civil Rights Movement was taking place. The main character, a black maid named Aibileen, raises a white woman's child. The mistreatment Aibileen undergoes in the white home she works in is appalling, and its startling to consider that this sort of abuse happened frequently only fifty years ago. She is underappreciated, underpaid, and disrespected. I'm inferring that some aspects of the novel will focus on how she is treated in society, and I am hoping that she will rise above the mistreatment and prove to all the hidebound prejudiced characters in the novel that she is just as good a person as anybody else, regardless of her race. I am eager to get farther in the book and watch her grow as a character.

Rescuing Innocense

The Burning House is a creative online hodgepodge of photos where people photograph what they would rescue if their house was on fire. Amongst the endless collections of ipods, laptops, and designer shoes that people cherished, there was one post that immediately stood out to me. Rather than being just another cluttered picture of materialistic belongings, this one was simply a picture of a forty year old woman holding a teddy bear named Lache. 

At first I shook my head, admonishing the childish immaturities of others much older than I am. But then, right before I was about to move on to the next picture, I considered it. I thought back to my teddy bear, a stuffed walrus actually, and thought about what it meant to me. I remember getting it in a claw machine at Meijer when I was six. Ever since, he’s been with me through thick and thin.  When I was scared or feeling alone, I would run up to my bedroom and clutch him until everything seemed okay. Seeing this picture made me feel distraught at the idea of losing him, and suddenly, I understood why she felt such an attachment to her old friend. I suppose we never truly outgrow all of our childhood feelings. Perhaps rather than just being a stuffed animal she has had for a long time, Lache represents something more. He reminds her that once upon a time, things were simple and pure in the perception of a child. Her inclination to save him demonstrates that she is holding on to a piece of her childhood innocence.

Week 5: Top Links

Here are some links to interesting blogs or posts I came across while browsing our class blogs:

Cat Lover's blog has pictures of her brother's drawings and discusses how his art represents him as a person. Check it out!

Ric and the Boys talks about a cello duo group that plays popular songs with their cello's. There wasn't a link directly to youtube, but the way they described the music made me want to go home and look them up.

I found Yours Truly's post about the book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? to be really humorous. She even made her own list about what she requires of her future roommate.

Kidnapping the Lorax Part 2

This week I read more of Kidnapping the Lorax, a story about a group of extreme environmentalists that kidnap the Secretary of the Interior in order to reeducate her on the value of protecting the environment (see earlier post for more background info). Thus far, I have been enjoying the novel because it contains a surprising mix of both humor and sincerity. Toward the middle of the novel though, the plot started to dull a bit to me. After all, how exciting can the story of four people frolicking in the middle of a deserted forest be? However, there was one conversation the characters had while sitting around the campfire that caught my attention.

One of the characters, Walden, is a typical troublemaker. He likes to stir emotion in people, make others angry, and start arguments. One night, for no particular reason other than to start a dispute, he decides it would be a good idea to criticize the other characters’ value in religion, arguing that religion is one of the primary reasons for environmental degradation. It sounds a bit far fetched at first, but listen to his argument:

“It’s religion that’s gotten the planet into this environmental crisis. ‘Multiply and have dominion over the earth’ -  that’s exactly the problem. There are too many people – which are the cause of pollution, over-use of resources, you-name-it – and they think they can rule the earth.”

An interesting argument, no? Whether you agree with him or not, its definitely food for thought. The fact that the world is too overpopulated is definitely one of the main reasons for environmental destruction. To support the seven billion people on earth, we need to cut down a lot of trees, over pump a lot of underground water sources, and slaughter a lot of animals to feed everyone. The question is though, is religion one of the driving forces of human stewardship of the land?

The Secretary of the Interior disagrees. She even counters that Walden’s set of idealistic tree-hugging values is a religion in itself. He claims that he “believes in planet earth, the mother almighty.” Does he worship planet earth? His commitment to it has encouraged him to break the law and lead a kidnapping.  He is willing to die in the wilderness in order to prove his point that nature is worth protecting.

In fact, his “religion” is based off of fear. While some people may practice a religion because of their fear of hell, he respects the land because of an accident that happened when he was a child. When he and his brother were fooling around, trying to push an enormous boulder off a cliff, the boulder fell on the brother, crushing him and killing him instantly. This accident left an impression on Walden – that if you mess with mother nature, there will be consequences. Is it possible to go so far to say that his adoration for nature is based upon fear of retribution? This is one of the many parallels drawn between religion and extreme environmentalism in the novel. Though I personally don’t quite agree with either of the arguments, the evidence they use to support their arguments is quite fascinating.

Short List 1

Next week we have to write an article analyzing something on the internet. Vague, huh? Well, here are a few topic options I've been thinking about:


1) The Hunger Games Trailer. We are faced with the age old question- will the movie be as good as the book? I thoroughly enjoyed the first book, which I blogged about a few weeks ago, so I have high hopes for the movie coming out in March. The trailer provides a sneak peek at what the movie will be like. From how the actors portray the characters, to how the sets do justice to the post-apocalyptic setting, there's plenty to analyze here.


2) A post on  theburninghouse.com. On this site, people take pictures of all the things they would take with them if they were escaping a burning house. While most people photograph material possessions like their ipad or their laptop, one particular post caught my eye, where all that's photographed is a woman with a teddy bear. Normally we would envision a child connected with a teddy bear, but the sight of a forty year old woman clinging to a stuffed animal like a scared child made me think long and hard.


3) The Spongebob Squarepants theme song. It sounds like complete nonsense, but there's something about this show that's kept it on for so many years. Although the show is aired on Nickolodeon and is geared toward children, why does my fifty year old aunt watch it? Is there something about the show that actually appeals to older audiences as well? I came home from school the other day to catch my father taking a nap in the living room, serenaded by none other than the nasal, high pitched sound of Spongebob singing a song about feeding his pet snail. Just what is it about this show that's kept in on the air for so long?

Everyone else's thoughts

Upon viewing some of my fellow students' blogs, I discovered a couple really stood out to me. I have to say, it was really interesting seeing the innermost thoughts of other people. Perhaps because everyone's blogs are anonymous, people are more willing to be outspoken and deep in what they say. Compared to the stoic silence of the classroom, the creative posts of the blogs are quite enjoyable.

First, Conquering One Page At A Time had a really aesthetically pleasing site. As soon as the link opened, I turned to the person next to me and said "Oh, look at that. Isn't it pretty?" In a world full of millions of webpages, I suppose its important to stand out a bit.

http://philippicsandcompliments.blogspot.com/

I also really enjoyed Arabella Cruz' post about the opening scene of Dead Poets Society. Though I thought I was being extremely attentive when I was watching, some details went completely over my head, and this post highlighted some things I had never thought about.

http://arabella-cruz.blogspot.com/

Kidnapping the Lorax

After buying an ereader, I was idly searching the online bookstore for nothing in particular, when I had the miraculous idea of searching for Dr. Seuss books. I don’t know why. Perhaps I was feeling sentimental at the time and had a deep desire to revisit the literature of my youth. Regardless, when I searched for Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax, I could not find the book. Instead, a novel titled Kidnapping the Lorax came up on my monitor, and I decided to click on the colorful picture of the cover with sunlight streaming through the leaves of trees onto an illuminated green sword fern. What can I say? I’m a sucker for foliage.

The novel centers around Lacey, the US Secretary of the Interior, who is supporting the deforestation of an old growth forest. To stop the deforestation from occurring, three extreme environmentalists kidnap her and hold her hostage in a campground located in the forest destined to be cut down in an attempt to reeducate her on the importance of nature. Lacey’s first thought upon being kidnapped is “Good God, no! These people are environmentalists!” Its true that her reaction represents what most people probably envision when they imagine dedicated environmentalists- tree hugging hippies that wear green every day and carry recycle bins everywhere they go. Nevertheless, she is forced under circumstances to live with these people for months as she is required to learn survival tasks such as pitching a tent and learning what plants have medicinal purposes.

Lacey’s modern opinions of progress and the kidnapper’s old fashioned idealism clash in a way that is both humorous and serious. Though I laughed out loud quite a few times when reading the characters’ banter over silly things such as the flavor of their organic toothpaste, their more important arguments unearth real issues in the way society treats the environment. Is it immoral to cut down a forest that’s been thriving and teeming with life for hundreds of years for economic gain? I am anxious to read on and discover what impact the Secretary’s time in the forest will have on her plan to destroy the environment.

Dead Poets Society

From the lack of music to the stoic expressions of the students, the uninspiring lackluster school ceremony establishes a bored mood to the Welton preparatory school. When the headmaster proclaims the four values of the school as being "tradition, honor, discipline, and excellence," he connotes that the school's goal is to shape the students' minds and behavior into a specific, predetermined mold. In past years, the school has been successful, because over seventy-five percent of the students moved on to ivy league schools after graduation. The question is though, at what costs? In the opening school ceremony, no individuality or creativity emerged from the students. The behavior and actions of the students later in the movie are likely to be influenced by the school's overbearing strictness.

The Hunger Games

Last week I concluded reading The Hunger Games series with reading the final pages of Mockingjay. After reading the first two books in the series, I had extremely high hopes for the third. The books are filled with memorable characters, action-packed plot, and powerful themes representing the hypocrisy and faults of the world’s post-apocalyptic society. However, after reading Mockingjay, I must admit that I was disappointed. Perhaps I’m just too much of a sap that wants to see a happy ending in everything. The novel was violent, bloody and dark, and after growing to love the characters in the first two novels, it was almost painful to read about some of their demises. In a way though, perchance this is what also made the novel good. The fact that the more fierce and aggressive sections of the novel were able to bring forth emotions in me such as regret, sorrow, and grief over the downfall of the characters means that I connected with the book.

The main plot of The Hunger Games centers around teenager Katniss Everdeen, who is forced to take part in the Hunger Games, a contest forced upon society by the overbearing, evil Capitol of the nation Panem. In the games, twenty four tributes from across Panem fight to the death in a game of survival, where the winner receives the privilege of escaping the game arena with their life. The novel is continuously commentating on the barbarism of not only the government of the society that creates the games, but also of the people who watch the games on their television. These moderate people may think the games are cruel or unjust, but they do nothing to act upon it. From this motif of a lack of action against oppressors in the society of this novel, parallels can be drawn to faults in real society. Many instances in history reveal a lack of caring from the average person who is too afraid to take a stand against wrongdoing. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr. in “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”,  “shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” Like how white moderates stood by in the twentieth century and allowed African Americans to be treated cruelly, the people of Panem are refusing to defy the hunger games and demand the right to life the teenagers taking part in the games should have. Author Suzanne Collins is using the novel to comment on how immoral it is for our timid society to stand on the sidelines of injustice and allow evil to seize the lives of others as long as it does not effect us.

Duo Close Readings: Interior Design

Dan Martensen and Shannan Click's upstate New York farmhouse

Criteria: color, structure, furniture, decoration, personality


Observations:
     furniture is cluttered
     rustic
     quaint
    wood paneling/natural
     picturesque
     green/plants
     playful (ping pong table)
     bright/light (open windows)
     eclectic
     wide open space
     emphasis on outdoors
     expressive through art
     old fashioned


Claim: The design of the house fuses together old fashioned structure, modern art, and nature to create a serene living space.

Reading History

           Though I adore reading now, I used to cringe at the thought of opening a book. Sadly, my entire history of reading outside of school did not begin until about a year ago when my mother bought me a book for Christmas. As I ripped open the wrapping paper on Christmas morning only to discover the boredom of just another book I was never going to read, my first thought was, “does my mother even know me?” I mean, from the perspective of a teenage girl who had probably never read more than ten books for fun in the entire fifteen years of life, I was rather confused as to what my mother’s motives were.

            Eventually though, after I ate a few candy canes and built some snowmen, I took a closer look at the book. It was Elixir by Hilary Duff. Yes, I know, Hilary Duff. Though it was pretty much guaranteed to be a superficial, predictable, chick-lit novel, I figured, why not? So I picked up the book one night and started to read. Needless to say, I went to sleep at four in the morning that night. I was so drawn to the characters and the plot that I refused to rest until I knew what happened on the very last page of that book.

            Once I was finished with it, I started to think, “Wow, what if there are other good books out there?” I cannot express how ridiculous this sounds to me now. Of course there are good books out there! It only took me about five minutes of searching through some books I found in our basement (and I swear there were cobwebs on them) to discover more books that looked promising. Ever since then, I’ve always had a book in hand. I mostly read fantasy, though every now and then I like to pick up a chick-lit book that reminds me of the first really enjoyable book I received that fateful Christmas morning.