What a Long, Strange Trip it's Been

And Then There Were Ten (Books)

I've been intrigued by the novel Atlas Shrugged (1957) by Ayn Rand for quite some time.  The main reasons I'm interested in the book just seem to be curiosity brought about by the title (I mean, it has a titan in the name, come on).  The language in the novel is not difficult and Rand seems to take a very descriptive and detailed style (or at least in a part of the first chapter).  From what I've read from the back of the book, the story seems to be about corrupt industrialists and a man who works to bring about his own end.  After picking up a physical copy for the first time I realized that the novel should be used as one of the murder weapons in the game Clue.  At about 1368 pages, the book is a little thick.  (Mrs. Wegyandt, can I just read this one book for the whole year?)

Fahrenheit 451 (1987) is another book I've been wanting to look into just out of curiosity.  This book by Ray Bradbury is about 178 pages long.  The book is written in the third person limited point of view the main protagonist Guy Montag.  In the America of Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag works as a fireman (which is actually the equivalent of what we would call a book burner).  The book also deals with the hot topic of censorship in books and if we should censor something in a book or the entire book if it offends one person.

Gone (2008) by Michael Grant was suggested to me by a well read friend of mine.  The book is of good (well, I would say) length with 576 pages.  The style seems to be much more modern than a few of the other books on this list and is thus simple to read.  I think I recall hearing a review of this book from a blog of a 9th or 10th grader last year and what was described reminds me very much of Lord of the Flies.  That book (Lord of the Flies) rattled me even though I had little to no grasp on all the ideas and symbols at the time.  Looking up this book made me so intrigued that I even looked up the Milgram experiment (because it was mentioned in a review of the book that also related Lord of the Flies to Gone).

A Wrinkle in Time (1962) by Madeleine L'Engle was also suggested to me by the same person who suggested Gone.  The main reason that I had asked my friend to suggest a few books was that she seemed to have read quite a few books and I was looking for suggestions from someone with a wide spectrum of read books.  From an excerpt, the language was not anything especially difficult though one character in the passage caught my attention.  Charles Wallace Murry.  In the book, he is the very precocious and extraordinary 5 year old of the Murry family.  The ability he displayed in the passage to understand his sister bordered close to uncanny or even unnerving.  Another phenomenal aspect of the child would be his ability to immediately speak in full sentences, thus skipping the stages of "Dada" "Mama".  Aside from the characters, the story seems interesting as well as it is one of the few Science Fiction books on this list.

His Majesty's Dragon (2005) by Naomi Novik is yet another book that was suggested by the person who offered the idea of reading the two preceding books on this list.  Similar to A Wrinkle in Time and Gone, His Majesty's Dragon is also a Science Fiction book (I have this feeling she likes Sci-fi, but that's just me) set in a different time.  Having being first published in 2005, the text is not near as difficult to understand as a novel from the 1500s.  The story is set during the Napoleonic times and thus includes flint pistols, swords, and dragons (it's Science Fiction remember?  Napoleon needed his aerial dragon force for his fights ya know).  The book is not extensively long at 384 pages but it is not short either.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972) by Hunter S. Thompson is actually a book (somewhat) suggested by Zane.  The title alone intrigues me as well as the themes of heavy drug abuse.  Speaking of which, the style of a strung out drug abuser may be a bit difficult to follow at times (such as trying to find the difference between reality and what the character perceives as real).  I have a creeping feeling that there will most surely be foul language coming from a pair of hyped up high protagonists looking for the American Dream.

Well, this spot was supposed to go to The Highlander but I found out that it wasn't what I had thought it to be.  So instead of The Highlander, The Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck will take its place.  I had heard earlier that The Grapes of Wrath was once a required book (actually, is it a required book this year?) for the highschool English classes.  I had also heard that the book was about a group of Okies during the Great Depression (I had heard this while studying the time period in history class) which also intrigued me.  From a small excerpt that I read from The Grapes of Wrath I felt that Steinbeck's style was not difficult to understand and even the bit of Southern jargon was not terribly difficult to interpret.  Steinbeck also seemed to easily describe human nature through obscure means and even be critical of human nature at times (describing how we had driven people out of their land and claimed it as our own).  Somehow, I feel that there is a bit of intertextuality between The Grapes of Wrath and The Road.  Both are about a long journey to attempt to find a better life in an uncertain place and both place this trust in mere speculation.  (672 pages)


With an interesting title and apparently a cult classic movie (I haven't seen it though), A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess has also been on my list of books to read for some time.  The novella is about 240 pages and concerns the actions of the gang leader of a group of ultra violent thugs.  Something that I had not considered (I hadn't read the book when I learned this, so I hadn't really had the chance to see the signs) was that Alex could possibly be considered a Christ figure despite the fact that he raped and was almost desensitized as being a human being.  While reading about the Milgram Experiment for Gone, I came across the Banality of Evil which seems to be related to the actions Alex takes in the novel (I haven't read the book, so I really don't know for sure).  Something that I noticed quickly when reading an excerpt was that the book is chock full of jargon (or "Nadsat") such as goloss, zoobies, and bezoomny.  This may prove difficult to decipher is being said at first, but after seeing the words more the language should be easier to follow.

Anthony Burgess' Catch-22 (1961) caught my attention when I learned that a theme of the novel was the idea of being in a situation which was inescapable.  To work oneself into a circle with no escape sounded very intriguing and also very plausible.  The novel is a bit of a longer read at 544 pages but the logical paradox may carry me through (I think I just love the idea of this paradox or something).  The style should not be excessively difficult.  Something I think that I recall is that this novel also criticizes bureaucracy (I may just me imagining that though) and is apparently a very funny novel despite being about a bombardier stuck in a war he desperately wants to get out of.

Braden got me interested in the story of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)by Ken Kesey as he told fragments of the story in English class occasionally.  Also, the book was referenced in one of my favorite video games as a location (and trust me, I did enjoy fighting the lobotomists inside that cave very much).  Some of the narration comes from one of the inmates in the mental institute which probably means that these parts would feel simplified in text while a third person narration pulls the simplicity back to normal standards.

One More Time (Well, not really) [Reading Assignment 7]

     I actually had multiple possible interpretations of what is signified in The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield such as the ignorance of the Upper Class to the Lower and even the Middle class, the irresponsibility of the Upper class (which reminds me of The Great Gatsby), and how the world goes on despite personal tragedies.  However, I think that I settled on the idea that Mansfield is saying that there just may be a glimpse of passion among those higher than we normal people.  I say this because I couldn't shake the feeling of a Christ figure in this story (I think I just like relating that for some reason).  There are a few reasons that I felt this way however.  When the workmen come to set up the marquee, Laura later questions why she couldn't have "workmen for her friends."  The workmen even show a kind of worldly association when the tallest sniffs up the smell of lavender.  In other words, she wishes to be among the worldly of her own  free will and she even sees the good in those earthly beings.  Later, when Laura hears of the death of the father of a poor family, she shows great compassion for the low people.  She even goes so far as to try to call off the party (which would be a big ordeal in the time, I believe).  After the party, Laura shows even greater compassion when she brings life (or food since: person - food = no life) to the grieving family.  She travels into the heart of the low, sick, and grieving to give new life.  If it's explained in that way, seems a little like a Christ figure, maybe?  When Laura sees the deceased young man, she finds something she did not expect, a sort of peace.  She finds a kind of resolution and peace in the death she encounters at the end of her journey.

     Well.  I feel as though I made a kind of glancing blow at underlying ideas of the story.  Foster did mention biblical references (which I'm glad for since my whole text was just about the biblical part).  I felt that we went in different directions in our biblical associations, but that's ok I think.

     Relating the story to Persephone opened my eyes more to the idea of relating sex and death.  It also made me remember Laura's mother since I pretty much completely forgot her in my writing.  Relating the stories also tied up some lose ends in my thoughts about certain objects such as the flowers and the ideas of floating among the family.  I had the feeling they were especially important, but I could not seem to find what I had meant to say.

Christ figure, wishes to be among the normal, gives life (food), finds resolution in death

One Story to Rule Them All (Sixth Reading Assignment)

     Somehow I thought of houses when I first read the word archetype.  I would be thinking of architecture however.  The two are not that dissimilar if one thinks about it.  The definition of an architecture would be close to "the design of buildings" and so the definition of an archetype may be similar to "the design of stories."  Perhaps to clarify what I mean I could add that an archetype serves as a kind of base model from which every story originates.
     An example of a strong archetypal story that comes to mind would be J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit."  12 dwarves you say?  A wise, old man dressed in white carrying a staff?  A journey?  To me that sounds a little like 12 disciples, the white garbed shepherd with his flock, and the journey for that valuable (in)tangible object.

Baptisms and Broken Bones (Fifth Reading Assignment)

     A baptism is defined as a "trying or purifying experience or initiation" (as according to Dictionary.com).  Even though it is not completely true to form, the main protagonist of 1984 goes through a sort of "baptism".  However, fists, boots, truncheons, and torture are employed instead of the conventional use of water in this baptism.

Down, Down, Down to My English Cafe (Fourth Reading Assignment)

     Flight may signify freedom in most stories, but not all freedoms result in a better livelihood for those newly free people .  In William Golding's Lord of the Flies a group of young schoolboys become stranded on an adultless, uninhabited island after their plane is shot down.  As time passes on the island, the organization among the newly free boys breaks down and they slowly turn from civil to savage.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meat- I Mean Symbolism (Third Reading Assignment)

     During a scene in The Cloud Chamber by Joyce Maynard, the protagonist and his sister (Nate and Junie respectively) drive out through the snow to meet their father.  There are a few things to know before this is thought up to be a simple visit by a son and daughter to visit their father in a hospital.  First of all, their father attempted to commit suicide because of the failing state of the family business in farming.  Also, the rifle used could not be found and one of the police officers casts suspicion on Nate's mother by suggesting that she may have pulled the trigger.  One other thing.  The snow that Nate drives through in his mother's (who doesn't know he's taken it out for a drive) small, non 4-wheel drive car is actually a blizzard on slopping hills.

Bang Bang Bang Bang (Second Reading Assignment)

Chapter 5 Response

     Intertextuality is (or how I think it is) the interaction between texts of two different works of literature where one is influenced by the other in some way.
     Brave New World and 1984.  Very different, right?  Well, ok I guess they do share the whole "dystopias/utopias aren't always as great as you would think" feeling (wait, who ever said a dystopia was any good in the first place?).

Vamanos, Vamanos (Reading Assignment 1)

1984

1. Quester: an average, mostly nondescript man who has a mind too thoughtful for his own good.  This thoughtfulness  even plagues Winston at times by leading his train of thought into questioning Big Brother and making Winston realize the obvious brutality of a totalitarian government.
2. A place to go: there is not one specific place to go.  However, there is the ultimate destination of the Ministry of Love. 
3. A stated reason to go there: though the Ministry of Love is not the intentional final destination, the closest to a stated reason to go there may be Winston's fatalism.  Towards the start of the novel, Winston accepts the inevitability of his own capture and accepts the idea that he will be taken to the Ministry of Love, tortured, sundered, and reeducated.
4. Challenges and trials: the thought police, Big Brother, and his own mind are just a few challenges Winston faces in his attempted defiance of Big Brother.  The omnipresent Big Brother glares piercingly over the denizens of Oceania by keeping an eye out for even the smallest sign of disloyalty or free thought.  If even an iota of free will is detected, the thought police crack down on the resident with brutal force, both physical and psychological.  Perhaps Winston's greatest enemy is his own mind.  Winston points out that even a tiny facial twitch could lead to arrest.  This makes a person's own nervous system an enormous enemy to himself or herself.  Also, thoughts against Big Brother, the Party, or in a way that is disapproved of is reason enough for the Party to terminate the person.
5. The real reason to go: to underscore the brutality measures taken by a totalitarian government to control its citizen's physical and mental existence.   (Something to note) 1984 was written after WW2 and during the Cold War.  This novel serves as an acute warning against the dangers of totalitarian governments.  Also, Winston's sundering in the Ministry of Love may be taken as a sign that totalitarian governments are vampiric in nature.  In example, Winston (a man full of life [despite his fatalism], free thought, and sense of independence) is taken in by Big Brother (the Ministry of Love being the tool, perhaps Big Brother's "fangs") and spat out as a thoughtless, nearly lifeless, indoctrinated member of the Party.  In the end, Winston is stripped of all that he held dear such as his sense of defiance and free will.

On the Status of Teachers...

Americans face a serious problem in their educational system. Teachers are no longer respected the way they once were and the status of teachers is at a low. For the United States to raise teachers from their status slump, we should trim out the teachers who are dragging the others down by being beacons of terrible teaching. Kati Haycock weighs in on the same subject. She claims here that "we ought to help the strongest ones and close the weakest". I agree with her. About a year ago, there was a survey on the question if teachers who do not have a degree close to what they teach shoud be allowed to teach. Many agreed that those teachers should not be allowed to teach a subject that they themselves are not familiar with. Those teachers that are taught in the field of what they teach obviously understand the subject better and thus can teach students much more than just textbook information. Those teachers who do not have as much knowledge in what they teach aren't able to help students understand the subject as well and, bluntly, may come across as being idiotic in their own line of work to students. Some may argue that if teachers who are not as good at teaching their subject are let go we would have a shortage of teachers. However, if those less than qualified teachers were trimmed away we would be left with the teachers that truly want to teach and thus will put real effort into what they do. Haycock's agrees with what I have said when she states that "we need to provide strong teachers" and that if we weed out the less motivated "we will interest far more of the bright, passionate self-starters we need to turn our system around". If a teacher is not willing to put forth the effort to understand his/her own subject then he/she is not motivated to teach the students who will next inherit this Earth. Those teachers would be instilling apathy into the next generation of people and the next generation of teachers who could possibly instill apathy into their next generation. If we are to pull our teachers out of their status depression we should trim out the terrible teachers to find those motivated, bright teachers to teach our newest generation.

(ramble mode off)

(can't articulate a point at all and can't think of something decent to say)

The very last lines of the novel The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, are a reflective and slightly hopeless take on how the people of the United States were never quite satisfied with the things they had. The use of dashes, tone, and a metaphor enhance Fitzgerald's ability to push readers into a certain state of mind. A point in American society during that time, lust, is focused upon with the metaphor of the boat and waves.

There is a feathery sense of hopelessness in Fitzgerald's use of dashes, tone, and a metaphor of boats and waves. Fitzgerald is exagerating on the point of chasing after an "orgastic future" as he builds hope that we may make our way to that goal. This sudden, shinning spot of hope grabs attention, but let's it crumble as an unfinished thought. The hope we once had ends in hopelessness despite the fact that we had an idea of how to reach the goal of an orgastic future. As we are sailors on a boat, we must fight the waves of time to keep from falling into the past. People struggle in a constant fight to keep themselves

Humans know no end to lust. The Dutch beheld the "breast of the new world" where the trees simply vanished. The primal feeling of wanting more is among every human being and is expressed when the text claims that a person needs more or that we can just "run faster" or "stretch our arms farther" to

I have read 3 books, the equivalent of 6 books.

• And Then There Were None (272 pages)


• Mockingjay (400 pages)


• Water for Elephants (335 pages)

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie perplexed me with its overwhelming sense of inevitability and mystery. Ten house guests are brought together to Soldier Island for various reasons. Each has a dark secret to hide and as people begin to die off, those secrets begin to come to light. With a foreshadowing nursery poem and a too human fear, Agathie Christie provides an excellent mystery novel.

Too much of the world’s happiness depends on taking from one to satisfy another. To increase my standard of living, someone in another part of the world must lower his. The worldwide crisis of hunger that we face today is a result of that method of pursuing happiness. Industrialized nations acquire appetites for more and more luxuries and higher and higher standards of living, and increasing numbers of people are made poor and hungry. It doesn’t have to be that way… But we have a greed problem: if I don’t grab mine while I can, I might not be happy. The hunger problem is not going to be solved by government or by industry, but in church, among Christians who learn a different way to pursue happiness.

-Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, 1980


After discussing the song Ka-Ching, by Shania Twain I found that the juxtaposition of the three-legged dog and the woman in red was summed up quite well when Peterson stated that for he to increase his standard of living, someone else must lower theirs. This makes sense to me. If we consume quite a bit of resources, there aren't as many resources to go around. The world's not socialistic (not yet, or hopefully ever). The idea that many are made poor and hungry because of one's own abundance reminds me of the many commercials asking for donations for poor, hungry children in Africa and other such places. Peterson even goes so far as to hold the greed to buy more stuff accountable for the hunger and poverty in such places.

I'll Sell You a Life Experience from the Dollar Menu

This is meant to be read in more of a matter-of-fact tone

than a condescending tone (though the condescension is still intentional)

Advertisement is everywhere you turn. It's unescapable and many people have gotten smarter about what to spend money on after the recent recession. To keep people buying, some business have gone to a technique of implying that buying their product will also give the buyer a life experience. An example from McDonalds would be here (Since this won't open at school, I'll try to my best to describe the video in these brackets. Two different teenagers are hanging out with their own group of friends at a McDonalds. The boy steals glances at the girl in the other group and then they are both glancing at one another. The boy walks over to the girl to talk to her as a voice in the background says, "Where else can you go on your first date without even know it.").

I was raised by my parents with the idea that McDonalds was no place to eat (which I do thank them for). The idea of going to McDonalds could be best represented by a conversation between my sister and father. After being indecisive about what to eat, my father said, "Well, let's go to McDonalds," to which my sister instantly replied, "Eww..."

Back to the commercial. My first reaction was one of disgust and annoyance. "So this ad is saying that people can get a life experience such as going on a first date or having courage in a moment like that or starting anew by eating at McDonalds?" was my first thought. I wanted to speak back and say that that wasn't likely and that they were sending the wrong message to teens (and what about all the concern on the obesity of youth in America?). There was another commercial similar to this one about a group of teenagers hanging out and having fun while eating McDonalds. Needless to say, I had a very similar reaction.

Tvspotstv. "YouTube - McDONALD'S - FIRST DATE." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 24 Feb. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2011. .