The book to vote for...

Even only going through 4 groups of our presentation projects, I'm pretty sure that I have heard the book that I find most interesting. The book is the post-apocalyptic novel The Road. It really doesn't have anything to do with the fact that it was written by the same man of the book that me and my group tried to "sell" to you Cormac McCarthy's, No Country for Old Men; it is because that is the kind of story that I find very interesting. End-of-the-world type fiction has always interested me. From the stories, to movies, even video games. The tale of humanity having to start over and survive in a newer, harsher world trying to prevent the same mistakes that got them in their predicament in the first place. The dark themes and usually very tight, exciting writing styles that surround such type of media would keep me interested. It took me awhile to get used to McCarthy's style of no quotations or punctuations of any kind spanning the entire novel, but after your eye is trained to ignore the need for it, you will realize he writes description of places and things very brisk and at the same time, very descriptive. It makes me almost see exactly what he is writing about (I think so anyways) and it gives it a movie quality. It's not the disaster part of disaster novels that really hook me; it's about the struggles of the characters in the wake of the catastrophic, world-ending event that keep me reading, or watching. I will probably go and buy the book myself for my own enjoyment.

Fight Club

In the movie Fight Club, we see concepts like the idea of masculinity and how does a grown man in this day and age (or at least the ideals a decade ago when the movie was made)are challenged. I found a great exert that really defines what the movie ment to me... "Fight Club parallels Rebel Without a Cause by probing into the frustrations of the people that live in the system. The characters, having undergone societal emasculation, are reduced to 'a generation of spectators',while a culture of advertising defines society's 'external signifiers of happiness' and causes an unnecessary chase for material objects that replaces the more essential pursuit of spiritual happiness" It's a shame that the movie Rebel Without a Cause was never a book (as far as I know...) because it would be the perfect film to watch in relation with Fight Club. It is so strange that men of this generation (our generation) are so confused, bored, stripped down of any moral value and replaced with only consumer need, it makes you feel hollow and terrified because the fact is soon that many of us will be raising a new generation unprepared. What will the men and women of tomorrow be like? I shudder to even think about it.

Water for Elephants blog

When we had the discussions on characters yesterday, I felt that when people in the class were discussing Jacob they were giving him a pretty hard time. The main character in the very interesting book Water for Elephants is easily the most likable and enjoyable person to read about in my opinion, our entire reading selection so far. I remember when some of my classmates mentioned how naive he was and pointed out certain parts (like when he could do nothing while the poor elephant Rosie took abuse from the psycho August) all I could think was well yeah, what else could he have done? I get the feeling that some people believe just because someone is a made-up character in a fictional novel, that somehow means they don't have to follow simple rules of logic. If Jacob did anything against August or the crooked ring-leader Uncle Al, he would have been fired or killed, end of story. Jacob did what only could have been done at the time and does a little good through the whole story(caring for the animals, helping out his friend Camel) which makes me enjoy this book even more.

Illumination

I would never compare the suicide of the grandfather character in Everything is Illuminated and the pointless suicide of the main protagonists in Toga Party. I've already established my feelings over Toga in my last blog, so I'll explain more of my feelings toward the grandfather's timely end. As we all seen in the movie, we find out who the grandfather is and his importance to the story (as a man who is actually from the village that our protagonist Stephen has been looking for, his horrible experience in the slaughter of his friends and family, and so on.) One of the main parts of how it is explained why he eventually offs himself is the part where the grandfather survives the firing squad and throws down his coat that has the Star of David stitched on it. I personally believe that it represented him giving up his faith and burying all the pain and memories of his home town. Then after meeting up with the old woman and sole survivor, (former love?) I believe he finally makes peace with it all. After his long life and experiences I can only guess that he wanted to end his life on his own terms.

Short Stories

I have to say that after reading some of the assigned stories from The Best American Short Stories, the company who publishes these things may want to get a new editor. I love Stephen King books, I find them compelling, dark, and has some great twists and turns, but I don't want to every story in this goddamn book to read just like his. "The Toga Party" is a terrible story TERRIBLE I don't know if I can stress this enough. I'm not just talking about the melancholy suicide ending that's just more of a personal preference on how I like a tale to end. What I'm talking about is the lackluster writing that wasted an hour of my life that I will never get back. John Barth might be a good author, there are some techniques in his way of explaining events that go on in his story, or explanation of character's back story and what not, but when it comes to dialog, or maybe trying to find out what are characters are thinking is completely asinine. Every one of these people as soon as they open their mouths or turn on their thought bubbles become one-dimensional cut outs. The main characters, Dick and Sue the only thing that seems to run through their minds is death, death, death, money, money, money. Over and over again. Sam Bailey? His wife died, that's Barth's idea of deep character plot, that's it. The ending is the icing on the crap cake for me. It's not the fact that the characters Dick and Sue killed themselves (they were so boring and lame I was kind of glad to see them go) it was how they were written off. There was no alluding to their little death-pact, no hint. Two healthy, happy people just deciding to off themselves because they're getting old? Because Sam stabbed himself at the party and that brought the whole evening down? Stupid. It's a weak attemped of a shabby writer to try to throw in some shock value in a boring story. I would not recommend these 20-odd pages to anybody.

Japanese family customs (Year of Meat)

As I'm reading My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki, I observe the life of one of the main characters, Akiko; and what her relationship is like with her husband Joichi. I must admit I am a little concerned on what exactly makes up for an ideal Japanese marriage, home life and in their community. Now, I can honestly say that I only know very little on what exactly goes on in a typical Japanese family. I know that the husband is the head of the family, I guess the wife is suppose to be quiet and obedient (if I am wrong about any of this, please let me know) as are the children. From just reading the book I feel that a lot of crap is placed on the wives; not just in a clean the house and cook the dinner kind of way, I mean that they have to do all the house work, take care of the kids and then, this is the part that feels weird, the women take all the brunt of their husbands. When the man had a bad day of work the wife not only is supposed to make him feel better (I think all good spouses are supposed to do that) but it seems the Japanese wife has some sort of blame put on her that she has to apologize to him. Am I wrong? Is poor Akiko an exception and she's just married to an abusive asshole? The whole tense relationship she has with Joichi (I do suppose the whole "can't conceive" thing is sort of making things harder) just feels wrong. Why is Akiko so trapped? I believe that divorce is frowned upon pretty harshly in Japan, so perhaps she does not want to be a social pariah? It makes me really feel for the character, to be so helpless and alone.

Year of Meats

As I start to read this book "Year of Meats" by Ruth Ozeki, I learn of our two main protagonists, Jane and Akiko. I have to say I find these two very interesting; there is Jane, a tall, strong, outspoken Japanese-American producer for a Japanese "reality" show called My American Wife. On the other end of the character spectrum, we have Akiko a small, mousy Japanese woman who lives in quiet fear of her bully husband Joichi (or John as he likes to be called,) John is an executive on the same show that Jane works at. At the beginning of this tale, the only simularities these two ladies have is the show My American wife they might as well be on different planets. The show is what is obviously going to pull these two together, it will be very interesting to see how that develops.

The Second Half of Happiness

The second half of this book is when the story really starts to take off. The world is ending, not from the bomb, but from peace, love and not giving a crap anymore. It is during the second half is where I actually start to like our little hero Edwin. He may still be the whiny little idiot that treats people like something stuck on the bottom of his shoe and always says the wrong thing (especially to May) I think he is honestly trying to redeem himself throughout the second half. Of course he has a bit more motivation to change now that he lost his wife, lost May the only woman that he probably could stand to be around has multinational tycoons hiring thugs to kill him because of his connection to the one book that is destroying there companies (if you're happy all the time, would you bother to buy anything?) When reading the first half of the book, I would have been the last person to expect Edwin to behave so dramatically and aspire to such heights as to actually save the world (or at least make it a more interesting place again.) The best part easily is when he is having his battle of wits with the actual creator of the powerful What I Learned on the Mountain Jack McGreary, trying to out-explain each other over if humans are worth more, maybe even deserve more than the quiet, happy lethargic death that looms over the world in the story. The novel becomes more action-packed, not in the sense of guns or explosions (even though it was pretty damn funny when Edwin shot Tupak's finger off) but in more that Will Ferguson is breaking the obvious tone of monotony in the first half and actually having Edwin go on a small series of exciting adventures. It makes the story even more enjoyable.

Happiness Post

I'm about half-way through Will Freguson's novel Happiness and so far, am enjoying the read very much. What I want to discuss in this blog is the character Edwin de Valu. To me each one of the players told in this book are stereotypes of their jobs, age group and social circles. The plucky, and steadfast friend is the publisher/friend/boss/love intersest, May; The horrible, trendy, hippie out-of-touch boss Mr. Mead; also our antagonistic, suck-up GenXer office jerk Nigel. With Edwin however, he seems to stand out by not really standing out at all. The main protagonist, Edwin is what I expect out of the ultimate bookworm. Skinny, lanky, crop of messy hair, snarky, rude, yet completely afraid of everyone (except that prick Nigel.) If only he had horned-rimmed glasses the look would be complete. Edwin is a very unlikable character, (I tried to like him, I really did) one would think that with all the daytime nonsense and idiocy he has to gauntlet through, Edwin would have been a very sympathetic person. In all honesty, he's as much an oblivious asshole as everyone else in the novel and he thinks his meager job places him on a mantle over other people, treats everybody in about the same level of crap as they treat him. What is strange is that in most novels I read, other protagonists have something in them that makes them stand out to the other lesser characters; a certain keenness, sense of adventure, kindness, strength or something. Not good old Edwin. Even though I sound like I'm complaining about the author's choice of character, I have to say it is a little interesting and surprising (and maybe a little refreshing) to read about someone so regular and completely unextraordinary, it's pretty fun to read him flail about in a constant stream of failure.

Well, here I am...

This is just my introduction for my English 110 class. Hi, how's it going?