Last post of the year!!!

            Let me just start off by saying that I am not one to write my thoughts down on paper. I find it rather annoying to constantly pause and write down my “journey of thought”. Recording my thoughts is more of a nuisance than a way to reflect on my reading. That being said, I didn’t completely hate blog posts this year, it was a very Interesting experience, a better alternative to the traditional pen and paper.

            Overall, I didn’t learn that much about myself as a reader from blogging, except that I’m not very “deep”. This is probably something I am going to have to improve on. This experience benefited me by giving me a little more experience in an alternative method of reading reflections, which will probably become more useful as I grow as a reader.

            This experience was very liberating, as it gave us the freedom to talk about whatever we wanted in our book. It gave us the opportunity to explore our own thoughts instead of blindly following the traditional path of summarizing.  However, in some aspects it was also very limiting. I was constantly mentally reminded that I was posting on a public server, and that anyone who wanted to could see my terrible and not so deep writing. This fact sometimes kept me from writing certain more personal things, which I could have easily stated in a personal notebook.

            I believe that the things we post or type online are the “real” us. In the real world we probably would attempt to hide our dark sides under a deceiving layer of shyness. However, online on Face book, or other websites, we feel more secure, and safe. That Is what leads us to believing that we can post whatever we want. This secure wall of a hidden identity is what some people use to abuse their freedom online. Some people just post whatever they want without thinking how their words might affect others.

            I can’t really see myself continuing this blog in the future. I might start a new blog and talk about stuff that actually interests me such as computers but sadly, I think this is the end of “I don’t know what to name my blog!!!” And so, I know say “goodbye blogging community of MS51!”  

Holes by Louis Sachar

              I am currently re-reading one of my all-time childhood books, Holes by Louis Sachar. This book is mainly about a young lad named Stanley Yelnats who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the book, Stanley gets arrested for stealing Clyde Livingston’s (a famous athlete) sneakers. In truth it wasn’t really him, however Stanley comes from a very poor family and their parents couldn’t afford a great lawyer. For his punishment, Stanley was sent to a Labour camp known as camp green lake, a camp in which you dig holes all day.

            While re-reading this book, I was mainly thinking about the judge who gave Stanley’s’ sentence, and the society that Stanley lives in. what happened to Stanley was not fair. Even though he told the truth in court, he was still punished. This makes me think about justice and the way we hand out punishment in America. However since we are studying philosophy, I will phrase my thoughts into a philosophical question. “Who has the right to hand out punishment in the U.S, and who gave the, the power to do so?”

            To answer my own question, I would think that no one really has the right to pass down judgment or condemn someone. This is because I believe it is not our place to do so. I mean, what makes the people who decide on the punishment any better than the accused? Why does that person have the right to end someone’s life if he or she wants? What makes them that much more important than us?

            Overall, however, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a good read.       

Teen Angst? Naaah...

            I am currently reading an interesting book named "Teen Angst? Naaah..." by Ned Vizzini. This book is actually an autobiography about Ned Vizzini and his times at Stuyvesant High school. This book doesn't really have a plot, it just follows a timeline of events in Ned Vizzinis life. however, i still somehow managed to pick up a few themes in Ned Vizzini's life. In it he basically talks about the average american teenagers life. He talks about the weeks leading up to the SHSAT, the excitement he felt when he got in, and his time there. His life is kind of basically what you would expect: worrying about getting good grades, worrying about college, getting a girlfriend, being popular, (etc.).
            While i was reading this book, i kind of started thinking of stereotypes. this is because Ned Vizzini's life seemed almost stereotypical, just an average life. Specifically, i was thinking about who came up with the american life stereotype. I mean, someone had to come up with what the average life is supposed to be like, right? In my mind, an average Hollywood stereotype of the american life is a suburban neighborhood, tall, usually white teens wearing hoodies  listening to ipods. Is this really how the public views us? so what is the definition of "Normal", or "average"?
 

lord of the flies by william golding

            I am currently reading a very interesting book called “Lord of the flies” by William Golding. I am not too far into the book because I have just started but here is what I do know: this book is basically (so far) about a group of boys on a plane during a fictional war, who crash onto a deserted island. One boy, Ralph, is elected as a group leader, while another boy, jack, is elected leader of the hunters of the group. However, it is obvious that jack wanted to be the leader. The first boy, Ralph is the kinder one, and he found a pink conch shell that is used to summon the other boys during meetings and such. The other boy, jack is much more harsh, and a little evil, and devious.

While I was reading the first parts of this amazing book, what caught my mind, was not the plot, but the role of the conch shell. It was used by Ralph to summon the boys to meetings, but it also had another role. During the meetings, whoever held the conch shell had the right to speak, and everyone else had to be quiet and listen. More and more, this conch shell kind of struck me as a symbol of order, power, and organization. It represented order and organization because it prevented anyone from speaking out of turn during meetings. However, it also represented power because Ralph is the one who blew on it to summon everyone, and he was the king.

All this made me think “is order necessary on a deserted island?” I would think so, because without order, there would anarchy, and chaos. However, if I was speaking form the other side, who may think that you don’t need order on a deserted island, you are a group of teenage boys after all, who are far away from civilization. I mean, the first thing that would’ve popped into my head wouldn’t have been “let’s make a constitution, and organize daily rations”. It would’ve been “Lets party!”.  

twisted by laurie anderson

            I have just finished reading a great book called Twisted by Laurie Anderson. This great book is about a high school teenager named Tyler Miller whose life is basically ruined. He was tired of being the one who was always ignored, and being shoved into the toilet, so in tenth grade, he wanted to make himself noticed. In tenth grade, Tyler took six cans of spray paint and wrote devious messages on the school wall. However, Tyler was careless, and left his wallet, containing his I.D. He was caught by the police after an investigation.

            Throughout this whole book, I was always thinking about peer pressure, because it seemed to be a major theme in this book. Even though Tyler wasn’t directly being pressured by the jocks and most of the student body into spray painting the school, he was being indirectly pressured to do so. The jocks and some other people were the ones who made Tyler feel like he needed to make himself noticed, and so he spray painted the school. I guess now that I think about it, it all comes down to popularity.

            Tyler wanted to be popular just like the other kids, so he did all that stuff, but what if there was no such thing as popularity or social rank? Everyone would feel a lot more secure, confident, and equal. It is because of this invisible force that the student body has to be divided. But should it be? Or is ranking someone based on social status wrong? I honestly don’t know…         

Be more chill By Ned Vizzini (SPOILER ALERT!!!)

  

            I have just recently finished reading a great book called “Be more chill” by Ned Vizzini. In this book, Vizzini takes a look at the American high school life of Jeremy Heere. Jeremy is a social failure, not having many friends, being humiliated on many occasions and plainly put, he’s just not cool. Jeremy always stares at a girl named Christine, wanting her, even though he knows that with his current social standing, he’d never get her. So Jeremy decides that he’d do anything it took to get her. So of course he jumped at the mention of something called a “squip”, which is supposed to be a kind of micro computer that you swallow. After swallowed, it’s supposed to make its way up your brain, and give you advice to help you achieve your goals. And what does Jeremy do after hearing this? He pays seven hundred dollars that he got from selling rare dolls he stole from his grandma, to get his hands on one.

            While I was reading this book, I thought a lot about how the book was looking at social ranking. At first I interpreted Vizzinis writing to say that high social standing was something that must be achieved, in the case of Jeremy. But towards the end of the book, (SPOILER ALERT!!!) Jeremy throws away his “squip” because even though it was making him very popular, it was making him hated by his real and original best friends. So after finishing the book, I realized that Vizzini was actually telling us that friends  are only friends if they really like you for who they are, and they’re not just your friends because you (“ehemm”*clearing throat sound inserted here) “f _ _ ked” the hottest girl in school (pardon my language please). So basically, just “stay with people like you, and don’t try to be someone you’re not” was the moral of this story.

            All in all I definitely recommend this book to everyone looking for fun, relaxing read. Vizzini does a great job steering away from the stereotypes of an American teenager, and focusing on very real scenarios in a teen’s life.

The Reformed Vampire Support Group

            I am currently reading a suspenseful horror book called The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine jinks. I have not yet completed this book, but here is a brief summary and what I know so far; vampires do exist. At least, they do in the world of 73 year old Nina Harrison. Nina is a vampire, so she still looks like a 15-year old, which was when she was bitten and infected. She is also part of a group called the “Reformed Vampire Support Group”, a group of vampires that promise not to ever infect anyone, and feed off a human. However, the vampires in this book are very different from the vampires in our imagination. They don’t have any superpowers, they must constantly remember to wear sunglasses when looking at light, if they don’t want blood pouring out of their tear glands, and worst of all… they can barely ever go outside and experience new thrills because they will either scare off humans, or burn to ashes.

            While reading this book, a very important theme that I was thinking about a lot is acceptance. This group of vampires is not accepted by society because society is afraid of these vampires. But that is completely human. We are scared of what we cannot make sense of, and do not know. Books and movies have played their part in forming what a vampire or werewolf is in our imagination. What if a werewolf were to appear in time square right now? He may even just be standing there, but our primary instinct would either be to shoot it with a twelve gauge shotgun, or run. Not try to befriend it. Same with a pit bull.  We would probably head the other way if we saw one, because we’ve all seen guard pit bulls in movies that rip off your leg if you come too close. We humans tend to blindly follow the media in what something is or isn’t. We hang onto it as a lifeline, so we can make sense of things.

            All in all, so far I would definitely recommend this to readers looking for a good horror book. However, one thing you must know is that this book is kind of slow (it felt like that to me anyway). It takes a while to get to the point. But all in all, a great book.