Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Heavenly Creatures
“Heavenly Creatures” is a story about two girls, Pauline and Juliet, who met in school and instantly became best friends. As they share time together they realize they have a variety of things in common like their love for literature and story making. Pauline kept a diary in which she wrote everyday how she felt. One day Juliet gets sick with Tuberculosis and, both girls realize that they cannot live apart from each other. Pauline had a sexual encounter with Jonathan who is Juliet’s brother and, she realized that she did not like being with men. Pauline and Juliet fantasized about the stories they made up. Many times they called themselves by the names in the characters in their stories but, every time they were a couple. The girls were very comfortable being naked together and, they even ended up pleasuring themselves. Pauline was taken to a psychologist who diagnosed her as a homosexual. I had assumed the girls were lesbians before the psychologist scene took place. The girls’ parents tried to prevent the girl’s relationship since they viewed homosexuality as a sickness. The girls did not like to be apart from each other. Pauline was so upset that she loathed her mother to the point of murdering her. At the end of the story, the girls murder Pauline’s mother and, they were sentenced to prison when Pauline’s diary was discovered. In my opinion, this story was very well developed. I appreciate that for every scene the story has the place and time of day because that helped to picture the scenes better. The vocabulary used was definitely understandable. I think that the ending was unexpected until Pauline revealed her hatred towards her mother. I did not like that Pauline and Juliet kept changing their names to the names in their pretend stories because this made it confusing to know whether there was a new character in the story or not. This story was very interesting and, I would recommend it. Overall, I think this is a great love story about two girls who discover their homosexuality and will do anything to stay together.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
When I first began to read Oryx and Crake I was pretty bored. I felt like it dragged on and like nothing interesting was happening. So much of the beginning focused on Snowman who used to be called Jimmy and he wasn’t a very exciting person at first.
As I continued to read of course I started to understand things more clearly and Jimmy actually grew on me. The story is told from his perspective and it is interesting to see how his character developed as he tried to survive in a wasteland. The story begins after some sort of world ending event with few survivors and then flashes back to his childhood and how he got to where he is now.
Oryx and Crake are the other two main characters in the book. Oryx is a woman that Crake, Jimmy’s bestfriend hires to be his prostitute and a teacher to his followers. Crake believes that she is the same young girl he had observed years before in pornography. Oryx ultimately has a relationship with both Jimmy and Crake, but Jimmy does not tell Crake about his betrayal. This story was a little more science fiction than what I like, but interesting none the less. There is a similarity to the beginning of the world in the Bible, with references to Crake being the creator of God, which I’m assuming that Jimmy is God and Oryx is the guardian of the animals. The animals by the way are all some kind of fusion of two or more animals which is a little scary.
It seemed to me that they all betrayed each other in one way or the other. Jimmy betrayed Crake by having a relationship with Oryx and Crake betrayed Jimmy by secretly vaccinating him and not making him aware of what was about to happen to their world.
Although this style of book is not my preference, I would definitely recommend it to someone who enjoys futuristic science fiction novels.
Oryx and Crake are the other two main characters in the book. Oryx is a woman that Crake, Jimmy’s bestfriend hires to be his prostitute and a teacher to his followers. Crake believes that she is the same young girl he had observed years before in pornography. Oryx ultimately has a relationship with both Jimmy and Crake, but Jimmy does not tell Crake about his betrayal. This story was a little more science fiction than what I like, but interesting none the less. There is a similarity to the beginning of the world in the Bible, with references to Crake being the creator of God, which I’m assuming that Jimmy is God and Oryx is the guardian of the animals. The animals by the way are all some kind of fusion of two or more animals which is a little scary.
It seemed to me that they all betrayed each other in one way or the other. Jimmy betrayed Crake by having a relationship with Oryx and Crake betrayed Jimmy by secretly vaccinating him and not making him aware of what was about to happen to their world.
Although this style of book is not my preference, I would definitely recommend it to someone who enjoys futuristic science fiction novels.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
The Day of the Locust focuses on what our country is about. In particular I see a similarity with America as a country. America’s history is made up of immigrants from all over the world in pursuit of happiness. It is leaving home, which is all you have known and taking a chance in a foreign place where you don’t know anyone. This is done because you are willing to take a chance on a better more fascinating life, where you can dream. In the Day of the Locust Tod Hackett leaves Yale University where he studied fine arts to move to Hollywood, where he is in awe of the people there who have come from all over America and is fascinated by their hopes and dreams.
In Hollywood, like in America in general there are people of different social status and different ambitions. Tod becomes friends with people who are different than him, yet they have things in common. Tod meets Homer who like him also has an attraction to Faye an aspiring actress. Tod has this attraction to Faye, but deep down dislikes the person she is.
The differences that these people had ultimately was not enough to maintain a healthy relationship and we saw the destruction among these three main characters explode in the end. Like everywhere in America and in the world these are challenges that people face every day. We face discrimination, love, hate and every other emotion in the books. We are challenged with acceptance of those around us and mostly contemplate what it is that they can do for us.
Tod speaks mostly about the people who come to California to die and in the beginning makes a reference to a painting that he will create called, “The Burning of Los Angeles.” In the end when the riot occurs and Tod gets rescued by the policeman he envisions his painting and is uncertain if the sound he hears is an actual siren or him. This leads me to believe that he has gone insane and he too has become one of those people who come to California to die.
In Hollywood, like in America in general there are people of different social status and different ambitions. Tod becomes friends with people who are different than him, yet they have things in common. Tod meets Homer who like him also has an attraction to Faye an aspiring actress. Tod has this attraction to Faye, but deep down dislikes the person she is.
The differences that these people had ultimately was not enough to maintain a healthy relationship and we saw the destruction among these three main characters explode in the end. Like everywhere in America and in the world these are challenges that people face every day. We face discrimination, love, hate and every other emotion in the books. We are challenged with acceptance of those around us and mostly contemplate what it is that they can do for us.
Tod speaks mostly about the people who come to California to die and in the beginning makes a reference to a painting that he will create called, “The Burning of Los Angeles.” In the end when the riot occurs and Tod gets rescued by the policeman he envisions his painting and is uncertain if the sound he hears is an actual siren or him. This leads me to believe that he has gone insane and he too has become one of those people who come to California to die.
Pattern Recognition by William Gibson
In William Gibson’s novel Pattern Recognition, I observed a lot of irony. Cayce the main character for example works as an advertising consultant, yet she sort of has a phobia to logos and trademarks. I find it interesting that someone who works in a particular field would fear what the work with, but I guess the best way to conquer ones fear is by facing it. Cayce becomes intrigued by these segments of film on the internet and is then asked by her boss to find out who is creating them and why.
A constant theme throughout the story is that Cayce is constantly detecting patterns and meanings in information that at first appears to really mean nothing. I also noticed Gibson used very modern things in his book that I hadn’t noticed in other books I have read. I found his use of common things such as the internet and brand names to be a little weird. I found it strange because I think that by him doing this he is really putting a date on the book and might not make it relatable or understandable to someone reading it let’s say twenty years from now.
I think that the use of the 9/11 attacks represents a transition from the past into the future. It is using that day as the beginning of a new history to be created. This for Cayce was an exceptionally horrible day, because she lost her father on that day. I personally believe that it is this event that has made her into the person that she has become. She is a little paranoid and extra cautious about everything.
Pattern Recognition looks at the way that the Internet forms these groups of people bringing them together and making everyone person feel as though they are an important contribution. This is what I could relate with the most in this book and although I don’t think it will become a classic, I believe that it is well written.
A constant theme throughout the story is that Cayce is constantly detecting patterns and meanings in information that at first appears to really mean nothing. I also noticed Gibson used very modern things in his book that I hadn’t noticed in other books I have read. I found his use of common things such as the internet and brand names to be a little weird. I found it strange because I think that by him doing this he is really putting a date on the book and might not make it relatable or understandable to someone reading it let’s say twenty years from now.
I think that the use of the 9/11 attacks represents a transition from the past into the future. It is using that day as the beginning of a new history to be created. This for Cayce was an exceptionally horrible day, because she lost her father on that day. I personally believe that it is this event that has made her into the person that she has become. She is a little paranoid and extra cautious about everything.
Pattern Recognition looks at the way that the Internet forms these groups of people bringing them together and making everyone person feel as though they are an important contribution. This is what I could relate with the most in this book and although I don’t think it will become a classic, I believe that it is well written.
Lolita
The Work of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is a most famous one. It has been transcribed into theater and film, with some changes to the story line, but keeping the same moral issues, pedophilia or nymphetism, as he calls it in his work. The ‘nymphets” the authors relates to in the words of the main character, so called Humber Humbert, was his dilemma, his obsession. It tortured him so much that he was never sure how to act on it. It was an everyday fight against his morals and desires “While my body knew what it craved for, my mind rejected my body's every plea. One moment I was ashamed and frightened, another recklessly optimistic. Taboos strangulated me. Psychoanalysts wooed me with pseudo liberations of pseudo libidoes(18).”
His dilemma was so that he tried to escape in his world of literature and live in this world to escape his moral conflict:“But let us be prim and civilized. Humbert tried hard to be good. Really and truly, he did. He had the utmost respect for ordinary children, with their purity and vulnerability, and under no circumstances would he have interfered with the innocence of a child, if there was the least risk of a row. But how his heart beat when, among the innocent throng, he espied a demon child, "enfant charmante et fourbe," dim eyes, bright lips, ten years in jail if you only show her you are looking at her. So life went.” He would go as far to analyze different societies to try and find a coherent and benevolent solution to his desires; “East Indian provinces. Lepcha old men of eighty copulate with girls of eight, and nobody minds. After all, Dante fell madly in love with Beatrice when she was nine, a sparkling girleen, painted and lovely, and bejeweled, in a crimson frock, and this was in 1274, in Florence, at a private feast in the merry month of May. And when Petrarch fell madly in love with his Laureen, she was a fair-haired nymphet of twelve running in the wind, in the pollen and dust, a flower in flight, in the beautiful plain as descried from the hills of Vaucluse.”
The main issue Humber Humbert (HH) was indeed this insatiable need of satisfaction. The repression he attempted to keep under control was beyond his own control. This need went and took hold of any morality he had left in order to feel happy and to the impossible and illegal, “because my own desire for her blinds me when she is near. I am not used to being with nymphets, damn it (44). This is the reason why he attempted to get married and have a stable relationship, but his mind in unfortunately set on “praying his pray” without even realizing it. His audacity in relinquishing his morality once confronted in the situation, actually meeting Dolores Haze (Lolita) only proves his psychological issues of pedophilia. It lets you explore into the mind of those who have these type of sexual disorders and loss of any ethical and moral behavior. The works describes over and over how his “longing,” “agony,” “insatiable desire,” continues to haunt HH as he moves along into an affair with his addiction, his Lolita. As anything that’s incorrect, especially morally incorrect, there are consequences, and HH and Lolita both suffered them.
His dilemma was so that he tried to escape in his world of literature and live in this world to escape his moral conflict:“But let us be prim and civilized. Humbert tried hard to be good. Really and truly, he did. He had the utmost respect for ordinary children, with their purity and vulnerability, and under no circumstances would he have interfered with the innocence of a child, if there was the least risk of a row. But how his heart beat when, among the innocent throng, he espied a demon child, "enfant charmante et fourbe," dim eyes, bright lips, ten years in jail if you only show her you are looking at her. So life went.” He would go as far to analyze different societies to try and find a coherent and benevolent solution to his desires; “East Indian provinces. Lepcha old men of eighty copulate with girls of eight, and nobody minds. After all, Dante fell madly in love with Beatrice when she was nine, a sparkling girleen, painted and lovely, and bejeweled, in a crimson frock, and this was in 1274, in Florence, at a private feast in the merry month of May. And when Petrarch fell madly in love with his Laureen, she was a fair-haired nymphet of twelve running in the wind, in the pollen and dust, a flower in flight, in the beautiful plain as descried from the hills of Vaucluse.”
The main issue Humber Humbert (HH) was indeed this insatiable need of satisfaction. The repression he attempted to keep under control was beyond his own control. This need went and took hold of any morality he had left in order to feel happy and to the impossible and illegal, “because my own desire for her blinds me when she is near. I am not used to being with nymphets, damn it (44). This is the reason why he attempted to get married and have a stable relationship, but his mind in unfortunately set on “praying his pray” without even realizing it. His audacity in relinquishing his morality once confronted in the situation, actually meeting Dolores Haze (Lolita) only proves his psychological issues of pedophilia. It lets you explore into the mind of those who have these type of sexual disorders and loss of any ethical and moral behavior. The works describes over and over how his “longing,” “agony,” “insatiable desire,” continues to haunt HH as he moves along into an affair with his addiction, his Lolita. As anything that’s incorrect, especially morally incorrect, there are consequences, and HH and Lolita both suffered them.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
What will media be like in 5, 15, 50 years from now?
- What will media be like in 5 years:We will have virtual reality helmets instead of just 3D glasses. This will take the experience to the next level by being in the world. There will be the ability to touch things with a built environment. The sense of smell will also be a part of this experience, which will only enhance the reality of it. Maybe then people will get so depressed and will never want to leave this experience. The rise in psycho-therapy will become an accepted normal for which everyone will use it at some pint because of this virtual reality that is so amazing no one will understand why we live in the real world.
- What will the media be like in 15 years:All cars will all be environmentally friendly by this time. Which brings me to believe that the virtual reality made people more aware of the harms we do on a daily bases to the environment because of the story lines being told to them in these new virtual reality movie experiences. People will go either way with the whole world peace thing because they will learn and experience things in a different way. A more profound way that will either enhance their beliefsor change them.
- What will media be like in 50 years:Probably wont be too involved considering I will be 70ish, but will have 2 adult children with 6 grandchildren total who are still very involved in the newest technology. Since you did mention vegas..one of my favorite places in the world..by now I have lived one of my dreams of traveling to every continent in the world. Now its even common to travel to outer space. But to get back to vegas, of course his will be a ride for adults in vegas. Wow this is amazing now I can die a happy and say I've almost seen it all. Next stop heaven probably better than anything I could ever imagine, reality 10x a trillion infinity.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Woman Bodybuilder
She is a very dedicated woman with a specific diet and exercise she follows personally in order to achieve her muscular build. This could be a result of steroid use because most women cannot achieve this level of body modification without the help of supplements. This look is more commonly accepted for men but is obviously not out of reach for women who desire this look. This particular image also shows the power she has over her body and mind. I say mind because it takes a lot of dedication and a whole lifestyle change in order to get to this.
She maybe trying to prove herself or to others that anything is possible with hard work and sacrifices. Sacrifices she may have dealt with is personal relationships. Always having to explain her decision to take her body to an extreme limit.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)