A Reader’s Response to Suburban Gospel

After reading back-to-back novels about unrealistic love stories, Suburban Gospel was definitely a refreshing change in genre. Suburban Gospel is a coming-of-age book written by Mr. May-Beaver. I had not read a coming of age novel in quite some time. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed that fact that I did not have Mr. May-Beaver as a teacher before reading this book. He describes in depth his encounters with the various aspects of a teenage boy approaching puberty. What made this uncomfortable narration bearable was the satire Mr. May-Beaver wrote with. The story is told in chronological order so the first few chapters take the reader through Mr. May-Beaver’s frighteningly awkward tween years. In one chapter specifically, he satirically describes his first kiss. Every show, book, or other presentation of teenage romance is always appallingly uncomfortable but the satire used in this particular book made Mr. May-Beaver’s first encounter with intimacy quite hilarious. After he finally works up the nerve to approach the infamous Tennessee Tara, the cringe-worthy but hilarious conservation that leads to him finally getting his first kiss will make any reader recall the awkwardness we all faced as a young teenager. This chapter along with many other relatable awkward teenage stories creates an extremely enjoyable storyline. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a good laugh/feel good novel. The light-hearted narrative created with the use of satire makes the usual teenage romance much more enjoyable.

 

Don’t Panic!- A Reader’s Response to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Scott Kuhlke

Nothing matters.  This is what I first discerned as the meaning and message of Douglas’ Adams The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.  The book follows Arthur Dent as he flees his home, and Earth, as both are destroyed.  he then proceeds to travel the galaxy with his alien friend, and researcher for The Guide, Ford Prefect, the fugitive-President of the Galaxy Zaphod Breeplebox, and Trillian, another human.

When I first finished the book, I believed that Douglas Adams was trying to go against the common troupe of most books.  That trope being that the main character typically learns to overcome great odds and emerge triumphant at the end of the story.  In Hitchhiker’s, however, it is the total opposite.  No matter what the characters do, it ends up being for naught.  For example, the book opens with Arthur’s house being surrounded by bulldozer planning on destroying the house to build a bypass.  Arthur proceeds to lay down in front of the bulldozer, protesting the bypass.  However, all of his protesting means nothing because a mere 15 minutes later, the entire Earth is surrounded by Vogon ships, who are planning on destroying the Earth to build an intergalactic bypass.  Even if Arthur had succeeded in saving his house, it would not have mattered, because it would have been vaporized along with the rest of the Earth.  Another example is the creation of Deep Thought, the super computer used to find the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything.  The computer took millions and millions of years to calculate the meaning of life, and when it was finally done computing, it spit out the answer: 42.  They were only given the answer.  To find the question, they had to build an even more powerful computer, one that had to use biological programs: Earth.  But a mere seconds before it finally calculated the question, it was destroyed by the Vogons to build an intergalactic bypass.

Despite all of this negativity though, I still found a meaningful message underneath.  Don’t Panic, the words inscribed on the front of the massive cover of the Hitchhiker’s Guide.  Even though nothing ever goes the way the characters want it to, they still always turn out right.  Even though the Earth was destroyed, Arthur was still able to escape thanks to Ford, and then coincidentally reunited with one of his old girlfriends. So I believe that Douglas Adams’ true message is: Even though you have no control over anything that happens in the universe, don’t panic, because it will always turn out right.

 

A Reader’s Response to Maze Runner

Set in a post apocalyptic type setting, The Maze Runner begins with a teenager, Thomas, waking up in a glade in the center of a labyrinth remembering nothing but his name. Thomas is a passionate character who finds himself searching for the truth behind his and his companions existence in this labyrinth. The entire novel focuses on Thomas’ rise to leadership amongst the group, a direct result of his firey personality and fearlessness when mapping the maze, and his inevitable escape from the maze and its spider like monsters within. The Maze runner reminds me of The Hunger Games in that both worlds are set in a seemingly distant future but are both loosely based on the moral corruptions of the modern world. In addition, both stories center around a teenager searching for answers and discovering truths through fearless adventure. I believe the glade represents the safe haven of childhood. If you are good and do your job, then the older kids take care of you. But as you grow older, your responsibilities grow and you are forced to mature by becoming a maze runner. I believe that the maze represents the common everyday obstacles that teenagers face. Wether excelling in the classroom, sports field, or socially, every teenager faces outside pressures to find perfection. I believe the maze within this novel represents ones struggle to escape those pressures and find who they truly wish to be. Navigating the maze is a frustrating process that takes many tries and is at times dangerous, but once you escape the maze of adolescence you reach a form of enlightenment entering adulthood.  I realize that’s a stretch but i’d like to think that this novel had more to it than just a thrilling narrative arc. I recommend this book to all and I am excited to read the next of this series(Scorch Trials).

 

Bright Future?: A Reader’s Response to The Time Machine

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells discusses the potential future of humanity if technology and innovation goes too far, separating the social gap of the wealthy and the working classes. In this future, the Eloi, or the rich classes of society, play and do literally nothing all day. They have no care in a world and absolutely “no fears” except for the Darkness. In the darkness the Morlocks come out from the underworld and feast on the Eloi. The scary thing is that the Time Traveler (never referred to by name, therefore his name is unknown to us) believes that these are the descendants of the human race. He believes that society separates into two different types of species.

The Eloi are beautiful and care-free, they are also tiny. They do not have a coherent language and have no need for a written language. They are immensely stupid or completely ignorant of learning even mildly intelligent things. The Time Traveler introduces them to fire by lighting a match and they are absolutely fascinated by it. The Time Traveler also quickly becomes attached to a female named Weena, referring to her as “someone to come “home” to,” making this foreign future seem a little more human-like.

In contrast, the Morlocks are long, furry, completely white creatures. They have light-reflective eyes, which have adapted to see only in the dark. They, theoretically, evolved from the working class, since there are mechanical sounds coming from the underworld. They are terrifying, the Eloi fear them and the Time Traveler fears them just as much. But they appear to be more intelligent than the Eloi, since they are surrounded by machines. Although, they are cannibals, they resorted to feeding off the Eloi once their food supply ran out.

Personally, I found this book to be extraordinarily strange and almost depressing. The thought that humanity would evolve to either gorgeous and stupid (aka all dumb blonds) or horrendous, intelligent and carnivorous, its all kinda depressing. Humanity will progressively lose everything that makes us human, our compassion matched by our hatred, our love and passion for the arts (like a language, or knowledge of history), and our comprehensive thinking. Also our non-cannibalistic diet, kinda important to the whole human aspect. What do you think is the most important aspect of humanity? Is it our intelligence? Our way of connecting with others? Or the fact we don’t eat each other? Do you think that humanity will evolve into something similar to the setting portrayed in The Time Machine? Is that future better than the one we currently live in? Let me know what you think, because I honestly have no clue.

 

Solitude vs. Teamwork: A Readers Response to Into Thin Air

For those of you who don’t know, Into Thin Air is the personal account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest by the acclaimed Outside journalist and author of Into the Wild (Yes, I know, this made me hesitant at first). Jon Krakauer takes the reader step by step from Katmandu to the Everest’ deadly peak, and beyond the terrors of this account, he also peers deeply into the relationship between the guide, the clients, and the world’s tallest mountain. He knows how important it is for teammates to support, assist and trust one another. The reader is also questioning Rob Hall’s (the guide) leadership abilities and the team’s ability to unify since they are already aware of what happened that year. The 1996 Mount Everest disaster occurred from 10–11 May 1996, when eight people caught in a blizzard died on Mount Everest during attempts to ascend or, having achieved their goal, descend from the summit.

What I decided to explore in this blog post is Beck Weather’s role as an unlikely hero, and his experience with struggle of balancing your own safety and the safety of your fellow climbers. His strength and emergence as a hero can be attributed to one defining moment on the mountain. When Beck ultimately defies the odds and survives the most unforgiving of circumstances, he claims, “Finally I woke up enough to recognize that I was in deep shit and the cavalry wasn’t coming so I better do something about it myself.” First of all, when Beck is climbing Everest with Rob Hall’s team, he exhibits more and more character. One of the more gut-wrenching aspects of the story is Weathers’ blindness that sets in the higher he climbs. Rob urges Beck to sit and wait for another guide if he wishes to summit Everest. True to his word, Weathers sits and waits for hours, until Krakauer eventually stumbles upon him. However, after waiting hours, Beck finally gets help down the mountain and joins the group that gets lost. This is ultimately where the theme of teamwork vs. solitude comes into play. While Beck and another climber (Japanese woman named Yasuko Namba) lie half-frozen to death in the snow, a rescue team luckily finds them, but to the reader’s dismay and disbelief, the team thinks Weathers and Namba are beyond saving. For the second time, Beck is left alone and his fellow climbers have abandoned him. His fate was literally in the hands of those rescuers, yet he somehow draws the strength to regain consciousness and single-handedly finds and gets himself to Camp Four. For the third time, Beck is left for dead when his teammates try to warm him up (as he is severely frostbitten), but leave him because they believe that he won’t make it through the night. Again, Beck defies the odds alone and survives the night. He eventually makes it to base camp, where he is treated for the worst case of frostbite they’ve ever seen.

Beck is the only climber who relies on his team members but survives despite their failure. I was wondering what you all would do if you were in the position of either Beck, or one of the rescuers/fellow climbers? What are your thoughts on the role of a guide/leader and a client? Solitude vs. Teamwork? Everest mentality in general?

 

Does Abortion Lead to Less Crime?: A Reader’s Response to Freakonomics

John Levitt, an Economics professor at the University of Chicago, proposed an interesting theory in one of his research papers: Abortion lowers crime rate. The theory revolved around the idea that unwanted kids did not receive good parenting and therefore were more likely to become criminals later in life. If this idea was proved to be true, then naturally abortion would lead to lower crime. There was a lot of evidence that proved that abortion could lead to less crime. For example, 5 states legalized abortion before Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that legalized abortion. Every one of these states saw a reduction in crime. Also, in Romania abortion was outlawed, and the country saw an immediate increase in crime. On the surface, it seems like all of this evidence would support Levitt’s theory. However, some people raised the question, “Was it just coincidental, and was abortion the main cause of reduced crime?” One of the arguments of the opponents of Levitt’s theory has to do with the crack cocaine industry. Around the same time that abortion was legalized, the U.S. saw a massive increase in the use of crack cocaine. In response to this, police efforts were increased and crime fell. Many call this “the boomerang effect”. Crime had risen so drastically because of crack cocaine, that it had nowhere to go but down, which happened to be around the same time that abortion became popular. So my question is based on your experience and knowledge, do you think abortion would contribute to a decrease in crime?

 

An Exploration of Conflict: A Reader’s Response to Go Set a Watchman

While perusing through my past blog posts, I noticed that I always have talked about either different characters or certain parts of the plot that I can draw connections to. Often, I have found that these types of posts are the easiest to do. However, since this is my last blog post, I have decided to go outside the box a bit and do something that I have never done: an exploration of conflict for Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman.

We all might be familiar with the types of conflict that exist, but just to set the basis for my exploration, I am going to list them out: Man vs. Himself, Man vs. Nature, and Man vs. Society. In my opinion, Man vs. Society is the most common as it can involve not just one man against a whole group, but also one man against another or even one man against obstacles created by others. This type of conflict is represented in novels such as Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and the prequel to Go Set a Watchman: America’s beloved To Kill a Mockingbird. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is basically up against an entire jury and town that he knows will not listen to him as he tries to prove that the Tom Robinson (an African American) was not guilty of rape. The second most common type of conflict in my opinion (at least based on fame) is Man vs. Nature. We tend to see this type of theme in every single one of Jack London’s books, as some man tries to escape the dangers present in the state of Alaska and its wilderness.

Finally, the last common type of conflict is Man vs. Himself. I’m not going to say that these types of books aren’t popular; however, I know for a fact that they are extremely polarizing. The books that I can think of off the top of my head are Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, and Lee’s Go Set a Watchman. While I was a fan of Catcher, I know for a fact that it did not sit well with plenty of students. I am most definitely a critic of Kafka’s novel and know for a fact that criticism was high in my 10^th grade English class for it. Regarding Go Set a Watchman, I think that because my expectations were so high based off of the suspense and action in the prequel, they fell pretty flat in comparison. The novel was not “bad”; however, it was just about Jean Louise (known more popularly as Scout) and how she was dealing with the fact that Atticus might or might not be racist. The problem was that the entire novel contained WAY too much conversation, and I felt that a lot of it was not needed, especially the incessant flashbacks in Scout’s mind that had nothing to do with the novel as a whole. The reason why I liked Catcher (an others did not) is because of the heavy sarcasm, humor and annoyed, teenage tone of Holden throughout the novel. While Go Set a Watchman had a bit of humor, it contained many historical and serious passages that had me wanting to get through the book quicker than I intended. This experience of mine led me to a few questions. Do you all feel that Man vs. Himself books are generally less enjoyable? If not, then what do you like about them? Do you think that there is some merit associated with this type of writing? Let me know!

 

Elizabeth’s Readers Response to The Originals (nonfiction)

I’ve always wanted to read one of those self-help books. Not the weird ones about how to raise a normal child or how to maintain a healthy weight. The ones that sit on my parent’s bookshelves that I never actually see them read. The ones about leadership and being a business executive. I’ve always thought that, if it were really that simple to just read a book and have all the wonderful knowledge and experience of business executive, why isn’t everyone filthy rich? “Originals”, by Adam Grant, is curious because it addresses just that: the phenomenon behind being average. The cover is what initially drew my attention, but upon further review I thought it could be kind of a fun quick read. I was right. I just ATE up the information in the first three or four chapters. I stayed up until 1 AM last Saturday because I couldn’t put it down. Essentially, the book’s message comes across through a series of real life stories about modern day business leaders that challenged the status quo. One of the first stories was about the founders of Warby Parker, the very popular one for one eyeglasses online store. I call them “Apple” stories because they all seem to echo the same plot of a group of young (typically men) having an “AH-HA!” moment about something so simple that changes the way the world works forevermore. Amazon, Apple, Warby Parker, etc. But I find the fundamental point of the book fascinating; we so often settle for mediocrity because it never even occurs to challenge an accepted practice, or something that has been done the same seemingly fine way for years. It talks about the number of business people in a work place who have an idea but never voice it. And how the people that do voice there ideas are the ones that go down in history. Where does this fear come from? I think it’s scary to be an entrepreneur because there is always the fear of failure, but if it can be overcome magic happens. I found myself frequently (while reading this book) writing down lists of things I’d like to change if I “could.” But then I thought – I can change it. There’s nothing that says you can’t voice your idea. In fact, Adam Grant tells the readers about a CEO who fires employees for not challenging his ideas. I think that’s the way the world should operate. Education would change, the pace at which new ideas were pushed out of companies and think tanks and schools would increase greatly. I know this wasn’t a normal “literary” book, however I think it served a similar purpose as a literary book. It made me view the world a little differently, and I examined my behavior differently after reading it… Which I think is the shared purpose of all literature.

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A Reader’s Response to After You from Annie Battle

It seems like every book that I’ve read in my life has been about true love. Love is such a universal topic that everybody thinks about. Characters in Shakespeare, for example, always find their one true love. Nicholas Sparks books are all about finding your soulmate. Well, Me Before You introduced Louisa Clark’s soulmate, Will Traynor, but Will died at the beginning of their relationship. In this book, we saw their true love and how pure and real it was. It was a typical love story (which I loved by the way) where a boy and a girl are clearly meant to be. Well the sequel, After You introduces a new love interest for Louisa. After such a fulfilling relationship with Will, it was hard for me to like this new interest, Sam. I wanted Louisa to be happy again, but even I felt as though she was cheating on Will. I guess my question is, do you think every person has one soul mate, and is it possible to have the passion that Will and Louisa had with more than one person? So many people get divorced and remarried, but do they have the same feeling they did before? Also, in Louisa’s case, her love was perfect, but illness got in the way. Do you think it’s possible for her to feel the same way as she did with Will? One example of someone finding their soulmate is the Notebook. Allie and Noah has such true and pure love, but Allie was able to find happiness with another man. She truly would have had a great life without Noah, but their love brought them back together. Is this idea of love realistic, or is it a romanticized view in which author’s like to taunt us with unrealistic ideas? After You introduces this new character, Sam, who we like, but not as much Will. Again, do y’all think it’s possible to have the same love for two different people, or that everybody has one true soulmate?

 

Drugs N’ Transcendence – A reader’s response to The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

It’s a good thing I have had a decent amount of down time with my recent surgery so I could have time to interpret this trippy piece of literature. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a book that basically follows the life of a man who started a movement on drugs to try to transcend reality. The main character, Ken Kesey, was an esteemed author for his book One Flew Over the Cuckhoo’s Nest and he was able to use his success to start a cult that aimed to transcend reality and divulge into a world of LSD. During his time at Stanford Ken Kesey was recruited to be in an experiment where the test subjects took a new drug called LSD (also known as acid). Ken Kesey’s experience with the drug lead him to believe that the visions he had weren’t just a high, but instead revealed a sacred part of life that he believed should be embraced by everyone. Because the drug had not been explored very much at the time he got into it, people were not aware of the dangers of the drug and it wasn’t illegal yet. His movement began with a few dedicated followers called the “Merry Pranksters” and they assisted him in spreading the word advocating the transcending benefits the drug offered to the conscious. The followers he gained epitomize the hippie trippy motif of the 1960’s. If your thinking to yourself that this sounds ridiculous it’s because you are spot on. I am still in disbelief that there was actually a cult formed by legally consuming butt-loads of hallucinogens. The lingo in this piece of literature is just what you’d expect to find in a room full of tripping tie-dye wearing free spirits. The irony of this book (SPOILER ALERT) is that Ken Kesey’s movement was brought to a halt because of heavy marijuana possession charges. Nowadays states are pushing for the legalization of weed and you don’t seem too many people pushing for legislation on the legalization of acid. I enjoyed reading this book because it was actually pretty funny reading through all the ridiculous experiences these flower children had while high as hell on acid. Also, in the end (SPOILER ALERT) it almost turns into an investigative piece of literature as you see the downfall of Kesey’s movement as his group of followers disband because Kesey’s lawyers keep him from supporting LSD in court in order to get his possession charges dropped. As a result many of his followers endured jail time and soon gave up hope that the rest of the country would embrace acid. What I really have ahard time believeing is that plenty of our grandparents and aunts/uncles lived through this generation and more than likely some of them took part in movements such as these. Kesey’s faction strongly resembles that of The Grateful Dead because both promoted the use of hallucinogens and claimed their ability to transcend reality and meet higher spiritual beings. Bottom line, this book was ridiculous in an entertaining and funny way so I might recommend it to a hippy or someone who might not know why the 1960’s beatniks earned the title of flower children.