I'm not interested

       Some people go into the woods to discover what they really want to do in life, to find their true passion, if you will. I have found that for me, learning about myself simply requires reading about one of these adventure.
       I am currently reading the book Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer, which is a riveting story in which Chris McCandless A.K.A Aleander Supertramp, walks into the wild and dies, after touching the hearts of all who he hitchhiked. As not too much is known about Chris' death, the story is mostly about what Krakauer learned while talking to those who knew Chris. From what Krakauer describes, it seems that Chris was trying to get interested in life. From this I learned one thing:
       I am not interested in much. The entire story revolves around what Chris was interested in, and I found I was interested in nothing. Well, not nothing, I like baseball, skateboarding, and cooking, but I don't get season tickets, or practice every day, or learn to techniques. I'm just not one who gets amazingly enthusiastic about things. I am a drifter in life. I find little things in life that I like, and then throw them away, like a action figure under the tree on Christmas. And you know what?
     I am perfectly okay with that.

When you're running with scissors, you're bound to fall

I am reading a captivating book called running with scissors by Augusten Burroughs, and though this book is captivating, at most points I find myself repelled by the story line to an extent only thought possible by sleeping on a mound of dead bodies. For instance, at one point in the book, Augusten (the book is a memoir) is just walking home from school, when he opens up his door and low and behold, his mother is having sexual intercourse with another woman. An average day. I feel repelled by this not because that well, it actually happened to him, but because he glances at them and then says "can I borrow five bucks mom?" just the calm composure he keeps disgusts me a little, and I had to put the book down for a day, but I soon realized as repelling as it may be, the book is amazing, so I am back to reading it happily. It seems that every paragraph a new thing comes up, that either disgusts me, or makes me wonder how this boy lived his life so well. One point, Augusten is just sitting around in a doctors house, a doctor who is treating his mom because his mom is declared crazy, and the doctor's daughters just decide to hook each other up to  a shock therapy machine, they fry their brains, yell at Augusten, and then shock their dog to death. I can't bear the thought of this happening to an innocent dog, is just bad. Plain bad. The casualness of which all these events happen, and then the fact that it's a memoir, just repels me. I think I am repelled by it because of how unfamiliar all this is. I myself could never kill my dog, I love her to much. Oh by the way, Augusten's mom is not lesbian. She's married.

If I was a hero, I would sit down and cry

       In almost every book I have ever read, there is a hero. A person who solves the problem, either in a little way by picking up litter on the freeway, or in the book I am reading, the hunger games, saving someones life by beating up bad guys. Go Peeta. And after thinking about it, I realize that being a hero sucks. Every community has a hero, a person who sits on their stoop, and stares down teenagers, and these people are great. But they come at a price.
       Hero's have to give up their own lives, their own desires, to protect and serve us, the people. These people make sure justice is served, again, in little or big ways. In the hunger games, Katniss and Gale risk their lives hunting in the forest, so the people of their town can eat.  It is a true show of devotion, acts like this, and people like this, people who are heroes, are becoming scarce. Because people in society have become selfish. Selfish and scared. People only care about what directly affects themselves, and don't really give a crap about starving children in Africa, or even say the mentally challenged kid in their neighborhood. No, people are no longer truly heroes, and when a person comes along who is willing to help, they are usually cast away as a freak or an outcast. They are shunned because their actions are misinterpreted as prying, or just outright bad.
       Sooner or later, we all die, and we give up the chance to help. We give up the chance to go down in the history books as a good guy. And some people are okay with that. I am not saying that I am a hero, I am not. I simply hope people will read this and think, maybe I should. Maybe I should be a good guy. A hero.

It's a hard life

The book I am reading currently is called extremely loud and incredibly close, by Jonathan Safron Foer. The book, being about a child with autism who goes on a search for the answer to a clue left by his dad who was trapped in the second tower when the two towers fell on 9/11, is full of hard social issues. Death is a huge issue in the book. Not only does Oskar, the main character, experiance his dad dying on 9/11, but the whole thing for him is that throughout the book, Oskar meets new people who help him momentarily on his quest to solve his dads last puzzle, but then pass away. Jonathan Safron Foer almost says, what is the point of meeting new people, and forming bonds, they al just leave or die eventually. This is true, but some people say you have to remember the good times, and I agree. The point of meeting people is not to feel pain, but to feel glee, but the book really talks strongly on the subject. Another huge issue is trust. Paranoia and rumors plague Oskar throughout the book, steering him away from the truth. You can't just trust everyone, the book says, think about who you believe, and it's true. In society, you can't just believe everything you hear, you have to establish trust in people, and it is hard to trust just the right amount of people, you always trust to much, or to little, and that is why the world is not perfect. Because perfection can only be achieved through perfect ideals, and society will always fall short. But thats what makes it so beautiful. The issues it has. Imperfection is it's own kind of perfect.

Mr. C.S. Lewis, the genius, Christian man.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is without a doubt, one of the best pieces of writing ever written. It is creative, thought provoking, and all around great book. People who have read it once will realize the amazing work they have read, and will stand humble in its greatness. I, now having read it twice, stand humble in even more  greatness, as I have done some research into the life of C.S., and came up with some very interesting things.
             Narnia is this crazy imaginative world, right? And it must have taken ages to create such a well thought out world of wonder. Well, it did, but it's not what you expect. When C.S. was 11, he spent almost the entire year up in his attic, creating a world of boxes called, Boxen. C.S. said himself that this was where most of Narnia came from.
                Have you ever noticed how Narnia has no adults except for a crazy professor? When C.S. was 9, his mother died, leaving him to the care of his careless father. You can see how he might have found it hard to put adults into the book.
                I personally feel that the most interesting thing I learned about C.S., is that he is a devout Christian worshiper. At first, this added nothing to the story for me, but later I did a little more research, and found out that in olde' Christian times, every animal meant something. I carefully examined each animal, and found that Lions were the symbol for royalty and wisdom, so Aslan was a perfect match. Beavers were the symbol for helpfulness and kindness. And woman are a symbol of temptation and lust, and that added a whole new meaning to the turkish delight chapter. Researching the author is a great way to give new meaning to an already great book, and I encourage you to try it out.

In a nutshell

Okay, on friday, I was really sick, strep throat or something bad. Any way, I called Eamon for the H.W. and he told me we needed to do an entry, and it is on something like archetypes, I hope, so here goes nothing. I feel the archetypes in Charlottes Web are a strong bunch of, well, they're a strong bunch. Wilbur is up first. wilbur is our hero, our main man, the protagonist in our dark, yet so wise children's book. He is aided on his quest of sitting on manure and eating slop, by Charlotte the spider. She is Wilbur's mentor, not only because she literally teaches him new words, but because she has that mentor like feel, wise and soon to die, she is not afraid for herself, but for Wilbur. Charlotte is not only the mentor in the story, she is also the motherly figure. She is always by Wilbur's side when the mean old goat insults. She loves him, and sets limits on what he does, and how he does it. Templeton, my favorite character in the book, I feel, is the guy who shows wilbur, that there are greedy, mean, selfish people out there in the world, and shows him how to deal with them (though certainly not intentionally). Fern is that kind of character, I'm sure it as a name, who is there in the first part of the story, but sort of fades away after his/her big deed is done, such as saving the hero, or sending him/her on their quest. Guess who I think the bad guy is. Death. Death is what Charlotte is trying to save Wilbur from, death is the big hill in the quest, which Wilbur must climb, death is the bad guy. And that is what I have discovered makes Charlottes web so amazing. Death in his first lead.

we're all a family

Charlotte's web is a very peculiar yet wonderful book. They're are so many themes and amazing bits of writers craft that it is hard to pick just one, but I think I have decided on the write one for this entry. I am almost done with the book and I had this odd thought come over me. Family. At first I wondered what this thought meant so I connected some annotations, and then it came to me. Every single animal on Mr. Zuckermans farm, from pig to spider, goose to rat. It was amazing when this thought came to me, so I made a little chart, and I came up with this I guess you could say, family tree. Wilbur and Charlotte are one family,  Wilbur is the son and Charlotte, the single mother. The Goose, Gander, and seven baby geese are, let's say, Charlotte's sister and brother in law, and the baby geese are Wilbur's cousins. The Goat is the single uncle, who is harsh on everyone, because he is old and unhappy. The Lambs are the sort of almost forgotten family members, who are just there, but scarcely talk. And then the wonderfully rude and self centered rat, Templeton is the strange friend of the family, who just shows up for a holiday dinner sometimes. It may seem irrelevant to the story, but after I looked at the barn this way, it just seems so snug and friendly, and great. It makes me sad when I think Charlotte's gonna die, because I know from experience that it takes a lot out of a family, when someone in it dies. It is a little bit different because I don't know any humans who give birth to hundreds of babies after they die, but still, death. Good luck to the Zuckerman Barn family. Many happy returns.

Innocence is Children

We all know that Charolettes Web is a wonderful story, about a pig named Wilbur, and a spider named Charolette. In it, I found a chapter (11 I think) in which Fern and her brother play in uncle Homers barn all day. They swing on a rope swing for countless hours, just enjoying life. At first, I thought the chapter was just about them breaking the gooses' rotten egg, which saves Charolette, but after looking over my annotations and the chapter its self, I found it was about something more. The innocence of children. This beautiful chapter I feel does nothing to push the story along, but shows how wonderful it is to be a kid. It made me, a 13 year old, wish I was 8, and could relive those days in which homework was drawing pictures, and school had free time and nap time. I would kill, well no not really, for nap time in middle school. How beautiful farm life must be at a young age, how innocent a child flying on a swing must look to an adult. I feel this chapter splits Charolettes web into two books. Charolettes web, and the book I call, "Boy I wish my childhood was that good". Intentional or not, this chapter is the best part of the book for me.