For J Horror I decided to read Lullaby, while I was reading it I really didn’t understand how it would relate to this weeks topic. But after the discussion in class I’m able to relate it.
I got a great sense of isolation from this genre, which Chuck Palahniuk captures beautifully in Lullaby. Every character in this book has been isolated from the world, especially the two biggest characters in this book, which is Helen and Streator. They both lost their family’s through the lullaby and are just trying to live on. Both live by themselves, don’t have any friends because they hate almost everyone they know. And of course they fall in love with each other, that kind of satisfies some of the loneliness in their lives, but even together they are a very isolated couple. And its not like they have the ability to have kids or anything since Helen turns into a man in the end.
Then there’s Mona and her boyfriend, who are isolated by their views of the world, especially in the end when they get the book they become Jesus and May, trying to make the world a better place in their own weird ways. There are a whole bunch of other characters in there that I can discuss, like the guy Streator gets tips from, and his boss, whom he kills with the culling song, but I could go on forever about that. That’s why I love this book though, because it was planned out in all of its finest detail. Every single character is so well rounded and has its own story. I could imagine their faces and the way they talked and acted.
Its a very dark book, like most of Palahniuk’s books, but he’s able to turns it into a satire. Yet it still poses a lot of stuff to think about, it makes you question humanity and the way everything is today because Palahniuk just makes fun of everything and everyone. Makes them seem stupid and makes the reader not want to be one of those people.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
A Clockwork Orange
One of my favorite parts in this book is the language, I had to reread some of the beginning to understand it, but I got the just of it. The book is filled with so much violence, yet it’s almost sugar coated with this playful slang. Which, for some reason,
makes it even worse, yet easier to take it all in.
As I already mentioned, there’s a lot of violence in this book, but it’s never explained why, there’s no reason for the violence. Is it just a way to pass time? It’s probably more the thrill that the protagonist gets from bloody violence that is the motivation to for all of it. I’m not sure if all his droogies feel the same way about it though, it feels more like they like the power side of it, that becomes clear after Dim and George make it clear that they are dissatisfied with Alex being the leader of the group, also, Dim and George become policemen whom have more authority and power. So they probably liked that aspect from it. Then there’s Pete, who would be most like Alex, even though he’s not as violent, there still is no real reason for the violence he commits, and in the end of the book, he and Alex leave their violent past behind and become active members of society.
Then there’s the chaplain. who poses the question of what good really is. If a man chooses to be bad better then a man who is forced to be good. Which is exactly what happens to the protagonist, at first he is forced to be good because of the Ludovico program, he can’t even enjoy his favorite type of music anymore and that drives him to try and commit suicide, but then when he turns normal again and meets his old friend Pete, he decides he wants to follow his role and change his life around.
There isn’t a book like A clockwork anywhere, it took me a while to get the used to the slang, but it just added to the whole experience. It raised more questions then I could talk about in this review, like where to draw the line for violence, what to do with someone who is just a bad person and if forcing him to be good would be a good idea or not.
makes it even worse, yet easier to take it all in.
As I already mentioned, there’s a lot of violence in this book, but it’s never explained why, there’s no reason for the violence. Is it just a way to pass time? It’s probably more the thrill that the protagonist gets from bloody violence that is the motivation to for all of it. I’m not sure if all his droogies feel the same way about it though, it feels more like they like the power side of it, that becomes clear after Dim and George make it clear that they are dissatisfied with Alex being the leader of the group, also, Dim and George become policemen whom have more authority and power. So they probably liked that aspect from it. Then there’s Pete, who would be most like Alex, even though he’s not as violent, there still is no real reason for the violence he commits, and in the end of the book, he and Alex leave their violent past behind and become active members of society.
Then there’s the chaplain. who poses the question of what good really is. If a man chooses to be bad better then a man who is forced to be good. Which is exactly what happens to the protagonist, at first he is forced to be good because of the Ludovico program, he can’t even enjoy his favorite type of music anymore and that drives him to try and commit suicide, but then when he turns normal again and meets his old friend Pete, he decides he wants to follow his role and change his life around.
There isn’t a book like A clockwork anywhere, it took me a while to get the used to the slang, but it just added to the whole experience. It raised more questions then I could talk about in this review, like where to draw the line for violence, what to do with someone who is just a bad person and if forcing him to be good would be a good idea or not.
My future?
’s the beginning of 2029. I’m 39, and my car won’t start. My old little Volkswagen that I have had for quite some time now. Because I refuse to buy any other car. I’m a respected freelance illustrator. I have lived all over the place but decided at age 30 to settle down and live with my husband. I have two kids and we live in a cottage my husband built, completely sustaining ourselves on our own terms. For entertainment I read, crochet and paint, probably listen to music and watch a movie once in a while.
Now It’s 2050, I’m living in the south of franc with my husband that is hopefully still alive and hasn’t left me yet. I’m a very traditional old lady, complaining about all the new technology, I’m still doing all my paintings in oils and because of that I’m kind of crazy.
My life partner will yell at me to make him a sandwich, and I’ll yell back at him to make his own sandwich. By now I have had to buy another car because my Volkswagen has probably exploded. But I still would have bought another Volkswagen. My past time would be gardening and hopefully I will have enough money by now that I don’t have to be a full time illustrator. I’d still be working but not as hard as when I was 30.
By 2100 I’ll probably be dead, my kids will be very old, and my grandchildren (if any) will be doomed. Unless people start changing their habits now which is probably never going to happen the world will be over populated, everything is industrial, there are so many toxins in the air people have to wear gasmasks. There is trash everywhere, landfills are overfilled, because of all the landfills all the earth is polluted so that it is really difficult to grow anything anymore.
Now It’s 2050, I’m living in the south of franc with my husband that is hopefully still alive and hasn’t left me yet. I’m a very traditional old lady, complaining about all the new technology, I’m still doing all my paintings in oils and because of that I’m kind of crazy.
My life partner will yell at me to make him a sandwich, and I’ll yell back at him to make his own sandwich. By now I have had to buy another car because my Volkswagen has probably exploded. But I still would have bought another Volkswagen. My past time would be gardening and hopefully I will have enough money by now that I don’t have to be a full time illustrator. I’d still be working but not as hard as when I was 30.
By 2100 I’ll probably be dead, my kids will be very old, and my grandchildren (if any) will be doomed. Unless people start changing their habits now which is probably never going to happen the world will be over populated, everything is industrial, there are so many toxins in the air people have to wear gasmasks. There is trash everywhere, landfills are overfilled, because of all the landfills all the earth is polluted so that it is really difficult to grow anything anymore.
The Glass Slip-Up
This story is a very interesting take on Cinderella. You can tell that this story is written a later, and not a tale told from generation to generation. It really doesn’t have that old feel to it. It’s more modern.
It’s written from the prince’s point of view, after they got married and he actually got to know Cinderella. It’s a very interesting take on the story because the prince doesn’t really converse with Cinderella all to much before they get married. So he didn’t get to know her, he just knew she’s pretty.
Even as the reader you only get Cinderella’s viewpoint of things, you don’t really know why her stepmother locked her up. The author did a good job with noticing that.
I started relating this story to the Shrek movies, since both do have much in common, they’re more realistic then the original story’s, like the fairy godmother in both of them are very sneaky, selfish individuals and the princesses that are beautiful are stupid.
The Glass-slip up was enjoyable, I liked the take on the tale and the unexpected ending. It amused me.
It’s written from the prince’s point of view, after they got married and he actually got to know Cinderella. It’s a very interesting take on the story because the prince doesn’t really converse with Cinderella all to much before they get married. So he didn’t get to know her, he just knew she’s pretty.
Even as the reader you only get Cinderella’s viewpoint of things, you don’t really know why her stepmother locked her up. The author did a good job with noticing that.
I started relating this story to the Shrek movies, since both do have much in common, they’re more realistic then the original story’s, like the fairy godmother in both of them are very sneaky, selfish individuals and the princesses that are beautiful are stupid.
The Glass-slip up was enjoyable, I liked the take on the tale and the unexpected ending. It amused me.
Solaris
Solaris, a very interesting novel. It’s only 172 pages long, yet it takes forever to read.
It’s one of those novels that are really hard to get into. When I first started reading it, it seemed really boring. And I didn’t even know what was going on.
After a while though, when the plot starts to unravel it gets more interesting.
In the first quarter of the book it seemed that this story was going to lean more towards a horror sci-fi novel. It really scared the crap out of me. You have the main character, Kelvin, who goes to this planet, Solaris. And the first thing he notices that one of his co- workers committed suicide on the station. The way everything is described just gave the story a really creepy setting. Then you get the unknown visitors, that come out of nowhere and you don’t even know who or what they are.
Then on top of that, when Kelvin reads the books about Solaris and it talks about all the strange appearances in the ocean.
After Kelvin’s stranger “Rheya” tries to commit suicide the story turns into that of musing on human nature, and life itself. The fact that “Rheya” who is technically an alien being, acts and thinks like a human, she is also convinced she’s a human, but has some inhuman characteristics. The book gives some hints of this when it seems she killed herself, but her body healed all the way. And when she rips of a locked metal door off its hinges to get to Kelvin. It raises some questions like what really makes us human?
The only downside of the book was all the scientific language when Kelvin was researching Solaris. I had no clue what was being talked about. And towards the end I just skipped some of it. I just couldn’t get through it because my vocabulary isn’t that broad.
For the rest though, Solaris is a good book, even though it was hard to read, I didn’t want to stop reading it because it was so interesting.
It’s one of those novels that are really hard to get into. When I first started reading it, it seemed really boring. And I didn’t even know what was going on.
After a while though, when the plot starts to unravel it gets more interesting.
In the first quarter of the book it seemed that this story was going to lean more towards a horror sci-fi novel. It really scared the crap out of me. You have the main character, Kelvin, who goes to this planet, Solaris. And the first thing he notices that one of his co- workers committed suicide on the station. The way everything is described just gave the story a really creepy setting. Then you get the unknown visitors, that come out of nowhere and you don’t even know who or what they are.
Then on top of that, when Kelvin reads the books about Solaris and it talks about all the strange appearances in the ocean.
After Kelvin’s stranger “Rheya” tries to commit suicide the story turns into that of musing on human nature, and life itself. The fact that “Rheya” who is technically an alien being, acts and thinks like a human, she is also convinced she’s a human, but has some inhuman characteristics. The book gives some hints of this when it seems she killed herself, but her body healed all the way. And when she rips of a locked metal door off its hinges to get to Kelvin. It raises some questions like what really makes us human?
The only downside of the book was all the scientific language when Kelvin was researching Solaris. I had no clue what was being talked about. And towards the end I just skipped some of it. I just couldn’t get through it because my vocabulary isn’t that broad.
For the rest though, Solaris is a good book, even though it was hard to read, I didn’t want to stop reading it because it was so interesting.
A Scanner Darkly
In this book Phillip K. Dick really captures the world of druggies, there are many themes in this novel that closely relate to that. Big ongoing themes in the story are paranoia, the confusion of reality and fantasy and conspiracies.
There is a lot of blurriness in this novel, I found myself vaguely confuses at some times which is probably what the author tried to do. It was just the way it was written that made the book seem like one big blur, which helped me relate to the protagonist, especially towards the end of the book, he became very confused to what was real or not, because of his drug use. And in the beginning, when Jerry thinks there are bugs everywhere. When in reality there are no bugs at all and his brain just made them up.
Also all the strange theories they come up with (which are all crap) and they think all of it’s true.
Another big theme in this book, and a trademark of Philip K. Dick is paranoia, which really comes together with the blurriness and confusion, because if you don’t know what’s going on, you get paranoid and think everything is out to get you. Everyone in this book has that way of thinking. And you start to to, because you don’t really know who is who anymore. I got that since the beginning of the story, but it got worse towards the end. Especially when the protagonists two roles come apart and he can’t tell them apart anymore. And the fact that the protagonist has three different names throughout the book doesn’t really help the confusion either.
It was a good book, for the first time I liked the confusion and vagueness, it really went well with the story and the themes also really interested me.
There is a lot of blurriness in this novel, I found myself vaguely confuses at some times which is probably what the author tried to do. It was just the way it was written that made the book seem like one big blur, which helped me relate to the protagonist, especially towards the end of the book, he became very confused to what was real or not, because of his drug use. And in the beginning, when Jerry thinks there are bugs everywhere. When in reality there are no bugs at all and his brain just made them up.
Also all the strange theories they come up with (which are all crap) and they think all of it’s true.
Another big theme in this book, and a trademark of Philip K. Dick is paranoia, which really comes together with the blurriness and confusion, because if you don’t know what’s going on, you get paranoid and think everything is out to get you. Everyone in this book has that way of thinking. And you start to to, because you don’t really know who is who anymore. I got that since the beginning of the story, but it got worse towards the end. Especially when the protagonists two roles come apart and he can’t tell them apart anymore. And the fact that the protagonist has three different names throughout the book doesn’t really help the confusion either.
It was a good book, for the first time I liked the confusion and vagueness, it really went well with the story and the themes also really interested me.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Phillip K. Dick
It seems that the author likes to write about normal people, and put them in strange situations. He doesn’t really pay attention to really develop his characters though. You don’t know a lot about them or their backgrounds. You just kind of get thrown into the story, which confused me in the beginning because I had no idea of what was going on.
The writing actually feels very realistic due to the fact that he puts these normal everyday people in these realistic futures. For example, the story I read was about the machine operated factory’s that were taking over the world. It was a very long story so I wasn’t able to read all of it. I was only 5 pages away from finishing it though.
But anyways,
the reason it seems like it could actually happen is because the author uses actual machinery from today. He just technically advances it a bit more so that its futuristic. And when we talked about his different stories, it seemed to me that the recurring underlying theme is that everything is out to get the main persona. Which makes sense, because the author is quite paranoid. That’s pretty much what I got from this tale. And I do find his writing quite interesting, its not to hard to read, yet it gets confusing at times. I’m thinking of reading a scanner darkly. I have watched the movie, but didn’t really pay attention to it, sooo that will probably be the next novel I’ll read.
The writing actually feels very realistic due to the fact that he puts these normal everyday people in these realistic futures. For example, the story I read was about the machine operated factory’s that were taking over the world. It was a very long story so I wasn’t able to read all of it. I was only 5 pages away from finishing it though.
But anyways,
the reason it seems like it could actually happen is because the author uses actual machinery from today. He just technically advances it a bit more so that its futuristic. And when we talked about his different stories, it seemed to me that the recurring underlying theme is that everything is out to get the main persona. Which makes sense, because the author is quite paranoid. That’s pretty much what I got from this tale. And I do find his writing quite interesting, its not to hard to read, yet it gets confusing at times. I’m thinking of reading a scanner darkly. I have watched the movie, but didn’t really pay attention to it, sooo that will probably be the next novel I’ll read.
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