Ray Bradbury is an extraordinary writer. He has such passion for what he does and you can see it in his works of literature. His passion and drive to want to write these amazing pieces of work shine through when you read them. Even when he speaks you can feel it.
Listening to the interviews of Ray Bradbury made me truly understand his passion for his stories. He grew up loving cartoons and fiction. This is what made him the amazing writer that he is. When i first picked up Fahrenheit 451, i wasnt really interested in it. I didnt think i would want to read the book at all, considering im not really into fiction. I ended up really liking the book, and listening to the interviews gave me the rest of story behind the purpose of writing the book.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
Fahrenheit 451
To not know your own history, to not be able to understand the past, to be cluless about the decades and centuries before your time would be uncomprehensible. Thinking about it from this time period, if i did not know my past how would i know anything. I would feel stupid.
Thinking in the perspective of the setting the book is in i would probably feel no shame or harm. I would feel, in a sense, smart considering no one knows anything about the past.
Fahrenheit 451 made me question the existence of our future. Could something like that really happen? As the generations come many things change and maybe, in a way, something like that could possibly happen. The world does evolve and is becoming more and more complex, but with complexity comes the ignorance. Soon enough the younger generations to come could become so ignorant to the past that they would rather burn it than learn it.
Clarisse to me wasnt strange at all. She may have seemed crazy to people like Guy Montag, but in all reality, she wasnt crazy. If she was crazy then how did she manage to make Guy Montag question his career. Instead of crazy i would say intelligent. She knew deep down firemen used to stop fires rather than start them. Everyone just labeled her as crazy because they didnt want their secret out. They didnt want people thinking it was okay to enjoy books.
At the end of the book it says, "the men turn upriver toward the city to help the survivors rebuild from the ashes." These men, "retired" professors and intellectuals, hoped the war would come and basically erase all that anyone knew (which wasnt much considering they burned books) so they could restart and bring books and knowledge back into the world. They wanted to be able to teach and read books, they wanted the world to appreciate its past present and future in no other way than by learning about it.
Thinking in the perspective of the setting the book is in i would probably feel no shame or harm. I would feel, in a sense, smart considering no one knows anything about the past.
Fahrenheit 451 made me question the existence of our future. Could something like that really happen? As the generations come many things change and maybe, in a way, something like that could possibly happen. The world does evolve and is becoming more and more complex, but with complexity comes the ignorance. Soon enough the younger generations to come could become so ignorant to the past that they would rather burn it than learn it.
Clarisse to me wasnt strange at all. She may have seemed crazy to people like Guy Montag, but in all reality, she wasnt crazy. If she was crazy then how did she manage to make Guy Montag question his career. Instead of crazy i would say intelligent. She knew deep down firemen used to stop fires rather than start them. Everyone just labeled her as crazy because they didnt want their secret out. They didnt want people thinking it was okay to enjoy books.
At the end of the book it says, "the men turn upriver toward the city to help the survivors rebuild from the ashes." These men, "retired" professors and intellectuals, hoped the war would come and basically erase all that anyone knew (which wasnt much considering they burned books) so they could restart and bring books and knowledge back into the world. They wanted to be able to teach and read books, they wanted the world to appreciate its past present and future in no other way than by learning about it.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
!!!Star Trek!!!
How cool would it be to be able to beam from one place to another within seconds or to be able to shoot lasers at people instead of guns??? In my personal opinion being able to beam from one place to another would be totally cool. You would really never have to worry about driving anywhere or walking or running, becasue within seconds you could just magically beam yourself there. Trading lasers for guns would be, in a way better, also. First of all, lasers arent as messy because there are no bullet casings to clean up or anything and they are quicker i believe.
Watching the episode of star treck in class made me realize although it may seem like the technology is so advanced from what we have now, it really isnt. Sure we may not be able to beam places, but we do have communicator devices, also known as cellphones, and we do have laser treatments, commonly known as eye surgery. Maybe they arent exactly the same but definate similarities are there. People constantly argue over if technology today is invented from what people see on tv, or if what people see on tv is from something that already exists in a different form. I guess i would have to say that the technology that exists in the world today is a combination of both arguments. Some things may have been invented purley for the reason that some one saw it on tv and decided to become rich and famous from it, and some things may have already been invented and tv made it look cooler without anyone knowing.
Science is a brilliant and complex world of its own. Scientists are majorly important in our world, but also they can be a bit of attention hoggers. I only say this because no matter what they create they make a big deal out of it, Even if it has already existed in a different form. Take cell phones for example, a cell phone today like the iphone came from the telephone that was invented in 1876 i believe. Yet cellphones that have been created recently are looked at and talked upon like they are the greatest things on the planet. I would like to credit scientists on other inventions and discoveries that may never have existed if it weren't for scientists.
I do not know what the future will hold for us, and i do not know of the many inventions that will come. I do believe this universe is capable of creating various types of old and new things and great things will come from it. Anything is possible if you believe, and i think this country in particular believes that more than anyone. I know i do. Scientists will always be one step ahead of everyone even if that means being one step behind.
Watching the episode of star treck in class made me realize although it may seem like the technology is so advanced from what we have now, it really isnt. Sure we may not be able to beam places, but we do have communicator devices, also known as cellphones, and we do have laser treatments, commonly known as eye surgery. Maybe they arent exactly the same but definate similarities are there. People constantly argue over if technology today is invented from what people see on tv, or if what people see on tv is from something that already exists in a different form. I guess i would have to say that the technology that exists in the world today is a combination of both arguments. Some things may have been invented purley for the reason that some one saw it on tv and decided to become rich and famous from it, and some things may have already been invented and tv made it look cooler without anyone knowing.
Science is a brilliant and complex world of its own. Scientists are majorly important in our world, but also they can be a bit of attention hoggers. I only say this because no matter what they create they make a big deal out of it, Even if it has already existed in a different form. Take cell phones for example, a cell phone today like the iphone came from the telephone that was invented in 1876 i believe. Yet cellphones that have been created recently are looked at and talked upon like they are the greatest things on the planet. I would like to credit scientists on other inventions and discoveries that may never have existed if it weren't for scientists.
I do not know what the future will hold for us, and i do not know of the many inventions that will come. I do believe this universe is capable of creating various types of old and new things and great things will come from it. Anything is possible if you believe, and i think this country in particular believes that more than anyone. I know i do. Scientists will always be one step ahead of everyone even if that means being one step behind.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
A Separate Peace
A Separate Peace is one of the more interesting books i have read. Phineas and Gene are best friends who, in a way, live through each other. The way Phineas tries to convince Gene that he will make it to the Olympics in 1944 even though there wont be the Olympics because of the war, because Phineas cant do sports anymore. Gene lets it happen because he thinks he needs to live through Finny because of how he lives his life.
"He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn't stand this . . . Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, and his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud. It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten." When Gene says "It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make." it kind of changed my view of Phineas a little. Throughout the most of the story Gene goes on about how spectacular Finny is and how perfect he is, and now because he made the limb shake he is imperfect. Also i think Gene always thought that Finny was constantly trying to compete with him at everything. But in this quote he says "I was not the same quality as he, I couldn't stand this." i think he realized that Finny never wanted to compete with him or anybody.
Chapter 10, kind of took things to a different objective. Leper was never really in the picture until now. He had really just been in the background. His craziness makes him come out. He says he "escapes" and asks Gene to go to his "Christmas Location", and Gene just drops everything and goes. and to think most of this started because he enlisted. Gene was a good friend for going to see Leper at his home in Vermont, but realized after going for a walk with him that he can't bear to listen to him cry anymore about all his troubles.
As i mentioned the friendship of Finny and Gene before, and about their identity and living through each other. I think Gene feels he needs to live through Finny. After Finny's accident Gene starts trying on his clothes and trying to act like him. Because in the first part of the story Gene almost resents Finny because he is so good at sports and his talent for being able to talk his way out of trouble. The two boys start depending on each other more and more. Finny using Gene to live his dream of sports and Gene using Finny to be somebody he wanted to be instead of who he was. This book shows that well and i liked it.
"He had never been jealous of me for a second. Now I knew that there never was and never could have been any rivalry between us. I was not of the same quality as he. I couldn't stand this . . . Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him, and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, and his balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled sideways, broke through the little branches below and hit the bank with a sickening, unnatural thud. It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped into the river, every trace of my fear of this forgotten." When Gene says "It was the first clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make." it kind of changed my view of Phineas a little. Throughout the most of the story Gene goes on about how spectacular Finny is and how perfect he is, and now because he made the limb shake he is imperfect. Also i think Gene always thought that Finny was constantly trying to compete with him at everything. But in this quote he says "I was not the same quality as he, I couldn't stand this." i think he realized that Finny never wanted to compete with him or anybody.
Chapter 10, kind of took things to a different objective. Leper was never really in the picture until now. He had really just been in the background. His craziness makes him come out. He says he "escapes" and asks Gene to go to his "Christmas Location", and Gene just drops everything and goes. and to think most of this started because he enlisted. Gene was a good friend for going to see Leper at his home in Vermont, but realized after going for a walk with him that he can't bear to listen to him cry anymore about all his troubles.
As i mentioned the friendship of Finny and Gene before, and about their identity and living through each other. I think Gene feels he needs to live through Finny. After Finny's accident Gene starts trying on his clothes and trying to act like him. Because in the first part of the story Gene almost resents Finny because he is so good at sports and his talent for being able to talk his way out of trouble. The two boys start depending on each other more and more. Finny using Gene to live his dream of sports and Gene using Finny to be somebody he wanted to be instead of who he was. This book shows that well and i liked it.
Saturday, July 31, 2010
The Crucible
Hysteria, one theme in the play "The Crucible", causes a lot of trouble. These people in this story break into complete hysteria. People become acused of such absurd crimes such as witchcraft and murder by their neighbors and friends whom they have been friends with most all their lives. I do have to say that i believe a lot of the people in the play use the hysteria to carry out grudges they have against people. Such as Thomas Putnam gaining revenge by accusing Rebecca for the deaths of Ann's babies.
Abigail is one character who i was a little interested in. Even though i would consider her the "bad guy" she was not very complex. I believe she was just jealous because she did not have a lot of power in her community. She lied her way through a lot and forced people to keep quiet. Like in the first scene when Betty kind of awakes and starts shouting out all the things that happened in the woods. She is manipulative and mean. Especially because she eventually sends innocent people to their deaths.
"A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, i beg you - see her what what she is. My wife, my dear good wife, took this girl soon after, sir, and put her out on the highroad. And being what she is, a lump of vanity, sir -. Excellency, forgive me, forgive me. She thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her soflty. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore's vengance, and you must see it; I set myself entirely in your hands. I know you must see it now." This quote is one of my favorites in the play. It shows that Proctor instead wants what is right rather than what would bennefit his reputation. Although he does it for good reasons, being honest about his affair with Abiagail does not work in his favor. Proctor then is accused of witchcraft and is considered a liar.
The Crucible shows many things to us. How hysteria can ruin lives but help others out, how being honest isn't always going to work out in your favor, and being manipulative is something people just do. I did not have a favorite character, and even though i learned about the salem witch trials in class last year i did not mind reading this book. It was a learning experience, you could say, because it shows how crazy things can get out of hand. I would recomend this book to somebody interested in this sort of stuff and im glad i read it.
Abigail is one character who i was a little interested in. Even though i would consider her the "bad guy" she was not very complex. I believe she was just jealous because she did not have a lot of power in her community. She lied her way through a lot and forced people to keep quiet. Like in the first scene when Betty kind of awakes and starts shouting out all the things that happened in the woods. She is manipulative and mean. Especially because she eventually sends innocent people to their deaths.
"A man may think God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now. I beg you, sir, i beg you - see her what what she is. My wife, my dear good wife, took this girl soon after, sir, and put her out on the highroad. And being what she is, a lump of vanity, sir -. Excellency, forgive me, forgive me. She thinks to dance with me on my wife's grave! And well she might, for I thought of her soflty. God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore's vengance, and you must see it; I set myself entirely in your hands. I know you must see it now." This quote is one of my favorites in the play. It shows that Proctor instead wants what is right rather than what would bennefit his reputation. Although he does it for good reasons, being honest about his affair with Abiagail does not work in his favor. Proctor then is accused of witchcraft and is considered a liar.
The Crucible shows many things to us. How hysteria can ruin lives but help others out, how being honest isn't always going to work out in your favor, and being manipulative is something people just do. I did not have a favorite character, and even though i learned about the salem witch trials in class last year i did not mind reading this book. It was a learning experience, you could say, because it shows how crazy things can get out of hand. I would recomend this book to somebody interested in this sort of stuff and im glad i read it.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
The Scarlet Letter
"But there was a more real life for Hester Prynne, here, in New England, than in that unknown region where Pearl had found a home. Here had been her sin; her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence. She had returned, therefore, and resumed,-of her own free will, for not the sternest magistrate of that iron period would have imposed it,-resumed the symbol of which we have related so dark a tale. Never afterwards did it quit her bosom. But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester's life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, and yet with reverence, too."
The quote above is by far my favorite part of the whole book. If you really look to the meaning it shows that Hester wasn't ashamed of her past. It was part of her life and she wasn't just going to forget about it because it wasn't exactly a "good" thing. The scarlet letter was the symbol that Hester fought her battle and it was important. Maybe some people thought having a scarlet letter was terrible or shameful, but to Hester it was self empowerment.
Hester Prynne was a strong woman. She used her scarlet letter to show her daughter, Pearl, that wrong doing is not good but also that you can be stronger than what other people try to cut you down to. How she used her needlework, even though nobody truley apreciated it, to help people out.
The book "The Scarlet Letter", shows the hardships that come with crime. It kept me interested because of the part where it went into a lot of detail, like in Chapter 6. "Certainly, there was no physical defect. By its perfect shape, its vigor, and its natural dexterity in the use of all its untried limbs, the infant was worthy to have been brought forth in Eden; worthy to have been left there, to be the plaything of the angels, after the world's first parents were driven out." Pearl is described so deeply throughout the chapter.
The quote above is by far my favorite part of the whole book. If you really look to the meaning it shows that Hester wasn't ashamed of her past. It was part of her life and she wasn't just going to forget about it because it wasn't exactly a "good" thing. The scarlet letter was the symbol that Hester fought her battle and it was important. Maybe some people thought having a scarlet letter was terrible or shameful, but to Hester it was self empowerment.
Hester Prynne was a strong woman. She used her scarlet letter to show her daughter, Pearl, that wrong doing is not good but also that you can be stronger than what other people try to cut you down to. How she used her needlework, even though nobody truley apreciated it, to help people out.
The book "The Scarlet Letter", shows the hardships that come with crime. It kept me interested because of the part where it went into a lot of detail, like in Chapter 6. "Certainly, there was no physical defect. By its perfect shape, its vigor, and its natural dexterity in the use of all its untried limbs, the infant was worthy to have been brought forth in Eden; worthy to have been left there, to be the plaything of the angels, after the world's first parents were driven out." Pearl is described so deeply throughout the chapter.
Friday, July 16, 2010
The Great Gatsby
Of all the books i have read this summer, The Great Gatsby is my favorite by far. This book kept my attention and i didnt get distracted while reading it. Some of the vocabulary was a little difficult to understand but that made the book better.
This book was exciting to read because of all the twists and turns the characters go through. The relationships, the affairs, and the love make it exciting. The part that struck me was when Tom was angry because he found out that Gatsby loved Daisy. He was very upset but at the same time he was doing the same thing, having an affair with Myrtle.
I did not really connect or relate with any of the characters in the book, but Jay Gatsby was kind of interesting. The lavish parties he would throw to get Daisy's attention, and how throughout the story Nick found out about Gatsby's life before he was wealthy made his character sort of fun to read about. It was fun because it was someone who focused his life in the direction to rise to the social class he thought he needed to be in to win the one he loved. Gatsby worked so hard to be with the one he loved only to be killed.
This is definatley a book i would recommend to someone to read. I really enjoyed reading it. The time period the book was set in and the places contributed greatly to how interesting the book was.
This book was exciting to read because of all the twists and turns the characters go through. The relationships, the affairs, and the love make it exciting. The part that struck me was when Tom was angry because he found out that Gatsby loved Daisy. He was very upset but at the same time he was doing the same thing, having an affair with Myrtle.
I did not really connect or relate with any of the characters in the book, but Jay Gatsby was kind of interesting. The lavish parties he would throw to get Daisy's attention, and how throughout the story Nick found out about Gatsby's life before he was wealthy made his character sort of fun to read about. It was fun because it was someone who focused his life in the direction to rise to the social class he thought he needed to be in to win the one he loved. Gatsby worked so hard to be with the one he loved only to be killed.
This is definatley a book i would recommend to someone to read. I really enjoyed reading it. The time period the book was set in and the places contributed greatly to how interesting the book was.
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