Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry

I just finished the book Gathering Blue and I have to admit, it was pretty good. Just so you know, it is the sequel to The Giver.

This book takes place in a village, sort of like the one in The Giver, but totally different. In that village, people have no real emotions, and everything is suppressed beyond belief! In Gathering Blue’s village, people have all these things, and the strangeness and evil happens below the covers. At the beginning of the book, Kira loses her mother due to an illness. The local bitch, Vendra tries to send Kira “out to the field”, which is basically like killing them, because the “beasts” will get them. Vendra wants her out because first of all, she has a gimp leg, and second of all, is an orphan now. Luckily Kira gets saved by the council of the village. She gets saved for a specific, and pretty greedy reason though, which is to use her for her gift with weaving.

You can see where this is going I hope, the council just wants to keep Kira alive to use her. They have an utilitarian view of Kira. This isn’t only with Kira though, because in the building where Kira now lives there are 2 other people with special artistic gifts. The newest person is Jo, who has a gift in singing. She loves to sing, but hates the words that the council forces upon her, making her memorize them to death. As I said before, this stuff is under the covers, its even a mystery to the people who are being used.

Now I’m going to compare Gathering Blue to The Giver, since they’re written by the same author and in the same trilogy. Gathering Blue is similar to The Giver in a way, because they both are in a “futuristic” village, which has gone off the deep end. The village in Gathering Blue is a bit more believable, because people can see colors and do normal things and all. It’s drawback is that it lacks the suspense that The Giver provides so freely. It’s still a very good book, but doesn’t keep you glued to the pages the way The Giver does. I wonder what the third book in the trilogy, The Messenger will provide in the way of this.

The meaning or moral of Gathering Blue is to not use people. Accept the people you come in contact with as human beings, not machines for making your greedy little desires. It’s telling you not to get so connected with your habits, that you forget the world, and potential evolution that’s around you.

I really like Lois Lowry’s style of writing. It’s very well put together, and consistent and believable. You can tell that she really likes writing this stuff. I also see a similarity between Lois Lowry’s writing, and her website which portrays her. Her website (www.loislowry.com) is very laid back and consistent. Her FAQ page answers her fan’s questions humorously and creatively. You can really tell that she’s integrating parts of her life into her books, for the style to be so similar to her website.

I don’t really think I identify with one character overall, maybe a wide variety of characteristics though. There may be a similarity between me and the council, who hoards the talent of the children. Although I don’t want to, sometimes subconsciously I use people for what they can do. One example of this madness for me would be thinking that the reason people are around me is for me, they’re here to serve me. This makes for a messy and horrible time, but it does happen, as I think it would with everyone. I also identify with Kira, in the way that she sees through the council’s plan to use their talents. I think in that situation, I would see through the plan as well. An fairly simple example for that would be how I see through George Bush’s plans and actions.

Overall, this has been a very good read. I would highly recommend this book to you, although reading The Giver first may be a good idea.

The Giver by Lois Lowry

I just finished The Giver, and I really have to say it was absolutely godly! I can’t remember a book I’ve liked more than this! It really is insane.

The Giver is about a boy named Jonas who lives in a very odd, but surprisingly not too unbelievable community. It’s like a very scary suburb, only a lot worse. Everyone always follows the strict rules that are laid out by the elders. For example, while you are growing up, if you pronounce something wrong, or use hyperbolic language like “I’m Starving”, you get hit with the discipline wand for “language precision”. Every year there are a procession of ceremonies. Jonas is about to enter his ceremony for becoming twelve, which is an immensely important one because it is then that you are assigned your job for life! You then proceed to learn the job and live your life out (which isn’t a life because there are no emotions, feelings or real love). That’s just a sample of how scary this book is.

One of the main topics that can be viewed for this book is the representation of injustice. All of the people in the community have fallen asleep in a way. They live by the rules, don’t bend, break or question them and have no life at all. We can identify this terrifying image with ourselves, because we sometimes fall asleep to the injustice happening around us every day. Take the Rwanda massacre for instance. That was with no doubt, horrible (especially after seeing the movie Hotel Rwanda). The whole outside world was ignoring that, and just letting everyone kill each-other for no major reason! Nobody really stepped up and took the leadership position to stop this tragedy. It’s different in The Giver though, because Jonas and his friend do step up secretly and try to spread some consciousness around to everyone. I won’t tell you how though, because that would be horrible for if you want to read it.

My experience of the book was amazing! In metaphorical terms, it’s like making preparing the butter for a batch of lovely cookies. Usually without micro-waving the butter, it is very hard to blend it in with the rest of the mix because its very hard. In this case, the butter had an additive called wisdom which made it very easy to mix. In other words, I instantly got into the book. I didn’t have to wait till halfway or anything, it grabbed me in and kept me completely in trance and imagining the world through my mind’s eye. This lovely effect composed of suspense, meaning and amazing writing ability kept me hooked until the very end.

I also found myself very moved by this book. There’s one part where Jonas finds out what the process of “releasing” actually is. If too many babies are born, the baby isn’t developing fast enough or a person gets too old, then the community workers perform “release”. Jonas finds out that instead of the common perception that the person getting “released” goes to another community to live their life, they actually get a lethal injection. When I read this part, I felt really angry! How can this community let this happen? Well its obvious because they aren’t aware of anything important that’s happening around them, but why? How can they accept the horrible “sameness”, where differences are against the rules to speak of and everyone is doped into believing the false side of things? For another example, once the kids hit puberty, they are given a pill every day of their lives to suppress the heightened feelings they would most likely gain.

Silverwing p2 by Kenneth Oppel

Wow, I just spent 2 hours finishing this book, and I don’t think that time was wasted!

Since last time, obviously a lot has happened (I suggest reading the previous reading journal to understand this one to a fuller extent.) In Shade’s colony’s migration, there is a major storm. Shade’s protective mother tells Shade to slow down, and land to avoid being swept into the ocean. Shade ignores her because of his stubbornness, and, coincidentally gets swept into the ocean! He gets to an island, and befriends a young outcast bat named Marina. She has flown off to this island because of a tiny little band that the humans put on her wrist. In the bat world, there is a gargantuan amount of superstition, speculation and fear surrounding these tiny rings of metal that get put onto random bats. (Just look at Marina! She got expelled from her colony because of it!)

Some bats think of the bands as a sign of “The Promise”, which I don’t remember what it is but I think its a story created by the bat god Nocturna that says the bats will someday not fear the sky or the birds and beasts. I think its bogus, kind of like taking the bible literally, but these crazy bats believe it to the point of utter and complete fear.
This book has a parallel to the church. Just look at the debate over same-sex marriage right now! Its huge, and mostly as a result of people taking the bible literally. It creates a world of trouble, as it does in Silverwing with the bands. Not a very large parallel, but still somewhat existent.

I really like Kenneth Oppel’s style of writing. He seems to be very creative, and from the times I’ve heard him read in Winnipeg, his writing style seems to be very similar to himself. In talking to him, I’ve even noticed how bat-like his physical personality is! When he talks to you, he leans back, and his face (which has very pointed features) comes out at you. Maybe some of the book rubbed off on him.

His writing style really pulls you inside this über imaginative world. I’ve noticed this more with his later books, like Airborne, but Silverwing kept me going at it. The writing style is also very descriptive, and the paragraphs are amazingly structured. The characters are really interesting, because they develop over the period of the book. It’s also sort of typical in a way, the villain that you meet later on in the book, Goth, who seems impermeable to damage. He blasts on through the winter (even though he comes from the jungle), and will stop at nothing to follow Shade and Marina to Hiberniculum. He even gets fried with a freaking bolt of lightning and lives! A tad bit unbelievable, but still makes for a good book in the end.

I’ll be reading Sunwing next. I’m looking forward to that, maybe I can finish it in a week, and I don’t have to write over one painful but good entry on it! That’d be gnarly.