30.4.05

Messenger by Lois Lowry

Messenger is the third in the series of The Giver, and Gathering Blue. Messenger combines the characters from Giver and Blue about 7 years since the end of the other two books in the series. I enjoyed reading this book, hopefully it’ll show in this response.

One of the main themes in Messenger is how greed (which is unavoidable) can corrupt people, and lead to the loss of ones real self. This unavoidable thing called greed can lead to the loss of ones real self. Messenger starts off with a utopia of a sort in the form of a tight-knit community-village. The constant flow of wanderers coming to the community are all fully accepted by the kind villagers. It’s a dream situation, one that a lot of people in the world long for. I started to cringe when this book started moving, and the community started to corrupt. A feeling of hopelessness arose in my head, it was sort of depressing in a way.

I really liked the way that the other two books came together in this one. I smiled when I recognized Jonas from The Giver. The main character, Matty is from Gathering Blue. Lois Lowry did a fairly good job integrating the characters.

Lois Lowry might’ve gotten the utopian-to-hell scenario from real world examples, although I doubt it. She doesn’t seem like a writer that would write about that. The people that started to corrupt the community were originally very nice people. Trading is a desirable thing in the village, if not a bit dangerous. The wiser people frown down on trading, because they know what it can do to an individual. Trading and the selfishness that arose from it is how the rebellion started. The traders, overcome by their greed were so desperate for the things that they wanted that they sold their inner selves to the tradesmen! The way the transformation happens within these people is really interesting. As soon as they sell their inner selves, their body starts to transform, they lose their slight posture disfunction. It's all really metaphorical.

You can find this example anywhere in the world! For instance, you have a very happy person who encounters the greedy powers of money. He then spends his whole life collecting it, ignoring himself and everyone around him if he doesn’t watch out for himself in the first place. This ignorance of life is most problems arise in the real world. The strive for getting rid of one's bodily imperfections could also relate to this. Each persons body is unique to to themselves, and say they have an unsightly birthmark that they want to get rid of. It's part of them, no matter how important. It might now matter to much, but it's still something to think about.

I also can become like the selfish people in Messenger, although I usually get out of that rut. Say I’m enjoying a regular evening, reading, talking with people, and playing video games. Those are all pretty good things to do, but sometimes if there’s a distraction that attracts my lower self, which is more instinctual and sadly, easier to go towards. Let’s say I get caught up in my ego by thinking about my image, and doing things to help it. If I half-consciously choose to go down this path to hell the only hope of getting back to reality is to make a conscious choice to come back. It’s really hard sometimes, but pays off in the end.

Out of the three books in this trilogy, I would say this one closely rivals The Giver. It's a lot cleaner, quicker and better written than Gathering Blue. It kept my attention steadily throughout it. I really recommend you read this series, Lois Lowry is an extraordinary author.

25.4.05

1984 by George Orwell

1984 is an amazing book. It’s what George Orwell imagined the year 1984 to be like. It’s slightly pessimistic, but it only adds to the intensity. The main character’s name is Winston who is a political (if you would call it that, but it’s not a having-fun party) party member. The party tries to control everything, and for the most part succeeds! They watch you at home where you are constantly being fed crap through the telescreens that broadcast corny music, false claims by the party, which all basically adds up to white noise. If you do anything out of the ordinary (or basically consciously think) you are persecuted and eventually killed. This act of thought is called “thoughtcrime” in the language of newspeak. The party stands for the sole purpose of fear, greed and cruelty, even though most people don’t see it for what it is. The party is perfectly content to repeat the past as long as they remain dominant. There is also the 80% of Oceana that consist of the proles. The proles are looked down upon by the party members as worthless animals because their ways seem primitive, but they have also have managed to keep their human elements and are not blindly loyal to the party.

So now that you have the basics, here’s Winston’s story. Winston carries out his stressful job daily, and does not totally believe in what he is doing (rewriting history over and over again to make the party seem perfect). The beginning of his magical journey to consciousness is when he starts keeping a diary (upon the fear of being found out by the thought police). This shows how amazing writing can be, as I’ve experienced. Winston then meets Julia, and they instantly love each other (which is forbidden as well) because they both hate the party.

As it says on the back of the book, this book is as relevant now as it was some 50 years ago when it was written. It might not resemble our lives, because usually things don’t become this extreme, but it’s not a secret that humans can go here. Around when this book was written, a good example would be the fascist regime of Hitler. If you spoke out against his party’s beliefs, you were shot. This worthless effort of total control is most definitely seen today (as it has in every stage throughout history, and probably will continue until the end of humanity). An example of this today would be the Taliban regime. They don’t allow music, suppress women, and forbid books. The quote “those who don’t acknowledge the past are condemned to repeat it” is very applicable here.

With all this preaching of no hope, it’s hard to believe that these huge systems of hatred can be broken down. In 1984, the party leaders believe that it will never be broken down. It thinks it has covered all the vulnerabilities and is therefore immortal. One part that made me really grin was after the thought police had caught Winston. In his prison cell, he was contemplating what he would do when the thought police finally came up behind Winston to shoot him. Once the thought police caught Winston, they sent him to the ministry of love (which actually tortures people) because he was thinking. The ideology behind the ministry of love is to convert the conscious beings back into the party’s way of thinking, and then kill them. So anyways, Winston was thinking that when they finally were about to kill him, he would turn around, showing that he did not believe in the party, before the bullet entered him. This was a bit confusing at first, but it’s actually quite amazing. The party is built on perfection, and in doing this last act of rebellion would leave the party members stunned. They had just released a soul that was in their view imperfect. They would have this memory forever, therefore scratching a hole in the party’s cover which in repetition would lead to the fall of the party.

There are many ways we can relate to the content in 1984, but one way that all of us can relate to is the concept of the telescreens. The telescreens monitor people's every move, making sure they don't break the party’s rules. When we’re not in a good space, we start to monitor our friends every move to give us our own selfish security. Another example of this constant monitoring, but not quite the same is security cameras. They're based on mistrust between fellow human beings. They're needed in some places, but they still do bare a resemblance to the telescreens.

From 1984 to Animal Farm, I've really been enjoying George Orwell's insightful writing. He writes about things that affect him primarily. 1984 reflects events happening in the United Kingdom and the United States. He has a really good way of describing dismal worlds and ultimately screaming to you "why are things this way?"

- Joel Penner

11.4.05

Firewing by Kenneth Oppel

Firewing is the sequel to Sunwing and Silverwing. I suggest you read my previous responses on the series to understand this one to the fullest extent.

Firewing in a nutshell starts off with Griffin, the son of Marina and Shade. Griffin is a shy little bat, and wants to prove himself to his friends, and his dad. He envies his dad a lot, and thinks he has to prove his worth to his dad, so he won’t be disappointed with Griffin. One day, Griffin is with his friends, trying to think of something that will impress them, when he spies a few humans sitting around a fire. He steals the fire, and by accident ends up killing his friend Luna with it! Consumed by grief, Griffin goes into the base of his colony’s tree, and stays there. An earthquake occurs, trapping him in, but a fissure opens up in a rock and Griffin cautiously dives down into the earth, unsure of what’s going to happen.

Shade’s dad comes rushing to the colony, and dives down after Griffin into the underworld, the world created by Cama Zotz, or basically Oppel’s perception of hell (I would assume). The underworld that the majority of the book is spent in is as interesting as it is creepy. It’s a lot like our own lives at times, scarily enough.

The majority of the bats that have died, and moved on to the underworld are tuned out to reality, and believe in the false world that they have been put in. Many of them deny that they have died, and keep on existing, acting as if nothing is wrong in this world of the dead. There are the pilgrims, which circle the world and convince the bats that they’re dead, and to travel with them to the tree, which they promise is what they’re meant to do. How is this like our own lives at times? Sometimes we tune out of reality, and exist in our little worlds, unaware of what’s really happening outside of us. We make bad decisions in this mentality, and fail to do what we set out to do. When you’re in this state of delusion, we’re easily distracted because we have temporarily forgot ten our goals. Hopefully, we get out of this harmful state, and most people do.

Griffin’s dad, Shade is an interesting character. He has integrity, soul, determination, courage and a mind for others. He is also a Christ figure.

On Shade’s journey to find his son in the underworld, he meets a fellowship of pilgrims journeying to the tree. A unique thing happens to this group though. A vampire bat (the basic enemy of all flying beings) approaches the group, and asks to join since he wants to go to the tree with Shade’s group. This is unusual because vampire bats are enemies, and rarely make talk about working together with other bats. The pilgrims are wary, but Shade convinces them that this bat has every right to join the pilgrims. The fellowship travels to the tree, and the vampire bat even protects Shade’s life at times! Everyone in the book, including me was suspicious of the bat, even though I’ve read Firewing before! It just goes to show how convincing and suspicious of a character an author can create!

As there is a version of hell integrated into Firewing, there is also a version of heaven. When Shade enters the tree, he ends up near Tree Haven, where Griffin and Luna ended up after going through the tree. Shade doesn’t have a physical form though, he’s a spirit now. He can enter objects, like a blade of grass, and live as that object, feeling, seeing, and being that object. That might be a bit confusing, but simply put, Shade has complete freedom and even though he can’t communicate with any other beings as a spirit, he can feel that everyone else is content like him with living like this. I like this view of heaven. The bats enter hell for a while after their death, but if they’re strong enough to resist the many temptations that Cama Zotz puts in their way of getting to the tree, and you finish that last final journey, then you reach heaven. It’s a deeply satisfying ending.

Overall, this has been a great series, the best in the series in my opinion. I highly recommend this to you, but suggest that you read the first two books first. I would rate this book a 10 out of 10.

4.4.05

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Animal Farm is a unique book. The book starts off with a normal farm, run by a drunk named Mr. Jones. There are things that Mr. Jones doesn’t know about stirring within the barn. An ancient boar with the nickname of “Major” calls for all the animals to gather around him. He brings the bad treatment of the farm animals to the top of everyone’s minds. He then proclaims and fantasizes about how everyone should strive, or atleast hope for freedom from the system which starves the animals, and kills them when they’re old enough to be eaten for mere food by dirty humans. The animals gobble this wonderful possibility up, and it soon becomes the talk of the farm, because who doesn’t want to be free? The animals soon overthrow Mr. Jones in a bloody battle. They then start to lead, and the beginning of their own government starts to form.

One of the first things that the animals accomplish is write their seven commandments that the animals shall follow at all times! They read: 1- Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy, 2 - Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend, 3- No animal shall wear clothes, 4 - No animal shall sleep in a bed , 5 -No animal shall drink alcohol, 6 - No animal shall kill another animal , 7- All animals are created equal. The rules seem good in a way, but soon enough, the pigs start to break these commandments.

This new government, which starts with everyone’s participation and enthusiasm soon becomes a cruel and selfish dictatorship ruled by the pigs, who excuse their unfair actions and inequality with their large amount of intelligence. This shows how easily the mind of any conscious being can be corrupted, and filled with greed. The disturbing scenes start to come once the pigs have realized how easily it is to deceive the poor farm animals! One of the most disturbing scenes in the book is when Napolean the pig (leader of the farm) calls everyone to come in front of him. He accuses four animals of helping Napolean’s rival, Snowball to cause destruction of Animal Farm. Their throats are quickly ripped out. Napolean then asks any animal that has committed harm to Animal Farm to come up and confess. The dim-witted animals come up by the dozens to be mindlessly slaughtered by Napolean and his ferocious dogs. Some of the “crimes” committed are as tiny as peeing in the watering hole! This scene ends with a pile of corpses in front of Napolean, he doesn’t seem stirred by this though. The commandment that the pigs broke here is then modified from “No animal shall kill another animal” to “No animal shall kill another animal without cause”.

As you may know in this book, Orwell criticizes the incredible oppression the Soviet system imposed. Figures like Napolean and Snowball are representatives for actual politicians. Writing a book is an incredible way to criticize something, and in this case, a government. It’s amazing how well Orwell pulled this off, because it makes you think. Anyone can write a paper exposing the lies and dirty doings a government has performed. The dirty doers will just brush it off as mindless criticism, and the supporters of the dirty doers won’t be swayed to much. Writing a allegorical book like this actually has a chance of being read by the opposition. It isn’t just plain criticism; it’s criticism with smarts injected into it.

As I mentioned, this book shows how easily the conscious mind become corrupted, and the goal that was originally set is forgotten. The hopes and dreams of the common person is forgotten by the leaders who have the potential to change things, and the focus is put on unimportant stuff. Are there any examples today? Of course! Things haven’t changed much. The often stingy world of politicians is filled with people who have lost what they set out to do and then worry about in money, and treat it like a separate being. Actually, the way people handle money is a good example of this. Some people treat money as this large problem, and spend their life fondling it and accumulating it to build their inner security. They forget what goals they had in life, and become unhappy.

I thoroughly enjoyed Animal Farm. It was uneventful at times, since it does run on a bit much, but it never stayed that way for long. I would highly recommend reading this book to you, even if you’ve read it before.