Adventures in Literature Land

NOTE: Isaac has been on sabbatical from the blog. He's been busy with various duties, including: getting older, doing copious amounts of homework, and trying to be cool. No fear, he has returned. 

So, I read a book the other day. Shocking, I know. But I read a book, and it turned out it was the first in a trilogy. Then it turned out that this trilogy had a sequel, so really it was four books, proving for once and for all that authors clearly have no idea what they're doing. 

But the book was Uglies (Scott Westerfield) and I categorize it as YA dystopian tech-fantasy. The main plot theme is in this brave new world, surgery and science have combined to find the archetype  of the most attractive faces possible. These features include large eyes, symmetrical faces, and other tiny markers that make humans subconsciously attracted to one another. So in this semi-postapocalyptical society, the governments of the various cities have decided that to eliminate the conflicts and unfairness of the previous mold of humans, they will make the pretty-making operation compulsory starting from age 16. Certain other imperfections of society are removed, including the money system (governments pay for all of their citizens' needs), weapons (except for the giant cache the government has), and anything at all that damages the natural world of the earth. 

The whole history behind the book's current events is that the old humanity, the "Rusties," seriously screwed up the world and that the above changes are the way to recover and fix it. Problem is, some people don't like being forced into surgery, forced into a certain physique, etc. The main character, Tally Youngblood, loses her best friend to the elite clique of pretty people when he turns 16 three months before she. She quickly finds a new friend, Shay, who goes against the norm and runs away rather than become pretty. She feels comfortable with her natural look. This aggravates the government. "Special Circumstances" (the new FBI or whatever) forces Tally either to follow her friend and give away the location of a hidden village of like-minded rebels, or to forgo the pretty-making surgery -- to be ugly forever. The rest of the book catalogs Tally's struggle with betraying Shay and her new friends and the inner turmoil of realizing that life as an ugly isn't that bad.

Despite being young adult literature, Uglies and its sequels are worth reading. Scott Westerfield keeps the story interesting and relevant from start to finish. You keep reading for the resolution of the plot twists, and then keep thinking because of the many ethical issues that Westerfield brings up, all the while satirically hinting that today's modern society is the generation responsible for the semi-apocalypse. 

Anyway I can't give away the plot of the novel, nor the rest of the trilogy (quadrilogy?), but more and more through the books the government is shown to be evil. Mind-control and other unethical acts are disguised as the only possible way to keep society from destroying itself. So I asked myself the following question: regardless of how it turned out, was the government's original idea right?

Is the main problem of humanity our propensity to judge people based on one look at them? No, really -- is it?? Westerfield doesn't intend to tell us that we all have to be 100% pretty (or 100% ugly) to solve our problems. The "rusties" were also wasteful, constantly at war, and selfish. 

It still begs the question: how much does appearance affect our lives? 

Think about it. 

Cheers,
Isaac

The Wonders of Germany, Part IV

Our first city in Germany was Berlin. At some point in time, we went to the Berlin Wall, which is famous for its deeply philosophical, creative, moving, and beautiful artwork:

(Edited)

Awwwwh thanks Berlin! We appreciate it. 

Much Better

The shout-out to Dark Knight more than makes up for it.

 Okay, I still have no idea who/what/why this is. It's a monarch or rich person of some kind. It's not doing anything except standing there. I promise the crop doesn't cut out anything. But he's wearing glasses, which don't seem to fit the robes and such... anyhow it's great artwork.

I told you there were philosophers

 At least with this one we know the why, but still no info on the who or what.

I saw this great quote on the wall, but something stuck out, apart from all the love notes...

It's not beer...

 Cheers,
 Isaac

Well, That Was Awkward...

It is interesting, at least to me, the sort of assumptions people make in conversation with acquaintances. I say acquaintances because these conversations are usually between people who have met, perhaps once before, but are not good friends.

For example, at the pool party I was at last night, thunder was heard about 5 minutes before everybody's parents showed up. This was no big deal, because everyone was done with swimming anyway, but everyone did have to huddle under the porch or go inside.

During this period of utter and total boredom, the topic of the weekend came up, as it always does with high schoolers, and one girl complained of not being able to finish a swim meet due to storm.  She took the trouble of explaining to me that every time you hear thunder, you have to stay out of the pool for 30 minutes. I informed her that my meet on Tuesday also had been delayed due to thunder and I felt much the same way about that.

She expressed surprise at not knowing that I swam, a familiar occurrence with me. Anyhoo, as swimmers inevitably do, she asked for my times. I casually gave her the usual lineup of events used for comparison between swimmers. After hearing me out, and asking if I was serious, she told me I was "really fast." I said that I had been told that before, but really thought that I needed to work harder in practice and focus more. For me, it was no big deal, because I don't really care if people think I'm great or not. (I'm not.) All I want is to be remembered, and that doesn't take greatness. Which is a good think, because greatness takes work, and I'm lazy. But she was clearly embarrassed at her faulty assumption, so I laughed it off and asked if she was going to the city meet, thus turning the conversation away from myself. 

But that conversation got me thinking. How often do I make assumptions of a similar nature? How often have I looked at somebody and said, "Well they clearly don't do sports," and then later learned that they bat cleanup, or play goalkeeper, or man the point for the basketball team. On the topic of ball, how many times have I assumed that the people I play basketball with at the Y are eating well tonight? Have I ever sat down and thought about what a "gated" community really means -- and what it meant that we were having a church party there?*

Obviously none of these assumptions or ignorances are anywhere near the slight offense I took last night. I have no real misconceptions about my own accomplishments, and I readily admit to my own laziness. But it did annoy a little bit that I had been condescendingly informed of how a swim meet works, when I have swum in over 100 meets in my life.

What assumptions do you make in your daily life that may be annoying somebody --  or worse? How often have you found out?

Cheers,

Isaac

*I am by no means insinuating that everybody in [our town in the Deep South] is racist, or even that anyone at said party is prejudiced, and I applaud the champions of civil rights that [said town] can claim an association with. But inequality is a valid problem even today, and sometimes a question begs asking.