Friday, July 20, 2012

Blog #8

And further we go into the mind of the writer... 

So according to Stephen King, On Writing is not really a biography, but yet at the same time it is a biography. I believe that it is more of the development of him as a writer rather than an actual biography. I'm more inclined towards the second option since he shares some rather interesting stories about himself so far.

Everyone can get a bit of a surprise the more you learn about their past and that not everything is what you thought it to be. I was surprised that Stephen King had the childhood of a modern nomad, constantly moving from place to place on the east coast of America. Even more interesting was the story of his infamous babysitter, Eula-Beulah. I think what Stephen King meant by "dangerous humor" (20) I really think he meant excessively crude humor. However, this person somehow helped him for literary criticism, he doesn't explain how but she must had some kind of pro-founding effect on him. Stephen King also uses places from his life and incorporates them into his book, which is quite simple and ingenious. The junkyard in his old backyard makes an appearance in several of his novels. 


Really surprising  is that Mr. King had skipped his entire first grade year due to illnesses. Being held back an entire year is pretty bad. And looking at this and looking at him is an indication that he didn't let that stop him.  I must also acknowledge his mother as the sole reason why Stephen King started writing, she did a fine job encouraging him like a loving mother. May she rest in peace. 

So far, On Writing is a much more interesting read than The Catcher in the Rye. I'm looking forward to more of this book in the upcoming days.




Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Blog #7

A lesson On Writing by Stephen King. Dandy! 


I would like to say that I yelled in my mind, "YES OH MY GOD" when I saw who the author was. Stephen King is on top of my list for favorite authors. A favorite series for me would be the Dark Tower series of novels. Ironically I only read the first one because I keep forgetting to buy the rest (i can always look back here now for a reminder).

On Writing is something of a part biography and part tutorial guide inspired by Mary Karr's memoir, The Liars' Club. King describes this book as "not so a biography" but instead as the development of him becoming a writer, and it's a rather interesting story to read. Part tutorial because Mr. King gives us advice on how to become a good writer and some essential tips in starting a writer career, if you wanted to become a writer in the first place.

I'll be going over the book in the next couple of days, giving my thoughts and insights on the book as I go along.

And gee it's late to post a blog post.


Saturday, July 14, 2012

Blog #6

Dun dun duuuuun.. 

Final chapters of The Catcher in the Rye!! Let's get this show on the road!

Chapter 24 
Mr. Antolini seems like a swell guy but maybe a bit too swell. He is a heavy drinker for a teacher, and let's Holden, who's underage, have a smoke too. This chapter reminds me of two friends engaging in small talk, occasionally joking around. Mr. Antolini jokes that he'll show him the door if he failed English when he really only failed Oral Expression (DIGRESSION!). Mr. Antolini also helps Holden a lot like his first teacher, offering him advice and what not. A little disturbing is when Holden wakes up in the middle of the night just placing his hand on his forehead. Creepy dude. 

Chapter 25 
He slept in the subway is what Holden did after he left Mr. Antolini's. In the subway is when he makes this crazy scheme, he decides to ditch school altogether and go out West to test his luck. That is such a bad idea on so many levels. Let's bring in one of John Steinbeck's books, Of Mice and Men, for a quick comparison. Mice was a tragedy and so is Holden's plan to go West. Even more so when Phoebe wants to tag along on his crazy plan. However, he changed his mind. Good call Holden

Chapter 26
Nothing much to say here but he does offer a little advice. That we shouldn't really tell anyone anything, or else we'll start missing everyone.

All in all, The Catcher in the Rye, was a pleasant reading experience. And I'm looking forward to the next book on the list, On Writing by Stephen King. 

Friday, July 13, 2012

Blog #5

A quarter of the way there!!


Now i just have reached the last chapters of J.D Salinger's book, The Catcher in the Rye! The book was a fun and interesting to read from other books I had read so far. The style is was written was very different from other books assigned to us in school. I'm glad that I actually got the chance to read this because I probably wouldn't read it under normal circumstances.

And I would like to delve further into the book by discussing the few remaining chapters (19-22).

Chapter 19
Good old Holden Caulfield decides to hang out in the Wicker Bar with someone named Luce. Luce seems like a stalker in his spare time, since he knows who is and who isn't a "flit". What kind of a guy is old Luce? We do know that he is rather intelligent but also seems to have this high social life. Holden also doesn't like intelligent people because they can't hold intelligent conversations. Perhaps because intelligent people know more and aren't interested in talking about it much? But most likely depends on the personality. 


Chapter 20 
This chapter reminds me of that time when my friend decided to fake that he was a mute/deaf and decided to trick people with it. Holden is drunk and pretends that he has a bullet wound in his stomach. He is drunk out in the cold and decides to sit on a radiator. But aren't radiators bad to be near? Kind of like standing near a sewer grate, sure it's warm but it can be fatal for your health. Also fatal to your health is the fact that he can get some disease in that type of weather. Like pneumonia, what Holden said he could get. He also doesn't seem to like his family, in a flashback of Allie's funeral. He doesn't like a lot of things does he.

Chapter 21
Holden is pulling a Splinter Cell by going home before Wednesday just to see Phoebe, his little sister. Now what is he up too going to Phoebe? Going to give her the broken shards of the record disc he bought her (which he does give by the way)? But before he even wakes her up, Holden goes through one of her notebooks. Apparently she changes her middle name quite often, since she doesn't like hers already. Which is Josephine, by the way. So she wakes up and all and finds out pretty quick that Holden got kicked out of school. Oh my she is really smart and quick-witted for such a young child.

Chapter 22-23
Looking at the next page I see a long rant from Holden. The rant is about how he hates all the people in Pency and how the faculty sucked too. Then they try to guess something that Holden actually LIKES since he hates everything so much. Holden couldn't concentrate so well so he began talking about this James Castle guy. That's the thing about him, he can't sit still on one subject for too long. He'll tell you one story then he'll jump to this other one about this one acorn that fell from the sky. Well anyways, they fail to mention anything that he actually likes when his parents walk in the house. Holden somehow makes it to the front door and escapes. Ninja man.

Though why did he go home. Seriously.



Monday, July 9, 2012

Blog #4

Now with 100% moar confusion!!


These next few chapters offer some insight into the life of our rebellious teenage hero, Holden, from the book The Catcher in the Rye. It also gives me some insight about his character too.

Chapter 13
So after running into a friend of his brothers, he decides to walk a beautiful 41 blocks all the way back to the hotel. Now what would he walk that many city blocks in the freezing cold? He didn't want to take a cab since he "didn't feel like getting in and out of another taxicab" (88). Holden, despite being so tough, at the same time is not so tough. Makes sense? He describes himself as being "yellow" or just being a wimp. That seems the case when he's offered a prostitute by this shady looking elevator guy. Well the girl does come by but since, you know he's a yellow belly, they didn't do it.

Chapter 14
And our hero gets jumped by the creepy elevator man and the weird blonde prostitute. Holden then proceeds to get beaten up and does nothing but call him a moron. I felt bad for him in this chapter because he was being 100% honest!!

Chapter 15
A dandy little date between Holden and a girl named Sally on a Sunday. Holden then has a conversation between himself and some nuns about Romeo & Juliet. A conversation with Catholic nuns is something that I wouldn't expect, since Holden himself is atheist. He even gave the nuns some money which they refused. Maybe Holden isn't such a rebel after all.

Chapter 16
Holden now is buying tickets for his date to a show named "I Know My Love." He then goes on to rant about how he hates actors and they're acting and how they don't act like people. I'll ask the question once again,why does he always like to hate on people who have some talent that he doesn't have? 

Chapter 17
Later on, Holden says something rather...rhetorical. Holden suggests that you can tell a true lie. I felt like I got Inception'd when I saw that passage. So Holden in my eyes, makes absolutely no sense in his logic. For instance, he says that they should just run away and steal someones car just to live off $180 in a cabin!! To top it off, Sally says something that is very truthful about Holden. Holden does indeed jump from one subject to the next. I mean just look at the sequence of events in the book. 

Chapter 18
After the argument with Sally, Holden is somewhat in the dumps. So he begins talking about girls and how they think. Saying it makes absolutely no sense. And for once, I agree, but it kinda works both ways. Holden also imparts on us another piece of of his divine logic. That all kindhearted people are actually evil on the inside. He seems rather close minded in his observations. 

I don't know how to end this post so here is a Kirby with awkward eyes >(*-*)>

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Blog #3

With a side of teenage angst. 


I have returned with my daily dose of J.D. Salinger's book, The Catcher in the Rye. As I continue reading this book, the "story" gets more bizarre as you continue. It begins to make almost no sense to me and I stopped trying to look for any conventional plot.

These chapters (8-12) focus on the events of Holden's departure from Pencey.

Chapter 8
Holden gets on this train right? After a while this older women sits down next to him. Turns out she's the mom of this dude he totally hates, named Ernest Morrow. So Holden just starts lying to her so maybe he can impress her on her son or something. Perhaps he lied to her for his own entertainment? Now, why would you lie to the mother of some dude that you hate? Let alone say you have a brain tumor. I suppose Holden just had the hots for old Mrs. Morrow.

Chapter 9
First thing I noticed about this was the Edmont Hotel. I would HATE to stay one night in that place. The place was just filled with all sorts of strange people, for the time. A man who crossdressed and then this couple was doing god knows what to each other. Disturbing stuff man. And yet he was INTERESTED by all of this happening! But I think after seeing that gross couple, he decided to hook up with this chick named Jane because he was having a case of the turn-ons. In my opinion, the city at night was holed up all under one roof.

Chapter 10
He decides to go the Lavender Room, some sort of bar, for no apparent reason. Then he tries to hit on these three ladies, mostly the blonde one in the middle of the group, since she was the most decent looking (that's what he says, seriously.) He gets more pissed off the more he tries to hit on her since she acts like a queen. Well then, why would even bother with someone like her in the first place? In the end they all just left anyway, so I don't know what was going through his head.

Chapter 11
I dub this the shortest chapter of all time, being only a measly five pages. Holden goes back to thinking about Jane after those doorknobs left him with the bill. He goes on to tell us more about her messed up past, Is she relevant in anyway at all, why are we discussing her? Holden must have some hidden crush on her if he's remembering an important event he had with her.

Chapter 12
So after his flashback, he gets into a cab that smells like old cookies and strikes a conversation with the driver named Horowitz. He just happens to be a very impatient and sensitive guy. He gets pissed at everything Holden says to him, like seriously, he gets pissed off about the fish in the lake. Holden then gets dropped off at old Ernie's. Here he gets pissed off at everything little thing, the people, Ernie, everyone and everything. Holden seems to get pissed off at anyone better than him, thus providing me more evidence that he has an ego the size of the Minecraft world.


Such a short blog post... well then, I'll return soon with another observation on the book, The Catcher in the Rye.



Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Blog #2

Catcher in the Rye (Chapters 1-7) 


Reading throughout the book, the Catcher in the Rye I find myself asking many questions about the position of the main character and the plot of this book in general. Usually we are introduced to the main character, then later the cast of other important characters and minor characters, afterwards we learn more about the plot. So far I am just questioning the motives and personality of the characters. Regardless I am enjoying myself at the moment with this book while I'm sitting in the yellow sun on a park bench blasting Skrillex through my tiny earbuds.

Moving on...


Chapter 1
I don't have much to say about this chapter. Why was he failing his subjects so hard? I can only think of laziness and no drive to try in school. This chapter also skips from one moment to the next and doesn't stay linear as I thought it would. The first few paragraphs already gave me an idea about his character. He has some massive ego going on, as he hates EVERYONE in the school. And he doesn't seem to care about much, kinda like me.

Chapter 2
This chapter gave me a couple ideas about our main character here. Why was he visiting his professor in the first place? I don't completely understand why but I think that he was just there to give his sentiments. And why did he ask Spencer to fail him in the semester? I am questioning the logic that was going through his head at the time, since anyone else would have studied for something like that. He also seems to have this massive ego, noted in his conversation with his professor. And I couldn't understand what he was trying to get at in this chapter.

Chapter 3
We are now introduced to a new character named "Ackely" who is, according to our hero, a nasty guy. He seems to hate everyone and I don't really understand why. Our main character seems to annoyed by everything little thing Ackely does and I don't blame him. For example, Ackely cutting his nails over the floor instead of on the table. Ackely reminds me of that one person in school that no one really talks too and has a rather grimy appearance but can actually be a nice person if you get to know them long enough. Stradlater, his roommate, seems to be a bit of a pushover.

Chapter 4
Stradlater is described as a "secret slob" by our hero. So this guy has dirty habits. So what? Everyone has their own little dirty habit. My opinion is that Stradlater is a slacker (Back to the Future reference!) since Stradlater tells him to write his composition. Why doesn't he just write it himself? A very descriptive composition is not that hard unless he was very lazy to do it in the first place. Our hero, Holden Caulfield, then discovers that Stradlater's date is a girl he once knew, and he got excited. I sense a lover's conflict in the making here..

Chapter 5
Holden does get that composition done and wrote it after his brother's baseball glove. That was really sweet of him to write about but seems to go into an emotional breakdown after his death. I think that's responsible for his rebellious behavior. Now why did he choose to write the composition about his brother? I may never know. But he may have done just for the sake of it. My favorite chapter so far.

Chapter 6
This chapter reminds me of that one person who forgets EXACTLY what he says, but says that he said something else instead. This reminds me of a fight between me and my best friend, over something rather stupid now that I think about it. Anyways, Stradlater gets mad because the composition is about a baseball glove when he said that it could be about anything. I don't get why he's mad because he said that it could be about anything!! Understanding, they got into a fight and Holden gets beaten up pretty bad. If only Stradlater knew what the composition was really about, that fight would probably never have happened.

Chapter 7
Holden and Ackley seem to have a bit of a bonding moment here. Well, sort of since Holden interrupted Ackley's beauty sleep. However, Holden seems to show some sort of affection towards Ackley. I don't know if he's being serious or just joking around.

And then he decides to wake up everyone before leaving his school.

Lordy that's a good second blog post. Well see you guys soon!!

And Happy 4th of July.