...Exhausted

Oh yes, I am indeed very tired.
Stop giving homework teachers! Homework kills trees!

::YAWN::

so, uh, calc was great fun...?
I have no clue how to do #4 on my worksheet....
Anyhow, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is an amazing book!
Although I am still very tired...

The Book Thief post 8

Okay, I totally give in to my brain that wanted a good grade...
And, I am just going to use something that Zusak used very often in The Book Thief--the power of making NOTES!!!
I have always wanted to do a end of the book, over-all reflection post...
So here it comes...

=========================

I am similar to Liesel, the tendency of never putting books down.
Literatur, is a every important thing in life.

***A Huge Mistakes***

I should have never, ever, finished the book in my room without the door locked.

The person who recommended The Book Thief to me said that she couldn't help but cried at the end. I didn't pay much attention to that, I don't usually cry when I read a book. But when I was reading it in my room without locking the door, as I was flipping through the pages, the words melted in front of my eyes. The world became a blur and I shut the book as soon as physically possible.
When I recommended this book to my parents, I used a inadequate but well-fitted, at least in my opinion, description:
"If German Lesson is Schindler's List, then The Book Thief is Life is Beautiful."
Have you ever heard a story from Death?
Calm, fact-based, but humorous, even has a little bit of warmth.

I must admit that Zusak gave me a very different impression of Death.
In the time when everyone was living in fear, Death was not very happy about all the souls that he was collecting.
"They say that war is death's best friend...To me, war is like the new boss who expects the impossible. He stands over your shoulder repeating one thing, incessantly:'Get it done, get it done.' So you work harder. You get the job done. The boss, however, does not thank you. He asks for more" (309).
Death has to fulfill his job, without rest, in that terrifying time "carried the souls in my fingers, like suitcases. Or I'd throw them over my shoulder".
He would also complain, "Forget the scythe, Goddamn it, I needed a broom or mop. And I need a vacation...They beg me to take them with me, not realizing I'm too busy as it is...I complain internally as I go about my work, and some years, the souls and bodies don't add up; they multiply." (307-308).
He used his calm, humorous, humane, warm and reasonable voice, tell the story of the book thief; the story of the little girl that he met three times; a story of a girl and her family, partner, and friends, a story between a small town and a country.
A story of the whole world and a person who tried to control the world; a story of life and death.

***A Little Reminder***

Death is always the winner. (His will does not matter.)

We have all read quite a bit about that time period, some are historical, some are not. Some are deep and hard to bear, some are depressing, some are sarcastic. Every single of one of them was trying to the let the world know that it was a very indescribable time.

Everytime I finish them, I wonder why, based on what reasoning, can one people believe that they are superior than others. Being so far away, in both space and time, from the actual disaster, it almost felt like a fictional experience, a dream.

No, or shall I say that people in the whole world all wished that it was just a dream, it was just a fictional experience.

Using Death as the narrator, I think is why Zusak's story differ from others. Who can be more fitted to tell the story other than Death? Who else, in those years, went through all the cities and towns, entered every room and saw every soul and its stories?

The Book Thief is a very difficult book to be set-and-tell; it is impossible to define. Everyone received different things from The Book Thief. It is a book that one cannot see every single aspect of the book from a simple summary or introduction. The only was to just read it, finish it, in a way that no word can be missed, and no time can be wasted.

***A Small Discovery***

The calming voice, is like the way Death speaks.

When the world became clear, I know, this book made the world different. For me.

Even if it was a small, insignificant difference.

The Book Thief post 7

This is like a marathon that will never end...!!!!
I really do apologize to people who actually read my posts and have to deal with the never-ending whining first...Sorry.
Anyhow, I was reading through the posts and realized that I really wanted to add something to the wonderful memory...


I want to talk about the colors in The Book Thief.

The setting for The Book Thief was in the Germany under Hitler's control during World War II. It was a time when the prosecution and persecution towards the Jews sprang and plagued in the areas under the control of Germany.
Zusak used his unique style of writing effectively, using everyday things such as "color", "sky", "cloud", "literature", "words" etc, to accentuate the brutishness of the war at that time and the shining moments of humanity.
The way that Zusak told the story from Death, who narrated in a second-person perspective, was very attractive. He sometimes describes the surroundings very descriptively in order to engage the reader to the upcoming changes or blows; sometimes he pointed out how things are going to end, letting readers fully aware of the result and, slowly and painfully, flipped through the pages, eventually reach the part that is difficult to accept. By doing so, Zusak, from my perspective, let readers' complicated feelings and story both freeze on the forcefully stopped time.
I especially like how he used "color" to connect the whole book. From the beginning, the plot was as pure, clean and white as the book page. However, when the main characters get to their rises and falls, the readers began to see different colors: the color of the books possessed by Liesel, the colors of the constantly changing sky, the grey shine of Hans, the black and white of the accordion, the rises and falls of the wars and the bombing that caused the air the turn nasty grey, the pasty white and dull grey of the victims' bodies, the bright red of blood, the crystal clear blue on the afternoon when Liesel died...Readers saw millions of colors in the book, and every single one of them represented a distinctive meaning.

Ahhh, colors...
Colours.

The Book Thief post 6

Technically, if I follow my one post per week pace, this will be my last post...
However, I could never forget my grand goal--10 posts!!!
Although it has shruk, in size, to 6 posts, but it's existence is undeniable...
Although I really want to deny it.
...
...
Okay, I am falling asleep, which is not a good thing...
But considering the fact that I fell asleep during the Chemistry test for ten minutes, this is unsurprising.
Anyhow, let's brainstorm for this lovely and technically-the-last-one post...

(...At least twenty minutes have elapsed...)

Okay.
I really have no energy to jump up-and-down like I did on the last post...
But...fine...Ding.
There you go... happy now?

Back to the actual post, I want to discuss how a governmental system can change its country and transform its people.

During World War II, the setting of The Book Thief, the Nazi government attempted to eliminate all Jewish people in the territory and purify the German race.
Through the prosecution and persecution towards the Jews, the German race was changed completely as well. Not only in the diversity, or as fascists called it: purification, but also in how the people viewed the world, the government, and themselves.
In My Struggle, before the actual massecre of the Jews, Hitler mentioned how the minorities had brought down the German race and turned social orders in Germany into chaos. Then, anyone with brain would suspect the result of such opinion: the elimination of the Jewish race.
Then why in the world would people support such terrible thing?!
Like we discussed in APWH, a friend of mine provided a very interesting view: Hitler was offering the Germans their pride back. After World War I, Germay was blamed for all the damages and was forced to pay a great amount of restoration funds to the Allies. By saying that the Jews were the ones causing unrest, Hitler found a way out for the Germans. And to regain their pride, Germans happily accepted such belief.

Anyhow, enough of history, let's head into present and generalization.
As civilians, many, or at least myself, believes that the leaders of the country in whether political or other areas are more capable than the ordinary people on fulfilling their duties and performing tasks. Having this kind of thinking, one would agree, if not with little complain, with most things that were decided by the leaders, the "people who are more capable".
By imposing laws and changing the situation of the country, the leaders are transforming the nation as well as people's minds.
Law changes life styles, and one's beliefs and thinking are based on the life style one has and the treatment that one is receiving.

What do you think?

The Book Thief post 5

I really don't think that I create ten posts out of this book...
One, I write too much.
Two, I am picky about what I am writing.
...
...
...


Why do I have to go through the same phase everytime I do a blog post???
I wonder...Hmmmmm.......

And here comes the ah-ha moment--


AH-HA!!!!!
Ding!
Can't you see the light blub which is floating on top of my head went on ??
You should be able to....

Anyway, in life, many things are connected with each other.
And in The Book Thief, Zusak once again showed how things are related to each other.
Liesel's desire for literature affected her family, friendships and loves, it also allowed her to transform many through words.
Her best friend Rudy stayed together with Liesel through the good and bad times as well as the times when she stole books. Their experiences together led to their unchangable friendships.

Max, the Jew who was hiding in Liesel's family's basement, was under the prosecution and persecution from the German armies. The act of reading from Liesel lifted Max's soul up and led him into writing. And Max made books such as The Standover Man and The Word Shaker, and let Liesel experience the power of words and reading.
When the enemies bombed the Himmel Street, the act of reading the Whistler by Liesel calmed the anxiety and fear of the people hiding in the basement.
At the end when the enemy bombed Himmel Street completely and no one survived, it was literature that kept Liesel from Death's hands.
Rudy, Hans, and Max, they were the three most important men in Liesel's life.
Words, the book thief, Death, they are the three things that lock with each other and supported the structure of the whole story.

The Book Thief post 4

...
Okay, I wrote too much on the last post....
Sorry, people.
...
...
Now I am running out of things to write about...
...Crap.

oh.
Oooohhhhh.

As I promised, a little bit on how Death, being the narrator, affected the book.

"Still, it's possible that you might be asking, why does he even need a vacation? What does he need distraction from?
Which brings me to my next point.
It's the leftover humans.
The survivors.
They're the ones I can't stand to look at, although on many occasions I still fail. I deliberately seek out the colors to keep my mind off them, but now and then, I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair, and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs.
Which in turn brings me to the subject I am telling you about tonight, or today, or whatever the hour and color. It's the story of one of those perpetual survivors--an expert at being left behind."

If that explains anything at all.
I sincerely hope that serves you well.

Anyways, directed from that quote, I have a question: Is it really fortunate to be the survivor, or, being the one that was left behind?

During the war, everyone was trying to survive. And many, with the difficult situation, began to do whatever they can to live.

"'And what are you planning to steal?'
He shrugged. 'Money, food, jewelry. Whatever I can get my hands on.' It sounded simple enough."

After the war, people grieved over their losses, and moved on. Some, however, lived in their agony and never survived.

In other words, the people who did not survive were privileged. Because they did not survive, they did not have to face the pain of feeling lives slipping off between their fingers. Because they did not survive, they did not have to face the reality where all their families had perished.
Because they did not survive, they did not have to face the world.
And that was the reason, I guess, why Hitler committed suicide, along with his family, when the war was coming to an end.
People who lived, could not necessarily move on. They were tagged as the survivor of Holocaust, the survivor of the bombing, or, in some cases, the director of the genocide or the source of all wrong-doing.
All these tags reminded them of their misfortune, their losses, and their painful memory.
Perhaps, like Dede in In the Time of the Butterflies, they were the ones who were designated to tell the stories.

The Book Thief post 3

...
I think the blog postings are making my braincells suicide...
They are dying!
DYING, I tell you...!!!
...
...
Let's do a bit of character analysis.
How does that sound?


While many believed that the main character in The Book Thief is Liesel, I think the narrator, Death, dominated the scenes.
Instead of making Death a daunting character, Zusak shaped Death as a sensitive, gentle and humane being who somehow sick of but also enjoying his daily job.
At the very beginning, when Death introduced himself to the readers, he already introduced the book's plot, the contradictory and helplessness of life:

"The question is, what color will everything be at that moment when I come for you? What will the sky be saying? Personally, I like a chocolate-colored sky. Dark, dark chocolate. People say it suits me. I do, however, try to enjoy every color I see--the whole spectrum. A billion or so flavors, none of them quite the same, and a sky to slowly suck on. It takes the edges off the stress. It helps me relax."

Death, being such a unique character and his job as the character who told the story, was very influential. The things he see, the way he describe things, and many more, makes the story very different from if told by Liesel or any other human. And I will write about that in the next blog posting.
The brutishness of war, the partings, either between life and death or goodbyes, were told through Death's rich emotions and the view point of a bystander and led the reader through many ups and downs of how literature can influence people.
When Liesel was rescued from the bombing, Death picked up the black book that Liesel has been written in--The Book Thief-- during the complete chaos. At the very end, when Liesel died and met Death, he gave The Book Thief back to her. She was very surprised that her story was read before, furthermore, someone understood her story.

As I said in the last post, this is a story about the ability of books to feed the soul. About how literature transformed people.
Aside from the book but in the book's setting. The well-known book that was published in World War II, written by Adolf Hitler, My Struggle.
Many became the follower of Hitler after the book, while many became a strong opposition of his. My Struggle, instead of just a book, became the way Hitler secure his power in the society. People were required to own the book, carry the book, hold nothing against the book, believe the book, and most importantly, read the book. If one does not read the book or does not fulfill anything listed above, one would be considered unfaithful to Hitler.
Besides brain-washing purposes, literature also serves as educational tools. People learn lessons from books in general. Themes in each book teach us lessons that we will never forget.

The Book Thief post 2

I realized that the last blog post was very disappointing...
It was short, worthless and pathetic...
So,
Let's see, what should I write here?
Hmmmm....
...
...
...
...
GAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Note: going through the phase of having nothing to write about....)



Meh.
Okay, let's do this.
The Book Thief, so far is a story about the ability of books to feed souls.
Liesel, the book thief, stole books from the mayor's library to satisfy her lust for literature.
I view it differently: Books, at that time, were her only mental support; it was the only thing that can let her escape from reality and deny the fact that herself, family, neighborhood, and even her country was in danger.
During difficult times, people tends to do things to escape from the reality. Their unwillingness to face the difficulty made them not courageous, or even, unsuccessful.
Yes, I do believe in the saying: no pain, no gain.
And yes, not all pain is gain.
Anyhow, by facing the "real world" or confront the fear/difficulty, one will grow conscious of the world around and come to an understanding of how to resolve obstacles.
However, that does not mean that one should never be weak.
It is impossible to not be weak. We ARE weak in certain areas, to certain extent.
And, in my opinion, it is perfectly fine to take steps back and tug you head under the pillow and pretend you didn't see anything.
Liesel, for instance again, mumbled the story to herself in the basement during the bombing. Although she was reading The Whistler to herself, the story soothed the people who were hiding in the basement. They were saved by the words and rescued from fear.
And blinded from the reality as well.
...it is sometimes fortunate to have the ability of being ambiguous.
In the time of the Nazi rule, if one is not clueless of German's action and, if really that "unfortunately", has a sense of justice, one may easily be eliminated from the world.
There are things in the world that it is the best to not realize their existence...
That statement might sound weird, but...
Look around, do you like what you see?
If you do, then you are privileged. Whether due to your ambiguousness or your ability of accepting things.
If you don't, well, join the club.
That's how most people feel when that look at the world: discontent.

The Book Thief post 1

TAKE ONE:
...
...
...
I...um...really have no clue...
Gah, I give up!

TAKE TWO:

I cannot give up twice. I cannot give up twice. I cannot give up twice. I cannot give up twice. I cannot give up twice. I cannot give up twice. I cannot give up twice. I cannot give up twice.

(Note: I am brain-washing myself, you can pretend that you never saw this...)

...
...
Why? Why ME????
...
...

Okay...

Personally, I really like the Book Thief...
It's very different than all the other World War II books that I have read...
Narrated by Death, you have to admit it's cool.

Anyway, I am approximately 100 pages into this book...
Since the book is narrated by Death and the setting is World War II era, the topic of death was brought up frequently in the beginning...
I especially like a quote from the book spoke by Death:
"I am a result" (6).
Death, being the end of everything (that is, in my opinion, afterlife does not exist) as well as the new start of things (as those people who believe in afterlife), is a very tricky thing.
Here in the book, Death believed that it is a result. A result of...everything.
An inescapable, designated end; a result that is bound to happen.
It's always entertaining to look back into history and see people afraid of death and want to live forever (an impossible task).
Life is hard, as many would say, but why do people wish immorality?
There are things in life that peole would treasure: power, money, love, or other values/material goods. And people can never give up or let go of many of these things, hence they don't want to die.
It's difficult, to smile into death and forgo everything you possess.

Journey

Well, apparently for third quater outside reading, we get to blog more!
Bitter and old, my journey with blogging.
...It's kind of weird...
Anyway, so we get to blog more!!
However, think positively, no more post A!!!
Buahahahahahahahaha!!!

( \_/ )
(=*.*=)
(")_ (")

Deception Point post 7B

I don't like blog postings....
Merp.

Just to entertain everyone...
(\_ /)
(='.'=)
(")_(")
BUNNIE!!!!

Okay, now, back to post B...
This has nothing to do with the theme but what the heck.

Can the first impression affect your relationship with one?
I think it can.
In Deception Point, Rachel said "Don't believe in politicians".
I found it quite interesting, since, first, her father is a politician, and this book's gave off the impression that politicians are mostly not trustworthy because they would always want to use you to their benefit.
Well, even afterwards, when Rachel found out that the President is not going to use her to his benefit but just asking her to present an information to his staff, she still doubt it.
Because Rachel had such terrible impression of politicians with her father, even after seeing the virtue of the President she still couldn't fully believe him.
In a more general situation, like meeting a friend of your friend, and you had a terrible first impression with that person, even after being friend with that person, you still have that doubt in your mind--did I made the right decision?
Well, first impression and the assumptions following it can be quite frightening.
Your brain can make up all the things that are just...quite painful and untrue.

Don't judge a book by its cover.

We all know this, but it's difficult to do.
At least every time I go to the book store, I check out the cover first. ::shrug::

Deception Point post 7A

Vocabulary:
Faggot: (n.)
1.A faggot is a homosexual man. (AM INFORMAL, OFFENSIVE)
Trounce: (v.)
1. If you trounce someone in a competition or contest, you defeat them easily or by a large score. (INFORMAL).

Figurative Language:
1. "Plop.": Onomatopoeia, it was used to describe the sound..
2. "...the icebergs looking like diamonds...": Simile, it used like to the icebergs with diamonds.
3. "...He was a giant of man...like an angry Norse god.": Simile, comparing he to an angry Norse god.

Quote:
"'It's...a bug! The meteorite contains the fossil of a bug!'"
This quote shows that NASA found a meteorite contained a bug, and the whole lovely adventure and conflicts starts from there.

Theme:
When facing with multiple answers, the simplest one is usually true.

Deception Point post 6B

So... I started Decption Point, a really good book by Dan Brown who is my favorite author.
It's very interesting so far...

Anyway, I just...wasn't very inspired by this...
...
...
...
...
OH! There we go!
In Deception Point, we fliped back and forth between Rachel Sexton and the political compaign of Senator Sexton.
::sigh::
And, as you might have noticed, it's another family filled with problems.
And, I am not going to get into that.

What I want to talk about in this post is the possible relation between glory and cheating.
I think all or at least most of us have lied to someone before.
And if you have not, well, good for you.
Most of the times we lie due to selfish reasons.
For instance, we don't want to be scorned, punished for what we have done wrong, and in my opinion, it is a twisted form of glory.
Also, there are people like Senator Sexton in this world who lied to create greater benefits to himself.

Another common example: cheating.
It's really similar to what Senator Sexton has done in Deception Point.
One cheats to get more questions correct, and again, glory.

Throughout history, people had used cheating, lying, and forcefully taken over to create benefits, glory anf fulfill one's desire which never ends.

And is it really worth it?
Only time could answer.

Deception Point post 6A

Vocabuary:
Tundra: (n.)
1. Tundra is one of the large flat areas of land in the north of Europe, Asia, and America. The ground below the top layer of soil is always frozen and no trees grow there.
Crevasse: (n.)
1. A crevasse is a large, deep crack in thick ice or rock. He fell down a crevasse.

Figurative Language:
1. "...like an insect hovering inside a cavernous barn, the airborne microbot...": Simile, it used like to compare the ssirborne microbot with an insect.
2. "The man was a...political animal who...": Metaphor, it didn't use like or as to compare the man with a political animal.
3. "The cabin door stood open like a tiny puncture wound....": Similie, comparing the cabin door to the wound.

Quote:
"'Transmit this message. Now.'
Brophy looked at the card. 'I don't understand. This information is incorrect. I didn't--'"
This quote shows that there is some type of deception going on in the background which is contained in the information that people forced Brophy to send.

Theme:
Think about all the possbilities first, then act.