March 31, 2007 at 7:05 am · Filed under Books
The first cartoon he ever drew, and the last one, was of 2 rhinoceroses getting married. A regular human preacher in a church was saying to the congregation that anybody who knew any reason these 2 should not be joined together in holy matrimony should speak now or forever hold his peace.
…
“What’s funny about it?” said Jack incredulously. “Where’s your sense of humor? If somebody doesn’t stop the wedding, those 2 will mate and have a baby rhinoceros.”
“Of course,” I said.
For Pete’s sake,” he said, “what could be uglier and dumber than a rhinoceros? Just because something can reproduce, that doesn’t mean it should reproduce.”
I pointed out that to a rhinoceros another rhinoceros was wonderful.
“That’s the point,” he said. “Every kind of animal thinks its own kind of animal is wonderful. So people getting married think they’re wonderful, and that they’re going to have a baby that’s wonderful, when actually they’re as ugly as rhinoceroses. Just because we think we’re so wonderful doesn’t mean we really are. We could be really terrible animals and just never admit it because it would hurt so much.”
- Kurt Vonnegut from Hocus Pocus
Are certain people rhinoceroses? Could I be a rhinoceros? If we could distinguish one animal from the rhinoceroses would that be hurtful or beneficial. Is it right to do so?
January 12, 2007 at 9:24 am · Filed under Books
I’m getting a lot of interesting theories from Born to Buy, and I’m not even that far into it.
Cultivation theory finds that heavy television watchers have their views of the real world shaped by what they see on the screen. For example, they overestimate the extent of crime in the real world because crime is so common in television shows. They are far more fearful of strangers because there’s so much stranger crime on TV. Other research has found that people who watch more television have pronounced biases in their perceptions of how wealthy Americans are, because television disproportionately shows wealthy and upper-middle-class lifestyles.
In statistical analysis I conducted, I discovered that heavier television viewing leads to higher spending and lower saving, presumably through the enhancement of consumer desires.
Early research found that television commercials inflate children’s perceptions of products and that television viewing time is positively correlated with requests. Robinson conducted a six-month classroom intervention to reduce television viewing among third and fourth graders in San Jose, CA. The children whose television viewing time declined made 70 percent fewer toy requests than those in the control group, whose media habits were unchanged.
January 10, 2007 at 3:22 pm · Filed under Books
2 new books from the library:
Born To Buy - Juliet B. Schor (Clear should probably stay away from this one. Her head just might explode.)
Drawing on a significant body of research, including interviews with everyone from advertising executives to the kids themselves, Schor exposes what she believes to be a huge cesspool of materialism, consumerism and commercialization that could be, and perhaps already is, leading to a generation of kids with no concept of what is important and truly necessary in life. By offering up her own ideas of what can be done by parents, educators, advertisers and others to lessen these problems, Schor goes beyond uncovering the problem and into the realm of concrete solutions.
The Men Who Stare at Goats - Jon Ronson
This exploration of the U.S. military’s flirtation with the supernatural is at once funny and tragic. It reads like fiction, with plenty of dialogue and descriptive detail, but as Ronson’s investigation into the government’s peculiar past doings creeps into the present-and into Iraq-it will raise goose bumps. As Ronson reveals, a secret wing of the U.S. military called First Earth Battalion was created in 1979 with the purpose of creating “Warrior Monks,” soldiers capable of walking through walls, becoming invisible, reading minds and even killing a goat simply by staring at it.
November 18, 2006 at 10:24 pm · Filed under Books
I finished reading The Order of the Phoenix for the second time, and I couldn’t help feeling frustrated after the end of it. It seems like (and we know) there are a lot questions to be answered here. JKR doesn’t approach the questions at all or good enough for me. I think Clear:) was right, in that her writing style has been lacking.
For instance, Harry comes back from the Ministry of Magic, he’s told that Sirius is dead. He’s super pissed at Dumbledore for keeping him in the dark for so long. Dumbledore reacts very nonchalant. He admits that he was wrong and chalks it up to “an old man’s mistakes.” Well, that’s how I’m feeling towards JKR right now. I’m Harry, and I want some answers! I just read nearly 900 pages and I’m still in the dark here. He learns a prophesy and Sirius dies. That’s it.
Sirius was in the “Death Chamber,” He falls behind the veil, and everyone says “Let him go Harry. He’s dead.” Ughhh….what? Ok, you’re telling me he’s dead, but would you mind giving me some back story here. Harry should be asking what is the “Death Chamber” and this veil? All we know is that he can hear murmurs coming from the other side of it. Yet, it’s in a large auditorium. What’s the room for, because it’s different from all of the others. The “Time Chamber” has clocks and time turners in it. The “Thought Chamber” has brains floating in it. One of them unravels and wraps around Ron. Why it did that, I have no clue? I think Harry should have been asking these questions along with many others to fill us, the readers, in. It would be common sense for him to ask these questions and he doesn’t. Wouldn’t you like to know how Sirius died, instead of accepting “Oh he fell into the mysterious curtain? He’s gone.”
Harry, then, finds this two-way mirror that Sirius gave him. It would have allowed him to contact Sirius in secret. Well, Goddammit! Are you kidding me? Harry, how could you be so incompetent that you forgot to open this gift that your beloved Uncle gave you. This could have prevented the entire cat and mouse game you played in the Ministry of Magic. You wouldn’t have overreacted and had to use the floo network. You could have had direct contact with him every night. So, what does he do next? He breaks the mirror. Way to go.
Then, he runs into Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost. He expects Sirius to return as a ghost, too. But Nearly Headless Nick has no explanation for the afterlife. He says, “Well, I was too scared to keep going. That’s why I returned as a ghost.” OK, that’s kind of an answer. Sirius must have passed directly into the afterlife instead of the ghostly limbo. Next, we randomly meet Luna Lovegood, who has also lost her belongings. She says people always steal her things, but they always turn up. And she leaves. Wha…? Are these two related? Is Sirius going to just “turn up” without any explanation when he’s considered dead.
The next problem I have is with Harry’s parents. WHO WERE THEY?! I can understand him not knowing anything about them in his first year. He didn’t know he was a wizard and the Dursleys had lied to him until he was 10. Five years have passed, and he still doesn’t know anything about them. What were their jobs after school and what were they like? It’s not until his 5th year, that he finds out that his dad was a cocky jerk and his mom hated him at the time. Up until now, he’s just seen pictures and knew that they stood up against Voldemort. Why isn’t he asking or anyone told him anything about them until now. Again, what job did they do? Harry has to decide on a career field in this book, and wouldn’t it have been nice to have said, “I want to be a *blank* just like my Mom or Dad?”
Secondary characters. From the beginning, we know that Albus Dumbledore is this all powerful wizard. He holds some of the highest ranks of wizards. He practically started the Order of the Phoenix, and he’s the only one who Voldemort has feared. It’s pretty substancial, right? Do you know who else was in the Order of the Phoenix? … His brother, Aberforth! Exscuse me! Why doesn’t he receive a greater mention than this. Supposedly, he’s illiterate and an oddball, but still why isn’t he currently contributing to the Order. Why aren’t Harry and the gang asking questions about the brother of one of the greatest wizards who ever lived? Instead, we learn about Hagrid’s retarded giant brother.
Come on JKR! Stop throwing us scraps here and give us a bone. In a 900 page book, I would expect answers not questions. I’m going to re-read the Half-Blood Prince, and this book only opens up more questions. And my rage here will probably get worse. It seems like the first three books were good stand alone books. They asked questions and answered them by the end of the story. However, these last few all revolve around the return of Voldemort, and they just aren’t cohesive enough. We keep getting fed bit by bit. I’m just afraid that Book 7 isn’t going to live up to my expectations and leave us with many unanswered questions or consist after surprise after surprise - le fin.
November 9, 2006 at 11:57 pm · Filed under Books
I haven’t read a book from front to back in awhile. It looks like The Sirens of Titan was my last read. In the wake of reading Harry Potter articles, I’m now re-reading through the Order of the Phoenix. I should really skip to the end, since that’s the only part that matters, but what the heck. Book 7 wont be out for another year. Since most of it is still fresh, I’m jogging through it fairly rapidly. I’ve checked out the Half Blood Prince from the library to keep the flow going.
And while in Borders, I noticed Bringing Down the House and started reading through it, too. I’ve heard many of my buddies, who play poker, talking about it, and it sounded intriguing. Essentially, some MIT students perfect the art of card counting and take the Casinos and Vegas for millions. They have some good times, create fake identities, get asked to leave a few Casinos, and train others to take their places. It’s nice to hear about people gaming a system that’s meant for people to lose.
