Atlas Shrugged

Rand, Ayn. Atlas Shrugged. (New York, NY: Penguin Group, 1992.) 1168 pp.
Reviewed by Mark Twain, Los Osos High School, Rancho Cucamonga, CA.

It is the 1950s, a time of robber barons and transcontinental railroads, with the barons of the rail and plunder providing the necessary genius required to run human society. Since apparently an IQ of 100 means that you're too stupid to hammer nails in this universe, huh, I don't remember humanity losing 99% of it's most intelligent population until the average became dumber than chimps. Thus enters our hero, Dagny Taggart, the brains behind Taggart Transcontinental, a railroad company that may or may not be the biggest in the fictional States of America. (Odd as it might seem in a world where the average human is too stupid to eat without it being fed to him, this one is of normal intelligence, that is, normal for us, almost.)

In between sleeping with as many intelligent (Someone doesn't understand standard deviation and bell curves, if the average human is too stupid to live, the most intelligent human on the damned fictional planet would also be too stupid to live. Unless the standard deviation is huge, say if the difference between the dumbest person and the smartest is the difference in computing power between one bit of ram and the entire bloody universe. Then the intelligent people can be actually smart, problem is, if that's the case, evolution would have made the fictional world filled with hyper intelligent people aeons ago, people too stupid to live tend to leave the gene pool, increasing the average.) men as possible our hero attempts to save Taggart Transcontinental, spoiler: she fails. All the while society increasing converges against the people smart enough to run their own companies, by taking everything they worked for away from them. (Explain to me how you can be not too stupid to live and still be capable of getting everything you own taken away from you by people too stupid to live. Cause that sounds like a pretty major case of being too stupid to live to me. On second thought, the intelligence bell curve thing is completely plausible.)

The moral of the story?
"Don't take away the work of those more intelligent than you, because apparently that's possible and you won't fail or die in the attempt."

I did not speak of characterization as all of the characters may be summarized in one sentence, one short sentence. With the phrase "and is stupid" appended to the end of all of them.

Is Meta

To quote xkcd: "I'm so meta, even this acronym."


Since talking about what we are doing this week is one of the premissible topics, I shall talk about this. The following sentence is like this one, in that it's a statement, followed by a period. Forced conversation isn't exactly anything remotely close to resembling actual conversation. I'm going to go ahead and drag out a definition of conversation: informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc., by spoken words; oral communication between persons; talk; colloquy. Key word being informal, but alas, we are here to learn how to formally blog, that is, to formally informally exchange thoughts and information. I'm just going to stop that train of thought there before I start resorting to explicatives unfitting for a ... school mandated ... contradiction. In case it wasn't obvious, I don't speak in a fasion remotely resembling how I am now typing unless I am either in a situation resembling this one, or being "majorly" ironic/sarcastic for the purposes of humor.


Given that the most obvious dead horse has been spared the stick, as I would not ever say in anything moderately close to even being almost capable of being described as the state of being vernacular. I find myself incapable to finding topics to formally converse about, since the whole thing is rather ... damaging ... to my carefully cultivated mentality. So yeah, brain shut down time. (Though do bear in mind that what follows is also not how I would speak normally.)


So, yeah, 1984, slaps down them contradictions and not afraids of anything.


Post Script, the end.

Wintergirls

I have recently finished reading the novel, Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson, author of Speak. The book is about a teenage girl, Cassie, who suffers from eating disorders. The story starts off with her after she left the rehab center. Her weight is monitored and is forced to attend therapy sessions. To top it off, her best friend Lia, who also had eating disorders, committed suicide. What truly haunts her, however, is the fact that Lia called her 33 times the night she died.

Throughout the book, I was able to experience Cassie's emotions and struggles as she continued to starve herself and attempt to find peace with Lia's death. Along the way Cassie begins to cut herself as her guilt and stress increases.

I have read many books that deal with serious issues of divorce, drugs, eating disorders, self harm, etc, but what I truly appreciate about this book is its ending. Other books have some ridiculously happy ending that seems a bit unrealistic. Anderson, on the other hand, was able to incorporate scenes involving Lia that leaves the reader wondering if what Cassie saw was real or not. Instead of ending the book with Cassie declaring that she is all better, Anderson shows the reader how Cassie is trying and still fighting a difficult battle, which is in my opinion pretty realistic.

-Stephanie Kim

The Chocolate War

For my independent reading I am reading, "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier. It was published in 1974. So far I have noticed that the tone of the story to be serious.


As I am reading I notice that there are many things that are constantly brought up. Symbols that are being constantly brought up in the story are the chocolates. The title even has the word chocolate in it. So right off the bat you know that chocolate is going to have some meaning in this story. 


The setting of this story is at Trinity school which is an all boys school. Jerry who is a main character refuses to sell chocolates at the chocolate sale. He doesn't like the idea of the chocolates being sold, so he rebels against it. Although his school punishes him he wont cave into selling them and this is where the conflict begins.


As i am reading i wonder if he will give into all the pressure of having to sell the chocolate even if he doesn't think it is right. This story is showing how people can manipulate someone to do something they don't want to.


-Chante E.

The novel "Emma" is one of sophistication and poise. The composition of the novel parallels the main character, Emma Woodhouse. As Jane Austen sets the stage, she introduces the central characters through the eyes of the town people in regards to class, wealth, significance and relevance. The development of Emma is essential to not only the understanding of the motives behind behavior but also the understanding of societal rules and expectancies. Emma's main interest is playing match-maker among the people of the town. She has set up various couples and is determined to continue with her streak. Some begin to consider her actions invasive and encourage her to work on herself by focusing on finding a man to we'd herself. This is just the beginning of what seems to be the story of control changing to the uncontrollable spiral of consequences following inconsiderate actions. In time, we all come to meet "the controller." This person tends to stick themselves in everyone else's business. It is inevitable. We will encounter someone like this at one point or another. What is important to remember is how to deal with these people. Calm respect yet strong confidence is the best weapon to fight the person who believes they know best for you. Also, we must try not to become this person. Itis one thing to care for and look out for someone yet it is a completely different situation once one believes they know someone better than they know themselves. The policy I live by is, "Love everyone. Care for all. Take responsibility for thyself."

The Lone Journey: Fahrenheit 451

So to start, this is my first time posting up a blog, as well as reading this novel; lots of "first times" for me. As some can expect, this will be merely a series in which I talk, er write, er type, about Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451.

I find it quite interesting how banned books are threatened with mass extinction, which is the general plot of this dystopian novel. It starts off with a "fireman" named Guy Montag (we'll call him Montag throughout this series) performing the usual ritual of this "utopian" society: mass banned book burning. The event hated by almost every reader, writer, and intellectual alive, in our world, integrated smoothly into this new society created by Bradbury. It should, at some point, make one think about how the world will turn out to be in the future, where houses will eventually be "fire-proofed" and education becomes very technology-dependent, rather than literary-dependent.

It brings me to another point through the book that really makes me concerned for the future: the behavior and discipline of the newer generations. Throughout the novel Montag runs into an "insane" character Clarisse McClellan and grows close to the seventeen year-old. Upon the eventually usual meet-up, Montag ponders why Clarisse doesn't go to school like most teenagers. Clarisse, open to answer almost any question, explains how she is "antisocial" and "doesn't mix in" with the normal teenager. I find this especially astonishing because as I grew closer to Clarisse, I concluded she's the perfect intellectual and, regretfully, one of the only intellectuals left within that society. She continues to explain that the teenagers now are violent, bored, and blind as education grew to be an automated process. After losing countless friends due to teenage violence, Clarisse decided to lose contact from school and simply explores the neighborhoods and forests, watching. THINKING. That's what has been lost in that society, the ability to THINK as an intellectual. This is my concern: That the newer generations are becoming increasingly mindless. I fear for the worst but, yet, hope for the best. To hope for the day when the heralded utopian concept falls and humans remain human, rather than instinctive beasts performing tasks simply to complete them.

Here's my mentality, people are different for a reason, there shouldn't be "doppelgangers" only to "fit in". Humans must remain inquisitive if we are to survive and retain independence.

--David Lim, Hot Wings

The Age of Innocence

As I continue reading through "The Age of Innocence" by Edith Wharton, a nineteenth century novel about a power couple in upper class New York facing the pressures and expectations of society in the late 1800's, I realize how similar the social elements in that of two centuries ago are similar to those of today. May Welland and Newland Archer are engaged while living in New York, experiencing the high standards that society holds them up to in order to look presentable and better than the average person so that egos would be crushed and people wouldn't gossip. Image appears to be everything for the upper class families. The couple experience drama throughout the novel centered around how important their relationship is and how well the families would look, I'm currently reading about how they're announcing the big event to their friends and relatives, and how the two are trying to make everything according to perfection.

Although the story takes place more than two hundred years ago, the same societal rules still apply to present day. Each day at school, students are urged to look and act their best, or even differently than they're used to in order to attract people towards them. However, that is not always the case, there are some students prove to themselves and their peers that image isn't everything, and comfort is more of a preference for them. While reading the novel, I was reminded of a quote from the movie "Easy A", when the main character says, "People either blend in, or decide not to care." Although most people choose to care about their presence in front of others, I've learned that it's also important to pay attention to personal feelings and if I am okay with what I surround myself with.

As Archer and May spend their days in New York as a couple passing the days lovestruck, I'm curious to read what happens next in this dramatic novel.