Reading Post

this week i read Wizard of Oz; the classic tale of Dorothy being taken in a storm and waking in the blissfull place of Oz. shes completely confused and unsure as to what had happened, but realizes she, "isn't in Kansas anymore." she had landed on the wicked which of the east, and now is the owner of the red ruby slippers. she is told by a beautiful angel figure to visit the wizard of oz if she wishes to return home. on her journey down the yellow brick road that the godmother had told her of , she meets the other main characters; the cowardly lion, the frightened scarecrow, and the heartless tin man. they all join the voyage in hopes that the wizard could help all of them. they run into a problem though, the wicked witch of the west is hunting her down through the story in order to gain back the slippers that Dorothy now processes. the witch hunts her down and takes her away from the trio she had gained on her trip, and now it is their job to save her before it is too late. they are successful and able to continue the journey, but once there at the emerald city, the home of the wizard, they are denied entrance at the doorway. Dorothy looses it and now is afraid she will never be able to go home to Kansas to see her family again. the tears she sheds causes the doorkeeper to breakdown and allow her admission to the city. the fantastic craziness found within the city explains as to why the city is isolated. shes in awe over the fantasies within the walls; the color changing horses, the miniature peoples, the riches galore. they meet the wizard deep within his own keep, and uncover his scam. hes human, and nothing more. but even this being so, he is still able to help these travelers. he helps Dorothy get back to her home in Kansas, and when she awakens she realizes she had never actually left but was unconscious in her bed. she had been hit in the head during the storm and dreamt the entire place. but the ironic points of this are the people she dreamt of are real, and happen to be the most important people of her life. she comes to realize tat she never needed to leave home to see what she had all along. she is perfectly happy with this as well, contempt within her own little life.

Reading Log

this week for my reading post, i had read the jungle book. i had rememebrred this movie from being a child, and decided to read it as if the intelectual level may have increased within the words. the book started off just as the movies, and introduces our tarzan like character. the concept that a child was raised by wolves and is taught life lessons from a bear seems completely rediculious, but gets the points of life across well. its as though the bear became more of a godlike figure in order to make a kid's life realistic or plausable to others. this creature taught the child what was needed in order to live or what could keep him alive out in the wilderness. it played the role of being a father to this kid, even though they could never really speak to each other. but that thought alone kind of makes this story depressing, you want the character to survive and live on even though his youth seems impossible to achieve. later on our main character in pushed, not into the wild, but into civilazation. he meets a girl, and meets the people who had apparently lived veery clsoe to him all of his life. it turns out though these people's intentions arent pure, and they plan to tear down parts of the jungle that house the animals that raised him. he becomes enraged and makes it his mission to save these creatures. he does so though, but only through the help of the animals and what theyve taught him, how to live. these infused "animal instincts" managed to save everything he knew, and the animals he called family. because a bear raised this man, his life was completely altered for the better. its as though tehe animal side of him got the better of him.

Reading log

This week I went ahead And read a section of frankenstein. I had read the entire book earlier in the year but was foggy in certain parts. I had readers portion where the monster begins to come to life yet again, but if frustraited and ao upset with himself. He had never realized that he truly was a monster and that no one wanted to w around him because of his appearance. He had gone ahead and began to learn everythin He could through reading and hearing the family he has been watching for weeks. he began to become just as intelligent as victor, if not smarter now..
From all of this I was able to grasp that his life has become a livin hell, and he's tryin to gain all knowledge to get back at victor, the right way. He was furious, frustraited, In agony, and torn from within. It's as though he has given up on life and a chance of normality, and accepted The fact he is truly a monster; a creature to roam the world in horror.

Notes 2 & 3

note 2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM48B-MUBzs
I'm the opening scene of Brave heart, our character is with his beloved wife on horse back. we see him in the happiest moments of his life, but shortly they are to be taken. shortly after his wife is murdered and William
Wallace, our tragic hero, begins to seek revenge. the death of his only true love dictated his life completely, and drove him to his own death. he begins to slowly build an army to retake the life of his fallen angel. he succeeds in the force but is ended up in enemy hands as a prisoner of war. the daughter of the man trying to kill this "brave heart" ends up sneaking to him in his cell which is his last moment of life. she begs him to take a poison so he'd feel no pain, but the fact that his own heart is now shattered, he sees no reason to live and spits it out. hes put onto the chopping board basically, tortured and mutilated in front of hundreds, and sees his own death. this inspires millions to rebel against the, now even more hated, English crown who was trying to engulf their land. they drive to victory in William's name.
the fact of the matter is that the deaths in this film hit home at the hearts of those around them. in consumes its relatives, and pushes them to the extremes in order to seek justice. William himself rose from the ashes of his widow and put the country on his shoulders to seek the revenge of his beloved. he drove to victory, he reclaimed his land, and he saved the names of thousands who died just as his wife did. his acts of heroism were born with the death of his closest love, and look what happened when his ow  time was done; the country did the same.

note 3


Bright Day
By Stanley Moss b. 1925 Stanley Moss 


I sing this morning: Hello, hello.
I proclaim the bright day of the soul.
The sun is a good fellow,
the devil is a good guy, no deaths today I know.
I live because I live. I do not die because I cannot die.
In Tuscan sunlight Masaccio
painted his belief that St. Peter’s shadow
cured a cripple, gave him back his sight.
I’ve come through eighty-five summers. I walk in sunlight.
In my garden, death questions every root, flowers reply.
I know the dark night of the soul
does not need God’s eye,
as a beggar does not need a hand or a bowl.

in the poem above, the aspect of death seems to be somewhat hidden within. the speaker tells the reader of his troubles and how he no longer fears death, or its upcoming.  he speaks of his years , and how he still has plenty more. he tells a tale of how his own garden warns him, and feels the same as him in the lines, "I’ve come through eighty-five summers. I walk in sunlight. In my garden, death questions every root, flowers reply." he also whispers of the heavens and hell, as to how the devil wont claim him today nor god need to tell him when its his time. but through all these messages, death shows itself as an impending release, not so much a dreaded date. he speaks of St Peter, and how the saint cured a man's site only by letting his shadow cast upon him. through the Epiphany our speaker continues to show his fearlessness of the dark death seeking him here soon, and continues to show he enjoys living. death doesn't necessarily have to be a villainous shadow, but more as a ship seeking to only take you on. the end doesn't need to be bad, as this speaker has so boldly shown in his eighty-five years of breathing.

Reading log

Over spring break I had plenty of time to read a variety of books. But my favorite from this selection would have to be Alice in wonderland. I felt as though this book portrayed a greater message, or was most detailed. The details and descriptions of the characters and setting were flabbergasting. Through the book Alice is trying to basically discover herself within the dream she had been in. she enters this imaginary dream world and meets most of our background characters who are each a part of her or are suppose to lead her to the queen of the evil empire trying to consume the dreamy stated world. Throughout the bOok Alice encounters plenty of challenges to over come. At one point she's in a tea party, and the next thing you know she's a giant because she ate a cookie. Or maybe it was the flamboyant cat that mysteriously seems to know exactly what Alice needs at every point. In the end the queen challenges Alice to a game of croquay. Ironically this game is twisted as they are hitting porky pines as balls and using flambingos as clubs. Alice ended up being forced back into a state of reality from the queens rage from missing the last shot. When she awakens she seems happier or satisfied with herself. It's as though this opifiny awakens her from within herself. It's as though she took aspects of her life and made them events within the dreams, and from my knowledge the queen was her mother. But it seems as she has become content with her after this spark of twisted insanity is over.

Exercise #3

these reviews that i have read all seem to be composed in similar fashions. they almost always introduce the characters right away and then define the setting and plot. it basically seems like an informal guide of what to expect when reading this book, almost like bullet notes composed in a more stylish manner. these reviews seem to have a sense of blankness, almost like they were just composed after spot reading the book. but in the other hand, they seem to pay enough attention to the subject to give the readers an understanding of what is to come. i had read the reviews for The Hobbit, The Hunger Games, and The Davinci Code. they all seemed to be about the same genre, which probably didn't help differentiate the reviews much, but they were good. they seemed to be the definition that i have laid out. their information about the settings or plots were abrupt but very useful, and same with the introductions of characters. for both of these they only briefly described, if not at all, the characters with details. it basically always seemed to just be a summarized version of the book.

personally, i believe that a review should be somewhat like these ones that i have read. it needs to be informal but not too long, good set up and understanding of the material that the review covers, and shouldn't really have any inferences so it keeps its respect as a review, not so much a critique. it should end up looking something like the reading blogs we've been keeping, just leaving out the inferences.

Reading Log

this past week i went on into reading The Hobbit. my reasoning for choosing this book is because i had read the three lord of the rings books, as previously blogged about. this book was fairly good compared to the other three. it began with Bilbo Baggens and him going on an adventure through the smokey mountains and through the elvish cities. him and his crew of hobbits traveled through a brush of woods and stumbled upon a group of trolls, who ended up kidnapping these half lings. they ended up staying the night tied up, but during this the trolls were bickering and arguing on how they may go about cooking up the half sized humans for the best meal. this fighting ended up lasting so long that the sun came up, and turned the trolls to stone....
later on in this adventure, Bilbo ended up alone and lured into Gollum's cave. he ran across a ring though while walking through this deep crevice, and was mesmerized by its power to turn him invisible. now quietly walking through the cave, he ran into the creature who the ring previously belonged to. Bilbo, not wanting to give up the ring, asked the creature to guess what was in his pocket, and Gollum could have it. he gave him three tries, and all three times Gollum was wrong. mistakenly the creature calls the ring precious, not a ring, which ends up making him loose the ring.

this book was surprisingly good, and leads into the trilogy well. the way this book was written, and described through its details made it extremely easy, and exciting to read. id recommend this to most.