Looking For Alaska

Another book I chose was Looking For Alaska, by John Green. Now... for my first two books, I followed the same pattern of posting. For this book, however, I am going to do something new. I really liked this book, and I think that if I did the whole summary, message, and meaning/connection thing, I very well could ruin the book for someone (and no I'm not just using that as an excuse, I read the book and liked it and think other people should read it). Anyways, I want to use a single quote that struck me as one of the coolest ideas I have heard in a long, long time...

"We need never be hopeless, because we can
never be irreparably broken. We think
we are invincible because we are."
(page 220)

I like this quote because it can mean a lot to anybody, and anybody could relate or apply it in some way to their lives. It not only brings hope and strength, but enlightens a new style of alternative thinking that even if not agreed with, it still causes open mindedness that is healthy and important for any mind. I mean, when I read that quote, I can relate to it in several ways and in all of them it gives hope and tells me that maybe not physically, but spiritually I am invincible; nothing can kill me. There will be things that make me feel like I'm close, but nothing that is irreparably broken. I am invincible. To me, that's just an awesome thought. Hopefully, after reading this quote and possibly thinking about it for yourself, it has sparked some interest. There is a book, it's really good, about a boy's journey to come to this conclusion. If you're interested in checking it out, it's called Looking For Alaska. Happy reading...

Vernon God Little Meaning/Connection

Although after reading Vernon God Little, and understanding DBC Pierre's intent of viewing America and the media with different points of view, I thought that it was even more interesting when it made me think about how humans naturally tend to want someone or something to blame for anything and everything that goes wrong. At first, it seems like an unimportant topic, but after I thought about it for a while, maybe that is because we are so used to it happening. I mean, when was the last time you can remember something bad happening, and you simply saying, "Shit happens," (pardon my french) instead of thinking and talking and thinking about who did what and what caused who to want to do what... you get the point. After that thought came to my mind, my first reaction was, well, don't you have to figure out what happened in order to insure justice and catch the person or thing that caused the wrongdoing? But after thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that humans simply like knowing that something or somebody is being punished and when they know that, they feel like the situation is being taken care of and justice is being served. In other words, if someone is being punished or something being blamed for something bad happening, most people will pay very little attention to whether or not the person or idea should be persecuted because they just want justice as quickly and conveniently as possible. Maybe, just maybe, sometimes we should just accept that things don't always go the way we want them to and thats just life, instead of finding something or someone to lay the blame on to make ourselves feel better.

Vernon God Little Message

After reading Vernon God Little, I came to think about how much the media can affect people's opinions and thoughts, and how whenever something goes wrong, we always want something or someone to blame, and often will go as far as it takes to find a scapegoat. I think that DBC Pierre wasn't necessarily trying to convey a single message, but he wanted to open minds to new perspectives on America as a society and the media and its powers. By providing a satirical, funny point of view on these issues, Pierre wanted reading this book makes you think about them in a new sense and become more aware of all sides of every story.

Vernon God Little Summary

For another book I read, I chose Vernon God Little, by DBC Pierre. Vernon Little is an average fifteen year old living in a small town in Texas with his mother. However, one fateful day at school, Vernon witnesses his best and only friend Jesus Navarro flip out and shoot sixteen kids before taking his own life. Vernon is immediately pinned as an accomplice by the townspeople, police, and media. After such a horrific tragedy, all of these people demanded someone to blame, or someone that was at least alive that had something to do with it. Unfortunately, they choose Vernon as their scapegoat, despite him being completely innocent. For a while, Vernon goes in and out of police custody for questioning, but even while at home he is never left alone. Vernon's mom is the kind of woman that either isn't too bright or simply chooses to ignore what is occurring and instead goes on living like nothing is happening. While at home, a reporter known as Lally tries to befriend Vernon and convince him to tell the story to the public through him. Lally says that he knows Vernon is innocent and he could help the situation by letting the public know what was going on. After a while without much happening, Lally moves in with Vernon's mom and him after making Vernon's mom think she was in love with him. As soon as he is in, he immediately starts being a complete jerk towards Vernon and starts plotting to use Vernon as a scapegoat and get a huge story out of it. After a period of time where this continues and Vernon keeps getting questioned by the police and judge, Vernon is made to see a psychiatrist to be evaluated. When he gets there, the doctor turns out to be some sort of molester, and before anything happens, Vernon leaves the office and refuses to go back. After that, Lally keeps making things worse for Vernon, and it becomes clear that nobody is believing him, so Vernon decides he needs to leave town. While he is going, Lally sees him and Vernon punches Lally in the face and leaves while he is down. After he is gone, Lally calls the sheriff and when he gets there Lally kills him and makes it look like Vernon did it. Vernon leaves town towards Houston to try and meet up with Taylor Furgeson, a girl he has had a crush on since he met her when she was a senior and he saw her at a party. As soon as Vernon meets up with her at a mall, they get to talking and it seems like Taylor kind of likes him. However, Taylor's aunt meets up with them, and Vernon recognizes her as one of his mom's best friends, so he runs off. A day or so later Vernon ends up in Mexico after crossing the border to try and escape. He starts hitchhiking, and gets picked up by a Mexican trucker who befriends him. The trip they go on leads to stopping at bars and getting drunk until they pass out, and eventually coming to the truckers home in a tourist city on the coast, where Vernon is welcomed to stay for a while. Vernon starts talking to Taylor on the phone, and she wants to send him money to help him out. While watching the news, Vernon's picture is always up and new news that he had apparently been witnessed in the past week or so committing around thirty murders all around the state of Texas, which obviously never happened. On the day he was expecting the money to come, instead Taylor showed up herself. They go to a hotel, and start doing stuff when Taylor keeps asking Vernon to tell her how he killed all those people as if she thought it was cool, and finally to get her to stop and just do stuff with him he says that he did it. Turns out that Taylor had a microphone and Lally had convinced her that she had a future in media and that if she did this for him he would help her. So then the police came and brought Vernon to jail back in Texas while Lally looked like a hero. After being in jail for a while, Vernon starts to mature and become more responsible. Then, after his trial, Vernon is tried innocent of all the random deaths across Texas, but guilty for the sixteen at his school, and he is given the death penalty. On death row, another convict who everybody in the jail, including the guards respect talks to Vernon about life and all sorts of things, and how if Vernon wanted to fix things, the way to get what you want in life is to give people what they want in order to get what you want. Meanwhile, Lally has come up with this crazy scheme to have internet showings of the prisoners and have the public vote on which one on death row will go first, and then show the death and all this random crazy stuff, which would all make lots of money because criminals and television make money, and the money would help pay for the government to keep the prisoners. Vernon is thinking about what he learned from LaSalle, the other convict, and starts thinking about everyone he knows and what they want the most. He comes up with everything, even for people he hates like Lally, and sends them all letters helping them out with what they want. After they all receive their letters, Vernon is chosen to go next to die. While he is being injected, Vernon has an out of body experience where he sees all of those people getting what they want, and then turning out in Vernon's favor. He told Lally where another weapon was, so Lally went to get it, and next to it was a bottle of ginseng extract that Vernon had taken from Lally to hide LSD in. Lally unsuspectingly drinks it and starts walking around the town all messed up going crazy on acid with a gun that now has his fingerprints all over it. The deputy sheriff knew from Vernon's letter that something was going to happen that would help her career and she went patrolling and saw all of this. Taylor knew that something was going to happen that would make her a huge reporter if she got the story, so when they all showed up, Lally freaked out and shot at Taylor and then the deputy shot him. Meanwhile, Vernon's lawyer got a letter saying where evidence that Vernon was gone at the time that Jesus was doing the shooting, and had called the people in charge of his execution. Then Vernon woke up in the hospital, alive, to find out his pardon had come through, and Vernon was free to go.

Godless Meaning/Connection

After reading this book and pondering the message it is sending, I began to think about how religion affects people's lives and how it can be argued that it is good and bad. As a sixteen year old high school male, I personally don't agree with how religion is portrayed and dealt with in modern times. I often question not only my own "faith" but others' as well and even established religion as a whole, so I think that if Pete Hautman could choose someone to read his book and understand the message, I think that I would be a pretty good candidate. For me, the point is not whether I believe in God and am devoutly religious or not, but instead how religion is viewed and treated in the world today. All around the world, but especially in a place like Edina, where the vast majority of people are Christians of some form, religion is something that if you don't have, you are in a way labeled as an outcast. To me it seems like anyone who believes in a religion thinks that their religion is the "right" one, and that others are flawed and insubstantial. I mean sure, obviously people will believe their own religion is correct, but at the same time all it really accomplishes is dividing people, groups, countries, and races. If you look at the basis of all the worlds' most practiced religions, it is easy to see that nearly all of them are basically about the same things. Sure, every one has its unique characteristics, but in the end they all convey the message of faith towards a god or higher power to achieve happiness and be saved in life and afterlife. What I am trying to get at is that though religion may be something nice to have in life, you shouldn't let it overwhelm and control your beliefs and thoughts; everyone should keep an open mind to all sorts of ideas and opinions, and even if you don't believe them yourself, at least accept them and understand that many people feel as strongly about those beliefs, or even lack of them, as you do about your own.




...post-script: I understand this post can be considered extremely controversial. In fact, after just reading this you may be a little upset and feel attacked in some way. If that is the case, good. I can handle having people mad at my thoughts, because I know that at least it got you thinking...

Godless Message

After reading Godless, numerous messages came to mind. I felt that the book was trying to talk to people who were questioning their faith, especially teenagers who didn't necessarily agree with the same religion as their parents, or any religion at all. What Pete Hautman was trying to convey was not that everyone should be Catholic, or even believe in Christianity, but that in order to have the most full, meaningful life, one should have pure faith in something. With this book, he is not celebrating or putting down established religion, but trying to provoke exploration of faith and unique ideas, and questioning both of those until you come to strengthening them.

Godless Summary

For one of my books, I chose Godless, by Pete Hautman. Jason Bock, a large but generally friendly teenager, is trying to figure out what to do with his summer. His parents, especially his dad, are very Catholic, but Jason himself thinks of the Catholic religion as a waste of time and doesn't believe in any of it at all. One day while he is walking around with his shy, strange but very smart friend Shin, they run into Henry Stagg. Henry is the kind of kid that you see as unpredictably crazy, and even though he isn't big or strong, you can easily be afraid of him. One thing leads to another and Jason finds himself on his back after being punched in the face, staring up at the town water tower. He has a mini epiphany, thinking about how without water, life does not continue, and how in a way water is god over humans. And what controls the water? Water towers. Jason and Shin decide to start their own religion worshiping water towers. As quickly as it started, the religion they called Chutengodianism began to grow with both members and importance to them. Dan, the preacher's son, joins, as well as Magda Price, a girl who Jason secretly has a crush on, and even Henry Stagg. They all appoint each other mock titles, such as "Chief Kahuna," and "High Priestess." Though they pretend to take it seriously, they all know that water towers are not gods and the whole thing is kind of a joke. Shin, however, starts getting creepily into the whole idea of the religion, writing pages and pages of their new bible, obsessing over how important it is, and even seriously claiming that when he talks about it and writes about it, the water tower is speaking through him. One night, all the members sneak out and meet up at the water tower to have a "midnight mass," by climbing the water tower and having the meeting on top of "the godhead." All of them make it up fine, except Shin, who was scared of heights. While they were already up waiting for Shin, he freaked out and went home instead. When they were on top of the tower, unpredictable Henry pulled out a hacksaw and broke off the lock to get inside of the water tower. All of them end up swimming inside of the water tower, but when they come back out, things start to go wrong. Because of the combination of the smooth metal of the the tank and his wet body, Henry slips and falls towards the edge of the tank. They try to pull him back up, but he falls. Luckily, instead of falling to his death, Henry lands on the catwalk around thirty feet below, but still breaks his leg severely. As they rush down to help him, the police show up and they all get taken away. After the incident, the members all seem to go their separate ways. While Magda and Henry seem to start having a thing, Jason sits at home, grounded and jealous, Shin is constantly working on the new bible and trying to figure out how he can get to the top of the godhead, and Tom is never even heard from. After a while of this, Jason is laying in bed one night looking at the water tower out his window when it a lightning storm brews up. With each flash of lightning, he can see the silhouette of a person on top of the tower. Realizing it had to be Shin, Jason sneaks out to try and save him. Once he gets up the tower, Jason can't convince Shin to come down, and instead, they go inside the tower once again because if they are in the water the lightning will not hit them, instead just running down the exterior metal. After around three hours of waiting for the storm to die, Shin still won't leave, so Jason has no choice but to leave and call the police and fire department to get Shin down. Eventually things calm down again and slowly get back to normal, but Jason learns a valuable lesson. While sitting in the hospital because Henry had hit him across the head with his crutch after Henry angrily provoked him, Jason realizes that whether it is Catholicism, Chutengodianism, or anything at all, faith is something that is valuable to have in life. In the end, he talks about how he envies those who truly believe in something, and how he wants to believe in something, anything as long as he truly believes it.

3rd Quarter Outside Reading Blogging Outline

So, for those of you who have seen my blog and started to wonder why I have not yet posted (Ms. Tholen), don't worry. I personally do not like doing work on a book in the middle of reading it, so what I have decided to do is read three different books, and then blog on them after I finish. I read Godless by Pete Hautman, Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre, and Looking for Alaska by John Green. For each book, I am going to first post a summary of the entire book, then a post for what meaning and/or message I feel the book is trying to convey, and finally a post on what that message means to me or connect it to something in the outside world to go above and beyond just the story itself.

Well, here goes...


post-script: quality over quantity...

I Just Want My Pants Back

P.S.- just for everybody's information, Jason does indeed find his pants. He sees them being worn by a guy who is beating him up. So, although he does find them, he doesn't actually get his pants back.

I Just Want My Pants Back 7B

So, this was an awesome book. In the end, Jason never gets his pants back, but he learns a much more valuable lesson. Sometimes there are things in life that get you sidetracked and make it so you don't know what to do with your life, but the best thing to do is listen to your friends and use your talents to make yourself a happy life. Patty ends up dying from cancer, and Jason is very sad about her death, but learns from it and what she told him before she died. He starts cleaning up his life, leads a wonderful wedding for his friends Eric and Stacey, and everything turned out okay. This book was one of the funniest I have ever read, and still managed to include a good life lesson. I strongly recommend it to anybody who likes either a good read, a good laugh, or both.

I Just Want My Pants Back 7A

debacle = noun= a general breakup or dispersion; sudden downfall or rout (176)

atrophying= progressive noun= a wasting away of the body or of an organ or part, as from defective nutrition or nerve damage (185)

"Tonight, I just wanted to be like a country song and drink to forget." (page 176) simile because comparing with "like"

"... I needed a new bed, that mine was like lying on a chain-link fence." (185) simile because comparing with "like"

"I was a piece of cake all day. It's a demanding job!" (207) metaphor because he was comparing himself to a piece of cake.

"'I think the world of you, Jason. You know that. You could be a star. You could also end up a cynical New York asshole- you know, you see them on the train, a really intelligent, really bitter nothing who's forgotten how to smile.'" This quote, at least for me, summed up the lesson of the book. Jason has nearly endless possibilities with his talents, he just has to take them.

Sometimes there are things in life that get you sidetracked and make it so you don't know what to do with your life, but the best thing to do is listen to your friends and use your talents to make yourself a happy life.

I Just Want My Pants Back 6B

I am a little confused about Patty. She seems like a great person, especially one that Jason could, in a sense, look up to, but she still has lots of bad habits. She drinks, smokes marijuana, and is always smoking a cigarette. However, I think because of her habits, she seems very sick. She is always coughing and stuff, and I suspect that she may have lung cancer. "We drained our beers and walked outside. Patty immediately lit up a cigarette." (page 131). So, reading this made me wonder exactly how many people are affected by smoking. I did some research, and came up with some pretty interesting results. In the United States, an estimated 25.9 million men (23.9 percent) and 20.7 million women (18.1 percent) are smokers. That is a lot of smokers. Every eight seconds, a human life is lost to tobacco use somewhere in the world. That ends up being around 5 million deaths annually. Half of all long-term smokers will die a tobacco-related death. That means that cigarettes have killed more people this year than war has. I find that quite interesting and also quite disturbing. John out.

I Just Want My Pants Back 6A

gesticulated= verb = to make or use gestures, esp. in an animated or excited manner with or instead of speech. (page 128)

partition= noun = a division into or distribution in portions or shares. (130)

"I could feel the trail of fire go from the back of my tongue down through my pipes until it hit bottom and spread wildly in the dry grass of my stomach." (page 128-129). metaphor because it's saying that the whiskey shot is fire.

"I wasn't an amateur when it came to shots, but sometimes when you haven't properly girded yourself, they can be a quite a shock to the system, like jumping into a really cold pond." (page 129) simile because it's comparing taking a shot of liquor to jumping into a cold pond.

"Those guys are just dogs eating garbage, in my book." (page 132) metaphor because she is saying that people are dogs.

"At this point in a late, late night, trying to wake up was among the stupidest things I could choose to do." (page 133). Jason is still abusing occasional drugs and lots of alcohol, but differently from before, now he has started to recognize how stupid some of his decisions are and how they could negatively effect him.

Jason has started hanging out with Patty, who most likely will become a good influence on him, and he has started to realize that a lot of his decisions turn out badly for him, and he may need to turn things around.

I Just Want My Pants Back 5B

In the recent parts of the book that I have been reading, Jason has become increasingly more friendly with his neighbor Patty. Patty is an older woman who has an apartment just across the hall from Jason. They have started to talk more, and even hang out, go out for some drinks and stuff. "Patty excused herself to go to the bathroom and I chipped away at my beer. I wondered if people might think i was out boozing with my mom." (page 127). However, Patty seems pretty cool so far, and Jason seems to really like her. I think that it is definitely good for Jason to have some sort of older figure that he can somewhat look up to or that can at least help him to make smarter decisions in his life. "Well, he knows I know Robert. But it's all in the tone of voice. It's the same with dogs. You have to talk to them like you're their master, that's the key. You don't ask them to sit- you tell them." (page 126).

I Just Want My Pants Back 5A

cacophonous= adj = having a harsh or discordant sound. (page 114)

neurotic= adj = of, pertaining to, or characteristic of neurosis. (page 115)

"'Think of this as the Super Bowl of their life. Never will they have more people gather to see them, rooting for not only a win, but also for a good game.'" (page 120) simile -comparing with "as"

"I could feel The Fear sneaking up on me." ( page 113) personification- giving a feeling a name and human characteristics.

"The hall was decorated on both sides with framed paintings of various biblical scenes, along with black-and-white shots of Masada and the Wailing Wall." (page 115) imagery- because it is implanting images of the where the action is taking place.

"After only three blocks, though, the damn battery died and I was back in cacophonous reality." (page 114) This quote shows how Jason absentmindedly tends to try and avoid reality and situations he doesn't like. He likes to kind of live in his own little bubble in which he chooses what happens.

Jason has been confusing and mixing up his priorities, with his social life, his drinking/drug abuse, and his job situation, and needs to straighten things out.

I Just Want My Pants Back 4B

Recently in I Just Want My Pants Back, Jason hasn't been any more lucky with the ladies. He keeps on daydreaming about things working out, but doesn't really take any action, or if he does, it never works out. "I wanted to plant a flag on her pubis and proclaim to the four winds, "All this territory, including the hills to the north, belongs to me." But it wasn't going to happen. It turned out she had a boyfriend too, a boyfriend who showed up and bought us a round. He seemed like a good guy, the bastard." (page 75). I think that Jason is having trouble mainly because he is trying to hard and worrying about things too much, but at the same exact time he doesn't work hard at fixing up the other things in life like his lifestyle and job situation. I think that if Jason wants to turn things around for the better, he should simply switch the two styles he has: don't worry or try to hard with women, and work harder at fixing his job situation and taking better care of himself.

I Just Want My Pants Back 4A

pious= having or showing a dutiful spirit of reverence for God or an earnest wish to fulfill religious obligations. (page 101)

denomination= a name or designation, esp. one for a class of things. (102)

"'That was like iwo Jima,' i said, ...." simile (comparing with "like") (page 102)

"That sounded like a setup line for a cheap joke." (simile comparing with like) page 105

"Who knows, maybe it will be his Pulp Fiction." metaphor (comparing directly) page 107

"I started thinking about the sixteen-hour drive I used to make twice a year during college, from Missouri to Itaca and vice versa, alone in my bad little beige 1986 Honda Civic."
This quote is significant because it shows how because he has very little do to, Jason doesn't know how to handle himself or what to do with his life, so he has started spending a lot of time reminiscing about the past. If he keeps this up, he may never figure out what to do with his life, which is one of the main conflicts he is having with himself.

Jason still doesn't know what's going on in his life or what to do with it, and has started wasting lots of time on pointless things that won't help him solve his problems and get his stuff together.