ANIMAL FARM
jorge orwell
first let me say that i wish all americans would read ANIMAL FARM given the situation in our country over the last 5 years or so. i will not say they Should read it because, after all, this IS america, the land of freedom. it is convenient that the "elected" officials of our political system benefit from this system in which an individual has to freedom to remain in ignorance or the freedom to choose not to read literature which may challenge their view of the moral purity of their nation's leadership.
enough with the vagueries. let me compare situations in this novel to situations in our country now.
on this communal farm, the pigs assume the leadership roles and can justify special privileges they receive with questionable assertions. for example, they alone out of all the animals can eat apples and drink the cows' milk because they need this food for mental nurishment since they are the ones that have to plan all the work for the animals to do.
if the other animals insist on questioning such privileges or such stances, fine, there is a justification. however, questioning these in the first place potentially can be disastrous since this would be seen as a weakness in the unity of the farm which could be exploited by outsiders or internal dissidents. it is better not to question.
why is "america" at war? or better put, why did the american politicians decide to send american military to invade and occupy another country? hmmmm.....
why were the pigs always trying to increase the productivity of the farm? in order to show that animals can run a farm better than corrupt humans. their motto was "four legs good, two legs bad." later, the motto becomes "four legs good, two legs better." at this point, the animals no longer remember the reason for increasing productivity and in fact, the reason has dissappeared. nevertheless, the animals are still worked.
why did america go to war? let's admit that the real reason is never discussed. the rhetoric says the reason was to disarm the WMD's. the war starts, no WMD's are found. yet the war continues and damage is done. why? the rhetoric says it is to install democracy in irak. so they had an election about a year ago, isn't that democracy? the war continues. why? the rhetoric says in order to win the war. this is an empty idea- no one defines what they mean by "war" and no one defines what they mean by "win." now the reason for the war is to win the war. great.
animal farm makes me appreciate the word games the politicians and the media use to try to describe the absurdities of this war. it makes me see that they can hand out cute slogans and many american people just swallow them up.
to tell the public that questioning the war will cause the american forces to lose is to enlist the public in the unquestioning ranks of the side that is not necessarily the good side.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
the curious incident of the dog in the night-time
mark haddon
finished this book up yesterday. took me about half the day? i think? i highly recommend this book to any math or logic inclined person out there who's interested in a light read. the main character is autistic, is obsessed with math and prime numbers, always tells the truth, and has other personality quirks that he periodically explains throughout the book, because he feels like folks should explain themselves to be logical. but he also goes into the lives of his parents, and portrays how they react to him and whatnot. it's quite insightful, to say the least. and haddon keeps you interested because some new information is being thrown at you at every which-a-way, a sort of stream of consciousness if you will, and exactly the kind of book that i like to read. (it keeps me interested...) for example, if christopher (protagonist) talks about a certain math puzzle he's been thinking about, like the pythagorean theorem, he'll write the equation out and write out what he was thinking. he also shows the reader what kind of patterns are on fabrics, a picture of a cow, etc, etc.
unlike my post on "animal farm", instead of going off on some politico-inspired rant (i reread it this morning, and WOW, i must have been angry about something!), i think i will post a quote that really jumped out at me:
there were many notable quotes in the book, but this is the most important one in my opinion. to me, it just makes very good sense and is quite true. and plus it deals with numbers, and i really like numbers. you can explain the world in numbers!
finished this book up yesterday. took me about half the day? i think? i highly recommend this book to any math or logic inclined person out there who's interested in a light read. the main character is autistic, is obsessed with math and prime numbers, always tells the truth, and has other personality quirks that he periodically explains throughout the book, because he feels like folks should explain themselves to be logical. but he also goes into the lives of his parents, and portrays how they react to him and whatnot. it's quite insightful, to say the least. and haddon keeps you interested because some new information is being thrown at you at every which-a-way, a sort of stream of consciousness if you will, and exactly the kind of book that i like to read. (it keeps me interested...) for example, if christopher (protagonist) talks about a certain math puzzle he's been thinking about, like the pythagorean theorem, he'll write the equation out and write out what he was thinking. he also shows the reader what kind of patterns are on fabrics, a picture of a cow, etc, etc.
unlike my post on "animal farm", instead of going off on some politico-inspired rant (i reread it this morning, and WOW, i must have been angry about something!), i think i will post a quote that really jumped out at me:
- "Prime numbers are what is left when you have taken all the patterns away. I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them."
there were many notable quotes in the book, but this is the most important one in my opinion. to me, it just makes very good sense and is quite true. and plus it deals with numbers, and i really like numbers. you can explain the world in numbers!
Sunday, December 17, 2006
Animal Farm
George Orwell
an interesting book, i read it last weekend or so in about 2-3 hours. i will start with it because it's the first book officially read at the start of my sabbatical.
small book, but incredibly interesting. i will definitely keep this one around so that i can read it from time to time to remind myself of why it's important to not remain complacent in regards to the powers-that-be, whether it be the national government or a future career.
for those of you who've never read the book, i will try to be vague enough, but for those of you that have read it, i believe you'll understand what frustrations i had!
whilst reading, i kept finding myself hoping that someone, human or animal, would come to the farm to rescue everyone from the pigs. i kept thinking, "well, sooner or later the hero is going to show up and save the day". ha! or not. then the next thought was "well, maybe something bad will happen to them, like a tornado or something". well, we know what happened when that happened.
some of the other frustrations i had were the stupity of some of the animals. for instance, the ones that couldn't read, or the sheep "four legs good, two legs baaaad!", or that darned horse boxer. but we've all been those animals in at least a few instances in our lives, and we clearly can point out the people we've come into contact with that are the sheep, or are boxer, or also napolean and snowball, etc. and then when you think about it, there are people who are born and raised in the united states who can't even say the pledge of allegiance, nor do they know the national anthem. another pet peeve of mine are people who don't keep up with current politics. i don't care if you classify yourself as "apathetic" and also choose not to vote (which that is a different argument in itself), but just know what's going on. and i definitely fall guilty to this, for in the past i couldn't tell you what was going on to save my life, but since mending my faulty ways, i feel like i'm a better citizen for doing so.
an example of what i just complained about: this morning i read a ny times article about how the chilean president legalized the prescribing of the morning-after pill at state run hospitals for free so that any girl can go get the pill if she needs it. people are in uproar, from conservatives to liberals, because they're freaking out that 14 year olds can now go get "abortions" without telling their parents. some background: president bachelet is a former pediatrician, i.e. she used to be a DOCTOR so obviously she knows what she's talking about, and i respect what she has to say about MEDICAL things because she's a DOCTOR!!! and now, the morning after pill is not ABORTION. and isn't that what people are told? conception happens not in the womb itself, but rather in the ampulla, or one of the fallopian tubes, and the zygote then travels down to the womb, still developing, still dividing cells at a trememdous rate, a process that takes a few days. and then the blob cells implants itself onto the uterine wall (it's called a blastula when it does implant), where it stays to keep growing and growing into a baby. what the morning after pill does is just keeps the blastula from implanting onto the uterine wall, therefore it just comes right on out. the morning after pill does NOT kill anything, it just prevents implantation. it is NOT abortion. now the social ramifications are not what i'm concerned with. i'm just pissed that people are calling it an abortion pill, when obviously, it is not. it is a "prevent implantation onto the uterine wall" pill. i just wish people would get their facts straight. this precisely illustrates that the government are the pigs and we are all the silly sheep that cry out "MORNING AFTER PILLS ARE ABORTION PILLS!". wrong.
so all of that, my dear friends, was inspired by reading "animal farm".
feel free to share your thoughts, or correct me if you like.
an interesting book, i read it last weekend or so in about 2-3 hours. i will start with it because it's the first book officially read at the start of my sabbatical.
small book, but incredibly interesting. i will definitely keep this one around so that i can read it from time to time to remind myself of why it's important to not remain complacent in regards to the powers-that-be, whether it be the national government or a future career.
for those of you who've never read the book, i will try to be vague enough, but for those of you that have read it, i believe you'll understand what frustrations i had!
whilst reading, i kept finding myself hoping that someone, human or animal, would come to the farm to rescue everyone from the pigs. i kept thinking, "well, sooner or later the hero is going to show up and save the day". ha! or not. then the next thought was "well, maybe something bad will happen to them, like a tornado or something". well, we know what happened when that happened.
some of the other frustrations i had were the stupity of some of the animals. for instance, the ones that couldn't read, or the sheep "four legs good, two legs baaaad!", or that darned horse boxer. but we've all been those animals in at least a few instances in our lives, and we clearly can point out the people we've come into contact with that are the sheep, or are boxer, or also napolean and snowball, etc. and then when you think about it, there are people who are born and raised in the united states who can't even say the pledge of allegiance, nor do they know the national anthem. another pet peeve of mine are people who don't keep up with current politics. i don't care if you classify yourself as "apathetic" and also choose not to vote (which that is a different argument in itself), but just know what's going on. and i definitely fall guilty to this, for in the past i couldn't tell you what was going on to save my life, but since mending my faulty ways, i feel like i'm a better citizen for doing so.
an example of what i just complained about: this morning i read a ny times article about how the chilean president legalized the prescribing of the morning-after pill at state run hospitals for free so that any girl can go get the pill if she needs it. people are in uproar, from conservatives to liberals, because they're freaking out that 14 year olds can now go get "abortions" without telling their parents. some background: president bachelet is a former pediatrician, i.e. she used to be a DOCTOR so obviously she knows what she's talking about, and i respect what she has to say about MEDICAL things because she's a DOCTOR!!! and now, the morning after pill is not ABORTION. and isn't that what people are told? conception happens not in the womb itself, but rather in the ampulla, or one of the fallopian tubes, and the zygote then travels down to the womb, still developing, still dividing cells at a trememdous rate, a process that takes a few days. and then the blob cells implants itself onto the uterine wall (it's called a blastula when it does implant), where it stays to keep growing and growing into a baby. what the morning after pill does is just keeps the blastula from implanting onto the uterine wall, therefore it just comes right on out. the morning after pill does NOT kill anything, it just prevents implantation. it is NOT abortion. now the social ramifications are not what i'm concerned with. i'm just pissed that people are calling it an abortion pill, when obviously, it is not. it is a "prevent implantation onto the uterine wall" pill. i just wish people would get their facts straight. this precisely illustrates that the government are the pigs and we are all the silly sheep that cry out "MORNING AFTER PILLS ARE ABORTION PILLS!". wrong.
so all of that, my dear friends, was inspired by reading "animal farm".
feel free to share your thoughts, or correct me if you like.
a past love, reawakened.
dear friends,
i'm sure many of you have been keeping up with my medical progress on the other blog, and know that i've been talking about reading more books now in my "sabbatical". so therefore, to encourage me to keep reading and keep trying new things, i have decided to post what books i have read or am currently reading, and some sort of critique of the book as well. hopefully this will help me create a log of what i've done, and to maybe provide some sort of discussion board for others interested in the books or what i've had to say about the book. a good debate is always wanted!
and to further that debate, and open more doors of discussion, i have invited my good friend huitzilopochtli, the sun god, to post his thoughts on literary sojourns as well. between the two of us, and maybe more as time goes on, i hope you will find your minds stretched beyond your imagination! ok, that was quite corny, but you get the point.
hope you enjoy,
frylime
i'm sure many of you have been keeping up with my medical progress on the other blog, and know that i've been talking about reading more books now in my "sabbatical". so therefore, to encourage me to keep reading and keep trying new things, i have decided to post what books i have read or am currently reading, and some sort of critique of the book as well. hopefully this will help me create a log of what i've done, and to maybe provide some sort of discussion board for others interested in the books or what i've had to say about the book. a good debate is always wanted!
and to further that debate, and open more doors of discussion, i have invited my good friend huitzilopochtli, the sun god, to post his thoughts on literary sojourns as well. between the two of us, and maybe more as time goes on, i hope you will find your minds stretched beyond your imagination! ok, that was quite corny, but you get the point.
hope you enjoy,
frylime
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