Independent Reading - Week Twelve and Thirteen

I'm sort of writing this in a hurry, so it may not be very long.

For week twelve I wasn't here, and I didn't read anything while I was out, and for week thirteen I read more from my novel project book, 1984. It is SO good so far. I'm very impressed by the story and the way it's written. I'm excited to finish it, but also a little scared of what might happen.

Writing Four - Persuasive Writing - Video Games

Persuasive Writing
Old and New Video Games
By: Deylah McCarty

Since I was a kid, I’ve played video games that are challenging. I really enjoy the harder games because they provide more opportunities to think rather than sitting there and pressing buttons. Games that were made in my childhood were usually challenging and tricky. As I grew older, however, the games did not grow harder. Instead, they grew much easier, which was very disappointing for me.

The newer games that were coming out were getting easier and easier. It was taking me a very short time to beat them, while the older ones had taken me years to finish. In older games, you have one mission at a time; very simple. In the newer games, you always have two or more things to do at once and it became extremely frustrating. An example of this would be: Brave Fencer Musashi versus Kingdom Hearts 2. In Musashi, you have one mission at a time, and you can take as long as you want to finish it. In Kingdom Hearts 2, you have numerous things to do at once and often can get overloaded with missions. In KH2 there are different worlds you can visit, and often it gets frustrating trying to figure out which one to go to first. This also applies to the graphics in the game.

The graphics in newer games are often very confusing. A great example of this is in Kingdom Hearts 2. During battles, you often can barely see what’s happening because of all the fancy attacks that everyone can do. The monster(s), you, and your two allies attacking at once adds up to one giant mass of exploding color and confusion. The only reason I can manage to understand what’s happening is because of my video game experience, but if I were playing it for the first time I would be highly frustrated. In older games, their archaic graphics may be annoying, but to make up for it the gaming quality and plot is very good. In newer games, they flaunt their graphics so much that the storyline is cliché and the gameplay is boring. Because of this, the thinking level required for older games is much higher than that of newer games.

After playing so many new games, I began noticing I was predicting practically everything that was going to happen and how I was going to win. It was disappointing that the plots were all structured the same way and there were rarely any surprises. A good representation of this would be The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. In this game, the graphics are beautiful, but the plot is very predictable and the game was only a little challenging for me. A predictable plot in a video game usually goes something like this: there’s an evil person you have to beat, and in order to get to them you must go through many useless perils to different areas until finally you find them in their evil lair and defeat them. This very unoriginal plot is fairly common and can get very irritating after a while.

In older games, the menu systems used in the game were usually complex, such as in RPG games where you can use magic and items. In Final Fantasy 8, you can use something called ‘junctioning,’ which enables you to junction magic, items, or even guardian creatures to a character to enhance their strength and abilities. There are countless variations to what you can do to one character. In another game, Final Fantasy 10, the menu system is very simple and not confusing in the least. Menu systems are getting progressively easier, until the point where all you have to do is equip a character with a single item to enhance them.

In the gaming world, there is always going to be a period where new games fade into the distance and get replaced with better games. It is inevitable. Because of this, there is always going to be games that are good, and games that are bad, games that are easy, and games that are hard. It is up to you to decide now: which kind would you rather choose?

Novel Project - First Journal Entry for "1984"

! Mild Spoiler Warning ! This entry may contain some slight spoilers... but nothing too bad. :)

1987 is a very interesting book so far. Nearly every book I read I can predict, but this one is extremely unpredictable for me. I am growing really addicted to it, which is good since I haven’t really been addicted to a book in a long time. I find the character Winston very interesting. He’s seemingly the only one against Big Brother, and he seems to be going a little crazy because of that. Well, I would too if I were him. I think this book is especially appealing to me because I really enjoy books with a slight sense of fear lingering in every page.

When I first began to read it, I knew it was going to be a good book. I was also pretty confused at first because the storyline was confusing and hard to grasp. I love stories that involve a dystopia. As I read 1984 I’m really reminded of the book The Giver and the movie "V for Vendetta," probably because they include dystopias in them as well. Another sort of example is the movie "War of the Worlds," only that doesn’t quite involve a dystopia but more of a ‘human extermination’ kind of theme. Book and movies like those really spark my interest. I’m not exactly sure why, but it must have something to do with the fact that I’m not in a dystopia or a world being attacked by aliens. I suppose if I was, I’d like to read stories about individuals who are free and out of harm’s way.

"Writing for the future," Winston wrote in his diary. What he means is that even though he is forbidden to write in a diary, he is, and it is for the future. Winston states, "How could you make appeal to the future when not a trace of you, not even an anonymous word scribbled on a piece of paper, could physically survive?" He later states that he is writing to O’Brien. I think that whether or not he’s writing to anyone or not doesn’t quite matter at the moment. Writing seems to be something that keeps him reasonably sane, the only way for him to vent.

In the world of Big Brother, you are allowed to think on your own, you are allowed to do what you want, but at the same time you are restricted from everything. One wrong little move or even the slightest suspicious action could get you killed. Even if you have done nothing, you could be killed, it seems.

In the world of Winston, there is a constant uncomfortable nervousness, a fear that the world around him is blasphemy. He seeks for an impossible answer of truth to what his world could have once been. Was it better before, as he suspected, or was it worse, as Big Brother so often stated?

Questions, questions: Why is Big Brother turning everyone into mindless slaves under his control? Does he want an equal world? Why and how did Big Brother get everyone to follow his leadership? There must be more rebels than just Winston. Perhaps there are more rebels, and they are doing just what Winston is, waiting and watching. Also, how did Big Brother regulate such a brilliant plan as to even get rid of the rebels? How did all great leaders succeed in gaining so many followers? I’ve noticed, however, that all great or terrible leaders of this world have eventually fallen. Doesn’t that mean that eventually Big Brother will fall too? Hitler, all the Presidents of the U.S., even leaders in households eventually fall. The natural order of things, whether that means the leader was killed, impeached, or dead from old age or sickness, always prevails. Always.

On another note… Winston is disturbed, but very clever. He must be the hero of this story because he is, as far as we know, the only one against Big Brother. As for O’Brien, we can only rely on Winston’s suspicious of him as a rebel of Big Brother, but who knows for certain. Also, the black haired girl seems to be an important role in the story, providing a lot of confusion and anger for Winston. I suspect that she is actually on Winston’s side. She seems to be stalking him when he goes off on his own, but perhaps she is actually drawn to him or is trying to tell him something. I know that when I feel drawn to someone I tend to follow them or ‘gravitate’ to them. This is why I have my suspicious about her. At the same time I’m afraid they (Winston and the dark haired girl) will end up being friends or maybe more, because of a cliché I have seen many times in stories. (Boy sees girl, boy likes girl, boy pretends to hate girl, girl likes boy, girl pretends to hate boy too, and then they fall in love and live happily ever after.) So with that being said, I hope they don’t end up that way. However, I have a feeling George Orwell will put everything in place as he often so ingeniously does.

This is the last paragraph, I swear! Finally, I would like to talk about Newspeak. To be simple, I think it is incredibly ingenious. Taking the English language and squishing it together. Why didn’t I think of that? Rather than create some weird, alien language, Mr. Orwell simply uses the English language as the basis of his new language. But back to the point: Newspeak is just so clever to me. There are a few words I found particularly interesting: For starters, unperson. I thought this was a very eerie word to describe those who were ‘vaporized.’ Also, double-think. I still have yet to completely understand this concept, but as far as I know, it requires double-think to understand double-think… I think. The last word I can think of off the top of my head is thoughtcrime, a word which describes simply thinking about committing a crime, being suspected of it, and getting taken away, or even killed.


On a final note, I am really looking forward to how this book is going to turn out.

Independent Reading - Week Ten

Week ten is already here! I read more out of a book called Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, which I really enjoy. It's basically what I call a 'Muse Book' that explains many different views on writing and a lot of different approaches to 'unleash your inner writer.' I also read more from the book I'm doing my novel project on: 1984 by George Orwell. It is a fabulous read and I have so far been thoroughly enjoying it.

Independent Reading - Week Nine

Well, for week nine I read an old Goosebumps book from my childhood, The Abominable Snowman. It was good but it was one of R.L. Steins 'weird' scary books, where (near the ending) it just started getting really weird. Like the snowballs from Antarctica that turned out to be magical? That was just crazy. Yet I refuse to stop reading Goosebumps because they're the first books I was obsessed with. Also, they are where my writing love began. When I started writing my style was very similar to R.L. Stine's, so therefore I really respect him and his often 'silly' books. (Although they used to scare the crap out of me when I was young.)

Short Story Three - "The Lottery"

Short Story 3: "The Lottery"
By: Deylah McCarty


o----Short Summary----o

! (A warning to anyone who hasn’t read this story: I do give away spoilers to it. If you’re interested, read the book and then come back and read this. :D)

When I first heard of "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson, I skeptically pictured a boring story about people winning money. However, I had heard it was good and was interested to see for myself. In the back of my head, I thought it might be different than I expected, and as it turns out, that little voice in the back of my head was right.

"The Lottery" had a very eerie, mysterious feeling to it. In the beginning, I enjoyed the way she described the townspeople and the town itself. I found that Jackson used a very delicate form of writing, a great way to stray around the actuality of things. It gave me at first a feel of calmness and order, and then it switched at the very end to hostility. I enjoyed the feeling of preciseness that the town presented.

Then, as I began to read further, I realized that something was amiss. If I were about to participate in the lottery, I would be nervous and excited. These people seemed nervous, but I began to realize they didn’t seem very exciting. When I finally found out what was happening, at the very end, I was shocked, but there had been so much building up to the ending that I wasn’t too surprised. I really like stories that have a surprise ending, especially when I can’t predict what’s happening before it already happens. This story really gave me all I would want out of a story: great writing style, a sense of despair or doom, and an ending that I couldn’t predict.

Two more things I particularly liked about the story were when the innocent children are happily building a pile of stones, and when they describe Mr. Summers drawing the black spot on the slip of paper. The children may have had no clue as to what was going on, but I liked that as another example of irony in the story. Mr. Summers appears to be a very serious but laid back man, and when Jackson describes him casually drawing a spot for some doomed person to draw, I think it makes him seem a bit creepy.

Also, I really like the title of this story. When you think of the word ‘lottery’, of course you think of chance, luck, and/or money. With this story, though, putting it literally would probably result in calling it something like ‘A Chance to Die’ or ‘Sacrifice.’ In that case, I especially like the title because it adds to the effect of the situational irony that the lottery is not as nice as it may sound, nor as harmless.

o----What was the subject of the story?----o

Villagers in a town get together at a set time each year to perform a frightening, almost sacrificial ritual called "The Lottery."

o----What was the theme?----o

Sometimes other cultures have strange or "wrong" ceremonies that other cultures think is absolutely unacceptable.

o----What do you think about what the author was trying to reveal about the subject?----o

Well, the author was trying to reveal the brutality of the ritual. If I were in that village, I would think that stoning someone to death is very wrong and inhuman. (So did Mrs. Hutchinson.) I don’t believe in killing fellow human beings, but I can see that other cultures have different ideas about that. I also found that it was very unnerving for all the people participating in The Lottery. At any given second, by complete randomness, they could be chosen to die, and in a very unpleasant way.

o----Do you agree with the author?----o

No, because I don’t believe humans should do that sort of thing to each other, especially that slow and painful of a death. However, it is human nature to be interested in stories such as these, so I agree with why she wrote it (assuming that it’s because that sort of story is more interesting than most).

o----How does the author's words support the theme they are trying to convey? In other words, how can you tell what the author thought about the subject?----o

In this story, it is obvious to me that a few of the people in the village do not agree with The Lottery, especially the younger generations. At one point, Mr. Adams says, "They do say that over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery." In which case, Old Man Warner replies with, "Pack of crazy fools. Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them." You can clearly see here that the lottery is slowly being given up, even within the village that still performs it. The lottery is sort of its own evolution, like a gene that is slowly being whittled away until new genes come to replace it.

‘"Don’t be nervous, Jack," someone said [to the tall son of Mr. Watson].’

‘The lottery was conducted—as were the square dances, the teenage club, the Halloween program—by Mr. Summers, who had the time and energy to devote to civic activities.’

In these two quotes, you can see how delicately the matter is thought of, how normal and casual it seems to most of the villagers. They may think this is just something that’s a way of life, but as the village gets older, and as the next generations come up, the ritual may just be lost. Comparing it again to evolution, new ‘genes’ might come in that will be dominant to the lottery ‘gene’ and do away with it for a long time. For example, maybe someone from a different village, a village who does not practice the lottery, could come in and change everyone’s mind about having the lottery.

o----How can you tell what the author was hoping you would think when you finished the story?----o

I would imagine the author would want you to be very surprised or even disturbed at the ending, when you find out what the lottery is really about. For me, I began to suspect something was wrong near the middle of the story, and then when I reached the ending I wasn’t too surprised that the lottery wasn’t about winning money, but I was surprised about what it turned out to be. Near the ending you start to get very curious about what’s going to happen to the person in the Hutchinson family that chooses the ‘bad’ slip of paper. I also think anyone reading the story might be surprised to find out that it was Mrs. Hutchinson who received the ‘bad’ slip, the slip with the black spot on it. The ending is abrupt, even creepy, but leaves you wondering about nothing more.

o----Think of your favorite movie. Explain the subject and theme.----o

My favorite movie (well, it’s a TV show) would have to be Heroes.
The subject of Heroes is basically this: A group of people with super powers is trying to stop the evil man with similar super powers.
The theme of Heroes: Genetic mutations can be a good thing or a bad thing.
The other main theme: You cannot change your destiny.

o----How does the person who created this movie deliver the theme?----o

Well, first he shows you the people who are the result of good mutations: the main characters who all have different powers. Then he shows you the result of people with bad mutations, such as the villain and two little girls who have a disease along with their mutation.

o----Describe the themes that let you know how the author feels about the subject and convinces viewers to feel the same.----o

For the first theme:

In the show, all but one of the main characters is a result of a good mutation, though in their lives it can result to be bad. For example, a character named Claire has the ability to heal from any kind of flesh wound. This is very good because she cannot get sick or killed easily, but it makes her life at home very hard because she has to keep it a secret.

Another example is a man named Peter, who is always dreaming about flying. He finally tells his brother Nathan that he can fly, but Nathan tells him he’s crazy. Through the beginning of the show there is a lot of conflict between the two, because of Peter’s dreams, which turn out to be true after all.

Most everyone in the show has trouble arise from their amazing abilities. It goes to show that genetic mutations are good and bad.

For the second theme:

In the show, there is a character named Hiro who can bend time. He travels around, getting used to his power, and ending up in places he did not want to be. Because of this, time and space gets mixed up and he creates problems that he has to fix. Eventually, after failing twice to save a woman, he realizes that not even with his power can you change the future. His future self later tells him, "You cannot change destiny."

Independent Reading - Week Eight

Okay, so I'm finally going to give up on Ron for getting Harry Potter to me. This week I didn't have much time to read because I've been working on the writing three assignment, but I did manage to get some in. I read about 10 more pages from the Marilyn Manson book, finally getting to a part where it doesn't quite bore me as much. I also read about 80 pages of The Wide Window, by Lemony Snicket. I'm trying to stop reading the Unfortunate Events books, though, because like I mentioned before, I have already read them and as I read them I begin to remember what happened. So, I'm going to borrow the Harry Potter books from my friend and start on them. :D