Wedenesday
- As a gift from my dearest friend, I had painstakingly finished reading Looking For Alaska.
- Discovered Pinterest
- Tried out the various Do It Yourself activities from the above website mentioned
- Contemplated going to school due to the high increase of creative activity from crafting in my room.
- Began a steady hate for John Green but started reading The Fault In Our Stars anyway, because it was a gift and my friend had favored me to read it for her personal survey.(I will explain more on this later, including a book review. So if you haven't read either books, don't proceed any further.)
- Was reprimanded for absentees from school, and therefore made me relatively upset. The term 'I don't want to' is rarely ever taken seriously.
- Grew so mad for the lack of understanding people have towards my daily undertakings, and thus, sat down to a grueling 8-hour study plan and finished an entire textbook.
Friday
- Attended class, completed a test and finished reading TFIOS.
- Cursed almost everything and anything my eyes set upon.(post book depression, I believe, was the root of this rage.)
- Questioned my very existence
- Engaged myself in a very 'tearful' situation( I refuse to say anything that can or will be used against me.)
- Woke up in a delirium. Very unhappy.
- Argued about time internet time slots shared among my sibling and I.
- Sibling 1-0 Me
- Cursed to glory.
- Attended service where the Priest shared an unfortunate yet familiar event of his week; death.
- This day was so called a New Year to my racial background and so it was celebrated in a discreet manner, but all the wise unnecessary because I am not in favor of those superficial celebrations.
- Nausea overcame me, having not touched a single edible item from lunch on.
- Continued in a thought provoking rant between my wall and myself( for as you may be unaware of, my socialism doesn't exist outside the house. or anywhere for that matter.)
- The family and myself had gone to collect our renewed IDs and on the way back, i had a Big Slurpee.
I've not been a master at outlining events into a neat arrangement, but you can't say I didn't try. Language Arts was the subject that introduced this method, wherein you construct and use outlines for compositions, essays, reviews and etc. I for one found it a complete waste of time because 1) no one apart from myself will be able to see it, 2) it gets messy and hard to look at 3) it complicates your message/point/theme of whatever you may be writing 4) THE TIME wasted on constructing something that will end up in the trash can one fine day and thus sending a piece of your work into the forgotten file drawers of the writers' heaven(I cannot stress this enough) and finally 5) I don't really have a point for 5, but the 1-4 have pretty much summed up my concerns on this. However, others who do need the aid of outlines to further clarify their work, please don't take my points to heart(or pen). This is simply MY view on it. Read and know.
Back to my perfectly wonderful and fascinating events I have had over the past week(yes I can be a terrible sarcastic being, please excuse me for that). Just noticed I add a frightening amount of inside texts in parentheses. Adds to the flavor. I'm going to go with that reason whether you like it or not.
Reading is a past time of mine, as you know. IF you haven't, now you do. So when my friend told me to read the highly acclaimed Looking For Alaska by John Green(brilliant author might I add), I was thrilled. The Hunger Games trilogy was also introduced by this same friend and I thank the heavens my mind has been set free and the taste of heaven itself could be savored from those mind-blowing three books. Uber gratitude to her for sharing that precious piece of literature with me. Seeing as she has known my taste in books/novels, I trust she had reason to hand me a copy of LFA. After much positive comments and reviews I had read over Tumblr(because John Green is apparently a God there and his books are manna to the brain and heart), I assumed this book would overtake my expectations.
True enough, it did. It passed my expectations way up and above my head, did an air somersault and returned quietly back to the ground behind me.Little did i realize it was going to push me to the ground, turn my body to face itself, step on my lungs, chest, face and basically every vitally sensitive part of my functioning body, and spit right into my face, leaving me unconscious and dying on the cold hard ground.
I know some of you may be reading this in the hopes of getting spoilers on the book, as John Green had foreseen in his books, you will not be given that privilege. I will contain as much possible and give you my strict point of views on the book, but not on the story itself, so nice try.
First, let me tell you, that whatever I say about the book and/or plot of LFA, it does not bend my opinion on John Green himself. His writing style in both LFA and TFIOS were astounding and impressive. I recall a conversation from an episode of Spongebob Squarepants(don't judge me) that went:
Squidward: Now, repeat after me. I have no talent.
SpongeBob SquarePants: I have no talent.
Squidward: Mr. Tentacles has all the talent.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Mr. Tentacles has all the talent.
Squidward: If I'm lucky, some of Mr. Tentacles' talent may rub off on me.
SpongeBob SquarePants: If I'm lucky, Mr. Talent will rub his tentacles all over my art.
Squidward: Whatever.
In this case, I am Squarepants, and Mr. Tentacles is Green. I beg of you to not take the second last phrase from Spongebob into any second meaning or perverted manner.It is solely the substance of the conversation and not the sailor mouth ramblings of Spongebob.
Now John Green is a talent i have not seen, but if he did read this, he might shut me up and say his work is for the purpose of the reader and not of his own account to anything. As I have learned, and i quote "Books Belong To Their Reader"
This book, Looking For Alaska, was a mistake I wish I hadn't taken though. However, it as also a book I cannot stop re-reading. Looking For Alaska, is a young adult novel, and most definitely since I am not a young adult( those days are behind me) I found this book depressing. You may refer to Thursday Item #1, this fact makes sense. The questions that came to mind was "Why would any teenager find this book comforting?" Because of it's reality? The closeness of real only kids in that age group would understand?
I mean, i was a kid learning to live a purposeful life and deciphering the many aspects of life. Still I couldn't relate to it.
For me personally, reading has always been a portal to escape reality. I particularly chose novels with as much distance from reality as it could possibly provide. Fantasies and mind-mapping through others' stories were my escape. It channeled a stream of hope,which this book did not have. Then it hit me. Hopelessness. That was what the teenagers could relate to. Hopelessness in a world filled with ambiguity. In a sense, I could not relate, for my life has always been a path of hope. Yes, I and most of all adolescents have gone through hopelessness. There's no denying it. Despite that, I see life as more than what the book was placing out into the open. It was clear that the only way to hit the heart, and surface the feelings,emotions and sentiments, was to make a story so abutting to reality, that you couldn't for a second ignore it.
That was the effect Looking For Alaska had.
This fact, of course, didn't occur to me, until I had read a few words from the author himself. He noted that BBTTR(books belong to their readers) but that in fact, he wrote it to stress his point, which was; How will you live a thoughtful, hopeful life in the face of unresolvable ambiguity?
I made a point to reread LFA, in respect to these new revelations.
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I shall continue my reviews, thoughts and opinions of the above outline in the coming days. Until then, stay bright.
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