Book 4 Reflection

Book 4 Reflection

By, Alex Testerman

For book 4 I read Perks of being a Wallflower By Stephen Chbosky and in terms of likability, Charlie, the story’s protagonist, is the character I would say I like more than any other book character other than Jay Gatsby or Nick Carraway and I will explain why. Charlie is a very misunderstood boy who seems to always to things wrong in other people’s eyes but to him, he didn't want to do the wrong thing. He is a very awkward and quite character that likes to read and is very smart. He has trouble in a social situations because he nervous to talk to people which really get me personally as a reader to start to like Charlie because you feel sorry for him trying to get through High School without anything bad happening. The summer before freshman year of high school his best friend Michael killed himself, which again makes you sympathize with Charlie because not a lot in his life goes his way. Then he meets Patrick and Sam at the football game, they become the most pivotal characters in Charlie’s life and become his best friends.

With the inclusion of Sam and Patrick, Charlie starts to learn to become social and not care what others think about him, to just be free. Throughout the book, the perspective is in letters written by Charlie to a good friend. They explain what happens on a certain day in the life of Charlie whether it be about him getting more books to read from his teacher Bill or something major involving Sam and Patrick or sometimes his family members like his sister, dad, mom, and brother. Charlie towards the end of the novel starts to go into depression and gets very bad. He had spills of these depressive states but he usually could block them out but he couldn't and his life starts to spiral. But with the help of Sam and Patrick he starts to become progressively better.

With the article written by Jennifer Weiner about her liking likable character, directly reflects with The Perks of being a Wallflower and I’ll explain why. If Charlie was a boring, stale, mean character, the book would be garbage. Charlie makes the story, because of him being so likable by teens the story becomes a lot more personal and teens can relate to him. If you were to lose the innocent and sweet nature of Charlie, you wouldn't feel bad at all for what happens to him throughout the book, you wouldn't feel bad at all. He is just such a strong character that you could put him in a lot of different genre stories and he would make the story a little better because of teens ability to relate to his personality.

In a perspective of a stereotypical hero, Charlie would be seen as a weird high school kid. But once you really dive into learning about his life and what he has had to fight through to just be normal calls for him to be a hero. He learns to be himself and have fun with his life no matter how bad it can get. He is a hero for kids in high school who are having troubles with being social or depression because his story is him going through all of this turmoil with his depression, his home life not being the best, and problems that involve Sam and Patrick, and ultimately coming out on top and being able to be himself. It is a great book for kids going through a stage in their life where they don’t know what they want to do and are nervous for the future.

Book 2 Trailer

Book Talk

Post 4: Adaptations

No Country for Old Men Adaptation

By, Alex Testerman 

 

I am reading the novel No Country for Old Men by, Cormac McCarthy which is about a man named Llewellyn Moss who finds in the mess of dead bodies and bullet filled cars, a briefcase of money which he takes. An assassin is hired named Chigurh to find and kill him and return the money back to his boss. The Main character, Sheriff Ed Tom Bell, has to protect The Moss family from the drug cartel while he investigates the crime and the story alternates the 3 storylines and where they eventually all collide. There are plenty of scenes throughout this book that are essential to the plot of the novel and are essential to have for the film adaptation of this book.

One of these scenes is at the beginning of the novel after a short excerpt from Moss, where you are introduced to the main villain Chigurh. After he had already killed a police officer by chocking him with his handcuffs, then stealing his police vehicle and driving down the road and pulling over a random civilian and telling his to exit his vehicle. From the police station, Chigurh picked up a cattle gun and had this on hand with him as he pulls over this unsuspecting man. Once the man exits the vehicle and is told by Chigurh to stand to the side he asks “Why?” and this is when Chigurh lifts the tip of the cattle gun to the man’s head and shots him. Then saying “I didn’t want to get blood on the car.” He drives away in the dead man’s car, leaving him on the side of the road. This scene is essential to have in both forms (Film and novel) because it really shows the sick nature of Chigurh, which is so important because it shows how crazy and dangerous he will be to the main character, and that he means business.

                Another scene from the book that is essential to keep and not change is (Spoiler) the Death of Moss from the Mexican gang members who tacked a phone call from his wife. This scene has a main character murdered from a random gang of people, and it adds more danger because Bell now has to not only worry about Chigurh getting the money, but also Mexican gangs that want the money aswell, this also gives Bell a horrible feeling because he said he would protect him and make sure he stays alive but fails.

                The final scene that is essential to keep is the death of Moss’s wife, Clara Jean, because prior to Moss being killed, Chigurh is on the phone with Moss and says that he will kill his wife if he doesn’t give him the money, and Moss refuses. At this point Chigurh has the money.

Post #6

Post #6: Why A Clockwork Orange shouldn't be considered a classic 

 By, Alex Testerman

1. Plot Line: The plot line of A Clockwork orange is that a 15 year old boy who is part of a violent gang in future England cause havoc on the streets as the rape and beat innocent people. But one faithful day when the gang was attacking a woman, Alex, the main character, was left behind. He was later arrested and found that the woman had died from his injuries and that Alex would be in prison for 14 years. The story transitions between his violent younger years, him in prison and being mentally experimented on to where any form of violence would make him awfully sick, and his years after prison in a downward spiral of suicidal thoughts and trying to live a normal life. The plot gets so confusing throughout with the plot lines changing and the period of time never being explained so the reader is confused. The novel is very scattered and has a lot of unnecessary twist and turns that make it even harder to figure out what is happening.

2. Vocabulary: This book is narrated by Alex, and he has a, with a lack of a better word “Different” way of speaking. Not only does he use different words from the England side of English instead of American English, they also use a made up language to talk to one another in this slang. At times it is impossible to figure out what Alex is trying to say and it really pulled me out of the book on numerous occasions. It at times can be charming because it is a twist on the way the story is told rather than it being explained but there are too many unexplained words and phrases that really lost me at parts especially with the dialogue.

3. Alex himself: Alex has a growing period where he goes from being a violent and sick kid to a strange adult because of prison and brainwashing. Alex is such a hard character to like and or dislike because you dislike him as a villain at the beginning because of all his and his gangs random acts of violence to watching him rot in his own crazy mind and not feeling bad for him what so ever. He is just hard to relate to because I’m not a murderous criminal. There are also no other characters from other books that I know of that I can relate him to. He is kind of like The Joker from Batman at the beginning of the novel with his sick and twisted acts and cunning personality but at the end he is this strange reclusive man who has nothing. The only thing I can really give Alex is that he is a very original character as he develops.

4. The Movie: Now the movie on the other hand is outstanding. This was made to be into a movie with all the characters and scenes that you have trouble picturing in your mind while you read the book but with the movie the whole book started to make so much more sense. The acting for a 1960’s film is wonderful and it really has that dark presence throughout the whole film with little elements of comic relief throughout. In my own personal opinion, I would say that the movie should be considered a classic and the book be something attached to the film as an extra for huge fans of the movie or those who would like to see how confused you can get while reading. Skip the book and watch the movie is what I think personally.

Post 5: My thoughts

          In my mind I think that a nonfiction piece of writing needs to be as truthful as you can make it, when I say this I mean that you shouldn't lie knowing that you are lying but there are some things we don’t know for certain, so we have to fill in the gap. There is a large difference between filling in gaps because you don’t know, and lying. When you lie, you know what you are doing and you are disgracing the name of nonfiction by knowing what you are doing is wrong but still acting like it is true with the case of James Frye “Bending the truth”. As Seth Greenland stated “You shouldn't lie… That the Greenland rule, don’t lie.” And he is saying this in response to when, in his novel A Million Little Pieces that he had a stint in prison for 6 months but in reality he only stayed a could hours and this really shows that a lie or stretching of the truth once discovered ruins the immersion of the book and pulls the reader out. Ultimately I think that you can fill in gaps for information that you don’t know or stretch the truth, but only if you state somewhere in your piece that this is 100% true or you didn't know all the information and had to fill in gaps. Aimee Bender stated that “It’s all about playing with from” when talking about how nonfiction is changing and she also says “Which is exciting for all writers.” So this shows to me at least that maybe people will grow accustom to stretching of the truth and that is what will be called nonfiction; But for right now I think that nonfiction should be as close to true as humanly possible and lying about events to add drama should stay with fiction pieces. 

Post 3: Book 1 Project

Alex Testerman, Big Book Blog, Post 3

Book 1 Project:

            My idea for extending the fans ability to interact with the novel would create a scavenger hunt board game, which the scavenger hunt is like the one created by Amy to her husband and main character Nick.

            This idea stems from the scavenger hunt that Amy creates for Nick every year for their wedding anniversary which sends Nick across New York following the clues that lead him to other clues. This idea of the scavenger hunt from Amy is used later in the book for a different reason but it would spoil the novel. Nick can never find out the clues every year that he tries “It is a do-it-yourself era: health care, real estate, police investigation. Go online and figure it out for yourself because everyone’s overworked and understaffed.” This is what said by Amy defending her husbands’ inability to solve the puzzle instead of thinking that “he doesn’t love her as much”.For the reader this scavenger hunt would come with a collectors additions of the novel which comes with the novel and a set of clues that have cryptic descriptions of the places and events that happen throughout the book. These clues and scavenger hunt would be set up as a game between other fans/readers of the where there will be a place, quote, or event and you have to guess what happens during that crucial event in the book, who says a certain quote, or what the place listed on and once you get an answer correct, you move a space on the game board and get closer to the final square which will read “AMY!”  Meaning the goal is to find Amy first at the end of the board. The quote from Amy saying “My mother had always told her kids: if you're about to do something, and you want to know if it's a bad idea, imagine seeing it printed in the paper for all the world to see.” This is when she is creating the second Scavenger hunt later in the novel and she doesn’t know if she wants to send it to Nick which ends up being a very critical point in the novel. Also said by Amy, “The worst feeling: when you just have to wait and prepare yourself for the lie.” Which is when Nick would tell Amy a list of different things while he thinks she doesn’t know he is lying but she obviously does, another crucial point which all can be used as the clues.

            I think this idea will work because it allows the readers who want more to not only re-live important moments from the book but also have new clues to look and think about which get these fans to double take an opinion on a character or the novel itself. Also and interactive board game where you go over the plot twists and deep quotes spoken but Nick and Amy throughout the novel. This idea allows/ encourages people who are already fans of the book to stay connected the book itself and with the author is the ability to put the readers into certain situations with the clues and answer a scenario the way they would think which can give them ideas about the novel or even some new takes on things that the fans haven’t noticed before when reading the piece. Also this game adds competition among fans to prove who is the bigger fan of Gone Girl which can cause others who do not do well in the game is to buy their own copies and becoming bigger fans of the series and spreading the game and book around to others, making the book more and more popular.

Post 2: What is a book?

Big Book Blog by, Alex Testerman

 

What is a book?

A book is a world. It is an entire planet of all new ideas and people in the palm of your hand, each page unleashing something new into your mind that can ultimately change how you perceive things in your day to day life. Having the paper world in your hand adds extra excitement to the novel before you even open to the first page, the mystery of the novel and the only knowledge you have is the cover that you can look at over and over again to try and see how it incorporates to the novels story.

 

As stated by Tom Piazza in his self-interview when asked about ebooks he says “They are strictly vehicles; you pick them us to step through them into some consensus reality.” And I couldn’t agree more. An ebook doesn’t have the same tender feel and physical touch a book has. A book shows how much work an author put into it because you can see its size and really see all that they put into it. With the ebook you get a soulless machine that doesn’t give you the picture of all the hard work the author puts into their novels. 

A book can be a physical thing in your hands where you can feel the paper between your fingers or bright text lit upon a ebook screen, either way it is still a story that an author put time and effort into to get it out to readers like us. Even though I said before that I prefer paper books rather than ebooks, a novel that is on an ebook is still the same story that you would read in a paper book, just electronic. I fear eventually that paper books will not be made anymore and ebooks will be the supplier for books, but you have to go with the times and adapt with the ever changing society.

 

  

Post 1: Why I read

Big Book Blog by Alex Testerman

This is The Big Book Blog and we read a large array of books and discuss them to all and the deeper meanings of all of them. Now, why I read is to see a different situations that I would probably not be able to get involved in in my life, a new reality. Reading allows your mind to think of different things and can also teach you important life lessons that will stick with you throughout your life. Reading also lets you escape to a new world that you may not be able to think of in your own imagination, places that have never been seen and new people to see. That is why I read and why I will always read until I can no longer.