Last Blog Post

In what ways can writing online be liberating?  Limiting?

      For my final blog post of the year i have decided to answer this question. I think writing online is definitely a different experience. It is sort of open, as opposed to a notebook, which is more personal.
     I think the reason blogging is more open is because it's online, so pretty much anyone can read it, and you don't necessarily know any of them, or know who's looking at your post.. Not that everyone does, but just that feeling of openness is kind of creepy, like standing in the middle of a sports stadium, while blindfolded. Writing in a notebook is more safe feeling, more controlled. It's closed off, literally. when you close your notebook, that's it no one can read it, it's shut to the world. But things online aren't like that.
     But that can also really help your writing. If it feels like every action is scrutinized and every word read by others, it pushes you to write the best you can. You can't write total crap like you might in a notebook, because others are reading and judging it. But sometimes I feel as if I don't want to write as meaningfully or as true to myself as I should, because people are reading it.
     So in the end, writing online really, for me, makes my work easier to read, more grammatically correct, and overall just better written then it would be in a notebook. But sometimes it also makes my writing less deep and emotional.

Real Life vs Fiction

      I'm reading the book A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. It is a memoir of his life as a child soldier during the Seira Leonian civil war. It is kind of horrifying, and terribly tragic. It makes me wonder how such terrible things are allowed to happen. It also makes me think about how I've never heard about such terrible things in books.
     Now maybe I'm just reading the wrong books, but I read a fair amount. I am fairly sure that most of all books written, probably even most war books, at least most I've read, don't. It makes me think about how fiction is sometimes the idealized version of life. And there are things in the real world that are worse then anyone can imagine.
     Another thing I thought is how people let this happen. I mean, obviously it would be very difficult for the people being shot at to do much, and once threatened, brainwashed, and drugged. But what about the UN? America? The EU? World powers sometimes are needed to help save people when there own governments can't. Why didn't we raise our voices in protest. I think sometimes it's just easier to do nothing. There are probably things that are going on right now that i should be going out and helping stop, when instead I'm sitting here.

The Cover of the Communist Manifesto

     For my group we are reading the Communist Manifesto. It is a revolutionary book written by Karl Marx in the 19th century. It advocates communism and the overthrow of the "capitalist pigs." Now i was looking it up online and all the covers are serious pictures of communist flags, or pictures of hairy men in suits (Marx and Engels).
     However, on my copy of the book, purchased from a hip-ish bookstore in brooklyn heights, is covered in animated pigs, angry communist midgets, and 100 foot tall business CEOs. This makes me think about how they change the covers for wildly different people, who all still want to read the same book. Three people, a communist revolutionary, a economist, and a student, could buy the same book, all for different reasons, and each would want a different look and "feel" to the book.
     This makes me think of what makes a book a classic. It can appeal to many people.

Harry Potter and Friendship

     I've recently been re-reading the harry potter series. These are some great books, and I think they'll definitely go down as one the best series of the decade. I read an interview on line with J.K. Rowling saying that she was trying to write mainly about death in these books. I disagree. From what I've read about the books, friendship, loyalty and trust are the main themes. From Harry's inability to trust sometimes to his unyielding friendships, it always seems to be a big theme.
     Now alot of people who read this may be like: whoa! he can't say that! the author already said what it's about. But I disagree there, too. I'm the one reading, and I can draw my own conclusions. If I don't think what the author thinks, then okay. These things are open to the reader's interpretation, which is something nice about books, and art in general, actually.

Cultures and Perspectives

     I'm reading the book Pecked to Death By Ducks. While it may sound like it, it is not about any sort of murder through fowls. It's basically a travel guide, except to strange and dangerous places that not many people know of ( I'm not sure why it's named what it is, I'm pretty sure he included it in the intro, but I didn't read it, so...).
     In it he's describing all these different cultures and people, and through it I was thinking the usual " oh, that's weird" stuff and I got to thinking: why is it that some people see things so differently then others. I think it's weird that the island has wild horses running around that people hop on when they need a lift, and they probably think it's weird that we have a giant metal machine hurtling underneath our streets that we just hop on when we need a lift.
     But why is it humans in particular that see things so differently? Is it because we're more adaptable
? But cockroaches are adaptable but they seem to see eye to eye. Maybe because we're smarter then most animals. Then again, we might not actually be very different at all. Maybe most animals are very individualistic thinkers, but we don't realize it.

Osama Bin Laden and Feelings

     As you all know we've killed Osama Bin Laden this week. There was a whole hullabaloo and all about it, and a whole bunch of news. There were also a whole lot of people celebrating in the streets. Now this raises a question for me, when is it okay for people to be happy? Is it not okay to be happy over someone's death, even someone as profoundly evil as Osama Bin Laden?
    In the book I'm reading, Dracula, people are happy at odd times. Like Dr Seward is happy when he finds that Lucy is a vampire and still "alive" in a sense. It makes you think about how random our emotions are, and makes me think, to what extent are we supposed to control our emotions? Should we try to actively change them, or just work to suppress them?