Book Burning and Banning

In class this week, we dicussed book burning and the banning of books. I found it to be very interesting. Some of the books on the list that was given to us in class I have read and had no idea they had be banned at one point. I had to read most of them for my high school english classes.
I also didn't realize that there are people today who still burn books. I found it interesting that people are facing fines for doing so. I don't understand why some books are banned. I think that people just banned books that they don't understand or agree with.

Fahrenheit 451- Continued

I thought that the book got interesting when the fire chief sent to dog to sniff around at Guy's door as a hit to he knew that he still had books. When the call came in and they went out on the run and stopped infront of Guy's house I was shocked. I thought to myself why would they just be going to his house now if the fire chief has known all along that he had books. I also thought right away that his wife must have been the one to call in the alarm. It was obvious once she ran out of the house to a waiting cab with a suitcase. My thought was if she just heard the fire trucks outside then how would she have had time to pack a suitcase and call a cab? Our group discussed this and everyone seemed to believe that his wife did turn him in.

Fahrenheit 451

I found this book to be interesting and tryed to imagine myself living in a society like the one portrayed in the book. It was very interesting to me that Clarisse made Guy rethink his entire life and career choose after just meeting her. I love that she is different from the everyone else and not afraid to stand out and speak her mind. She takes the time to notice even the littlest details and appreciate nature.
The point that families don't really interact with one another is very strange. They are just concerned about their TV panels . I found it very weird that Guy's wife, Mildred is so into TV that she thinks of the characters as her "family". What kind of family are people you can't talk to? When Clarisse and her family disappear I began to wonder what happened to them. The part about Clarisse being hit by a car, I don't believe she died. I think that was just made up to put a twist to the book.

1984- The End

I thought it was very sneaking of O'Brien to get Julia and Winston to trust him so much and then take the information they had given him and use it against him. It found out just how far they were willing to go to protect one another and used it as a weapon.
The part of the book near the end that I found very disturbing are the chapters about the torture. I had to force myself to continue reading as I am not one of those people who enjoy scary things. I found this parts to be unimaginable. The part when they discribed the rats that they were going to put on Winston's face to eat him really made me uncomfortable. I would give up pretty much anyone to avoid going through that too.

1984

When I first began reading 1984, I found it hard to force myself to keep going. The first few pages were very boring to me. I couldn't even imagine living in a place or time like Winston did. The author did a very good job of giving you a very detailed image of exactly what was going on and how things looked. This apartment sounded scary and creepy. The whole thing about Big Brother is Watching You just creeped me out. I can't even picture having to look at those signs and hiding things from the telescreens. The government was so involved and strict.
One point that sticks out in my mind as rediculous is that point that was made about marriage as a vehicle for producing children to serve the Party. I can't imagine just having a child to serve the government. It is even crazier that Winston and his wife Katharine only married in order to have a child and do their "duty to the Party".
It is also very wrong in my mind that Winston's job was to rewrite history to say exactly what the government wanted it to. What if you actually lived through the event and know exactly what happened for sure but the government didn't like it, so you were expected to just forget about what actually happened and go along with them? I think that would be very hard to do and confusing at the same time.

Feed

I found the book "Feed" very interesting. At first I was lost and had to reread the first few pages a couple of times. Once I got past that, I found the book to be very neat. I think it relates to our society today very well. There are some people just concerned with fitting in and being cool. While others actually care about what is going on around them. I feel that this book also related to our advertising talk in a way. People buy stuff just because other people have it.

I also thought it was strange in that fact that they rely on computers so much that they have them installed in their brains. I honestly hope that our society never takes their relying on technology that far. Can you honestly imagine having a computer in your brain that you can never shut off and are constantly hearing noise? I think that would be very hard to live with. I think it would be And the whole upcar thing, that was totally strange to me.

Dumbest Generation

When asked the question "Are we the dumbest generation?" at first my answer was yes but then after thinking it through my opinion changed. No, I do not feel we are the dumbest generation. Yes, we use technology a lot but I feel that is to our advantage. We can stay well connected with the rest of the world and know what is going on all over the world.

I don't feel it is fair to call our entire generation dumb because some people in our generation like Miss South Carolina don't represent all of us. Even though some kids don't use the internet for anything productive that doesn't mean everyone doesn't. For example: I only use the interent when it is necessary or to my advantage but on the other hand my roommate is addicted to facebook. She is on facebook from the time she gets up in the morning till she falls asleep at night. And in the back of mind is the point that Chelesa brought up in our group decision "someone over 30 made it". Which I feel is a very good point why blame us when they helped make us the "dumbest generation".