Keep reblogging this white people are getting mad because they don’t know the difference between learning a language because it’s fun or to put it on applications and learning a language so you won’t get treated like garbage by everyone
Tidbit: A team of four experts (a psychologist, surveyor, anthropologist, and our narrator, the biologist) lead the twelfth expedition into Area X, a reclaimed wildland that has never had an expeditions return. Be ready for an ecological, psychological almost-dystopic thriller.
Quote: “The very idea of gun now seemed as pathetic and useless as the word sample. Both implied aiming at something. What was there to aim at?”
Tidbit+: I don’t want to give anything away - but that it’s tiny reviews on the back of the book include things like “It’s been a long time since a book filled me with this kind of palpable, wondrous disquiet, a feeling that started on the first page and that I’m not sure I’ve yet shaken” (Matt Bell, In the House upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods). It had just the right amount of suspense, of thrill, of wonder and curiosity. It’s a manageable length, and will add more about the following two books in the trilogy. The tiny summary I wrote on it is accurate, but I think that it is the needling doubt that really keeps both the narrator and the reader on their toes.
Experience: I was recommended this book series after an office hours meeting with my “Nature & the Environment” English professor, when I noticed the third and final installment sitting on his desk and commented upon it. He highly recommended it (he said he was interested in environmental horror), and even went to far as to say that it was the book he wished he could have written. I borrowed it from the public library downtown and proceeded to let it sit on my desk throughout finals week, and I’m so glad I did - last night and today I read it through, and it consumed basically all of my free time. I have a notification that Authority is ready to be picked up from the holdshelf, and I right now, I’ve already frantically recommended it to my dystopic fiction fan friends, and am tempted to text an old flame that he would absolutely love this book. It’s that gripping.
2015 Reading Challenge - “A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit”
Rating: ★★★★½
Tidbit: A man makes a career out of his obsession with predicting worst-case scenarios, and finally, a natural disaster on Manhattan becomes the worst scenario in real life.
2015 Reading Challenge - “A book of short stories”
Rating: ★★★½☆
Tidbit: A collection of excerpts, short stories, and letters by Philip K. Dick, the highly-acclaimed science and speculative fiction writer, and by all means not near his entire collection of work.
Tidbit: A serial graphic novel (has been since turned into a film, Surrogates, with Bruce Willis in 2009) of a police officer navigating a world where most would prefer to communicate and interact via surrogates, while investigating the roots of this 2054 world.
Tidbit: The third installment in the Lord of the Rings novel, broken up into what is now published as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. A classic epic tale involving medieval historicism in the tradition of Western European and Norse mythology, that focuses on the hero’s journey and the timelessness of good vs. evil.
Tidbit: The second installment in the Lord of the Rings novel, broken up into what is now published as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. A classic epic tale involving medieval historicism in the tradition of Western European and Norse mythology, that focuses on the hero’s journey and the timelessness of good vs. evil.
In-depth: This part of the saga relied mostly on exposition of the history of Middle Earth, especially with things much older than the “present” age. I will still agree that this one I read the fastest, with most likely the smallest amount of analytical perspective because of the timing that I was afforded by the class to read this, but overall, there is still a lot of merit in this part of the trilogy (of course), especially in the parts I was unable to enjoy the first time (the entire second half). What I also enjoyed about this book was the ability to actually experience the story with the sequence of events left intact, unlike the movies, where much of the plot has been shifted (not omitted though, thankfully) to fit a sequence of suspenseful movies better. Overall, the necessity of The Two Towers is still high, although a bit less thrilling, but is still well fleshed out and extremely enjoyable.
Experience: We weren’t required to read this text as a part of the class, and so we watched the relatively accurate film adaptation in class (you should have heard all the laughs surrounding the classic internet jokes and memes), but because The Two Towers was “Noelle’s Bane” six years back, I chose to read it anyway in the time between us finishing the Fellowship and beginning The Return of the King. This resulted in hardcore reading, a bit shallow in full comprehension, but still good: this was a triumph! I really enjoyed reading it from a literary perspective, because I felt like I was able to grasp the underlying themes and ideas, and also criticize the points that are weak or outdated.
Tidbit: Frodo Baggins sets out on his journey to Mordor to return the One Ring to its source in order to destroy it.
Quote: “I will take the Ring", he said, "though I do not know the way.”
In-depth: This is something not easily reviewed. As for plot, this story follows a very standard plot line, of the unexpected hero’s journey to fulfill a prophecy or plan already made his destiny by the workings of the universe. However, it is in the world created by Tolkien that really makes this narrative significant: he has blended the workings of his own mind with the conventions of a very real world to create his Middle Earth, and it is with these imaginative but relatable lives that the reader can attach to. Yes, this book can be a bit wordy (you should see the Silmarillion!) but it only adds to the exposition to get the full magnitude of what each action and words spoken means in the context of the Third Age of Middle Earth. I think that the most mesmerizing quality of this particular book comes (for me) from the chapter about the Barrow-Downs, which are filled and covered with a dense fog: while I was reading this particular section, I was overwhelmed with a sense of confusion that Tolkien expresses as a part of his characters’ plot, and this fog seemed to have slipping into my own mind because of my rather unguarded mind and Tolkien’s power with words. In general, I enjoyed this book second most in terms of comparing it to the other two books in the broken up trilogy.
Experience: I actually took an English class over the summer, focusing on topics in literature, and I had the privilege of being able to take the one on J. R. R. Tolkien. I chose this class mostly because of my casual fan-ness with The Lord of the Rings, but also because I had attempted to read the trilogy as a much younger girl, and I couldn’t get through The Two Towers, more specifically, through the Fangorn Forest. I was happy to reread the Fellowship and begin from the start, while I also picked up a lot of things I honestly don’t remember from my first reading experience of this book, mostly due to my extensive movie viewings of the adaptation between readings.
”I think you could fall in love with anyone if you saw the parts of them that no one else gets to see. Like if you followed them around invisibly for a day and you saw them crying in their bed at night or singing to themselves as they make a sandwich or even just walking along the street and even if they were really weird and had no friends at school, I think after seeing them at their most vulnerable you wouldn’t be able to help falling in love with them.”
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