The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Week of 10/28/13

Prompt: What have you learned about life from what you’re reading?
Pages Read:  97-End 

   After reading (and finishing) the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, this particular prompt, among all of the others, caught my eye.  When I saw this prompt, I smiled and even laughed a bit.  How ironic that I would find this after reading one of the funniest and best chapters of a book I have read concerning this topic.  Of course, you probably don't get why I would even notice this kind of offbeat prompt, unless you have read this book (which I advise you to, it's really great).  But I will explain why this is funny, and what I have "learned" about life from what I am reading.

  To warn you, the Earth as we know it, was a 10 million year experiment/project that was run by mice.  Yes, the ones with the beady red eyes in labs across the world, the ones cartoon ladies in the 60's would stand atop a chair and scream about.  Basically, the mice ran this operation to find out the answer (or rather question) that would tell them the meaning of our existence.  Such questions as: Why were we born?  Would it matter if I skipped work?  What is my purpose?  These questions have plagued beings (notice how I did not say humans) for their whole existence.  And we finally have an answer: 42.  What? 

  This answer was given to us millions of years ago by the second greatest computer ever to exist.  One that could give you to the answer to anything in an instant.  Anything but those previous questions, those would take a few millions of years.  So philosophers and beings alike waited for the day to come.  And it did, but we only got the answer to life: 42.  This all-powerful computer had taken millions of years to tell us that we needed to build a better computer, one that would give us the question to the answer of life.  That computer would be called Earth.  Yes, the planet we reside on.  Crazy right?  At this point, I still have really learned nothing about life.  And that's okay.   

  Earth would take 10 million years to give us the question (to the answer), and that was what everyone was waiting for, until the Vogons (an alien species) came down and destroyed the planet 5 minutes before we would be able to know the eternal question to the answer.  This has taught me (well technically nothing) that life is unfair.  Plain and simple.  Were you surprised by this ending?  I was too, but that's what makes this book so great. 

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Week of 10/24/13

Prompt:  What has been the most interesting part of your reading?
Pages read: 0-97

   The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction novel, so all the topics discussed in this book are pretty much things I've never heard of, and are all very interesting.  Some of the most interesting parts of the book are the planet Earth being blown up, learning about all the different gadgets they use in the future, and hearing about all the other planets and their governments.  Although those were all pretty awesome things in the story, the most interesting part so far has been when Ford and Arthur (the main characters, one them human) are miraculously saved by the Improbability Drive ship.

  If you don't know what an "Improbability Drive" ship is, don't worry, I barely know what it it either.  All I can tell you for sure, without bringing the math they use into this, is that it is a spaceship that can travel much faster than the speed of light (without going into hyperspace) and has all sorts of weird side affects of going that fast on board.  As I said earlier, Arthur and Ford have been saved by this ship after being flung out into space by a Vogon (another alien species) leader.  Both Arthur and Ford have no idea what they are travelling on, but they can both communicate with the other species thanks to a Babel Fish, which translates everything into English for Arthur (the human one).  Ford, who is from the planet Betelgeuse 5, can understand the other aliens.  He picked up Arthur on Earth because he is a researcher for the travel book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  

 After Arthur and Ford are saved, they both experience the feeling of going faster than the speed of light, which obviously has some pretty negative side effects, they warm up to the feeling and explore the odd but fascinating ship, which was stolen by Zaphod Beeblebrox, the president of the galaxy.  I really loved how the author went into great detail about the ship's design.  Sleek, elegant, and brand new.  The way he explains all the different characters is really interesting, and even the robots have a unique and believable personality.

So that's it, I hope you thought that was as interesting as I did.  I can't wait to read more.

10/16/13: "Paper Towns"

Prompt: How did the reading make you feel? Why?
Pages: 0-78
Paper Towns by John Green

   So far, Paper Towns, has made me feel like getting and up doing something exciting and memorable, no matter what the consequences may be.  Now, you may not think that is the best thing to do, or even if that would be fun, but if you knew what I was talking about, you may change your mind.  So I'll tell you why Paper Towns has made me feel like "carpe diem-ing", which isn't actually a real word, and doesn't make too much grammatical sense.  Oh well.

   This book starts out with an ordinary almost eighteen year old who is in his last few months of high school.  His name is Quentin, and he has applied to Duke for college, so he really doesn't need to have a criminal record trying to get in to his top choice for college.  Because Duke doesn't take applicants with criminal records, Quentin has been cautious, even more than usual, although he never really was one for mischief.  Unfortunately for him, the girl-next-door Margo, who he finds to be absolutely gorgeous, appears outside of his window in the dead of night.  Last time that happened, he was only nine years old.  So when Margo, decked out in all black, informs him of her wild but brilliant revenge plan, Quentin after giving it some thought, could not resist joining her.  I have always dreamed of sneaking out of my house and going on some sort of an adventure, but I have never actually thought about it literally(my room is on the second floor...). This book glorified the idea of doing that, so I am obviously feeling inspired and ready to take risks all because Paper Towns made it seem so fun.

  Another way Paper Towns has made me feel adventurous is when the author, John Green, describes in detail Margo's ingenious plan to seek vengeance on her cheating boyfriend.  It may sound dramatic, but the actual pranks she comes up with are hilarious.  For example, Quentin and Margo sneak into the latter's now ex-boyfriend's new girlfriend's house and inform  her parents (via telephone) what was going on in her room.  After doing this, Margo's ex-boyfriend dashes out of the house into the night, without too many clothes on.  Quentin snaps a picture, and after Margo spray paints a big "M" in the girl's room, they head off into the night.  No doubt infuriating the ex-boyfriend's girlfriend, but also her parents.  I would have to say that was a pretty epic prank to pull, and also a very funny one.  So that brings me back to the prompt question.  All I can say is that after reading the first 78 pages of Paper Towns, I am definitely inspired to cause some trouble of my own, just because this book makes it seem so fun.

 

 

The Lady or the Tiger? Alternative Ending

  Without the slightest hesitation, he picked the door on the left.  Well, with some hesitation, as this was the moment that would alter his fate forever.  The youth sighed, though the audience could not see the perplexed look of agony on his face.  With his back turned to the anxious audience who were driven almost mad with nerves, he quickly replayed the princess's slight hand motion in his head and picked the door on the left. He dared not blink, as this was either his last breath, or his first married breath.

  As he struggled to open the heavy wooden door, he shot a look to the princess in the split second that a fair lady stepped out and batted her long eyelashes at the youth.  Suddenly the amphitheater was taken over by the shouts of the audience, who had waited so long for a new crime it didn't seem to matter to them what the outcome was. But it did, as the shouts turned from sounding joyous to sounding malevolent.  "He cannot be with anyone else!  He belongs to the princess!" chanted an increasingly rowdy crowd.  A badly concealed grin spread across the youth's face...

  As the King tried to call order to the riotous crowd, his daughter sat silently and wept.  For she knew that this would only anger her father more.  "I...I...I... I can't believe this is happening to me!" exclaimed the beautiful lady who had stepped out of the left door.  As she broke down and wept, the youth thought he should comfort her, but he knew he had to make his way towards the princess.

  So as the youth made his way towards the princess, not caring if the King would be further angered,   he heard a sudden shriek from within in the audience.  "The tiger!  The tiger has been let out!" and everything instantaneously fell into a silent pandemonium.  All of the youth's hope had been lost, and he went a ghostly shade white.

  "That idiot!" cried the princess, upon realizing that the beautiful lady who had come out of the left door had opened the door on the right.  "Why....Why?!" and the princess jumped over the side of the rail and into the arena.  If she had to face her true love (or so she thought, she was quite young) being taken away from her again, she would rather face her fate with him.  But the King had other ideas.

  "Guards!" exclaimed the King in a somewhat panicked manner, with the kind of voice you hear in the movies.  "Grab her!  Bring my daughter back!"  but it seemed almost too late.  That is until the princess started using her head for the first time in what seemed like ages.  Dashing across the arena floor, the princess pushed the jealous lady who had opened the door in front of the tiger.  It might not have been the nicest thing to do, and maybe she instantly regretted it, but not for long, as before the viciously misunderstood tiger could close his jaws around that beautiful lady the tiger was suddenly pulled back. And you know who pulled it back?  None other than whoever you think did.

  Were you expecting more?  Maybe the King sacrificing himself for his daughter, the youth, in an act of extreme strength pulling the tiger back with his bare hands?  I thought about it.  Although it sounded a bit, well, cheesy.  The real problem here was who would sacrifice their lives for two more young people in love?  Would you, if you knew they were meant to be?  I thought about that too, although I came to the conclusion that I would never do that.  So it's up to you to imagine whoever you want performing that act of courageous selflessness...