Day One Hundred and Fifty-One

8/31

The Book: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

ISBN: 978-1-59448-329-5

Suggested By: Ed Vela

Where: Home

When: 7-8P

Music: None

Company: Alone, except for Church jumping on the edge of the couch

Pages: 68-123 (55)

The Lead In: Ok, this is turning into a generational tale, which is interesting because I just read 100 Year of Solitude (another generational tale, also by an “ethnic” writer). Not sure what I think about this book now.

The 411 on the 55: I realize that yesterday I used the phrase “sack of crap” twice and to describe two different people. I will attempt to be more eloquent and intelligent in my analysis.

Oscar Wao’s sister is stuck. Ran away from home, she finally breaks down and calls her brother, Oscar, to steal money from their mother and bring it to her. He does, but also brings along her mother. She fights with her mom, but gives in and heads back home. As a way to fix her issues, her mother (who I cannot point out enough, is a horrible horrible parent) ships her to live with her family in the D.R. And she does seem to sort her mind out, coming to grips with who she is.

And now a chapter on Oscar’s mother. She is a really dark girl (skin tone, I mean) and is mocked at the private school that she is sent to. Regardless of the mockery, she is extremely prideful and arrogant. She is very much in love with a boy, Pujols (not Albert, sadly) but he has no time for her. Then over one summer, she gets a big rack (36DDD). Suddenly, he can’t get enough of her. They are caught having sex in the closet of the school. He is sent to military school and she is kicked out. She becomes a waitress and seems to adjust better to life. One night, in a club, she meets Oscar’s dad, one of Trujillo’s cronies.

Line of the Day: “No amount of wishful thinking was changing the cold hard fact that she was a teenage girl live in the Dominican Republic of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina, the Dictatingest Dictator who ever Dictated.” pg 80

Fact on the Fiction: Trujillo’s cult of personality in the D.R. “Statues of "El Jefe" were mass produced and erected across the Republic, and bridges and public buildings were named in his honor. The nation's newspapers now had praise for Trujillo as part of the front page, and license plates included the slogan "Viva Trujillo!" An electric sign was erected in Ciudad Trujillo so that "Dios y Trujillo" could be seen at night as well as in the day. Eventually, even churches were required to post the slogan, "Dios en cielo, Trujillo en tierra" (God in Heaven, Trujillo on Earth).” Wikipedia

Day One Hundred and Fifty

8/30

The Book: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz

ISBN: 978-1-59448-329-5

Suggested By: Ed Vela

Where: Home

When: 5-6P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 12-67 (55)

The Lead In: Excited about this book. Ed recommended it with glee. If you know Ed, you know the glee I am talking about.

The 411 on the 55: Oscar Wao is a fat sack of crap. He loves comic books, fantasy novels, D&D, stereotypical nerd. Can’t get with a chick, and when he thinks he is a bout to, he finds out she is back with her old boyfriend who has a large member, so to speak. Oscar is incredibly unhappy with his life. His mother is bossy and doesn’t understand him not being like every other guy. His sister is punky and off to college. At the end of today’s reading, Oscar is off to college where again, he doesn’t fit in.

The second “chapter” of today’s reading tells the story of Oscar’s sister. Her struggles with her mother’s dominating personality lead her to run off and live with a boyfriend. Once there, she realizes he is a sack of crap and is unhappy with her situation as well.

Line of the Day: “Jesus Christ, he whispered. I’m a Morlock.” pg 30

Fact on the Fiction: This book won a Pulitzer. Wikipedia

Day One Hundred and Forty-Nine

8/29

The Book: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 0-812-55070-6

Suggested By: Audrey Scott

Where: Home

When: 6-630P

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 278-324 (55)

The Lead In: I was poisoned. After finding out some of the less appealing aspects of the author, I didn’t enjoy the book as much. I have to say, the ending was weird....Well, more on that next.

The 411 on the 55: On the asteroid training base, Ender has to play complicated games fighting against his trainer, a veteran of the original bugger wars. With his crew of friends, Ender wins each battle, but is losing his health as the wars continue. Losing sleep, blacking out, losing the desire to eat, finally he is brought in for the last battle. And, oh, you guess it? He wins.

And guess what? It was actually real battles he was fighting, he was commanding ships already at the bugger universe. They are all wiped out, hooray, Ender is the best.

The resolution? Ender’s brother is now running the show on Earth, using his persona, Locke, that he created in writing on the Nets. Valentine bails on him and joins Ender at the asteroid. Because all the buggers are dead, their worlds are available for colonization and humans are rolling out, including Valentine, who talks Ender into it, as well.

Once on the bugger world, Ender is traveling around, discovers a building built out of his memories, by the buggers. There he is greeted with a large bunch of memories not his own. Flooded with memories of the buggers, and given a pupa to protect (to eventually release on a future bugger world), he writes a book about the bugger race. It becomes a religion and influences people all across the universe, the end.

The 20/20: So the book was marginal at best. I didn’t enjoy the ending, I felt that it was a bit underwhelming. It should have ended with Ender killing the buggers. Instead it dragged on for 30 pages of heart-tugging (or at least attempted heart-tugging) about buggers. I would have like the book better had it ended with Ender losing and the buggers ruling Earth. Now that would be a twist!

Line of the Day: “And always Ender carried with hi a dry white cocoon, looking for the world where the hive-queen could awaken and thrive in peace.” pg 324 Cheese.

Fact on the Fiction: You know, you read something like, “Ender’s Game is in the top 100 novels of all-time” and you think “Really?” After going to the link you find it was all voted on by “regular” people rather than experts and Ayn Rand and L Ron Hubbard take up has 7 of the top 10 ten spots. Spare me. Do check out the Board’s list, though. MLA

Day One Hundred and Forty-Eight

8/28

The Book: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 0-812-55070-6

Suggested By: Audrey Scott

Where: Home

When: 10-10:30P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 222-277 (55)

The Lead In: Discovering Card’s faith makes me curious as to what influence it has had on his writing. Check out the Fact on the Fiction for today, excellent quote and link to a great interview.

The 411 on the 55: After the fight, Bonzo is shipped out of school and so is Ender. Ender is returned to Earth with Graff (the commander of the training school). Bonzo, by the way, is dead.

On Earth, Ender curls in on himself, unconcerned with the “game”, unconcerned with life altogether. To fix things, the I.F. brings in Valentine. They have an incredibly long conversation on a raft (which, in my mind, was a tad incestuous, though I bet the people that love this book will be angry for that comment). At the end of the conversation, Ender has had enough, count him in to fight the buggers.

Off to an asteroid he is shipped to be trained by the best. But he needs a crew. Who do they send him, but the kids he has been training with, including his boy, Bean. How sweet.

Line of the Day: “In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him.” pg 238 Hahahahahaha. Shoot me.

Fact on the Fiction: To quote Mr. Card: "I find the comparison between civil rights based on race and supposed new rights being granted for what amounts to deviant behavior to be really kind of ridiculous. There is no comparison. A black as a person does not by being black harm anyone. Gay rights is a collective delusion that's being attempted. And the idea of 'gay marriage' -- it's hard to find a ridiculous enough comparison. By the way, I'd really hate it if your piece wound up focusing on the old charge that I'm a homophobe." Salon.com

Day One Hundred and Forty-Seven

8/27

The Book: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 0-812-55070-6

Suggested By: Audrey Scott

Where: Home

When: 9-9:45P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 168-221 (55)

The Lead In: I feel that too much is happening in this book. Like the book should be much longer to encompass all the time and events that are unfolding in the book.

The 411 on the 55: So as you might have guessed already, Ender is the most badass commander of all time, he takes his band of nobodies and defeats each team, systematically. The director of the training school begins upping the ante, scheduling matches the next day (typically they were given a week to practice), 7 days in a row, eventually making Ender’s group fight 2 teams at once, in the dark, without prior notice, etc, etc, etc. And yet Ender continues to win. So pissed off are the other boy commanders that they decide to beat Ender.

Well, Bonzo, Ender’s first commander when arriving at the training school, is the leader of the pack of boys who are going to beat him up. And rather than beat him up, he wants to kill him. Right. I felt like that was a stretch. Bonzo is all about pride but, in the end, he is still a 13 year old. They kicked Ender’s brother out of school because he was malicious and mean, wouldn’t they have done the same thing to Bonzo?

Again, predictably, Ender is against long odds, and still wins. He beats the living crap out of Bonzo, including kicking him in the testicles (while they are both naked in a shower)...um, ok.

Line of the Day: “After that, if he had asked them to follow him to the moon without space suits, they would have done it.” pg 186 (ok, maybe worst line of the day. I thought i was incredibly cheesy and badly written)

Fact on the Fiction: (I smell a Mormon) “Orson Scott Card is an award winning science fiction author who grew up in Utah and attended Brigham Young University. There he studied drama, which contributed to his writing of plays. Card had his own theatre company, which was a success for a number of years. He learnt to speak Portuguese as a result of his missionary years in Brazil.” Ender.com

Day One Hundred and Forty-Six

8/26

The Book: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 0-812-55070-6

Suggested By: Audrey Scott

Where: Home

When: 2-3P

Music: None

Company: Alone

Pages: 112-167 (55)

The Lead In: The book is readable. That is all I will say.

The 411 on the 55: The side story of Peter and Valentine begins to emerge today. Peter has recruited Valentine to help him in an article writing project on-line, meant to change the course of events in the world. Valentine gives in because she is passive, though worried about where it is headed.

Ender is handed his own squad, making him an incredibly young (9) commander of Dragon. His first practice ends with the emergence of another character, Bean, also small and young who is scrappy and very Ender-like.

Line of the Day: “She had thought that only fools would follow him.” pg 138

Fact on the Fiction: Ender’s Game received both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1985.

Day One Hundred and Forty-Five

8/25

The Book: Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

ISBN: 0-812-55070-6

Suggested By: Audrey Scott

Where: Home

When: 9:30-10:15P

Music: None

Company: The Family

Pages: 56-111 (55)

The Lead In: This book is science fiction, obviously, but it is also annoying in the way the supposed 6 year olds think and speak. No six year old talks the way Ender does. I guess supporters of Card would argue that Ender is exceptional in every way, But I think that’s still a stretch.

The 411 on the 55: Just as Ender begins to make friends in his unit, he is transferred to another unit, also led by a kid who resents his presence. Of course, Ender betters his commander by disobeying a direct order in mock combat. He fires on the other team at the last moment, turning a loss into a stalemate. Sadly, his commander, sees that as insubordination and eventually transfers him to another squad.

Two things emerge as important from this section of the book. 1, Ender enjoys playing a psychological game. The more he plays, the deeper it ventures into his subconscious, revealing more of him to the generals, who monitor the game. 2, Each commander Ender serves under offers a model to glean from, making Ender better after each experience.

Line of the Day: “As he thought of it, though, he could not imagine what “just living,” might actually be.” pg 74

Fact on the Fiction: Science fiction fans who love videogames, start your rejoicing. Later today, award-winning author Orson Scott Card and Chair Entertainment--the creative team responsible for Advent Rising and Undertow--will officially announce plans to turn Card's beloved novel "Ender's Game" into a, well, game. Newsweek