Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Finished~!

Let see, since the last post, I've finished Specials and Extras. In Specials it ends up with Tally going ape over the death of Zane and she manages to stop a war between two cities. Also all the Specials were de-specialized except for her so she's the only special left. She and David are now like the masked rangers and prevent anything stupid from happening in the world.

Extras was about a new girl, Aya Fuse. She's Japanese and there everything is based on face rank. So she wanted to get more popular so she joins a very bad group (almost like the Crims of the Uglies). She becomes pretty popular and thus kicked from the Sly Girls because they want to stay unknown. Suddenly Aye finds out that the world could be destroyed by the Extras and she tells the world. She instantly becomes rank 3 in face rank and Tally tells her to hide. They hide for a while, then they find out the Extras are actually trying to go to space to expand since the world is overpopulated. Aye helps. The end.

Okay. That was a great story, Extras.

1) How does Scott Westerfeld incorporate historical stuff into a series in the future.

2)How is this series a warning about what is about to come?

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Truthfully

I haven't exactly read too much this time, but I've been formulating thesis(es?) in my head.

1)The subliminal messages that Scott Westerfeld adds into his writing. (Nazi's with the Jews as the Uglies and the SS as the Specials)

2)The impact of the authors writing in the field of all this new technology and how it warns us the be careful. Like for example all this plastic surgery going around could eventually diminish the true human look and it will be the (what's the word for extinct? oh right, it's extinct) extinction of the human race (cause we'll all be a new looking species called homo sexian).

3)How beauty can be used as the most powerful usage in the humans natural weapons selections. If your ugly you can't exactly be the most charming person in the world. Unless your me.

4)How beauty is only skin deep. For example if your pretty, your pretty. If your ugly, you can be pretty inside.

5) Finally how beauty is determined by many perspectives, although being prettier is usually the main one but that also means theres no such thing as ugly.

Sunday, March 9, 2008

Life in a Perfect World

Sucks.

That's what I'm getting out of the Uglies

Let's see, this time Tally and Shay have been up to even MOAR no good. They break into a weapons facility, manage to unleash a huge amount of nanobots that eat away most of the city and cause a war. You know, basic day in the life of Tally.

On to the more important part, I've begun to notice that a perfect life isn't perfect if you never have a crappy day in your life. Thus, I begin thinking, hmm maybe this is like that ancient proverb, a perfect life is never perfect or something like that.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Great Ending

Finish

Well, seems like Tally Youngblood is now a "Special". After her spectacular escape from the village of villagers, she managed to get to New Smoke where David and her friends were, but soon caught by the Specials. They pulled the same trick again, but this time on Zane who carried to secret tooth. Zane and Tally stay back while New Smoke runs away and they are returned to Prettytown and Zane gets brain surgery. She finds out that her friend Shay snitched on her and caused this to happened and Shay was made a special.

This goes into another contrversial topic. Zane had the tooth embedded in him as he got surgery for a broken hand. A couple of weeks ago I attended JSA where someone introduced a bill that stated forced labor among the prisoners and forced embeddsion of gps systems into the bone. Scary.


A possible thesis is the powerful imagery that Scott Westerfeld incorporates. It really makes you feel in it. I dont have the book with me at this very moment but there was this awesome quote on the trees and nature that I must put in.

And there are plenty of symbols. Like the Specials. They are like the SS of Nazi Germany. This book can actually be compared to the Nazi's. Most of the people during the Nazi era were stupid and oblivious and so are the people in Prettyville.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Andrew Simpson Smith

pg264-316

Haven't exactly read since the previous post, but a couple of pages here and there have produced a short summary. Tally had tried to escape with a couple of her "Crim" friends and managed to break out, but she get separated and things happen.

Tally had "escaped" from Pretty Town and managed to get herself into a third world village. This village consider the Tally a god because of her beauty and all Pretties are considered gods. In this village she also meets Andrew Simpson Smith, the villages "Holy Man" who can communicate with Tally. He is the only one that can speak to Tally and he is considered the translator. Tally stays in the village for a couple of days until the "Specials" find out she's in the village and they try to get her back to Pretty Town, but with the aid of Andrew manages to evade them.

Old timers. This village reminds me of like a Native American tribe village and I like how Scott managed to incorporate the past, present (our present) and the future. Pretty sweet.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Focus

pg162-201

Tally and Zane had just taken some of the miracle pills that will prevent there lesions within their brain.

Shay is mad at Tally for not telling her about the pills and even more mad that she shared the pills with Zane. Shay was Tally's friend as a ugly and they made a promise that they would get "bubbly" together. Zane also tells Fausto and he too is mad. They is mad at each other.

I noticed how Scott WESTERFELD really gets into Tally's head, giving the reader an example of exactly how she was feeling at the moment. I find it sort of overwhelming because often times Tally would have a lot of emotions and controlling them would be hard. But I also like this style because it feels like I am actually there, right next to her. This is the closest I've ever been to a girl lulz.

Monday, February 11, 2008

American Author Proposal

Raymond Lui
B Block
Scott Westerfeld is an American author. He was born on May 5th, 1963 in Texas. He writes fantasy stories, usually about the future or about magical powers. I was drawn to his books because my sister kept telling me how good his book Uglies was and so I read it. I was hooked and I really liked how creative he could be. Also his writing style was pretty cool too. He really brought out the main character, like how Toni Morrison wrote Song of Solomon. You could feel how the protagonist was feeling, almost experience it, all because of the special writing style that few can master. Also his overall storylines and plots get me.

Well since Scott was born in Texas of the USA, them Texas are probably the most American of all Americans. Also George Bush is the American president, and he's from Texas so that means those in Texas are truly American. But Scott was raised in Connecticut and California, another two very American states with California being the definition of America to most foreigners and Connecticut was one of the first American states. He is also a writer, for both adults and young adults, with over 13 books under his belt, with 2 more coming in the near future. Out of the 13 books, 2 of them are trilogies that have been highly praised and reviewed, and another 2 have been also praised.

The Uglies trilogy has been considered one of the most important books of the 21st century. With plastic surgery running wild, Uglies plays a story in which plastic surgery becomes the definition of everything in the future. Plastic surgery makes everyone look beautiful, making everyone alike. True with everyone beautiful there would be less jealousy in the world, but then it also takes away the idea of individuality. This book has been regarded as the stepping stone to accept how you look like, and play down the uses of plastic surgery.

With just the Uglies trilogy, a 10 page report comparing plastic surgery and the plotline wouldn't be too hard. But adding in his other books, including Midnighters, and Peeps, I believe there is enough interesting topics to write about. Also the life of the author himself and his point of view on the topics he wrote about can also be added to show a contrast between his writings and his own personal feelings.

Well, I've read the Uglies trilogy, but I plan on re-reading it anyways just for kicks. I plan to read Peeps and it's parallel sequel The Last Days. They are both 200 pages each and so I plan to read the Midnighters trilogy too. They average around 200 pages each, but the more books I read the easier it will be to write the report. I plan to read Peeps first, and finish it in hopefully a two days, then begin The Last Days and finish that in 2-3 days depending on how interesting it is. Then I rest for a couple of days and begin on the Midnighters. The first one will take around 3 days and finish each one within a couple of days. Then I'll read the Uglies again.

Scott Westerfeld is an excellent author and hopefully after this assignment, I’ll have a better perspective of both what does it mean to be an American and how Scott Westerfeld is an American and how his books have influenced the future generations.