"We are the same people only further from home on freeways fifty lanes wide on a concrete continent spaced with bland billboards illustrating imbecile illusions of happiness."
- A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
While reading A Coney Island of the Mind by Lawrence Ferlinghetti I came across this quote. I think this quote is basically his idea of what America really is and I completely agree. Billboards in a America are like he says illustrating false happiness. Usually on a billboard you would find like an advertisement for a company or product and the companies manufacturing these products make you believe that you really need this product but when you buy the product you realize that it really isn't anything special. I also liked the way he said "concrete continent" because really when you think about it America really is just a highway that stretches on forever and is "fifty lanes wide", our government even had to put laws in place to protect at least a little chunk of the nature land and forrest because we were eliminating forrest space to either build houses or roads. "We are the same people only further away from home" probably is talking about the immigrations over the years first starting with Columbus discovering America. All in all I feel from this quote that America has a mask that shows visions of happiness but really its' nothing special.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
A New Dawn
I am not one to let someone hate on Twilight by Stephenie Meyer but I decided to read a book of essays called A New Dawn where many authors share their thoughts on The Twilight Saga.
The most offensive chapter to me (being on team Edward) was the first one titled A Very Dangerous Boy by Susan Vaught. Before reading this chapter I never really thought of Edward Cullen a Sociopath. Apparently there are seven traits of being a sociopath. Edward fits six of those characteristics. The first characteristic is simple "Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest" (A New Dawn). It never really occurred to me while reading Twilight how unlawful Edward was until I read this book. As described in the book Edward first of all drives super super fast and definitely goes way above the speed limit but the more unlawful act is basically breaking into Bella's home and watching her while she sleeps which would be categorized as both stalking and a break in if Bella had reported it to the police. Along with that first characteristic, he fits into 2) using aliases for personal profit or pleasure 3) lack of planning ahead 4) Aggressiveness 5)Disregard of safety 6) consistent irresponsibility. The only category Edward doesn't fit in is lack of remorse (Edward is probably the most remorseful character I have read about in a book).
The other thing I realized while reading this book that I didn't realize while reading Twilight was how typical Twilight really is. Twilight is basically about a teen romance but to throw in some drama Edward is a vampire. To make it more interesting there is a love triangle with Jacob who also happens to be an inhuman creature or a werewolf. Twilight as mentioned in A New Dawn basically is like Romeo and Juliet which was ironically quoted in the beginning of a Twilight saga book and was actually a required read in the story of Twilight. A story so typical yet so unique.
The most offensive chapter to me (being on team Edward) was the first one titled A Very Dangerous Boy by Susan Vaught. Before reading this chapter I never really thought of Edward Cullen a Sociopath. Apparently there are seven traits of being a sociopath. Edward fits six of those characteristics. The first characteristic is simple "Failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest" (A New Dawn). It never really occurred to me while reading Twilight how unlawful Edward was until I read this book. As described in the book Edward first of all drives super super fast and definitely goes way above the speed limit but the more unlawful act is basically breaking into Bella's home and watching her while she sleeps which would be categorized as both stalking and a break in if Bella had reported it to the police. Along with that first characteristic, he fits into 2) using aliases for personal profit or pleasure 3) lack of planning ahead 4) Aggressiveness 5)Disregard of safety 6) consistent irresponsibility. The only category Edward doesn't fit in is lack of remorse (Edward is probably the most remorseful character I have read about in a book).
The other thing I realized while reading this book that I didn't realize while reading Twilight was how typical Twilight really is. Twilight is basically about a teen romance but to throw in some drama Edward is a vampire. To make it more interesting there is a love triangle with Jacob who also happens to be an inhuman creature or a werewolf. Twilight as mentioned in A New Dawn basically is like Romeo and Juliet which was ironically quoted in the beginning of a Twilight saga book and was actually a required read in the story of Twilight. A story so typical yet so unique.
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