A Diner in the Forest

The third person in the story never met Eddie, but she tells him about his father. For some reason, the location in heaven appears to be a greasy spoon in the middle of a pristine, vast mountain range. I was sort of confused by that. Anyways, Eddie learns that he has wrongly hated his father for not speaking to him, and for dying when he did. He had always thought that his father died because he stumbled in drunk and soaking wet from falling in the sea one night, and as a result developed pneumonia. However, his father actually dove into the sea to save his friend from drowning. Nobody knew but a woman named Ruby, who tells Eddie all of this. He is sorry and forgives his father in the end. I still like how the reader finds things out at the same time the character does in the book. This book is pretty interesting, everything ties together, and it's a pretty easy read. I've only got about 50 pages left to read at this point.

Fire, Bullets, The Philippines, and Heaven

The second person Eddie, the main character, meets in heaven is his captain from the army in WWII. Eddie had a crippled leg after the war, that plagued him his whole life. In this, his second person and second lesson he learns in "heaven," which isn't paradise at all, but rather a learning experience for people about their lives on earth, Eddie learns that the captain was the one who shot his leg. The cool part about this book is that the reader learns things along with the main character. Dramatic irony is definitely not part of the story, the story follows Eddie's thoughts, and the reader discovers things with him. I'm not much for books where everything has a lesson, I've always thought that they were a bit cheesy, but this one isn't too bad so far. It reminds me of the plotline of Darles Chickens's A Christmas Carol. I've never actually read it, but everybody knows what it's about.

Eddie's captain shot his leg because Eddie was about to run into a burning building. He was under the impression that there was someone in the building that he needed to save. Eddie would have died in the fire had the captain not shot him in the leg. The lesson was sacrifice. The captain took his leg, but saved his life. Later, the reader also finds out that the captain dies because he stepped on a land mine while trying to help the others escape from an enemy camp in the Philippines.

Currently

Pages this week: 102
Pages last week: 110
Total Semester: 777

3 Favorite Sentences of the Quarter:

1) "The first rule about fight club is you don't talk about fight club."
Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

2) "That left the police, who must think that he thought that they thought that he thought they were very dumb."
No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

3) "There are no clean getaways."
No Country For Old Men movie poster

These have definitely been my favorite sentences. Without sentence number 1, the whole book of Fight Club would fall apart. Well, maybe not. But it would not be as memorable a story, or as fascinating a concept without that sentence. I'm confused as to why Palahniuk uses "about" instead of "of" in the sentence. Oh well. It makes it kind of different I suppose.

The second sentence, although it's tough, is actually possible to comprehend. It has taken me a long time and a good amount of read-throughs, but I think I understand it now. You really have to think about it for it to make sense. But it caught my attention

The third sentence just makes me think. It's the perfect movie caption for a movie poster. It makes you want to watch the movie and see what happens. I haven't seen the movie yet, and I guess it won't be as suspensful when I do because I've read the book, but I really want to.

Blue Men Die

In the first 57 pages of The Five People You Meet in Heaven, the main character meets a man in heaven that has blue skin because of something he took in to his body, given to him by a chemist. The main character, when he was a boy, indirectly caused the death of a blue circus freak by running out into the middle of the road to chase a ball. The man with blue skin had a heart attack after he almost ran Eddie down, and Eddie didn't even know it. So, that's the story so far. Apparently, each person chooses their own heaven, that corresponds to their favorite place on earth.

New Book Time!

Well, I just finished the ever popular and equally bloody book No Country For Old Men. And I didn't know what to pick up to finish off my last 40 pages this week, so I chose something that's been laying around my house for a long time. Quite a few of my family members have read it and they recommended it to me. It's called The Five People You Meet In Heaven, by Mitch Albom. I'm not too far in right now, but so far it's a pretty easy read, and it starts out with the main character dying, hence the title about heaven. I'm not sure what to expect so far. It's a bit different from the books I've read so far. This one is supposedly more inspirational, and less solemn and bloody than the last three books I've read.

Upon Finishing No Country For Old Men

A lot has taken place since my last post. Llewellyn Moss met a young, 15 year old girl who was hitchhiking along the highway. Unfortunately, as I realized, Moss's tragic flaw, kind of, is his pride. I wouldn't call Moss a tragic hero at all, so I guess it's more of a character flaw. Regardless, it's revealed in his conversations with his new acquaintance, the young girl, that he is overly confident and thinks more of his luck and experience as an outlaw than is really true. They check into a motel on the way to El Paso, and then the story jumps ahead to some time later. McCarthy reveals, in a manner that is not dramatic at all, that Llewellyn Moss and his new companion were shot in that motel by a random, nameless Mexican. I was surprised at this. I didn't know where the story would go from there, because I had been thinking that the protagonist was Moss.

The theme of the book really comes out after Moss dies. Part of the theme is presented by Anton Chigurh, the scary antagonist, and part of it is revealed through Sheriff Bell. Basically, what I got from it had to do with fate, and about regrets. Chigurh represents, sadly, someone who controls fate and has no regrets about what he has done. He literally kills almost everyone he comes into contact with. He kills them because they got in his way, or because they inconvenienced him, or because he promised someone that he would kill them. In that sense, Chigurh, an emotionless killer labeled by most as a psychopath is the only truly honest character in the book. I think that's part of the tragedy of the book. Chigurh really is untouchable, and unable to be caught by the law. He represents pure evil that will always exist in the world. He even kills Moss's wife because he told Moss that he would before he died. He killed her just for the sake of keeping his word to a dead man, who, if alive, would have wanted him to let her live.

After Moss and his wife died, I realized that the real protagonist is Ed Tom Bell, the sheriff, and that the theme of the novel, and the title of the book are derived from his conversations and thoughts. He is an old-fashioned sheriff who can do absolutely nothing to stop Chigurh and men of his kind. He talks with his uncle toward the end of the book about how all his life he has regretted a decision he made in the war. And that he feels dishonest with himself and his life because he knows that he didn't do something he should have. Chigurh, even though he is obviously a worse man, knows who he is because he regrets nothing and controls his own fate. At the end of the book, McCarthy presents a theme of defeat and hopelessness, as Sheriff Bell retires, having not caught Chigurh, and having nothing good to look forward to in his life. He and every other man he knows are completely ignorant and saddened by the state of the country, the state of life. No one cares about them, and everyone seems to die young now. Overall, the book turned into a somewhat depressing piece that got me thinking. I'm not quite sure what I'll read next. But, I definitely want to see the movie now.

Said the Whale Album Art

Said the Whale Close Reading Album Covers

I think these might be kind of tough to analyze, but oh well. I couldn't decide what band/genre I wanted to do, so I just chose something I've been listening to. Good stuff.

Taking Abalonia

Islands Disappear

Bear Bones EP