Out of the Silent Planet

Hey, sorry this is soooo late. And it's really short. But at least it's finally up here.

Most of us have gotten to know C.S. Lewis’ literature: both fiction and nonfiction. (Anyone who knows me knows I’ve really gotten to know some of his stuff.) One of Lewis’ interesting fiction series is his space trilogy. In the first book, Out of the Silent Planet, we are introduced to Ransom, who will lead us beyond our own planet to the land of Malacandra, which is known to us as Mars. Ransom had been kidnapped by two men: Weston and Devine. They took him to the planet Malacandra to appease the mysterious Sorns. When he runs away though, he meets a Hross, one of the three races of Malacandra. He later meets the Pfifltriggi and finally the Sorns. He discovers that the Sorns are not his enemies despite their huge, fearsome appearance. I think this is a good connection to our society because so often people are judged for their appearances. But sometimes, the ones that don’t fit in are kinder than the people you thought were like you. Although, in my opinion, this isn’t Lewis’ best work, I still have to say it was pretty good.

Book Review: The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison's first novel, The Bluest Eye, written in 1970 is a carefully crafted story of Pecola Breedlove, a young African-American girl living in Ohio after the Great Depression. She lives with the MacTeers, who have taken her in after they learned of her difficult childhood. Pecola has abusive parents: a distant mother and a drunken father. Pecola sees herself as an ugly black girl and believes that her entire life would be better if only she had blue eyes.
This book has recurring themes such as racial insecurity, rape, incest and poverty. The themes of The Bluest Eye relate to modern life in the sense that, even though segregation and slavery no longer exist, there is still racial discrimination. Also, rape continues to be an extreme problem in America- incest is not as common but still occurs.
This book will cause readers to sympathize with Pecola through it's horrifying description of her account of rape. Toni Morrison also uses her impeccable literary technique to make readers feel as if they are experiencing Pecola's trials right alongside her.

Book Review: The Once and Future King

The Once and Future King has come to be regarded as a classic piece of literature. This retelling of the King Arthur story starts in his childhood, as "the Wart" talking lessons from the eccentric Merlyn and follows the story through Arthur's life and reign. Although this story has been told time and again, T.H. White manages to bring it to life in a new way.
The first "book" within this book, The Sword and the Stone, starts in Artur's childhood. Arthur lives with his uncle, Sir Ector, and his cousin, Kay. As a child Kay called Arthur "the Wart" and the nickname stuck as they grew older. This book focuses on Arthur's education. Sir Ector is looking for a new tutor for the boys, and finally hires Merlyn. Merlyn is a wizard who often seems to be losing his grip on reality, and whose teaching methods are far from ordinary. The crazy tutor turns Arthur into various animals as part of his "education."
As in modern culture, education is important in this story. However, education is defined differently than it is now. Arthur's education focuses on fighting, jousting, falconry, and, once Merlyn begins to teach, even more obscure areas of study. Today education is important in order to secure a future. If one does not obtain a college degree, there is little hope for a profitable career. However, for Arthur and Kay their education seemed to serve a different purpose. They belonged to a noble family, thus they had a fairly secure future. So why be educated at all? It was simply a symbol of their status. Being well educated proved that their family was wealthy.
This book does a fantastic job of making the King Arthur story more relateable. It is definitely worthy of the respect it has gained.

The Hobbit

The Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolken
published: 1937


“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”
Backstory:
The hole in the quote above, belongs Bilbo Baggins. He is an upstanding member of the Shire. Bilbo is, like most of his kind, well off, well fed, and the happiest, sitting by his own fire, smoking his pipe. A hobbit is a funny creature, they detest adventure but love to hear the stories. Hobbits are never late for dinner or any meal. The last person one would expect to see set off on a hazardous journey would be Bilbo Baggins.When Gandalf the Grey stops by one morning, “looking for someone to share in an adventure,” Bilbo bids the wizard to go away though he says no such thing. Hobbits are not rude or they try not to be at any cost. No such luck, however; soon 13 fortune-seeking dwarves arrive on the hobbit’s doorstep in search of a great burglar to help them on their quest. (Gandolf tells them bliblo is the greatest burglar of all times) Before Bilbo could protest, he is swept out his door and into a dangerous adventure.
Review:
The Hobbit is the beginning to the epic The Lord of the Rings, but it still stands quite well on its own. This epic begins with trouble with Smaug, the dragon, causing trouble for the dwarves. Along the way Bilbo encouters trouble with the Ring of Power. The ring at the times it seemed a mere piece of luck, it comes in quite handy for Bilbo during his adventure. More important to this story is the journey of Bilbo and the dwarves toward their ancient home, the Lonely Mountain. The dwarves and Bilbo go to the Lonely mountain to reclaim their home and treasure from Smaug,the dragon. The Hobbit is a perfect adventure story, ideal for reading to children or for anyone of any age. Bilbo, a seemingly insignificant person of a"lesser" race of people, becomes a wonderful hero. Also as Bilbo contiues on his journey he finds that he has more courage than he ever imagined.

The main theme of the novel was very hard to find and is not clearly shown because there are quite a few themes in this book. The main point is, if you over come your fears, you can achieve almost anything. Bilbo is the perfect example of this. In a sense we are all Bilbo and we need to overcome our fears and we will acomplish great things.. After Bilbo overcomes his main fears of adventure, danger and failure, he is able to complete the mission successfully.

I highly recommend this book for children of all ages as well as adults. Why? Not only does is it relevent to the Middle Earth saga but it has a certain appeal that makes the reader want to continue reading the book all day. I have read the next three books on Hobbits’ adventures written by J.R.R. Tolken and they are just as amazing.

book review

The Chronicles of Narnia The Lion, the Witch And The Wardrobe
This book by C. S. Lewis was about four children (Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy).
They lived during the air-raids. These four children got sent to London during this time. Lucy, the youngest, found this wardrobe and found this whole new world inside of it. She spent most of her time in this world. The creatures were shocked when they saw a daughter of Eve. When she came back to the real world, she showed her siblings and they also went inside of this wardrobe and stayed in this world for maybe a week. They fought off the devilish creatures and went back home. When they went back home, it was only a few hours that they had been gone.

C.S. Lewis is a very good book writer in my perspective. He tells the story and also talks to you as you read. He has a very good imagination. When I read this, I thought I was in the story and fighting off the bad dudes and walking all around Narnia. Lewis wrote this book not just for his own well being, but for his daughter Lucy. By the time this book got published, she was too old for fairy tales.He still wrote it for her.

Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold

The Ancient Greek Myths have been retold again and again, but never quite in a way quite like Till We Have Faces. In C.S. Lewis’ last novel, Till We Have Faces, he managed to bare the human soul in a way that his more apologetic works, like the Great Divorce could not. The story manages to work through issues of family, jealousy, gender, faith, selfish/selfless love and ultimate purpose.

TWHF is the first-hand story of the ugly princess Orual, her love for her beautiful sister Psyche, and her complaint against the gods. Orual lives in Glome, a pre-Christian, barbaric kingdom that is distantly influenced by Greek culture. The people of her kingdom worship local variations of the Greek gods. Their main goddess is Ungit, elsewhere known as Aphrodite. Surprisingly, however, her statue is not the beauty of the Greeks, but a black shapeless rock splattered with the blood of sacrifices.

Orual’s father, the King, is a violent and unlovable man who is constantly hoping for a male heir. He gets Orual and Redival with his first wife, and Psyche from his second. Psyche is incredibly beautiful and Orual, who is repulsively ugly, loves Psyche possessively after her mother’s death. Orual and Psyche find a father figure and a friend in the form of their tutor, a foreign slave known as the Fox.

Here Lewis begins to retell the classic story of Psyche and Cupid. The lowly people of Glome start to worship Psyche as a goddess because of her beauty and charm; Aphrodite/Ungit afflicts the land with a curse in jealous anger. Out of fear and desperation, the people turn on Psyche and send her as a sacrifice to be destroyed by the son of Ungit, the god of the Grey Mountain (otherwise known as Cupid). Upon seeing Psyche, the god of the Grey Mountain falls in love with her and takes her as his wife to live with him. However, because Psyche is a mortal, she is not permitted to see her husband’s face and is not aware of his identity.

Orual’s true problems commence when she goes to bury the bones of a sister she believes long dead. Orual is shocked when she finds Psyche not dead, but alive and happy. Psyche tells Orual of her new life with her new husband, but Orual is unconvinced. She cannot see the palace and the fine robes that Psyche talks about. Thus Orual’s problems begin.

Lewis’ true skill comes through in his ability to show us a very real woman. Orual is writing this account as a formal account against the gods yet it gives us a clear picture of her heart and mind. Although the surface theology is pagan, Lewis masterfully weaves in many worldviews, including Greek rationalism and rumors of an intimate beautiful relationship with the divine.

The scene of greatest tension and the title even allude to a phrase in 1 Corinthians 13:12a, “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face.” So, as you can see, Lewis lures the reader to the God of Love without in-your-face symbolism. The real jewel of Till We Have Faces is the lessons the reader learns along the way. The reader is forced to figure out on his own when Orual is deceiving herself and when she perceives her actions right, when they really are wrong.

This book definitely requires a second read, and anyone will understand that after the first. All in all, I think Lewis gave an accurate assessment when he claimed this as his best work. I certainly recommend this book to all readers!

Book Review

Mary Wollstonecraft was born on August 30, 1797 in London England. Her father was a philosopher and her mother was a feminist. Both her parents were accomplished writers. Mary’ s mother died four weeks after giving birth to her, and her father remarried when she was four. Mary loved to read and she would borrow books from her father’s library.
Frankenstein tells a tale of Victor Frankenstein who from a young age is fascinated in science and after years and years of research is convinced he has discovered the secret of life. He then spends months creating a monster out of old body parts. Then one night he brings his creation to life and is awoken to the sight of his creation looming over his head. Victor is horrified by its ugliness and this utter monstrosity and runs. Victor receives note that his younger brother William has just died. Then the questions start plowing into his head: Did the monster kill him? Will he hurt the other people I love?
Marry Shelley’s book provided the inspiration for countless things such as, TV shows, other novels, and movies. This book keeps you guessing until the end when all of the loose ends are tied up. Mary Shelley was way ahead of her time when writing this novel. Frankenstein is a book that is very easy to relate to with its vast amount of human emotions such as the loss of a loved one, success, triumph, and guilt, all if which we can understand. A major theme in the book is temptation, such as when Victor gives into the temptation to create this creature without thinking about the consequences it might have first. This story brings in a huge theme of science fiction, dealing with the thought of man playing God and creating another man. This story also brings up a theme of philosophy, such as in the roles of man and God, and the idea of nature vs. nurture. Whoever you are this book will has something that will intrigue you and draw you in. Shelley is very skillful in her manner of conveying her ideas; she writes in a way where ideas are not forced upon you, your mind just picks them up without realizing. This novel is very relatable and has something to interest everyone!

Great Expectations

Great Expectations was written in and published from 1860 to 1861 by Charles Dickens in the All the Year Round. Pip is an orphan boy who was raised near the Kent marshes. He runs into an escaped convict and little to his knowledge his life is changed forever. Pip is sent to meet Miss Havisham and her beautiful girl (Estella), which she raises to destroy men’s hearts just like hers was crushed. Pip is oblivious to what Estella is doing to him and falls in love with her. He will do anything to become acceptable to her including leaving his family behind when great wealth is presented by an anonymous benefactor. Pip thinks that the benefactor is Miss Havisham and that she provided the wealth so he could eventually marry Estella. When he eventually finds out that his sponsor is actually the escaped convict he helped in the marshes he inevitably has to make a decision that could destroy him. So basically the story follows a boy named Pip through his life and all the mistakes he makes.
I loved this book. The sensory language Charles Dickens uses appeals to all your senses. Some people may say the book is over “worded” but I disagree because all the detail helps you to understand the book more deeply. The way Dickens describes and portrays emotions is perfect. His word choice is impeccable and the characters are very personable. The plot was very well planned out and it was easily followed. Overall I would give this book a 10/10!

Book Review! --- A Tale of Two Cities

During the time of the French revolution, are different conflicts and characters. A young lady, Lucie, finds out her 18year dead father is still alive. A man accused of treason, Darnay, wins his case and is pleaded innocent. A family’s son is run over by a high-class carriage. Two men, wanting to marry Lucie, struggle to tell her their feelings.
As Dickens’s novel progresses, the story becomes more and more intriguing, telling of a time of terror and treason during the French Revolution. Dickens’s novel is very descriptive. He uses words that paint pictures in your mind. Unlike most novels, A Tale of Two Cities dives right into a suspense filled beginning. Most novels start out slow, and then become exciting, but this novel is exciting from the first page. Dickens describes his characters extremely well. I feel like I know the sweet Lucie or heroic Carton. I give this book "Two Thumbs Up!!!"