Banning of Books

It is my personal opinion that books should never be banned from schools. If they don't the books taught in the school system that's fine, just let the book be offered in the library so that student themselves have the chance to go and get it. I also don't think that the pride of Baghdad should be completely ruled out of being taught. Yes it is a current event, and yes it is troubling for some students to hear this story. But this fight could be given to any book out there. While they may not be current event they could focus on a sore subject for one student. The thing is that no matter how much you want to you can't cater to every child's need, it's just not plausible. So while I see where people are coming from when they say that this book shouldn't be taught, I can also see where this book maybe should be taught.  To help further educate students on this war and wars in general. 

Overall thoughts

Overall this book was extremely depressing. Even though it was sad and heart wrenching it did give us a interesting view of the war. I had never heard of the story about the American soldiers killing four escaped lions and for a while during the story I thought it was not a true story. Then as we talked about it in class I understood that this was a true story which kind of made it interesting. What made it interesting was that it is such a clear comparison of the Iraqi people and the lions. Like stated in previous posts the lions showed us what other stories of the war do not. They show us what can happen to even a smaller portion of the population, the animals. 

It's sad that in order to get this point across the author had to use animals. If the author had used actually Iraqi people then the book would be even more depressing and even more controversial. 

The Ending

I was extremely pissed of at the ending of this book. These lion's were bombed out of their home. The place where they have been feed and cared for over the majority of their lives. Once escaped from the zoo they had to survive in the city. The city was a place that used to thrive, but was destroyed by the same bombs that killed the lions home. The lions had no idea what was going on with both the town, the zoo and the world. They had to fight to find both food and shelter to survive. It didn't happen though instead they were killed by American soldiers because they looked as if they were going to attack the soldiers. One of the final lines is that they are "free." How is it that in order for them to be free they have to be killed? If the lions are the picture of the Iraqi people then why is it that the only way they can be free is if they are killed. For some reason this gives a mixed message. I don't see that in order to be free they have to die. They should have been free because they had escaped from the zoo, because they were given another chance at a better life. 

Lions and The people of Baghdad

Throughout the book Pride of Baghdad I viewed the lions as the people who lived there, not as lions. In the story the obstacles that the lions had to under go seemed for me to be obstacles that the Iraqis undertake everyday during this war. When the bomb hit the zoo it destroyed the lions home and their safety. The people of Iraq go through that on a daily basis. While the bombs were not intended to hit the civilians of Iraq it's kind of hard to exactly determine where a bomb is going to hit. Once their homes are destroyed the people are forced to go out into a desolate city and try ad find a new place to live and a new way to survive..... just like the lions. 

While it might not have been the purpose of the authors to make the lions and the people of Baghdad be the same, it's kind of hard not to look at them as the same. 

Archetypes.... they all relate to Bone

• the stoner (smiley)
• the beauty queen (thorn)
• the bully (kingdok, rock jaw, lucious, phoney)
• the smart kid (bone)
• the artist (bone, smiley)
• the bookworm (bone)
• that guy (phoney, two stupid rat creatures)
• the wiseman (the red dragon, grandma ben)
• the arch villian (kingdok, briar, lord of the locust)
• the good wizard (old master, red dragon)
• the whore (the bee in the square, briar)
• the warrior maiden (thorn, grandma ben)
• the useless sidekick (smiley)
• the bartender (lucious, ted)
• the loyal friend (ted)
• the damsel in distress (thorn, grandma ben)
• the knight templar (lucious, bone)

Moby Dick and Bone..... the connection

THE BOOK

• Phoney's lust for treasure (in contrast to ahab), starts with no money in his purse... and is still trying to find money throughout the entire book, keeps looking for ways to find treasure (they are both in the first sentence/ pages of each book)
• no time line
• the idea of a search that destroys you
• lost of setting references, waterfall, farm, magical places
• ideas of a force driving from the known and mundane to the new and or mysterious
• the idea of stepping into new territory, and adventure
• not being able to resis the unknown, it draws you in
• voyage
• ahab and a white whale- phoney and home, phoney and money, phoney and power, phoney and status, kingdok and thorn, kingdok and the valley, kingdok and the power, kingdok and the pride, bone and thorn, lucious and briar
• pride (vice rock jack, briar, kingdok) (virtue torn and bone)

JEFF SMITH

• a man's pursuit of something great that they hold a greater passion for
• a writer who's set himself up to create an epic
• smith makes the valley in bone into a place of destiny as Melville makes the sea
• builds on the idea of a great journey as a spiritual and philosophical one
• starting with nothing. questing for something and seeing the process as inherently valuable regardless of the end result

BONE- FONE BONE MAP

Fone Bone as the Hero

1. Home- Boneville

2. Call to Adventure- getting separated from Smiley and Phoney

3. Reluctant- wants to return to Boneville, ignores danger, Fone wants to go home but then he gets stuck in the valley during the winter and this starts his journey

4. Supernatural- dragon

5. Crossing the Threshold- helping the villagers, attack by rat creatures, meeting thorn and grandma ben

6. Belly of the Whale- rat creatures, dreams, attack on the farm

7. Friends (grandma ben, thorn, stick eaters, Lucious, Phoney, Smiley, Ted, Little animals, villagers, red dragon) and enemies (locust lord, briar, rat creatures, rock jaw)

8. Ordeal- war, attack on city, saving them

9. Master Both Worlds- touching the crown or horns, dreaming sequence

10. Return with Elixir- return to the farm, going back to Barrelhaven

11. Return Home- return to Boneville 

BONE- THORN MAP

Thorn as a Hero

1. Home- The Farm

2. Call to Adventure- meeting with dragon, attack on the farm

3. Reluctant- doesn't want to go when she find out she's a princess, denial/anger at grandma

4. Supernatural- grandma ben or thorn as veni-yan-cari, her dreams, the sword, locust in her

5. Crossing the Threshold- locust lord puts part of him in her, her turning, post rat creature attack, saving the dragon

6. Belly of the Whale- dreams/passing into the ghost circles, trip to althenia, fight with kingdok, 5 million times captured by stupid rat creatures, locust infestation

7. Friends and Enemies- the three bones, grandma ben, stick eaters, Lucious, villagers, little animals, Bartleby, red dragon, dragons, rat creatures, kingdok, locust lord, rock jaw, briar

8. Ordeal- attack of athenia, finding crown, blowing up temple, dream about mom

9. Master Both Worlds- when she knows how to use the locust, flying, mastering the ghost circles

10. Return w/ elixir- the ending when she becomes queen, touching the crown of the horns

11. Return home- back on the farm, return to the city

HERO

The Hero's Story

• The hero starts off in a village, then leaves and there is usually there is a reason why the person leaves
• the hero doesn't want to leave but they are forced to go, they have no choice
• they are aided by usually some form of a mentor and they usually have a unique way of helping them out
• hero has to cross into the "underworld" a place they don't know or understand and it is dangerous
• the hero finds themselves in some sort of trial where they must use their abilities to progress on their journey
• along the way they find both friends and enemies
• the hero faces an ordeal that changes the way the character acts
• now that the ordeal is done they receive a gift
• then they have to go home
• the hero is reborn, they become a master of both worlds, they have changed somehow for the better

In simple forms

• birth/home
• call to adventure
• helpers/amulet
• crossing the threshold
• tests 
• helpers
• climax/ final battle
• flight
• return
• elixir

Random ABC thoughts

In class today there was a statement made that Jin was racist. I find this to be both true and false. I think that all Jin really wanted to be was accepted, so some of the things that he may have said could have been interpreted as racism. Jin really just wants to fit into the American mold and not feel like an alien. 

The point was raised that if Jin just wants to be accepted then why right when Wei-Chang starts going to school there he has the need/desire to beat him up. It was concluded that he may not be racist towards others, but just toward his own raise. I think he wants so desperately to fit in that having someone else who is Chinese almost puts him as a set back in his eyes.  

All in all I don't think that he was so much racist as he just yearned to fit in with his schoolmates and not have the looming stereotypical Chinese aspect hang over his head.

Thank God for ABC

I loved American Born Chinese. It had such a childlike presence to it that was such a nice break from x-men, the spirit, and death note. It just was full of random stories that fit together perfectly. Also the colors and the way in which it was drawn was just so cute and really easy to read. I loved the language, the stories and the look. It was like I have said before, such a nice break from the depressing stuff we have been reading. I think that it's weird that people prefer to have us read depressing stuff in classes. I mean yes it does spark conversation and yes it's semi interesting. But what will all of the hate and violence already in the world, it would be nice to escape into something happy, and I think that this book does exactly that! I loved it!

Going back to the Death Note......really back to Light

In Monday's class we started by just finishing our talk about Death Note. The main focus was wither or not we thought Light was evil. Our group made some pretty interesting points. I mean here Light is killing people because they are killers themselves. His whole thing is that he is cleansing the world of all evil and really putting fear into the hearts of others so that they will not commit a crime. The thing is, by killing all of these people doesn't that in turn make him a killer? So what he is exempt because he has a set plan for good. Well we don't know what these murders were thinking, I mean to them they might have killed for the greater good. So isn't Light just like them? Why is his means better then there's? 

We also mentioned that he was always evil. I personally believe that there is a little of evil in everyone. We just choose wither or not we want to use that evil. The death note was Lights way of releasing all of his inner evil, and really in the end sort of started destroying his soul

Last page of American Born Chinese

So on blackboard someone put up a link for a youtube video that explains what the last page of the book shows. I think it's funny because which came first, the video or the book???? Which makes me wonder if the video came first, why would the author put a still of the video in cartoon on the very last page. Anyway, here is the video for those who haven't seen it.

CHINESE BACKSTREET BOYS- THAT WAY

Need a Break

So I love that each of the graphic novels that we have read are different in there own special ways. But after The Spirit, Xmen, and Death Note.... I kind of can't wait to read something more light hearted. That's why I'm really excited to look at American Born Chinese, because well I have already read it and it was really good. Different, funny and all around entertaining. I part toady's post with today's nataliedee blog, she's hilarious and I always have a good time reading (or looking) at her new posts!

L......and randomness

Something that really pissed me off in the Death Note was that we don't find out who L is. I know that Death Note is a series and stuff but I kind of wish I knew who he was and if he had any relation to Light at all. Also just as a side note I thought the ending of volume one was kind of stupid with the whole gameboy advance silver. Kind of Lame. I also thought it was stupid that L was just thrown into the story, all of a sudden the detective was like, this is a job for L..... and bam there he is. No real explanation to the reason why. I also like that while Light was obsessed with the death note, L was obsessed with Light. I feel like, and this is coming from someone who has not read all of the volumes, that L is the same age as Light..... which makes me wonder where the fuck all these smart/scary 16 year olds are coming from.

Some thoughts on Death Note

So Manga for me is kind of hard to read. It took me a while to realize the way in which to read the story, but once I did it wasn't that bad. I always thought manga was kind of like anime and it could very well still be, but for some reason I really enjoyed Death Note. 

First of all Light is really messed up. I mean who even thinks about wanting to experiment to see if the Death Note would actually work. It's like he is over taken by this book and nothing will stop him until he creates this pure world. In the beginning I thought that he was using the book somewhat ok, with killing the known terrorist/criminal people. But then he was like oh the reason why the criminals are all dying the same is so that I can get noticed. He wants people to know that if they do something bad they will get punished. Even something small and stupid could result in them dying by getting hit by a bus or something. It's kind of scary how all of this power is given to a 16 year old boy who thinks that it's his duty to pure the world of all evil people, when in the end he is one himself.

Love Note

In class today we had to create a new god and there god's note.

I created the God of Love and the Love Note

RULES

• The human whose name is written in this note shall love anyone you want them to
• anyone who touches the love not can hear and see it's original owner, a god of love and if they do touch it they can never experience love themselves
• the two people picked to fall in love must be written within 30 seconds of each other
• if the names of the people are not specified, they will never fall in love

BENEFITS

• good fortune will come to the owner as long as they continue to use it

RESTRICTIONS/LIMITS

• there are no restrictions or limits to the love note

CATCH

• If you use the love note, you yourself can not love

Splash Pages and Character Design of The Spirit

In class the other day we talked about different aspects of The Spirit. Splash pages are a large part of the story as they are the very first page we see when opening the comic. The majority of them don't involve the Spirit at all, and they seem to be the layout of what you are going to be seeing the rest of the comic. Each of the pages are set up differently, but they stay with the theme of what the rest of the story will be about. It also always makes a very bold statement, one that is definatly garanteed to draw you into the story. Going beyound the first page, Eisner tends to change the way in which some of the stories are told. For intense in the Christmas issue the layout of the story is different, with the main story in the middle and helpful side lines outlining the borders. Then there's the Ratat story about the toy machine gun where is looks like a coloring book setting. So not only are the splash pages there to tell you what is going to happen but the way in which the story is portrayed keeps with the theme.

The characters are made in a very interesting manner, they all seem to have features that help to create who they are, for intense their accessories really help to shape their personality. The women of Spirit seem to be drawn the same just with different outfits, their persona though is very revolutionary..... they're not the shown as the stereotypical woman like they would have been if written by anyone else. It funny to because they all tend to have very descriptive names tat are puns based on their personalities. Also going to the Spirit he tends to be shown as the most realistic out of all of the characters. He seems to be more human like her makes mistakes and it down to earth with his decisions. It's also weird how the stories rarely focus on the Spirit, and he tends to arrive later on in the story