Reflection

Wow, we're almost done!  This class has taught me so much about myself, literature, our society, and the world.  To start, the first unit we talked about really intrigued me and made me think very differently about things that have  become second nature to our society.  It's obvious day to day that there are ads everywhere, but when we looked at the effects those ads are having on children I started to recognize on a bigger scale how sad our society has become.  We are a society that has more than enough to get by and yet we are always wanting more and more, quicker and quicker.  Businesses run our lives, everywhere we turn there are ads for something.  After reading Feed I realized how bad this is for our society.  I used to read fictional books and just enjoy the story.  Since having this class I am able to make strong connections to the real world which I think will really help me in life.  Rather than just seeing Feed as some messed up society I had to recognize the similarities it had to our society and contemplate how much closer this society is to our future.  We are constantly making new inventions, so it's not unbelievable that one day the internet would actually be inside our bodies.  It would be ignorant to dismiss this as impossible.  Similarly, today if you don't have access to the internet you are five steps behind in the job market just like Violet's father was without the Feed.  I realized that technology is great and is not going anywhere anytime soon.  But, it is important to recognize how detrimental the consumerism it is creating is to our society.
That leads me to the Thoreau challenge.  This challenge had a lasting impact on me.  I realized how much I enjoyed background noise, but how unnecessary and distracting it really can be.  As a society we have lost touch with our roots, nature, the real world around us, because we are too caught up in technology.  Like I said I am a firm supporter of technology but I still recognize the importance of taking time out of your day to slow down and appreciate what life has to offer.  By spending a week without technology I was able to get so much work done but I realized how much I depend on technology in positive ways.  I am able to be in contact with family and friends at the push of a few buttons, the time it takes me to get school work done is cut in half from the use of a laptop and the internet, and finally, TV and radios are great for parties or relaxing at the end of a hard day.  This class helped me realize that everything has positives and negatives, but it is important to question whether the positives outweigh the negatives.
Hunger Games was by far my favorite book of the semester.  Between semesters I do enjoy reading, but I have fallen into reading only Jodi Picoult books because I really like her writing style and what she writes about, her books are guaranteed to interest me.  If I would have just picked up the Hunger Games I would have put it right back down because the story seems so unbelievable I would have dismissed it by the description on the back.  However, I loved the story and found that i don't dismiss fiction as easily as I did before.  With technology developing the way that it is anything is possible and again like Feed this society had many links to the society we live in today.  The story really intrigued me and after discussing it in class I had a whole new prospective on the book.  While reading, I didn't even recognize how similar reality TV in the story is to reality TV today.  The Hunger Games were brutal, sad, and immoral, but the way the audience affected every move the tributes made relates so closely to society today.  As a reality TV fan I really had to self reflect on why I liked reality TV and why I had been denying how blatantly scripted many shows are.  Similar to how children hold on to their belief in Santa and the Easter Bunny, against my boyfriend's constant nagging about how fake Real Housewives, Jersey Shore, and Teen Mom are I held out confidence that although some parts may be scripted there was no way the shows were totally fake.  Now every time I watch any of these shows I am constantly analyzing their decisions and I usually come to the conclusion that most people are acting in a way that has more than likely sparked better ratings.  This is probably one of the biggest learning experiences of the semester just because it completely changed my way of looking at one of my favorite forms of entertainment.
Overall, this semester has taught me a lot.  I have a much more critical eye and am able to look at how issues affect our society as a whole.  However, the last issue I want to discuss is how often our class criticized  the selfishness that often came out in conversation.  For example, when discussing the Dumbest Generation many people reacted by saying well I don't need to know many historical facts that my grandparents generation had to know because they didn't have the luxury of the internet to look it up when needed.  I just want to close by saying I don't think it is bad that as a generation we do, buy, read, watch etc what interests us.  I think it's wrong if people don't recognize the importance of understanding history but that doesn't mean that I'm going to go back and read my history book; I think it's wrong if people don't recognize that books that are boring to you may be extremely interesting to someone else, but I don't think it's wrong to admit you're going to put down a book after a few chapters put you to sleep.  I think life is too short to waste time reading books that make you fall asleep, or memorizing facts that you don't need and admitting you do these things does not make you a bad or ignorant person.  I think our society's education system requires us to read many different ideas for a reason, because they are necessary to become a well rounded, educated person.  However, being a well rounded educated person does not mean that you have to choose to do things in your free time that don't interest you.

A world without books

I think a world without books would look like the society depicted in farenheit 451.  Language would begin to dwindle because from birth reading helps to build vocabulary.  Critical thinking would disappear because there have to be new and differing ideas for analysis to even exist.  Rather than life being like an onion and people having to explore the layers in their own way, life would be more like spaghetti with a few different kinds of people (i.e. noodles, sauce, and meatballs) but what you see is what you get!
I would definitely miss books if they were forbidden because although there are some nights where I am exhausted and just want to relax and watch tv, other nights reading really relaxes and me and makes me feel a lot less lazy because I am still working my mind.  I don't read for leisure during the semester because I always have something to be working on, but during the summer I love sitting on my roof, by the pool, or on the beach and reading a good book.  Like I said before reading presents new ideas and allows the reader to interpret the story any way they want.  A reader could analyze a story and see a whole different way of looking at it than the author even intended. 

One way I feel we "burn" books today is by turning them into movies.  Although I love watching movies, I feel in a way they often take away a lot of the texture within books.  When you read you can imagine the characters in any way you please and you know what they're thinking.  In a movie there is no way to read the characters minds, which can really take away from some deeper meaning, and there are often time limits on movies so a lot of the book gets thrown to the waste side anyway.  Not to mention the problem actor choices, if the wrong actor is chosen, the whole movie can crumble leaving a bad image on the book as well.  I am anxious to see the movie Hunger Games but I know that it won't even compare to the book!

One other way I feel we "burn" books today is through spark notes.  I personally do love spark notes because sometimes text is too dense, too long, or just plain boring so spark notes is a quick easy way to get the jist of the story.  However, like movies, you only see a glimpse of the book through spark notes.  Granted you are seeing the most important parts, but the plot is completely lost.  Using spark notes in conjunction with reading can be very helpful, but if books were lost and spark notes were all that was left it just wouldn't be the same!

The danger books present are questions.  If you are told all of your life one way of thinking then read a book about a completely different society questions arise.  What would life be like in that kind of society?  How is our society similar?  Who is right?  Who is wrong?  The most dangerous questions is probably:  If we are wrong, what can I do to make things right?  Dictatorships are very threatened by any kinds of questions becuase they often spark revolts.