“I know life is hard, I think everyone knows that in their hearts, but why does it have to be cruel, as well? Why does it have to bite?” _________________________________________________________________________________________________ There’s something about Stephen King’s writing that gets to me. Yes, he has a very grim view of the world. The darkness in his universe is … [Read more...]
UnWholly
In Unwind, Neil Shusterman gave us a brilliantly disturbing look at a culture in which parents can have teenage children “unwound” – a process which kills them as every part of their physical body is separated and given to someone else. Shusterman introduced some weighty concepts in Unwind: Do we have souls? Do people have intrinsic worth? What makes human life … [Read more...]
Neil Shusterman's Unwind: Cutting The Baby in Half
“In a perfect world mothers would all want their babies, and strangers would open up their homes to the unloved. In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn’t a perfect world.” Unwind is the first book in Neal Shusterman's critically acclaimed trilogy. The story takes place in a dystopic … [Read more...]
Jonathan Maberry's Rot and Ruin: Honor, Idealism, and the Monsters Within
“When writers tell a story about monsters, we’re usually using them as a vehicle in order to tell a story about our own world.” - Jonathan Maberry The horror genre is becoming increasingly cerebral, at least in terms of how zombies are being used (World War Z, Warm Bodies, and The Walking Dead). Jonathan Maberry's Rot and Ruin series is a welcome addition to the list. He uses … [Read more...]
Did Gandalf Hate His Friends?
I don’t know if you were as excited as I was to see The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, but one thing that particularly stood out to me was the exploration of the mission that Gandalf undertook apart from his dwarf and hobbit companions. Even though it is outside of the story as J.R.R. Tolkien originally told it, I think that we were handed a very good image of what it means … [Read more...]
Worldviews and Culture: YA Entertainment in 2013
As a father of three who has worked with youth for 20 years, I've had a front row seat from which to observe the cultural saturation of America's young adults, particularly when it comes to entertainment. A good story is powerful, and some great storytellers are teaching the next generation a lot about life - for better or worse. Unfortunately, the current blend of … [Read more...]
Who Is Peeta? Identity, Persistence, and the Hunger Games
The Hunger Games and Philosophy provides an excellent springboard from which to dive into some key themes in this incredibly popular trilogy. In "Who is Peeta Mellark? The Problem of Identity in Panem," Nicolas Michaud uses Peeta's post-torture persona to look at the problem of personal identity. I will do my best to adequately represent her argument, as well as provide a … [Read more...]
Darwin and the Hunger Games
The Hunger Games and Philosophy provides an excellent springboard from which to dive into some key themes in this incredibly popular trilogy. Abigail Mann's contribution, “Competition and Kindness: The Darwinian World of the Hunger Games,” offers some insight into how this series looks when viewed through the lens of Darwinian theory. I will do my best to adequately represent … [Read more...]
Ender's Game: A Review
If the awards given to Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game are any indication, he has written a novel that may well become part of the canon of science fiction: Nebula Award for best novel in 1985 Hugo Award for best novel in 1986 Nominated for a Locus Award in 1986 American Library Association's "100 Best Books for Teens." Margaret A. Edwards Award in 2008 It’s been … [Read more...]
Elysium: Fighting For Paradise
According to Brittanica Online, "Elysium, also called Elysian Fields or Elysian Plain, in Greek mythology, originally the paradise to which heroes on whom the gods conferred immortality were sent... In Homer’s writings the Elysian Plain was a land of perfect happiness at the end of the earth.. In the earlier authors, only those specially favored by the gods entered Elysium and … [Read more...]
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