Reading Log for March

Book title: She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb                                       March 16, 2014

Part I. 

“Within patriarchal society, women who are victimized by male violence have had to pay a price for breaking the silence and naming the problem. They have had to be seen as fallen women, who have failed in their 'feminine' role to sensitize and civilize the beast in the man.”

– Bell Hooks, US feminist writer

           

            At a time when most of us could feel a little moment of triumph, spending some time with Dolores Price is a great therapy. I love her story of courage, rebirth and second chances. Dolores was a victim of violence during childhood. She was raped when she was twelve, few years after her parents separated. Her mother had an affair with the man who raped her, and her father never communicated with her for many years which made her despise her parents very much. She wasn’t able to handle the trauma it has given her, thus causing her to use food as her stress reliever. As I expected, she gained too much weight later on. 

            Dolores and I have a lot in common— although I never suffered much like her, somehow, I have experienced some of those misfortunes. I too suffered too much stress during my early teenage years brought about by family problems which triggered me to spend the next few years nourishing myself with chocolate bars, potato chips and soft drinks. Let’s just skip the how-much-weight-did-I-gain part. Anyway, like Dolores, I too got to my feet and gave myself another chance.

            Many people say that obesity is not caused by stress, just by eating too much. No way! It’s a domino effect— when one gets stressed, he may either lose or gain weight because he may not eat at all or eat too much to ease the tension he feels inside. Obesity can become a chronic lifelong condition caused by overeating, physical inactivity, and even genetic makeup. No matter what the cause, however, obesity can be prevented or managed with a combination of diet, exercise, behavior modification, and in severe cases, weight-loss medications and surgery (Foster, 2009).

            Nowadays, obesity has been one of the greatest diseases people are battling with. Many eating and exercise habits combine to promote weight gain. Certain times, places, activities, and emotions may be linked to periods of overeating or inactivity. Many obesity treatment programs recommend individuals keep a food diary that records all food or drink consumed, when and with whom it was consumed, and the mood or precipitating events that trigger eating. After one to two weeks, the diary may reveal a pattern of activities or negative emotions that lead to overeating. Once these eating cues are identified, techniques can be developed and practiced to prevent unwanted eating habits. If people are aware of this problem arising within their household, worse case scenarios will be prevented.

            I am posting this challenge to everyone who has the same case as Dolores. If Dolores was able to get up from her situation, are you able to do the same too? Or will you stuck yourself inside your bedroom, sitting on the couch, and drowning yourself with chips and soda? The decision is in your hands.

Part II.

Reading Log for February

Book title: Misery by Stephen King                                                         February 28, 2014

Part I.

Words are his power. - Stephen King (to Paul Sheldon)

This is the first time I have felt this extreme feeling of rage towards a fictional character that I almost tore a book apart as if tearing it would make the situation better. Paul Sheldon, the main character, used to write for a living. But he was forced to write to stay alive. Annie Wilkes is the reason of it all. She is the best psychopath I have ever known and one of the worst antagonists too. Paul was a writer; she was his number one fan. The number one fan who forced him to “resurrect” the character he had “killed" a long time ago— Misery Chastain.

I wonder how Annie Wilkes became a psychopath. The reason was not clearly stated in the novel. But one thing is sure— she was a danger to anyone she meets. She always misunderstands people’s actions, she’s easily offended, and she’s violent, cursing, and killing. Why did she continue to “hostage” Paul Sheldon even after he finished writing “Misery’s Return”? Why did she despise everyone so much? Paul is so pathetic; as I read the remaining pages, I’ve felt the damage it caused him, his pain and his rage towards the antagonist, but in spite of the trauma, he remained firm until the end.

According to The Nature of Violence by Erich Fromm, “Hate and destructiveness are impulses which obscure rational and objective thinking and easily create a polarization in that they reinforce each other on both sides of the political spectrum.” Since, I believe, the future of the human race depends on rational planning based on mutual understanding, the study of violence is of importance. In my research about the nature of violence I have asked myself, is violence inherent in human nature?

The affirmative answer to my question is old. From [Thomas] Hobbes to [Sigmund] Freud to Konrad Lorenz, the assumption has been that man is an inherently aggressive animal. This assumption was made by Freud in his concept of the life instinct and the death instinct and by Freudian psychoanalysts who did not follow Freud in this assumption but postulated the existence of a destructive instinct in man. Lorenz shares the concept of an aggressive instinct and combines it with assumptions about inherited aggressiveness rooted in the evolution of men from animals. According to the psychoanalysts and Lorenz, aggressiveness is spontaneously produced within the nervous system. It grows and accumulates and must be expressed if it is not to explode against or without a person's intention. Aggressiveness in this view does not need a special stimulus or provocation. It arises by itself and seeks and finds those stimuli which give it a chance to express itself(1969 Collier's Year Book).

Part II.

Book title	Similarities	Differences
Misery (Stephen King) vs Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)	·         -The protagonist was forced to pretend to be in alliance with the enemy to stay alive               The antagonist was in control of everything the protagonist needed (food, clothing, medicines, etc.) throughout the story ·         The antagonist had been an expert—killing many people ever since ·         The protagonist is always punished for unjustifiable reasons ·         The setting of the story was in an isolated place ·         The ending was hanging—the outcome of the novel would be left for the reader to be pondered	·         In Misery: Ø  the main character was a writer— it’s as if Stephen King’s character was instilled to Paul Sheldon Ø  the main character is an old man Ø  the novel is of different genre Ø  the plot is more realistic Ø  the novel is not family-oriented Ø  the antagonist is a  psychopath ·         In Hunger Games, Ø  the main character is a young girl Ø  there is romance in the novel Ø  the story is on the future Ø  the plot is unrealistic, so are the characters

Reading Log #3 (January 2014)

Book Title: The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown                                             Date: February 1, 2014

Part I.

“My friends, as you can see, the chaos of the world has an underlying order.”

-Professor Robert Langdon, The Da Vinci Code

            Every human being is a living representation of the so called “Divine Proportion”. The idea was amazingly introduced to me by Professor Robert Langdon, the main character of the novel. The number PHI represented by 1.618 is generally considered the most beautiful number in the universe.  Early scientists heralded one-point-six-one-eight as Divine Proportion because plants, animals, and even human beings all possessed dimensional properties that adhered with eerie exactitude to the ratio of PHI to 1. PHI, according to him, is a very important number in art. Nobody understood the idea better than Leonardo da Vinci as shown in his work, The Vitruvian Man.  Da Vinci exhumed corpses to measure the exact proportions of human bone structure, and with this, he was the first to show that the human body is literally made of building blocks whose proportional ratios always equal PHI. The distance from one’s head to the floor divided by the distance from his belly button to the floor is actually equal to PHI (1.618). Same goes with the distance of one’s shoulder to his fingertips divided by the distance of the elbow to the fingertips. Hip to floor divided by knee to floor. PHI again. PHI. PHI. PHI. Amazing! I actually tried it and saw favorable results afterwards.

         Sangreal. Sang Real... San Greal. Royal Blood… Holy Grail. Is Mary Magdalene the mother of the royal bloodline of Jesus Christ? Has the Holy Bible been hiding something which can change history? The Da Vinci Code is indeed one of the most controversial novels in history for it challenges the beliefs of Christians about Jesus Christ being unmarried and being pure until his crucifixion and assumption, and Mary Magdalene being a concubine. The two were allegedly married and bore a child named Sarah. It may destroy not only the established Christian belief but the whole church for worse. Its movie version was even not allowed to be shown on movie-houses in the Philippines to the fact that majority of Filipinos are Christians and that the movie talks about a very sensitive issue. Two years ago, the movie Innocence of the Muslims was also not permitted to be shown in the country for the issue about Prophet Mohammad doing something against the doctrines of Islam might greatly affect our Muslim brothers and sisters. Issues like these are highly debated across countries and mostly lead to chaos. Whichever is true, I myself cannot tell.

          With intelligence like Sherlock Holmes, I think Robert Langdon will soon find out where the Holy Grail is but will keep it to himself because he exactly knows how great the information is that not all people in the world will be able to carry and understand it.

Part II.

Poem. (Task No.19)

Eureka!

By: Jermaine Dela Cruz

Eureka! (I found it!)

The secret of the Holy script,

Things flashed into my mind,

Just like film that began to rewind.

He was a symbolist, an honorable one,

Who I looked up to, such a great man.

Robert Langdon is his name,

He indeed is the man of fame.

A death of a Freemason

Brought chaos to the organization,

He was tasked to find the Holy Grail

To save a life, he must not fail.

“Eureka! (I found it)”, he cried at once,

In Paris, France—the city of romance.

As the Power began to grow astound,

He found the Grail six feet below the ground.

Eureka!

Reading Log #2

Book Title: Vienna Prelude by BodieTheone                                                            December 30, 2013

Part 1:

Holocaust

-the almost complete destruction of Jews in Europe by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II (1939-1945). The leadership of Germany’s Nazi Party ordered the extermination of 5.6 million to 5.9 million Jews. Jews often refer to the Holocaust as Shoah (from the Hebrew word for “catastrophe” or “total destruction”). The word holocaust derives from the Greek holo(whole) and caustos(burned) and originally referred to a burnt.

Do colors matter? Why could race differences kill millions of people in a single swipe? Who is Adolf Hitler? How did a man from the army get so powerful that he almost took over the world with his hands? Why did Germans hate the Jews? Can a violinist with a Jewish blood and all the other people around her survive the catastrophe? Nazi darkness was descending upon Europe—would their lives ever be the same?

Short summary

PRE-WORLD WAR ERA— Elisa Lindheim, a violinist with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, is of Jewish Heritage but has adopted an Aryan Stage name because of her half German blood. Thus she was able to travel and play in Germany even though a 1935 law forbade Jewish musicians to do so. When Nazi power peaked in Germany during 1939, Elisa’s family was forced to run away from Germany and flee to a place called Kitzbühelin Austria. Her mother and two younger brothers were first to escape but her father, Theo Lindheim who owned a business and was known as an anti-Nazi, shut down their business and met with Elisa, but on their way to Austrian border, Theo was captured and was taken to Dachau concentration camp where Jews and others who were against the administration are brought and treated under inhumane conditions. Meanwhile, John Murphy, a reporter for the New York Times in Berlin and Austria, becomes linked with English politicians in a plan to overthrow Hitler. Elisa met him and after many circumstances, became her lover and ally. Together, they managed to escape from the hands of Nazi armies and eventually reunited with Elisa’s family in Czechoslovakia where Jews and other non-Germans who flee from Germany lived the rest of their lives free from racism. Theo also made his way out of the concentration camp and together with Elisa and John, gained the freedom he was seeking for.

            I likeElisa’s character because she is a very loving daughter who would do anything to save her father. She was shown a lot of discrimination by the Nazi officials but remained strong and still after all. Her music lifted people’s hearts and gave them encouragement to face life despite the inequity and chaos arising. She even married an American just to be able to do transactions with Germans because that time, only Germans and the citizens of the very powerful United States of America were allowed to do business inside Germany. I just don’t understand why at first she kept on pushing John away when John did nothing but to help her.

My mom used to tell us stories about the Martial Law declared by former President Marcos during 1970’s. In late September of 1972, the Philippines were rocked by its most severe domestic turmoil since the Communist insurgency of the early 1950's. A month of terrorist bombing of public facilities in Manila and Quezon City culminated on September 22 with an assassination attempt on Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile. Six hours later, President Ferdinand E. Marcos responded with the imposition of martial law. All newspapers and radio stations were closed; a few were permitted to reopen following the imposition of strict censorship. Many arrests followed, with several prominent politicians—including the leader of the opposition Liberal Party and two provincial governors—caught up in the government sweep. President Marcos characterized the campaign as an effort to save the country both from Communist insurrection and from criminal and corrupt elements pervading Philippine society. President Marcos had been the Hitler of the Philippines except that he was ousted through hundreds of thousands of people who staged a massive four-day uprising against the dictatorial regime of the president. It was called the People Power Movement.

Prediction

            After Elisa and her family’s escape towards Czechoslovakia, they would start a new life and would continue to help other refugees from Germany regain their life as well. Hitler would continue to spread his power and cruelty and World War II would cause billions of damage and waste millions of lives as what really happened according to history.

Part 2

Letter to the Author

December 29, 2013

Dear Mrs. BodieThoene,

            Good day Ma’am!

            I am Jermaine L. Dela Cruz, 18 years old and a student of Mindanao State University, Philippines taking up Bachelor of Arts in English.  I love reading and I find one your books, the Vienna Prelude a good reading material. I’ve read the book twice because the story really moved me plus it was very informative. I’ve known Hitler more and hated him even more (even though it’s not alright to hate people).

            I have a question Ma’am. Why do people often look at other people through their colors? Why is the world full of prejudices? That’s why our world is chaotic, it’s because the colors created by God that should have been intended to make the world a beautiful place was used as barriers, barriers instead of bridges, walls instead of doors. Hitler has killed many innocent people— men, women, children, old people, destroyed families, caused many town and cities to sink and changed the people’s perception about the world as a peaceful place to live in.

            Thank you very much Ma’am for writing such eye-opening and inspiring novel like Vienna Prelude and for introducing me Elisa Lindheim— the girl with flaxen hair and good violin skills. I, together with you and many others will continue to hope for the peace of the world and for the non-reoccurrence of the World War. If we continue to understand each other and dispense greed, innocent lives will be spared and the world will continue to be the best place to live in.   

            I promise to become a good writer like you someday and write books that will inspire people to learn to embrace life with positive outlook, love and hope inside their hearts.

Truly yours,

Jermaine L. Dela Cruz

Poem

Heil Hitler!

by: Jermaine Dela Cruz

Man of power, man of will

Man who always dressed to kill,

Man who brought nations together,

To plot against him, not to say,“Heil Hitler!”

The Great Führer, he is known,

What laughter when bombs are blown!

Several attempts were done indeed,

To disperse the man of greed.

Second World War came to pass,

But the damage seems to last,

Was he a friend or a foe?

“Heil Hitler!” they said so.

Who is he? What is he?

It is always a wonder to me,

He is the Absolute Leader,

Call him Adolf Hitler.

*Heilis a German word which means person unhurt or unharmed.