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!