Blog para dos semanas!

Recently for class we were asked by Mullins to read The Most Dangerous Game and The Child by Tiger. He then asked us if we liked the two stories, most said yes they like TMDG, but few said they enjoyed TCG. I am one of the few that actually did like The Child by Tiger.

I found The Child by Tiger interesting, for lack of a better word. I thought the way the writer chose to write it was intriguing. As a reader, I was given a story, with lots and lots of details, yet still not all the details that I wanted. The author left out simple things that are usually given in a story like this, like explaining what was with Pansy and her leaving or why Dick did what he did. Even with these major details that seem like without them the story would not be finished, I felt it was. Somehow the author seemed to gain a sense of wholeness with the story, but not with the expected story.

To me at least, it seemed that the author was telling us the story that he wanted us to know, not the one that we wanted to know. As a reader I did originally want the questions as to why Dick shot every one or what was the deal with him anyways answered, however, I was able to find satisfaction in the events that I was given. I found this odd as usually stories that end like that leave me with a feeling of being disatisfied and like I was cheated out of something.

The Child by Tiger though was a story where the story itself seemed to lack importance, instead the idea that someone that you looked up to or respected could turn into a monster ranked superior. The thought that people may not be exactly what you think they are, especially when as an innocent child you see them in a larger light, held an intriguing quality about it.

Oddly enough, I enjoyed reading The Child by Tiger.

First Blog Post!

So, this will mark my first blog post for AP Lit. The thing that strikes me the most as something to blog about is my summer reading book of American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Going into reading the book, I had heard many good reviews of Gaiman and his writing styles and that American Gods was particularly good. I however, do not feel this way about the book. Honestly, I tried really hard to like it. I really wanted to, it seemed like an awesome story and was a really interesting concept yet no matter how hard I tried to enjoy it, I just couldnt.

I am not entirely sure why I was unable to really enjoy this book like I expected I would, but I do know that a good part of that reason is Shadow.

I hate Shadow. I tried and tried to like him. I gave him second chance after second chance to do something that I could relate to him about, or in all reality to do anything. But...he didnt. I hate Shadow.

Shadow is a character that is really cool, I was excited to have him in the story, and I sat eagerly reading waiting for him to develop. Unfortunately this didnt happen. Shadow stayed static, passive, and emotionless. Nothing seemed to make him have true feeling or to really care about anything. He was going through a world with ridiculous things going on and he just silently excepted them and went on. Shadow was a shadow of the person I was expecting him to be.

Bad pun, I know.

All jokes aside, I really did want to like this book, I wanted to be impressed by Gaiman, and I wanted to love his writing like so many others. I couldnt though. I'm thinking though that I may give American Gods a second read at some point, and maybe then I will grow to like it.