Burning Bright

"It's perpetual motion; the thing man wanted to invent but never did...It's a mystery...Its real beuty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences...clean, quick, sure; nothing to rot later. Antibiotic, aesthetic, practical."

This quote is found in the last section of the novel 'Burning Bright' on page 115.

These are the last words spoken to Montag outside his home before burning Beatty to death. Beatty accuses Montag of not considering the consequences of his actions. Beatty tells Montag that the beauty of fire has its ability to destory consequences and responsibilities. Montag soon turns Beatty's philosophy against him and imposes an "antibiotic, aesthetic, practical" death.

I chose this quote because it gave perception on what Beatty thought of fire. I get from this that Beatty is telling Montag that using fire in a situation, basically is taking the easy way out. If you don't want to do something, you can burn it and it will be gone and there's nothing you can do.

Fahrenheit 451 Part II Summary

In part two "The Sieve and the Sand" Montag recalls his encounter with the professor, Faber, in the park. Montag admits to Faber his unhappiness and emptiness when he realizes his enthusiasm in life. Montag tells Faber his plan of hiding books in the houses of firemen.
Faber shows Montag a new device; the Seashell Radio. With this, Faber can be in direct contact with Montag incase Beatty approaches him. I think this device can be compared to a blue-tooth today. In that you can have it on, and no one will know if there is someone on the other line or not if you're not talking. They could be giving information about a certain situation.
At the end of this section, Montag realizes that his home was the fireman's target. As he threw the last couple books in the bush's.
In today's society, it seems a little unrealistic to be burning books when they can benefit us. But what if one day we were given an oppurtunity to burn all our books because we dont use them anymore? (I referred this question to "The Day Disco Died in Chicago" when a radio announcer stated to take all your disco records to the baseball stadium to be burned because "disco died".)

Farenheit 451

This book is a novel that can become very interesting. Some things in the first third of the novel that stood out were the characteristics of Clarisse, and Montag. They are two very opposite people. Clarisse is a bright person while Montag seems to be a dark person as do the other firemen in the book. Another thing was the persepective of Beatty. This is something that stood out towards the end.
I can see this being compared to today because we are slowly losing the use of paperback novels. I don't think quite as many are being sold today as in the past. There are more options to reading a book; online or on a hand held device.

Book 3 1984

O'Brien and Winston are in prison together. O'Brien offers to answer questions and Winston asks about Julia. O'Brien tells him that Julia betrayed him immediately. Winston asks if Big Brother exists in the same way that he himself does, and O'Brien tells him that Winston doesn't exist. Winston asks about Brotherhood and O'Brien responds that Winston will never know the answer to that question. Winston asks what waits in room 101, and O'Brien tell him that everyone knows what waits there.
Winston gets to go into a more comfortable room where he dreams of Julia, his mother, and O'Brien in the golden country. He thinks to himself that it was foolish of him to go against the Party and tries to make himself believe Party slogans "Freedom is Slavery, Two and Two are Five, and God is Power."
I think that this novel in a way can be a warning to readers about totalitarianism. The control of the Party's ability to control the minds of the people.

Books 1 & 2 1984

This is a very late post...better late than never.

In books one and two of 1984, we learned about the characters, and the plot of the novel. Big Brother is Watching You, is a famous quote in the book explaining the government as Big Brother and they are always watching. There is no way to work around this. There are telescreens everywhere. Winston at one time, attempted to beat the system.
A way that I connected a part of the book to us today was when Winston goes into the pub and meets the old man. They beging talking and Winston asks him about the past and what it was like. The man can't give him a direct answer. I think this can be compared to today with our ancestors. We ask questions about the past and sometimes get answers but sometimes don't get what we needed. How will we ever know the truth?
Winston also meets Julia, and they become very close. They work together and try to beat Big Brother.

Extra Credit:2

To continue my use of no technology is becoming more difficult. Although I say it's easy to get by without a cell phone, I think of it many times to just send a text message. Although I've only been using my phone for emergency situations, it makes me wonder about when I was younger and my family didn't have cell phones. What did we do when something happened out on the road or you needed to talk to someone who wasn't home? It's obviously possibly and personally I think it could be less stressful. When out on the road and then you get a call from work, sometimes is makes you wish you left the phone at home. However, I feel now we are so dependent on these things, that we really can't be without them. I'm not a big television person. I rarely watch it. If I'm not doing school work, I'm working at one of my 2 jobs. I always try to keep myself busy with productive things. I do take time to relax, but ususally that's with my computer. This week I'm happy with my myself for getting ahead on the school work that I did.

Extra Credit 1

I started the "no technology" assignment on Monday this week. Going into this I was a little weary about it. I wasn't sure if I could do it or not. The more I thought about it I thought it would be easy. I can go without my cell phone for a week, I don't use it that much. I'm only using it to make important phone calls right now. I never watch TV or movies so that's an easy one for me too. My problem comes with my computer. I do a lot of random surfing online. As of now, I've avoided using my computer unless for homework assignments. What I've been doing instead is getting ahead of school work, with novels for this class a History novel to read as well are keeping me busy. And with Spring Break arriving soon, I don't want a lot of work. I've also been going to the gym to keep me busy without technology. No, I haven't been using an Ipod either. As of today, I'd say I'm doing well. Let's see what the weekend brings me.

Week 4: Feed

I think that 'Feed' was a very weird/interesting book. Many things that happened in the book I thought were very strange. Though, it was a science fiction book, so that's what I would've expected. Having a chip insterted into your brain to control everything you do, where you have no control over it. This can be related to our culture in a way though I think because although we can contorl our own actions, I think that in so many ways, the government is controlling what we are doing. I don't want to start a debate so I'm not going to dwell on the politics. All in all, I did not enjoy the novel, it's not my type of literature, not that any kind is, but I'd certainly reccomend it to someone who enjoys science fiction.

Week 3: Dumbest Generation

Are we really the dumbest generation? I could agree with this in some ways, but disagree in others. I agree with this statement because I believe there are some basic things people in this generation don't know how to do that should know. For example: I notice that a lot of people rely on a calculator for very basic math sometimes such as adding/subtracting and especially when it comes to fractions. Another thing is using slang in writing. I see a lot of students who write papers using slang words such as cuz, tho, 2, u in inappropriate situations. Which is caused by the texting and instant messaging. And honestly I don't think they know it's wrong. I believe these are all things everyone should know.
However, in a way I disagree with us being considered the dumbest generation. I believe that with the evolution of technology, that we are open to learn a lot more than what our grandparents and maybe even parents did. We are open to using more sources for information such as computers and electronic databases. I also realize that some things I've learned in high school, my grandparents knew nothing about.
And as for the video with Miss South Carolina (I think), there are actually dumb people in the world, and I think she could be considered one of them.
Are we really the dumbest generation? I don't think so. But I think generations to come will also be considered the same.

Week 2: Advertisement

First off, I apologize for being late. I completely forgot about it this week and just got to my computer today.

The video "Killing me Softly" talked mainly about the advertising today. Seeing over 3000 ads a day is quite a lot, however they are everywhere. On clothes, bags, websites, and more. I think that it is ashame the way women are portrayed in ads. Until I saw this video I never thought too much of it. But now, every ad I look at, I look at in a different way. I don't think it's right the way some ads are displayed. & what message are they trying to send you? Sometimes you get the complete opposite of to what they really want you to see. As much as she talked about women in advertisments, what about the men? I don't think I see quite as many men as I do women in advertisments. Nor are the men exposed as much as the women. Granted there are men shirtless, but that's not unusual for a guy. I don't think it's always right the way women are used in advertising, however I can believe that they help greatly in advertising a product and having success.

Week 1

Can we really live without technology? I believe the asnwer to this is no, however I do think we rely too much on technology. One thing I disagree with that the author states is that technolgy is taking over or minds. I do believe this is true but not as drastically as he states it. I think scientists are constantly improving technology for a reason. If they don't want us to become less intelligent, then they can slow down on the improvements.