Hey guys, it's Adventure Van here with a book report on Maus. Maus is a book written by Art Spiegelman, who wrote down and recorded his conversations with his father, who lived thru the Holocaust. This is an interesting book due to it being about the Holocaust, a monstrous experience in which the Germans genocided an entire religious sect due to them being 'vermin', and yet the author decides to portray everyone inside anthropomorphically, drawing the Jews as literal mice, and the Germans as cats, alongside an assortment of other races being portrayed differently.
From what I've learnt about the holocaust, the hands on experiences of someone memorialized inside a deceptively done 'comic' book is quite encompassing of actual events. There's even some one-in-a-kind information, like how exactly the gas chambers worked due to his father being enlisted to take them apart before the Russians took a camp. And due to a lucky portion of his family being kept alive, the author was able to glean information about other camps and 'women's sectors'. And the author's father lived a very varied lifestyle in the camps, granting a lot of information from just one person's view.
The book was extremely well done to the point where it was able to make something very dehumanizing(literally drawing a human as something else) to become something very humanizing. Due to being unable to see the actual faces of the person, you refrain from making a racial stereotype about them yourself as there already is one, and instead you see the personality of the person themselves. But even with this, there's only so much a comic book can do, and despite the possible depths of the form, it still comes off a little too light in some sections.
It is most definitely a read that everyone should read, especially in this day and age.
Adventure Van, reading away.
Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Monday, August 6, 2018
The Handmaid's Tale
Hey guys, it's Adventure Van here with a report on The Handmaid's Tale. This story, done by Margaret Atwood, suddenly spiked with popularity recently with the Hulu television series, touches on many sensitive topics. It's about an America where a hostile takeover by the military transforms it into Gilead, a place where women are treated little more as objects and animals. It's a horrible vision of the future. It follows the tale of Offred thru the horrible twisted world that has quickly become of America.
It is not a clearcut story. By that, I mean it's not linear. As much as it progresses and ends at the end, flashbacks are quite common. It's a great book and easy to understand, but hard to explain. It's not written like a normal book when it comes to that. Events come in a strange order of both past and future. However, it's not the strangest one when it comes to that, that goes to I am the Cheese. So, it's both in order and not. Is that confusing? Because it surprisingly wasn't confusion to read.
The plot also ends before finalizing, seeing her leave into a world of unknowns. And it makes sense. Although some people have problems with that ending, the fact is that once it reaches that point it is no longer The Handmaid's Tale as she is no longer a Handmaid. But different views are shone on the ending and there is no right one.
Adventure Van, thinking.
It is not a clearcut story. By that, I mean it's not linear. As much as it progresses and ends at the end, flashbacks are quite common. It's a great book and easy to understand, but hard to explain. It's not written like a normal book when it comes to that. Events come in a strange order of both past and future. However, it's not the strangest one when it comes to that, that goes to I am the Cheese. So, it's both in order and not. Is that confusing? Because it surprisingly wasn't confusion to read.
The plot also ends before finalizing, seeing her leave into a world of unknowns. And it makes sense. Although some people have problems with that ending, the fact is that once it reaches that point it is no longer The Handmaid's Tale as she is no longer a Handmaid. But different views are shone on the ending and there is no right one.
Adventure Van, thinking.
Saturday, August 4, 2018
Lord Jim
Hey guys, it's Adventure Van here with a blog about the book Lord Jim. Written by Joseph Conrad, this book is the story of a sailor named Jim in the 1880s. Based off of a real person, Augustine Podmore Williams, the story follows Jim, a first mate, as he does a single cowardly act of abaonding a ship and taking a place on a boat that should have gone to a passenger, when he himself knew that he should go down with the ship and let someone else take the place. The ship survives, along with the people on it. All of the crew, including the captain, run and disappear, not wanting to give testimony and taking place in trial. Only Jim insists on appearing in the court. He is and will be haunted by this act of cowardice for the rest of his life.
After the case, he's taken aside by Charles Manlow, who tells us the story of Jim, as the entire book is written down from his point of view and stories from others. Jim confesses his guilt to Manlow, who takes pity on him and finds him a place to live. However, Jim encounters an engineer who also abandoned the ship there and leaves. Jim then spends time wandering, from going into a job and doing successfully until the name of the ship is mentioned and he immediately leaves, and then getting into a fist fight. Marlow realizes Jim needs to escape the place that knows of what Jim did, so he contacts his old friend Stein, who gives Jim a job on a remote island as a trade representative.
Jim leaves to take this job, and then finds peace in the fact that he is now mysterious and clouded, and no longer known as someone who abandoned his ship, and instead gets a new start. However, just his presence makes enemies, especially from one person who was the former trade representative. His name was Cornelius. His step daughter, who he abused, flees to Jim for protection after Cornelius is ousted from power by his arrival. Cornelius is enraged by this as well.
A pirate known as Gentleman Brown comes with a starving crew to the outpost, but is driven off. The natives and traders there want to land a killing blow on him and his crew, but Jim goes against that and simply send the pirates back thru a guarded riverway to get back to their ship. Cornelius sneaks out and meets with Brown, and then tells him about a better, less guarded way. Brown takes it, and kills some of the sentries as he escapes easily. One of Jim's servants figures out Cornelius' involvement and kills him, and Manlow advises Jim to leave. But Jim doesn't want to abandon his 'ship' again, and takes personal responsibility for the deaths caused by him and goes to the native chief to get himself killed.
It's a sad story about the life of a man, but it's much more heroic then who Jim was based off of. As it's all from the point of Jim's friend, Manlow, you can't tell how much is fully fact and if an attribute or two, or even all of them, is completely made up. The story of how an honorable man would seek penance for a singular crime he committed for the rest of his life is haunting.
After the case, he's taken aside by Charles Manlow, who tells us the story of Jim, as the entire book is written down from his point of view and stories from others. Jim confesses his guilt to Manlow, who takes pity on him and finds him a place to live. However, Jim encounters an engineer who also abandoned the ship there and leaves. Jim then spends time wandering, from going into a job and doing successfully until the name of the ship is mentioned and he immediately leaves, and then getting into a fist fight. Marlow realizes Jim needs to escape the place that knows of what Jim did, so he contacts his old friend Stein, who gives Jim a job on a remote island as a trade representative.
Jim leaves to take this job, and then finds peace in the fact that he is now mysterious and clouded, and no longer known as someone who abandoned his ship, and instead gets a new start. However, just his presence makes enemies, especially from one person who was the former trade representative. His name was Cornelius. His step daughter, who he abused, flees to Jim for protection after Cornelius is ousted from power by his arrival. Cornelius is enraged by this as well.
A pirate known as Gentleman Brown comes with a starving crew to the outpost, but is driven off. The natives and traders there want to land a killing blow on him and his crew, but Jim goes against that and simply send the pirates back thru a guarded riverway to get back to their ship. Cornelius sneaks out and meets with Brown, and then tells him about a better, less guarded way. Brown takes it, and kills some of the sentries as he escapes easily. One of Jim's servants figures out Cornelius' involvement and kills him, and Manlow advises Jim to leave. But Jim doesn't want to abandon his 'ship' again, and takes personal responsibility for the deaths caused by him and goes to the native chief to get himself killed.
It's a sad story about the life of a man, but it's much more heroic then who Jim was based off of. As it's all from the point of Jim's friend, Manlow, you can't tell how much is fully fact and if an attribute or two, or even all of them, is completely made up. The story of how an honorable man would seek penance for a singular crime he committed for the rest of his life is haunting.
Monday, July 30, 2018
Buffalo Japanese Garden
Hey guys, it's Adventure Van here with a blog about the Buffalo Japanese Gardens. Buffalo is a sister city with Kanazawa, a Japanese city. Because of this, Buffalo has this amazing park which seems unnaturally natural in art! I went on a tour there the other day, and it's a great place, with tons of views. All of them beautiful. And it's lasted a good 40-30 years, which is amazing. Even with people trying to destroy it and steal parts, it's an amazing part of the community and structure. And some people don't even know it exists!
Adventure Van, strolling out.
Adventure Van, strolling out.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Creativity.
Hey guys, it's Adventure Van here with a blog about creativity. Creativity is a funny thing. It's both encouraged and suppressed. And humanity is one of the only species that can do it, really. Sure, others can use a tiny amount of it, but humanity has the monopoly on it. And, for some reason, everyone has different views on it. Is it good, is it bad, what is it really? And will we ever find out the truth?
When we're kids, parents have a huge say on how creativity should be used. Which is the exact opposite of creativity, isn't it? If they allow us to live our early years and be creative, build and break things, cause a bit of trouble, we might still be uncreative. As much as they have a say in it, the real thing that decides if someone is creative or not is still mostly in the human in question's hand. And medicine. Medicine can disable creativity. But that can be a good thing? Some people can get too creative they never actually do anything.
Creativity can be affected by tons of factors. Dictatorships and people who depend on brute force will be against creativity, as it challenges views that the leaders. But creativity is good for civilizations in most cases. As much as we have reached Pandora's Box like scenarios where creativity has been the bane of us, inventions won't happen without someone saying "What if..." What's super confusing is the fact that mankind is confusing. Sometimes creativity is supported in dictatorships. Not often. But it happens. My point is that you can't just put a definite on what mankind does. Mankind is weird.
Inventions are the result of creativity. As otherwise, we wouldn't really have felt a need to make them. Anyone can look up at a bird and say "I wish I could fly." But it takes creativity to have someone look up at a bird and say "I wonder if I can fly." Or breath underwater. Or do any of the amazing things humans can do, just because we think it may be possible to. Creativity is a good thing mostly.
But sometimes it's not. Sometimes, it's a very bad thing. Sometimes, people poison water supplies due to it. We have done horrible things due to our "What ifs" and "I wonders". But does it balance out with everything else? Possibly. But we can never be sure. Something we always have to be on guard for. As well the benefits, it has drawbacks. Like everything else. But that's a normal thing with humanity. Because we can't just put it in a single box, we're curious about curiosity. How curious.
When we're kids, parents have a huge say on how creativity should be used. Which is the exact opposite of creativity, isn't it? If they allow us to live our early years and be creative, build and break things, cause a bit of trouble, we might still be uncreative. As much as they have a say in it, the real thing that decides if someone is creative or not is still mostly in the human in question's hand. And medicine. Medicine can disable creativity. But that can be a good thing? Some people can get too creative they never actually do anything.
Creativity can be affected by tons of factors. Dictatorships and people who depend on brute force will be against creativity, as it challenges views that the leaders. But creativity is good for civilizations in most cases. As much as we have reached Pandora's Box like scenarios where creativity has been the bane of us, inventions won't happen without someone saying "What if..." What's super confusing is the fact that mankind is confusing. Sometimes creativity is supported in dictatorships. Not often. But it happens. My point is that you can't just put a definite on what mankind does. Mankind is weird.
Inventions are the result of creativity. As otherwise, we wouldn't really have felt a need to make them. Anyone can look up at a bird and say "I wish I could fly." But it takes creativity to have someone look up at a bird and say "I wonder if I can fly." Or breath underwater. Or do any of the amazing things humans can do, just because we think it may be possible to. Creativity is a good thing mostly.
But sometimes it's not. Sometimes, it's a very bad thing. Sometimes, people poison water supplies due to it. We have done horrible things due to our "What ifs" and "I wonders". But does it balance out with everything else? Possibly. But we can never be sure. Something we always have to be on guard for. As well the benefits, it has drawbacks. Like everything else. But that's a normal thing with humanity. Because we can't just put it in a single box, we're curious about curiosity. How curious.
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