Gulliver's Travels II

The next part of Gulliver’s travels is about Gulliver coming to a land full of giant people. Of course, these people are civilized, and he learns their language with ease. I was still stymied by the complexity of the language, but it did seem that most of the satire in this section had to do with how the protagonists life was almost constantly in danger, and yet it was remarked how brutish and savage his race was. I have noticed several constants in the writings. First, the author, though at first he must communicate in a basic manner, is soon able to communicate fully, and is also very quickly capable of exploring the society very completely. The author always is in favor at some point with the royalty, and is able to discuss politics. The author uses all this to very quickly delve into the social satire, which, though I know it exists, I struggle to find. I am certain that if I ever revisit this book in later years, I will pick up plenty that I currently am missing. In my reading, Gulliver has just recently joined the Laputans, who should not be confused with the Liliputians. The Laputans are so obviously a satirical prod at intellectuals that I could not miss it. These people are described as constantly contemplating things of great importance that they seldom pay attention to their surroundings or even remember to speak in conversation. Of course, with their great intellect, they have a complete inability to complete seemingly mundane tasks. They can think, but cannot act.

Gulliver's Travels I

I have begun Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift. So far, I have found it rather enjoyable, although I profess that I may have indeed missed a good portion of the witty satire that fills the book. Mr. Gulliver has travelled to the country of Liliput, where the miniature sized Liliputions find him to be a magnificent giant. The author’s sarcastic and satirical tone is apparent throughout the story, but due to the complexity of the language used, I believe I missed a lot of the jabs at society. There were several times when I could tell that the author was probably mocking someone or something, but I couldn’t for the world figure out what it was. I think that the cultural differences between the author’s time period and mine own were such that certain bits of wit were lost on me. I thought that the main purpose of the author’s adventures around the little people was to show and satirize the pride and insecurities of society. In the story, the protagonist is sentenced to death, or, at the very least, to have his eyes put out for putting out a great fire and saving the palace of the king, because of the indecent and insulting manner in which he did it. The protagonist was also imprisoned, when if the little people had been willing to let him have some amount of power and control, he could have literally moved mountains for them. The author used these sort of themes to show the flaws in society.

Red Dragon II

I’m now finished, and I gotta say, this book didn’t quite live up to my expectations. It was good, and it was enjoyable, but I went in expecting something on par with “silence of the lambs,” and I’m afraid I set the bar too high. I still plan on reading Harris’s other novels, just because I really did love the silence of the lambs. I’ll have to see for myself if the book is as good as the movie. The author did pull a pretty good trick, I must say. I was disappointed that the psychotic killer that I spent so many hours learning about and understanding (sort of) had killed himself, without even confronting the hero, Graham. I thought it was a pretty bad way to end the book, especially after so much build up. But then, in what seemed to be the conclusion of the book, the killer bursts into the peaceful beach home where Graham lives, and tangles with Graham. Luckily for the whole family, Graham’s girlfriend still had the gun that he had made her carry with her. The killer is killed, and the characters shudder in pain and shock, as does the reader (minus the pain). This was easily the most thrilling part of the book, because it was so unexpected. I did enjoy the surprise, but I must say that when the reader is so caught by surprise, the content and story seem less believable, and the story as a whole is compromised. Stephen King wrote that a writer must make sure that what he/she writes is believable, and what Harris wrote was border line.

Red Dragon I

Red Dragon, written by Thomas Harris, is a novel in line with other Hannibal Lecter novels. As the cover boasts, it features Dr. Lecter, but the infamous psychopath actually has very little to do with the story. What the story is actually about is a different psychopath, one who calls himself the red dragon, and kills entire families, seemingly at random. Our protagonist, Will Graham, is a detective specializing in cases that involve murderous psychopaths. Although extremely talented, he dislikes involving himself in police work, but he does it anyway, because of his strong morals. Graham is on the case of the red dragon, but has very little to work with. With images of the dead families in his mind and troubles with his girlfriend, Graham can barely sleep, and is suffering deeply. Surely something important will happen soon, to get our hero out of this rut.
I started this book because I saw the movie, “the silence of the lambs,” and liked that quite a bit. I was expecting this book to be like the movie, since the same guy wrote both books. So far, the red dragon isn’t too frightening or intense, but I’m hoping it picks up a little. I think the intended audience of this book is adults and young adults that enjoy thrillers. This book hasn’t yet been thrilling, but it has all the grisly details, and the potential to be thrilling. I’m sure it will be.

'Salem's Lot

Well, I’m not going to pretend that I read this book in one sitting, all though I did blow through it. I neglected to blog while reading, mainly because I was unwilling to stop reading when it would have been appropriate to write a blog. I’m sorry about that, but I’ll try to make this one blog as good as all of its components would have been, had I written them.

“‘Salem’s Lot” is about a small town in Maine that is set upon by a vampire. Just as the author, Stephen King, says in his introduction, this story is that of Dracula in a new environment. I chose this book because I’ve read a couple Stephen King books, and had heard about this one from several people. I enjoy being frightened, and I had high expectations for this book. It was decently scary, but not to the degree that I had hoped. I was hoping it would be the kind of scary where your whole body gets tense, and you desperately want to be distracted. This book only had short bursts of the held breath sort of scary. The problem, I suppose, was that he didn’t give quite enough of the terrifying details. Also, once I realized that there were only 2 non-expendable characters, I was not completely shocked when the others died. I thought that the action took too long to begin, as well. King did, however, put a great deal of suspense in the book, although some of it was confusing. There was one scene where I realized that a character had died, but I had no idea how, and had not even been aware that that character was in any particular danger. So I was on the edge of my seat, waiting to find out how Jimmy died, still not completely confidant that he had.

Although the build up to the end of the book was great, the ending felt rushed and incomplete. I loved how the author brought together a band of heroes to save the day against all odds, and then allowed the more probable, more human ending to occur: the band cannot possibly save their town from a vampire onslaught; the best they can even feasibly hope to escape with is their lives. The characters that were looked down on by the heroes for running without even trying to help ended up with much the same fate as the main heroes. Although one party gave everything, including their lives, in some cases, they could only arrive where those that had fled before had. The author reveals that even the greatest intentions may be as insignificant as lesser ones.

Angels and Demons IV

Well, I have now finished Angels and Demons. First off, I was completely correct in my prediction about Robert Langdon and Vittoria Vetra falling in love. It was completely obvious throughout the whole book. Although these two characters were pretty thin, the rest of the characters were much harder to figure out. At the introduction of each new character, I was wondering if they were the traitor that I was so sure existed. I couldn’t figure out who the real traitors were until the story revealed them, and sometimes the book revealed traitors, only to later show later that the real bad guys had manipulated it to look that way. Like I said earlier, this book’s plot twists were enough to give me whiplash. In the last 50 pages, the drama is unstoppable, with ridiculous revelations about how a certain deceased pope was murdered by his own son, who didn’t know that he was his son. Yeah, I got some pretty bad whiplash. The one character that I was certain was good (besides our protagonists), turned out to be the evil mastermind behind everything. Thankfully, I finished the book before I was forced to stay up really late reading. The drama ends with the said mastermind igniting his oil covered body before all of Rome. After that, the book wraps itself up nicely, tying up loose ends and re-establishing equilibrium for the world in the story, allowing for life to return to normal after the book is over. Overall, I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed the story, and I think I might watch the movie or read another one of brown’s books.

Angels and Demons III

A lot has happened since my last blog, because I just couldn’t put the book down for long enough to write about it. I’m only exaggerating a little bit; I did actually lose quite a bit of sleep reading this book. The book’s pace started quickly, and only sped up. It was like a Ferrari with a jammed accelerator. Anyway, my prediction about one of the cardinals surviving was wrong. They each found their way to a gruesome death. However, Langdon got closer and closer to saving them each time, and up until the last one died, I still thought he had a chance. In the author’s note at the beginning of the book, Dan Brown promised that this book was full of suspense and cliff hangers, and he wasn’t lying. There was more than one point where I was confused that the hero had just died. Dan Brown may not know how to make his characters sound convincing, but he can move a story like no other. I was quite tired last night when I was reading, and if I had noticed a single place where the plot slowed enough for me to put the book down, I would have. It eventually did, but it took awhile. When I put the book down, Langdon had discovered the ancient illuminati lair, which was serving as the assassin’s hideout, and was where Vittoria was being held prisoner. Langdon, brave but inexperienced in fighting evil warriors, tried to save his lover (it’s pretty much certain now), but while the assassin overpowered him, Vittoria escaped and ended up saving him. I really can’t predict anything that is going to happen, as the book has proven to be much less predictable than I originally thought.