YOSSARIAN LIVES

Hey! I apologize if this post looks a little hackneyed beforehand. I'm writing this while watching the new episodes of Naruto--they finally animated the Kakashi Gaiden! But I will try my best to focus.

Ah, the sacrilegious old man! He's my favorite, even though he really is a despicable guy. He goes with the flow--he mentions how when the Nazis marched through the streets he cried out joyously "Heil Hitler!" and when the Americans came he danced in the streets just as joyously for them. But he uproots Nately's over-romantic views of war--well, tries to. He thinks it is better to live than die, and I agree. Nately would rather die for his honor, his country. (But--"What is a country?") And he tells Nately that America will be destroyed. That it must be. History will repeat itself and America will fall like Spain and Rome and Greece and more. And, the quote that made my teacher talk about his experience in the air force--"'Anything worth living for,' said Nately. 'is worth dying for.' 'And anything worth dying for,' answered the sacrilegious old man, 'is certainly worth living for.'" The man may considered a deserter, guilty of treason... But he's living. He wants his life. Is it really so fair to deny him of that, even knowledge of those facts? I don't know what I'm getting at.

"Catch-22 did not exist... What did matter is everyone thought it existed, and that was much worse, for there was no object or text to ridicule or refute, to accuse, criticize, attack, amend, hate, revile, spit at, rip to shreds, trample upon or burn up." Suddenly, I think of V for Vendetta. In a more metaphorical way, of course. (The government? Laws? They're just as false as a 'country', really.)

"It was easy to read the message in the entrails. Man was matter, that was Snowden's secret. Drop him out a window and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage." Meaning man the body. The body is junk--it is our brains, our souls, our beliefs that are what count. This is strangely optimistic a passage, if you think about it. Speaking for our spirits, not our flesh and blood.

Okay I'm done now. There's some more, but it's pretty rudimentary, and there's no point drawing attention to it--out of context and only being described it's not the same.

So, all-in-all? I love this book. It's too good a book to never read. I can't be objective about it, I just can't. Read it. I have a feeling this is one of those books you either have to be married to, or you can't even look at. I can't see someone being on the fence for it.

Let's see, I finished The Shining today. What a terrible, terrible book. Apparently Stephen King threw a little fit when he first saw Kubrick's translation of the movie, but he should have been kissing the man's feet. Kubrick took one awful book and made it into a damned good movie. What annoyed me the most was, I spent the whole book going "When's he gonna do it? When's he gonna go after them?" 50 pages from the end. Are you real, Stephen King? And the rest of the book wasn't even that interesting. It's basically Jack going: "Oh, I went crazy for a second there. Oh, but I'm cool now. Okay. Oh wait, I lied. BRB, getting a roque mallet to bash your goddamn head in! Ciao!" Some differences disappointed me, like how Hallorann wasn't killed. In the movie--well, I knew it was coming, I've seen The Simpsons parody--but it was just like "I'm here to save y--" *WHACK!* I just about died laughing from shock. WHAT WAS THE POINT!? The end of the movie made me laugh too, when it's Jack Nicholson just frozen. Like... what? Jack? He looks so... natural. Haha.
But one thing I didn't like is the fact that Stephen King makes it very clear Jack is going crazy in the first scene at the bar, where it says he had an "imaginary" drink. The fact that the bartender's responses weren't included were cool, and kind of gave you the heads-up that this is just being imagined, but that was too obvious. Come on, man!
The one thing I did like was one part where Jack calls up Mr Ullman and says "I haven't even gotten around to murdering my wife yet. I'm saving that until after the holidays, when things get dull." HAHAHA. I died laughing when I read that. Almost prophetic, that one! Anyways. I definitely had it more in for the film. I'm glad Kubrick brought the twins in, too. It felt like Stephen King mentioned them and the other murder but then was like oh, who cares? And that make-out scene with the dead lady would have been really cool to read, just because it would have gone from great to OH GOD in about 0.5 seconds. And the book's end... there are other ways to end books, bro. Explosions aren't the only way! I promise! Anyways. He needs to be stopped. He's written a few I've loved, but so many that... yuck. Don't you pretend like The Tommyknockers didn't exist. For every Carrie or Desperation there is a Bag of Bones. Or Kujo. Or It.

And, I'm about twenty pages from finishing Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut. I'm also planning on writing a kid's story one day about Kurt Vonnegut called "Two Spoons Too Many". It's... it's better not to ask.

(PS. The Gaiden is actually pretty well done)