My Recommended Sci Fi/ Fantasy English Elective.

(This article orginally appeared in The Cheltonian,Volume 85 , Issue 4 )


There are an endless amount of books, and a school can only choose a handful of these to teach.While many books we read in English class are classics that have been celebrated for generations, some are irrelevant and franklyboring.A prime example is The House on Mango Street. It is a vague, cryptic
and somewhat unreadable book with characters more wooden than the love child of Keanu Reeves and Vin Diesel.

As a fan of fantasy, science fiction, and escapist works, I feel we should have a Sci- fi/ Fantasy elective in 11th and 12th English. The following are thought-provoking works for school reading.George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984, should be taught. Orwell paints a bleak picture of the future with totalitarianism, big brother, mass surveillance and never-ending wars. Even though 1984 has come and gone, this book is becoming increasingly more relevant to our time than ever before.

We should also read the
fantasy classic The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R Tolkien. This book not only inspired the Academy Award winning film trilogy, but it deals withawe-inspiring themes such as good versus evil, greed, redemption and righteousness. While incorporating an entire book trilogy into a curriculum is extremely difficult, such an endeavor would pay off.

Students may also enjoy reading the works of the terrific, but little known, horror writer HP Lovecraft. He has been described as“the Poe of the 20th century” and that is a fair comparison. He wrote terrifying short
stories of the dark corners of New England, blasphemous scriptures and nihilistic alien gods that pioneered
true psychological horror.

Despite the artistic medium, Watchmen by Alan Moore, consideredby many to be the greatest comic book ever written, needs to be read. This mind-blowing superhero tale tells of an alternate 1985 where America has won the Vietnam war, Richard Nixon is still president, and the cold war is thawing ever closer to a nuclear apocalypse. Each character has diversepsychological and philosophical
profiles which help add deep moral ambiguity to the story.We can’t let the recent 2009 theatrical adaptation that disappointed many negate the original, great work of literature.

The Gorbachev's Ironic Fate

Poor Gorbachev, all he wanted was to reform his ailing country. Instead his reforms led  to the collapse of
the USSR. Because of those indirect actions, Russia is entering a uncertain future or more recently an "orderly" Putin Russia. Now were is this history shaker  and the one man culture bridge (although I give some credit to Boris Yeltsin) today?  He is apparently Western Captailism's Advertising bitch.


(that's really him)


Elsewhere in Moscow, Lenin is banging his head against his Glass coffin.


Happy Easter or Passover!

Sheep in Wolf's Clothing: Why the Tea Partiers are Drones of the Conservitive Elite

 
When the Tea Party movement first began, I personally thought that it would be short lived. However almost a year later, my worst fears have been realized. Instead of people devolving anger toward the big financial corporations like AIG and Goldman Sachs, they instead place that anger toward the Obama administration which is trying to end this crisis and regulate these Wall Street Fat Cats. Some may point out that Obama himself voted for the 700 billion dollar (and growing) bailout when he was still a Senator in 2008. However I must point out that many experts originally thought that this was the only option at that time and it is interesting to note that a certain right wing guru originally supported the bailouts(more on her later).

But returning to  tea partiers; they have seem to have almost no understanding of issues they seem to be so angry about. They fail to mention that when Bush came into office in 2001, we had budget surplus. By the time Obama entered office, America had a record breaking deficit in hundreds of billions of dollars   that were created under a conservative Presidency and Congress. Yet I never heard a single conservative outcry during the Bush years on out of control spending and yet the Tea Party bashes this president for it. I also the movements opposition to the recently signed healthcare bill to be also absurd. Firstly the non partisan Congressional Budget Office or CBO has done an analysis showing the bill would reduce the deficit by $1.3 trillion over the next 10 years. Secondly, I find it very ironic that while Blue states like Massachusetts have lowest amount of uninsured while Red states like Texas have some of the highest. I think it's a sad analogy to the Tea Party and to many Republicans as a whole. These Tea Partiers may have been constantly been hurt  and bullied by Republican policies, yet  they fight Democrats due to the misinformation mongering of Conservative icons.

I am reminded of Tom Frank's book "What's the Matter with Kansas?" were he also ponders why Kansas; a state that has  a long populist history and was a big supporter of FDR's New Deal became a conservative haven. Today, the traditionally working class overwhelmingly support Republicans whom policies have hurt their communities and made the  rich richer. "Strip today's Kansans of their job security, and they head out to become registered Republicans. Push them off their land, and next thing you know they're protesting in front of abortion clinics. Squander their life savings on manicures for the CEO, and there's a good chance they'll join the John Birch Society. But ask them about the remedies their ancestors proposed (unions, antitrust, public ownership), and you might as well be referring to the days when knighthood was in flower." he writes. So when you see a bunch of Tea Partiers whom by most likelihood are aging men and women. Don't  have Contempt for them, but rather sadness. Try to inform them  that the GOP "solution" to our deficit problem will destroy the livelihoods senior citizens like them. I believe that a Tea Partier should not be seen as a liberal's natural enemy, but rather an tragic example of a GOP brainwashed "have not”.

Molestus Vicis( A Troublesome time)

It has been quite a bumpy March for me. My beloveded Papa Butch passed away on March 3. I went to the first and probably not my last  funeral (my Pop Pop Sam has Alzheimer and is gravely ill). It was a huge burden of saddness to see his casket. Now the reason that have not blogged for this long is due to the fact that my labtop had annoying software issues that prevented me from getting any sort of wireless connection. However after weeks of procrastination, I have gotten these bugs straighten out and I am back to blogging. Hope to have some posts that are actually intresting so keep readin!

First Post

Though it is quite unlikley that there will be a star from the east to herald the birth of this blog, I hope that i will be able to express my ideas and opinions in the bloging format. I already have a facebook and youtube account which I will try to link soon. I may go on hitus on and off so i might not update this as frquently some may want. I also want to tell off the bat that I am a poor speller and a fine student of grammer, so please don't write in the comment page that I'm slow because I spelled dinosaur "dinosar" or something like that. But besides my annoying 101 about this blog, I hope you enjoy it or at least not bored.

Popintllect