If you’re a regular visitor here at Sarah Mae Survives, you already know I’m a big fan of John Green (half of YouTube’s vlogbrothers). I found John through the Banned Book Project, and posted a tidbit aboutLooking For Alaska‘s
So much has changed since last September. Not only do I log into YouTube religiously for regular vlogbrother installments, but I lust after Johns writting as a pass it in the bookstores… I’m on a book buying ban, remember? Enter the situation where you are out of books. I am not out of books, but my books were in transit and I was in a bookstore, and I had 10 dollars cash that could have bought me lunch and three days worth of coffee… so I picked up Looking For Alaska
First let me say, of the controversy it is the elements not complained about that I find most devastating. This SafeLibraries.org article illustrates the basic arguments against Mr. John’s novel- in short Alaska is susposedly morally corrupt for the sexuality depravaity displayed. In my, humble, opinion- SafeLibraries.org isnt paying attention.
Yes there is porn.
Yes there is a sex scene.
Yes there is alcohol.
Yes there is compulsive and destructive behavior.
And yes- I want your teens to read it.
John Green can defend himself against the nay-sayers:
And so I want to talk to you about his work.
Looking for Alaska is devastatingly beautiful. The main character, Pudge (Miles Halter) is young public-school misfit who manages to weasel himself into an Alabama boarding school. Now this school is more Caulfeild than Potter, but the premise is the same: without parents kids become adults. Pudge assembles his friends group, who in the course of the novel become far more siginificant in his development than his family. Green has written a cast of characters so dimensional I am convinced they cannot exist simply on the page. But then Green was once a boarding school student, who loved famous last words and pranks; so it is entirely possible the Colonel, Takumi, Lara and Alaska once danced through his life. In fact, Alaska is so well narrated that it is hard to believe the novel is devoid of autobiography.
Since I went into Alaska fairly blind, I cannot ruin a similar experience for future readers. The plot is simply enough, young people living their lives as best as they can. The exploits and adventures are good enough to have sustained a novel of their own, but that is not Green’s story. Looking for Alaska is about a single moment: all the things that lead up to it, and all the things that happen afterwards. It is in this moment that everything changes, it is unavoiadble, uncontrollable and unforgettable. Green makes us care about the moment, but he reminds us that life is what surrounds such moments.
I dont want your 12 year olds reading Alaska. But to pretend that teenagers aren’t faced with cigarettes, sex and sadness is like pretending the phone wasn’t invented while you’re on an iPhone. Alaska illustrates that arriving at adulthood cannot be avoided. John Green handles the situation not only with brilliant literature, but also with a poignant and timely discussion of the modern youth, and life. I have long ago fallen from the idealistic nature that keynotes childhood, but the meaning of life remains a mystery to me, in the end it remains a mystery for Pudge, and I believe John Green, as well. But the Alaska’s point is not the moment- the point is the novel as a whole.
Looking For Alaska
John Green
Speak (Penguin Group)
Lit Level: YA/Adult
Pages: 221
Grade: A
Bottom Line: Looking For Alaska is exactly the kind of book that will haunt you for the rest of your life. It is not for or about children, but the perfect book for those who have lost touch with that turning-point-moment.
Happy Reading!
PS Looking for Alaska did not make me cry, as I predicted in September, but I was on the bus… and it was very very close.
There is something to be said about a big move. It makes you look at your life, your friends, your junk.
It may sound unstable, but I actually enjoy moving. I’m not the kind of girl who’s ever going to get it together enough to clean house at the first appearance of daffodils or whatever spurs those Spring Cleaning nuts. Subsequently, my junk tends to accumulate- old envelopes from bills, post-its with unknown telephone numbers, empty lotion bottles, full change jars all sitting around. We jokingly call it Flat Surface Syndrome (FSS), and most folks in my family have a full blown case. Moving is the best treatment for FSS, it forces you to sort, eliminate or in the least address the items that have gathered around you.
Clearing out of the Seattle House I wheedled two truck loads into one by selling furnature, giving away old stuff and simply trashing the trash in my life. Of course my many, many books mostly got packed away in boxes. Boxes like this one:
A Bibliophiles Box
Only a real bibliophile would have the Twilight Series bookended by a copy of Ulysses and a Abigail Adams biography, with a Faulkner Reader slipped in the middle. Just look at this thing, Charles Schlutz’s Biography, Horns & Wrinkles, some of Rick Riordian’s Olympians series, The Kite Runner- my life and reading are emmenlsy diversy, as is my parents attic, where most of my books end up when I move (thanks Mom and Dad!).
You see, there are a great deal of things one can live without, a great deal of items we can happily purchase at our new local Big Box Store. I don’t need to bring along ever pair of socks I’ve ever owned, and I don’t need to see the IKEA lamp from college again, but when I think of Faulkner, I think of a yellowed copy with a soy-vanilla-latte ring halfway through “Bear Hunt”, when I think of formatting a reference I can see the page I need in my Hackett Guide. Books, as widely diverse and absurdly heavy as they are, are something I cannot sweep away. Books are a part of how I think, why I think- and I simply cannot release myself from them.
To leave behind a book is much like leaving behind friends who cannot call or write. It breaks my heart each time I leave a place knowing that I wont be able to shout upstairs for a roommate or grab a midnight coffee with a friend, but I know those people are still a part of my life, a part of me, becuase they fill my inbox and voice mail box and mail box. The only trouble is, some things you cant hold onto during a trans-oceanic move. And so you pick a few that you cannot possibly live without, and you stash the rest away until the rainy day that inevitably comes when your parents tell you to take your junk out of the garage already.
In the past few months I have let go of things, and held on to friend (and not just the book kind), and neglected my blog. Now it’s time to return, back to the real world, with a job and bills, and blogs… my new work is structured much differently than my last one, so blogs may not come so often or as organized, but I promise there’s lots more survival to come.
Thanks for holding on to me!
Ms. Keeri Anne, one of my Survival Sisters, dropped this review into my inbox for you all. She is clearly smarter than me, and reading far more hard-hitting literature than my usual. Happy Reading! -SM
Walden Two is a different kind of utopian novel. Written in 1948 by B.F. Skinner (yes, the behavioral psychologist), this book may not have the Hollywood punch but it is quite appealing if you graduated into an economy that could not employ the willing.
In Walden Two, a university professor is reunited with one of his students who has just returned from World War II and is looking for a life more satisfying than the cultural norm.
“’You see, sir,’ Rogers went on, ‘Jamnik and I are like a lot of other young people right now. We can’t make up our minds. We don’t know what we want to do. I was going into law, you remember. … but that’s out now. … What we don’t see, sir, is why we have to take up where we left off. Why isn’t this a good time to get a fresh start? From the very beginning. Why not get some people together and set up a social system that will really work? There are a lot of things about the way we’re living now that are completely insane – as you used to say. … Why can’t we do something about it?’”
The young veteran and graduate, Rogers is stuck in a position in which many of us find ourselves. He has fulfilled his social duties and now he is caught between his community’s expectations and his desire to live a life that he feels is edifying and productive.
So Rogers (and his conservative fiancée), his friend from the War and two college professors embark on a trip to the experimental community “Walden Two.” At Walden Two, Rogers and his friend find everything they want: a chance to work and contribute to a community that is equitable, nurturing and friendly. The community is not quite so convincing for the two college professors and their dialogue with the community’s founder provides the real conversational fodder of the novel.
Skinner pits Ayn Rand-style objectivism against radical behaviorism. Objectivism assigns all responsibility to the individual. Radical behaviorism, on the other hand, believes that every detail of a person, down to their very personality, is a product of their environment. In Walden Two, Skinner hypothesizes an environment that allows individuals to be productive and fulfilled. Skinner’s viewpoint may be extreme but he presents an interesting social alternative for modern readers. The questions I’m left with are: “Is our society preventing individuals from living happy lives? Why are we left to fight alone, against a mountain of debt, and then succeed alone, in empty suburban houses? What if we lived in a society where we helped our neighbor and they helped us and it wasn’t just Wall Street that was too important to fail?”
Walden Two
B.F. Skinner
Hackett Publishing Co.
Lit Level: Grown Up
Pages: 301
Grade: A
Bottom Line: Though timeless, Skinner’s novel holds special meaning for those coming of age, or simply struggling through, today’s difficult economy.
Well, we made it. The family fun is over 
and we made it all the way to our new home after a long, and boring flight.
Unfortunatley at the moment I cant get posts to update, and I didnt realize they werent going when they should have been (you should have been chastising me, you patient people!). So once I get the tech issues and moving issues ironed out, we’ll be back on schedule… promise.
So go off and read, dear friends. Or watch things. And tell me what you’re seeing these days, and what you think about them. Fill my inbox!
Back soon,
Man- I thought March was crazy…. with a moving and family holidays, the first week of April has turned out to be insane. I apologize for the technical difficulties this week, and beg your understanding. I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! -SM
What with baseketball, blogging and boys March has been a crazy month. In 31 days, I managed 21 posts in 31 days! I also packed up everything I own, said goodbye to my Seattle friends and family, and have managed to not loose my mind yet. March wasnt great, but I didnt sink, too badly… during March Madness you read about:
- More school food
- Ruining recess
- Books in Battle
- Harry Potter and the Road of Remembrance
- Shipping for survive
- For the love of love
- For the love of hair
- For the love of the authors
- Reading along… for a long time
- Wasting degrees and being brilliant
- Writing the little things
- Sarah’s Little Stitches
- Blog Swap
- Artistic anachronism
- Big Bad Girls in New York
- Little Bad Girls in New York
- Eva’s Brilliant Blue
- The legacy we leave
- The legacy we are
- A dying legacy
- Blasts from the past
Which all amounts to:
9/50 book reviews, with 41 books in 9 months
8/50 visual media reviews, with 42 watchings in 9 months
28/50 moments of randomness, with 22 moments in 9 months
28/52 comments, with 24 comments in 9 months
I did okay…. like I said, not great, but okay. I think I need to bulk up on actually posting about things I encounter, because I do watch stuff and read stuff, and even think about what I would say in a blog… but then I fail at getting it posted. Maybe this month (and the coming months) will bring more diligence. As much as I would love to promise April to be my renewal month, it doesnt look much better than March.
As I may have been hinting, today is my last day in Seattle Before I head out towards a new horizon (Hawaii) I am doing the grand Northwest Family tour- you know the one, the “vacation” that requires scheduling and correlating schedules and arguing about restaurants for dinner (when I said I was hungry an hour ago, I meant it!). Because of the insanity family fun and moving will undoubtedly induce, I have called on a few friends… my Survival Sisters. You know the ones, the girls (or boys) you call when there’s no way on Earth everything is going to get done in time- the ones you call to pick up the dinner you invited them to, or beg to proof a paper at three in the morning. My darling survival sisters have agreed to do a bit of guest blogging for me, so WELCOME! girls. I do so hope you enjoy your time in my little corner of the internet (you all can have dibs on the Hawaii couch- just as soon as we get one).
May your April showers bring lovely flowers,
-Sarah Mae
Who gets to decide genres? Does the author have a right to define their work for marketing and classification purposes? Or is it the publishers- who has invested so much money and has the most to fincanically lose when a book flops? Or is it the bookseller who shelves the book and interacts direcltly with the customer?
Nicholas Sparks, author of the disappointing, Dear John, wants to label his own work. And he want to call them “love stories”. NOT “romance”. Because “romance” is for down on their life women who find Prince Charming and fall in love and live happily ever after. Sparks’ characters do NOT live happily ever after. Clearly they are not “romance”.
I believe an author has a right to their opinion, just as anyone else does.
I believe that an author has a right to discuss and defend their work, as an artist and creator.
I believe an author has a right to be a part of the literary conversation, as a member of the community.
I do not believe an author has a right to dictate to the literary community, especially just so said author doesnt end up being lumped with what they believe to be unworthy or lower-class peers.
A memo to Mr. Sparks: in 2008, Romance was the top preforming genre in the United States. We’re talking 1.37 billion (with a B) dollars in sales, 74.8 million readers. To be in the company of Danielle Steel
Mr. Sparks
Saddest of all endings is that Mr. Sparks cannot and will not see the true genre distinctions in his work. He see’s things, as all authors do, very differently than the reader does. He sees his intentions, labors, and inspirations in the pages of his novels, while we see the words. And this is why we ask editors, publishers, and book sellers to define and discuss literary work. This is why we converse about the themes present in pages. It is not bad to aim to be like Mr. Hemingway. But it is not bad to end up like Nora Roberts. The genre label is irrelevant without readership. If all the books in the world were categorized, but no one read them, then would it matter what shelf yours ended up on? A genre is simply a selling tool, allowing readers to quickly find texts they want to enjoy, and having readers who buy books is the point of being a published author. If it weren’t Mr. Sparks intention to find a market for his literary wares he could simply post finished files on the net for all to find and enjoy for free.
So Mr. Sparks I ask you, what’s so bad about being a Romance writer? Do you dislike making money? Or are you afraid to be seen as a hokey writer for women? Because Romance genre or not, we already see you that way.
What do you think? Is it bad to be a Romance writer? Or any other genre-d writer?
P.S. Thanks to Lelia of Bookshelves of Doom for the tip off, with her Nicholas Sparks has and ego with three capitol E’s post.
