Warnings from two Perspectives

I read Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother and absolutely loved it.  I already knew the connection to George Orwell’s 1984, so decided to read that as well.  I was shocked by the bluntness and almost evil of 1984.  The society created in 1984 is far too extreme and unrealistic and is therefore not as believable.  Little Brother is talking about things that are almost happening and are debates in our day-to-day life. Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother has taken concepts from Orwell’s 1984 modernized them, and in my opinion revived them to a shockingly believable portrayal.  Because the utopian society of Orwell is so bizarre and out of date, it doesn’t seem as realistic as Little Brother that is modern, accurate, and is actually a likely scenario for the state of the world.  Comparing them both, Little Brother is relatable and almost mesmerizing. 1984 is traumatizing and almost too twisted to seem real.         

In 1984, Orwell’s depicts a utopian society with no strings attached. It’s blunt terrifying and affective.  The book takes place in a super state called Oceana, which is ruled by tyrannical group who call themselves The Party.  In this book, we follow a man named Winston Smith.  Orwell uses the struggles in Winston’s day-to-day life to show you how warped is the civilization in which he exists.  Anyone who speaks out against The Party will disappear without a trace.  Even thoughts against the party could get you killed.  There are no written laws, only things The Party deems as rebellious. There was a thought police, whose only job was to watch people for any rebellious signs. In schools, kids were taught to spy on their parents and to report anything to the thought police.  In every house and all over the city, there are massive Telescreens that not only display the phony news of The Party, but also watch your every move.  Privacy was a nonexistent thing.             

Anyone who rebelled was taken to the ministry of love for “treatment” and “reintegration.” The first stage “treatment” is constant physical torture to the point where you will make up any story or betray your closest friend just to make the pain stop. Stage two: They would take you to room 101. It had been mentioned by other prisoners before always with a sense of indescribable terror. In room 101, The Party would exploit you worst fear, essentially breaking you and taking away your identity. Stage three, “reintegration,” is when a Party member would come in and start telling you wonderful things and in your state of agony you wouldn’t realize that it’s all lies. Then, after what could be years of reprograming, they release you back into the world, except it’s not you anymore.  You are broken, hardly a shell of what you used to be.  You are in a constant state of fear of the party, but at the same time love them, because if you don’t your as good as dead.

The Party could alter anything to its convenience. At the ministry of truth, all of Oceana’s history was kept and altered whenever necessary. People who were war heroes would suddenly find themselves being arrested for treason. Oceana was constantly at war with one of the other two super continents in the world and they where always changing who they where at war with. But if you looked in their records they would state that they’d been at war with the same people as far back as it goes. The Party was slowly recreating History and language to better suit them. They kept publishing dictionaries with fewer and fewer words, therefore, making it impossible to talk about rebellion.    There was a way of communicating known as Doublethink. Doublethink was when you say one opinion, but are thinking an entirely different one. It was essentially lying.  Usually what you where saying was pro-Party and what you where thinking anti-Party.          

When 1984 was written during World War II, it was possible path on which humans could walk.  Little brother is a fantastically real portrayal of 1984 that has been “Doctorow-ed” up to fit modern life. It also seems smarter, it hints, and whispers warnings about controlling government’s instead of blasting them in your face.

 Both books depict terrifying utopian societies. Little Brother seems the more likely at this moment in time. It is current, takes place in a well-known city, uses real things, and places like the Fast Trak, Bart, and the Bay Bridge. In Little Brother, all the surveillance is done in an as covert way as possible. Also, the odds of the world splitting into three huge super states is not very likely. 1984 surveillance using Teliscreens doesn’t make sense. These days the government would take every step possible to make sure the person they are following doesn’t know they’re being watched. But that’s what makes it so scary.

Little Brother was one of the most realistic books I’ve ever read. It had me looking for and trying to ovoid cameras and made me look at government from a whole new perspective.  1984 is a very well written book, but it’s too dated to influence people in the way it used to.  Little Brother has revised 1984 using a modern filter and has made it so believable that I think it has surpassed its original. 

The General

Richmond, Savannah and Charleston where the only things holding the confederation together. Richmond being the confederate capital, Savannah and Charleston the only ports left to the south. Taking them was key to eradicating this rebellion. When all three had fallen into union hands, though most of the citizens had evacuated, the remaining rebellion army numbering around 50 thousand was on the run, with Grant close behind them. The whole chase was more of a non-stop battle, with small but destructive engagements constantly happening. “I saw a young lad running full sprint after the retreating army. And I asked him, why are you running, and he replied, because I cant fly,” said Ulysses S Grant. Finally, with the help of the army of the James, Grant managed to surround Lee. Lee had no choice, he slowly wrote a letter, and with much grief in his eyes sent it the union line under a white flag. When grant opened the letter he simply handed it to the man next to him. who in turn read “General Lee will surrender.” They’re where no cry’s of joy, no cheers of victory, only sullen silence, and men weeping of both relief and sorrow.  They set a place to meet at a near by farmhouse.  Lee arrived first wearing his last clean uniform; one mane said that this was general lee’s finest hour. In comparison Grant was dressed in a dirty uniform and came from the field, but the fire in his eyes was indistinguishable. They shook hands as if they where old friend’s. After the terms of surrender where set, Lee slowly and somberly rode back towards his battered army. Some of the soldiers gave him a solemn goodbye; those lost to wards simply ran their hands across his horse.

The First Modern War

The Civil War is often referred to as the first modern war.  Prior to the Civil War muskets were extremely inaccurate.  So, officers would order their troops to cluster together and fire at the enemy in the hopes that if they all shot at something at least one of them would hit it. But during the Civil War several new weapons were invented. The first and probably the most influential was the mini ball.  The mini ball was a new bullet to be shot out of a musket that twirled out of the barrel giving the shooter 250 more yards of range and better accuracy.  Being hit in a limb by a mini ball would almost certainly mean amputation.  Unlike a modern bullet, which will only graze the bone, the mini ball would simply shatter your whole arm.  A gut shot was always almost certain death.  Later on the Gatling gun came into existence.  Also known as a repeating gun, it could fire multiple bullets in a very short amount of time.  It was essentially the first machine gun. 

Then somebody in the south decided to cover a steamboat in iron plating it changed navel warfare forever.  This started the production of the Iron Clads. When iron clads were invented they rendered the rest of the worlds navy obsolete.  The south even designed the first submarine.  They called it the Hunley, It was very small and could only hold about 8 people.  It had a long pole with a keg of gunpowder on the end.  They would stab boats in the side with harpoon pole and trigger the gunpowder with a rope trigger.  On one of these errands they triggered the powder to soon and blew themselves up. The Hunley was only recently rediscovered. One of the main reasons that the Civil War was such a blood bath is that they were using old tactics and fighting with these new weapons.  They would cluster together and hope a few bullets hit the opposing regiment, but instead they would wipe the whole thing out with one volley.  The mini ball was so accurate compared to a musket ball that the results were devastating.  Today we would consider 10% casualties a blood bath.  In the majority of Civil War battles there was 30% casualties.  It is due to new weapons and old tactics that the civil war was so costly     

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofo4qXUCpL4



This is a video me and a couple of friends made during are camping trip in Joshua Tree.... check it out!!!

a Fantastically Real Reality

Imagine a box with a story inside of it. That’s your average story. Suddenly the borders of the box dissolve and the story goes in directions you never thought possible, limited only by the author’s imagination.  Mythical races and cultures, complex story plots, bizarre characters with unique backgrounds, in this paper ill explain just few examples of things an author has to work with.  That’s fantasy and that’s why I love it!

  

One of my favorite books of all time is Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Here he has Orcs, Elves, Dwarves, Ents, and Hobbits all intertwined into three amazing books. These different races add so much detail to these books. It makes all of the conflict that much more significant when it is backed up with cultural rivalry.  Author George R.R Martin in his saga A Game of Thrones has invented the cultures the Northmen, Dornishmen, the Lords of the Trident, the People of the Vale, the Iron Born, and the people of the Reach. Just the names of these places—Winterfell, Bravoose, Sunspear, Ramsgate—and the detail in which the author describes them is some of the best and most meticulous writing I have ever seen. Martin creates his own reality.  R.A Salvatore in his book Homeland has created one of my all time favorite races known as the Dark Elves or the “Drow.” Here the author goes into incredible detail on their unique environment where they live, their evil nature, and their intricate social system.  Another example of a complex story and mythical cultures is Artemis Fowl. This is one of those stories that is supposedly going on all around us but for some reason we can’t see it.  It’s about a twelve-year-old boy named Artemis Fowl. He is the heir to the Fowl fortune and is responsible for every major crime of the twenty-first century.  He has a theory that there is another race on Earth known as fairies.  The reason we don’t see them is because they aren’t the basic flying, flower fairies we’re used to. They’re little tiny flying fairies with space age technology.  It has a “mythical” logical answer as to why we never see them.    They have suits that vibrate at such a rate they’re invisible to the human eye. If they are ever seen they also have stun guns, space ships, laser beams, and mind wiping technology.  The book also portrays Artemis playing-out mastermind crimes.  It’s an amazing blend of fantasy and reality that represents fantastical complexity very well.

 A great use of a complex story plot in fantasy is A Game of Thrones. It starts with the classic storyline of one king ruling over many peaceful smaller kingdoms that where all united through war. The series is based on the Stark family and their turn at the game of thrones. The king dies and all the smaller kingdoms start accusing each other of murdering him. Shortly after the king’s death, there is a rivalry over who would be the regent until the king’s son was of age. The whole kingdom erupts into a huge civil war and there is even a rumor that the king’s son is not actually his son, but a bastard.  In R.A Salvatore’s book Sojourn, he takes the story from huge icy mountain ranges to barren deserts at the edge of the world. He has even invented other plains of existence such as, the plain of shadows and the plain of crystalline. There are strange otherworldly creatures that emerge out of  these plains and not all are friendly. There are also these beings called “plain sweepers,” there called this because they relish wiping out entire plains of existence and exterminating everything within. In the plain where this story takes place, there are an elite group of sorcerers and wizards who are charged with stopping the plain sweepers. When one of these protectors has a vision of the plain sweepers planning on coming to there plain, they immediately begin preparing for the worst. In this book there are wars, murders and people seeking revenge at whatever the cost. It’s almost too much to take in.      

Unique characters, I love them. When a character just has so much background that it’s hard to remember, that’s when you know its good writing. Take the character Drizzt Du Arden from the book Homeland. He’s a Dark Elf or a “Drow,” one of the most vile and sinister races in the entire realm, created by R.A. Salvatore. They are the face of evil and they have a lust for killing. They dwell under ground in a vast network of tunnels and caves building massive cities in the larger caverns. Drizzt is different, however.  He doesn’t enjoy causing pain in others. He would rather help them and because he doesn’t love to kill, he’s viewed as an outcast and a stranger in his own land. Throughout the series he’s constantly dealing with the brand that his race has put upon him. Then there’s Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit who comes from a very respectable family, who always follows tradition and never goes off on adventures.  Until one day when he is visited by a group of Dwarves and an old Wizard asking him to travel with them to a far off mountain. His immediate response is a resounding “no.” You see, hobbits never bother in the affairs of the “big folk” they are more then happy to live out their long lives simply farming. Some say that a Hobbits only true love is food, but I find that an untrue accusation as they also have a keen interest in the smoking of pipe-weed and the brewing of ale. From his mother’s side of the family though, there is a part of Bilbo that desperately wants to go with them. So, the next morning, he, to all the villagers’ surprise, goes running off down the road skipping and singing about the great adventure ahead and about the wealth that awaits him. This, to all the other Hobbits, is viewed as a very improper thing to do. While on this adventure, Bilbo is constantly in conflict with his desire to go onwards and his fear of the unknown. The dwarves despise him because he is not a warrior, but Hobbits, and Bilbo especially, are very sharp of wit and love outsmarting others and he is constantly trying to prove himself to them.    In John Flanagan’s series, Rangers Apprentice, he invented one of my favorite characters Halt. In the kingdom of Arulian, there is an elite force called the Rangers founded by the king to keep the peace. They wear dark green cloaks and are masters of the shadows; they are some of the most skilled archers in all the land. During times of war they usually take the role of scouts and sometimes generals. Even though they are peacekeepers they are viewed with a sense of fear throughout the realm, some even say there is sorcery involved. One of these Rangers, Halt,  a gruff, hard man who is as tough as the rocks of his lord’s castle.  His past is shrouded in legend. When people think of Halt, they envision a huge man, ten feet tall, clad in shining armor, but in reality he is a short wiry man with dark uneven hair. Halt hates how people expect him to be someone he’s not, therefore he uses his skills as a ranger to avoid people as much as he can. He is a quiet man who never willingly reveals anything about his past, yet begrudgingly opens himself up to the few people he trusts. Even his apprentice, Will, who spends every waking hour training with Halt, couldn’t tell you the first thing about him.

None of what I’ve been talking about would be possible in your history book about France or your novel about JFK.   Evil villains of a different race and heroes in shining armor, these things, sadly are not real. That’s why I find fantasy so interesting. It means anything is possible, people coming back from the dead, sorcerers with arcane powers beyond belief, wars fought for more meaning then to simply destroy another’s life or to expand borders. Orcs vs. Elves has so much more significance then man vs. man.  And, that is why, in my opinion, fantasy is the most interesting genre of literature…because it makes the impossible, possible.

by Tristan G Martin

  

  

   

Little Brother...

Little Brother

Marcus and his friends are skipping school and going to a gaming event that they have been waiting on for weeks.  When there is a freakish explosion and a loud speaker screaming, “get to shelter”. Marcus and his friends join the crowds of people running for the Bart tunnel. They realize that they’ll never make it through the crowds and decide to head back up to the surface. Suddenly their friend Darryl falls down with blood welling from his side, it looks like he’s been stabbed.  Then an army like vehicle pulls up, puts bags over there heads and roughly throws them in the truck. Marcus has no idea who has captured him and they’re asking a lot of questions. Finally he realizes that there U.S army or something like that. They ask him to unlock his phone for them and decrypt the files. He refuses, so they leave him in a cell for two days. Finally he agrees to unlock his phone,  slowly as he reveals more info he is given more freedom. And then is finally released. After his time on prison Marcus is determined  to get back at the government and regain his sense of freedom

Marcus is one of those guys who likes his space. He dislikes authority figure and is always looking for a way around things. Yes he hacks and mods things illegally but that does not make him a bad guy. He just wants to be able to do something without the entire world knowing about it.  Passwords are your privacy. There something you just don’t tell anyone unless you absolutely trust them.  By giving up his password Marcus was giving up his privacy.  It also gives the person you gave it to power over you.