Blog Assignment #5 - Stranger Than Fiction

          Everyone, everywhere has a different preference of book type.  Whether it be picture books or novels, non-fiction or fiction, history or modern, romance or fantasy, interpretive or escapist, everyone differs in what they love to read.

          For me, I can handle just about any fiction book, as long as it has a decent plot line and a moderately obvious theme.  Some prefer interpretive fiction, where the main goal of the book is to help the reader understand events and what they mean - to dig a little deeper behind the surface of the words - whereas others prefer escapist fiction, which submerges the reader in exotic situations.

          Escapist fiction - for me - is a way to escape real life.  I just flip open a good, escapist novel, and voila! it's like I'm in another universe, experiencing someone else's life.  I don't need to worry about my own problems when I can just read about a fictional character's life and problems, withdrawing from the real world around me.  Escapist fiction, for me, is interesting, and it's these novels that I don't like to put down - the ones I'm riveted to until the final page.

          But interpretive fiction, I find, is just plain boring.  Although, once I understand the deeper meaning I sometimes find these kind of books interesting, I don't read novels because I want to have to think a lot, I read novels to slip into someone else's shoes, even if just for a little while, and I don't find interpretive fiction novels do this for me.

          In school it may be a good idea to offer novels that are interpretive fiction, but I don't believe that many students would choose interpretive novels.  Mostly it would be the escapist novels that are chosen, for teenagers find their lives either too hard, too problematic, or, contradictory, just too ordinary, and they wish to live in a novel where things are either easier for the characters or more exciting.

          My opinion is that we should be studying more escapist fiction, rather than interpretive fiction, and that students get more out of these novels than interpretive novels.  Although students should be grateful to be able to go to school and get a good education, many these days in North America are not, and are instead resentful of the fact that they have to learn new things nearly every day.  Students in Canada, the United States, and other prospering countries often forget the value of a good education.  They often overlook the importance of learning and forget that in other countries, a fair amount of children and young adults don't get the opportunity to go to school.  Students in Canada often skip classes, finding them unimportant and uninteresting, so, if offering escapist fiction instead of iterpretive fiction is what helps to intrigue them into doing their work and at least coming to one class in the day - English - then why wouldn't escapist novels be offered?
          Cultural literacy - the knowledge and ability to discuss history and the basic meanings in a culture - is a very important concept, but I don't think it should be a main focus when picking out novels for a class to study in North America.  To decide what novel a class should read - perferably an escapist fiction novel - the class should be allowed to select a novel from a list of appropriate books and vote on which to read.  As Canada is a democratic country, students should learn about that and be allowed to choose what they wish to read, and - as far as I know - escapist fiction will win out over interpretive fiction nearly every time, for that is what I, and many others that I know, want to read.
          Although interpretive fiction is very good for one's brain and thinking skills, I strongly feel that more escapist fiction novels should be offered in schools to give students a chance to step into another's shoes and feel what other people feel like in different circumstances other than their own real life situations.

Blog Assignment #4 - Supernaturals

          Due to a recently popular book series called the Twilight saga, supernatural creatures, such as werewolves and vampires, have become increasingly popular.  In the series, the vampires and werewolves have fought in more than one novel.  The werewolves have killed vampires, and the vampires have injured the werewolves, or shape shifters; but in this series, these mythical creatures have not had to take on any other make-believe creatures.

          But what if they did have to?

          What if the werewolves, such as Jacob and Seth, were forced to fight against centaurs or gryffins?  Who would win?

          Would the werewolf win because of it's human intelligence combined with it's animal speed?  Or would the gryffin win because of it's eagle's extraordinary vision coupled with being a majestic lion?

          Personally, I would side with the gryffin and bet that it would win the battle.  But many others would not.

          Werewolves have been said to have super regenerative capabilities, so, even if a gryffin does attack and injure it, it will heal extremely fast - faster than humanly possible.  Werewolves can see extremely well in the dark, can hear the beating heart of its prey, and can track its prey for miles by scent alone.  So, then, why do I not have faith in the werewolf's ability to win this fight?

          Because gryffins are part lion, it makes them courageous, along with being stronger and faster than any human.  And because gryffins are also part eagle, it gives them the ability to fly, for they are born with wings, enabling them to escape the werewolf if it was attacking.

          I would cheer the gryffin on for many reasons, including those just listed, but just one stands out to me in particular.

          My main reason for believing the gryffin would win this battle is that the werewolf is primarily human, with just the ability to shape shift into a wolf.  Now, this may not seem like such an impressive argument at the moment, but let me just explain something, or, rather, ask something.  Has there ever been a human who didn't stray from the path they were on, or do something they weren't supposed to?  The answer, in my opinion, is no.

          Humans, ever since our beginning, have been a fickle and frivolous species, disobeying even the wisest of people.  Take Adam and Eve for example.  Supposedly, even as the first two humans on Earth, they violated the rules and ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

          Werewolves are volatile and whimsical, taking after humans in that regard, whereas gryffins take after both lions and eagles in that they are determined and strong creatures, not straying from their path once it has been found.

          Being both human and wolf is a deadly combination, but, opposing the best of the gryffins - who are said to be both the Kings of the Beasts and the Kings of the Air - werewolves don't stand a chance.