Post of a Post

http://anorderlyuniverse.blogspot.com/2011/01/small-creatures-that-scurry-around-and.html

Lilabet's blog continues to surprise me, and so I love it. She has a clear, well-defined writing style that is both ridiculously humorous, plainly outlines her point of view, and occasionally uses more sophisticated vocabulary to more clearly make her points. However, she also writes just like an average person, not like an incredibly sophisticated individual. In this post, she wrote about a book that I have read as well, "The Thirteen and a Half Lives of Captain Bluebear". The author, Walter Moers, is German and has had to have had his works translated into English. He also illustrates all of his books personally. This book is centered around a Bluebear named Bluebear, and gives an account of his adventures within the first half of his life, which is 13.5 lives. In it he meets a strange professor, who often performs experiments on Leyden Manikins, which are small, fictitious, almost doll-like organisms which are used for all sorts of different uses within science. In her post, Lilabet discussed how the Manikins represent animals, and namely how we abuse animals as the professor did the Leyden Manikins. I agree with Lilabet on her opinion that as these Manikins are said to not have feelings or thoughts of any sort, they still seem to display some sort of emotion and  free will and are symbolic to animals in the fact that both have been subjected to some pretty gruesome treatment. Nowadays animal cruelty and poor animal treatment is lessening, but still remains problematic. Like the Manikins, they are both abused, killed, and tested on. People seem to think they're doing wonderful things such as going vegan when they are also buying processed ground beef for their family. That cow may have been horribly tortured and caged in it's lifetime and then slaughtered unmercifully. I mean, I'm not saying eating meat is a terrible, horrible, disgusting, unforgivable crime. I'm not saying going vegan is stupid either. I'm just using this as an example.


Goodnight, dear reader.

The Alchemist

When I think of books about alchemy, I usually think something along the lines of "dark and mysterious, lots of bubbling potions, creepy old men, even older dusty books, and lots and lots of lead and gold." When I think of inspirational novels, i think something along the lines of "horrible tragedy, horrible hardships, blood, sweat, tears, and then a happy ending." When I think of the two together, I think of an alchemist who has gone through terrible hardships and become even more creepy and mysterious than he was in order to overcome. Which is pretty much the storyline of "The Alchemist". However, it does inspire you, even if it is through long speeches about Souls of God and the World and the Wind and the Sun and the Hand Who Wrote It All. It provides insight that, (and this is going to sound horribly cliche,) if you believe in something and you're not totally blind to the world around you, you can achieve your goals.

CLICHE SWEEPING VIOLIN INSPIRATIONAL MUSIC COMMENCE!

Back to boring old books posts. Not that books are boring.

well to spice things up a bit i have decided to do away with punctuation in the first sentence

Now that that's behind us, in "The True Meaning of Smekday", we experience a twist within the classic alien invasion story.

Main character: can be tough, has a sensitive side, has experienced loss.
Alien: has some quirks, can be sort of tough-ish. Is a bit of an outcast.

BUT WAIT!

Main character: drives underage with corn cans on her feet. * surprise!*
Alien: eats urinal deodorizers. *surprise!*

Adam Rex is a fantastic author. He has taken a classic story and just tweaked it a bit towards the funny side. Instead of a ripped, shirtless, trigger-happy moronic weight-eater, we have the short, average teenage girl.
Instead of the enigmatic, heartless, creepily tall alien guy, we have a short "boov" that speaks in sheep noises and bubble wrap noises. He smells like fish.

What is happening to our stereotypes?!

But anyways, you get my point. Since when has a good book been written that is so refreshingly unusual?