The Last Monthly Review

3. What are the weaknesses of this book, in your opinion?
4. How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style? (You must include a passage or two from the text if you choose this question.)
5. Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? Is the author's true life reflected in the book in any way(s)?


World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is exactly what the title says. It is a series of oral recounting of the Zombie War from many different fictional characters and it was written by author and screenwriter Max Brooks. In this book there is a break-out of a virus that can only be spread from blood or saliva. It envelopes the world and very few of the former 6 billion people on the world are still alive, or rather not undead. The remaining leaders of the remaining nations decide to fight back, and the apocalypse is pretty much overcome.

3. Overall, I would say that this is a very solid book. It gets the reader very involved and can easily make the reader crap their pants, metaphorically speaking. Really the only thing I had a problem with was that there were so many characters, from so many places, and they all sounded very similar. He didn't even give the Texan a southern accent. I think 3rd quarter you gave us that assignment about making a story where someone asks someone for a favor, and we read all those Fitzgerald short stories. The theme was to get characters to have different personalities. Fitzgerald did a great job, Max Brooks, not so well. Even the girls sound like the guys, other than their girl talk.

"Yeah, for about five minutes every day: local headlines, sports, celebrity gossip. Why would I want to get depressed by watching TV? I could do that just by stepping on the scale every morning."

This is a quote from one of the women in WWZ. If it weren't for "celebrity gossip" and "on the scale every morning," you would never know this was a woman. It seems a bit like he just puts key words and phrases into their dialogue just to distinguish their gender, instead of actually spending the time to develop a characters personality. However, I will cut him a break because their are upwards of twenty characters, and some of them are distinguishable, but not all of them. Another example of this is that their is an Australian character. Do you know how I found out he is Australian? The book said he was. It didn't come across in the dialogue at all. He didn't say mate once! Not a single time! What kind of Australian is that? Although this is a really good book, character development needs work.

4. This book is very unique because of the style it was written in. Basically it is a series of interviews about a world war with the undead. I have never had the experience of reading a book like this. And I have to say that this would be a totally different book without this styles of writing. Although the interviewees do not have much differentiating character traits, the interview-like writing style opens opportunities to tell tales of different countries and cultures. Henceforth, this book doe not suffer from the single point of view writing style that most protagonist based novels share. And that is really what sets this book apart. That fact alone opened up numerous opportunities in the writing of this book.

In any normal novel, the political analysis would all be up to the point of view of the main character. In a typical U.S. military survivor retelling of the same Zombie War tale, he'd be like man, those Russian commies were too brutal on their soldiers. But in this style, you have the opportunity to tell it from the point of view of the jar head and the Russian Official who would say, we did what we had to, or something like that. There was no Russian official interview, only one with a Russian soldier and a Russian priest. And to give a little insight into the Russian psyche, I will quote the priest.

"To kill your comrade, even in cases as merciful as infection, was too reminiscent of the decimation's. That was the irony of it all. The decimation's had given our armed forces the strength and discipline to do anything we asked of them, anything but that. To ask, or even order, one soldier to kill another was crossing a line that might have sparked another mutiny."

When the Russian army first discovered what they were fighting (the infection), much against the will of their superiors, their was a mutiny. As punishment, the Russian soldiers were put in groups of ten and to exercise their policy of democracy, the soldiers voted on which of the ten was to be killed. The members personally had to execute the member they voted out.
An American or Japanese person would never have that insight into Russian culture. And displayed in other ways throughout the book, the views of many cultures can be represented without the bias of a main character.

5. All I really wanted to know about this topic is why Max Brooks is so obsessed with zombies. He's the author of this book (World War Z), The Zombie Survival Guide, and The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks. The only thing I could find on him that would make him messed up enough to write an apocalyptic zombie book such as this, is that he is the son of Mel Brooks. And while I love Mel Brooks, he is a little crazy. The genetic funny bone seemed to have been passed on to Max as shown by The Zombie Survival Guide, which is pretty funny, and the fact that he was a writer for Saturday Night Live. He is also an actor and voice actor. As I said before, I couldn't find very much information on his personal life. This is the biography on his personal website:

"Max Brooks is the author of the two bestsellers The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z. He has also written for Saturday Night Live, for which he won an Emmy. His new graphic novel The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks will be released in October of 09."

Really? That's all you have to say for yourself? Whatever he really has to say for himself, I don't mind. He seems like a cool person.

Lit Circle Letter 3

The final section of the book World War Z, is a little disappointing, I have to admit. They are mostly little boring short stories about life after the war. There were a few good stories at the beginning of the section but after that its just blah, blah, blah. I understand there's not much you can do to end a book like this but the stories could be a little longer than two pages.

Well, I guess that's not fair to say. After re-looking at the section I realized that the boring little short stories were under the section labeled "Goodbye's". But that section really detracts from the overall awesomeness of this book. Other than that part I would say I was very pleased with this book. I read it in about a week, which is pretty impressive by my standards, especially because it is about three hundred and fifty pages. I read a book I would actually like to read since the last Harry Potter book, so if I read a book that fast, you know it's good.

At the beginning, the author seemed to have a pretty bleak outlook on life. There was so much death and panic and suicide. There was deception and misconceived politics. But in this section I think the author showed his true outlook on life and society, there were still sad parts, but it looked like the world was healing its wounds. And he still accurately portrayed the mind of the political machine.

"Hope. I'm not kidding, the town was actually named Hope.
They say the brass chose it because of the terrain, clear and open with the desert in front and the mountains in back. Perfect, they said, for and open engagement, and that the name had nothing to do with it. Right."

This is a quote about the location of the first American offensive in World War Z. And I think that's exactly how politicians would react. They would give the people hope precisely by beating the zombies in a town called Hope. Real life situations are portrayed well, except for the zombies, but other than that, I think this is exactly how the Z War would be.

Hippies

From a few years ago, until recently, I wasn't very fond of the group labeled as hippies. There are a few reasons. My dad is kind of one, and he can be a little annoying sometimes. A lot of them aren't exactly the most hygienic types. And there are a few who think they know everything about the world, especially politics. But after watching the movie Taking Woodstock, much of that becomes forgivable. "Hippies" re the most loving and down to earth people on the planet. And how they are labeled is a product of it. They shouldn't be labeled, just because there are people that don't believe in the normal rules of society, doesn't mean they should be put into a group. Did you know that at Woodstock, there were hundreds of thousands of people, close to, if not a million. And there wasn't a single recorded act of violence.

There's a reason a lot of them do drugs, and that's to experience the world how they think it should be. And the music they listen to is good for their trips I guess. Maybe it's just because they want to follow the crowd but, I don't think so. Anything goes, because they're world is just so awesome. You're gender, your ethnicity, nothing matters. The reason they're all for protecting the environment is that they love the world, other than the people that inhabit it who are trying to destroy it. Which is probably why most of them are so liberal, liberals tend to want to take care of the world, and want people to have more freedom to do what they want.

So please people, don't be an Eric Cartman. Don't hate hippies,the only reason they're a group is because they aren't part of any group. As always, I'm probably just talking out of my ass. Maybe they are a group. Maybe some of them aren't loving people, they just put on a mask to fit in with the crowd. Maybe that's the reason why there isn't rarely a hippy who will call themselves one. But I think it's because they don't identify as a group, they just are. Think about this, do you know any wannabe hippies? I don't, I think a hipster is the closest thing to that, but most of them are just assholes that ride around on fixies and don't want to be associated with real hippies, if there is such a thing. So yeah, that's all I got on the subject, later. (In honor of them, before this point, there were 420 words)

Lit Circle Letter 2

In this second section of the book, the tide starts to turn in favor of the human's (the live ones). Throughout this section there are tales of heartache, the limits of human endurance, the return of faith in humanity, and other corny crap, no pun intended. Films are created to raise spirits, communities are built, companies are constructed, and the new military is resupplied. The world finally goes back on the attack at the end of this section.

"The man didn't shout, didn't try to restore order. He just kept going in that calm, firm tone that I don't think any world leader has since been able to duplicate. He even thanked his "fellow delegates' for their 'valued opinions' and admitted that, from a purely military perspective, there was no reason to 'push our luck.' We'd fought the living dead to a stalemate and, eventually, future generations might be able to reinhabit the planet with little or no physical danger. Yes, our defensive strategies had saved the human race, but what about the human spirit?... We had to prove to ourselves that we could do it, and leave that proof as this war's greatest monument. The long, hard road back to humanity, or the regressive ennui of Earth's once-proud primates. That was the choice, and it had to be made now"

This was the president speaking in front of the remaining world leaders and I feel, it very well exemplifies what would have to be done to really save the human race. Not just save it, but return it to it's original splendor.I think the authors point in this passage is the great epidemics may not kill all of us, but if we have lost faith in our own species, we might as well be dead.

This section was definitely my favorite section of the book, there was the most action, the most plot. Juicier characters and stories. This first part of the book was basically just how it started, a lot of chaos; people running through the streets with the undead, and specific isolated incidents. But in the second section, more unravels on the toll this war has taken on the world. It's even noticeable in the air, the ashes of people and cities. and it's way better than the end, which is just a bunch of really short stories about life after the zombies (spoiler alert).

There are longer stories in this section, with more emotion in them. Emotion drawn out from watching the hopelessness of people just trying to survive. And then there's the other side; new practical weapons being created, little communities surviving sieges of undead without a scratch, and the overall, somewhat improved spirit in the surviving humans. It's all very enthralling, and it's all very good.

The Rules of Love

1. What rules dictate relationships today?

I don't think there are any set rules, rules can vary drastically depending on where you are. And even if there were rules here, they would be broken quite often. And the rules I believe in are obviously invalid, so I'm not sure if I can answer this question well. But I will say what I think the general rules are for my culture.

* Thou shalt have only one partner
* Thou shalt have sex before leaving high school
* Thou shalt have to make the person interested in you work to be in a relationship
* And if you are not interested in a person anymore, but they're still into you, thou shalt take six more months and a really shitty relationship to end it.


2. Name a situation in which the rules have clearly been violated. In other words, what are things "nice girls" just don't do? What are things "nice guys" just don't do?

* When A girl/guy has two or more people "sharing them", that's a violation, and gross, Christina (cough cough)

That's the only serious situation I can think of.

3.What are the possible consequences for breaking these rules?

* If you have more than one partner, thou shalt be labeled a slut or "fucked up"
* If you are still a virgin, you're bad with girls
* If you don't make them work, the consequences will be, thou shalt have a clingy bf/gf
* And if you're not interested in a person and you break it off immediately, absolutely nothing bad will happen.


4. Where do these rules come from? Who "invented" them and who enforces them?

We probably get it from the last generation, not necessarily our parents but the people that control the media. I know that probably has the biggest impact on our rules. Dating shows, music, anything on MTv, I guess that's where we get it from. And the "enforcers", they're the people the rules apply to.

Skating 3

Last week I said that beating the crap out of yourself in order to land a trick was worth it. It is worth it if you can actually land the trick after beating the shit out of yourself. Unfortunately if you land wrong, roll your ankle, and because of it, you get a second degree sprain, I don't think it is at all worth it. First of all because you can't possibly land the trick. Secondly, it causes you 2 to 4 weeks of pain. Thirdly, walking around on crutches sucks. On another note it is the reason why this blog post is late and also the reason why my lit circle letter will be late.
The only positive outcome of this unfortunate event is that I can get an elevator key and I don't have to deal with all the retarded people that stand in the middle of the halls. Other than that this sucks. I can't go out, can't skate, can't do very much at all except sit. Which, as you probably know, is really boring. Luckily it doesn't hurt as much as it did Thursday and Friday night, the pain could be almost unbearable when I didn't have ice on it and pain killers in my system. But that's the kind of stuff you have to deal with if you want to skateboard, after a high ankle sprain, a fractured wrist, a broken and dislocated elbow, and now this second degree ankle sprain, I'm starting to wonder if it's all worth it.
I know it might seem odd that I'm just now starting to wonder, but I think about it every time I seriously injure myself, and I always end up skating again. Because it's fun, a lot of my friends do it, and it's challenging. You're always relentlessly trying to improve your abilities when you skate and most of the time you get a lot of fun and good times out of it. It's only the worst case scenarios that put a drag on things, like right now. My legs cramping from me having to elevate it. And I'm typing an English assignment in the middle of a beautiful Saturday, when I could be skating or playing music, or just chillin' with my friends. But no, I'm stuck here, and I have to look after my dying cat. Which also sucks! My cat is dying to put a cherry on top of this disgusting, deformed cake.
It's kinda cool having room service and not having to clean up after myself much, but I still do a lot of stuff myself, which is never very easy, especially trying to get things from downstairs into my room. But I have a pretty sweet setup, I have "elevation stations", as I like to call them, in all then places I normally sit or lay down. Still, I'd rather not have to go through all this, but as I said, it's the price I have to pay for skating.

Lit Circle Letter 1: World War Z

The book I'm reading this month is called World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, written by Max Brooks, the author of The Zombie Survival Guide. But the only factor these two books have in common is zombies. World War Z is definitely not as funny, but it's not trying to be, it's a serious book. I like the way it was written, it's like a bunch of interviews with people who survived the war.
The only problem with this is a lot of the characters sound the same, if it weren't for this, I think it would be very easy to mistake this for a non-fictional book, however scary that may be. Other than the characters I enjoy this book a lot, there's some humor but it can be pretty depressing, and it'll keep you up past any normal hour, it can be pretty scary.

"None of us were set up for this, we weren't trained for it, weren't equipped... Where was the riot gear they promised us, the shields, the armor, where was the water cannon? our orders were to 'process' all evacuees... But where were the goddamn sniffer dogs? How are you supposed to check for infection without dogs?"

This goes to show the disorganization and despair everybody faced in this book, and all of it seems exactly how a government would act. They wouldn't give people that weren't major assets any resources, they wouldn't inform the public until it was too late, they would lie and bicker with other nations and within their own, all of this occurring while humans fight their extinction. And that's exactly what Brooks writes about.
So far this has been a pretty good book, it gets the adrenaline pumping, accurately represents politics, and makes you sleep with your light on. Other than the small variations in the character's persona's, I would say this is a good, solid book. Definitely one of the best in the zombie business.

Skating, Number 2!!!!!!!!

I know, its been a long time since I did a skating post but I think it is finally time. This post has been brought on by a revelation I just had after a hard day of skating. I have a fairly large squishy bruise on both sides of both my knee's, my shins are an entirely different color from all the bruises, and as I'm typing this, my hand hurts from yet another bruise. On top of that, my board is pretty beat up. I have razor tail that could slice diamonds, a few layers on my nose got smashed pretty good, and my griptape looks like a piece of swiss cheese.
Why is this do you ask? So I could heel-flip a five stair. Now if that doesn't sound like an amazing accomplishment, you would be correct, it isn't. I'm probably not even the first person to have heel-flipped that particular five stair. But you know what, it was totally worth it. There isn't anything else I can think of, where the only two outcomes are pain, or success. And I embrace the pain, I used it as a motivator. After what was probably my fiftieth try, after I had stuck the landing but still fallen, I said to myself, "you have to land this, otherwise all this pain and damage will have been for nothing, visualize it, kick hard, keep your weight centered and don't be a pussy." Low and behold, the next few moments consisted of pop, catch, land, and thank gawd, I rolled away.
The satisfaction combined with the adrenaline rush of still being in one piece is not a feeling easily encompassed and it can't be beat. After you've torn holes in your jeans (and knees), after destroying your shoes, board, and health, there is no better feeling than rolling away from your hardest task of the day. And that my friends is the epitome of skateboarding.
P.S. I know this isn't exactly 500 words but I don't have much else to say, except why do cops still hate skaters so much? Seriously, get over it.