Q2: Blog3

This week I read up to page 182. I know, I'm making slow progress. I should have some good free time over Thanksgiving break to get a little more reading done, and if necessary winter break too. In this section, Oskar basically goes to visit more Blacks. One of the Blacks lives in Oskar's building. This man really struck me. He is an old man who lives alone, his wife had died over 10 years before. Through Oskar's conversation with him, it comes out that he used to be a journalist, covering every war that ever was. Through his journalism, he came to keep index cards for everyone he met. They included the name of the person and one word to describe them. Some examples were "Henry Kissinger: war!" and "Martha Stewart: money!" (157). Most people were either war or money, which I found intriguing. Mahatma Gandhi was listed as war. Although anti-war would perhaps be a better description, Mr. Black does bring up a good point. War and money are everywhere, they are so many peoples' life goals or careers. Personally, I would hate to be classified in either category. Oskar wonders what his dad would be described as, and can't think of an answer. I can't either, for myself that is. Honestly I have no idea. And I'm fine with that. I've never liked anything where you have to give adjectives that describe yourself. I feel like I'm me, and that's it. I don't want to have to describe myself, because then I feel the need to hold myself to the standards I described myself as. "Oh no, I said I was prompt, but now I'm late..." I don't like to fit under adjectives, although I'm sure everyone does fit under adjectives in one way or another. People are so much more complicated than a word, at least in my eyes. But Mr. Black seems to disagree, as he has everyone classified, even himself. Despite my reservations, I still feel myself wondering, how would I be described?

Q2: Blog2

I have to admit I'm not having the greatest time reading 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'. It's alright, but there was a really tedious section with a bunch of letters from Oskar's grandparents written to him before he was born. This section gives us insight into Oskar's family, but it's slightly confusing and not very exciting. But that's over and done with. Oskar has performed in an abridged version of Hamlet at his school, and visited a few more 'Blacks'. There was one part in the section that I read that really struck me. When Oskar was performing in Hamlet, his grandmother came to every show. She made a fool of herself. She laughed at the wrong times and was very loud and obnoxious. On page 144, a boy in the play is imitating Oskar's grandmother, and doing a good job of it at that. While Oskar is laughing on the outside, he is embarrassed and angry on the inside. He says "I wished that she'd had an invisibility suit," (144). This was a part of the book that seemed a little more 'real' to me. Oskar is a strange boy, so a lot of this book strikes me as him acting as 'Oskar', not as a normal boy would act. However, this part of the story could, and does, happen to everyone. I've been to plays where I can hear someone I know from backstage. Nobody related to me, thankfully, but none the less I feel embarrassed. Not so much embarrassed for me, but for that person. However, I can totally imagine feeling embarrassed myself were it to be my family I could hear from backstage. And my parents have embarrassed me, of course. Just not exactly like how it happened to Oskar. I think I'm starting to like the book better, but the section with the letters was definitely a struggle.

Q2: Blog1

I promised myself that I would FINISH Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer, and yet I haven't picked it up since my last blog post. But if I read it for outside reading, I'll have to finish it, right? Well, that's the theory. So I picked up the book, but had to reread all but the very beginning because I have a horrible memory and always forget what happens in what I read, even if I read it fairly recently. So to recap: Oskar's dad died in 9/11, he finds a key that belonged to his dad. The envelope that the key is in says 'Black' on it, so he is going to find every black in New York City and ask them about a possible connection to his dad. On page 91, Oskar is at the first of the Blacks' house, Abby Black. When she won't let him in, he tells her, "'I'm diabetic and I need sugar asap.' Lie #35." The whole book, but this passage in particular, reminds me of the summer reading book for 9th grade, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. Oskar, like Christopher, must have a very structured mind if he counts the number of times that he lies. Also, he goes out of his comfort zone to solve a mystery about someone he really cared about. In Curious Incident, Christopher's neighbor's dog, a 'friend' of Christopher's, has been murdered. He crosses the street my himself, which scares him. He also talks to strangers, which he is scared of doing. It is worth it, however, because he wants to solve this crime. Oskar follows a similar path. He spends his entire weekends going to various 'Black' homes to try to solve this mystery relating to his father. The boys also follow similar paths in the lines that they won't cross, even for the sake of solving their mysteries. Christopher won't go to the 'drug dealer's' home, even though that could help him solve his mystery. Oskar won't take the subway, even though that could save him a lot of time, he wouldn't have to walk two to three hours to the various homes that he is going to anymore. Both boys also lie to their parent about where they are and what they are doing. I wonder if more similarities to the two stories will come up over the course of the book?