The Labyrinth of a great read: Looking for Alaska by John Green-bibi

         "How will I ever get out of this labyrinth!"

-Last words of 'Simon Bolivar' in Gabriel Garcia Marquez's 'The General in His Labyrinth'

I finished this one in a road trip of about 4 hours and a half and to say that those four hours have been more enlightening than anything I have ever known about religion and suffering would be an understatement. Let me tell you something about me, if given a non-fiction book about spiritualism and all that philosophical theories, I would definitely not even think about reading it but the thing is if you present it under covers, concealing it with a brilliant story and then speculate its each event, to come to a conclusion which is by all means, can lead to nothing but a logical philosophical explanation to it. I would love it. In fact anyone would love it because everyone wants to understand these things but in a way that would interest them the most, i.e with references to characters they feel familiar with rather than a jumble of intricate statements.

"So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane."                                                                                                     

 "I am going to take this bucket of water and pour it on the flames of hell, and then I am going to use this torch to burn down the gates of paradise so that people will not love God for want of heaven or fear of hell,            but  because He is God.

  

'Looking For Alaska' is after a character named 'Alaska' (yes after the largest state in U.S). Although the story is narrated by 'Miles Halter' aka 'Pudge' ,the main protagonist who has an interesting but slightly morbid habit of memorizing the last words of famous historians. The story starts with Miles telling his parents the reason he wants to go to 'Culver Creek' a private school is to seek the great which he explains to them by showing them the Biography of 'Francois Rabelais',a poet whose last words were 'I go to seek a Great Perhaps.' And then he is off to Culver Creek where he meets his room-mate 'Chip Martin' aka 'colonel' and 'Alaska'. 

"I wanted to be one of those people who have streaks to maintain, who scorch the ground with their intensity. But for now, at least I knew such people, and they needed me, just like comets need tails." 

And then and there starts a distorted and variant image of the 'great perhaps' he had in his mind, following routine classes with regular smoking and booze, sneaking out after curfew and then at times getting busted for the same. Pudge who is in fact a 16 year old skinny, nerdy guy, he is friendless, lonely, and his greatest quirk is to read biographies in search of last words. He meets 'Alaska' courtesy to his friendship with Colonel. She is wild, funny, intelligent, moody, spontaneous, drop-dead gorgeous ,a mystery and an unattainable girl with whom Pudge instantly falls in love with. Alaska also has a reputation for smart and stylized never failing pranks. And besides everything the thing that I like most about Alaska is that like most pained and troubled people she is dead-pan sarcastic. Her pain is evident in her statements like-  "Y'all smoke to enjoy it. I smoke to die."'

  Though she is definitely not an angel of virtues and the author or narrator never even portrays her as one. She is definitely a character one comes to think the most about in the end.

Another of my favorite characters in the book is Chip 'colonel' martin, who reminds me a bit of  'Fred & George ' i.e the weasely twins in the Harry Potter series. He is smart and also sarcastic to the core and values the things that value most in life - his integrity which is the reason behind why he never rats and his friends. His tales of getting evicted out of the gym due to the nuisance he creates are hilarious. 

"I mean, it's stupid to miss someone you didn't even get along with. But, I don't know, it was nice,

you know, having someone you could always fight with."  - Colonel

But the story is not about Colonel or Alaska neither is she the main character, definitely a very important and unforgettable one but not the main, the story is about derivations of meaning of life, suffering, guilt, friendship and other values higher than life itself. The centre of the story is around a discussion about the 'labyrinth' from the last words of Simon Bolivar. 

Alaska: "'He'—that's Simon Bolivar—*was shaken by the overwhelming revelation that the headlong race between his misfortunes and his dreams was at that moment reaching the finish line. The rest was darkness. "Damn it," he

sighed. "How will I ever get out of this  labyrinth!'" (those were his last words)

Miles: "So what's the labyrinth?"

Alaska: "That's the mystery, isn't it? Is the labyrinth living or dying? Which is he trying to escape—the world or the end of it?" 

The second half of the book takes this discussion to yet another level where to finally as Alaska concludes the labyrinth symbolizes 'suffering' and the ways of getting out of it varies according to the person. 

        "The only way out of the labyrinth of  suffering is to forgive."                                                                                                   

The whole book is divided into two parts which I can't really explain at all without giving away the most intimate essence of the book itself. The narrator classifies the parts as a 'before' and 'after' of a certain event, and that certain event is the death of Alaska Young in a car accident. He uses terms like " one hundred eight days before" and " hundred and nineteen days after" .But its really the second half of the

book where it becomes from mundane to momentous. The demise of Alaska comes as a shock to Miles and Colonel and they both blame themselves for letting her go and drive that drunk that night but the later turn of events makes them susceptible to the possibility that Alaska might have committed suicide. Owing to her memory they try to investigate whether her death was an unavoidable fate or willful self-destruction.

"I may die young, but at least I'll die smart." 

There are many layers to Alaska's character and one finds very little time to explore it which adds to the mystery that already Alaska is. Like Miles (pudge) himself admits of having so little time to know Alaska and not being so sure of whether he even knew her well.

 Things that did not go right, things that seemed okay at the time because we could not see the future. If only we could see the endless string of Consequences that result from our smallest actions. But we can't know better until knowing better is useless.

Through out the second half the narrator makes various speculations on life and discovers the truth of life on different aspects. He even admits to the fact that even though he was in love with Alaska, he will forget her, her memory will fade like everything falls apart, which was definitely very blunt and brave. The final paper that he presents where he answers to the question of " how will one get out the labyrinth of suffering" is definitely something that I will never forget because it presents us a picture of the whole reality and circle of life in a few pages.

Overall I found the book definitely climbing its way to my favorites and I still can't believe that this is John Green's First novel!! I am definitely looking forward to more of his work now. 'Looking for Alaska' is a mirror to the various aspects of human life and the philosophy behind it entwined with a story that is lively and yet ironically painful and still full of hopes. In my opinion, it's this combination and the characters that make this book a masterpiece!!

 "When adults say, "Teenagers think they are invincible" with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are. We need never be hopeless, because we can never be irreparably broken. We think that we are invincible because we are. We cannot be born, and we cannot die. Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations. They forget that when they get old. They get scared of losing and failing. But that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, and so it cannot fail." 
— John Green (Looking for Alaska) 

What are we???

'What are we?' sounds strange because the moment you say so some one would correct you to ask 'who are we?'. Isn't it a pity that even in such a clueless situation when your whole identity is unknown instead of answering your question you are in fact asked to correct it? 

Have you ever tried to decipher human behavior? the things we do?

 the reasons behind the things we do? 

We are the most complex being not in terms of intelligence and practical behavior, well you would find various theories in support of this statement. There are many individuals who walk upon this planet thinking or even singing that 'nobody understands them', other than that a sturdier theory is that there are so many layers to a person's behavior which makes it pretty impossible to understand them. Though many claim, they can get as many details possible on a person at first glance but is it really possible because there's another theory on how a person's behavior differ accordingly with the different people they are with. Its not only hard its almost impossible to exactly study or predict this behavior. 

       We feel so many variants of emotions and have as many ways of expressing it. We have a habit of brooding over for hours or expressing a variety of thoughts over things or events which hardly took minutes to pass. We are judgmental, we are experimental, we are emotional, we are intellectual, even philosophical, but more significantly we are all "cowards" because all the ways that we eventually look upon to are one or another form of providing a vent, an escape from the situation. It may sometimes be a direct escape to something entirely new or sometimes a kind of escape where you except the scenario but decide to do nothing about it but to escape from it by performing the part you most like about it - sing a song  about it, write a poem on it or vent your frustration through any other creative art.

No doubt this cowardliness and our affection towards escape has lead us to some of the greatest arts there exist. A writer finds his escape from the real world into his books, in the same way as other artists like singer, painter, poet etc find their own escape in their own respective arts. And if there are such wonderful ways and such beautiful place already exists where you can escape to, then why be brave and face the stupid misery?

Cheers to 'Cowardliness' ;)

8 mile: crudest art

'If you had one shot, one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted, one moment, would you capture it? or just let it slip'

'8 mile', every one's heard about it, it is a movie made on the life story of Eminem, had a quick glance at the movie at first, expected the trash talk and it was really at times too much just to deal with, been placed there just to be, with no sense at all. And well come to think of the movie, people are always a bit prejudiced about it before watching it considering everything. 

But well to my surprise the movie had an appeal to it that made me watch it for the second time. Well, yeah though the trash talk was a tad too much but once you get over all that and get to exactly what the movie is all about, you won't be able to resist the temptation to admire this amazing raw art. What this movie actually reveals is that there's a lot to the hip hop music genre besides the glamour facade and that lot is actually way more interesting and in a sense brilliant, than the picture we get. There's a lot of hard work involved, unusual observational skills and yeah at times a sheer genius and not to forget 'the rhyming' which trust me, is not really as easy to frame as it sounds. Last but not the least combining everything under the spotlight facing some really aggressive crowd, makes it really the most unrefined yet highly admirable part of the 'Performing Arts'.

          There are certain things which totally worked in the movie's favor for me like the background score: works amazingly to never allow the audience to leave the trance of being in a 'behind-the-scenes' Hip Hop music scenario. Also the scenes where Rabbit works on his Rapping skills with just a pen and a paper that is completely scribbled over and has hardly any space to write anything on, emphasize more on the creative part of the Rapping which I liked.

            Other than that the movie's been made with a commercial point of view with a normal plot of 'underdog wins' situation in a slightly twisted manner.

More significantly what this movie did for me was change the way I looked upon Rapping or even Hip hop music which to be frank enough I don't even like, but well after watching the movie, I have come to appreciate it for what it is behind that facade. One still has to be very selective though ;)

Remember Me? - Sophie Kinsella : A Review

Though I would love to admit I am not one of those girls who get glued to chick-lit books, but Sophie Kinsella is one such chick-lit author who actually gives a whole new definition to the Chick-lit genre and made an exception to my reading list. She is hilarious and though most of the books under this category are downright just limited to a girl's taste and somehow end up revolving around it, Sophie's book are completely well defined in terms of a definite start and a justified happy ending, even the content is outright hilarious and never seem to just focus on the chick aspect of the so called "genre". 


There is often a wide variety of emotions, and genuineness expressed in her characters not in terms of their existence (which at times is doubtful though) but in terms of their character. What I am trying to say here is that she presents her characters with a genuine feeling we may either associate to ourselves or friends or even next door neighbors. 

  It may be Rebecca Bloomwood of the Shoppaholic series or in this case Lexi Smart, they are all people we may relate to, though not exactly their scenario but a few picks of their qualities here and their. Other thing which I greatly admire in her books is the sense of humor. Apart from the main character who always have a touch a humor to them there are situations which are practically hilarious.

About "Remember Me?" :

  "Remember me?" is yet another binding novel by Sophie Kinsella. Apart from the basic qualities of being a Sophie's novel, 'Remember me?' also has a very interesting plot, unbelievable yet interesting. I won't focus much on the unbelievable part because I believe books are the one place where everything that you can imagine comes to life, so be it. 

  It is story of Lexi Smart who works as a 'Associate Junior Sales Manager' in the department of Flooring in Deller Carpets and as her designation itself suggests, she is nobody in her office. She although has a crappy life with crooked teeth, curly hair that she hates but is still pretty much satisfied with it. She faces a minor slipping accident while hailing a taxi only to find herself waking up at a hospital where she realizes that it has been three years to that accident and she has been admitted because of her car accident which has resulted in her losing her memory i.e. amnesia. 

She wakes up to a complete new Lexi Smart who along with slim body, straight teeth and beautiful hair, has a completely perfect life which includes a perfect job as a Director of the Flooring department, perfect husband and everything. She has no memory whatsoever of the three years that have passed before her car crash and is in a constant process of discovering new things about this Lexi Smart which she realizes isn't her because she hardly knows her.

       The story is capable of constantly surprising the reader with the events and the whole process of Lexi of getting to know herself better is really funny. One can find her struggling her at times between the decisions that the new Lexi made which the old Lexi would never have agreed to. This constantly contradicting situations keep on surfacing for her. It's interesting to see how Lexi manages to struggle through a strange situation one can hardly imagine to be in and comes out of it in the end well and good, and with a life she has made for herself.

 Also it would be great as a movie because you can see the events unfold themselves as you can see in a movie. Overall I would rate it as a really interesting read because the concept is grasping in itself and the whole journey which is both hilarious and admirable makes it worthwhile.

Strangest Friendly Attributes: In The Land Of Women: A Review

               In The Land Of Women

                                            -Written and directed by

                                            Jonathan Kasdan                                 

                                                     

It’s strange how sometimes we find it easier to pour our hearts out to some people we know hardly anything about, because we don’t have the fear of them judging us, or coming to a conclusion based on earlier facts because in such cases there are generally none, which makes it so much easier to share.

‘In the Land of women’ is one such story of human relations where we find how a person can share personal space with a stranger without even knowing them. People sometimes have so many thoughts or in this case problems or issues you may also refer to them as, burning inside them, dying to emerge, to resurface and when surrounded by same old people who know you and whom how close you may be, but still face this reluctance to share due to obvious reasons, but once you cross the threshold of withholding things anymore, you seek that one person you can pour your heart out without even wondering later what impression that might have left. All you feel is a wonderful feeling of light headedness and satisfaction though you know anything is not resolved yet.

In this movie that stranger is ‘Carter’ who comes to live with his granny in an unknown neighborhood where he meets Meg Ryan as ‘Sarah’ and her daughter. The movie explores very finest of human relations and for those who might mistake it for something else, even explains it well in a letter that Carter writes.

You might not find it really full packaged movie that one might prefer to watch again and again, but for philosophical fools like me, the movie might present itself to you in even more than what just the scenes describe. You might just need a little emotional edge to decipher that.

In the memory of Padfoot (Sirius Black): Harry Potter And the Order Of The Phoenix, A Review

 

 "Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike."

J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2003

       When I first laid my hands on this book it was right four days before my final exams in school and I was amazed at how I could finish a 766 paged book before I have even started studying for my exams. I had to read it by hiding it underneath my course books which was a tough job, considering even none of my course book then surpassed even 300 pages. The point is, this book like the other Potter series is so addictive that even when you are not

reading it, your mind is out there reasoning, drawing out

conclusions as to what things have happened and what might happen. But well what happens when you reread it and in my case...actually this would be the third time I have gone through the entire book once again and to say I have enjoyed like the first time would actually be misleading but to say I was not surprised at the twists and turns and completely glued to the book till the end would

actually be an understatement ;)

What makes this book different from the other Potter books is that first of all the characters here much more matured than they appeared in the earlier books which makes it a better read. This can be seen very well in the way they interpret the ministry's move, it would have been really hard to imagine the first or second year Harry and Hermoine's interpretations about certain events (like the ones related to Bode and Sturgis.) Well in case of Ron's, I would have to say, his opinions are still the same, but that instead of spoiling the read makes it kind of fun.

Other than that, even in a world full of fiction and magic this

book still manages to have the reader in an illusion of reality and logic by facing the issues of how to interfere at Hogwarts by introducing Umbridge as 'The High Inquisitor' meanwhile how the students are coping up with all the issues including the ones that are outside the castle i.e. whether to believe the Ministry or

Dumbledore/Harry and the issues inside the castle like their OWL exams and their illegal practical Defence Against Dark Arts Lessons from Harry Potter which they have decided to take right under the nose of Umbridge.

         But if the normal students at Hogwarts are in such distress than how much more of it would have been on Harry Potter's plate?

         When Harry arrives Hogwarts in his fifth year out of the many things he is gonna face the first thing of which he realize, is hardly any of them believes him about the fact that Voldemort has returned ,and they believe Harry to be some kind of attention-seeker freak, which at least he was a bit prepared to deal with then comes the first week of school with which he realises the amount of burden (homework) every teacher keep on heaping on them is never going to end, which of course is not a big deal, then he comes across Professor Umbridge,(an evil sickly sweet woman whom the ministry has sent to teach Defence Against Dark Arts at Hogwarts) and finds himself facing a week of detention with her for telling her the truth about You-Know-Who.

     Not only this, apart from making every effort to make Harry's life in Hogwarts hell, Umbridge also puts a life time ban of Quidditich on him. Not to forget all this time Harry keeps having dreams and visions of Voldemort and the Department of Mysteries and his scar keeps hurting, after a few visions, one of which has been particularly helpful in saving Mr. Weasley he has been asked to practice Occlumency with his least favourite teacher Professor Snape. And when he not dealing with all these Hagrid has asked him to give a

few English lessons to his little brother GRAWP who is a 16 feet tall giant. And like other other students, He has his OWL exams too by the end to worry about which he has to excel by any means because he wants to become to become an Auror and also because Professor McGonagall has said to him very confidently in front of a very raging Umbridge that 

“I will assist you to become an Auror if it is the last thing I

do! If I have to coach you nightly, I will make sure you achieve the

required results!'

Which actually made him wondered later after his performance in exams that he should have chosen a more achievable goal :)

phew.....

Only Harry Potter can deal with all of these without cracking.

Level Of Humor:

All the credit for humor in this book is in the hands of Fred and George Weasley. In the times when Hogwarts was facing such difficult times, it was them who made the situations even with Umbridge in it hilarious at times. Fred and George were the only

one who could make Umbridge's newly reinforced laws on Hogwarts look funny. The outstanding fireworks and mayhem that they created for Umbridge before leaving Hogwarts was definitely some of their best works. And some of their lines are used as

quotes here:

Mrs. Weasley let out a shriek just like Hermione's.
"I don't believe it! Oh, Ron, how wonderful! A prefect! That's everyone in the family!"
"What are Fred and I, next-door neighbours?" said George indignantly, as his mother pushed him aside and flung her arms around her youngest son.

                                                     ______________ 

"Hello, Harry" said George, beaming at him. "We thought we heard your dulcet tones." 
"You don't want to bottle up your anger like that, Harry, let it all out," said Fred, also beaming. "There might be a couple of people fifty miles away who didn't hear you." 

                                              _________________

"Has Ron saved a goal yet?" asked Hermione. 
"Well, he can do it if he thinks no one is watching him," said Fred, rolling his eyes. "So all we have to do is ask the crowd to turn their backs and talk among themselves every time the Quaffle goes up on his end Saturday." 

                                                       _________________

"The thing about growing up with Fred and George is that you sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve."
    -- Ginny Weasley

                                      _________________

   Fred:"Give her hell, Peeves." 

The Mystery Of Prophecy:

Everything apart this book is more about the prophecy than about anything else, it has been focused on from the start, from the dreams about the closed door of the department of mystery to the final confession of Dumbledore where he tells Harry about it, the

whole story revolves about the prophecy, also what makes it more frightening is the fact that Voldemort's only plan in the book is to get to the prophecy, not to kill anyone,not even harry, just to get the prophecy, which really makes it kind of important. The whole 'Order of the Phoenix' has been made to stop voldemort from succeeding in his plans.

The prophecy says 

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies … and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not … and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives …”

And is therefore very clearly states why it would have been important :)

                                           The End :

              Then we come to the end of the book where we face the demise of Harry's God Father and my favorite character 'Sirius Black'. The character described in the book is much more audacious and handsome than the one in the movie and the one in the movie does not do justice to the real Sirius Black. I really wanted to read more of him and his demise was definitely shattering not to harry alone. Also one of the reasons why it comes as a shock is because he is the only one who is left as a family to Harry and then his death really seems unfair. I can't help feeling angry at Kreacher and also at Dumbledore who in the end mentions that Kreacher should have been treated with respect.

         

This post is dedicated to Padfoot also known as Sirius Black, Harry Potter's Godfather, one my favorite character in the Potter Series.