Rant #8

Rant had been carrying the rabies virus with him the whole time he was in the city.  Also, Rant found a way to continue his odd habit of getting bit purposely by animals to find a rush.  Working in pest control, he encountered many poisonous animals that could give him the rush he desired.  This led to his pre-existing rabies to evolve into a new strain that couldn't be cured.

"Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D. (Epidemiologist): The only two untreatable rabies-type viruses were the African strains Mokola and Duvenhage, prior to the identification of the Rant serotype."

Finally the circle story shown at the beginning is starting to make sense.  Rant had unintentionally created a super strain of rabies that oddly enough became popular amongst teens.  The early symptoms of rabies were that of a stereotypical rebellious teenager; anger, rebellion, hyperactivity, and hypersensitivity.

"Toni Wiedlin: Without exception, every kid swears she or he was infected by Rant Casey or Echo Lawrence.  Everyone wants to feel special-attain a special status among their peers"

This shows how rabies had become popular.  With this new information i as the reader was left to make the choice whether Rant Casey was a odd genius, or a villain.  Personally, i like the odd genius.  Some of the ideas that Rant thinks of are just plain brilliant, like the easter egg stink bombs.

ps: west, all my quotes are spread out between Rant #8 -Rant #1

Rant #7

While playing his new found game, Rant gets into some trouble that he puts himself in.  Rant is at a gas station with his team and they are filling up on snacks.  He secretly sneaks out and poors gasoline on the car then drives off without his team.  Breaking though barricades Rant catches the attention of the police and in the heat of driving a spark lands on the car and it bursts into flames, killing Rant.  A man gives a interesting note on the affect of Rants death.

"Field Notes of Green Taylor Simms: Not to be overly moralistic, but sometimes the death of one person can justify the death of an entire culture."

In this case the culture is the underground driving game called "party crashing".  This lesson is important because it is just like the saying "bite the head off the snake...".  With the death of Rant all his fellow city friends stop the possibly dangerous game, potentially saving their life.  But it doesn't only apply to games.  The same result can be seen when looking at Hitler (learned about him today in A.P world so fresh in my mind).  He was the leader of the entire anti-jewish movements and also against others as well.  This statement is a very important/true analysis to the book and life.

Whoopie for School

I guess i lied in my last post that we were done with All The Pretty Horses.  We had a passage analysis today that was very easy.  I just connected the theme of "coming of age" with other passages and it was all good!  i am worried about my short story though.  My idea for the story keeps switching everyday and i'm going to have to write it all tonight :(  But at least I will have the weekend to touch up the story.  I am really wondering what the next book we are going to read is because the Odyssey was great, All The Pretty Horses sucked, so the next book is open.

Rant #6

As i continued to read Rant, the book got very different.  Rant moves to the city with only a suitcase full of old coins he found.  As he wanders the city, a girl named Echo Lawrence picks him up in a car and he is suddenly thrown into a underground game.  The goal of the game is to bump other cars in the bumper.  During his time playing the game with Echo, he begins to like her.  In effort to woe her, he decides to buy her a car by cashing in his old coins.

"Todd Rutz (Coin Dealer): The deal ended up, i paid the kid fifteen thousand out of petty cash. . . Fifteen grand for the 1933 gold twenty, the 1933 gold ten, and the 1879 four-dollar piece. . . My point being, just that 1933 gold Saint Gaudens Double Eagle, that's an eight-million-dollar coin."

This passage from the book shows how people cannot be trusted, and that the nature of man is evil.  I believe this is one of the thematic ideas that Chuck was looking for when he wrote the book because it also reoccurs in the book many times.  Like when Echo's so called best friend tries to scare Rant away from her.  

Class Time In Minnesota

Class has been interesting this week.  I fell behind on my reading for All The Pretty Horses, so i was a little clueless during the discussions.  After just sucking it up and catching up in the book i had quite a few questions that i'm sure had already been asked while I was behind.  The end of the book really threw me off as well, because i didn't understand the whole hostage situation with John Grady. But then we did the over view today and i was delighted because all of my questions were answered!  The test was a breeze and we are finally done with the book.  In my view, the book was a very slow read.  It didn't very at all from the textbook cowboy idea and was not entertaining to read.  But o well, at least it's behind us now!

Rant #5

Rant has now turned down a odd path.  He is getting a "rush" from animal bites.  He purposely sticks his arms and legs into holes and cracks to hopefully get bitten by a animal.  With many many bites, he started to become immune to a few of the diseases that animals carry while still hosting the disease in his body.  An example in the book talks of how he has rabies for over two years, but never feels any other the symptoms because he is immune so he continues to spread the disease to others.

"Phoebe Truffeau, Ph.D.: What 'Typhoid Mary' Mallon was to typhoid, what Gaetan Dugas was to AIDS, and Liu Jian- lun was to SARS, Buster (Rant) Casey would become for rabies."

The quote lists the who's who of "superspreaders" and then puts Rant in the list as well.  I think this is a serious foreshadowing of what's to come.  In the beginning the book talks of Rant spreading a disease killing millions.  I think this spreading of rabies is suppose to be a warning that Rant is dangerous and is going to kill many people.

Class Time

Today we officially started to work on our short stories.  To be honest, I'm a little worried.  First of all, my week is jam packed full of sports and music so i don't have time to write the story.  Secondly, i am a weak writer.  Thirdly, i can't seem to think of a good enough story.  Every idea that i think of just plain sucks.  I had one or two good ideas, but when i tried to apply the hero quest pattern to them they just didn't work.  I know that only the rough draft is due on Friday, but i am worried that if i don't get a good start now on this paper my grade is really going to suffer for it.

Rant #4

As i continue further into Rant by Chuck Palahniuk, i can see more and more character development of Rant Casey.  In the beginning three men were talking about discovering how such a monster was created.  Now i am beginning to understand how they could think Rant was a monster.  At first, his pranks and schemes seemed harmless, but now as time continues they become worse and worse.  The towns people talk of how one halloween, Rant had a hunted house.  His blind folded the kids and had them stick there hands into macaroni and said "this is brains".

"Glenda Hendersen (Childhood Neighbor): For God's sake.  All the kids, just their fingers, one hand or both, some their arms and their costumes, little pirates and faries and hobos, but they're all smeared with blood..."

"Sheriff Bacon Carlyle: Worse than the worse-ever police crime photo."

These quotes show A, how Rant has a odd and cruel sense of humor, and B, that it created and extremely unwanted inconvenience in the small town of Middleton.  The book is beginning to show Rant terrorizing people, and maybe this is foreshadowing for something bigger.

  This is the first time that Rant has angered the whole town, and it shows how Rant is evolving to be extremely different.

Class Time

In class we are continuing to read All The Pretty Horses.  I have mixed feelings about this book.  The don't like the writing style of McCarthy, but the plot is interesting.  Overall, i find the book hard to read.  I did like the how McCarthy has Rawlins and Cole separate.  The character of Rawlins was very aggravating and i was glade to see him go.  I hope John Grady Cole cleans things up with Don Hector at the ranch and is able to marry Alejandra.  I look forward to reading more.

Rant #3

Rant is now a young teenager, and the all of his old friends are telling of his strange childhood.  Some of the actions that rant did as a child are extremely run to read.  For example, his dad mows the lawn once a week.  After his father was being extremely mean, Rant decided to get pay back.  He took some rotten hard boiled eggs and hid them in the grass.  Then when his dad mowed the lawn, voila instant stink bombs.  

"Every week, he'd sneak out two or three eggs and stick them in the deepest part of the grass, just before his dad would mow the lawn... Every time his dad ran over on with the power mower, you'd have exploded stink-everywhere."

This action shows how mischievous Rant is, and the genius that he is capable of preforming.  His childhood seems to be painting the picture of a odd, and certainly interesting adulthood which i am looking forward to read.

Class work!

We started to read All My Pretty Horses this week and so far it has been an interesting read.  At first i didn't really like the book because i was having trouble understanding the writing, but then i looked the book up on spark notes and read a summery of pages 1-30 and it really helped.  I put both what i read from the book and spark notes together and then i understood the chapter.  I am still wondering about the Blevins kid though.  All we know is that he is a sharpshooter, has an extremely nice horse, and may possibly be an outlaw.  As for Lacy, I don't like him.  He is way to short tempered and has a passionate hate for Blevins that i have yet to understand. 

Rant #2

The book Rant by Chuck Palahniuk is extremely interesting.  It started out with a insight to how Rant Casey had affected the world.  Then it cut to four men trying to figure out how and why Rant had affected the world.  Basically it's a circle story! 

"Echo Lawrence: We broke curfew and the government quarantine, and we drove across these stretches of nothing. . ."

"Shot Dunyun: I guess we drove to Middleton to see all the places Rant had talked about and meet what he called 'his people.'"

 This is important because it shows how the book is creating a circle story.  As I continue to read it switches to all people's interviews into one big multi biased story.  As an oral biography, it cool to read the bias the one person has on history and how it completely changes historical evidence.  Right now i just finished reading about chuck's early childhood and how he seams to have only one friend, but i have no idea where the book is going to go.  

Class Work

I have really enjoyed the Odyssey.  It is the first actually language arts book in class that i have enjoyed since "Oh the Places You Will Go" by Dr. Seuss.   The whole battle with the cyclops and the sirens voices was amazing to read about.  I wish that we could read more books that have focus on greek mythology because i really like them.  Writing the essay on the other part is not so fun.  I struggle with writing, even when i like the book.  I guess i'm just going to have to put in a few more hours of work... sigh

Rant

I am reading a new book called Rant.  So far the story hasn't revealed itself, but my guess is that it's in the future because it talks about "the outbreak" of SARS.  This book is interesting to read because it's written as a oral biography.  

"Mary Cane Harvey (Teacher): If i wasn't still teaching, Lord, the tales I could tell you about Buster (Rant) Casey. An exceptional young man."

"Sheriff Bacon Carlyle: Don't forget how some folks, including the FBI, was saying his Grandma Esther was Rant's Victim Number One."

"Mary Cane Harvey: Buster (Rant) never got higher than a C in any language-arts course, but there was a sense that Buster could build you the entire world out of just sticks and pebbles and the few words he'd learned."

These two different give two very different outlooks on Rant.  The teacher talks about his smarts and the sheriff talks about how people believe Rant killed his Grandma.  This is important to the book because the author lets the reader choose which Rant s/he likes, the killer or the genius.  

Complicated Complications

The book Complications is a great read.  I find that the short stories provide the same about of information and depth as classic writing, but twice as interesting to read!  Atul talks about the highly debated topic of "Doctor vs. Patients Choice", touching on one of the three themes (uncertainty).  His opinion is as a surgeon is Doctor, but when he was a patient he found himself on the other side.  In the end he is left uncertain in the topic.  Another theme that Gawande writes about is Mystery in surgery.  A story that really caught my attention is about a man who had gastric bypass surgery, but failed to lose weight and actually gained weight.  Stories like this still leave mystery in medicine, but one thing is for sure... surgery is an "Imperfect Science".

Much about Nothin

I really am loving shakespeare!  I enjoy reading his work and overall his comedy is making Language Arts a lot more fun.  I'm just stumped at how he thought of all of the events twisted together in Much Ado About Nothing.  Every single line, action and character tie together into multiple conflicts and results that are exhilarating to read :)

Outside Reading

Complications it a great read!  I love how Atul Gawande puts the book together.  Instead of one long look and explanation on surgery, he tells little stories of surgical errors or accomplishment to display his point.  It makes the book very easy to read and understand, while giving a deep and complicated point.  In one part of the book, he is writing about the theme that there are always uncertainties in surgery, and tells a amazing story:  

The women came in with a red leg, swollen and irritated.  They narrowed down the cause to one of two things, a normal bacteria, and a flesh eating bacteria (2% chance).  Just to make sure they cut open her leg, and found that the muscle was grey and mushy from being attacked by bacteria.

This shows how even the simplest looking injury/infection can prove to be extremely dangerous. 

Much Ado About Nothing

I really like the book Much Ado About Nothing.  Before i have only red the tragedies and haven't had the opportunity to read a comedy.  As we press further into the book, the more i get attached to it.  The plot work and character development are fantastic and i can't wait for the ending!