Why Do We Question?

          The title of my blog post may seem a bit ironic, but by reading the book Socrates Cafe, I set out to find an answer. Let me begin with some background info. The book is a non fiction narrative by Christopher Phillips. In it, he describes to us his quest for identity as well as knowledge. Phillips began his journey by questioning himself and whether or not he enjoyed the life that he was living at the time. Realizing that he did not, he began to ask himself what he would like to do with his life. After a series of questions and many moments of doubt, he quit his job and moved to Montclaire, New Jersey. There, he set up the first of his weekly philosophical meetups. He called it Socrates Cafe. People noticed and came, every week there would be a new question or topic. Phillips taught a method called Socratic Questioning-- which is a critical and analytical way of observing and asking questions in the hopes that they may become more specific and easier to answer. The questions he discussed were all different each time. Some were about friendship, others about the meaning of life (those he quickly simplified to "What is the meaning of my life?" and "How can I give my life the meaning that I want it to have?") He not only held these meeting in cafes, he would visit schools, prisons, and elderly homes. He would host philosophical discussions with people of all ages and  from all over the country. His mission was simple; he wanted to reawaken philosophy and share ideas and learn from the people that he met.

          One of his Socrates Cafe groups in San Fransisco discussed my inquiry, why do we question? Though they pondered it for a while, the children where able to come up with the best answer, "Because we wonder.", "Because we want to gain knowledge.", "Because we're curious.", "Because we've observed something we don't understand." (Phillips 195)  In other words, they believed that it was human nature to wonder and ask continuously. 

          But what about wondering too much? When does questioning become excessive? Though Christopher Phillips did not discuss this, it led me to asking if the amount of philosophical inquiry that Phillips was doing was 'too much.' Throughout the book, I began to notice that sometimes the questioning that Phillips was doing seemed unnecessary. Isn't it better not to know the answers to some questions? Shouldn't some knowledge be kept out of the reach of humanity? Some of his questioning became borderline obsessive. At a certain point I began to notice that he was asking questions that seemed to even possibly take away from the experience of living life. Isn't it beneficial to stay ignorant in relation to some topics? For example, it is healthy to question about the meaning of life, because one knows that there can be either no specific answer or a multitude of vague answers. However, questioning becomes obsessive, in my opinion, when one begins to ask about human excellence or begin to compulsively seek out a meaning to assign to their life. Many in the book begin to obsess over how they may achieve that excellence or provide their life with a more desirable meaning without realizing that this may actually be unhealthy or that it may harm them. They may end up seeking a superficial perfection. Once they arrive at it they may begin to understand that the 'perfect' meaning to life is actually just a popular misconception. Or worse, if they do not arrive at the 'perfect' meaning they may become consumed with searching for it and end up being disapointed or waste their life on something so meaningless. To summarize, sometimes it is better to live the life you are living now instead of obsessively searching for a meaning to apply to it.

         My group and I came to the conclusion that questioning, and some questions, are healthy to the individual, to a certain point, after which it becomes excessive and questions begin to hurt the individual.  

Poetry Response:

        In the quickly evolving and developing world today, some things never change. Generations may come and go, times may change, fashions, ideas, technology, but one thing stays constant: the way humans communicate and interact with other people and the outside world. Some may be excited to go out and learn new things, while others may be shy or even frightened of the outside world. The poem Life Doesn't Frighten Me by Maya Angelou is exactly about that. One prominent theme in the poem is that one shouldn't be afraid of the world or any mental fears that they may have. The poem teaches us to be brave by looking at the world from a more innocent perspective of a child.
         An example of a fear of physical things can be found in stanzas six and seven. The speaker says "Tough guys fight/alone at night/ life doesn't frighten me at all/ Panthers in the park/ strangers in the dark/ No, they don't frighten me at all." (Angelou 22-27) The things described in these stanzas do not seem childlike or lighthearted. In fact, they are examples of more adult issues. However, the speaker says that they aren't afraid of those things, letting the reader know that they aren't important or frightening enough as other things hinted at further along in the poem.
        An example of a fear that is more psychological is in the lines "That new classroom where/boys all pull my hair/ (kissy little girls/with their hair in curls)/ they don't frighten me at all." (Angelou 28-32) This represents the teasing, and perhaps even bullying, that exists in schools. The speaker states that they are not afraid of that and they are not afraid of being judged by other people.
        The final example of a fear that is mostly in the speaker's mind is "If I am afraid at all/ it's only in my dreams." (Angelou 35-36) This signifies that the speaker is only afraid of the things that he or she can not control. If they are in control of their life, then they have nothing to be frightened of.
        Maya Angelou shows the reader of the poem Life Doesn't Frighten Me that as long as you are in charge of your life there is nothing out there in the world that can really scare you. The greatest fear is loosing control of what is going on around you. This poem teaches its readers to be brave and not be frightened of insignificant things.

Reading Response:

          Jessica Daniel, a detective, has received a new case: a person has been murdered inside their own home, with all the windows and doors locked from the inside. As more bodies are found in the victim's own homes, Jessica learns to focus on her physical surrounding versus concentrating on how the killer got in and who they could be. This book, Locked In by Kerry Wilkinson, stresses the importance of being aware and paying attention to one's surroundings.

          The first example of how the book stresses the importance of paying attention to one's surrounding is on page 178 of the book, when a friend of a friend shows Jessica how easy it is to divert one's attention from the important details. When Jessica first meets this person what she notices most prominently about him is the fact that he is wearing two watches and odd shoes. But later he proves that the most important thing that she did not notice was how he preformed a seemingly impossible magic trick. He then gives her advice, " I do know that with anything that looks impossible, the obvious answer is almost certainly the correct one." What this means is that Jessica has been overthinking how the murderer got in while the answer is quite simple. She is missing all the obvious clues that are hidden in her surroundings.

          Another example of paying attention to one's surroundings is on page 220 when Jessica chooses to double check a persons background and accidentally finds another lead that unravels the whole murder case. Because Jessica was so thourough in checking the people in the background that were still somehow related to the murder, she found an important clue. If she had not paid attention to the minor details, she may not have solved the mystery. "Jessica felt there was something important still left to be said." By not backing down and being persistent on working on the minor details, she manages to find a large piece of the puzzle.

          The final example of the importance of paying attention is on page 278 when Jessica chooses to follow a lead on a hunch. Previously, Jessica talked to the families of the murdered people, she noticed that in two of the homes, there was a robbery, and in another, someone put glue on the locks. " One of (the kids) put glue in the front-door lock one night. We had to climb out a window." She double checks the lead and remembers the advice that she was given earlier. She realizes how easy it would be to enter and then lock the house from the outside after murdering the people if you have an extra set of keys. She finds the locksmith and consequentially finds the murderer.

          In conclusion, the detective novel, Locked In by Kerry Wilkinson, displays the importance of paying close attention to details by showing us how small things aid Jessica Daniel in solving the murder case.

Reading Response

Though the book Feed by M.T. Anderson is set in the future, it has many themes and social issues that we today can relate to. One of these social issues is humans' unhealthy reliance on technology. The humans in the book rely on technology for nearly everything, from day-night cycles to job interviews to their own survival. In the world of Feed, most people have a microchip inserted and hooked up with their brain. This microchip, called a Feed, controls nearly everything that surrounds the people. The people never stop to think about what would happen if the Feed no longer existed. When their technology breaks down or malfunctions, they die. Humans are too reliant on technology in their everyday life.

The first time this issue appears in the book is when the main character and his friends go to the moon and are attacked by a hacker/terrorist. When the terrorist hacks into their Feed, he causes them to malfunction and black out. The bodies of the humans could not deal with the hack because they depended on the Feed to send signals to the rest of the body. When the Feed broke, it was sending too many impulses that the body could not deal with. If their body was not so closely linked with the Feed, that would not have happened.
Another example of when people rely on technology appears in many descriptions of neighborhoods in the book. The wealthier people have their personal sun  and sky that they control. This artificial sun, in wealthy families, is located at about one per house. They can control this sun by using their Feed. The families that are poor, however, usually have one sun per block or per neighborhood. In poor neighborhoods, the artificial sky is always peeling off like wallpaper, and the suns don't seem as bright or they aren't the latest model. People don't have a real sun so they have to use machines in order to keep track of time, this can lead to issues if someone's sun is not in sync with all the other ones.
Finally, in the book, people who have the Feed are given more advantages than people who do not have one. At job interviews, people who have the Feed can communicate and talk about someone in private. One does not have the advantage of knowing what others are thinking and saying to their peers. And, in some instances, people without a Feed may not be given the same job as people with a Feed simply because they do not have the microchip embedded in their brain. It isn't fair if some people are given an advantage over others because they have a certain piece of technology. People have become too dependent on technology to bring them information and give them an advantage at life.

The problem that exists in the world of Feed, also exists in our world. Humans have become too dependent on technology in the modern world. Statistics show that the average human checks his or her phone at least 110 times a day! When the machines fail, the people panic. We are so used to things being done our way and technology always working that we never consider what would happen if all of those machines stopped working. What if, one day, it would happen just like in the book Feed and technology would fail just when we needed it most? To minimize the damage caused by technology if it fails, humanity needs to learn to do things on its own, like it did before computers.

The book Feed by M.T. Anderson displays some of the issues and shows us the after effects of relying on technology. The reliance that people have on technology is severe and addicting. If it isn't stopped, problems will occur in the future.

Reading Response: CTQ 1

There is a saying that "life isn't fair."  Some may have mixed feelings about this, but Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mun has made me think and realize what 'unfair' exactly means. Chinese Cinderella is a true story of a girl considered bad luck and blamed by her family for the death of her mother, who died while giving birth to her. All her life she was ignored by her father and hated by her siblings. However, once her father notices her when she brings in a medal from school. Jun-Ling soon learns that winning medals is the only way she can make her father recognize her. Her father  remarries and her new step-mother is a woman who despises all the children from her father's first marriage. She sends Jun-Ling to a boarding school far away, knowing that the part of the country that the boarding school is located in is about to be taken over by Communists. Fortunately, she is rescued by her step-mother's sister, who is actually a really nice and fair woman. Jun-Ling rejoins her family, only to be sent away to another boarding school. Eventually she enters an international writing contest and wins. She is able to persuade her father to send her to college.

This book has made me realize that in life, one has to fight his or her way up to success and happiness. Not a single person is born with the same advantages or disadvantages an it's much easier to roll down the mountain of success than it is to climb it. Only the determined and persistent people peak this mountain.

Reading Response:

Recently, I have finished a book called Feed by M.T. Anderson. Though this book is set in the future, it has many themes and social issues that we today can relate to. One of these social issues is humans' unhealthy reliance on technology. The humans in the book rely on technology for nearly everything, from day-night cycles to job interviews to their own survival. In the world of Feed, most people have a microchip inserted and hooked up with their brain. This microchip, called a Feed, controls nearly everything that surrounds the people. The people never stop to think about what would happen if the Feed no longer existed. This shows how reliant they are on the machine to work.

The first time this issue appears in the book is when the main character and his friends go to the moon and are attacked by a hacker/terrorist. When the terrorist hacks into their Feed, he causes them to malfunction and black out. The bodies of the humans could not deal with the hack because they depended on the Feed to send signals to the rest of the body. When the Feed broke, it was sending too many impulses that the body could not deal with. If their body was not so closely linked with the Feed, that would not have happened. Another example of when people rely on technology appears in many descriptions of neighborhoods in the book. The wealthier people have their personal sun  and sky that they control. This artificial sun, in wealthy families, is located at about one per house. They can control this sun by using their Feed. The families that are poor, however, usually have one sun per block or per neighborhood. In poor neighborhoods, the artificial sky is always peeling off like wallpaper, and the suns don't seem as bright or they aren't the latest model. People don't have a real sun so they have to use machines in order to keep track of time, this can lead to issues if someone's sun is not in sync with all the other ones. Finally, in the book, people who have the Feed are given more advantages than people who do not have one. At job interviews, people who have the Feed can communicate and talk about you in private. You do not have the advantage of knowing what they are thinking. And, in some instances, people without a Feed may not be given the same job as people with a Feed simply because they do not have the microchip embedded in their brain. It isn't fair if some people are given an advantage over others because they have a certain piece of technology. People have become too dependent on technology to bring them information and give them an advantage at life.

The problem that exists in the world of Feed, also exists in our world. Humans have become too dependent on technology in the modern world. Statistics show that the average human checks his or her phone at least 110 times a day! When the machines fail, the people panic. We are so used to things being done our way and technology always working that we never consider what would happen if all of those machines stopped working. What if, one day, it would happen just like in the book Feed and technology would fail just when we needed it most? To minimize the damage caused by technology if it fails, humanity needs to learn to do things on its own, like it did before computers.

The reliance that people have on technology is severe and addicting. If it isn't stopped, problems may occur. The book Feed by M.T. Anderson displays some of the issues and shows us the after effects of relying on technology.

 Argument Essay. Draft 2

All over the country, books have sparked arguments. The main question is should controversial books be banned from schools and libraries? Some parents say yes, while teens argue that they are educated and responsible enough to make their own decisions. Parents want to ban books because of content, however, this will prevent children from learning valuable lessons and may actually attract children to read this content. I believe that no book deserves to be banned, and that teens should be able to decide what they want to read.

Many parents believe that some books are too dark to be in children's libraries or at school. One prominent example of this opinion is described in the article "Darkness Too Visible" when the mother enters the bookstore. The parent says "nothing, not a thing, that that I could imagine giving my daughter. It was all vampires and suicide and self-mutilation, this dark, dark stuff" (Darkness Too Visible 1). This represents many parents' opinions. In fact, many parents have taken steps to prevent teens from reading these books. New books like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, loved books like Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, and more classical books like The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, are ending up on the list of "most frequently banned" books from the past 20 years (The Banned Books We Have Loved 2) . Some are taking actions so severe that these books are actually permanently banned in certain schools and states. I can see how some of these books may not belong in the school library. Fifty Shades of Gray by E.L. James, from what I have heard about it, seems to be a pornographic novel. I certainly don't want to read a book like that and wouldn't want my kids in the future to read that kind of literature either. Other books like Ender's Game don't have such vivid graphical details but many parents protest against the violence in the book. There is violence in that book, no one could deny that, after all, the book does have many scenes where children beat each other up in cruel, inhumane, ways. However, violence is the norm now for nearly all literature aimed at teenagers. Take The Hunger Games, which is a war trilogy. Twilight by Stephanie Meyer has some pretty violent description in vampires ripping off each others' heads as well as more details on topics concerning sex, reckless behavior, and suicide. Divergent by Veronica Roth, another popular book, includes the same topics and the violence in the book equals that of in The Hunger Games. Many teen books contain dark themes, and some may be inappropriate to keep in school libraries.

Banning controversial books such as Ender's Game may actually bring them unwanted attention. R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps says "It is a badge of honor to have people try to ban your books from schools and school libraries, only because it means your books have become popular and are being noticed" (The Banned Books We Have Loved 3). And Suzanne Collins notes that she has "never noticed any kind of sales decrease because of these censorship campaigns. Usually they prove to be good publicity" (The Banned Books We Have Loved 3). Ms. Stoddard, who works at a bookstore, "admits that creating a separate section [in libraries] may inadvertently lure the attention of younger children keen to seem older than they are" (Darkness Too Visible 5).  Some books don't gain that much publicity from being banned. Movies are also a kind of media. The movie Ender's Game, for example, did not gain any publicity from the critics' negative feedback. The responses on the movie did not affect sales of the book in a positive or negative way. This shows that some books may gain publicity from banning, censoring, or isolation while some books may not be affected at all.

What parents do not understand, is that these controversial books teach valuable lessons. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, for example, however grim it is in its use of violence and descriptions, teaches about the terrifying results of violent acts. After Ender fights with an older boy, the book depicts Ender crying "I didn't mean to hurt him!" (Card 212) There are many examples of this throughout the book, and all of them show how mentally scarred Ender is after each of these experience. Ender's Game shows teens that the effects of violence are never good and may even hurt you, if not physically, then mentally. If Ender's Game was banned from school libraries, teens would have no way of learning about violence because their parents are sheltering them from it and schools would be unable to provide it. It is better to educate our youth about controversial issues than hiding those issues away from their sight. It is better to be armed with knowledge about the outside world than go naively skipping around problems that we do not know how to respond or find a solution to. The lessons in some controversial books are crucial for teens to comprehend and are applicable to the world.

In conclusion, I believe that these books should not be censored from teens because they teach important life lessons. Teens should know what they are ready to read and what they would rather avoid. They are responsible enough to make these choices and do not need to be sheltered from books.

Works Cited:

Card, Orson Scott. Ender's Game. New York: Tor, 1991. Print.

Doll, Jen. "The Banned Books We Have Loved." The Atlantic Wire. N.p., 12 Apr. 2012. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.

Gurdon, Meghan Cox. "Darkness Too Visible." The Wall Street Journal. N.p., 4 June 2011. Web.

All over the country, books have sparked arguments. The main question is should controversial books be banned from schools and libraries? Some parents say yes, while teens argue that they are educated and responsible enough to make their own decisions. Parents want to ban books because of content, however, this will prevent children from learning valuable lessons and may actually attract children to read this content. I believe that no book deserves to be banned, and that teens should be able to decide what they want to read.

Many parents believe that some books are too dark to be in children's libraries or at school. One prominent example of this opinion is described in the article ' Darkness Too Visible" when the mother enters the bookstore. The parent says "nothing, not a thing, that that I could imagine giving my daughter. It was all vampires and suicide and self-mutilation, this dark, dark stuff." This represents many parents opinions. In fact, many parents have taken steps to prevent teens from reading these books. New books like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, loved books like Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, and more classical books like The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, are ending up on the list of "most frequently banned" books from the past 20 years, according to the article 'The Banned Books We Have Loved'. Some are taking actions so severe that these books are actually permanently banned in certain schools and states.

However, what parents don't understand is that banning these books may actually bring them unwanted attention. R.L. Stine, author of Goosebumps, is quoted in the article "The Banned Books We Have Loved", "It is a badge of honor to have people try to ban your books from schools and school libraries, only because because it means your books have become popular and are being noticed." And Suzanne Collins notes, in the same article, that she has "never noticed any kind of sales decrease because of these censorship campaigns. Usually they prove to be good publicity." And Ms. Stoddard from the article "Darkness Too Visible", "admits that creating a separate section [in libraries] may inadvertently lure the attention of younger children keen to seem older than they are" This shows that banning, censoring, or creating a separate section for controversial books actually bring more attention to them.

What parents do not understand, is that these controversial books teach valuable lessons. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card , for example, however grim it is in its use of violence and graphic descriptions, teaches about the terrifying results of violent acts. On page 212, after Ender fights with an older boy, the book depicts Ender crying "I didn't mean to hurt him!" There are many examples of this throughout the book, and all of them show how mentally scarred Ender is after each of these experience. Ender's Game shows teens that the effects of violence are never good and may even hurt you, if not physically, then mentally. Animal Farm by George Orwell teaches teens about the dangers of being naive. The book describes a group of animals that are being manipulated by their 'government'. On page 61 the animals take another look at one of the commandments written by their government, " Curiously enough, Clover had not remembered that the Fourth Commandment mentioned sheets." This teaches teens to be aware of manipulation by showing how easy it was for the pigs to change the law under the observation of everyone else. The lessons in these books are crucial for teens to learn and are applicable to the world.

In conclusion, I believe that these books should not be censored from teens because they teach important life lessons. Teens should know what they are ready to read and what they would rather avoid. They are responsible enough to make these choices and do not need to be sheltered from books.

Reading Response Essay: Theme

A theme that kept coming up in the book Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, is games versus reality. In this sci-fi book, the game is the reality and the reality is a game. These games, throughout the book, show us what type of person Ender is and how he has changed.

The first game that Ender ever plays, also ironically the only game he looses, is the game Bugger v.s. Astronauts. Ender plays this game with his sadistic and abusive brother, Peter. Ender's world is portrayed like our world, only with a sci-fi twist. Earth has already survived through the first and second invasion of the Buggers, aliens that are named after their ant-like appearance. In Ender's world, because of over population, a family can have no more than 2 children. Ender is a Third. Another thing about Ender's world is that children need to wear a machine called the monitor which observes the child's actions. The monitor is issued by the government and is used to figure out which children will be sent to battle school to fight the aliens. Ender also still has his monitor, which makes Peter hate him because Peter's was taken out earlier. In the game between Peter and Ender, Peter makes Ender be the bugger and wear a mask in which he cannot see in, then Peter and Ender fight, but Peter always wins. This is Peter's way of proving to himself that he is better and stronger. But when Ender is taken into Battle School, Peter's punching bag and power are also taken away, leaving Peter to resent Ender even more.

The second game that we are introduced to is the Battle School game.This is not just a game, it is everything in Battle School. The game sorts out the finest commanders which then proceed to go to command or pre-command school. It is at this point in his life that Ender comes out to be a fantastical commander. The school puts him to a test and gives Ender, the youngest commander in the school, an untrained army of kids that are completely new to battle school. But Ender trains his army and soon they are better than any of the more experienced armies in battle school. The pressure builds and soon Ender's army is going against 2 armies a day, when battles are usually scheduled at one battle every two weeks. Eventually Ender faces 2 armies at once, as well as unfare advantages that help his opponents. But Ender wins and then realizes how much he doesn't care about succeeding in battle school. But as soon as he wins that final game, he is taken into command school.

Yet another game is played in command school. This time, instead of participating in the battle itself, Ender plays the game on a screen and control set. This game is all about manuevering ships like the sqaudrons that Ender used to break his army into. During this time period Ender is coached by Mazer Rackham, the fleet commander that won the previous invasion. From Mazer he learns everything he needs to defeat the buggers. However, without knowing it, Ender is actually commanding the real fleets of the Earth's army instead of tiny computer generated fleets. And unknowingly, Ender wins the war, thinking that it was just a game.

These games, throughout the book, represent how Ender has changed. In the beginning Ender was a trusting, inexperienced little boy, but by the end of the book he is cunning enough to defeat the Buggers and save humanity.

Reading Response: Character

Recently, I have finished a book called The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. The main character of the book, Todd Hewitt, goes through a clear change throughout the book. In the beginning Todd doesn't appreciate what he has, while towards the end of the book, he is thankful for what he has and wishes to have back what he didn't appreciate. At the start of the book, Todd comes across as a very annoying and ungrateful boy. He hates that he still isn't a man, hates that he's the youngest in his town, hates that he got a dog for his previous birthday, and hates one of his 'parents', Cillian, that he always ends up arguing with. He constantly voices his opinion about these things, but in reality doesn't know how lucky he is to have a home and two people who care about him. Unfortunately, he doesn't realize this until much later. Todd, who lives in an isolated town populated only by men, sheep, and his dog, believes that everything is perfectly normal, and that the women had died because of a germ on their planet. In reality, the germ on the planet had done nothing but let men hear each others thoughts and speak with them. But when Todd comes across a 'quiet spot' in the swamp near his home, the whole town turns on him, why? Todd himself doesn't even know. Now running from a whole army of men, Todd realizes their are a lot of things to be thankful for, starting with his dog and Cillian.Todd realizes that his 'stupid ruddy dog' is actually quite useful, for one as protection, and also as a handy scent-sniffing guide. Cillian, who he argued with a lot, ends up sacrificing himself to buy Todd time to escape, as well as providing Todd with a plan of escape. Towards the end of the book, when Todd has lost all, he understands how he would give anything to have his old life back. This is a clear example of a character change in Todd, from beginning to end of the book.