National Geographic: The World's Largest Trees

     I read an article in National Geographic magazine called "The World's Largest Trees". It was about scientists discovering more about the old sequoia trees. The biggest one they've found is one that they named "The President" 90 years ago, and we still call it that today. It has a dead spire on its top that was struck by lightning, and a canopy that holds nearly 2 billion leaves. It has 4 large branches, each the size of a tree themselves. Though sequoias are not the largest trees in height, they make up for it in trunk width. They are also extremely old. The reason that it has survived for so long is it has simply outlived its competitors. The scientists are trying to get me to know that this tree has been studied for an extremely long time, and they have learned a lot about it.
     The scientists have done a lot of work to learn about these trees, and this is because they want to conserve them. They are telling us about this tree because they want us to become interested in things about the tree. The scientists want us to feel interested in the tree, so that no one will try to get rid of it. If people understand the tree, they will not look to use the wood for fuel or furnishings. At least that's what National Geographic wants people to feel.
     I believe that National Geographic has the right idea on this topic, but I think they could make the idea a bit more blatant. They basically just give information about the tree. I only noticed the idea because of the loaded words spruced throughout the article, but for someone who hasn't learned about that sort of thing, it might be hard to notice.

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert

I have recently been reading "Dune Messiah" by Frank Herbert. it is the second out of six books in the series "Dune". Paul Atreides, the main character in the book, has aged significantly since the previous book, but the book does not give a specific age. His sister, Alia of the Knife, however, is 16. As an embryo in her mother's womb, she was given the memories of all of the former Reverend Mothers, along with her mother's memories up to that point. A Reverend Mother is a teacher and a High Priestess of the Bene Gesserit (Mainly girls, because Paul is the only boy Bene Gesserit that has ever existed). Bene Gesserits are people trained from birth to have the ability to persuade people to do what they want among other things. There are many conflicts in this story, some external but many internal. External problems include the schemes of the Princess Irulan, daughter of the previous Emperor (before Paul took over) along with the (former) Emperor's old Truth-sayer (a Reverend Mother who can hear when the truth is said), a Guildmember (basically the transportation in the Dune universe) named Edric, and the Tleilaxu Face Dancers (Bene Gesserit trained to shape their faces any way they please, mimicking other peoples faces). Some internal problems are the fact that Paul's prescience is waning, and the only way he can see into the future is using massive amounts of a drug called melange, and Alia being attracted to the ghola (a servant made from dead flesh by the Tleilaxa) made from Duncan Idaho's flesh. Duncan Idaho was a friend and mentor of Paul's who died in the battle against the former Emperor's army.

Muad'Dib by Frank Herbert

I recently read the third book of the "Dune" series by Frank Herbert. The main character, Paul, has acquired prescient powers that he could never imagine he would have. The Baron of the Harkonnens has allied with the Emperor to overcome Arrakis by force and kill off the Atreides bloodline for good. Paul wins and becomes the Emperor. This reminds me of justice in the real world in that the Emperor and the Baron are bad people, who take advantage of the less fortunate unfairly to gain power, and Paul, who is righteous and helps who deserves it, wins the battle and earns justice for the people.

Dune

I've recently been reading the book "Dune" by Frank Herbert. It is a science fiction book made in 1965. Frank Herbert basically made an entire world (more accurately, a whole universe) with its own economy, ecology, landscape, and religion, among other things. The main character in this book is Paul, a 15 year old Bene Gesserit who is the only male Bene Gesserit. Their are many legends about a male Bene Gesserit that the Missionaria Protectiva (missionaries of the Bene Gesserit) spread throughout many worlds, and it ended up intertwining with the religions of the people in these different planets. Paul is the son of the Duke Leto Atreides, Duke of Caladan. When they move to Arrakis, the Reverend Mother (pretty much the teachers of the Bene Gesserit) has visions of the Duke Leto getting killed, but says Paul and his mother, Jessica, (a Bene Gesserit) can be saved. The reason they are moving to Arrakis is because the Harkonnens, a rivaling Great House, has had it taken away from them by the Emperor. Little do the Atreides know, the Emperor is working with the Harkonnens, sending in Sardaukans (prisoners turned soldier) and dressing them in Harkonnen armor to help the Harkonnens kill the Duke and the Great House Atreides. Dr. Yueh, the doctor of the Atreides House, betrays them and takes Duke Leto to the Harkonnens to interrogate, but he is also a good person, so he saves Paul and Jessica and tells the Duke Leto how to kill the Baron. The Duke Leto gets a poisoned tooth that he bites down on and kills himself and Piter, the Baron's Mentat (a form of assassin), with the Baron just barely surviving.

Arrakis is a planet that severely lacks water. The Fremen (warriors of the deserts of Arrakis) are used to it, it being the only thing that they have lived with. They have technology, such as the stillsuit, which allows them to only lose a thimbleful of water a day. I think that this is one of the hugest conflicts in the story. The Fremen are trying to make the world of Arrakis livable, but they say that it will take many many years and they will not see the outcome in their lifetime. I think that this is the best way to handle this problem, although they have to keep it a secret, bribing the Guild (basically a spaceship company) to not set up satellites to view them. Though they will not see the sands of Arrakis boasting water, their great-grandchildren might. 

"Time For The Stars" by Robert A. Heinlein

I recently finished the book "Time For The Stars" by Robert A. Heinlein. This author writes a lot of science fiction books. This book is about 2 teenage twins, Tom and Pat. The book follows Tom as the narrator, and it is first person limited. Tom and Pat sign up for this program in the LRF (Long-Range Foundation), a non-profit company devoted to ideas that are worthless at the time that become practical in the future and largely benefit humanity. LRF has built 12 starships meant for exploration to find planets for humans to emigrate to, due to the fact that the Earth is severely over-populated at this point. In fact, Tom and Pat live in a family of 7 who could potentially emigrate for free, but due to their father's stubborn attitude, stay on Earth in a small house where the twins have to sleep on the couch because there aren't enough beds. Anyway, Tom and Pat have this way of speaking that no one else can hear that they call "prison yard whispering". What they had believed was simply a special way of talking turned out to be telepathic communication between the two. In this age, some twins are able to do this. It is considered normal for twins to be able to do this, at least in the scientific community. The not-so-normal ones are known as mind-readers. They can telepathically communicate with anyone, which is a very rare thing in this book. The point of the program that they join, called Genetics Research, is to send one of them out and keep one on Earth, allowing instantaneous communication between the ship and Earth. The major problem that they face is this: Who will go? Due to relativistic travel, the twin who goes up into space will not age much at all, while the one on Earth, known to the people in the ships as being "Earth-side", will age normally. In the case of the two twins by the end of the book, Tom has aged about 3 years, while Pat has aged about 60 or so. They are like strangers. The thing that I have noticed about Heinlein books is that they not only tackle scientific advances and scientific wonders of the future, but they also tackle problems in modern day society, whether social, scientific, or otherwise. One other thing that I have noticed about Heinlein books, in particular this one and "Starship Troopers", is that they have an element of telepathy or mind-reading in them; I believe that this adds a sense of magic, even in this strange, scientific land from far in the future.

Blindness by Jose Saramago

I've recently been reading a book called "Blindness" by Jose Saramago. It is about an epidemic of this disease that is known as the white evil, spreading from one person to many others. The government tries to stop this by putting them into quarantine, and from there it follows an eye doctor and his wife into a mental ward in quarantine. The doctor went blind after examining the first person afflicted by the disease, and his wife pretended to go blind so she could stay with her husband rather than have to separate from him. For some strange reason, the wife has not gone blind yet, even after spending at least a few weeks there (The narrator never gives any mention of how much time they have been in the ward, so this is just my guess based on how well acquainted everyone is with the inside of the ward, even blind). The doctor's wife has told no one but her husband that she is not blind yet, because not only does she not want to be at the beck and call of everyone, but she does not want people to think badly about her for lying about it for so wrong. But this does not mean that she does no work. In fact, she more or less leads all of the work done in the ward, to some extent.
Something a bit strange about this book is that there are no quotation marks throughout the entire book (when people talk, he adds commas and capitalizes the first letter to show that a new person is talking. It can get a bit confusing at times). There are many metaphors in this book, and he never fully explains the disease, because no one fully understands it. In some ways, the narrator is omnipotent, but in other ways, he is not. He can tell the thoughts of the people in the ward, but he is not able to explain anything that no one in the ward knows.
The nice thing about this book is not only does it show the big picture of the ward and the disease and everything related to it, but it also connects many people in the ward. The first blind man had his car stolen when he turned blind. The man who stole his car later became blind as well. Many patients of the doctors became blind as well, due to the disease spreading from the doctor before he went blind.
Though I have not finished this book yet, I can already say that it is a very good book, with a lot of not only specific but also general information to help me understand the plot.

The Time Machine by H.G. Wells

     I recently read the book "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells. The narrator is a man named Mr. Hillyer, a guest to The Time Traveller. We do not follow Mr. Hillyer very much in the story, however, as the bulk of the story is a narration of the Time Traveller's travels into the future. The story is set in the Time Traveller's house in Richmond, a London suburb. Seeing as the book was written in 1895, the year of the narration is 1895, not including the time spent in the Time Traveller's adventures, set in the year 802,701.
     In this new age, he meets an evolution of humans known as the Eloi, a golden skinned race descending from humans, frolicking through meadows without a care in the world, never doing any work, while underground, a race known as the Morlocks, an apelike descendant of humans, does all the work. This set up is meant to symbolize the upper class and the working class in the (then) modern day.
     There are many external and internal conflicts. The main external conflict in this book is protecting the Eloi, helpless and defenseless, from the Morlock, aiming to kill the Eloi in the nighttime (when they can go outside without fear of their sensitive eyes being blinded due to the sun) for years of slavery. Internal conflicts in this book are about the relationships that he forms with one of the Elois there, whom he names Weena. When she is killed by the Morlock, his inner struggles turn towards disgust to the Morlocks. After spending so much time with the Elois, who are disgusted with the Morlocks, their behaviors began to rub off on him.
     This story symbolizes life in this world. The rich breeze by, while the working class struggle to stay in one job and make enough money to support their families.

"Am I Blue?" By Bruce Coville

     I read the short story "Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville recently. In this short story, a boy named Vince is continually getting bullied by a boy named Butch because Butch has decided that Vince is gay. Vince meets a man, Melvin, who says that he is Vince's fairy godfather and that he gets three wishes. When he talks with Melvin, he learns that Melvin was killed by gaybashers in an alleyway. This makes me think about how there are a bunch of stories of memorials for people killed in hate crimes against gays and many other things, such as being black or latino.
     In the story, Melvin tells him about one of the Three Great Gay Fantasies, which is that every one who is even partially gay or deciding turns a shade of blue that everyone can see. Vince uses one of his wishes to wish for this, for 24 hours, coast-to-coast.
     When people start to realize that being blue means being gay, reactions were, expectedly, mixed. Vince asks Melvin to turn Butch blue, but Melvin comes back and says that Butch is already blue. This sheds some light on Butch's reasons for beating up Vince. He was realizing that he was gay, so to prove that he wasn't and that he hated them, he beat up a guy that he thought could be gay.
     Bruce Coville blends realism and fantasy perfectly in this story, throwing real issues into a fictitious, and often humorous, setting. He puts a light air on a serious issue.
     The moral of "Am I Blue?" is that you shouldn't have to hide your sexuality from anyone, no matter if gay, straight, or otherwise, and that whether you like it or not, everyone is different in some way or another.. Everyone knows someone that's gay, whether you know so or not.

Drummer Boy of Shiloh by Ray Bradbury

     In "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh", a short story I read recently by Ray Bradbury, a boy named Joby is worried about how unimportant he, the drummer boy, is to the war. He is worried about dying because of his lack of protection. Ray Bradbury shows this in this excerpt: "'Me,' thought the boy, 'I got only a drum, two sticks to beat it, and no shield.'"
     When the General approaches him and talks to him, it makes me think about how no one wanted this war to start in the first place, and no one was prepared for it, either. The General tells Joby that he is very important to this war because he is the one who makes the army fight with everything they have. This makes me think that the General is a very caring person, and so that's why he came over to Joby in the first place. I feel like the General  is the mentor of this story, but rather than teaching Joby how to fight, he teaches him how to lead. The General and Joby have a good relationship in this story because the General is sort of like Joby's father figure when Joby is lost and afraid. If I was lost and afraid in a strange place, I would like someone to guide me along and comfort me. Sometimes, people are unprepared for things they have to be prepared for, and all they can do is hop for the best and prepare for the worst.

Tangled

Tangled, by Carolyn Mackler, is a book about four teenagers, Skye, Dakota, Jena, and Owen, who all go to an island called Paradise, for different reasons, but eventually their lives intertwine in more ways than one. It is a very good book with great description. In some scenes in this book, I felt as if I were really there. It also adds some humor, and shows multiple perspectives for each scene. All four of the teenagers have a section of the book devoted to their perspective. The ironic thing about this book is that everyone's jealous of one other person who is a main character in the book. I would recommend this book to people around my age.