April Blog Post

So it looks like ive skipped a few months. I probably ran out of things to say or waited too long and decided it was too late to get away with posting something. But maybe I make up for that somehow because I write a lot. So I dont know if is the last blog of the year but I think weve read all the books we're ever going to so from what we've read so far I have to say ive noticed an overwhelming trend; overly depressing novels. So in the Power of one, everyone important to peekay dies, everyone dies in Hamlet, everyone dies in Wuthering heights. Okonkwo, Dorian and Edna kill themselves. The characters in the Tell Tale Heart and the Yellow Wall Paper are mentally insane, notice a trend here. I suppose this kind of theme makes for a good interesting story and all but its all been pretty heavy stuff. And I cant say this situation is too different from real life either. All the big news industries have figured it out already a long time ago, everyone wants to know whats going wrong with the world. Every once in a while they throw in a somewhat nice story but really the news is mostly about whats going wrong with politics, whats going wrong with other countries, whats going wrong because of "global warming" and I parenthesize global warming because people still haven't made up their mind about that from what it sounds like. Everything is going wrong and someone thought it was a good idea to put it all in thirty minute blocks, advertised by strait faced reporters with snazzy outfits. My point is more like a question, why are these novels put on the list as some of the greatest in the history of literature. Everyone loves Wuthering Heights but I thought it was a pretty miserable story and all. I suppose it must be considered to be so great because it can get a response like that from the reader, but I think they're could have been some "lighter" novels thrown into the mix. They say, "if it bleeds it leads" bad news catches peoples attention. Stories of pain and suffering are things that people relate to and it brings out sympathy. So people are drawn to sad stories, its a fact of life. I always thought it would be a good idea to have a news station or paper or something just for good stories. Just simple random things people write in about that happened to them, but thats really off topic. So despite all that I really did enjoy the selection of books for the most part. The movie version of Wuthering Heights seriously made me cry though. My favorite books were probably the Fountainhead and the Power of One, I just thought they had the best stories and the best characters. Everything that we read had really great stories though even though they were still slightly on the depressing side, but you really end up feeling for the characters and that what makes the stories masterpieces in my opinion.