Blog #3 Quarter 2

In the next chapter of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell all of the magicians of The Society of York gather in the town cathedral to see Mr. Norrell and his display of magic. However Mr. Norrell doesn't show, Childermass does and Mr. Segundas doesn't remember him at all (therefore proving my theory that Mr. Norrell must have done some sort of magic on him because you can't just forget a person). Childermass tells them that Mr. Norrell shall do the magic at home and they shall watch the results. Some a loud voice begins booming out the story of a murder and they look around and find it to be the voice of a statue. Then all the other statues begin talking and moving around and half an hour later they stop. So the magicians of York can no longer call themselves magicians (except for Mr. Segundas) and The Society of York is forced to disband. Lastly, at the end of the chapter Mr. Segundas finds out that Mr. Norrell will soon be moving to London and Mr. Segundas will be the only magician left in Yorkshire.
Since we have been talking a lot a about style in class lately, I thought I might talk a little bit about Susanna Clarke's style. I've already mentioned that almost all of her characters are referred to as a "Mr", "Ms" or "Mrs" and the only character that isn't is Childermass. Also she uses a lot of parentheses when she is writing instead of just using commas like most writers and another thing that makes her writing unique is her use of footnotes, where after a sentence she puts a little number and then on the bottom of the page she elaborates upon the subject of the sentence. The use of her footnotes show really how much thought she has put into the universe of this book, as most of the footnotes are stories, songs, or more information about the world that her book takes place in. Another thing that makes her style very different is how most of the time she writes in a third person point of view, but sometimes she will slip into the first person as herself as the author for a few sentences. So it's almost like she's narrating her book. Lastly I noticed that when she writes the word "choose" or any other form of it, she writes it as "chuse", which I thought was sort of strange seeing as she doesn't spell any other words differently.

Blog #2 Quarter 2

Well I read the next chapter of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and in this chapter there are some exciting things that happen. First of all Mr. Segundas and Mr. Honeyfoot go to visit Mr. Norrell and he lets them look in his library, and it turns out that in their world there are books of magic (like spells and such) and books about magic (about people doing magic and magical occurrences) . Mr. Norrell has the rarest kind in his library, the books of magic, but he does seem very skeptical of all the authors and doesn't seem to think that a lot of them are very good. However, Mr. Segundas and Mr. Honeyfoot are amazed and then even more so when Mr. Norrell tells them that he can actually DO magic. So they go back and tell the Society of York of their findings, who doesn't really believe them because for some odd reason they can't remember much of their visit. So they send Mr. Norrell a letter who replies with an angry one back and sends a guy named Mr. Robinson to make them sign a contract. It says that if he proves he can do magic they have to disband the Society of York and never call themselves magicians again, all sign except Mr. Segundas.
One thing I don't get is why Mr. Norrell sends Mr. Robinson with the contract when in the chapter we were introduced to his creepy man of business, Childermass. So if Mr. Robinson handles Mr. Norrell's contracts and such, what exactly does Childermass do? He sort of gives off a creepy air when you read about him and I think that so far he's the only character in the book who doesn't have the "Mr." or "Mrs." in front of his/her name, which is a little strange. Also I bet that the reason that Mr. Segundas and Mr. Honeyfoot forgot most of there amazing trip is because Mr. Norrell used a spell on them because they were so awed that I don't think it's possible that they could have forgotten something like that. Also in this chapter I learned a lot more about the main characters. I found out that Mr. Honeyfoot seems to be a real idealist and thinks that everyone wants to do everything for the greater good and such, Mr. Segundas however seems to be more sensible and more of a realist, and Mr. Norrell seems to know just about everything out there for there to know.

Blog #1 Quarter 2

I just started reading a book called, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, a novel by Susanna Clark. So far, the book has started with the description of the York society, a society of magicians that discuss old magic, but don't practice it. This is one of the earlier quotes in the book that describes the society, "In fact to own the truth, not one of these magicians had ever cast the smallest spell, nor by magic caused one leaf to tremble upon a tree, made one mote of dust to alter its course or changed a single upon any one's head. But with this one minor reservation, they enjoyed a reputation as some of the wisest and most magical gentlemen in Yorkshire." This quote made me think that, really if they can't do magic they shouldn't be able to call themselves magicians because they're just as ordinary when it comes to magic as the regular old people who are not in the society. I also think they shouldn't be some of the most respected gentlemen in Yorkshire if they can't even do the one thing that they are revered for. Anyway, in the beginning we also meet Mr. Segundas and Mr. Honeyfoot who are 2 of the members of the society that want to know why nobody ever does magic anymore. So they go to visit a sort of recluse magician because the magicians of the society aren't very helpful at all in answering their question. The York magicians before had asked him to join, but he sent a letter of refusal. When he sent his letter back the York society speculated that, "any body with such small handwriting could ever make a tolerable magician." and I thought this was funny because handwriting has nothing to do with magic (or at least I think it doesn't) and they aren't even tolerable magicians themselves because they can't even do magic, so who are they to judge. Anyway I thought this recluse magician had the right Idea because so far this society just seems like a group of phoneys. So Mr. Segundas and Mr. Honeyfoot go visit this recluse man who's name turns out to be Mr. Norrell. So because his name is in the title I predict that he is going to be a very important character in this book and I also think that the main plot of this book is that the 3 men are going to either try and find out how the magic disappeared or try to bring the magic back to everyone in England.

Blog #7

I'm still reading the book Airborn by Kenneth Oppel and so far I really like it. Since the last time I posted Matt found out that he wasn't getting a promotion from cabin boy to sailmaker, he took Kate on a tour of the airship and also found out that Kate was the granddaughter of the man who they found on the balloon a year ago, and also Kate gave Matt her grandfather's journal so he could read about the creatures that her grandfather saw. The whole reason Kate took this cruise was to try and see the magnificent creatures her grandfather had described.
One idea that came up in the book that I thought was interesting was when Matt found out that he was not promoted to sailmaker. The captain of the ship really wanted him to be a junior sailmaker and it was Matt's dream to become one, but in the end the owner of the airship insisted that his son fill the position. So the son got the position because he was wealthy and his father had a lot of influence, even though Matt was the more experienced and wanted the job more. It got me thinking about how this is a situation very similar to those in the real world. So many people gain one up over other people just because they have more money, friends, or influence and not because they have more skill. Its really not fair and that's really how a lot of people who grow up in poverty stay in poverty and children of rich tycoons become rich too, because the people who grew up in poverty don't get the same chances as the richer people do. Just like how Matt can't afford to go to the infamous Sailing Academy and doesn't have an infamous father, but he has more skill, desire, and hard working ethics than the owner's son. But who gets the job? The less skilled and wealthier owner's son!
Another thing I didn't like was how Matt automatically assumed this owner's son was a horribly mean person and Matt hated him right off the bat. But really it wasn't the owner's son's fault because it was his father that gave him the job. I think Matt would be justified in hating the owner because it was the owner's fault, but it wasn't his son's.
But anyway I don't think Matt will hate him for long because the author showed him as being a really nice guy and even Matt grudgingly thought he was a nice guy. So I predict that they will soon be friends because they are around the same age and he's a nice guy and usually in books, characters in their situation usually end up overcoming their differences and going on an adventure and becoming the best of buds.

Blog #6

Since I finished the book Brisinger, I just recently started a book titled Airborn by Kenneth Oppel. So far it's about a cabin boy that serves on a luxury passenger airship called the Aurora. The cabin boy's name is Matt Cruse and he seems to be very well liked by the captain, young (around 15 years old), skilled, brave, loves being in the sky, and also his father seems to have had a connection to the Aurora and this seems to be very important to Matt (it's sort of inferred that his father is missing or dead, but this hasn't really been explained yet). In the beginning of the book Matt is on lookout duty and spots a lone hot air balloon in the night, the balloon doesn't respond with their efforts to communicate with it so they try and pull it aboard. Through some terrific and daring feats by Matt they pull it in along with a dying balloonist. Later the dying balloonist tells Matt of beautiful creatures in the sky right before he dies. Then the story skips ahead to a year later and the dead balloonist seems to be completely forgotten by Matt, but I can't help but think that the first scene really sets up the rest of the book. Why else would it be in there. So a year later the Aurora is setting off on another 5 day voyage and we are introduced to 2 passengers in particular, Kate de Vries (another 15 year old) and Miss Simpkins (her chaperon). Kate is very curious, mischievous, and polite. However Miss Simpkins seems to like nothing, is very rude, and seems to not want to be on the airship cruise. I predict that in the next couple chapters Matt and Kate become pretty good friends because they are the same age and that's usually how stories go, otherwise the author wouldn't have taken such special time to introduce Kate.
I'd also like to mention that I really liked one of the paragraphs on the very first page of the book where Matt describes the sky as being full of heroes and adventures (the constellations and their stories) fighting against each other to make themselves known. I've never really thought about the stars that way before and I think that's a really unique way of looking at them and obviously Matt must spend a lot of time gazing at them.
I really like the word choice in this book too and the plot seems to be very interesting so far and I can't wait to continue reading!

Blog #5

I finally finished reading Brisingr by Christopher Paolini (took me long enough!) and I can't say that I liked the ending. I thought that the ending didn't really end with a big of a bang as it should have. I mean sure Eragon and Saphira's mentors die, but I think that it was pretty predictable, seeing as they were going up against the immensely powerful evil king. Also this is a hero story so it's pretty predictable that Eragon will kill the evil king not his mentors and there's a whole other book still to go. So in other words I don't think it was a big surprise that the mentors died and therefore I don't think that it was the best way to end the book. At the same time at the end/climax of the book Arya and Eragon kill another shade.I don't really like this part because I think the killing of another shade sort of demeans how Eragon killed a shade in the first book and earned the title "Shadeslayer". I think that when they kill another shade it makes it seem as if Eragon's amazing accomplishment in the first book wasn't as amazing anymore. Actually I really don't know how Paolini is going to fit everything in the last and final 4th book because there is a lot of the plot that he has yet to wrap up and tie together, so I think he has his work cut out for him. I also hope that the ending/climax of his last book in the series is much more satisfactory than the one.

Blog #4

I am continuing to read the book Brisinger, and in this blog I'm going to pretend like I'm writing a letter to the author, Christopher Paolini.

Dear Christopher Paolini,
My name is Greer and I am currently reading the third book of your Inheritance Cycle, Brisinger and I would just like to tell you how much I've enjoyed it so far. I have also read the first 2 books in the series and my favorite character so far is Arya, the elf that Eragon is in love with. I like how she is such a strong and individual person and she relies on nobody but herself and she always knows everything and exactly how to do things. But I also like how she begins to crack in this book and let Eragon through the walls she has put up because it's really sad how alone she is and I'm glad that she's beginning to accept the concept that she can have friends too. I also like the witty herbalist Angelina because she's feisty, smart, sarcastic and not afraid to berate others if they are wrong even if they are of higher rank or more important than her. She really adds another dimension to the book, especially a lot of humor. Lastly, another of my favorite characters is Nasuada, the leader of the rebel army. She's very strong, will stop at nothing to help her fighters, and has a confidence that none of the other characters in this book possess.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that I really love how you have a lot of strong female characters in your book, while other novels like yours don't include such notable female heroes. All of the women in your book are independent and very important to the Eragon and his quest, and not one of them needs to rely on a man or plays an insignificant role. I think that too many books today don't include enough female protagonists, and even though the hero of your story is a male, he relies heavily on his supporting cast of these 3 important female figures.

Sincerely,
Greer