So I’ll be the first to admit that because of my wide variety of classes taught, my marking has been somewhat schizophrenic. I don’t generally mark the same way in CPT as I do in History, French or Science, and each class lends itself to specific ways of gathering marks. Readers will note that I [...]
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After having Patrick Ness‘ books recommended to me by the fine folks at io9, I went to the library and picked up a copy of The Knife of Never Letting Go, the first book of the Chaos Walking trilogy. And, man is it good! So good, I went and read through the sequel, The Ask and the Answer, in one day. And I am eagerly anticipating the concluding volume expected this fall. I’m going to have to buy it, because I simply cannot wait until the library has a copy. So I’m hooked.
While a lot of the reviews I’ve read of the book are comparing the protagonist Todd to Huckleberry Finn (mostly because of the way his voice is written), I found myself comparing him to Thomas Hunter from Tedd Dekker’s Black/Red/White trilogy. Like Thomas, Todd is a man (or almost) who discovers that everything he had been led to believe is not as it appears. The truth comes from odd places, discovered in bits and pieces until it comes crashing in on him in the final chapters of the first book. After that discovery, he has to pick up the pieces and decide what is to become of him.
The other trilogy it reminded me of (because they’re all trilogies now, aren’t they?) is Pullman’s His Dark Materials, particularly in how Todd and Viola’s two-worlds-meeting relationship echoes Lyra & Will’s relationship from Pullman’s books. As with HDM, in Chaos Walking, the protagonists have to grapple with the changes to the underlying fabric of their universe which, particularly in The Ask and the Answer, they have helped bring about either consciously or as an unforseen consequence of their relationship. Also in a similar vein to Pullman’s books is the gradual realization, as the children lose their childhood innocence, that no one in power can be trusted with that power. No matter which side Todd & Viola pick, they are ultimately betrayed by people for whom they have sacrificed part of their innocence.
I don’t know that Ness is anti-(religious)-authoritarian in the same way that Pullman is, but the betrayal his characters experience seems more broad, coming from all quarters… even places in which they thought they’d found refuge. The only people who don’t betray are other youths, and adults considered “simple” by the community.
Ultimately, the third book will settle the matter. Where in Dekker’s White and Pullman’s The Amber Spyglass, the protagonists ally themselves with the side they see as good and right, I suspect Ness will have a more subtle and nuanced way of shaping their decision. The repeated mantra, “We are the choices we make” throughout The Ask and the Answer, and Todd and Viola’s continued feelings of betrayal stemming from the choices of adults on both sides of the conflict means there won’t be an easy answer, and easy side to pick for them. I can’t wait to see what they decide.
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I didn’t see these when they went up back in May, so I thought I’d share them here… hilarious!
A New Hope:
Empire Strikes Back:
Return of the Jedi:
Enjoy!
via xkcd.com
This is hilariously (and tragically) true not only of too many university websites, but schools in general. Forutnately, since I have a hand in my school’s web presence, I can avoid some of these…
Posted by Ian via Posterous.
Many SF TV shows have gotten the big-screen treatment in the last few years, as studios attempt to capitalize on the built-in audience that a previously existing property has. This is nothing new… Star Trek: The Motion picture is over 30 years old now, and the interim has seen many adaptations.
Not so frequent have [...]
Fideism (n): doctrine that knowledge depends on faith over reason. Fundeism (n): doctrine that places amusement above all. This will be my last Fun Friday update for this school year – they’ll pick up again in the fall, time permitting. Here are your links for this week:
Social:
Scenes from the Gulf – The Big Picture has [...]
Foraminated (adj): perforated or pierced with small holes. Funraminated (adj): shot through with comedy. Here are this week’s links:
Language:
Language apps (1, 2, 3) – In this three-part post, Mrs. Jones, a second-language teacher from Britain, looks at iPod Touch applications useful for instruction and learning in another language.
Science:
Oil spill comparison – The Deepwater Horizon spill [...]
When I started this blog in 2002, it was with the intention of it becoming a repository of links to stories I was interested in. It has evolved over the past eight years to become that and much else. While my weekly links roundups serve much the same purpose as the original story file, the [...]
Focimeter (n): instrument for measuring focal length of a lens. Funcimeter (n): instrument for delivering amusement to your eyeballs. Here are this week’s links:
Oil Spill:
Deepwater Horizon resources – A teacher lists sites with updates on the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
How bad could it get? – Article describing just how bad [...]
Faveolate (adj.): honeycombed. Funveolate (adj.): funnycombed. Here are this week’s links, unsorted:
Online collaborative whiteboards – K. Walsh reviews six sites online which allow you and friends to collaborate on a shared “whiteboard” space. Might be fun to use with SmartBoards!
Posterazor – A service which will slice up large images so they can be printed on [...]
I’ve been meaning for a while to update my portfolio site, ianhecht.com. While it was an okay way of showing websites that I’d created, it wasn’t especially fantastic-looking and didn’t list much else that I worked on. I like the look of the Flavors.me sites, but they can only show things that have some kind [...]
When I went to mow the lawn the other day, the kids asked why I’d let the grass get so long. I told them it was so the elephants would have a place to hide, not really thinking about it. Of course, with a line like that, the kids wanted to know all about elephants [...]
Fantasticate (v): to fantasize over something. Funtasticate (v): to funtasize over something… here’s the links for the week:
Social:
Thailand – Two sets of TPB photos from Thailand (First, second) show the devastation that the recent protests have caused in Bangkok.
Lying kids do better – Because lying involves being able to hold two ideas in the head [...]
I’ve had many discussions with outstanding teachers around the country (Teachers of the Year, Milken Educators, NBCTs, and so forth). It always amazes me how few of the teachers being recognized for their accomplishments in the classroom can brag on the support of their administrators. Much more common are stories of subversion, sneaking around policies, [...]
No fun Friday this week – unfortunately, I had this thing called “work” that took up too much of my time… bummer. Bask instead in my choices for movies to see in 2010…
Jan 8th – Leap Year – Yes, I know it’s a standard romantic comedy, and yes I know it will be predictable, but [...]
This article (http://blog.coreknowledge.org/2010/05/17/why-does-it-have-to-be-eitheror-it-doesn%E2%80%99t-but%E2%80%A6/) gets across far more elegantly what I was trying to say in my previous post… that process, held above content, leads to selection of content not on its own merits, but on the merits of the skills it can impart to students. This is the triumph of process [...]
I’m really enjoying the new Matt Maher album, Alive Again. A line from one song in particular (Flesh And Bone) has stuck with me:
I met a man who walked on water
Who wore His crown like a blue collar.
I met a man who treated children
Like they were ambassadors to the kingdom.
I wonder how often the church [...]
I signed up for ClustrMaps last year at this time – it’s the service that generates the little red-spotted map at the botton-right of the page. Basically, it uses the geographic data from each visitor’s electronic trail to mark a world map of where they’re surfing from. The result is this:
As the counter at the [...]
Foinery (n): fencing; swordplay. Funery (n): wordplay. Here are your links for this week:
Social:
Gulf oil woes – The Big Picture has a series of photos on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. As usual, they are excellent.
Red families vs. Blue families – Social consequences of the divide between the way red [...]
I’m really enjoying the new Matt Maher album, Alive Again. A line from one song in particular (Flesh And Bone) has stuck with me:
I met a man who walked on water
Who wore His crown like a blue collar.
I met a man who treated children
Like they were ambassadors to the kingdom.
I wonder how often the church [...]
I originally signed on to Facebook a couple of years back because a friend told me I could find an old high school buddy through the site. Fair enough. Since then, I’ve reconnected with a couple of old friends, but not in any meaningful kind of way – just a few chats now and then. [...]
My district finds itself in a bit of a pickle finance-wise this year. Three factors have come together to create one of the toughest financial times this school district has faced.
The first is inability to raise our own funds. The Saskatchewan government last year announced that it was removing the ability of local school boards [...]
