Blog Review: Zoe's Blog

This week, I read a blog post by Zoe Fruchter in class 805. It was about a book called House Rules by Jody Picoult. It was extremely well written and detailed, Zoe analyzed it very thoroughly which made it evident that she had read the book carefully and read between the lines to figure out the true meaning. I love the examples she gave to support how the main character, Jacob, is different because of his Asperger’s Syndrome. It made the connection of her opinions to the book much stronger. I also love the organization of this blog post because she made a connection to the beginning and end of the post, resembling and introduction and conclusion, and it mostly revolved around one theme that was expanded and elaborated upon to prove a point, which gave much stronger support to the main idea. Zoe also used very smooth transitions between different subtopics. All these aspects contributed to the post being very engaging and interesting to read.

Another thing Zoe did really well in this post is relate it to a song. It was a very creative analogy; I would never have thought to relate a book to a song. It also seemed very relevant to the story, based on the summary that I read in her post. The song lyric she included gives the reader an interesting visual to go along with Zoe’s ideas about Jacob’s feelings about love. I love how she used winter and spring as an artistic theme throughout her blog post. This song in relation to the book made me wonder if Jacob could be intentionally hiding his emotions because he does not want people to think he less normal than they already think he is, or that he does not want to admit to himself that he feels hurt about something. This is a common feeling that I notice in characters in books, but one thing that is different about this situation is that it is more difficult for Jacob to change because of his Asperger’s Symptom.

In her post, Zoe brings up the issue of the way that people with symptoms such as Autism are accepted in society. Many people are somewhat afraid of differences or change, which is where racism and homophobia comes from. Even just by mentioning how Jacob does not respond to social cues brings up the differences between him and a person who does not have Autistic symptoms, because of how important understanding social cues is to communicate with others. In my experience, people who have social issues are treated much differently by others, in a way more delicate and tentative. I think that both having a form Autism or a related disease and being with someone with a similar symptom can be very difficult, because no one wants to stand out or be embarrassed. I think it would have been very interesting if Zoe had touched on this topic while describing how Jacob is different because of his Asperger’s.

This post made me very interested in reading House Rules by Jody Picoult because it seems to narratively incorporate many realistic issues that take place in our world to day. I also think it would be very interesting to se these situations from Jacob’s perspective. It would give readers a beautiful insight to the thoughts of a person with Autistic symptoms. I think I would learn a lot about this topic, which could help me understand more how to interact with people who have Autism. I would also love to find out what happens with Jacob being accused for killing his social skills teacher and how the issue progresses and how it is solved.

http://zoesliterarylife.blogspot.com/2013/02/is-it-logical-to-love.html

"Bossypants" by Tina Fey #2

Right now, I am reading Bossypants by Tina Fey. It is a hilarious collection of memoir about her life. She tells the stories of her life as a child, teenager, college student, and a young adult. I love how she uses a lot of dialogue and description in her work to make the reader more engaged and interested. Using this also made the stories seem more narrative. Incorporating these details also made it more evident that Tina Fey had clear images of these memories, and that she remembered very clearly. That made the author seem more engaged, which makes the reader more engaged as well.

I thought that when Tina Fey included her current opinions on the situations she was in when she was younger were very funny. Her opinions were very conversational, and they clearly displayed whichever emotion she was feeling at the time. I loved the way this clearly displayed her personality, and it also made the book seem more casual and conversational. It also made her seem more approachable in a way, because at some parts of the book, it seemed as though she was giving the reader advice.

I also loved it when Tina Fey seemed to be talking directly to the reader. It gave the reader a stronger connection to the author, which made it more interesting because it seemed more relevant. She made it funnier by adding in some of her sarcastic humor and unique dialect. All in all, Tina Fey’s writing style made the book more entertaining for the reader and also developed a closer bond between the reader and author. She also made connections to the reader by asking rhetorical which made the reader thing more deeply about the message that Tina Fey was trying to portray.

"Bossypants" by Tina Fey

I have just started reading Bossypants by Tina Fey. It is a hilarious collection of memoirs from Tina Fey’s life about growing up. She discusses puberty, her childhood, life as a teenager, and her friends.  Throughout the book, you can clearly hear Tina Fey’s voice. She uses humor, wit, and anecdotes to describe her stories. All of her stories are so interesting to read because they are such relatable stories. Even though Tina Fey is now a famous actress, she still experienced the same issues with growing up. It is somehow comforting to know that she too had similar feelings and situations as average girls.

One aspect I love about Tina Fey’s writing is how honest she is, even if some the things she describes reveal some flaws. For example, when she is describing her physical insecurities when she was growing up, and she is not afraid to describe her flaws. She talks about how she is insecure about her hair color. She described how when she was growing up, to be considered beautiful, you would have to have blond hair and be extremely thin. In this book, Tina Fey is very honest about her thoughts about herself, other characters in her book, and society in general. It helped me develop on some of the issues she discussed in her book, such as societal norms and how that is portrayed in media.

I think the purpose of this book was to show her life before she became famous. Also, there are not many female actresses who are as famous as she, and I think she wanted to share how she got there. I think it was also to help people, but especially girls and women, make decisions and develop opinions about the world. I think she always wanted to show hat the feelings you might be feeling are normal. When I read it, I think of Tina Fey as talking to me, personally, and in a way comforting me in that she too had some of the feelings that I feel. I also felt that she was indirectly giving me advice, or allowing me to form my own opinions based on her experiences.

This book reminds of I Was Told There’d be Cake by Sloane Crosley in the writing style and types of stories that both stories included. They both told very interesting and unique stories about similar themes: growing up. They both have a very casual tone, and a clear author’s voice throughout the stories. They both told very personal stories that gave the readers and insight to their life and how they think. It was interesting to compare the experiences of Sloane Crosley and Tina Fey, expecially considering that Tina Fey is now a famous actress and they both went through similar situations about growing up.

February Non-Fiction Post

I read the article “Facebook Fever” by Nick Bilton and Evelyn M. Rusli from Junior Scholastic Magazine. It was written on April 2, 2012, so it is a bit dated, but it is about Facebook “going public” in the stock market. The article did a good job explaining the background information about stocks, corporations, and the stock market. It also described how Facebook is used by advertisers to target users to specific advertisements that will be most interesting to them based on “likes.” The main idea of the article was how Facebook would affect the stock market and how it is used in advertising in addition to social networking. It was also about how Facebook has developed from a small company to a huge corporation with more than 845 million users worldwide. I think the author included this to show how quickly a small, independent business can develop into a huge, multimillion-dollar industry. According to the article, shares are expected to be worth about $200 million. Because of the major advertising that Facebook is involved in, “everytime a person ‘likes’ something, or changes a relationship status, shares a link, or listens to a song, a piece of data is added to Facebook’s vast library.” This information is then used to match users with ads that are most relevant to them.

I think the author wants the readers to think about how a small, independent business can grow into such a huge industry. The author uses facts, statistics, and data about how large the company has become to show this. For example, “Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook’s 27-year-old founder and CEO, is expected to enter the ranks of the world’s richest people…. His shares could be worth more than $28 billion. The author also shows how the business has developed by comparing it to other Web enterprises, such as Google and Webvan, but Facebook still had a high I.P.O than both of those businesses. I think the author also wants us to think about how Facebook will change the ways people interact and communicate with each other, and how it will affect advertising. However, something I noticed about this article was that it did not state whether or not the authors thought it was a good thing or not that Facebook was such a large, important company.

From this article, I will take away the knowledge of how quickly a company can grow. I also learned how much Facebook depends on advertising, and how much advertising is used in Facebook. My thinking has been changed a little, because I think it is a bit creepy how much information about each user Facebook can retain, and how it is used just for advertising. I wonder why currently, Facebook stock has dropped so much. 

January Non-Fiction Post

I read an article called “The Many Problems With Online Dating’s Radical Efficiency” by Peter Ludlow from a magazine called The Atlantic. The main idea of this article was that online dating, and other online methods of communication or coping with relationships, was an issue because it is causing us to value our relationships less, and it has been shown that people pay less attention to whether they actually have a connection with the person they are dating.

The article also stated that online dating has become a “frictionless market.” The author explained that this means that this means that the buyer and seller are put together without transaction. The author used this as a metaphor for online dating because on online dating sights, where people don’t meet based upon similar interests, but by being “matched.” He says that this limits they way people bond, because when it is so convenient to just go online and get matched, people will not spend as much time trying to get to know someone by talking to them, or going out to meet people. 

The author conveys these main ideas by connecting online dating to issues in the real world, for example, to business, as in the “frictionless market.” He says that “in the real world, there are no frictionless markets, but some markets have less friction than others.” This is showing that online dating is slightly unrealistic because it does not involve any “friction,” which in this case would be the natural connection between the two people looking to date each other.

The author wants the reader to think about making real connections to people, not just meeting them because it is convenient, or because they get matched on the Internet. I think that the author of this article is against online dating because it allows people to be less passionate about the relationships and put less effort into finding the right person based on common interests. For example, in the article, it is stated “By reducing the cost of finding someone, online dating also makes it too easy to avoid being alone after a relationship fails. Most people don't want to be alone, but a traditional inefficient dating market made this an unavoidable reality for most people.”

From this article, I will take away the knowledge that online dating provides less strong connections between people when they first meet. Now, I think that it a much better idea to meet people in real life, and do date them based on connections the two people have together. I think that online dating is not as good as making connections in person. I would like to find out more about how online dating affects relationships, and whether more males or females use online dating methods. I think this is a fascinating topic that is becoming more and more relevant as technology advances and is more intergrated into society.

Ludlow, Peter. "The Many Problems With Online Dating’s Radical Efficiency." The Atlantic 7 Jan. 2013: n. pag. The Atlantic. Web. 29 Jan. 2013. <http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/01/the-many-problems-with-online-datings-radical-efficiency/26679