Post #7 Letter ( Exam)

December 18, 2014

Mrs. Jeanine Mathews

911 Crazy Street

Chicago Illinois, 60290

Dear Mrs. Mathews,

Destiny is a delicate thing and I don’t think you understand it. I have been jumping through metal loops to try and fit in with my new faction, but you still want to have full control. I don’t think you realize how hard it is to put on a show when all of you people can see my worst fear up on that screen. You once said, “Amazing, isn't it? Everything we think of that makes up a person - thoughts, emotions, history - all wiped away by chemistry.” Chemistry is great, but you are using it for the wrong reasons. You are always talking about how human nature ruins everything, and how everything must be in order…I hope you realize how hypercritical that is to say. You have human nature! You are among very few that has power to express yourself more freely than others and you should be taking advantage of it.

 A revolution of Divergent are coming and I recommend you start opening your mind because this post-apocalyptic Chicago that we live in will soon shine bright like it used to. People are going to be free to be whoever that want in order to fulfill whatever they want.  

I would like to point out another flaw in your system as well; if expansion is a goal, why are you in isolation? Your fences are as high as the eye can see, and you claim that there are very important reasons yet you don’t tell us what they are. I believe freedom is what you are truly afraid of. You can’t tolerate people being free to do what they want, it kills you inside just thinking about it.

The Dawn is coming and freedom is what I stand for. Freedom is how my mind works, and I’m sorry if you get in the way of that. I guess it’s just human nature that we are going to have to disagree on this.

Sincerely,

Tris

Post #9 Book 2 Trailer

Post #8 Book Talk

Post #6 Book 3 Listicle

How has the main character changed  

• How did the main character change? Was it an external or internal change? 
• What literary elements does the author use to lessen the severity of reality? 
• Has the main character changed for the better? 

Wolf of Wall Street 

In the Wolf of Wall Street Jordan Belfort changes dramatically as he enters the world of Wall Street. He starts doing every drug known to man, begins hiring hookers, and participated in insider trading on the daily. Wall Street is full of greedy business men that are lacking in the ethics department and this was the major external changed that altered Jordan's life forever. Before Jordan entered Wall Street he was a married man trying to make into the real world unaware that this world even existed. This world was presented to him in a all in or get out type of business and Jordan went all out. He became a materialistic money crazed firm owner who would do anything to make more money. Jordan was so power hungry that he was incapable of stepping down from power even when he had the option to because he felt the need to beat the SEC and their investigation on his firm. There are so many horrible crimes and acts committed in this story, as Jordan is telling the story he used humor to relieve the audience as they read. For instance there is a part of the book where Jordan asks Danny about marrying his wife and Danny talks about how he would get rid of any incest children by dropping them off in a field and letting them run free. Belfort definitely changed for the worse, but since then he has dramatically changed his life and is a seminar coach teaching people about the art of persuasion.  

Donnie Brasco 

Donnie Brasco is an undercover officer who's real name is Joe Pistone. Brasco changes very slowly and it's more internal then external. Donnie starts by becoming friends with a guy named Sonny Black who was a behind the scene worker for the mob. As Donnie became friends with Sonny he understood their way of life. He understood that they were very similar in that they were just trying to make living and come home to their family every day. Donnie has the epiphany that in the mobsters eyes the mafia is the way of  life. To them its like going to school, college, then getting a job. It took Donnie a long time for him to understand it, and no one was inflicting anything on him. This book was told in Joe Pistone's (Donnie Brasco's) and he uses humor to show the humility that some of he mobsters possessed. For instance Sonny Black liked to cook and for Christmas dinner Sonny insisted that Donnie stayed. While cooking Sonny teaches Donnie that you put a "punch" of salt into a boiling pot of water, not a pinch. Joe Pistone, the main character, has changed for the better because now he understands the criminal organization he is infiltrating. By understanding them better he sees them as people rather than a suspect; he realized that they value family just as much as the businesss. 

Blog Post #5 Truth In Memoir

In my mind a book has to be pretty true for the most part to be considered non-fiction. I agree with Mark Haskell Smith in that sometimes you have to cover up names in order to mask identities. Smith also said that he writes things the way he sees them and in that sense the truth may be distorted in some effect, but the main idea is still true. I would agree with Smith on this as well, unless the persons bias is extreme. Half truths are great to read but it should explicitly say in the front of the book all of the facts that were distorted or just create an in between genre. A name for this genre could be Personal nonfiction that way people will know before hand that the book they are about to read is going to have skewed facts but may be more interesting than a completely accurate book. It does matter when authors like Frey bend the truth because he bent the truth about himself and then accepted sympathy and support for something he didn't really accomplish and go through. I think of Frey as an extreme example and he would should have classified his book under a special genre that explicitly states half of the facts are not true. However I do not agree with Janet Fitch and her views on non fiction because she believes that if non fiction is anywhere in the title it has to be 100% true. And that is not realistic because there is no way to validate a specific personal account of an incident if we are referring to memoirs. No matter what there are going to be distorted facts, but i think there levels of distortion that lead to in between genres.

Post #4 Adapting Book 2

Blog Post #4

There is a scene where Jordan Belfort and his main salesmen are sitting around a table in a diner waiting to hear Jordan’s proposition. Jordan was asking his friends if they wanted to make money because most of them were sleazy salesmen who sold weed on the side of their day job. He asks his lude dealer to sell him a pen and he says to Jordan “Okay could you please write your name down on that napkin there?” and Jordan replies, “I can’t I don’t have a pen.” The lude dealer explains, “Exactly, supply and demand my friend.” This scene is essential because these guys barely graduated high school but they could sell anything which was scary.

Jordan’s Bachelor party takes place in Vegas and he completely ruins a penthouse. He goes into detail about all of the drugs and crazy things that happened costing him a total of 2.2 million dollars in one weekend. This scene is important because it shows how obscene and ruthless these guys were about spending money.

After Jordan decides to go sober Danny comes over to see how he is doing and tells him not to worry about the money the lawyer are charging him because Danny and the guys were going to cover it. Jordan is drinking a non-alcoholic beer by the pool and Danny is baffled by the concept of his beer. He doesn’t understand the purpose of life if he can’t get under the influence. This scene is essential to show how twisted these guys think.

There is a scene were Jordan is talking about his watch. The scene goes on to talk about how he used to wear a solid gold Rolex, but his wife tells him that he needs to tone it down and get a watch with a leather strap to look more conservative. From then on he wore a very expensive brown strap bracelet. This scene is not essential because it takes away from the real greed that goes on in the story.

Another scene I wouldn’t adapt is when he talks about the linen in his bedroom. Talking about the linen would just be annoying; by showing the quality in the movie would be much more effective without leaving the audience annoyed. 

Post #3 Book 1 Project

Book 1 Project: Why We Broke up

I want to create an app that helps people break up with their significant other. This app will feature advice and guide people through the different stages of a break up. Everyone’s break ups are different so it will start out with some categories such as: mutual, her fault, my fault, I don’t know what happened, and my life is over. Throughout the whole book Minerva (Min for short) goes through a box of her belongings and her ex-boyfriend’s items recalling short memories. No one should ever go through what Min did and this app will make sure of that. One feature that Min could have really used is the quote of the day. The app will randomly show push notifications with an inspirational quote customized to the type of break up you are going through. For example; if it was a nasty break up and inspirational quote that could pop up might be, “When one decides to start truly working on oneself and is successful in a meaning true to you, then your lover(s) will come.”

Like I said before Min spent most of her time reminiscing with old items from her relationship and even reading about at some points were just embarrassing. It even started to affect her self-esteem because of the way she was treated. "Well, today I was a sidelines girl, I guess" (p. 101). Ed (her ex-boyfriend) made Min feel like she wasn’t significant enough for him and that is not a healthy relationship. Our app is going to give tips on how to maintain a healthy relationship for future/current reference. Min slowly pushed Ed even further away by being mean to him, and this is a very common mistake between people. Min even said, "Right. You remember something else besides an old movie now, huh" (p. 123). Min obviously still cared about Ed at this point and was expressing her disappointment through mean sarcasm. At the end of the book she dumps all of the objects that she talks about onto her doorstep, and for her that was the closure to her relationship that Ed never provided. Closure is one of the most important parts of breaking up because leaving anything after a cliffhanger is never fulfilling. Instead of dumping a box full of random objects onto a door step our app provides a wide variety of closure options from solutions such a phone call-all the way to writing poem for self closure and a letter to send. We teach to “Always Be Closing.”

Our app will broaden the audience for the book because everyone will read it after downloading the app to learn exactly what NOT to do in a break up. Everyone wants to learn from others mistakes and Min sure does make a few in the book. For those who have read the book and want to download out of loyalty and fan hood the app will feature current updates on book signings, author’s current projects, and behind the scenes facts about how the book came to life.

 

Post #2 What is a book?

A book is a music album. People will always be drawn to purchasing a hard copy just like people still buy records and cd's. It’s all about personal preference, your own story and passion for what and why you are listening/reading. I personally prefer reading a hard copy book only because the other e-readers hurt my eyes, but other than that I am pretty indifferent about the whether people should read either. Both options should always be around no matter what, that way both parties are happy. As for the extreme hard copy readers who think people shouldn't be able to read e-reader; that is just absurd. Readers should have the freedom to read on any format they please. If writers don’t like censorship; they shouldn’t censor format. I agree with Jo Meno when he said, “-the message, the content is being more vital than the medium.” This helps prove my point because the medium really isn’t important. Writers should worry about the content of their passage. Having the freedom to publish almost anything they want is a great freedom in itself, and the way it’s published is insignificant. I don’t agree with Tom Piazza because he claims that because all smart devices look similar, that takes away from the finesse of the whole experience. I have seen some pretty nasty looking books and I would much rather read some books on an e-reader than touch those nasty books. I think Joe Meno said it best when he claimed a book is a place no matter what form it takes.

Post #1 WHY I READ

I read to be informed. I mostly read news articles and books about investing or business as a whole. One of my favorite Authors isn't really an author, he is a business man and his name is Jim Cramer. He started publishing books because he had so much information to offer that he had to share it with the rest of the world and of course so he could make more money. I am not a fan of fantasy because I get bored easily and often times I cant relate it to my life.