love, read, write

Dear The World,

My most sincere apologies for failing you all. I shall promptly shove myself into a dark and dusty corner whence I find it somewhere gloomy and shameful—after I write this apology letter post.

I do not know what has gotten into me—perhaps it is the food I ate, the lack of growth I had, the sleep I had not, or my mindset was not austere.

But here it is. For the second time, I have failed you all. I have failed myself. I have failed humanity.

Now, if you have been wondering until now, why I am so apologetic, so gloomy, so upset of some sort of thing I had done—I shall correct you in your ponderings and wonderings. It is not so much something I had done, but something I had not.

I.

Had not.

Read.

Five.

Classic books.

IN one Year.

Now this sounds very, very pathetic, and I know, I know it does. It puts me to shame, and it makes me not want to post this in fear that people I actually know read this and condescend upon my reading ability from thence onwards.

But to reflect on this Rear (short for Reading Year), I have not read much books in general. It is saddening that, with the acquaintance of high school comes the decreasing of Reading Time, to the point that I have returned many overdue library books unread—untouched.

Perhaps it is the overbearing task of completing prodigious amounts of homework assignments, or my lack of skill in time management. Perhaps it is the preference of technology over books, or in other words, the abundance of technology versus books—now that I have a smartphone. (YEAHIKROMGOMGOMG)

(Compose yourself, Indigo.)

But I have resolved to myself, that yes, this year, it shall not be a fail of a Rear. It shall be a successful Rear, a glorious Rear in which I will be able to confidently shout, “Long Live the Rear of 2013!” Even on the last day, and yes, I knoweth that this doesn’t create much sense, but I shalleth write in the language that I nor thee doeth knoweth. Ieth caneth speaketh funnyeth yeteth soundeth wiseth byeth addingeth etheth ateth theth endeth ofeth theth sentenceth.

Prolly sounds like lisp.

No.

But—to return back to my original tone of voice, yes, I know. I haven’t read much books this year, and I am quite honestly disappointed with myself. Can’t quite put my finger on it, but it’s some mutated form of shame and disappointment.

I will, however, state the few Classics I have read. I shall then proceed to list the few Classics that I have attempted to read (or rather started, and then never had time to read it, until it was overdue at the library).

Classics I read:

The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway

A Clockwork Orange by Someone

Two O. Henry Short stories by O. Henry

Yes That’s about It by Me.

(I lied. I shall create three lists.)

Classics I read in School:

Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Classics I started to Read but Never Really Bothered to Finish (Or didn’t finish by 2012):

Animal Farm by George Orwell (or someone like that, if my memory serves me correctly…?)
(One Google later---Yes, yes it did. My memory is loyal like that sometimes. Sometimes.) (Oh yeah now we’re reading it in school.)

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Demian by Hermann Hesse

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon (I’m actually reading this right now; almost done, in fact.)

And a Few Other Books I forgot to Include by Assorted Authors

I’ll put this post date as December 31st, 11:59. Hehehehe.

My next post, I’ll decide 2013’s resolution.

Au revoir.

So. Here is December, sitting and glaring at me.

How’s Pentaclovel going?

Well, lemme think.

I read…

Hemingway.

I read…

A Clockwork Orange.

I read…

mmm…

Yeah.

I KNOW. D:

I got some big time classic reading cramming to do.

Seriously.

I’ve been so busy with high school---

PSHHHH.

…yeah. I’m sorry. I’ve disappointed humanity.

But A Clockwork Orange by Whoever-Wrote-It (use Google) is quite an interesting book. Not once through the book did I find it ‘boring.’ Seriously.

And it was cool, getting to decode the language. Then I wondered if there was a nadsat dictionary online and apparently there was.

Of course I didn’t look at it. I wanted to figure it all myself. It’s kinda cool, you know. Sorta like a new language, but not so different. Maybe a dialect, but not as similar.

…

What, are you doubting me?
OF COURSE I didn’t look at the words.

…nobutseriously. This time your trust is in your hands. Believe it or not, it’s up to you.

So anyhow.

I’ll try to read another classic book.

(Does school count? Because if so, I’ve read two more. Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck, and Lord of the Flies by Golding. Lord of the Flies is really a cool book, though. Seriously. You should definitely read it if you haven’t.)

…bye!

by O. Henry
So today, I read “The Social Triangle” by O. Henry, a short story about, well, a social triangle. Much like a love triangle, only instead of love of others, of respect of others’ social class. It is really an interesting point of view in things, and it does get many points across. I’m not an expert at analyzing literature and finding its deepest meanings, since I’m not much experienced in the world of Classics. But in fact, I will attempt to make some analytical statements because I think it might help me improve upon my currently ground-level skill.
This story is basically about three social classes. I don’t know how to identify it, but it seems like Ikey Snigglefritz is very low class. The next up the ladder is Billy McMahan, who is a relatively high class—he’s a politician and a leader, someone much looked up to by Snigglefritz. Then, there’s the super-rich, who is Cortlandt Van Duyckink, who is a “[M]an worth eighty millions, who inherited and held a sacred seat in the exclusive inner circle of society,” (O.Henry, 22). I personally like Duyckink the most and McMahan the least. I don’t know, it just annoys me that McMahan really values meeting Duyckink to the extent that he would try to get everyone to have liquor for free just because he feels the mood. Maybe I’m being really one-sided, and his spirits were uplifted, but for some reason, at a personal scale, it bothers me a teensy bit. Also, that people would look at him much more respectedly. But it’s not like I don’t like him because of that, but more like, I don’t like how people,  normal people, everyone (even me), would do that if we were in that situation. That our attitudes change from morose to ecstatic just with the shake of a hand. Obviously, there’s a lot more meaning in that one shake, but when you look at it generally, it’s pretty interesting how effective it can be to your mood.
I also think he sort of shook Duyckink’s hand because he wanted to shake his hand, not because he wanted to donate. This I think because it says McMahan made an “[A]udacious act of his life,” which wouldn’t be called audacious if the objective was not asking to fund the help-the-poor campaign Duyckink was holding, but to merely shake Duyckink’s hand.
Obviously, there’s a lot of loopholes and craters in this supposed “analyzation” of the text, but hey, it’s kind of my first time doing this alone. (Yeah, I know. I’m old, and how can I not have done this before, I know. Just…bear with me.)
I like Duyckink because of the obvious reason—because he reached out to the poor. And also, that his heart’s set in the right place, as O. Henry says that it was his sudden urge or instinct—oh, it was an impulse. But all the same, such actions don’t stem from the brain but from the heart, and that’s what makes me solidify my opinion about Duyckink. (That he’s not a jerk.) (Not that McMahan is a jerk.) (He’s not.)
The three characters have different reasons for shaking the others’ hand. First, Snigglefritz shakes McMahan’s hand out of honor, out of pure admiration. TMO, McMahan shakes Duyckink’s hand out of want of attention and recognition (maybe a teensy bit of helping the poor). Then, Duyckink shakes Snigglefritz’s hand out of sympathy and wanting to help. These three kind of tell me that when you’re in a low position, you look up enviously a lot. When you’re high, you realize your ‘power.’ But if you’re not at the highest, the pleasure of seeing those below you look up to you, and the pleasure of just the luxury, might make you want more. When you’re at the highest, or at lest, in Duyckink’s case, you kind of see the flaws in being rich, and you stop and think about how to use it, just because you have too much of it.
Of course, these three are applying to people whose moral standards, their way of living, and their general thoughts are on the more, let’s be obnoxiously general, “good” side. Because obviously, there are plenty of rich jerks who use their money and position for more and more power, and plenty of poor jerks who just give up and don’t give a flying French fry about what they’ll do with their life.
(…yeah that just made no sense, the last two paragraphs.)

Literary Terms:
They’re not terms, by the way. I’m just using a phrase we used back in seventh grade when we did this as a class. xD So I won’t be naming too many literary terms, fyi.
What I really noticed and liked was the repetition of “He had shaken the hand of _____.”
That sentence is what ends each of the three parts of the short story. And it kind of ties it together and subtly yet quite noticeably makes the point across of the Social Triangle.

I also like the repetition of the words “impulse,” “audacious,” and “royalty” when describing the sensation of bringing yourself up to shaking the other person’s hand, and also the flushing, overwhelming feeling of the achievement as you shake their hand. It ties their emotions together while slightly distinguishing them. I didn’t notice this immediately (perhaps with audacious I did, but not with impulse and royalty), but when you think about it (at least, when I did), you remember that subtle meaning kind of left a little mark in your head and distinguishably, yet subconsciously let you know that the three are inextricably bound and related.

Work Cited
O. Henry, . 41 Stories by O. Henry. 2nd ed. New York: New American Classics, 2007. Print.