Old Man's War

Right now I am reading Old Man's War. This book has several compelling aspects to me. One it is a sci-fi book, and two I like how it sort of has a flip side on war. I find it very interesting that all of the soldiers in the army that fights the other intelligent species are Old Men. Although at first glance they wouldn't look that way. They have all had their mind and concience transplanted from their old wrinkly real bodies, into genetically in mproved and stronger slightly green bodies. Another thing I have been thinking thinking about in my book lately is, what is it saying about justice in our world?

Well, a major theme in the plot of the story is that John, and some of his friends are noticing that some of the aliens that they are destroying aren't evil at all, that they stand no chance against them. The soldiers are starting to feel bad because they know that some of the battles that they are going out to fight, are just wrong. I think this says something about justice. Sometimes there just is no justice, sometimes you just don't get justice, and the other team wins. Just like that. I think that this is definatley a big downside to how the world works.

 I think the idea that you can be powerless to stop something bad that's going on is scary. It must be scary to know that you are less powerful then your enemies, and that they can do whatever they want, and get away with it. This element in the world is more common in Old Man's War than in our world though, because in the book, there is no real government. Atleast that has the real power to serve Justice.

Hard Things in OLD MAN'S WAR

There are a lot of complicated issues going on in Old Man's War. Basically there is a intergallactic or something like that recruiting system that recruits seventy five year olds from earth, for an army that protects the colonies from intelligent alien enemies if they decide to attack. I find myself thinking about a lot of strange things that are going on this book. Like the fact that the recruits for the army are seventy five years old! that's just a little strange to me. With the help of the mini lesson on "hard things" in our stories, I have been able to begin to look at these things as not meaningless aspects of the story. But these elements in the story are purposefully put in to talk about something, put a point out there for the reader to reach out and grab onto.

I have often heard people talking about current wars as "young men fighting the old man's war" or "the poor fighting the rich's war". I think that what these people mean is, the people who are actually in power to get a war started are the old and the rich, the wise and the wealthy, and that these people can't actually fight in their war, they can just get it started. In this book though, even though it isn't very clear, I think it is just the opposite. The old men and women are fighting the war. Does this mean that the young people of their time are the people in power, and that the old people are now the slaves of the young? I'm not sure, it's really unclear at this point but I also think this could be representational for the old political powers finally stepping up the home plate and taking responsibility.

I also found it very interesting how all the characters in the book, men, women, gay, straight, they all veiw eachother as equals. They talk about their sexuality so casually with eachother, and they make a point of it, you as a reader will notice and stop, and be like you know what. This is important. Right now in the story everything is mostly peaceful, and I wonder if this is the reason the author made such a point of making it clear that these people view each other as equals. I predict that later in the story as the battle training, boot camp, and what ever lays ahead nears, they sexualities, and genders will start to rival or argue, face off. I think this because it seems to me that the peacefulness between the different people makes peace in this world, and when they become prejudiced against eachother, things will go bad. I don't have much proof to support this prediction, but it's what this text is saying to me. Maybe this is saying something about why our world isn't so peaceful.

This book takes an enteresting turn on how it expresses issues, and how they are presented makes me think certain things. I think it is interesting how now just by looking at the title of the book every time I pick it up to read it, I automatically think about indivduality and peace, and the way wars are created and fought.

Stuart Little: The struggles of Stuart

I have this one annotation that really got me going on this idea. Stuart sets off early in the morning to avoid traffic, and I was just thinking, What does he care about the traffic, he's freaking two inches tall!

Stuart was born from a human mother, but as of this moment, he still looks very much like a mouse, and has grown much taller than two inches. I can't help but wonder if he is at all self consience about his physical appearence. In the early stages of the story Stuart was just beginning to adjust to the way of life he had to lead, to live comfortably. And the things that he had to adjust to. Such as having to climb great heights just to brush his teeth, and having to pound a mallet just to get the water running. Every day activities for us were a huge work out for him. Therefore, as he puts it, his abs were like iron bands.

I think that Stuart wanted to prove to himself, and to everyone around him, that he was great, in his own way. He wanted to be as similar to everyone else as possible. One time while trying to prove to Snow bell how strong his stomach muscles were, he had a serious accident which involved him being squashed in a tight spot for many hours. Another time when he was trying to prove himself, he put himself in a very dangerous position with out thinking about it, he volunteered to be lowered into the drain to find his mothers ring. He did succeed, to the relief of his family, except for George who was very jealous. It must be hard to have a body like a mouse, but still think like a human, your mental and physical cababilities sort of, contradict each other.

I also think that Stuart has a hard time remembering his differences from other people. He doesn't seem to sense danger, and think ahead of time before doing something that for him could turn into a fatal accident. He assumes his mother sees him slip into the fridge to get some cheese, but she doesn't. And he almost freezes to death because he assumed. he doesn't think ahead before grabbing onto the ring of the shades, he doesn't foresee that he could be visiously yanked off the ground by it.

Stuart does learn from his mistakes, and towards the end of the book I notice it's almost like a fairy tale. I compare the story to a fairy tale because the whole second half there are almost no problems, no obstacles, at all. It is like a dream, I got so bored at times, that I just wanted to put my head down and go to sleep. But one drawback about Stuart learning from his mistakes is his personality seems to change. He warps more and more into a sophisticated, cocky douche, in my opinion, There are several instances where he whips out a smart remark at some poor person, probably just because it makes him feel impowered, and big. I also find it interesting how not only does Stuart try to make himself seem powerful. But he tries to make his lifestyle as similar to his fellow normal sized people.

I think Stuart would have a better life if he just went and lived in the woods and became an explorer, then he wouldn't feel pressured to be so similar to everyone else. If anyone has any suggestions for stuff I should add to this post please comment.