Oct 31st Player One

Player One by Douglas Coupland The book is set in a cocktail lounge, with four main characters,
Karen a 40 year old woman who's waiting for her online date. Rick the bar tender a recovering alcoholic in a falling down life. Luke, a pastor who stole 20,000$ from the church. Rachel a beautiful 18 year old Canadian who suffers from autistic disorder.
All hell breaks loose, when they announce that oil prices skyrocketed and with it all kinds of consequences come in. The story is about four strangers, who as the novel goes by, we notice are not so different, that they all to some extent suffer from some type of autistic or social disorder which has brought them to be at this place in this particular time.

As the book goes by you start realizing its a very claustrophobic book, because it drags you into feeling like you're running against the clock. "What will become of us" the subtitle of the book itself expresses the general stressful feel throughout the story.

It's a very thought provoking book, forcing you to realize what is actually happening around you, and how society needs to step in and do something about it or else everything will be completely lost.
Coupland is known to be a very thought provoking novelist, and it's no surprise that "Player One" falls under this category, he himself admits that he wants people to feel uncomfortable with this novel, he wants them to think and not only read. An aspect of his that I love, because I myself crave these novels for their intellectual ingredients, and although there are always aspects of it you don't enjoy because of how they make you feel; when it comes to the end you realize how rich and filling the story truly is.

Oct 24th The Medium is the Message

The medium is the massage, is a book co-created by Marshal Mcluhan in conjunction with Quentin Fiore, a graphic designer.

I have to say the name itself is what dragged me into wanting to know more about the book. It is Mcluhan's play on words to describe the effect the media has on society, and how in effect it has become a form of massage as to how it is portrayed. Our heads and minds are massaged by these forms of communication to an extent where we no longer realize what is being told to how, and where what is being told no longer matter because it is the "how" that we are in the end concentrated on.

The book although a somewhat difficult read for me, was very interesting in the way it approached the issue and Mc Luhan's philosophy on today's media. Although I don't necessarily agree with all of his arguments. The medium is the massage shows how we are so affected and attached to todays media, that to some extent it has become part of us, part of our senses. Mc luhan argues how according to the way in which a message is portrayed, the message itself changes. Which I think is an aspect that we all can relate to here at Ringling, especially because we come to realize the effect design (the media) has on modern society and the responsibility we will carry as designer towards what is said, because we're the ones that choose how it's said.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Analysis

Lolita, a novel first written in english by Vladimir Nabokov in 1955. Is a very famous novel known world-wide for its incredible writing yet controversial plot. A story about a 40 year old widow, Humbert Humbert, who becomes obsessed and at the same time sexually involved with a 12 year old girl.

A novel built on the basis of trickery and manipulation; the narrator leads us into his personal intellectual game, and it’s up to us to play along or refuse to do so. 

He makes us believe that the story is a romance novel. Though the truth is, it’s only a romance novel in narrator's head. A narrator who’s unable to see that what he calls romance, is actually obsession. Thus it may classify as a romantic novel but only through one side of the story. I consider it to be a crime novel, because the act that he committed out of "love" was actually a crime committed out of obsession.

 "Did I deprive her of her flower? Sensitive gentlewomen of the jury, I was not even her first lover" We see a clear example of Humbert's mindset and attempt to influence our perception of him, in quotes throughout the book such as this. Where he tries to excuse his actions by putting the blame on others. In this case he's telling us that he actually was not Lolita's first, and hence he could not be blamed for taking the girl's innocence from her; giving us an idea of how he sees the situation, and his act being out of simple passion rather than egoism and rage for the young girl.

"Suddenly her hand slipped into mine and without our chaperon's seeing, I held, and stroked, and squeezed that little hot paw, all the way to the store."

This is yet another example where we see how Humbert attempts to misguide us in order to cover for the blame. It's difficult to be able to judge a situation like this because of the behavior of the narrator towards us, the reader, or as he sees it "the jury".

Throughout the novel, we as the reader feel unease as to what to believe or not believe about what Humbert is telling us. He's a very manipulating narrator, to the extent where he wants us to like him so much that we excuse or cease to see what he's really doing. A clear example of this is the scene in the hotel room the morning after he tried to drug Lolita, where he explains how she woke up and seduced him. 

These type of situations make us wonder as a reader where the line between manipulation and truth lies with this narrator. Although we have come to like him because of his writing, a moral side of us pops up every now and again, realizing that theres something wrong with the way the story is being told; and how somehow Humbert always manages to get his way without purposely doing anything. Situations that make us think that the narrator is not being honest about how the story actually goes.

The novel is incredibly engaging yet incredibly frustrating as well. Personally this is how I felt throughout the entire read. You want to hate Humbert's character, but are somehow dragged into his spell by his innovative choice of words. A moral battle that you face from beginning to end. Realizing at the end, that you have actually fallen into his trap, and left wondering if what you have just read, was in fact a true story, or a creation of his imagination.