Longitude

Longitude

by: Dava Sobel

In our modern world we sort of take for granted that we can get where ever we want to go, and do it precisely. If you board a plane in New York that is bound for LAX you expect to land exactly at LAX. If the plane instead got you to John Wayne Airport and seemed proud that they got that close you would be furious. Even that level of accuracy would have been a miracle for a ship’s captain during much of human history. Entire fleets were lost without ever engaging an enemy because of failures in dead reckoning. When Britain was growing into power they required the ability to put men and materials where they need to be and when they needed to be there. The Holy Grail in this quest was pinning down Longitude. Turns out this was easier said than done.

The cast of characters in this book is fascinating. The central focus is a simple man who eventually beat out some of the greatest minds in human history in a race for immense wealth and prestige that spanned decades. John Harrison was a self-taught clock maker who defied convention through sheer will power and ingenuity. While colossal intellects like Hooke, Hailey and Newton were pinning their hopes on the stars Harrison insisted there was a simple (it really wasn't simple in my opinion) mechanical solution. His self-confidence and ability to work on a problem until he had it nailed down eventually lead to intuitive leaps and innovations that changed the way humans interacted with the world.

This book is definitely worth reading for anyone who is a history buff or a science nerd. There are a lot of interesting subplots and tangents that take place in the book that might make you look at some well-known historical figures a bit differently. I bet you will also be much less inclined to take your GPS for granted next time you go on a trip as well…

Some things to think about:

1. What would it be like to live in a world we couldn't navigate with certainty?

2. How essential is the ability to sail and fly accurately over great distances to globalization?

3. John Harrison was a self taught clock maker. That would be like a modern high school drop out building a working room temperature super conductor in his garage. Are there any paralelles in recent times?

4. Follow up to 3 - I had some one suggest that the social media millionaires are a similar story. I disagree because I think what they did was more reading the times right and using developed technology in a semi-novel way. To me that is fundamentally different than developing an underlying technology to solve an existing problem. Am I wrong on that?

Unwind

Unwind

By: Neal Shusterman

I really have mixed feelings about this book. The topic is certainly an interesting one. Even though it is in no way new, abortion is still an ultra-touchy topic that can get peoples backs up in a hurry. As it happens this book has at its foundation the fact that the issue got so bad a civil war erupted over it. The compromise that the author suggested the factions came up with is really the only saving grace of this book. The characters are underdeveloped and pretty one-dimensional. The plot is pretty predictable (except for the slightly mystical scene at the end when the author goes off on a tangent about what might happy if you rewound someone... that was just creepy). There are the good guys, the bad guys and the one character who is confused. The choice to make Lev a Christ figure is a little heavy handed in my opinion. Honestly, the priest that counseled Levi was perhaps the most interesting character to me. Levi started out in the most bizzare situations and slowly grew into an actual human being. For all of those complaints, it is not a bad book for teens because it is pretty straight forward and accessible. Also, despite the many shortcomings, it does make you think about the topics surrounding abortion from a couple of different viewpoints and that is valuable.

So, the concept goes like this… The Pro-choice faction insists that it is the mother's right to have an abortion if she wants to and is willing to kill to secure them that right. The Pro-life faction insists that all life is sacred and that an abortion cannot be allowed though they are oddly willing to take an adult life in a war to prevent abortions. So, after a lot of killing the sides sign a law called the Bill of Life that institutes the policy of unwinding. Unwinding works like this: if a parent chooses, for any reason, they can sign a form and have a child who is between the ages of 13-18 unwound. The way this works is the teen is taken to a facility where they are vivisected by a team of doctors, while they are conscious mind you, and every single body part is harvested and transplanted immediately. This is effectively a supremely late term abortion that gets rid of an unwanted child so the pro-choice people are happy. The pro-life people are satisfied because they have somehow convinced themselves that since all of the pieces are harvested live, kept alive, and installed in a living body then no one was killed (I’m skeptical on this one.) There are obvious problems with this since there is no way there would be a type-compatible person in need of a transplant of every single part of an unwind. Also, it seems needlessly cruel to keep the teen awake as you take them apart. Also, since they disassemble the brain the personality of that person ceases to exist in any sort of coherent form so regardless of where a soul resides (if you believe in one) I don’t think anyone could make a rationale argument that the unwound individual still exists and if they don’t exist how can they be alive?

Anyway, I do recommend you read this book since it provides a lot of fodder for some interesting discussions. Here are some examples of questions you could attack:

1) Is unwinding murder? Why?
I say yes. In fact, I have no idea how you could argue anything else.

2) What do you think of the way tithing was presented in this book? Would any church ever take the concept to that extreme?
I think the concept of tithing being taken to this extreme is a bit ridiculous. Honestly, I can't see most of the major religions being ok with the concept of unwinding in the first place. If we take as a given that they have accepted the concept of unwinding... I don't think most religions would take tithing this far even then. Some might, though. I do find the stance of the Catholic church against birth control is almost as crazy, but I think that stance would prevent them from going to this extreme with tithing for instance.

3) Do you think any point was served by the author introducing the terms umber and sienna instead of black and white for skin tones?
Absolutely not. I think it was one more example of people trying so hard to be PC that they actually end up making race even more of an issue. Skin color never appears to be an issue in that society so why draw attention to it by doing something like changing such basic terms?

4) What do you think about the changing relationship between the Pastor dan and Levi?
I think it is an interesting insight when you find out that Pastor Dan clearly never truly bought in to the idea of tithing. I assume that he told Levi the laundry list of lies he went with because he was trying to comfort him. He assumed Levi was doomed no matter what he told him so he might as well make him feel as good as possible. That is wrong. If he had, instead, told Levi he thought unwiding was murder, and told Levi's family he thought the church was wrong, and told the press that unwinding was murder... well, he might not have changed the world but he would have been a lone voice of reason. Maybe it would have started people thinking. I like the contrast of the first conversation bewteen Dan and Levi and the last. If you read the book I suggest reading them one after the other once you finish.

5) Did it diminish the impact of the Clappers when you knew they were simply anarchists with no true cause?
It did for me. Why bother including terrorists with no goal. That's just a ridiculous scare tactic. Ok, terrorists are making headlines so you figure your book should have some. Give them a purpose. The IRA were nuts and they were murders but they had a cause. There has never been a successful anarchist group that didn't implode under there own weight in very little time. To have a whole society scared of them is absurd.

6) How do you feel about Risa’s choice versus what happened with Conner? What would you have done in her place?
My knee jerk reaction would be to say "fix me". The choice seems less absurd when you realize she is still young enough to be unwound. This effectively takes her out of that danger. I think it would be interesting to see if she would make the same choice after her birthday...

7) How do you think society will change, if at all, now that Levi is in the spot light?
Given the way mob mentality and fads work together in real life, and the amplified impact they seem to have in this world, I bet things snowball and the Bill of Life gets revoked.

Hungry for Hunger Games!! But seriously...

I hate that there are no more Hunger Games books.  The day after I finished the last one I was driving home from work being happy that I could go home and read more and then I remembered I finished and I died a little inside.  Full disclosure: I also loved Twilight and know most of the words to Taylor Swift songs, so I'm not sure how seriously I can be taken as an adult reviewer.  Also, SPOILER ALERT!!!

There are a lot of things I liked about the books - there was a lot of action, the settings were interesting, it didn't hurt my brain - but mostly it was the semi-unlikeable, human characters who didn't turn into happy, shiny heroes in the end.  Katniss started out selfish, moody, unfriendly, and impulsive (like most teenage girls) and somehow at the end of everything was still a teenage girl.  It wouldn't have been right for her to have some kind of cathartic breakthrough and start being Pollyanna.  Haymitch remained a drunk.  Mother Everdeen didn't take care of her daughter.  Peeta continued to follow Katniss around like a puppy.  Gale ran off into the sunset without Katniss... actually, that part didn't seem right to me, but I guess you do what you gotta do.

The first book grabbed me when Katniss talked about Prim's shirt sticking out like a duck tail and I couldn't put it down.  The second book felt a little been-there-done-that, but I still couldn't put it down.  That Peeta sure is charming.  The third book made me so mad I thought I hated it until I realized I was only mad at it because I loved it so much.... ah, love.  Which brings me to some points I need someone to talk to me about:

1. Why was I rooting for so many unlikebale characters, namely Katniss?  I wanted her to win!  I didn't want her to kill Peeta, but you know Peeta is willing to sacrifice himself for her (stupid boy) so it's hard to pull for him.  And I loved Haymitch and wanted things to be okay for him.  I never liked Katniss, but she's a fighter and so many other people wanted her to win I jumped on the bandwagon.  But I think I would have sent my silver parachute presents to Finnick.
2. Was it necessary to kill off Prim?  They had just blown up a whole bunch of little kids; is that not enough?
3. Why did Gale leave?  He's supposed to love Katniss but he runs off to take a fancy job and leaves her behind?  Why, because she didn't shoot him when the bad guys had him?  Come on!  I don't think she loved him, but I also don't think he really loved her.  I don't think of him as the "if you love something, let it go" type, especially not if he really knows Katniss.  She's not going to chase you down.
4. Oh, Peeta.  Would he be a better character if he didn't love her to distraction?  I would love to be loved like that, but I was a little disappointed that he only tried to strangle her in the third book because Snow had messed him up with tracker jacker venom.  I liked thinking Peeta was man enough to recognize that Katniss is a selfish bitch who was willing to play him like a fiddle or possibly kill him... and then love her anyway.  Am I disappointed in him for never calling her out?
5. How relevant is dystopian fiction in an instant gratification society?  Redemption does not come at the end of this series.  Katniss is left motherless, sisterless, and best-friendless in a district that has nothing for her.  She was the face of a rebellion that offered her only anguish and sacrifice.  Yes, future generations will benefit from the struggles faced by the characters in this series, but is that enough for a society that is programmed to expect instant results?  I'm not so sure.  Part of me wonders if the message recieved will be that if you try to take on the man, you might win, but not before you've lost everything you were trying to save.  And then what's winning worth?

What do you think????

Hey teachers:  Would you teach Hunger Games in your class?  Take a look here: http://www.ltftraining.org/TeachingCommunity/TeacherForums/LTFEnglishForum/tabid/549/aft/1141/Default.aspx