Why Did They Get Into Heaven?

            I just finished reading "A Proud Taste For Scarlett and Miniver" by E.L Koningsburg. The book opens on a cloud in Heaven. Right away it becomes a little controversial. Heaven is a hotly debated topic: does it exist? is there a hell? how do you get there? is it eternal? is it nice? Koningsburg explains that this heaven is known as "Up." No one gets "up" right away, most have to spend some time in hell, to atone for any sins they made on Earth. Although Koningsburg does not go into what happens in Hell, she reveals that you cannot watch what is going on on Earth, while you can in Heaven.
               The people sitting on the cloud in Heaven are Empress Matilda, The Honorable Knight Sir William, Abbot Suger  and last, but certainly not least, Queen Eleanor of Aquitane. They are waiting for the arrival of Eleanor's husband, King Henry of England. Henry is to be judged on whether he can leave Hell and move "Up." Eleanor and Henry died not long apart, but Henry has sent more time in Hell, atoning for his sins. While they wait, the company discusses how Eleanor came to meet Henry, starting with Abbot Suger. Suger recalls the meeting of Eleanor and her first husband Louis. He tells of Louis' transition from a nice and ambitious young man to a pious and disillusioned king. He explains how Eleanor met Louis and married him. Empress Matilda (Louis' mother) takes over and explained Eleanor's happier and prosperous time with Henry, but then how he got too controlling and had an affair. She also recalls the beginning of Eleanor's orchestrated rebellion of her sons against him, after he took her lands. Sir william finishes up the story by telling of the death of Eleanor's sons, how Eleanor was locked up, and how she finally won. The book finishes with Henry arriving up, with Eleanor's sons.
                There is a saying, "Behind every great man there is a great woman." This is proven true in the book "A Proud Taste for Scarlett and Miniver." The dynamic between Eleanor and her husbands is reflected in how her husband rules his kingdom. Eleanor had a lot of power as queen of France and then England. Although her husbands had advisors, it was she who held the power to their happiness, and could influence him at his most vulnerable moments. Her power is evidenced several times in the book. When the first Louis, "Louis the fat" dies, Eleanor leaps into action making sure that she and Louis are known as King and Queen, which results in many people paying homage and helping assert their dominance. Eleanor is behind all of Louis's decisions, she tells him that he needs more lands and he goes out and fights wars to conquer them. As Abbot Suger says, "He listens to her instead of his conscience."
                This trend continues with her second husband, King Henry. When they are married, they are extremely happy and the land reflects that. Henry takes questions from the people and endeavors to please them, as he endeavors to please Eleanor. They travel around together and assess each land and England prospers enormously. However, when Henry and Eleanor fall out England plunges into wars and the people are not happy with the endless shedding of blood. When Eleanor exacts revenge onto her husband for having an affair, she takes Aquitane and holds it ransom. It is not right for monarchs to use their lands and people as pawns in their personal quarrels, in my opinion, but it also proves how much power Eleanor has over her husband. She knows he will stop at nothing to get the land back.
              They are all selfish, powerful and scheming but they are England so the land must obey them. Maybe the saying should go, "Behind every war ravaging man there is a selfish woman." I really don't understand why they are allowed in Heaven.

Then and Now

                I just finished racing the book "The Diviners" by Libba Bray. Bray is one of my favorite authors as she conquers the world of historical fiction with a surprisingly current and relevant to readers today. This is what makes historical fiction great, the idea of an almost fantastical time where things weren't quite as they are today but still relatable. From reading last books from Bray and other Historical Fiction authors such as the wonderful authors of the American Girl books that I thoroughly perused as ages 7-10, I know that problems of today often correlate closely with the problems of those in years past. For example, although Samantha wanted a china doll in the year 1907 and I wanted a Tamagachi in the year 2009, we still had to beg our respective elders for the toys and be "good" in order to earn them from our parents. The same goes for books as I grew older. Although Grace was trying to earn money for new shoes in victorian london and I was trying to earn money for eating lunch out in 21st century new york, we both felt the unfairness of job options available to a 12 year old and the little monetary gain that could be earned.

                  This brings us to my current book, "The Diviners." The Diviners takes place in the "roaring '20s" in New YOrk. A girl named Evie arrivers from small town Alabama ready to take in the wonders and pleasures of New York. A boy named Memphis works for the Boss of Harlem, collecting illegal lottery tickets while taking care of his younger brother Isiah. A chorus girl named Theta is hoping to forget her past with the help of closeted Henry, her "younger brother." And a giant of a man named Jericho is used to hiding his secrets, until he meets a girl who could untie them all. And all across the city murders are occurring. Murdeurs that correlate with a secret extremest religion, founded long ago who sought to bring hell and the anti-christ, the "beast" onto Earth. The murders are gruesome, arranged like texts in the book of Revelations to the tune sung creepily by the murderer.

"Naughty John, Naughty John, Does his work with an apron on, Cuts your throat and takes your bones, sells 'em off for a coupla stones."




And it is only the aforementioned people, with their extraordinary powers such as seeing into the future or becoming invisible can help.

                 

           Funnily enough I likened this experience to High School, or what is going to be the high  school experience for me. New York City is huge, scary and inviting all rolled up into one irresistible package. Like the characters in the book, I am drawn to the opportunities and sights the city affords, things I will see in my journeys to schools in Manhattan and the like. The book starts off not telling us how these characters are related to each other, just that they are all special and hoping to make it in New York. I think that this relates to the many students across New York City, all different and all hoping to go to the school they want, to become someone special and more than they already are. No matter what time we find characters in, they all want to succeed and hope NYC will help them get there. The gifts that each character has in the books also relate to the students of my year. We are all talented in some way, be it artistically or academically or even something that can not be measured. We all have something about us that makes us unique.

                Its true, times have changed. We now ride in subway cars as opposed to trolleys on the street. But one thing is for certain, people, at least not on the surface, have changed very little

Affirming Existence

                  The title alone was enough to draw me in. Not to mention the bright turquoise cover, gold embellishments, '80s writing and the drawing of a kick ass Indian girl on the front cover. But the title and sub-title really got me, because it spoke to a lot of stuff I'm thinking about. "Tina's Mouth, An Existential Comic Diary." Wow. To fully understand the title, I looked "existential" up online. It turns out that existential means "of, relating to, or affirming existence" (merriamwebster.com). Or, as a character in the book, Mr.Moosewood so aptly puts it, "find{ing} true and authentic meaning and purpose to your life."As I mentioned, I've been thinking about a lot of questions referring to the idea of existing.  For example, why am I here? What is my place in this world? How can I do something that makes my existence worthwhile? This book really helped me delve deeper into my questions. I'm not saying it answered them, it didn't. But it did help define my thoughts a little more, and introduced me to new ways at looking at the world through existentialist glasses (existentialist, a person who thinks about existential things). 

             Tina's Mouth takes place in sunny California. Tina is 15 and the youngest in a family of five very different people. Her parents were a product of an arranged marriage and she has a square older brother and an artsy hippie older sister. Tina has a best friend named Alex (she and Alex form the "clique of two" as Tina calls it) and a crush on a boy named Neil. However, Alex drops her for a "self-obsessed clotheshorse" named Claudia and a new boyfriend. After moping around for a while, Tina is inspired by her existentialism teacher Mr.Moosewood to get more involved. For a while, it works. Tina gets the lead in the school play- even though she has to get fake- raped by the disgusting Ted Fresh- and makes friends with Hollis McAdams, a popular alternative deep-thinker. Tina also gets to go on a date with Neil and they start semi-going out. However, Neil ends up hooking up with Hollis at a party and Tina is alone again. Prompting she and Alex make up. However nothing will ever be quite as it was again. Throughout the book, we see Tina's assorted family members and how she solves their weird problems, and them hers.

              As someone who has been thinking very existentially, I wonder what Tina got out of her experiences. The end of the book shows Tina in almost the same position as in the beginning of the book. The last words we read are, "this is only the beginning." So, has Tina gotten anything out of her existentialism class? I think that the author formatted the pages in the beginning and end of the book for a reason. It is so that we can see that Tina has come in a full circle. What I mean by a full circle is that she  started out happy, then went through a lot of complicated issues and events. Now Tina is back at the beginning, she has moved through all of her problems and is ready to keep going on with her life. But, the picture is not exactly the same, because that picture is not the last page. The very last page shows an envelope. Tina is mailing her diary to Mr. Moosewood. I think this symbolizes her closure, and how she does not need the diary any more to express herself, she can do it in her life. 

               This is one of the changes that Tina went through. At the beginning of the book, and through to the end, Tina writes down everything about her life and her thoughts about her life in her existential diary. She talks to the diary when she has no friends, or when she feels like she has nothing to do or participate in. I think that, by sending the diary off, Tina is realizing that she needs to go out in the world and be a participant. Tina has been writing all about her existential thoughts, but the truth is, how will you know the purpose to your life if you are not leading a full life? Although Tina does not know the purpose to her existence, she finds that she needs to be in the world if she is going to figure out anything at all. Mr.Moosewood says, "you have to figure out how to be." and how can you figure out how to be if you are not out there and being yourself?This is a really huge change in Tina, and I think it is better that she realizes this.

Encoded

            I just finished reading the book Code Name- Verity by Elizabeth Wein. The book takes place during World War Two in various places across England and France. The book starts as a first person narrated tale. We don't know who the narrator is, but we can assume she is a girl, probably around 17-23 based on her tales of school, her vocabulary, and her job. The job, we find, is spying as she says that she was "under-cover" and that she was chosen for her aptitude for "making up stories" and "blending into a crowd." But this journal is not from the point of view of a spy on a mission, it is an account of treason, betrayal, and most of all loyalties. The narrator is trapped in a Nazi prison, under the watchful eyes of the Gestapo (the "police" who enforce Fuhrer Hitler's decrees). She has just emerged from four days of torture that includes being held underwater until she fainted, being burned with a red hot poker and being hit and lashed with various instruments. However, she has made a deal with the Gestapo captain von Linden. She will write everything she knows about the British war effort in an account in exchange for an end of the torture. She also buys back her clothing with eleven sets of British wireless code. The narrator feels extremely guilty and awful about giving away the code and details, but we are shown that she feels the endless torture she could have endured, like her fellow prisoners who scorn her treason, would be unbearable. She begins to tell the story of her friend Maddie who flew her into france employing novelistic techniques and bargaining for more time all the way, while her desperation in response for her imminent departure to a concentration camp grows.
            I had mixed feelings about the narrator, it seemed she was a vain and dull girl. In exchange for the codes she could have bargained for her freedom or asked for food. Instead she says that she is content to be interrogated starving and dirty, if she gets to wear clothes. Also, she does not seem extremely guilty about giving up the code or her accounts after the initial mention she puts down in her account. This makes me think about her character role as a heroine. Is she a heroine who has endured torture and survived? or is she a weaker character who gives in quickly? It does not seem to fit. Another   missing puzzle piece was her intelligence. In the account of her friend Maddie's travels and career she speaks of herself in third person, as "Queenie." Queenie is smart and adept, she is calm under pressure and very clever and confidant. Queenie does not sound at all like the narrator who strikes me as dumb or at least shallow. Also, all across the story, random lines are underlined. Very little of the story sounds believable.
          Then the tale cuts to Maddie and suddenly everything makes sense. The eleven sets of wireless code were false sets that connected to dead radios. The radios were shown in pictures of the wreckage of the plane she flew in on, given to her to convince her that Maddie was dead. The account was fake, she wasn't really guilty about the code or even as shallow as she seemed. The journal was just feeding von Linden another identity, to make him trust her. Maddie tracks down von Linden's house keeper and gets the journal, which she realizes has information about how to find her prison and how to get the prisoners out. We find out that when "Queenie" says "red is her color" (referring to her watch guard) she means that the underlined red passages were made by the guard, who is risking everything to help "queenie."
           Wein takes us on a journey with the characters. We as the readers are not omniscient, we are fooled along with von Linden and the Gestapo as to the character of "Queenie." It takes Maddie's piercing and logical gaze to lend us the sight to see who she really is.  Although the book is confusing because of this, it also makes it unforgettable. Wein's book is  made tenfold more interesting and arresting than if she had let us see everything. I recommend it heartily as both a heartbreaking historical fiction novel, but also as a brain teaser.