I like the familiar feeling

of being distracted by a book.

Of math equations working

themselves out in the back

of my mind

while I write the numbers

and think about the story

calling to me

and dragging my fingers to

is pages every few minutes.

There are never ambitious and shy characters in literature

I guess people never associate shyness with ambition; we think that all shy people are reclusive and content with staying home with their families. I randomly started thinking about this combination of characteristics when I was comparing fictional characters with myself and finding similarities and differences.

I’m shy and quiet and timid. I think I care a little bit too much about what people think about me, and I feel self-conscious even when my rational mind tells me that other people probably don’t pay enough attention to me in the first place to judge me too harshly. This characteristic of mine brought to mind Laura Wingfield from The Glass Menagerie. I could relate to her self-consciousness and how she feels safest when she’s alone and not under others’ scrutiny. However, unlike Laura, I do feel motivated to finish high school, graduate from college and get a job in which I can hopefully have a positive impact on the world. I want to be able to do things with my life (like volunteering, getting internships, participating in clubs) that require interacting with other people, and this does help me overcome my shyness occasionally.

The closest character I could think of who has the ambition/shyness combination is Jo March from Little Women. She has dreams of becoming a famous author. She’s introverted and doesn’t like being a “proper” lady. She feels awkward at parties and while having to make small talk with strangers and prefers being with close friends and family (as I do). However, I don’t think she’s shy exactly. She isn’t terribly self-conscious and she’s definitely not quiet. She’s famous for having a temper. Beth March is the shy one who, like Laura, is almost terrified of speaking to strangers and is content to stay home and care for her family.

 

THERE’S A BELLA/EDWARD VS. ELIZABETH/DARCY POLL!!!!

AND BELLA/EDWARD’S WINNING!!!!!!!!!

How is this possible? PLEEEEEEASE GO VOTE FOR ELIZABETH AND DARCY!!!! THE FATE OF THE LITERARY WORLD RESTS ON THIS POLL!!!

The poll is here on hypable:

http://www.hypable.com/2013/08/16/hypables-battleships-books-pride-prejudice-vs-twilight/

Voting ends on August 18th at 12p.m. I believe.

Bookshop

Walking past shelves

glancing at titles

and wanting to stop and read

each book that I’ve read before.

The characters call out to me:

“We’ve met before,

don’t you remember?

Won’t you stop to greet me?”

I’m sorry, Anne Shirley

and I’m sorry Harry Potter,

sorry Elizabeth Bennet, but there are too many

books calling out

and I can’t stop and read each one.

Somehow I want declare to the world

that this book is part of me

and I don’t want to leave it

all alone on the cold shelf

even though I know

I already have 2 copies at home.

Fantasy Magic!

I’ve compiled a list of some fantasy books I’ve read and the nature of magic in those stories. Yay! Because I LOVE fantasy books and because I’m trying to get inspiration for my own concept of magic to use in a story I’m writing right now. I’ll try to list the types of magic from most complex to least complex. Most of the concepts are so complex that I’ll only be able to write a very simplified description.

Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan:

The Wheel of Time world is probably the most intricate, detailed fantasy world I’ve read about (and it doesn’t hurt that the author had fourteen 700+ page books in which to develop it). The True Source is the source of power for all magic that some people can tap into. It has two parts, saidin, the part that women can tap into, and saidar, the part that men can tap into. Using magic is called “channeling” or “weaving”. The person using magic weaves threads of one or more of the following elements: earth, fire, air, water and spirit. Among people who can channel, the magical strength can differ greatly, and different magic-users can have specialties in different elements. Some actions only require one element while others require multiple elements. Magical actions can range from lighting a candle to severing another magic-user’s connection to the True Source. There’s lots, lots more, but it would take a whole book to describe it all. In fact, there is a book called The World of Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time which describes all of it.

Lightbringer Trilogy by Brent Weeks:

Magic-users are called drafters, and the act of using magic is called drafting. Drafting is based on light and colors. Drafters, depending on how they were born, will have the ability to absorb and therefore utilize certain colors of the light spectrum. Depending on whether they can utilize one, two, or more colors, they are called monochromes, bichromes or polychromes. After absorbing their color of light, drafters use it to create luxin, a physical substance. Each color creates a different kind of luxin and each kind of luxin has its own properties. For example, red luxin is very flammable and blue luxin is hard, smooth and good for building. Only a person called the Prism can split white light into any color light (other drafters are limited by the colors they can see), and there’s only supposed to be one Prism at a time.

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson:

Allomancers’ magic is based on metals that they swallow and burn. Once they burn a metal, they can use its power. A mistborn can burn any of the 16 powerful metals. A misting can only burn on type of metal. Different metals give different powers. I know there’s a lot more detail, but I read the series a while ago and can’t remember much.

Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud:

This, along with Wheel of Time, is one of my favorite fantasy series ever, and the concept of magic is pretty unique. Magicians have the power to summon demons from the Other Place, using pentacle drawn on the floor, certain herbs and magic spells. Once the demon is summoned, it must stay in this world until the magician either dismisses it or dies. Demons are pretty much forced to do the magician’s will, but they hate magicians (obviously, since they’re practically enslaved by them) and try their hardest to foil the magicians and escape them. For example, the magician’s pentacle is supposed to keep him safe from the demons, but if the pentacle is not drawn perfectly, the demon can pass its borders and eat (yes, literally) or kill the magician. Also, demons hate being called demons. They’re actually spirits, and they have different names according to their level of power. The least powerful are imps, then come foliots, djinn, afrits, and most powerful are marids. The more powerful, the harder it is for a magician to control a spirit. Spirits can use magical spells, such as creating illusions or explosions. Also, there are different dimensions. Most people can only see the first dimension, which is what the world would normally look like to us. Other dimensions can reveal people’s “auras”, and spirits true forms show on higher dimensions, while on the first dimension, they can shapeshift and choose what they look like. Demons can see on higher dimensions, but humans need special spectacles to see on higher dimensions.

Lirael by Garth Nix:

I don’t remember this book too much either, but most mages use magic called Charter magic by using charter symbols to create their spells. Also, there are magical bells that can control the dead. There are seers who can foresee the future.

Eragon by Christopher Palolini:

Magic is used by saying spells in the Ancient Language (you can’t lie in the Ancient Language). Mages, riders and elves can use magic. They can also use magic with just their will, without speaking, but long ago someone bound magic to the Ancient Language to make using magic more controllable. Using magic takes the user’s energy unless the magic-users draws energy from other living things around him/her. Using too much energy can kill someone. You can also train your mind to be aware of others’ thoughts and/or train your mind to be closed to other prying minds. Dragons are magical creatures that hatch when in contact with their rider, someone who is pre-destined to be bound to them.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling:

I know the world of Harry Potter is extremely complex and detailed, but if we focus on just the magic, it basically consists of waving a wand and reciting a spell. The things that magic can do become extremely complex, especially as the series progresses. Spells range from the simple (for example, lumos, which creates light on your wand) to the complicated, such as casting a spell on yourself that allows you to turn into an animal at will. Muggles, non-magical people, are ignorant about the world of magic. Anyways, if you don’t know all this already, go read Harry Potter. It’ll be considered a classic in a few decades, unless it already is considered a classic.

Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan:

This series is based on Greek mythology. People who have one god parent and one mortal parent are demigods and have some powers, depending on who their godly parent is. For example, children of Poseidon, god of the sea, can control water, and children of Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, may have magical powers of persuasion.

Children of the Lamp by P.B. Kerr:

There are djinn who can use magic. They choose their own personalized magic word, and they can use magic by saying this magic word.

 

“East of Eden” Thoughts on Chapter 15

Recently I began reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It’s pretty depressing, not that I expected anything happy… but it also introduces many interesting ideas and provokes thought from the reader. The events in chapter 15 especially stood out to me.

For people who haven’t read East of Eden before: The main character is Adam Trask who moved with his wife Cathy to Salinas Valley in California. In this chapter, Steinbeck introduces a new character – Adam’ servant, a Chinese man named Lee. When Lee is introduced at first, he is portrayed as a stereotypical Chinese: he speaks in broken English, wears a long braid, shuffles and hides his hands in his sleeves. However, later, Lee has a conversation with Sam Hamilton, one of Adam’s neighbors. Sam finds out that Lee was born in America and he tells Lee that he doesn’t believe that Lee is really what he seems (an uneducated servant), and the reader finds that Lee actually speaks perfect English and had graduated from the University of California. However, because of the way most white people viewed Chinese during the time, it was easier for Lee to live according to what people expected of a Chinese person, which was why he purposely spoke bad English. When he tried to act like  a westerner, he found that white people mistrusted him and other Chinese people avoided him for acting too “white”, so he decided that it was easier to conform to the stereotype of a Chinese person. That way, he blended in and escaped most people’s notice.

First of all, I found this lonely situation of his was quite depressing.

But it also made me think and appreciate the cultural acceptance in modern days. Today, it’s not strange at all for people of all races to speak perfect English, be educated and fit right in with the rest of society in the US.

Despite this however, it’s not exactly the same being Chinese in America as it would being white in America. For one, I’m not always sure how to balance the western culture with Asian culture. For example, one of my greatest regrets forgetting how to speak Chinese fluently (I spoke Cantonese fluently when I was younger). I feel that because I’m Chinese, I should at least know how to speak the language properly; however, once I started going to school, I gradually forgot more and more of the language, so now I feel cut off from a large part of the Asian culture. If I were to go to China and try to live there, I would still be a foreigner. In a way, I have this in common with Lee; he tried going to China, but the people there regarded him with suspicion because he was a foreigner from the land of the “white demons”.

But in contrast, in modern times, the cultures of Asia and America are not as different anymore. World cultures are becoming increasingly uniform with the spread of technology. The Eastern cultures have become “westernized”, adopting and advancing the “western” ideas and technologies and ways of life.

So, the question is, how much does race really matter anymore today? In Lee’s time, it mattered a lot because of the harsh stereotyping and preconceptions that people held of certain races. As Lee explains to Sam in chapter fifteen, the white people expected Chinese to speak in broken English, walk with a shuffle and wear long braids. If a Chinese person acted otherwise, they were thought of as unnatural and untrustworthy.

However, today, since anyone, no matter what race, can act practically anyway they want without surprising people too much, then does our race really matter in the way we live? It doesn’t have as much impact on our culture, because now we can be multiple cultures at once and still be accepted in America. I can be Asian American, and I’m not obligate to choose one or the other or one over the other. So I think I’ll satisfy myself with that answer right now.