1.10 Personal Responses

Caleb Eason

Reading Log 1

Title: Game of Thrones
Author: George R. R. Martin
Text type: novel

Game of Thrones is a very long story featuring a multitude of characters. Game of thrones takes a much deeper approach to the theme of Right vs Wrong than most other books I have read. While most books have well defined ‘bad guys’ and ‘good guys’ good and bad is more versatile and less clearly defined in game of thrones.

One of the main characters in Game of Thrones is Eddard (Ned) Stark.  Eddard is portrayed as the most honorable and moral of Game of Thrones’ many characters, always trying to do what he believes is right.  At the start of the book Eddard beheads Gared, a man who has deserted The Knights’ Watch, a force tasked with defending Westeros (the fictional land in which Game of Thrones is set) from threats beyond its northern border.  Gared deserted his post following an encounter with zombie like creatures beyond the northern border wall -referred to as “Others”- who brutally murdered two of his companions while out on a ranging. An encounter which terrified him to the point of desertion after serving for forty years.

Eddard brings his second youngest son Bran, who is eight years old, to watch the execution. When Bran asks his father why he beheads Gared himself afterwards, he answers “A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is”. This made me think of the use of drones in modern warfare.  Technology is now at the point where remote controlled aircraft can be used to kill people. As Eddard says, a person who employs a headsman to undertake a sentence they have passed is more detached from the magnitude of their actions, when compared to someone who carries out the sentence themselves.  The same goes for the use of drones in warfare. A person who uses a drone as a method of killing is more detached from a situation than a person who may have to kill someone themselves.

Bran is upset at having to watch the beheading. Robb, Bran’s older brother tells him “The deserter died bravely”.  But Bran’s half brother John says no, “this one was dead with fear”. When I was about eight myself. I saw a possum deliberately run over.  Me and my Mum were driving through a forest when we stopped to watch a possum crossing the road. While we were watching it another vehicle came from the other way and swerved towards the possum, killing it.   The driver of the other vehicle decided that the possum was bad and needed to die because possums in New Zealand are a pests. Seeing the possum die upset me at that age. Thinking about this made me question whether it is beneficial for a child to be exposed to death at such a young age or whether that should be an experience for adulthood.

Log 2

Title: Touching the Void
Author: Joe Simpson
Text Type: Non-fiction novel

Touching the Void is a non-fiction novel by Joe Simpson about a climbing epic experienced by him and his climbing partner Simon Yates. Joe and Simon are attempting a first ascent up the then unclimbed west face of peruvian mountain Siula Grande in the peruvian Andes. The story is in first person, predominantly from Joe’s perspective.

After the pair successfully summit Siula Grande they are met with disaster when Joe slips and breaks his knee while they are still ~6000 feet up the mountain. When Simon discovers what’s happened to Joe, his first thought is “You’re fucked mate”. Both of them know Joe is unlikely to get off the mountain alive. Simon is then faced with a momentous decision. Does he stay with Joe and try to help him off the mountain, most likely resulting to the death of both of them, or does he leave Joe behind and get himself safely home? During my school life I have oftentimes found myself in situations with similarities to Simon’s dilemma, although never with such impactful consequences. In class I often spend time helping my friends with their work, sometimes though, this can come at the cost of my own learning. I have to make the decision for myself: do I stay with them and try and help them with their learning, or do I focus on my own work; Do I “get myself home?”.

Like I usually decide to help my friends, Simon makes the decision to stay with Joe and try and get him off the mountain. Joe adopts a slow horizontal shuffling method while Simon goes ahead and digs a trench into the 60 degree slope they are traversing. The pair make a point of not directly talking about Joe’s predicament. After they finish the traverse Simon starts lowering Joe down the mountain in lengths of 300 feet (two climbing ropes) at a time, an incredibly painful process for Joe. This goes well for them and it looks as if they are going to make it to the bottom of the mountain when disaster strikes for the second time. As Joe is being lowered in low visibility he notices that the slope of the mountain is getting steeper, meaning he is approaching a cliff. He frantically tries to stop his descent without success and slips over the edge of a large ice cliff which the pair had overlooked while planning their descent days earlier. Joe is then left dangling helplessly over a 50 foot drop unable to reach the overhanging ice cliff or pull himself back up the rope.

Visualizing these events invoked a strong feeling of despair in me. It was so cruel that after all the two had accomplished, it seemed Joe was going to die when they were just a few hundred feet from the bottom of the mountain. It didn’t matter that I knew Joe must have survived the ordeal, I felt like he was going to die. This made me think of the fairness of the situation as well as highlighting the difference between a true story and fiction. While in a fiction novel the fate of the characters is in the hands of the author, in Touching the Void the characters are at the mercy of the mountain and the weather, which have no concepts of justness or right and wrong. To the mountain the immense effort the characters went though and their determination to get both of them home is of no concern. This makes the story all the more gripping to read as there is no guarantee of a happy ending in the remote situation.

At the top of the rope Simon is alarmed to find it suddenly pull taught indicating Joe’s fall. He manages to keep himself from being pulled down the mountain, and cries out to Joe but the wind snatches his voice away. After an hour of waiting the rope still hasn’t gone slack. Simon knows he is too weak from climbing to pull Joe back up the cliff and he decides to let out the remaining rope hoping Joe reaches the bottom of the cliff. After the rope is all out and Joe’s weight is still pulling the rope taught Simon gets worried. It’s getting dark and the weather is only getting worse, both of them are suffering from frostbitten fingers and Joe is starting to feel the effects of hypothermia.

As time wears on the situation worsens. It’s now pitch black and Simon is slowly being pulled down the slope as the snow below him crumbles. He once again has a terrible decision to make, but this time the outcome is more absolute. Simon knows if he tries to hold Joe much longer, he will most likely slip from the slope sending both of them down over whatever Joe is hanging from, whether it is from the snow collapsing below him, or his strength inevitably failing as the cold of exposure sets into his bones. Hopelessness sets in and Simon only sees himself with one option. He pulls a knife from his pocket and touches it to the rope, under the pressure of Joe’s weight the rope splits apart as easily as if it were twine, and then Joe’s weight is gone from Simon.

Simon busies himself with building a snow cave, the thought of what he has just done turning over in his head. When he wakes in the morning he descends the mountain to see what happened to Joe. Looking out over the cliff all he sees a 50 foot drop into a crevasse. He is certain Joe is dead. He makes his way off the last of the mountain then walks back to base camp where he meets non-climbing companion Richard Hawking and breaks the news. This was a harrowing section of the story to read. ‘Watching’ Simon walk back to camp believing Joe was dead and then having to explain what happened to Richard made me feel pity for him. I also had a growing concern for Joe as his fate was yet to be revealed.

Unknown to Simon, Joe survived the fall, landing on a small ice bridge within the crevasse. After spending the night on the ice bridge Joe finds his way out of the crevasse after a long struggle. He then crawls, hops and drags himself back to base camp over the next 3 days, arriving the night before Simon and Richard were going to leave base camp. While Joe is slowly making his way back to the camp Simon is left to ponder the events of the past few days and the decision he made. This is a hard time for both characters. While Joe is overcoming physical adversities and the emotional challenge of the journey ahead of him, Simon struggles to come to terms with the actions he took on the mountain. The question “Did I murder him?” runs through his mind. He doesn’t want to leave base camp for fear of the criticism he would face for his actions and is worried about breaking the news to Joe’s family.

During their final night at base camp Simon is woken by a cry in the night. He and Richard go out to investigate and Simon is left in awe when he discovers Joe lying in the rocky river bed. This left me with a feeling of happiness and a sense of resolution. Joe had made it, he was safe. All of his and Simon’s suffering and determination had paid off, against all odds. He had survived.

I would highly recommend this book to readers of any genre, It is one of the best books I have read in a long time and has kept me thinking about Joe and Simon a while after putting down the book.

Log 3

Title: Animal Farm
Author: George Orwell
Text type: Novella

Animal farm is a short novel about a group of farm animals who rebel against their farmer (Mr Jones). They take control of their farm in order to establish a better life for themselves where all of the animals are equal and no longer have to work under the rule of Mr Jones. However the animals’ utopia can’t last and under the authority of pig-dictator Napoleon, the animals find themselves no better off than they were under Mr Jones’ rule.

The revolution, and its outcome described in animal farm, draws strong parallels with the soviet/communist revolution of 1917. An old prize boar called Old Major starts the farm’s revolution by giving a speech in which he tells the animals of a way to a better life via revolution (involving the removal of humans from the world). Old Major also teaches them a song called Beasts of England which tells tales of the utopia they seek. Old Major’s speech made me think of the creator of communist ideals Karl Marx and communist revolutionist Vladimir Lenin who set the russian revolution into motion.

After the revolution the boar Napoleon slowly starts taking control of the farm, suppressing those opposed to his rule. He also alters the seven commandments the animals formed to live by at the start of the revolution to favour pigs over the other animals. Napoleon’s rise to power bears strong similarities to the rise of communist dictator Joseph Stalin after the russian revolution. Stalin, like Napoleon, used brute force to suppress his opponents as well as enforcing laws to help him stay in/gain power.

Once in his position of power the pig Napoleon exploits and overworks the animals, forcing large workloads for little reward. The animals work in poor conditions and are denied any requests for luxuries. Napoleon’s exploitation of the animals made me think of someone I know. This person works under a selfish boss who like Napoleon forces large workloads and hard conditions, while they themselves are in a much more pleasant environment. Thinking of this makes me angry at the injustice of the situation. I have even suggested to this person to start a ‘revolution’ of their own to change things for the better. However they would run the risk of finding themselves in a similar situation to snowball (another pig on the farm), who was chased away for disagreeing with Napoleon.

Animal farm is a well written book that deals with interesting ideas and themes. It shows how society can be manipulated, through propaganda and the threat of violence into living in terrible conditions.

Log 4

Title: Snowscape
Author: Patrick Ness
Text type: Short Story

Snowscape is a short story set on an earth like planet far in the future. The human race has relocated from Earth to this planet, which they call New World. The reasons for this relocation are not explained in the story. Snowscape is a postscript to the Chaos Walking trilogy of the same author.

New World is different to Earth. It is inhabited by a human like species referred to as Spackle by the humans who colonised New World. The Spackle do not have spoken language and instead have the ability to ‘hear’ and ‘see’ the thoughts of others that are in close proximity, an ability that is shared with every living creature on the planet. When humans colonize the planet all of the men gain this ability but the women for whatever reason cannot be “heard or seen” by others, however they can still ‘hear’ and ‘see’ the thoughts of others. This broadcasting of thoughts is fittingly referred to as noise. The humans and Spackle have previously been at war with each other but now coexist in peace.

As a person I am generally quiet and usually prefer to keep my feelings to myself rather than expressing them to the world. The thought of living in a world with noise is not a pleasant one to me. Imagining a world in which every thought or feeling I had was broadcast to everyone within a hundred meters makes my skin crawl. I also consider myself to be smart, but while I am good at processing information I don’t know if would be able to deal with the sensory overload of hearing and seeing the thoughts everyone around me, not to mention feeling their emotions. I feel like I would start to lose myself in a world like this.

Snowscape is about a group of survivors of the war who embark on an exploratory mission in a spaceship like vehicle. The book is told from the perspective of Lee, a teenager (considered an adult on New World) who lost his eyes during the (second) Spackle war and uses others’ noise to see.

The book starts with Lee and his friend Wilf -an older man who’s noise Lee often uses to see through- caught away from their ship in a snowstorm. This is where they first encounter the Snowscape, a large unseen monster. While they are running from the roars of the Snowscape Wilf’s noise starts to get chaotic and in the blinding snow Lee struggles to make sense of it all, and is ashamed to feel panicked, “as if I was going blind all over again”, until Wilf grabs his arm and says “I got you”. I can empathise with Lee in this situation as I suffer from migraines. A migraine for me will start with an aura where I will start to lose my vision, as well as experiencing other sensory impairment, and my world becomes confused and difficult to interpret. Whereas Lee is being chased by the Snowscape my “monster” is a day of intense pain in my forehead and nausea. If I ‘see’ an aura coming on when I am away from home I can start to panic. I need someone to guide me; I need someone to say “I got you”. I feel the same sense of dread and dependency Lee must feel being chased by the Snowscape, when faced with the looming concept of hours of intense pain awaiting me.

After their encounter with the Snowscape, Lee, Wilf and the rest of their crew who weren’t killed by the Snowscape meet with a group of Spackle.

The Spackle invite them into an underground network of ice caves that is their home, to take refuge from the storm. Lee and the others realise there is something different about these Spackles’ noise when compared to that of other Spackle they have met with. Their noise is completely devoid of hurt, pain, sadness or any negative emotions, it is like sea of serenity and happiness. Lee and Wilf along with the other male members of the expedition also feel the effects of this pain free noise, though it seems to have an opposite effect on the female members of the group who experience heightened levels of agitation.

The crew start to suspect something is wrong when their questions about the Snowscape and the Spackle’s euphoric noise are discouraged. The next morning they prepare to leave.

The crew exit the Spackle’s caves along with the lead spackle. They get into an argument which results in the Spackle shutting them out as another storm is rapidly approaching and the Snowscape is roaring in the distance. The six crew members start running for their ship. They have almost made it when the Snowscape emerges from the trees before them. It’s then the characters discover the truth about the Snowscape. It’s not some type of predatory animal, it is, or once was, a Spackle. It’s five meters tall with grotesque features and up close the group can hear its noise, a terrible mess of hurt and pain that seems more like it is pushing inwards on the creature than radiating out of it. The Snowscape kills one of the crew and the rest flee, Wilf gets knocked unconscious and Lee is left alone and blind searching for someone’s noise to see through. He finds the noise of the Snowscape, before it is killed by a missile from the spaceship, Lee sees in it’s noise how it was created.

The commune of Spackle wanted to get rid of all of their negative thoughts and emotions. But they couldn’t just be destroyed, they had to go somewhere. So they chose a Spackle who would receive these thoughts and forced them upon him. Every single negative thought, every bit of heartache and fury they poured into him, until on his diet of hate and rage, he grew into a terrible monster. The Snowscape.

Snowscape posed some interesting moral questions to me. The commune of Spackle, or at least their leader, believed that the happiness of their society as a whole was worth the suffering of an individual, even if that suffering was all of society’s. To me it seemed evil to force something like that on an individual even if it greatly improved the lives of the rest of a community. Another aspect of the Spackle’s society seemed wrong to me. Like everyone I have experienced my fair share of suffering in my lifetime, for instance being bullied at school, or having to leave my home town and all my friends as well as my parents splitting up, all in two years. It has changed me, not all for the worst. To take away that suffering would be to change me as a person, and not necessarily in a good way. I would not have gained the strength and resilience I have now, from facing that adversity, as well as an appreciation for the life I live.

Throughout the text the author Patrick Ness brilliantly uses show don’t tell. There is much alluded to that is not explained in the text. This leaves space to be filled by the imagination creating a vivid and engrossing world for the reader. This helps the reader to picture the scene in their mind and acquire a better understanding of the events of the text. The sparing descriptions of the setting paints a much more vivid picture of the environment than a detailed description would hope to. This and the moral questions it asks makes the “Chaos Walking” series stand out to me from other books I have read in the past.

Log 5

Title: Bohemian Rhapsody
Author: Freddie Mercury
Text type: Song

Bohemian Rhapsody is a song by english rock band Queen, composed by singer/pianist Freddie Mercury. The song is a story told from the perspective of an unnamed character depicting an emotional journey. Bohemian Rhapsody consists of six main sections: an dreamlike intro, a ballad, a guitar solo, an operatic passage, a hard rock section and a reflective outro. I can relate the journey of the character in Bohemian Rhapsody with my own journey of learning to play the song on the piano.

The song’s intro has a dreamlike quality to it, created by multilayering of Freddie’s voice to create an acapella setup, as well as a lose tempo and use of odd times signatures (such as 5/4). The character questions the reality of the situation, asking questions such as “Is this the real life?” and “is this just fantasy?” The first part of my journey in learning to play Bohemian Rhapsody also had an almost dreamlike feel. When I first played the song in music class, I suddenly went from being the quiet kid at the back of the class to suddenly being one of more ‘popular’ kids. Everyone wanted to be in a band with me to perform the song at the school concert at August. I kept questioning the reality of the situation, as the feeling of being ‘popular’ was not one I was used to.

The ballad section of the song describes the character struggling with emotions after he “just killed a man”. “Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he’s dead” the character confesses. He says by doing this he has thrown his life away.

I had never questioned the meaning behind this song before studying it for this log, or my reaction to the song. If the lyrics are to be taken literally the character has just murdered someone, yet from the way the song portrays the character, the listeners are on his side and are feeling sympathy for his plight. The character is also quite selfish, he doesn’t even mention the man he has killed, instead focusing on his own sufferings “Sends shivers down my spine, body’s aching all the time”. This theme is often present in modern day media. Characters who might have committed atrocities earlier in the text are later switched into a more favourable light, manipulating the audience into thinking of them once again as ‘good’.

Studying this made me question my subconscious reactions to this way of portraying characters as either good or bad. The way a story can manipulate the audience into sympathising with a character, simply because they are are ‘cool’, or their story is entertaining, was not something I had questioned before.

The phrase “Nothing really matters” (as well as variations of the phrase) is repeated throughout the song. This gives the impression that the events of the world do not bother the character. Looking at the rest of the lyrics however, it is clear this is not that case. Lyrics such as “So you think you can stop me and spit it my eye!” and “So you think you can love me and leave me to die!” as well as the character’s cries to be let go in the operatic section show that the character does care about what is happening to him. This provides insight into the character. He doesn’t like revealing his emotions to the world, pretending that “Nothing really matters”, but on the inside the world does matter to him, he feels lots of strong emotions; “I don’t wanna die!”. I can draw similarities with this aspect of the character as I also keep most of my emotions to myself, pretending that something doesn’t really affect me when in reality I might have strong emotions on the subject.

The operatic section of the song depicts the character’s descent into hell as a result of him murdering another man, as described in the ballad section. In the weeks leading up to the school concert at which I had planned to perform Bohemian Rhapsody I found myself descending into a dark place of my own as one by one members of the band I’d hoped to perform with started pulling out for various reasons. With a only a few weeks left until the concert I was starting to get worried as well as emotionally unstable. At this point I had invested countless hours into the song and felt desperate at the prospect of it all being for waste. To top everything off the last remaining person (the vocalist) who was going to perform with me lost their voice the day before the concert, and on the day of the concert I had a migraine.

After the operatic section comes a hard rock section followed by a reflective outro. The song ends with a final pianississimo (very, very soft) third inversion F major chord accompanied by a quiet strike on a tam tam (Gong) that finally expels the tension built up throughout the song. When I played the finishing chord at the school concert (having performed the song as a solo piece) I felt the same release of tension, having my dreams of performing at the concert come to pass in spite off all the adversities I had faced.

Log 6

Tittle: Two Cars, One Night
Author: Taika Waititi
Text Type: short film

Two Cars, One Night is a short film written and directed by Taika Waititi. The story starts with Romeo, a young boy, and his brother Ed, who have been left in their car while their parent(s) are in a pub drinking. Another car pulls up beside them with a young girl, Polly, who is in the same situation. Polly and Romeo’s relationship at the start of the film is based on rivalry, the two insulting each other, but by the end of the film it has developed into a potential friendship.

Polly has a small ‘diamond’ (actually plastic) ring which Waititi uses as a symbol. Romeo asks Polly if he can have a look at the ring. When Polly gives Romeo the ring she asks him “would you sell it?” Romeo says no, “Cus then I wouldn’t have a diamond ring.” This ring is used by Waititi to symbolise an offer of friendship. Polly asking Romeo if he would sell the ring is a symbol for her asking whether she can trust him with her friendship. Romeo says he wouldn’t sell it, because then he wouldn’t have a friend. This reminds me of my own life. When making friends of my own I, like Polly, want to know whether I can trust them with my friendship. Some of those friends have kept my friendship like Romeo, and some of them have ‘sold it’.

The film is set in New Zealand in the 1960s. Watching the film made me think about how different the world was back then to how it is now. Nowadays if a young child was left alone in a car while the parents were out drinking, watching a rugby match, etc., the parents would be persecuted and the children might have been taken into state care or put in a foster home. But back in the 1960s leaving your child in the car was just normal and happened every day.

Two Cars, One Night was a very moving film. Waititi’s use of various cinematography techniques such as black and white filters, close up shots and well written dialogue helped me to engage with the film and see the characters as their own people rather than actors. I would highly recommend this film to any audience, especially those who grew up in New Zealand in the 1960s.