A Comprehensive Analysis Of The Blogs Of Third Period Language and Literature 2

We have finally reached the end of the fourth quarter, and our blogs shall soon come to an end. Throughout this school year, the blog posts of my classmates have served as a source of entertainment and valuable knowledge for me and for many others; as a nod to that fact and to my love of all things self-referential, I have decided to do a comprehensive analysis of these blogs and the general writing style, tone, and preferred content of my fellow students for my last entry on this blog. Keep in mind that I will be sticking to the blogs of Third Period for the sake of brevity, arranged in alphabetical order; without further ado, below are some observations of and thoughts on the writing of my classmates.

 

 

Book Bloggers In the Chat

 

Maddie starts off this blog’s cycle, choosing to explore a variety of different topics ranging from middle-grade science fiction to YA; her writing has a solid, thoughtful quality to it, and she relates her thoughts to the reader in a way that both gets the point across and is easy to understand. Next is Grace, who uses quite an expressive tone; her writing is laced with bits of witty humor, enlivening the atmosphere of her posts. Walter continues the blog cycle with a primary focus on topics of a rather technical nature; he defines terms and structures posts with a refreshing clarity, making his writing easy to navigate. Lastly in this blog, we have Sam; his writing has a slight conversational tilt to it that serves as a counterbalance to the dark subject matter he writes about, and it clearly showcases his passions and interests.

 

 

Booked

 

This blog is headed by Coleman’s posts, which tend to branch off into background topics supporting writing and literature; his writing has a particular focus on the “real world” and historical events as opposed to the fantastical, providing a much-needed change of content considering that most literature is centered on fiction. By contrast, Marco is almost completely focused on analyzing the fantastical worlds that one comes across in books; perhaps the most salient feature of his writing is his humorous voice that never fails to charm the reader and hold their interest, and his arguments are made in a concise manner. Next up is Gabriel, conveying his thoughts on various titles in a reflective, almost anecdotal manner; this allows the reader to connect to his writing more deeply. Nyla closes the blog cycle, exploring a variety of topics; her writing applies modern concepts to older works, creating interesting interpretations.

 

Dog With A Blog

 

I am a bit confused as to the poster order of this blog, as Maddie appears to be a contributor on both this blog and the aforementioned Book Bloggers in the Chat; nevertheless, my aforementioned observations still apply. Bridget focuses on the “artform” of the book review with a focus on YA fiction, her objective star-rating system adding a nice touch to her already useful reviews; Knox also adds to the library of content reviews on this blog, although he has more of a focus on nonfiction compared to Bridget. David contributes to this collection as well, with his reviews slightly figuratively varnished with his personal voice; together, these three distinct writers put together a variety of book reviews, creating a valuable resource for anyone who would like an introduction to a new title. (Note that Yan was previously on this blog; however, I will be discussing his writing in the Ream Readers section for the sake of simplicity.)

 

Ream Readers

 

Sophie starts this blog off with several interesting discussions of various novels; she often makes reference to anecdotes and her family’s reading activity in order to frame her reviews, adding a nice personal touch to her writing. Next off is currently Yan, with a particularly pronounced focus on Asian culture, exposing readers to a facet of literature that is frequently glossed over in discussions. Maya, although no longer a contributor to this blog, has also left behind some valuable content; her book reviews are structured in a consistent manner, educating the reader on a variety of different works. Third in this order is Zhaoxin (Jojo); her writing has a keen bent to it, and often discusses practical topics. My posts just so happen to complete this blog cycle, this particular one being no exception; as I do not have the viewpoint of an outsider, I am not sure if I can discuss the qualities of my writing in an objective manner. If anyone has noticed anything particularly of interest about my blog posts, feel free to let me know in the comments section below.

 

Shawn and Co. Ltd.

 

I am not quite sure of the posting order of this blog, but it appears that Khadeejah goes first; she posts solid reviews on a variety of interesting books, with a slight bent towards fantasy with rather dark elements. The namesake of this blog, Shawn, writes in a detailed and more formal manner, exploring various topics related to literature; his citations are an especially useful addition, allowing the reader to further learn about the subject matter he discusses. Like Yan, Evan is also quite focused on Japanese manga; his tone is quite conversational, and his posts are organized in a way that is pleasing to follow. Lastly, Jesse is also a prominent contributor to this blog; he has a focus on nonfiction, and he discusses his ideas in an engaging and informative way.

 

 

Overall, my classmates have produced a motley assortment of interesting content via the blog posts; they have served as sources of interesting knowledge, windows into who my classmates are as people, and writing inspiration. I have greatly enjoyed perusing them throughout this school year, and I look forward to seeing more of everyone's writing. 

- Jade Li 

I have changed my mind on Attack on Titan - Yan L

    Yeah...so Attack on Titan is no longer my favorite manga...and you're probably thinking "Well that was fast." considering exactly a month ago I wrote a blog about why it is. However, quite a lot has happened this month so let me explain to you how and why did Attack on Titan fall downhill so suddenly, and so quickly. Warning: spoilers ahead. 

    To be honest I was never the biggest fan of the ending, though I also didn't despise it compared to most of the community. It was quite a cheesy ending with the main protagonist Eren Jaeger, who turned "evil", making the others realize he was doing everything for them. This wasn't too bad of an ending as Attack on Titan has always been a shounen (for ages 10-16) manga, meaning it should've been expected to have a very generic ending. That being said, the author Isayama could've definitely executed that much better. If you want to see how a good version of that generic "bad guy turns good" plot twist and why AoT couldn't execute it, please check out Jaewoon's blog at The Bowl. To summarize, the twist came too suddenly without any foreshadowing or hints, Eren's final goal never needed him to turn to the dark side, thus making the plot twist seem useless.

    It seems like this is the ending Isayama wanted originally, and maybe that's why it was bad and unfitting. I would describe Isayama as an "accidental genius" as his original goal was to just write about the adventure and interactions of the three main characters of Eren, Mikasa, and Armin. However through the story, Isayama "accidentally" made the other characters' dynamic and characteristic way more interesting and developed compared to the main three. The serious and philosophical tone he wrote the story in also may have made the readers overanalyze many ideas that were just supposed to be one-sided. This would lead to many fan theories and interpretations (especially about the ending) that Isayama cannot have because of the publisher's restrictions. He also didn't change anything from his original plan for the well-developed side characters as they did not get a chance to grow and simply just stayed the same from start to finish. 

    Lastly, and what convinced me to write this blog, is the eight extra pages Isayama added, the "epilogue of the epilogue" finally convinced the remaining fans who enjoyed the ending to absolutely detest it. Not to spoil too much since the official pages haven't even been released yet, but basically, it is revealed that everything Eren did was useless, he failed to save most of humanity, he failed to confess to Mikasa, and most importantly, the only thing everyone thought Eren accomplished at the end: destroying the titans, was proven to be untrue. 

    Even after all this, I definitely would still recommend Attack on Titan just because of simply how amazing it was before the ending. The soundtrack for the anime is also, in my opinion, up there with the greatest. And though I will no longer consider it as my favorite, it will always have a special place in my heart simply because of the 7 amazing years I experienced because of it. And to end it with a quote: "to the boy who sought freedom, goodbye."

Book Recommendations for New Readers by Zhaoxin Sun

In a sort of semi-continuation from my 2nd quarter post about books versus technology in children’s education, this week I’ll be giving book recommendations for new readers. If any of you have younger siblings who hate reading, they might be convinced to give it another shot after reading these!

A couple obvious recommendations are classic early-reader series like Geronimo/Thea Stilton or the Magic Treehouse series. Books like this are action-packed and have lots of images, with each installment being relatively short. While older readers will find them very annoying due to their repetitive plotlines, such series are riveting and captivating to younger readers. They have a good mix of realistic and imaginative elements, which I think makes readers believe that these crazy things just might have a slight grain of truth in them. For beginners who may not be able to stomach complicated concepts and plotlines, this is a perfect formula to start out with.

Another series I remember loving was the Rainbow Fairies. This series really plays into the imagination and fantasies of young children; I, personally, was thrilled whenever they described their glittering wings, beautiful dresses, and instruments. The short length of the books in the series also makes it suitable for young readers. While the plot is undeniably the same each time (this might not be good if your siblings are unusually perceptive and will call the series out), the pure adrenaline rush of reading about beautiful things and a simple plot that is over in a sixteenth-inch of book keeps readers addicted. Like in the previously mentioned series, authors of this series have figured out a formula to keep children reading. This makes all of them an excellent choice to get children motivated and excited to read, as well as the sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing a book or an entire stack.

The last one and my personal favorite is for your philosopher sibling who is bad with words but seems to understand everything else. Owly by Andy Runton is a wonderful series about an owl and its friends. The books deal with very applicable and complex ideas like friendship, worry, hard work, and disappointment. By describing the lives of these animals, the author portrays these ideas in an interesting and touching way. Part of the charm of this book is that it does not use narration or dialogue. Even in the rare text box, there will only be symbols such as arrows or magnets. While this contributes to the thematic atmosphere of the book and makes it accessible to all ages, it can also be viewed as a drawback. While I personally think having no difficult or “cringey” dialogue makes it worth reading for people of all ages, some may be discouraged from having their children read this because they aren’t really learning to read. Because of this, Owly is more of an interest-building series and a way to get children familiar with flipping the pages of a book than something to learn reading and words through. 

I hope any younger family or friends enjoy these recommendations!

 

Books for Boredom (quick and easy reads)

    Boredom is the worst, and often leads to scrolling through Instagram or watching YouTube videos. So to help you out I've picked out some of my favorite go to books, that will help cure your boredom! Before we get started though, let me give you the basic gist of a boredom book. What I would classify as a boredom book would be something to take your minds off things for a while. A book that you can just pull of yourself to entertain yourself with. You don't want something to long or that requires a commitment, because that's too much work. You especially don't want something too dark and depressing because those can be hard to read. 

Calvin and Hobbes (comic books)

    Calvin and Hobbes, Big Nate and basically any other comic book are great, easy books to read. Calvin and Hobbes is a comedy comic book about Calvin, a young mischievous boy and his stuffed tiger Hobbes. The comic covers a broad range of topics including daydreams, attacks on Susie, trouble in school, sled rides and more. What I love the most about Calvin and Hobbes is the simplicity of it. Each book is created from a collection of comic strips some funny, some sweet and others more philosophical. There is no overarching story, and if you wanted to, you could read start reading from the middle of the book. Calvin and Hobbes is the perfect solution to boredom and I would recommend reading it. 

Carl Hiaasen

    Carl Hiaasen has published many young reader chapter books about nature and mysteries. These books include Hoot, Flush, Scat, Squirm, Stink - No Surrender and Chomp (Hoot was made into a movie). He has also written some adult novels, but I have yet to read those. All his Young reader books fun, playful and intriguing stories. He always finds an interesting storyline, like in Chomp two young kids and one of their fathers join a production company to film a nature show when a thunderstorm appears, and the main actor goes missing. Another one of my favorites by him is Flush, a story about a brother and sister investigating a gambling ship for illegal sewage dumping. These stories are always a fun read and are a great cure to your boredom for a few hours.

Reread a favorite book. 

    You can never go wrong with rereading one of your favorite books! 

    Rereading books is a great way to pass some time. You've already read it and know what's going to happen, so you can be a little more relaxed while reading it. It's also something you know you'll enjoy, so there's no stress involved!

Thank you for reading!

 - Sophie A. 

On Warriors and Its Popularity Within The Online Writing Community

 

Recently, I found myself pondering the qualities of my creative writing, in particular my tendency to gravitate towards writing anthropomorphic fantasy; after considering the fact that my experiences with the online writing and roleplaying communities have had a major influence on my writing, I have realized that my prominent usage of sentient animal civilizations is most likely due to a great amount of exposure to the fantasy series Warriors. An ongoing saga currently spanning seven major arcs and roughly forty-one books, it tells the tale of five clans of sentient cats living in the wilderness, in particular narrating the heroic journey of a former house cat named Firestar (Rusty) and exploring the fates of his various descendants. This book series has become extremely popular within the online writing and roleplaying communities, with many roleplay forums of a “fanfiction-y” nature using it as source material; in fact, the very first forum I ever joined was set in the world of Warriors, albeit with different clans and a slightly altered setting. Thinking about how Warriors has inspired so many roleplayers and aspiring writers, I began to notice how certain characteristics of its worldbuilding make it especially suitable as a setting for online roleplaying; below is a discussion of two of these characteristics, and how they contribute to the overall popularity of Warriors as a “roleplaying medium” in the online writing community.

 

Perhaps the most prominent aspect of the fictional world of Warriors is its simplicity and familiarity. Much like Harry Potter, another popular fantasy series, Warriors takes the mundane and ordinary (i.e. feral cat communities) and imbues them with traditional elements of fantasy (e.g. prophecies, protagonists with magical abilities), thus making it relatively easy to understand; the basic underlying principles of the world and the society that the cats inhabit are also explained rather straightforwardly within the narrative. This simplicity happens to make it easy to expand on and build more complex worldbuilding structures on top of in fanfiction and online roleplaying, making Warriors particularly attractive as a starting template for roleplay forums who want to explore new themes and plotlines within a preexisting world; it also makes it easier for less experienced roleplayers to join and participate in roleplaying forums set in the world of Warriors, as the setting is easy to understand and insert oneself into.

 

Another characteristic of Warriors’ worldbuilding that makes it especially suitable for roleplaying is its great attention to detail; the clans have their own terminology and sayings that reflect their worldview and cultural values, and several aspects of real-life feline behavior as well as traditional herbal medicine are included to flesh out the world. Along with the aforementioned simplicity of Warriors’ worldbuilding, these details serve to create a sort of “template” that can be easily referenced by roleplayers when writing characters and plotlines, making it easier to improvise and therefore roleplay smoothly.

 

Overall, the simplicity and thoroughness of Warriors’ worldbuilding makes it quite useful as a setting for roleplayers to explore and build upon, explaining the popularity the series enjoys within the online writing community. As a writer and roleplayer, I find it important to examine my writing from time to time and the influence that my experiences have had on it; thinking about the impact of Warriors on the roleplaying community and the reasons for its popularity has helped me understand my writing and how I may develop it further.

- Jade

Handwriting

 My parents have tried unsuccessfully for years to get my brother and I to fix our handwriting. My dad even got me a handwriting practice book for Christmas (passive aggressive much?). I dabbled in it a bit in the beginning of quarantine but my handwriting has since reverted into scrawls again.

Early on, handwriting styles differed wildly from region to region. An attempt to standardize writing and legibility yielded Carolingian miniscule, which had lowercase letters, word separation, and punctuation. Parchment got more expensive, though, so people tried to push back against the gothic handwriting/blackletter by using a more looped, cursive form of writing. Elegant penmanship soon became a status symbol, so there were many schools to train master scribes. These master scribes were responsible for copying important documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but it was quite different among non professionals. 

Amateur writers adopted handwriting styles that reflected various professions and social ranks. Men and women had their own flourishes in handwriting based on their sex, for example. Afterwards, there were several handwriting styles that emerged to democratize handwriting and make it easier to learn. These included the Palmer method, Spencerian method, Zaner-Bloser method, and the D’Nealian method. It’s likely that your school taught cursive the D’Nealian way if you’ve ever seen this:

Clearly, though, technology has seemingly dampened the importance of beautiful penmanship. Why spend time practicing handwriting if there are typewriters, keyboards, and fonts that will do it all for you? While I agree to some extent, I still think there’s a place for handwriting in the modern world. If nothing else, it’s nice to look at, and we still need calligraphers to make new fonts for us. With all that said, how can we improve our handwriting?

The first steps are basically all the prep work. It’s important to find the right pen (ballpoint vs gel, tip size, color, brand, grip/body, etc.) or pencil. You can explore your preferences by doing some drills like loops and lines, which will also help you relax. 

Next, figure out what grip you like. While the dynamic tripod grip is widely regarded as the most stable and relaxed, there are alternative grips that many prefer as well. Google around and try a couple before settling on your favorite. Just make sure that you’re not holding it too tight, which is a common mistake that fatigues the muscles very quickly.

After the prep work, this is when methods start to disagree. Some say to model after a font or a calligrapher that attracts you and go from there. Others say to start with examining your own handwriting. That part doesn’t seem to matter as much if you practice consistently. Doing drills constantly and modifying certain letters will greatly improve your handwriting. After long enough, you’ll be left with beautiful, consistent, and personal handwriting.

-Zhaoxin

Attack on Titan: Why it is my favorite manga

    Last week was very eventful for anime and manga fans, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure part 6 anime was announced, the new season of Zombieland Saga debuted, one of the best action chapters in all of One Piece's 24-year history was made, and most importantly, my favorite manga: Attack on Titan, by Isayama Hajime, has ended after 12 years. I'm not going to be spoiling anything in this blog, I will only be writing about my experiences with the manga. 

Volume 20 cover art

    Upon first glance, Attack on Titan is a bit...no, extremely weird. In fact, even I used to describe it as "mindless, naked giants running around eating people." However this is far from the real hook of the story, the main drawing point of the manga is the realism even though the premise is as fiction as they come. Every single character has enough history and personality to make them almost seem real. I do not think there is any character the readers could've hated by the end of the story. Each of them has a  justifiable motive and a history that made them who they are now. And most importantly, the point that makes the manga so realistic compared to many other Shounen mangas, is that each of them could die at any point of the story, there is no plot armor and in most deaths the victim doesn't have any last words to move the plot forward. Not just the characters, but the world-building is just as, if not more breathtaking, the 2000 year history and well-thought-out geography only adds realness and engagement to the viewers' experience. 

one titan using osoto gari judo throw on another titan

  Next, I would like to talk about the action part of the manga. There is usually 2 ways a 1-on-1 fight could be: titan vs titan or human vs titan. Titans are giant humanoid figures, while they are usually mind-less and have the intelligence of a potato, a few titans are actually capable of thinking and sometimes even talking. For reasons I cannot say, each intelligent titans has a specific attribute that they specialize in, resulting in an extremely interesting and engaging fight every time 2 meets. Some of my favorite fights are from the "brawler" kinds of titans, in these fights, they would perform real-world MMA techniques such as a triangle choke, arm-bar, and guillotine. Human vs titan is also very cool due to the size differences. Humans are able to take down titans using the ODM or 3DMG (same thing, different translations) gears, these are a combination of grappling hooks, jet pack, 2 swords, and a scabbard filled with replacement blades. Because a titan's weakness is at its nape, a human would have to fly up close and cut it with the swords.

ODM (omni-directional mobility gear) design

    Lastly, I really enjoyed Attack on Titan's theme of Freedom and becoming free from your past, family, and everything else that is out of your control. Again I cannot say much about this theme's appearances in the story, however I feel that freedom is extremely important in society right now.  I definitely would recommend you to read the manga as it is not extremely long. I also hope I didn't hype it up too much, as part of the reason I love this series so much is that I grew up with it, I've been reading the monthly chapters monthly for about 7 years now so there's a lot of memories and experiences I associate with it.  

The Giver Quartet

     

    The Giver Quartet is a series about a utopian world and consist of the books The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger and Son. My favorite part about these books are the connections between each story. In the world that these books are set in there are many different communities or worlds and times. Throughout each book though you can see characters, settings and event from the other books. I also love the length of these books. Each book is no longer then a few hundred pages, making it an easy read for rainy day. 

The Giver

    The Giver is the first book written in the quartet. It follows the life of Jonas, A young boy growing up in a world where everything is planned out and the same. He was picked for a special job though and was given access to memories of before the sameness. Through these memories he can see the wrong in his world and works to change. What I liked most about this book was the views it argues. In the world the young boy is living in, everyone lives the same life, they don't get to choose their jobs and they are content about it. None of the people living in this community realize that there is  different world outside of theirs. Overall, this book is a great book, it well written, makes you think, and entertaining. 

Gathering Blue

    This book is my personal favorite out of the quartet, although I might have a bias, as it was the first book of the quartet that I read. Kira, a 15 year old girl with a deformed leg, is recently orphaned after her mom died of a sickness. Her community usually leaves cripples to die in a field, so to prove herself useful she begins work for the council as a sewer. While working for the counsel she notices some suspicious behavior, and discovers secrets. I really liked the characters in this book. The story is told by Kira, so you get a front row seat to her thoughts and development throughout the book. I also liked the plot of the book. You never quite know what's going on in the big picture, though the author leaves subtle hints here and there. 

Messenger 

    Messenger is a story about Matty, is one of Kira's friends from Gathering Blue. He Travels between his town and Kira's town to deliver messages between Kira and her father. The forest which he must travel through reflects the towns people's attitudes and starts attacking and hurting Matty. On his final trip through the forest he had to lead Kira back to her father, but the forest had other plans for him.  While I enjoyed reading this book and do not regret reading it, I do not think I will ever read it again. It had an interesting story line and was thought provoking, but there was just not enough action. The beginning was slow with very little action, and it was not till the end that something exciting was happening. 

Son

    Son is the story about a boy Jonas saved in The Giver and his mother. The Mother gave birth to a son named Gabriel, but due to the rules of the town she wasn't allowed to keep him. One day she learns that her son was lost, and Gabriel the town had nothing to offer, so she escapes on a boat to a remote town next to the sea. Gabriel, after leaving the town with Jonas ends up in the woods where Jonas creates a new settlement. As he grew older he became more curious, and one day, sets out to find his mother. My favorite part about this book was how part of it was set at the same time and place as The Giver, but following a different character. Throughout the book you can see glimpse of scene from The Giver and although it doesn't clarify anything, it adds more dimension to the story.  This book was my least favorite book out of the quartet, I did not like how it used magic, and I didn't find the story to be interesting. I also did not like the ending of the story, I found it to be to cheesy and not in line with the theme of the other stories. If I were to rate it, I would give it 2.5 stars out of 5. 

Overall I would definitely recommend reading The Giver and Gathering Blue. They were fun to read and brought up lots of interesting points. As for the other two books they were good, but they are only fun to read if you have already read the The Giver and Gathering Blue. 

 

Thanks for reading!

 - Sophie A

On The sorting-hat-chats Hogwarts Houses Theory and Moral Themes In Narratives

 

Recently, I decided to revisit some of my old Internet-surfing days and browse through the various online fan communities floating around on the web. While doing so, I found a curious theory of human categorization devised by members of the Harry Potter fandom. Hosted by the user “sorting-hat-chats” on the blogging platforms Tumblr and Wordpress, the system takes the four Hogwarts houses and uses them to roughly categorize the moral motivations and methods of humanity. being interested in topics related to psychology, feeling a pleasant nostalgia towards the concept of a fandom taking canonical information and using it for new purposes, and interested in the system’s potential as a character and plot theme development tool, I have decided to describe the system and discuss my thoughts on it below. 

 

            In this fan-created system, the term “Primary” is used to refer to a character’s moral values and motivational drive; the four Primaries are dichotomously arranged along two axes, with Gryffindor and Ravenclaw being Idealist Primaries and Hufflepuff and Slytherin being Loyalist Primaries respectively. As Idealist Primaries, Gryffindor and Ravenclaw are both motivated by a set of abstract moral “truths” or principles; however, they differ in how they source and decide on those principles. Gryffindor Primaries trust their moral intuition and innate sense of right and wrong, believing that the morally correct choice is one that aligns with one’s instinctive reactions to moral situations; by contrast, Ravenclaw Primaries question their moral impulses and instead rely upon rationally constructed systems (e.g. religion, logical reasoning) by which to base moral decisions off of. On the other axis, Loyalist Primaries are driven by their moral responsibilities towards the concrete wellbeing of other people; they differ in how they decide which people they should prioritize morally in terms of responsibility. Hufflepuff Primaries feel morally responsible for all people; they see everyone as having a universally equal moral value, and prioritize loyalty to communities and social groups over loyalty to specific individuals. (Note that Hufflepuff Primaries can still have motivations that are considered immoral or evil and harm innocent people. They would simply need to dehumanize their victims - in other words, stop seeing them as people and therefore strip them of their value.)  On the other side of the Loyalist dichotomy is the Slytherin Primary; people with this Primary only feel morally responsible for the individuals that they personally care about, and see these people as being more morally valuable than others.  All four Primaries can be “Burned,” meaning that one has decided that their moral motivations, while morally correct, are not feasible or practical to uphold in reality. Individuals with Burned Primaries are often jaded and cynical, seeing themselves and the world as morally bad as they are not allowed to act on what they believe is right. One can also have a “Model” in addition to the Primary, feeling motivated by some of that Primary’s beliefs and ideals without truly believing that they are intrinsically morally correct.

 

            The second component of this theory, the “Secondary,” refers to the preferred methods one uses to achieve their goals. Each Secondary takes the behavioral traits Rowling assigned to each original Hogwarts house and expands on them; for example, Ravenclaw Secondaries prefer to collect knowledge and skills in various topics and areas in order to prepare themselves for potential situations they may encounter, and Hufflepuff Secondaries prefer to work steadily and consistently towards their goals as well as build a good reputation so that others may easily come to their aid when needed.  Like the aforementioned Primaries, Secondaries can also Burn, and one can model another Secondary that is not their own.

           

            Now that I have described sorting-hat-chats’ theory and its major components above, I can now discuss my thoughts on the theory, in particular its potential as a useful tool for plot theme and character development. After learning about this theory, I have observed the majority of narratives in popular culture seem to be driven by either Hufflepuff or Gryffindor Primary ideals; this makes sense from a socio-cultural perspective, as the Hufflepuff Primary moral code prioritizes the community above individual ties and therefore is more likely to support the common goals of society, while the Gryffindor Primary, when its internal moral standards are aligned with the ethos of one’s society, can promote zealotry and unwavering support of societal moral standards while discouraging excessive questioning and therefore potential rebellion against those ideals. My most recent writing project is a deconstruction of the popular Chosen One narrative and seeks to explore how the Hufflepuff/Gryffindor morality described above, when taken to extremes, is ultimately harmful to society. I now realize that I have unintentionally created an ensemble of Chosen One protagonists that are all either Ravenclaw Primaries that question societal moral standards, Slytherin Primaries, Burned Hufflepuff Primaries, or Gryffindor Primaries whose internal moral compasses do not align with that of society’s in one way or another. By having these characters go against the very system they were chosen to serve, I am able to create interesting conflict within the plot and ultimately convey my story’s theme in a thought-provoking and effective way; sorting-hat-chats’ theory helped me to evaluate these characters and sort through their moral motivations, ensuring that they supported the themes that I wanted to establish. As morality is fundamental to human connections and society, we must be careful about the way that we portray moral themes in the stories that we tell; the Harry Potter fandom’s re-interpretation of Rowling’s original Hogwarts houses creates a potentially useful benchmark by which to evaluate the moral ethea of our characters and ultimately of our narratives.

- Jade Li

Technology vs Books in Early Children's Education

It seems like technology has started replacing physical copies of text all over the place. People now take online notes, have electronic health records, and read on Kindles instead of books. One area where technology will have a hard time replacing books, though, is in children's education.

Sure, there are a couple Youtube channels (Cocomelon is a notable example) that offer well-animated videos with nursery rhymes. Some of their videos even have important themes like sharing, honesty, and patience. However, many of these quality channels have a very limited range of topics that they produce videos for, leaving a large gap that is often filled by lower-quality channels.

Because there are no videos, about, say, cars from the good channels, other channels of poorer quality are churning out content to meet that demand and attract a larger number of viewers. The videos are full of flashing neon colors, and tend to focus on one specific thing. A couple also try to include descriptions like color or shapes, but they are wildly inaccurate. Not only would they teach young children that green was yellow, they taught it in different languages! These videos are available in several countries, many of them non-English-speaking, as creators try to appeal to a broader audience. As a result, they include gibberish and sound effects instead of speech. What little intelligible language that is spoken in these shoddily-produced videos is usually not English, making it paradoxically useless to the majority of its demographic. 

All of this creates a problem: there is a limited amount of quality content in a limited number of topics and genres, and the content that tries to replace or supplement it is inaccurate, addictive, and absurd. So how do we solve that problem?

Books. I have a younger brother, so I've been reading a couple of his books. From Maisy to Animals 123, children's books have that range in topic and consistency of quality that the online alternatives have yet to catch up with. I can't deny that technology is a massive step in the right direction for many fields and subjects, but we still need to wait a while before it can offer the same benefits children's books can.

-Zhaoxin

Asuperu Kanojo: a inside to mental disorders

 

The cover of volume 1

   Asuperu Kanojo, or Asperger’s Girl, is a Japanese graphic novel written by Hagimoto Souha and drawn by Morita Renji. The book follows the main character Yokoi Taku, who recently moved to Tokyo and now makes a living by delivering newspapers and drawing comics. Because of Yakoi’s unusual plot and unhappy endings due to him most likely having ASD (never explicitly stated in the story, but heavily implied), his comics are completely ignored by everyone. However one day, a girl named Saitou Megumi suddenly appears in front of his apartment saying she’s a huge fan of his original works, it turns out she suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome and was abused and bullied when she was a child. After realizing Saitou came from extremely far away and has no intentions, or money to go back, Yakoi decides to let her live with him and thus beginning their journey of learning to rely on each other and treating their mental disorders. I know this is an extremely confusing and complicated introduction so please just read the actual manga. Currently the manga is finished with 12 volumes and 123 chapters in Japanese and Chinese, however the English translation is only up to chapter 41.

    Asperger’s Syndrome, also called AD, is a developmental disorder that affects the ability to socialize and communicate, it is quite rare but can last for years or even be lifelong. It used to be considered as a separate condition, but today it is part of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD), though lots of people still use the term Asperger’s. Asperger’s is called a “high-functioning” type of ASD, meaning it is less severe than other kinds of autism spectrum disorder.

no context panel

    I came from China, and generally, it and other Asian countries place less importance on mental disorders compared to the west, to the point where I didn’t know anything about it until I arrived in the US. Thus, my knowledge of mental health as a whole is…not a lot and extremely basic, so I'm not sure how correct the story depicts it, but the reviews from others say it's pretty accurate. This story taught me a lot about mental health, like with Yokoi I learned about how he thinks and even though his childhood wasn’t bad, he still feels empty inside. Then Saitou’s sudden panic attacks, quick changes in emotions and behaviors toward strangers and herself. She is also most likely suffering from multiple disorders, including PTSD and depression from her abusive father and school bullies. I’ve learned a lot of these things from places like health class, but it was simply just facts and words that I memorized. In this book, you get to follow 2 characters and watch them grow and experience things from their perspective, allowing you to understand things much more than just studying. Overall, I think Asuperu Kanojo is a really good read, though there are a few… interesting and maybe questionable side plots, the mental health is definitely the main draw of this manga and I definitely recommend reading it.

The cover of volume 5