The Quiet American

Hello! I would like to recommend a book I just read in English class:

I read the book The Quiet American written by Graham Greene. The novel was first published in 1955 in the UK, and in 1956 in the United States. It is an anti-war novel which draws on Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for The Times and Le Figaro in French Indochina in 1951–1954. He was apparently inspired to write The Quiet American in October 1951 while driving back to Saigon from the Ben Tre province.

The book tells the story about the British journalist Thomas Fowler in his fifties who has been covering the French war in Vietnam for over two years. He meets a young American idealist named Alden Pyle, who lives his life and forms his opinions based on the books written by York Harding, with no real experience in matters of south-east Asia at all. When Pyle and Fowler first meet, Pyle says he would be delighted if Fowler could help him understand more about the country. Pyle is young and idealistic, unlike Fowler who is much older, more realistic and more cynical. But the book does not only portray the horror of the Vietminh-war, love is also an important theme throughout the novel. Fowler has a young lover, who is thirty years younger than Fowler, named Phoung. She worked as a dancer until she met Fowler. The problems start when Pyle meets Fowler’s lover, and falls head over heels in love with her. From there on it is not only a story about conflicts between nations, but also a love triangle which has a tragic ending. And in my opinion the saying: “All is fair in love and war” is the perfect description of the plot.

The Quiet American (2002 film)

I would say that Drama is the main genre, but it is also crime novel since the book starts with the murder of Pyle and then takes us back to the begging when Pyle and Fowler met. And the further you read into the book, it is reviled that Pyle was involved in an American conspiracy project against the communism called “the third force” and that he was not as innocent and pure as portrayed in the beginning.  

Henry Graham Greene

What I really liked about the book is how the author portrays the Vietnam-war, I liked that for once the Americans aren’t described as the world’s big brother or the heroes of the day who just wanted to save Vietnam from communism. You notice how Greene’s personal meanings and experiences influence the political point view of the French Indo-China and the Vietnam-war. He spent three years writing the novel, which foreshadowed The US involvement in Vietnam long before it became publicly known. The book was the initial reason for Graham Greene being under constant surveillance by US intelligence agencies from the 1950s until his death in 1991.

The Quiet American is not only an entertaining novel, but after reading this book you are also left with a lot of knowledge as Greene’s writing is based on facts and actual happenings. Since the book is about how the two men Pyle and Fowler fights for Phoung’s love too it is also appealing for others target groups. The narrator as written several resembling novels and is acknowledged for his work all over the world, The Quiet American being one of his bestselling books.

This is a book worth reading, and I hope you all will take my advice! The Quiet American was adapted into films in 1958 and in 2002, so if you don’t feel like reading you can watch one or both movies. I have not seen any of the films myself, but in the 2002 version we meet Michael Caine as Thomas Fowler, who was nominated for the Oscar as Best actor, so I believe it is a great movie. Enjoy!

Sources: 

The Quiet American, 1955

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quiet_American

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quiet_American_(2002_film)

Advice to fellow students or my views on using the internet during the exam

So the case is that if my class are chosen to take the exam this spring, we will be allowed to use the internet as a test project. My thoughts around whether using internet is an advantage or a disadvantage are divided. On one hand having access to internet will probably make my arguments more valid as I can base them on credible sources, especially if the theme of the exam requires knowledge. But on the other hand using internet will raise the bar, I believe that sensors will be stricter and expect more form you since we have access to internet. And most important of all you have to be able to list your sources correctly, luckily I learned that from my Norwegian-teacher.  It is quite hard to explain how to list your sources, as you have to learn how to use different functions on word, but I can try to explain. When you list yours sources you can either use footnotes or parentheses, most important of all you in the end of your text you have to list all your sources. You should write the link, the author, when it was written and the headline. It is also important to use reliable sources, here are some of mine favourites:

Sweet Search is a search engine that only searches sites that have been approves by a team of librarians, teachers and research experts. So you know that everything you find by using this search engine is reliable.  The search engine. Ref Seek is also a smart choice as it is designed only for academic use. Of course you can use Google as well, you just have to remember to be critical. Think about who has written the page/text/article and what its purpose is.  For example when I was looking after sources for my in-depth project about global warming, I preferred to get my information from sites founded by scientist rather than from a newspaper where a journalist had done some research and then written from their point of view.  

Above all, when being able to use the internet it is important not to copy too much from your sources. It is okay to steel one or two sentences, but it is preferable that you rewrite it, this way your voice will shine through the whole text. 

Into the Wild - thoughts and reflections

Here comes another movie recommendation, this time it is a movie I recommend you to see with all my heart. It is the film “Into the Wild”, based on the documentary book with the same name, written by Jon Krakauer. “Into the Wild” tells the story about the top student and athlete Christopher McCandless, who after graduating from Emory University abandons his life, all of his possession, his family and gives all of his savings (24 000 $) to charity, in order to hitchhike to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way to the north McCandless meets different characters who have a greater impact on his life than he could ever imagine. You won’t regret watching this movie; it is a real eye-opener and has won many prizes, including Oscars. Another good reason for seeing this film is the music, which is exceptional!

The core of man's spirit comes from new experiences - Christopher McCandless

Christopher McCandless was what you would call a transcendentalist, he was sickened by the consumerism, the industrialised societies and the exaggerated material context which characterised his everyday life.  As a transcendentalist he believed in the purity of the individual, and thought that a man only could live out his goodness by experiencing the goodness of the nature. These thoughts lead McCandless out on a journey through The US, Canada and even Mexico. He had no money and lived each day as it came, and took advantage of every opportunity presenting itself. On his road to self-reliance McCandless, who renamed himself Alexander Supertramp, meets a hippie couple and joins their community for a while, he also meets a farmer named Wayne Westerberg and works at his farm. But most of all, it is the romance he has with Tracy Tatro and the incredible relationship he develops with Ron Franz, that influences him the most.

I'm going to paraphrase Thoreau here... rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth.  - Christopher McCandless

From the start you get the impression that McCandless was a stubborn person with powerful thoughts. He discarded his identity and past life without looking back. I think the reason for his determination, trading a bright future with the possibility of getting a well-qualified education to living in the wilderness, was that he found the life he was living meaningless. In a way I can understand the reason for his actions. Imagine living a life you truly hate, where all you see around you are fake people, living a lie and only caring about the things of economic value. It must be awful living like that. McCandless had the choice to live like that, or he could leave it all behind. Since he already had a complicated relationship with his parents, his sister was the only thing tying him to a world he had no desire being a part of. To McCandless the wilderness was everything, and he truly believed that he couldn’t be happy any other place. For many people McCandless decisions seem unthinkable since they have a totally different opinion of today’s societies, but sharing many of his thoughts his choices don’t become that unimaginable to me. I think that if I were in his place I wouldn’t just leave, but discussed my decision with my parents. I have a much better relationship with my parents then what McCandless seemed to have had with his. We share many opinions, and I think they would be far more open and positive to my choice than what McCandless’ parents would be. However, it is understandable that McCandless left without a word, I think it was easier for him that way. When he left without saying goodbye he didn’t have to face the fact that he was actually leaving his family. Also I think that if McCandless had told his parents they would have refused him to leave, making it hard for him to live the life he wanted to live.

 

If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed. - Christopher McCandless


I have mentioned the term transcendentalism earlier, many of you are maybe wondering what that is. By definition transcendentalism is an idealistic philosophical and social movement which developed in New England around 1836 in reaction to rationalism. Influenced by romanticism, Platonism, and Kantian philosophy, it taught that divinity pervades all nature and humanity, and its members held progressive views on feminism and communal living. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were central figures for this ideology. As earlier stated being a transcendentalist means that you are sickened by the consumerism, the industrialised societies and the exaggerated material context, believing in the purity of the individual and meaning that a man is at his best when living in harmony with nature. I think it is an interesting ideology as it becomes very essential in the discussion about global warming. Of course transcendentalism is quite an extreme philosophy, but I think more and more people share these opinions as the climate is changing, including me. 

 The movie reflects around many themes, transcendentalism and the consumer society being the most essential ones. “Into the Wild” makes you look critically at your life and reflect around the meaning of living. The movie takes a quite surprising ending when its message is revealed, it all comes down to happiness and that happiness is only real when shared.

Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild. - Alexander Supertramp May 1992  

I found so many inspiring photos that I couldn’t decide, so I am posting them all… enjoy!

 

Sources:

The movie "Into the Wild"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/ 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Into_the_Wild_(film) 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/quotes 

Activist Erin Brockovich looking into teens' mystery ailment

I don’t know if you remember but I wrote a blog post about Erin Brockovich after watching the movie about her starring Julia Roberts, if you want to read the post click here. Back then I wrote about her contribution and enormous commitment in the lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PE & G), which poisoned the groundwater to the inhabitants of the town Hinkley. Brockovich and her team found toxic chemicals in the drinking water that could lead to cancer and other serious illnesses. Today Erin Brockovich still is a well know environmental activist and has been given a lot of attention in the media lately for looking into a teens' mystery ailment at Le Roy Junior-Senior High School.

At Le Roy there has been a mystical outbreak of teenagers suffering from facial tics, verbal outbursts and uncontrollable muscle contractions, and no one knows what is causing this mysterious ailment. The doctor Jennifer McVige thinks that the students are suffering from “mass psychogenic illness” which is a rare sickness where emotional responses are covered into physical symptoms, but Erin Brockovich seems to believe otherwise. In 1970 there was a chemical spill from a train only 3 miles from the future high school. Brockovich suspects that when the school was built in 2003 some of the contaminated soil may have been used during construction. The fact that Brockovich and an accompanying group were ordered off the property of Le Roy Junior-Senior High School when trying to find answers makes her theory highly  reasonable.

Here is a link to a short report about the mysterious case. 

Sources:

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/erin-brockovich-investigates-girls-tics-15460840

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-01-29/erin-brockovich-school/52870428/1

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-01-26/conversion-disoreder-chemical-exposure-NY-LeRoy/52810214/1

The Great Debaters

We watched the movie “The Great Debaters” in class the other day, a movie I recommend everyone to see. The film draws inspiration from the true story of the temperamental, inspiring, wise and political engaged debate coach and professor at the “black” college Wiley, Melvin B. Tolson. The plot builds around Wiley college debate team and Mr Tolson and their struggle towards the title as winners of the national championship. But in addition to telling us about Melvin and the debate team’s accomplishments “The Great Debaters” also shows us the unpleasant and unimaginable conditions for Afro-Americans in the early 20^th century.

For me the fact that the movie focuses on the extreme racism that existed in The US in the beginning of the 20^th century, was the main reason to see it. When learning about racism in school the theme has always been combined with great and historical persons like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King jr, Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela.  I had never heard of Melvin B. Tolson or realized how horrible coloured people were treated in USA in the 1930s, before watching this movie. In my opinion a part of “The Great Debaters” success is because it enlightens people and makes them more aware of a historical period that hasn’t been given much attention earlier. It is also the main reason why I recommend you all to see “The Great Debaters” because it tells an important story that deserves to be heard. 

To watch the trailer of the movie click here! 

I really like how the director and scrip-writer have managed to melt the story about Wiley college debate team and the story of the discriminatory Jim Crow laws of the 1930s into one story. Wiley collage debate team’s struggle of becoming national champions and the fight against racism becomes one major, touching and inspiring combat. The characters in the film fights against suppression, racism and injustice the same way they compete in debates -   A debate begins with a resolution. It starts with a point to prove. It is a form of battle, fought with words. 

Underneath you can watch the closing argument to one of the main characters James Farmer jr, during their debate against Harvard.

"The Great Debaters" is an inspiring story of curage, creativity and resolve, and it is a movie worth watching!

Sources:

The movie "The Great Debaters"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427309/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Debaters

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/great_debaters/

Living in Norway

Most people haven’t even heard of Norway, so I don’t know what you think about when I say Norway. Maybe you have heard of the terrorist attack this summer or maybe the butter-crisis?

Norway is a country in Northern Europe, it is not a small country, but we only have about 4,9 million habitants. We have a very long cost line, and snow in the winter. I could not imagine a better place to grow up in than Norway. The country has an excellent education system, free hospitals, beautiful nature and a more than great economy. Norway has actually been elected the best country to liv in several years in a row. (read here)

In Norway we have something called the welfare state. The Norwegian welfare state assures that no one falls on the outside of the society. For example: If you are handicapped or are not capable of working, the government pays a contribution so that you can afford things like food and clothes. The public school system is free, and you don’t have to pay for your education before you start studying at a university. The perks of living in Norway are many. But for me it is the traditions, nature and culture that make Norway the best place to live. We might not have huge malls or endless high skyscrapers, but we go on ski hikes in the winter, beautiful fjords and the russ celebration. Also Norway is a safe country to live in with a low crime rate compared to other countries.  

I think that the difference between living in China and Norway is big. The countries have two completely different societies, cultures, governments and traditions. It is like to different worlds, with different values and priorities. I can’t compare the two countries, because I don’t know where to begin. They have a communistic regime, are the most populated state in the world and the majority of the population is Buddhist. It seems like the two countries have nothing in common, at least I can’t think of anything. Can you?

Project Lesotho

The other day we started a project, Project Lesotho. The purpose with Project Lesotho is to raise money which we will send to Mamoeketsi Primary School in Lesotho. Our goal is to collect 14 000 NOK (around 2400 USD), the money will primary be used to set up an internetwork for Mamoeketsi Primary School. They will also use the money to buy the most basic things like paper, pencils, food and clothes.

The reason for our cooperation with Mamoeketsi Primary School is that our English teacher became friends with one of the teachers from the Primary School at a conference. The teacher from Lesotho informed about the poor economic situation and their everyday struggles at her school.  She even came to Norway to tell about her country and a project the she has set in process. As Lesotho is a very poor country and have a bad health condition, most people can’t afford going to the doctor. The population use indigenous plants as medicine instead, the only problem is that they rip up the hole root when collect plants. Therefore the indigenous plants are now endangered. The concept for the project started by teacher from Lesotho is to preserve these indigenous plants.

My English teacher though it would be nice if we could help out this Primary school in Lesotho that her friend works at. We, the students, though that was a good idea and have already arranged a collection. For now we have collected about 3500 NOK (about 600 USD), let’s just hope that we can manage to collect 14 000 NOK by March. You see, Akershus County have granted our English teacher and three students permission to fly down to Lesotho and visit Memoeketsi Primary School.