Ginger Pye

Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes

I did not like this one as much as Pinky Pie and Moffats. The family gets a dog Ginger. There are some not so good people in the neighborhood. Ginger disappears. They find Ginger in the end.

Teddy and Catcher in the Rye

Catcher in the Rye (1951) and Teddy (1953) by J.D. Salinger

[originally from 1991-1992]

Most literary works delineate the lives of superhuman characters: people who achieve monumental goals in the face of great adversity, yet still respect the idiosyncrasies of man. Salinger's characters, however, follow a different path. They keep in touch with reality, and rarely accomplish anything extraordinary in the eyes of men. They attack the rules of society, and become victories only by escaping from its confines.

The character that comes closest to achieving public prominence is Teddy, the ten year old prodigy. The world's major universities interview him, tapes of his mediational thoughts are played at parties, and he corresponds with many distinguished professors. Even though he has a cult falling, Teddy is oblivious to the world. He is dressed in a tattered shirt that's too big for him, coupled with non matching pants; he attempts to avoid conversation by choosing an isolated seat. He is fascinated by the orange peels floating out the 'window', and feels no need to correctly refer to his looking spot as a 'portal'. Through meditation, Teddy has achieved peace with himself, and has no need for the world's knowledge. His philosophy entails the deletion of all knowledge to achieve a greater state of consciousness where a square is not necessarily a square. He has fought and won the war against the world, and rejoices the opportunity to leave the battlefield.

Similarly, Holden Caulfield was fighting his own war. Throughout Catcher in the Rye, Caulfield figuratively spat upon the world of sycophant conformists. However, unlike the most nonconformists, he shows a great deal of respect for true followers of organized religion. The catholic nuns he meets are among the few outsiders he respects. He feels obligated to provide them with a monetary assistance, because he realizes that they are doing what they feel they believe in, and are not 'fake' (like the man who played Christ in the Christmas pageant). In addition to disliking the actor who "couldn't wait to smoke a cigarette after he got down from the cross", Caulfield despised the majority of the prep school personnel. They were phony, thrilled by there own bombastic tautology, and reluctant to impart any useful knowledge to the students. Indeed, Caulfield was much like the Dead Poet's Society students: he was inspired by a few thought-provoking teachers, and thus decided to drop his sycophancy in favor of an expression of true thoughts. Unfortunately, society was unwilling to accept someone critical of its fallacies, and he was not ready to completely ostracize himself from it.

Holden's younger brother, Allie, had the strength to remove himself from the binds of society. Unlike other baseball players, who felt it was necessary to bore themselves waiting in the outfield, Allie occupied himself with poetry inscribed on his glove. In addition to meditating upon his 'baseball glove' poetry, he also pursued many other avenues of learning, and was (in Holden's eyes) a 'perfect child' before he was abruptly taken from the earth. He was probably good friends with Teddy, and felt great relief that he could be taken from the earth to join his friend in a place more fitting to their intellects. However, he probably turned over in his grave when he saw all the unknown relatives, who waited for a supposed catastrophe to pay homage to him.

Salinger's characters were constrained by the rules of society, and attempted to overcome them. Some, such as Holden, had stayed too long, and were overcome by enticing facets of society and forced to stay. Others, like Allie and Teddy, had completed their trial on earth by overcoming the uselessness of society, and were taken away.

The Illustrated Man

A man has tattoos covering his entire body. However, nobody wants to see them because they tell realistic three dimensional stories of not-so-flattering events. We get stories of people with too much technology, including a thought-enacting nursery that becomes their downfall.

Another story talks about a colony of southern blacks on Mars. A white man flies up their 20 years later and asks for their health. In that time, nearly the entire world has been destroyed. The few remaining survivors would like to come to Mars and become the servants of the current residents.
The remainder of the stories explore various aspects of human behavior in the context of a technologically advanced near future. By using space and aliens, the stories can explore some extremities in behavior that would not be possible with extreme realism. In one story, a poor family longs to travel to Mars. They have saved enough for only one person. After drawing straws, they realized that there would be downsides to sending only one person. They decide that nobody should go. Later the father is offered a rocket model for junk parts. He puts an "engine" in and fixes it up for a trip to Mars. He takes all the children on a "trip to Mars". They all have a great experience and think they really went to space, even though they never left home. They had a great family experience that was far better than what would have been experienced if just one person had made a real trip to Mars.

Another story talks about a martian invasion of earth. The martians land in southern California to a big celebration. Rather than fighting the invaders, the earthlings shower them with gifts. The Martians end up losing their will to fight in the process.

Bradbury also continues with one of his bet themes of the importance of books and literature. One story has dead authors in a powwow where they "disappear" as soon as the last copy of their banned works are removed. (Fahrenheit 451 later takes this further.)

The framing story of the "Illustrated Man" really only appears at the beginning and end of the collection and serves as a connecting point for these stories that explore the futuristic concerns of a post-World War II world.

Stars Like Dust

A young son of a rancher is on a ship where an attempt is made on his life. He eventually sneaks away with the daughter of a sycophantal ruler and they attempt to find the rebel groups who are fighting against the local tyrants. They are caught but don't find the tyrants. Eventually, they reason that the rebel home-base is actually the girl's home planet and the rebel leader is her father. In the process there are a number of different twists and turns and a few bold leaps of intuition. It is all mildly entertaining, but not exceptional.

One part that did stretch reason a bit was the "important document" that the boy's deceased father knew about. This document was seen as being key to the revolution and the installation of power by the people instead of a ruler or oligarchy. This "old document" turned out to be the US constitution. It guess it makes it a raw-raw patriotic work. It was written in the 1950s after all.

Prince Caspian

The children, on their way to boarding school, are summoned back to Narnia. There they find great kingdom mostly in ruins. An evil group has taken over, and the few rebels (lead by rightful heir Prince Caspian) have summoned them to help defend it. They win in a big battle, and discover that the usurpers to the thrown were also humans extracted from earth.

This is more of an adventure story, with the religious allegory present, much less strong than in the "Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". However, there are still issues of faith, with Lucy maintaining a belief in Aslan, even though others cannot seem to see him. She is rewarded for this faith, but still has to struggle to convince the others.

It is a well written book that could stand alone, but is better read after the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Foundation

Foundation is the story of the 1000 year period between the fall of a great world empire and the arise of the new "civilization". The setting is now obviously the 1950s, set way in the future. "Atomics" are the key to power source and control. Tobacco use is still common place and important. Scientists are able to "predict the future" using complex mathematical models. But in the end, it just seems a lot like the fall of Rome. The periphery "falls" first, but the Foundation maintains scientific progress by induing science with religion, making nuclear technician into priests. The original scientist that predicted aspects of their life is also portrayed as a deity.

The book reads like a collection of short stories. The different stories follow chronologically through different periods of the "advancement" of the foundation. The main characters always seem to do exactly what needs to be done at the exact right time. This is a similar savant believability problem that Card has used in his Ender books. Similarly, in the foundation books, it always seems to be a "young buck" going against society that does exactly what is needed to continue the inevitable path outlined by the predictions.