Hi everyone! Kathy here with passages from pages 56-110!

First and foremost, this section was super important to character, relationship, and plot development in general. Along with that comes some really great passages and quotes. The one that caught my attention most was:

Just like that. From a hundred miles an hour to asleep in a nanosecond. I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not f*ck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane. (88)

Her hand just above my knee, the palm flat and soft again my jeans and her index finger making slow, lazy circles that crept toward the inside of my thigh, and with one layer between us, God I wanted her. And lying there, amid the tall, still grass and beneath the star-drunk sky, listening to the just-this-side-of-inaudible sound of her rhythmic breathing and the noisy silence of the bullfrogs, the grasshoppers, the distant cars rushing endlessly on I-65, I thought it might be a fine time to say the Three Little Words. And I steeled myself to say them as I stared up at that starriest night, convinced myself that she felt it, too, that her hand so alive and vivid against my leg was more than playful, and f*ck Lara and f*ck Jake because I do, Alaska Young, I do love you and what else matters but that and my lips parted to speak and before I could even begin to breathe out the words, she said, "It's not life or death, the labyrinth." (81-82)

Another week has gone by and it's time for another round of posts. We're coming up on a crucial part of the book soon, and are going to stop just before the event happens. Last week we left off when Pudge was "pranked" by being duct taped and thrown into a lake, and Alaska promised to avenge him with an even more elaborate "pre-prank" that would get back at those who pranked Pudge.
But before we get to that, there are some other important parts to the story.
One night Alaska comes to Pudge's room sobbing, explaining rather vaguely about how she'd fucked up and she would never forgive herself. Pudge tries to console her and she tells him, "Don't you know who you love, Pudge? You love the girl who makes you laugh and shows you porn and drinks
wine with you. You don't love the crazy, sullen bitch."
The chapter leaves off there, and soon the students leave for Christmas break. Pudge recieves a wallet and a watch from his dad, and he talks about how his father never really gets sentimental.
The night began with Takumi, Colonel, Lara, Alaska, and Pudge, as they planned their adventure in a barn the night before, drinking cheap wine and smoking.
Their plan included leading their principal out of his house with fireworks while Lara put dye in the prankers' hair gel and Alaska and Colonel changed their grades. They go back to their hideout in a barn out back and have drinking games, discussing the best and worst days of their lives. Pudge and Lara make out in the middle of the night and agree to being an item. Of course, they suffer the inevitable hangover the next morning and return to life as normal.
Later on Alaska, Pudge and Colonel play a game of Truth or Dare on the grounds that Pudge had never played, and Alaska winds up daring him to hook up with her. So they did. And apparently it was awesome.
Alaska receives a call from Jake later that night. She becomes extremely distraught and begs her friends to help her leave. Pudge and Colonel are loyal friends and do not question her, distracting the principal while Alaska escapes.
And that is where we leave off. Alaska is gone, Colonel and Pudge had fallen asleep, and no one really knows what Alaska is up to.
Until next week.
~Audrey

Hey everyone, Scott here.

Hi again guys,
           
              I'm going to keep this really short and sweet. John Green really does have a way with words, it's not very often that I read a word and do not "know" it. Sure, I can infer what it means by the context it's in. I'm going to quote the excerpt a word was used in, and define it.





The Colonel laughed. I stared, stunned partly by the force of the voice emanating from the petite (but God curvy) girl and partly by the gigantic stacks of books that lined her walls. Her library filled her bookshelves and then overflowed into waist-high stacks of books everywhere, piled haphazardly against walls. If just one of them moved, I thought, the domino effect could engulf the three of us in an asphyxiating mass of literature.



asphyxiate: suffocation



"Who's the guy that's not laughing at my very funny story?" she asked.
"Oh, right. Alaska, this is Pudge. Pudge memorizes people's last words. Pudge, this is Alaska. She got her boob honked over the summer." She walked over to me with her hand extended, then made a quick move downward and at the last moment pulled down my shorts.
"Those are the biggest shorts in the state of Alabama!" "I like them baggy," I said, embarrassed, and pulled them up. They had been cool back home in Florida. "So far in our relationship, Pudge, I've seen your chicken legs entirely too often," the Colonel deadpanned. (15)



deadpan: can be compared to sarcasm; to say something amusing with a serious expression.

Good Evening! Week one has come to a close, and it is my job as "Passage Person" to find meaningful, difficult, or interesting quotes and talk about them here. What better place to start than with one of the most commonly recurring themes-- the Great Perhaps.

"Hold on," I said. I went into Dad's study and found his biography of Frangois Rabelais. I liked reading biographies of writers, even if (as was the case with Monsieur Rabelais) I'd never read any of their actual writing.
I flipped to the back and found the highlighted quote ("NEVER USE A HIGHLIGHTER IN MY BOOKS," my dad had told me a thousand times. But how else are you supposed to find what you're looking for?).
 "So this guy," I said, standing in the doorway of the living room.
"Francois Rabelais. He was this poet. And his last words were 'I go to seek a Great Perhaps.' That's why I'm going. So I don't have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps."

"No drugs. No drinking. No cigarettes." As an alumnus of Culver Creek, he had done the things I had only heard about: the secret parties, streaking through hay fields (he always whined about how it was all boys back then), drugs, drinking, and cigarettes. It had taken him a while to kick smoking, but his badass days were now well behind him.

As we wrap up the first week of this project, it is my job to connect pieces of this story to real life. Right off the bat, Looking for Alaska is a young adult, realistic fiction novel. Much of it relates to general coming-of-age tales and as such there are abundant connections to be made.

The book starts out with our protagonist Miles leaving home. Instantly, there is a connection. We will all leave home eventually to seek our "Great Perhaps", as Miles eloquently puts it. And, in a sense, the overarching theme of leaving one life behind for another can apply to each and every middle college student. At around 16, each of us chose to change schools and find our purpose elsewhere, although we all still live at home. Despite the differences between our situation and Miles's, the gist is the same.

Unfortunately, I can relate to the lack of success of Miles's going away party in the first chapter, although not to the same extent he can. Many times I have tried to throw parties with limited success - his general unpopularity is something that many of my peers as well as fictional characters have in common.

Throughout this first section, we find Miles making overlying generalizations about people and life that aren't necessarily true. For example, Miles states that "Marie was the sort of person to guess a lot," (4) which implies that a) Marie falls into a category of people who b) all have a tendency to guess a lot. This is reminiscent of The Catcher in the Rye, as Holden tended to make similar generalizations.

Miles breaks the rules about as often as they're laid out for him. His dad told him to not highlight books, but he entirely disregarded that. His dad also tells him to not do drugs, drink, or smoke, but he smokes on his first day there and picks up the habit fairly quickly. His tendency to disregard the rules is something we see frequently in society as well as in literature. I know several people who don't even make an attempt to follow the rules; this is often associated with the belief that the rules just don't apply to oneself. In Miles, however, this belief is not prevalent.

The feeling of self doubt Miles experiences in his first few days at Culver Creek mirrors a feeling most of us feel as we come of age - that we don't belong, that we won't fit in, that we made a mistake. The fact that it begins to turn out for the better is simply a part of life.

I'm not entirely sure if it's my place to point out literary allusions, but there is an allusion to Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening", which can be found here if anyone wants to read it.

Each character seems to have a specific hobby, which border on obsession. For Miles (now nicknamed Pudge), it's learning and memorizing the last words of famous people. For Chip (the Colonel), it's naming countries. For Alaska, it's reading - her massive collection of books, only one third read. Although they may be more subtle, most people have an "obsession" that may or may not be worth a lot in the real world, but nonetheless makes them unique. Mine is reading, although unfortunately I have very little time for that. For one of my best friends, it's making cosplays (costumes of fictional characters such as superheroes and Disney princesses). These "obsessions" can be seen throughout the world if you get to know people closely enough.

Cliques are a big thing at Culver Creek. Whether you're a regular boarder or a Weekday Warrior makes a huge difference in your social status at the school. There are similar distinctions in real life, although they tend to revolve around intelligence and hobbies more than economic status. At my old school, I was one of the band kids, which put me in a lower social status the same way Miles's status is lowered due to his regular boarder status.

Irony is a big theme, as Miles's nickname is Pudge despite his skinniness. This ironic nicknaming is a trope that is often used in pop culture. In Les Miserables (yes, I just went from "pop culture" to referencing a book from the 1800s...), Cosette is one of the central female characters, although her real name is Euphrasie. Her mother chooses to call her Cosette, which in French means "the indulged". However, Cosette spent much of her childhood in an abusive situation - most certainly not "indulged" - but her abusers continue to call her Cosette. Another example is Robin Hood, in which Little John is not very little (at least by many interpretations).

I would like to note, before I make this point, that I do not smoke. That being said, the portrayal of Pudge's first cigarette is, from what I can interpret and observe, very realistic - generally speaking, one's first smoke isn't graceful or classy.

The parallels between how Culver Creek operates and how most schools operate is fairly accurate. The school doesn't want to lose students or look bad because then they'd lose money. Most real schools try to look as good as possible because if they don't they'll get a bad reputation and lose money, which will only lead to a worse reputation.

The idea that you don't retaliate or tell on someone who bullies you at Culver Creek is very realistic. In most situations, if you retaliate against a bully, you'll be the one who gets in more trouble. Conversely, if you tell a teacher about a bullying situation, you'll get a reputation as a snitch or a rat.

The trio of the Colonel, Pudge, and Alaska as best friends with some romantic tension between two of them is very commonly seen in literature - especially with the two males and one female aspect, as seen with Harry, Ron, and Hermione in Harry Potter, or with Sherlock, John Watson, and Mary Morstan in BBC's adaptation of Sherlock. In general, three is a culturally significant number.

The quick bond Pudge and Alaska form is something I've experienced firsthand. I met my boyfriend at a summer camp and within a day we were essentially best friends. Fast-forming friendships are something that happen quite a bit in real life as well as in literature, such as with Harry and Ron on the Hogwarts Express in their first year.

This is a somewhat less serious connection, but the fact that "You can say a lot of bad things about Alabama, but you can't say that Alabamans as a people are unduly afraid of deep fryers," (22) is entirely true - my boyfriend recently moved from California to Alabama and has mentioned that he's never seen so much fried food in his life.

Pranks in boarding schools are essentially old hat. They're such a cultural "norm" that, even if there isn't actually that much pranking in real life, we just assume that there is.

The question of the labyrinth, posed by Alaska, and how it relates to religion is something that nearly all humans ponder - if there is a way out, if there's life after death, and the nature of death in general. The idea that religion is just as important as history is one that is not common, but it does make a good point. Similarly, the revelation that a myth is just a traditional story that tells of a people and their worldview (and not just a lie) is an important distinction that everyone has to make at some point, as our culture tends to use "myth" as synonymous with "falsehood".

Alaska's outburst that the Colonel is "'...not going to impose the patriarchal paradigm on [her]'" (34) reminds me of something I would say, as I tend to oppose the patriarchy just as Alaska does. In this way, I and several of my classmates are very similar to Alaska, although I have never met anyone who is truly like her.

The realities of relationships and fights within relationships is something we all, just like the Colonel, experience, despite the fact that movies often make relationships out to be either entirely unhappy or entirely happy. In fact, there is an in between, and in that way there is a major connection to the real world.

The teenage hormones Pudge experiences throughout the novel are familiar to nearly every one of my classmates - the realization that Alaska is beautiful, that curves are important, that he just wants someone to make out with, the internal glee at being called "adorable" by a girl he likes, etc. are just parts of being a teenager and are all things that I've either experienced myself or one of my friends has told me they experienced.

Alaska's suicidal nature (which comes along with her mysterious character) is something that I have unfortunately experienced. I have had several friends come to me saying that they want to end their lives. Personally, I've had some suicidal thoughts, but nothing to be worried about. In a way, they're a side effect of thinking too much about the inevitability of death, which is something that I do sometimes and is also something that Alaska does.

Well, 1500 words later, I think I'm done for this week. Apologies for how excessive this was - I ended up going into a lot more detail than I intended.

Kathy

Hello! To finish off the first week of reading and blogging, I'm going to summarize the section we all just read. Miles began the book, with not having many friends. However, despite Miles' parents' realization of his lack of friends, they ask why he wants to goto a new school: Culver Creek. Miles has a love for last words, and explains that Francois Rabelais was a famous poet whose last words were, "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." When he arrives at Culver Creek, he meets his new roommate, Chip Martin. Whose nickname is the Colonel. The Colonel explains the "rules" of the school; Weekday Warriors are the rich cool kids. The Colonel is not one of them, and advises Miles to not to go along with him.But, Miles is not. Miles is one of the others. The Colonel gives Miles the                                           nickname Pudge. Ironically, Pudge is extremely thin. It also comes to our attention that most of the students like Pudge and Miles are extremely intelligent. Pudge finds himself being accepted and is learning what that means. He's used to being quiet, and a bit of a loner, but suddenly he has friends who have his back, and give him confidence. Pudge meets Alaska, a girl who is not only beautiful and smart, but sexy. She's confident and a little bit eccentric. Smoking is also a major trend at the school. Takumi, is also a new friend of Pudge's. Pudge is experiencing friendship and life at a boarding school. Which include pranks and the unspoken rule of no snitching. Payback is returned as revenge, a lesson Pudge learns the hard way when an innocent prank turns to anger and he's duct-taped together and thrown into the lake. Alaska introduces a question asked multiples of times within the work: "How will I ever get out of this Labyrinth?" as well as leaves questions about her past for Pudge. She show's a darker side of her personality when she explains that "she smokes to die".  Pudge is exposed to teenage angst and rebelling, as well as discovers that basketball is one of the very few entertaining things there. Major themes within this section are coming of age, attraction, the mystery of life, and friendship.
Until next post,
                   Autumn