In My Neglected Mailbox Numero Uno

Exactly one day ago, in a (VERY) dark room, far, far away.....

Dear Viewer Who Has Oh-So-Wonderfully Watched this Cry for Help,

Just as a prologue to this post...if you don't know what "In My Neglected Mailbox" is, feel free to watch the video posted to the right titled "They Want to Be Heard".

First, of all, "In My Mailbox" is a blog meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren (www.thestorysiren.com) and Alea at Pop Culture Junkie (www.aleapopculture.blogspot.com) to let all of us book bloggers party on the web.

Second of all, the desperate book here is THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA by Gaston Leroux. If you do not want to experience it in book form, please feel highly encouraged to do so in musical form.  

Fourth of all, thank you for giving my boisterous books your precious time. Trust that there will be another one hating on me on yet another post in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,

Uomo di Speranza

On a Day of Death, 9/11/01

From www.time.com

One can say each phenomenon that occurred on September 11, 2001 had something to do with pride. Pride in one's religion, pride in one's cause, pride in one's abilities, pride in one's country. But the aforementioned statement gives us a paradox, does it not? Pride in one's religion, cause, and abilities all contributed to al-Qaeda committing such malevolent actions, but these prides additionally helped Americans survive the aftermath. Whether one was an innocent, Islamic American suddenly the victim of hate crimes or an acquaintance of another soul who went down with the towers, pride was the antidote to America's poison.      So where does it belong in the spectrum of emotions? A blessing? A sin?
     Markus Zusak's The Book Thief is narrated by Death, a voice who during this Second World War has much to say about the different qualities of human pride. In telling how young Liesel Meminger's newfound ability to read helps a bomb-shelter full of Germans and a fist-fighting Jew among others, Death depicts many characters whose lives are forever altered by pride. Liesel's foster brother, Hans, goes to war because of his strong belief in Hitler's message. Rudy, Liesel's best friend and lover, is forced to wallow in dung because of his resistance against a Hitler Youth leader (so glad our dean doesn't threaten us with that one.)  When Jews are being marched through Liesel's town, Hans Hubermann, Liesel's foster father, has enough pride in himself to help another struggling individual survive another heartbreaking hour, which gives birth to gargantuan consequences, of course.
     Death at times states that in the grand scheme of things, pride is really futile. Humans should take it upon themselves to insure their longest possible life instead of risking everything for what they believe is right. Hans would be better off without the scars of war he will surely receive, Rudy without the odor of Staten Island, and Hans Hubermann without the eventual recruitment into the LSE (a military division that retrieves corpses from bombsites.) Yet Death also states his admiration for Liesel and her resilience; through bomb threats, drafts, numerous deaths, near poverty, and the witnessing of true horrors, she remains alive to perish many years after WWII after an indisputably lived life. And how does Liesel survive Nazi Germany?
     Pride.
     Whether in her family, her friends, her words, or most imperatively herself, she maintains pride throughout her span of being-she believes that life must course through her so that actions for a  phenomenon worthy to her, a phenomenon much larger than herself, can be performed. So Death indeed honors the proud...
     Just so long as their pride is used to escape him.
     And what better way to let pride cause human survival than use it in activities that will save lives? Take pride in a cause that terrorists fail to comprehend-promoting human survival.

Frivolously Follow Me on This Friday! (Numero Tres)

"Follow Me Friday" is hosted by Parajunkie's View and Alison Can Read. This week's featured blogs and therefore supreme administers of question are Lisa Loves Literature and Once Upon a Prologue, both of which are also composed by immensely interesting people indeed. So what question have they inquired of us today?

If you could change the ending of any book (or series),

which book would you choose, and why?

*Warning: Spoiler ahead for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.

If you have not read it, get the hell off this page and PICK UP THE BOOK!

Almost every book-lover I know has devoured this novel as if its very words are heroin. Currently, the ending includes our ever-fascinating Lisbeth Salander deciding to subtly display her affection for Michael Blomkvist, the person who she has worked and slept with during the Harriet Vanger case, by purchasing him an Elvis Presley sign from the 1950s. However, the journey she makes to give this present ultimately shows her a prophetic portrait of Blomkvist and his occasional lover, Erika Berger, holding each other lustfully while on their way to Mikael's apartment. Lisbeth then departs from the scene and throws her gift into a dumpster, furious
     Now, this is quite a wonderful culmination since it really depicts Lisbeth's struggles to cope with the average life. But tossing that gift in a dumpster because she saw her potential lover with another woman is an action Elle Woods would perform. I want to see Lisbeth completely overcome by emotion and scare herself because of how overwhelming emotion is. I want to see her reaction to a much more shocking portrait.
     I want to see Blomkvist lustfully holding businesswoman Harriet Vanger, the missing individual who he located in rural Australia, instead

     And I desire that Lisbeth look at the two for a second and initially feel the equivalent betrayal she feels when Blomkvist is with Berger. Being Lisbeth, the woman would then become spooked to the highest feasible extent because she permitted her emotional thoughts for Blomkvist to overshadow her logical thoughts about how utterly unrighteous the couple's existence is; this relationship may cause him to have a bias towards the Vanger Corporation in his financial journalism. But the real core of the aforementioned event is Lisbeth realizing just how dangerous emotion is to the logical world. I want her to think, Is it really worth the risk?