One of today’s segments was all about attracting “pollinators” (ie. insects that will pollinate your plants). All I could think about was this (note: discussions in the link that are of a more… mature nature).  Proving, contrary to the previous evidence, that I am still definitely a child.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day – ruining everything since 2001.

Yes, that’s right, they’re complaining about the Government doing something right.

Occasionally I have to wonder what it must be like to live in Malcom Turnbull’s head…

I’m no political advisor, but it seems like common sense… dunnit?

No.  Yeah you’re right - I was being optimistic.

Catchthefire.com, however, slams Radcliffe for failure to tolerate their intolerance simply because he thinks it might be a good idea to teach same-sex sex-ed.   You know, so young gay men and women don’t engage in risky sexual activity without knowing exactly what they’re getting themselves into.  Silly Daniel.

Then, in some kind of spectacular leap of logic that is clearly beyond my limited human comprehension, the article claims that Radcliffe’s telling people that saying hurtful and harmful things that can have a profound negative impact upon LGBT people is both wrong and anti-[theirdefinitionof]-family.  Gosh, clearly this young man is a terrible role model because he wants us to be respectful to each other.

And of course the celibate, wise and over-qualified Dumbledore seems to fail some kind of morality quota and, like all homosexuals regardless of qualifications, should not be allowed to be headmaster.  I wonder when I’ll get around to studying that important fact in my education degree?

When I read it I was filled with deep shame.  Not, however, because of the information contained within, but rather because this story was even put into print.

Paper Towns Covers (USA)

Paper Towns, by John Green, is a YA novel that focuses on the life and misadventures of Quentin “Q” Jacobson and his quest to find the mysterious Margo Roth-Spiegleman.  What, however, must be understood when reading this book is that “finding” Margo is more than just a (not-so) simple quest to locate where she is in space-time, but is instead a quest to find out who Margo really is.

From the very get-go Green manages to generate the necessary tension to drive the story forward and engross the reader.  The book will have you constantly asking questions that you must know the answer to: Who’s the man in the park?  Why is Margo showing up and whisking Q away to go on a midnight adventure?  Where’s Margo?  Is she dead?  And, most importantly, why does someone need to own so many black Santas!

Green’s youthful and intelligent tone sets the scene, engages the audience and lets them know exactly the kind of characters that are going to be in this text.  It’s obvious that Green is at home in the first-person perspective, and returning to it for this novel really works to his advantage.  There are a few awkward shifts from past to present tense, but besides these isolated incidents, Green manages to capture the teenage voice exceptionally well, transitioning seamlessly from quirky and witty to contemplative and serious when appropriate.

Green’s ability to create believable teenage characters is also part of the appeal of Paper Towns.  The characters, from the nerdy and awkward Ben to the caring cheerleader Lacey, are complex and multi-layered, and engage in realistic contemporary dialogue.

On top of this, the first-person perspective works well in demonstrating the limitations of human perception.  While Q is not an unreliable narrator, he certainly has his own world-view and this works against him in his search for Margo.  He is only able to see the person he thinks Margo is, instead of the person who she actually is, and before Q can locate her, he must first “find” her.  This ties in to the overall recurring theme of the novel, which is the necessity of imagining the other with greater complexity.  While such an intricate and deep theme might have a tendency to weigh down a text and make it come across as preachy, the way the novel addresses the central theme through the challenges of its characters means that while the book occasionally walks on a delicate line, it certainly isn’t anvilicious.

Overall, Paper Towns is a well-written, entertaining and thought-provoking novel.  On a personal note, I like this book so much that I’ve bought three copies (one for myself and twice for friends).  Its themes are universal, its characters are fun to spend time with, and it is written such a way that it reads very easily.  I highly recommend it.

I don’t want to spend too much time on an introduction post that is, in all likelihood, only going to be read by a handful of people so I’ll just skip ahead to the details.

Me in thirty-seconds or less: Hi, my name is Tim.  I’m a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Education student from Brisbane, Australia.  I’m majoring in English and Drama.  This means I have an interest in books, TV, media, crit-lit, lit-crit and all things schooling.  I am, of course, interested in more than just these things, but this is supposed to be a brief introduction and I can already hear you typing the URL for Youtube into your browser…

This blog in thirty-seconds or less: This blog is essentially a pet project where I can express my thoughts about life, the universe and everything.  In particular, it will contain reviews of books, television, movies and plays, and commentary on the current state of education.

The title: The title, Shadow People in Paper Towns, was inspired by John Green’s novel Paper Towns.

One of the themes of this novel is that we, as humans, must attempt to imagine each other with greater complexity.  With the advent of the communication age and the ability to make comments quickly and anonymously about things, it has become increasingly obvious to me that people have a tendency to fail spectacularly at using empathy when discussing issues.  Instead, people reduce others to caricatures or silhouettes of who they really are; they cease to be people and become two-dimensional “shadow people.”

So there you have it, we’re all the “shadow people” living in our paper towns.  In this blog I will be trying to imagine others with a greater complexity, and while I will probably fail from time to time I can at least say that I’ve given it a shot.