The Betrayal

This is where my forest picture goes, but it doesn't work right now.

Tally Youngblood, the protagonist in Uglies by Scott Westerfeld, has just entered the Smoke and has a choice to make: activate the heart pendant (a tracking device that is activated only by scanning Tally's eye) and lead Special Circumstances to the Smoke and destroy their way of life, or stay and live here with her friend Shay and remain an ugly. Tally cannot choose quite yet and ends up stalling her decision, and with each day, the decision becomes more difficult to make.

First, Tally must convince the people of the Smoke that she is not a spy, even though she kinda is a spy. The people are suspicious of everybody, but since Tally came alone, they are convinced that she had help from the city. Then, as Tally is about to tell Shay the truth, Shay butts in with an idea that the heart pendant is from a lover that Tally met in the city before running away. Tally goes along with the lie. At the same time, Shay's crush, David, seems to be falling for Tally. As Tally is about to tell David the truth of her arrival, David confides an important secret in her. Tally waits longer. Later, David takes Tally to meet his parents. His parents were doctors and reversed their "pretty" surgery. His parents tell her about their discovery of lesions found on the brains of the pretties that did not hold jobs requiring quick thinking. This is another secret that most of the people in the Smoke do not know until later in life, and yet Tally, a newcomer, is being entrusted with this knowledge. As Tally and David go back to the center of the forest they call home, Tally and David kiss. Tally has firmly decided that she will not betray the people of the Smoke and cannot tell anybody about Special Circumstances. The morning after Tally burns the heart pendant, Special Circumstances shows up and chaos breaks loose.

P.S. The internet is not always my friend. It took me a half hour to get it to let me post this!

Technology in the Future

The technology in the world of Uglies by Scott Westerfeld is very different from ours. This world is several centuries ahead of our time. Instead of applying sunscreen as a lotion or spray, they put on a sunscreen patch. When we want bubbles in our bath, we add a liquid soap while they have packages of massaging bubbles. I'm very jealous of both of these inventions. Another invention, typically used for travel, are the food packets. These are used like instant ramen; just add water and your food is ready. Tally has "SpagBol" packets, which is short for spaghetti Bolognese. She has 2 weeks worth of SpagBol for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. This meal will no longer be her favorite after her trip!

While on her way to "The Smoke," she encounters a huge, archaic, metal machine. This machine is exactly as she pictured it from her history class teachings. It creates a huge tornado and flies. Not too much later, she sees the machine again, with "Pretties" inside! And these people are setting fire to the white orchids that surround Tally for miles. Tally gets caught in the firestorm, luckily the pretties rescue her from a terrible death. Tally learns that these pretties are rangers and their job is to set fire to the orchids. In this time period, orchids are a weed that are choking out every other plant in the wilderness. A Rusties (our time frame) scientist invented a way to rapidly grow orchids since orchids were rare and valuable. This experiment went wrong, of course, and now orchids are weeds. The pretties in the machine tell Tally that will drop her off at the next location for her trip. Tally also learns that the Rusties' strange machine is called a helicopter.

Observing Language: Style Mapping

 
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld uses lower language that is harsh and connotative. The word choice is more familiar and blunt, grating and clattering, and also suggestive and imagistic. Words like "cat vomit," "scudding," "bottomless," "cold," and "sucks" suggest familiar, imagtistic, and grating language. On the nearly-opposite pole is Master & Commander by Patrick O'Brian, with the use of high, musical, and connotative language. O'Brain's words for scholarly, fancy, and archaic as he describes the buildings, people, and music. His words are sweet, harmonious, lyrical and imagistic when he describes the violin player and other musicians. Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian is similar with its scholarly words that flow together with a more poetic, suggestive nature.

Quarterly - Reflection

Youth in Revolt by C. D. Payne\
Uglies Scott Westerfeld

Pages this Week: 368
Pages this Quarter: 1326

So far I've noticed that I have been reading more habitually than previous semesters. The other books that I used to read were the school required reading and I had no time to read "for fun" books. With the required reading, I would find any excuse to not read. With this style of reading, I make time to read. Instead of being on the computer or watching tv I open my book and read. I am surprised that I have actually read over 1,000 pages this semester. I never previously counted the pages I've read in a quarter but I know that 1,000 pages of required reading would not be as much fun as free reading.

I find myself reading in-between classes, in the small timeframe between school and band, around dinner time, and before bed. I usually read on the couch with the TV on, set to a show that I've previously watched or have no interest in watching.

The Uglies

I have finished Youth in Revolt  by C. D. Payne and have moved on to The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.

Youth in Revolt took a downhill turn from when I last posted. For all of you who like happy endings, you will be glad to know that the story goes back uphill on the happy-scale and ends on a good note. Like a stereotypical romance novel, the boy gets the girl. In addition, Nick Twisp becomes rich. He does not get his inheritance from Mrs. Ulansky, but he does become even richer through a different method. Revealing that method would be a plot spoiler, so you'll have to read and find out for yourself!

The Uglies takes place in a future post-scarcity dystopian world. There are the littlies, uglies, and pretties. The people from our time frame have been labeled at "The Rusties." Littlies are people younger than uglies and you turn "pretty" when you reach the age of 16. You turn "pretty" by cosmetic surgery. All flaws are removed and everything is perfect. The recently turned "pretty" live in New Pretty Town and they have fun all day and all night. They are constantly laughing and having fun with no worries. The uglies are trained that they look horrible and are flawed, all they want is to become a "pretty."

Tally Youngblood is the protagonist and she can't wait to become pretty. Her other name is "Squint" because of her eyes. She is the youngest of her friends by 3 months, she's the only one left. On a night adventure when Tally sneaks into New Pretty Town to see her "pretty" friend, Peris, she meets Shay, an ugly, on her trip back to Uglyville. Shay's nickname is "Skinny" because of her weight; she is skinnier than a "pretty". Shay and Tally share the same birthday and therefore would become "pretty" on the same day. Both girls love to break the rules and pull tricks. One time, they left the boundaries of the city and traveled to the Rusty Ruins. This is where our society lived. It is called so because all of the metal structures we obsessively built, collapsed and rusted. Our world had collapsed because of the creation of an "oil bug" that caused oil to combust when it came into contact with oxygen.

Shay is always talking about how she thinks she looks fine and nobody is actually ugly. She thinks that becoming pretty changes more than your looks, but also your personality. "Pretties," in Shay's opinion, are boring air-heads. One week from turning 16, Shay proposes that she and Tally run away, farther than the Rusty Ruins. Some of Shay's older friends escaped becoming "pretty" by running away; one of these people is David. Tally refuses to go, so Shay goes on without her.

Currently - Quotes of the Quarter

Youth in Revolt by C. D. Payne

Pages read last week: 158
Pages total: 958


Quotes of the Quarter:

1.  "I'm not speaking to her right now. Last Monday I came back from two miserable days in my dad's custody to find she had painted my bedroom a ghastly pink. She said she had read this color was widely used in hospitals to calm mental patients. I told her I wasn't mentally ill, I was just a teenager. Meanwhile, I am now embarrassed to invite my friends over." -Youth in Revolt

2. "You know when sometimes you meet someone so beautiful and then you actually talk to them and five minutes later they're as dull as a brick? Then there's other people, when you meet them you think, "Not bad. They're okay." And then you get to know them and... and their face just sort of becomes them. Like their personality's written all over it. And they just turn into something so beautiful." - Amy Pond from Dr. Who 



3."I am crazier than shirttails / In the wind, when you’re near, a wind that blows from / The big blue sea, so shiny so deep and so unlike us" - "To You" by Kenneth Koch

These quotes intrigue me. The first quote is plain amusing because it shows the relationship between teenagers and their parents. The second quote is romantic and makes you think of that one special person in your life. The third quote paints a picture of romance.

Wrap-up

I am well into Book III of Youth in Revolt by C. D. Payne. At the end of Book II, Youth in Bondage, the protagonist Nick Twisp is about to be arrested for 3 different instances. Also, Nick sold a faulty neon sign to a rich person; the rich person is no longer alive due to the neon sign and a hot tub. Nick is also in trouble for giving strong sedatives to Bernice to secretly administer to Taggarty. Taggarty found out about her near-death and is extremely mad at Nick. Bernice got caught with the drugs and swallowed the remaining pills. She slipped into a coma but eventually came-to. Nick is very guilt ridden at this point in the story. He only sees two ways out: suicide or India.

Book III, called Youth in Exile, begins with Nick running away. He takes a plane headed to India, sells his passport, and gets off the plane in San Fransisco. Luckily, he was able to find his sister's apartment and crash there. Nick befriends the elderly neighbor, Bertha Ulansky, and eventually moves back to Ukiah.

Nick already has the sociopathic alter ego of Francois Dillinger. Upon his return to Ukiah, he adorns a new alter ego, a more feminine version. Her name is Carlotta Ulansky and she wears the clothing of the late-occupant of Nick's hideout, the house of Fuzzy's Italian grandmother. Nick returns to the Ukiah school and dresses in Mrs. DeFalco's clothing and coats on makeup. His ploy works very well.

Eventually, Sheeni figures out that Carlotta is really Nick in disguise, but she does not let on until Christmas. Bertha Ulansky also has died and left most of her millions and possessions to Nick! There are about 40 tall pages left in this book and Nick's life is taking a turn for the good; definitely an opposite situation to his previous, in debt, rotten lifestyle under his parents' care.

You should read this book if you like reading about what a boy will do for the one he loves, revenge, strange occurrences, and diaries.