Blog #9

i think the world wouldnt be any different without books, at least in the short term. most of the information contained in books can easily be found online. in the long run however, its impossible to say how the world would "look like" without books. what if something happens to the internet?(like the govt shutting it down), what if the internet doesnt even exist in the future?...would there be any other way of looking up information?, again its impossible to know any of these answers. personally, i think books are good to have just as a reference type of thing. its not like i read to relax but at the same time how else would we learn, how else would we know if the information we're learning isnt made up by some party or by the govt (1984) if theres nothing in writing to back up anything we say. as far as burning books goes, if we keep on using the internet to look stuff up, eventually people will no longer bother to publish books.

Blog #8

I thought Hunger Games was an interesting read. While I don’t believe we’ll reach a point where we’re watching people essentially fight to the death, I think the ridiculousness of the hunger games kinda resembles some of the traditions we have today. I was pretty intrigued by Katniss' decision to form an alliance with Rue, I feel that if I were in the games and one of my enemies resembled a family member, or even friend, I would have a difficult time contemplating whether or not to kill them. Throughout the book I also wondered, if placed in that circumstance, if I could be in a relationship similar to that of Katniss' and Peeta's, a relationship built on a series of lies that must be kept up in order to ensure my survival.  The plot itself actually reminded me of the movie The Condemned, which is also about a last man standing fight to the death type of thing, with millions paying to watch it through the internet. As a whole, all of the books we’ve read so far portrait societies in which its people do what their told, they do things that their society consider norms, and they all do it without ever questioning what the significance or what the true purpose of it all is.