As the summer moves forward, our three kids continue to hang out. Dill asks Scout to marry him and then, according to the Scout, starts to ignore her. She tries everything she can think of to regain his attention, including beating him up twice, but nothing seems to work. I doubt anybody is reading To Kill a Mockingbird for relationship advice, but if you are for some reason, be wary of following Dill's and Scout's examples. You probably shouldn’t ignore someone after proposing to her, or beat someone up after he proposes to you. But what do I know? Different strokes for different folks, I guess.
I’d like to address some angry emails I’ve been getting. Yes, the title of this blog is “Blogging To Kill a Mockingbird.” This doesn’t mean that I am blogging about killing an actual mockingbird. How would that even work? A hit counter attached to some sort of electrical device on top of a birdcage?
Also, before I get any more angry emails, no, I am not actually getting any angry emails from people who thought that I was blogging about killing an actual mockingbird. On to the book!
Jon is reading Lord of the Flies and blogging about it. His posts are collected here.
Chapter 5 introduces us to a new and updated Ralph—Ralph 2.0, as it were—who has been reborn out of last chapter's lack of a fire like some sort of reverse phoenix.
There's a reason "missed the boat" is an apt analogy for failing to seize opportunity, and now that Ralph has done this actual thing, it's made him all grim and thoughtful. As this new Ralph prepares for the meeting he called at the end of the last chapter, he's woefully aware of how little the boys have accomplished, and how everything they have managed to throw together is a piece of junk.
Chapter Two
Summer passes quickly (like it always does), and Dill heads back home. Scout gears up for her first year of school, which she's very excited about. But once she gets there, she realizes that she kind of hates her teacher, Miss Caroline Fisher.
Miss Caroline is a young teacher. It seems that everything she does annoys Scout. When she finds that Scout already knows how to read very well, she tells her to tell her father not to teach her anymore. Classic lazy teacher move ("I don’t want to have to think of things that will keep you interested, so stop being smarter than everybody else.").
Jon is blogging Lord of the Flies. For a list of his posts, go here.
Welcome to Chapter 4, Painted Faces and Long Hair, aka The Boys Finally Kill Something On Purpose, And Also Are Jerks.
We start with a description of how the boys are coping with life on the island. Most of the kids (particularly the littluns) basically just goof off and eat and get confused by nature, unless bad things are happening to them. The littluns are filthy, careless, and either treated like crap or ignored entirely. One of them (Percival) had a total breakdown, which everyone considers hilarious.
First things first: Yes, I will now be blogging To Kill a Mockingbird. No, I will not be making fun of this classic book. I will be making jokes about the plot and asking stupid questions about the events but I will not, I repeat, not make fun of this classic work of literature that I genuinely like. (Please put your hammers down now.)
For your amusement and edification, Jon is reading Lord of the Flies and blogging about it. A complete list of posts is here.
It's hard to come up with an image more placid than huts on a beach, so from the chapter title, you might guess everyone will soon kick back and drink lemonade or something. But wait—what if the huts are a metaphor for one side of an awesome conflict that will soon get all crazy? Because they are, and it will. But first, hide whatever pigs you might have lying around, because it's Jack o' Clock on LotF Island.
We've already arrived at the last Blogging The Scarlet Letter post! Stay tuned for Ramsey's next blog on a classic book.
Chapter 23 – The Revelation of the Scarlet Letter
Well, apparently Hawthorne named his chapters backwards, because as we all know, the scarlet letter was revelated (a word I just made up) all the way back in the second chapter, after that terrible part about the prison door (this is my last chance to complain about that, and I have to make the most of it). So, if you ask me, I would have to say it’s pretty dumb to have a chapter about the revelation of the scarlet letter in the second to last chapter of a book called The Scarlet Let—what’s that? I should read the chapter before I start complaining? Well, I hardly see what good that will do, but if you insist…
Jon is blogging Lord of the Flies! Did you miss the first installment? Here it is.
Chapter 2 begins with Ralph holding a meeting back on the beach, shortly after the non-piglet-killing expedition to the mountain. Surrounded by the now mostly-dressed children, Ralph reveals that the island is uninhabited, except apparently for some pigs, which of course reminds Jack of violence (as will many things throughout this chapter). Jack once again stabs a tree to reiterate that he will stab the next piglet so hard that he's not even kidding.
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