A word on the world

I am busy working on my novel, so this post is going to be short. In light of recent world events, I feel the need to say something that I've been wanting to say for many years now:

In every country, in every religion, and in every culture, there are jackasses. And unfortunately, those jackasses speak the loudest, drowning out the voices of the more reasonable-minded individuals. These obnoxious jackasses captivate the media, which projects their image across the world for everyone to see and judge (never mind what the reasonable people are doing, because that doesn't make for interesting news). But we should not base our opinions of an entire group on the actions of its most idiotic and misguided members. Because when we do, we only help to perpetuate the ignorance and prejudice that fuel their jackassery, and we become jackasses too.

To whoever reads this, wherever you are, I hope that you can still see past the bad to find the good. And more than anything, I hope that peace finds you soon. That's all I have to say...

Moby Dick: The Novel That Stove My Heart

I don't usually take to works of literature that are considered "classics"--maybe because I don't like to go with the flow just because others keep telling me how great the flow is, or maybe because "classics" are what I was forced to read all throughout school until I felt like it would be worth inventing a time machine just to go back and punch Shakespeare in the nose. Whatever my reasoning may be, it wasn't until I read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein that I realized some books are classics because they truly speak to the innermost soul of the reader. For me, Herman Melville's Moby Dick is one of those true classics. It took me quite some time (135 chapters and an epilogue's worth of time) to decide whether I even liked the book. At the beginning, I loved it. Halfway through, I wasn't so sure, but I read on anyway and it started to grow on me. By the time I got to the end, I realized that I had become so consumed by this novel that I had to love it. But before I reached the point of discovering my true feelings, I analyzed the hell out of this novel and I feel like sharing that analysis. So if you have a lot of time on your hands, or just want to see what someone else thinks of this mind-boggling book, then sit back and enjoy.
**Spoilers abound (mainly for the very end)**