Introduction to Ken Kesey's 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'

It's taken me quite a bit to decide on a classic book, but I've decided to take my time to read One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. I read the sample, and frankly, I have no idea what's going on. From what I comprehend there's a mental ward, a group of black boys who do this person called the Big Nurse's bidding in the mental ward, and some weird stuff happens from the Big Nurse growing really big and beating up the black boys (don't get me wrong, they're really called this in the book) and some very exaggeratedly cruel punishments (That I have now confirmed are hallucinations by the narrator) done to the misbehaving patients in this hospital. We're introduced to this man called McMurphy, and from the description of the story in amazon, he'll turn the hospital upside down. I recognize that I have an unreliable narrator, and that may not be the best thing for me, but I can handle it. Though the book does not offer as much dialogue as I would prefer, I hope it can prove me wrong on my opinion on the fact these types of books (typically older, classics) lack the key to make me emotionally connected to characters in any way, due to their lack of dialogue and over-explanations.

Michael Schofield's 'January First'- Final Review

This was an AMAZING nonfiction book. THe way it is written is almost in a story-type format that makes you feel more engaged opposed to facts being thrown at you. However, I do occasionally question how accurate and exact all of his quotations and descriptions of things may be, but I'm sure they were put as accurately as he remembers. Schofield shares with us his thoughts, his worries, his determination, his fear, and is even willing to include his major faults. Though a lot of things that he thinks about Susan at the time, and that Susan did were negative, he doesn't fail to include details that may make him, or Susan look bad. Their struggle is definitely evident throughout thes tory, and there were even portions that made me tear up. Janni (It's actually spelled Jani now, I found out. After having a friend in the hospital named Dani, she changed it, but I'll continue to write Janni for now since it's what I'm used to) and her parents have to go through so much, and to be introduced to the feelings of a father who is incapable of doing anything to truly help Janni, the hopelessness is apparent on so many different levels. Janni screams, Janni cries, Janni tries to kill herself, Janni tries to hurt other things, Janni's disassociating from reality, and no matter what they do, Michael has to face the fact that there is nothing he can truly do to help his little girl. While Janni is still struggling with her hallucinations, which will never truly go away, she's definitely improving with the help of animal therapy. She takes care of animals from reptiles to horses in order to help calm her outbreaks and other things.

One significant thing in the story that I noticed was the mention of eyes. Schofield talks about how Janni changes depending on her eyes, saying "I've had a lot of experience holding Janni down to keep her from hitting or kicking Bodhi, so I've had the opportunity to look Janni in the eyes a lot. When I do, I don't see them looking back at me. They look blind, like the entire world has disappeared. I have a photo of Janni that I use as the desktop image on our computer... Every time I boot up the computer, Janni's eyes appear, looking right at me. There is warmth in them along with a simple look of happiness. For three years I have been hoping to see those eyes again" (Schofield 100). I feel  extremely bad for Janni's father because he's tried so hard to make her happy, but has unfortunately gotten so little in return. I'm not saying that it's Janni's fault or anything, it's just an extremely fortunate happening, to never be able to see your daughter TRULY happy. He only sees her suffer almost every day, to the point that it makes her almost suicidal.

I believe that this is an extremely good book, adn that if you have any interest in psychiatry or psychosis of any time, this would be a really good book to read. It's inspiring, and it almost reminds you, if you're a parent (I'm not, but if I was I'm sure this book would butcher my heart right about now) you'd probably learn a few things from this book. Never giving up, making your kids your number one priority, and that sacrifices must be made for the well being of your kids, not you.

Links:
If you want to continue following Jani's story or contact Michael Schofield, you can go to www.janifoundation.org

Jani and Oprah Winfrey- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAWkZguGD7s
- This is pretty simple to explain. Just a mini story on Oprah about Jani's situation and an overall explanation of what is going on presently. The story took place when Jani was six, so this is more of an update on what's happening.

A random song I found written about Jani: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q4ZR_Bye_4
- The song is called 'Calalini'. It's written from the perspective of Jani (not actually written by her, of course) and her troubles with her hallucinations. This wasn't made by her family or anything, more of a 'fan-made' thing. It's also a Vocaloid, so it's hard to understand sometimes. These are computer generated voices that are made to make songs. If you're not into that, it's fine. I just stumbled upon it and thought it'd be cool to share.

Michael Schofield's 'January First'- Midway Review

Halfway through the book, nothing much is getting better for Janni and her family. At the beginning they don’t recognize that her daughter may have Schizophrenia, and that her imaginary friends are actual hallucinations. From what I see, her father, Michael, is the more understanding parent. He doesn’t attempt to force her to forget about her ‘friends’, he tries to engage her and take care of her and support her when she’s good. Susan, the mother, on the other hand, I dislike. Susan practically gives up on Janni. Every time she struggles with her moderately, she calls Michael and complains, then criticizes Michael’s actions when he attempts to help. She admits Janni to a mental hospital more than twice without Michael’s agreement (though they barely did anything except give her random injections when she spazzed, and at one point even leaves her to run naked around a hospital, and just says “’I’m done. I’m tired of doing this alone. Let her run naked through the halls. They need to see what we deal with every day. Then maybe they’ll get off their asses and get a psychiatrist down here’” (Schofield 130). NO, you INCOMPETENT MAGGOT. Get up and go take care of your child and actually act like you’re a good mom. Oh nooooo, you’re overwheeeeeeelmed. I get it, that sucks, but grow a pair and take care of your freakin’ child. She came out of YOU for god sakes. I don’t care if she’s a bit insane, it’s your responsibility and while it may be something out of your hands, you take care of her like any parent should. I could parent her better than you. You little- anyway… In a bit more of a summary, poor Michael has been accused of molesting Janni by an unnamed source because there’s some privacy law and I hate those laws honestly. If you’re gonna put in a stupid claim, you should probably have a stupid person to back it up. And maybe I’m just biased, but that’s just my opinion. I guess in some situations that’d be good, but the person’s normally gonna get arrested for the claim anyway so it wouldn’t matter. Besides the point, Janni’s in first grade now, and that’s as far as I’ve gotten. I really hope Susan steps up her game, Michael gets a little bit of his enthusiasm back and a little bit more hope, and I hope Janni doesn’t kill Bodhi by the time the book ends.

Introduction To Michael Schofield's 'January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her'

So, for my nonfiction book, I didn't want to stick myself into something that would bore me, or make me want to give up instantly just because of all the information. When I saw this title in the Kindle Store, I was instantly intrigued. Nah, I'm not a sadist that's into a child's craziness and their parent's struggles but it seems pretty cool. So basically, this is written from the point of view of Michael Schofield, who is the father of the focus of the story. Janni Schofield is to the right of the picture above. The story starts when she is merely a toddler. A one year old who is able to form mere sentences, and eventually grows to be a four year old with the intelligence of a ten or eleven year old. However, these 'imaginary friends' that she has are NOT imaginary friends. They are hallucinations of her later diagnosed schizophrenia. Though she used to be much more open, she is now closed out from the outside world. She has trouble making friends and closes out other children. Her hallucinations are of animals, such as rats named after the days of the week, a cat named 400, and many other creatures, all coming from a place that Janni calls 'Callilini'. While this used to seem innocent, according to Janni, they all tell her to do bad things. From hurting her younger brother or her parents to to kill herself by jumping out of a hospital window. Since this is a nonfiction story, I don't really know what to assume. There isn't exactly 'foreshadowing' in nonfiction books, so its all up to reality for me to find out what's happening. I definitely think that Janni will be hospitalized from time to time, since her violence is getting out of control, attacking her parents, her brother, anything. She's already seeing a therapist from where I've read. I really do hope the best for her parents and Janni. I've seen the results of what serious schizophrenia can do to a person, and since there's no cure for it, the dangers could be endless.

Stephen King's 'The Shining' - Final Review

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

Alright, I’m going to be honest. This book wasn’t really as amazing as everyone was making it out to be. The plot was great, but I think could have been expressed MUCH better than the way this book did. I’m going to be honest, I don’t have a weak stomach. So describing to me the disturbing murder or assault of a random character won’t bother me. It simply won’t especially in a book. In a movie, maybe I’ll be a little grossed out like “Why is their leg turned like that? What’s wrong with their ribs?” but I don’t think I’d actually care. Authors who want to impress all readers, gore loving or sensitive, need to add in something extra.

 I feel like this related more to Friday the 13^th, with a lot more plot development and back stories. However, every horrible thing that happened didn’t really matter. You couldn’t relate to these characters, you couldn’t enjoy them for their witty attitude or they’re true kindness. I may have ranted about this a bit more in my prior post, but you need to give me characters that I love. The closest character that I came to enjoying the presence of was Dick Halloran, but even so, I wasn’t broken apart when Jack attacked him, or when he was almost taken over by the hotel towards the end. I was given characters that I could pity, not characters I felt sorry for. I was given characters that I could recognize the difference in their absence, not characters whose absence I could mourn. It may just be me, but if you want to make a horror book that will scare me, you need to write a book that will not only torture me with the contents, but with what happens to my characters. And another question is, why in the world would you kill off the one person that everyone’s supposed to hate? You’re supposed to kill off a couple people the readers will like, make them wrench their heart out almost. But no, the one person you kill in the whole story is the drunk/villain hotel thing. Okay cool, everyone lived happy ever after. Okay maybe Danny’s a little sad and Wendy’s a little old and Mr. Hallorann’s just out being Mr. Hallorann but it’s nothing to leave me in horror. “Oh noo, what happened was screwed up!” To me it’s just: “Oh, his dad was taken over by a hotel and blew himself up. Sucks.” I don’t really care. I was told of Danny and his father’s strong connection, but I didn’t see it. What I SAW was Jack breaking his two year old son’s arm, or screaming at him for stuttering, and being an obnoxiously irresponsible father. Why Danny would love him, I don’t understand. I know how abusive relationships work and all. It usually starts off sweet and gradually gets worse and worse. But two years in and you break your kids arm, I’m pretty sure that kid would have some kind of fear factor for you or some bitterness towards you. Maybe that’s just me. Maybe I’m just less forgiving, but that would be me in his case scenario. Jack was the villain, that’s all he was. A sob story, an occasional instance where he would say he loved his wife but plot to kill her in the middle of it, and then a murderous rampage. Why would I like him? Danny is a smart, yet typical 5-year-old boy. Practically perfect. I’d call him a Gary-sue but I won’t, because he’s a five year old character and I’ll give him some slack. Wendy just bothers me. I can’t point out why, but she just does. I don’t see her characteristics as a mother besides her actions. We aren’t introduced enough to her thoughts on her love of Danny, her love of her husband. In fact besides the singular phrase ‘Wendy loved Danny/Jack’, we don’t get details about it. We don’t hear her explaining why, or anything. Stephen King is capable of making such good characters, and he probably has, but the way he’s put them out there is poorly done.

There are occasions where the scare factors just make me want to die laughing, too. There are points in this story where I would wonder what this story is even about. Voices from masquerades, moving hedge animals, sassy demons that possess the residents’ head. There has to be my favorite, though. At the first sentence I kind of got creeped out, humans on all fours can make you prepare for the worst because you think of exorcist type of stuff. Instead, this is what I got: “There was a man on all fours halfway down the corridor, between him in the stairs… The man looked up at him. His eyes were tiny and red. He was dressed in some sort of silvery, spangled costumes. A dog costume, Danny realized” (King 335). There was more time spent describing the dog costume than anything. Nothing threatening in his appearance, nothing that will haunt me in my nightmares. It was a freaking man in a dog costume. It’s safe to say that I was laughing pretty hard at this point. What are you trying to do, Mr. King? Is this supposed to be startling? Disturbing? Despite the man’s apparent insanity and his threat to eat Danny’s private parts, there was nothing that was actually threatening about this dog-man-thing.

In conclusion, I hate to say it, but Stephen King’s The Shining was not as appealing as I was expecting. The theme apparently seemed to be that following in the footsteps of those who hurt you in the past is probably not the smartest idea, the plot, and the backstories of each character was good. However, the portrayal of the story, the mood, the scare factor, the dialogue (especially the random rants that you can ignore) could be developed SO much better. I can sadly say that I was disappointed, and hopefully my mind will change with another Stephen King book. So far, however, I’m not impressed.

Stephen King's 'The Shining' - Midway Review

By the midpoint of the story, you're about 250 pages into the book. The concept is appealing so far, I explained it a bit more in my last post. Basically, continuing from my last post, little Danny has this thing that a man called 'The Shining', which is basically like a psychic ability. Those who have the Shining can see things that have happened or that are to happen. Even though this hasn't been very obvious, I also think it gives you the ability to see ghosts. Danny has this 'imaginary friend' named Tony, who shows him these visions and it seems that while Tony could be a figment of his imagination, it seems more logical for him to be a ghost of some sorts. At the hotel, Danny is tormented with images of blood and brains being splattered on the walls, corpses, and some sort of fire-extinguisher becoming a snake (what) while his father becomes tormented with his desire for alcoholic drinks, passive aggressive anger, and strange hallucinations. And then there's poor Wendy who has to put up with all this crazy stuff that she doesn't even understand, poor girl.

Honestly, I find that the book would be a lot more emotionally investing if there was a bit more dialogue. A majority of the book is just describing what's happening, and giving a bit of insight of the past. Most of the character's apparent dialogue consists off long and droning monologues that you can skip, and the story can be completely the same, or quick bickers in between the characters in which someone says something notably harsh. Though characters do occasionally have a dialogue that teaches us a bit about the character's personality, it is not enough for me to feel emotionally invested into the characters. Though I get some sob stories about their past, how Wendy's sister died and how her mother was a total jerk, how Jack follows his father's path of being an abusive alcoholic, though he hasn't quite beaten his wife in front of his children yet, and then there's Danny who's just suffering from the first-world problems of being a psychic little boy in a horror story. I don't know why, but when I read these, I can't find myself caring. I understand it was cruel, and it was horrible, but I don't actually FEEL anything. That's the problem with most horror stories, I think. Though I love the horror genre, it is extremely difficult to feel pleased or truly scared. If I want to be truly scared in a book, I need to have characters I genuinely care about and frankly, I could care less about Danny, Jack, and Wendy. Honestly, they feel like characters, not people. That's the problem. I can tell that they're just pawns to be placed in a horror story, and while they have well developed yet tragic pasts, what is there to offer me that I should care about them? How about they're witty, cheeky personalities? Their care for anything? The bad about them mostly overpowers the good in them. I suppose that's what is most disappointing about this book so far. These are characters not people. (Also the book has failed to scare me to any extent, though only one book has ever done that so far)

A lot of the most thought provoking things in the book are tied into scenes with Jack suffering some sort of mental breakdown or whatever. Mostly tied to mental states and insanity such as on page 109, when the author states “When you unwittingly stuck your hand into the wasps’ nest, you hadn’t made a covenant with the devil to give up your civilized self with its trapping of love and respect and honor. It just happened to you. Passively, with no say, you ceased to be a creature of the mind and became a creature of the nerve endings; from college-educated man to wailing ape in five easy seconds” (King 109) it seems what he’s saying is that these states where you just break down and do things you regret are not things that you accept. They’re something that took you by surprise and can change you into something that you’re not. I think this part kind of foreshadows that one of the characters in the story are going to go insane. Based off of the behaviors of the characters, it seems that the one that is going to break is going to be Jack.

Though I’m not super impressed yet with the book, I still have high expectations. I hope that it turns around and proves me wrong, or I will be disappointed.

Introduction to Stephen King's 'The Shining'

I've never familiarized myself with a Steven King novel, though his name and the stories he's written have been mentioned a lot. He's pretty famous for the horror and suspense genre, and that'd definitely my type of writing style. From what I know about the book, it's set in the 1970's and circulates around the Torrance family. The family consists of Jack Torrance, the father, Danny Torrance, the son, and Winnifred (Wendy) Torrance, the wife. Jack, due to unfortunate events dealing with his alcoholic (and sober) rages, Jack has lost jobs in the past. When he recieves the chance to take on a job at the Overlook Hotel, he accepts and moves him and his family to the hotel. However, Danny seems to have reportedly psychic powers, in which he can see things that his family cannot, and can even read their thoughts. The visions are not pretty, and can be from anything nice to something horrible, such as murder, and right now, the word 'REDRUM' is stuck in his head. I don't really know what to expect out of this book. I haven't really read many books or seen many movies related to psychic children, though it has been a common concept for years. I know that something is going to happen in that hotel. Whether that these images in Danny's head become a reality, or if he begins to see harmful poltergiests of some sort. Besides Danny, Jack seems to be having some sort of mental breakdown as well, and it seems to me that he's going to suffer a lot at this hotel as well. Whether this because of the temptation of his alcoholic beverage, I don't know. I've got pretty high standards for this book, and I surely hope it doesn't disappoint.