May 10 (Investigation): During this weeks I haven't done much work due to the overwhelming assessments. However, I have done some reflecting and I realized that the current topic of the novel -which is introduced in the document above- does not convince me. Although I find very interesting to study about the reality of my own country, to compare the similarities and differences of "the poor and the rich", and to develop two parallel stories that intertwine at last, I belief that the purpose of this project is not only to create a product that empowers my passions, but also to create something that allows me to understand myself and my qualities in a better way. In that sense, I think that the novel should be more related to myself, to my experiences and beliefs. That's why I have decided to change the topic of my novel; however, I don't have absolutely clear what it is going to be about.
May 15 (Investigation): I think that the goal proposed in the document above is too specific. Instead of directing to global contexts, it covers the landscape of the product. A clearer goal might be: Express my personal and cultural beliefs through a novel
that exemplifies my passion towards writing and tackles topics of my interest.
I wish to reflect on my own experiences and in that sense, understand my
life in a better way.
May 23 (Investigation): Since I need to write a novel, reading is very important in this stages of my investigation. I have already read books such as Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare, of Mice and Men, by Steinbeck, El Héroe Discreto, Un Pez en el Agua and Las Travesuras de la Niña Mala, all three of Mario Vargas Llosa. Nevertheless, the book that stroke me the most is the one that I'm currently reading, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Siddhartha -a Buddhist chronic-, is one of the most thought-provoking novels in literature. Although I’m not totally finished, this book, by Hermann Hesse, has changed my perspective of life. Siddhartha is a novel that narrates the life of a man named Siddhartha, and explains his spiritual journey of self-discovery. What made Siddhartha unique was that he understood that the eternal liberation could not be reached through doctrines because it could not be taught- enlightenment comes from within. At first, he sought for external guidance, from some kind of organized religion or any type of orientation, though, all the sources he goes to fail to bring him the awareness and consciousness he was seeking. Siddhartha then changes his route to the material world, and there is where the trouble starts to come. He replaces the spiritual guidance for Kamala, her lover, and Kamaswami, his business partner. His wisdom allows Siddharta to succeed in the material world, he starts to win a lot of money and little by little alcohol, gambling, and women start to consume the spiritual richness that he had built until then. However, he realized that he was being consumed by this new, horrible world, since his ability to meditate and reflect was now gone. Therefore, he left everything behind and went escaped to the woods, seeking no longer for external sources, but for his internal guidance.
This novel has inspired me to write about a boy, just like me, that had only one perspective of the world, his life was ordinary and perfect (though he was sick of the same thing everyday: spending time with his insensible family, bearing with the constant comparisons with his super intelligent sisters, and doing the same routine all day long). He was the ugly duckling of the family. Then, a life-changing shock that makes the inocent boy see the other world. The shock is a really bad one, but it makes him see the reality of a needed world. In short, the story will be about the boy living two parallel lives -one in the boring, yet perfect world, and the other in a realistic and hideous world-, and how he finds himself, as well as enlightenment, through thought provoking and life changing experiences.
June 24 (Investigation): I know that I have been absent in my blogging in this past June; I've had a bunch of projects and assessments summed-up because I went to Canada for the First Lego League competition. Nevertheless, I've been thinking and reflecting about this project, and in these past day- probably thanks to my looseness and relaxation- a lot of brilliant stories have come to mind.
I thought about a veteran soldier, who was seeking retirement, and when he was enjoying his life, he is called to work as an undercover agent. With two more soldiers he goes to accomplish his mission and retain information from a terrorist group (I don't have everything in detail, yet). There, he wins a place as a terrorist, though he sees horrible stuff and is obliged to imitate them. The attitude of the 3 soldiers start to change, and the terrorists realize that they are from the army. They treat the infiltrated men as animals, and placed them in a deep underground hole, it was like a well, since they could see the light of the day. The soldiers knew that they couldn't get out, but they lived every day looking at the sun, and remembering how freedom was like- that was the worst of tortures. They where in that hole for 5 years, and they entered into mere desperation, one of the soldiers suicides himself, and when the leader of the terrorists realizes that, he starts to treat them as kings. He gives them love, health, food, and commodities- something that they haven't seen for a long time. They start to like the leader of the terrorists, they even get to love and adore him.
What the leader of the terrorists did was to tear the soldiers apart, they destroyed them until pain and hate were the only things left in their hearts. Then, he was able to build them up, piece by piece, like they wished.
I think that this is a really cool idea, it will be fun to express the feelings and thoughts of a prisoner who only felt hate, pain, and disgust for more than 5 years. I don't have the end really thought-out; I think that as I write, ideas will flow and I will be able to fulfill my story.
July 1 (Investigation): Today I had another great idea that links with the one above. It is about a man that, in the year 2004, creates an underground shelter (a very rustic one) and hides there, because he was scared of being killed by the supposed meteorite that was going to fall in that same year. He hides in that hole for 10 years, and the story will be about the perspective this man has on society. He is totally lost on the things that are happening in the present; he is like a time traveler, who is still at the 2004. He has, ironically, a clear and clean mind on the shocking things that pass in today's society, since no one pushed him to accept them.
July 2 (Investigation): Today I started to write about the 3 soldiers, since I think that it was the most developed story. I wrote about 4 pages, they were really detailed and powerful, though at last I didn't really enjoy it. It felt as if I was drifting from my goal, and it became really difficult to imagine certain situations. I struggled to write, and I felt that it had no purpose.
July 7 (Investigation): I've finally decided to write about the boy, which I talked about in a post on May 23. I think that it is the story that I may most relate, and hence I will be able to manipulate it to explore the different aspects of life. In the next few days I will write, and see how it goes.
July 9 (Investigation): This topic is awesome. I have never been so passionate about literature in my life. It is incredible how, while writing, I remember about different novels that talked about the same things. Also, I am able to use personal experiences to describe certain key aspects of the boy's life, whose name, by the way, is Matteo. For example, I talked about Grima, my former babysitter who went abroad to seek for more opportunities . I used this experience to describe the mother of Matteo, who was closed-minded, protective, and had a heart of stone. Matteito, as Grima called him, considered his maid as his second mother, or his "mami de mentira". The love and care that she gave to him was much greater than the one his true mother could even retain. Moreover, the jealousy of Maria, the mother, was so intense that she punished and shouted Grima for no reason... in fact, she was even capable of firing and leaving poor Matteo as the saddest kid in the world.
May 23 (Investigation): Since I need to write a novel, reading is very important in this stages of my investigation. I have already read books such as Romeo and Juliet, by Shakespeare, of Mice and Men, by Steinbeck, El Héroe Discreto, Un Pez en el Agua and Las Travesuras de la Niña Mala, all three of Mario Vargas Llosa. Nevertheless, the book that stroke me the most is the one that I'm currently reading, Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. Siddhartha -a Buddhist chronic-, is one of the most thought-provoking novels in literature. Although I’m not totally finished, this book, by Hermann Hesse, has changed my perspective of life. Siddhartha is a novel that narrates the life of a man named Siddhartha, and explains his spiritual journey of self-discovery. What made Siddhartha unique was that he understood that the eternal liberation could not be reached through doctrines because it could not be taught- enlightenment comes from within. At first, he sought for external guidance, from some kind of organized religion or any type of orientation, though, all the sources he goes to fail to bring him the awareness and consciousness he was seeking. Siddhartha then changes his route to the material world, and there is where the trouble starts to come. He replaces the spiritual guidance for Kamala, her lover, and Kamaswami, his business partner. His wisdom allows Siddharta to succeed in the material world, he starts to win a lot of money and little by little alcohol, gambling, and women start to consume the spiritual richness that he had built until then. However, he realized that he was being consumed by this new, horrible world, since his ability to meditate and reflect was now gone. Therefore, he left everything behind and went escaped to the woods, seeking no longer for external sources, but for his internal guidance.
This novel has inspired me to write about a boy, just like me, that had only one perspective of the world, his life was ordinary and perfect (though he was sick of the same thing everyday: spending time with his insensible family, bearing with the constant comparisons with his super intelligent sisters, and doing the same routine all day long). He was the ugly duckling of the family. Then, a life-changing shock that makes the inocent boy see the other world. The shock is a really bad one, but it makes him see the reality of a needed world. In short, the story will be about the boy living two parallel lives -one in the boring, yet perfect world, and the other in a realistic and hideous world-, and how he finds himself, as well as enlightenment, through thought provoking and life changing experiences.
June 24 (Investigation): I know that I have been absent in my blogging in this past June; I've had a bunch of projects and assessments summed-up because I went to Canada for the First Lego League competition. Nevertheless, I've been thinking and reflecting about this project, and in these past day- probably thanks to my looseness and relaxation- a lot of brilliant stories have come to mind.
I thought about a veteran soldier, who was seeking retirement, and when he was enjoying his life, he is called to work as an undercover agent. With two more soldiers he goes to accomplish his mission and retain information from a terrorist group (I don't have everything in detail, yet). There, he wins a place as a terrorist, though he sees horrible stuff and is obliged to imitate them. The attitude of the 3 soldiers start to change, and the terrorists realize that they are from the army. They treat the infiltrated men as animals, and placed them in a deep underground hole, it was like a well, since they could see the light of the day. The soldiers knew that they couldn't get out, but they lived every day looking at the sun, and remembering how freedom was like- that was the worst of tortures. They where in that hole for 5 years, and they entered into mere desperation, one of the soldiers suicides himself, and when the leader of the terrorists realizes that, he starts to treat them as kings. He gives them love, health, food, and commodities- something that they haven't seen for a long time. They start to like the leader of the terrorists, they even get to love and adore him.
What the leader of the terrorists did was to tear the soldiers apart, they destroyed them until pain and hate were the only things left in their hearts. Then, he was able to build them up, piece by piece, like they wished.
I think that this is a really cool idea, it will be fun to express the feelings and thoughts of a prisoner who only felt hate, pain, and disgust for more than 5 years. I don't have the end really thought-out; I think that as I write, ideas will flow and I will be able to fulfill my story.
July 1 (Investigation): Today I had another great idea that links with the one above. It is about a man that, in the year 2004, creates an underground shelter (a very rustic one) and hides there, because he was scared of being killed by the supposed meteorite that was going to fall in that same year. He hides in that hole for 10 years, and the story will be about the perspective this man has on society. He is totally lost on the things that are happening in the present; he is like a time traveler, who is still at the 2004. He has, ironically, a clear and clean mind on the shocking things that pass in today's society, since no one pushed him to accept them.
July 2 (Investigation): Today I started to write about the 3 soldiers, since I think that it was the most developed story. I wrote about 4 pages, they were really detailed and powerful, though at last I didn't really enjoy it. It felt as if I was drifting from my goal, and it became really difficult to imagine certain situations. I struggled to write, and I felt that it had no purpose.
July 7 (Investigation): I've finally decided to write about the boy, which I talked about in a post on May 23. I think that it is the story that I may most relate, and hence I will be able to manipulate it to explore the different aspects of life. In the next few days I will write, and see how it goes.
July 9 (Investigation): This topic is awesome. I have never been so passionate about literature in my life. It is incredible how, while writing, I remember about different novels that talked about the same things. Also, I am able to use personal experiences to describe certain key aspects of the boy's life, whose name, by the way, is Matteo. For example, I talked about Grima, my former babysitter who went abroad to seek for more opportunities . I used this experience to describe the mother of Matteo, who was closed-minded, protective, and had a heart of stone. Matteito, as Grima called him, considered his maid as his second mother, or his "mami de mentira". The love and care that she gave to him was much greater than the one his true mother could even retain. Moreover, the jealousy of Maria, the mother, was so intense that she punished and shouted Grima for no reason... in fact, she was even capable of firing and leaving poor Matteo as the saddest kid in the world.
I am truly excited of writing the story of this boy, and I look forward on writing every day I can.
July 10 (Plan):