Here's a book report on the short story, Understand, part of the book, Stories of your life and others.
The story, Understand, by Ted Chiang, talks about a runaway test patient of a new treatment for people with severe brain damage. The story takes place in Boston, Massachusetts. Leon was just saved from drowning and was saved because of a new hormone K therapy. The treatment made him very intelligent, he was in the 99th percentile. Then, just to test, the hospital gave him another dose. That made him too intelligent. He soon figured out that the CIA did this to make him part of their team. He knew he had to escape, so he escaped with a fourth vial of the hormone K. He earned money off investing and lived as a fugitive. One day, he realized his stocks were going down. The only possibility was that there was another person that was as smart as him. He quickly tracked down the other person's location and went there. When he got there, he quickly realized that the other person was superior. The other person won the "duel" and Leon died.
I liked this story a lot. It was quick-paced and filled with action on every page. I just wanted to keep reading until I finished it (Which I did). I really like science fiction novels and this was just one of the best I've read. There was lots of anticipation to figure out what would happen next and there was no part that was boring.
I would recommend this story to anyone who reads, but I would especially recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction books. This story is the best of the best.
Improvement from yesterday! You have commentary now, which is always good - the task at hand is to now merge commentary and description together in a seamless fashion. You have them separated into different paragraphs, rather than interwoven together as they should be.
ReplyDeleteIn the future, I want you to write pure analysis, because this is the vast majority of what you will write in eighth grade and up. When writing analysis, you assume that the reader has already read the book. There is no reason to tell us what happens - you assume that we already know it backwards and forwards.
Instead, you bring something new to the table. These should be commentary that makes us think, that points out symbols and connections inherent in the books.
If I were writing a book report/summary of Understand, it would go something like this:
"The idea of superhuman intelligence has been around in science fiction for quite a while now, but Ted Chiang takes a fresh look at the concept with his short story, Understand. The main character, Leon, having taken a brain-enhancing drug, becomes self-aware on an order of magnitude incomprehensible to normal human beings. What follows is his search for ultimate understanding of the universe as a whole gestalt, and his clash with another of his own kind. The short story is fast-paced and engaging precisely because of its format - it throws new ideas at us rapidly enough so that they seem novel and exciting. This high-concept style of writing would have quickly lost its steam in a full-length book. Leon's progression into an ubermensch comes with surprising but logical developments: the creation of his own language, the progression into meta-meta-self-awareness, thought patterns of infinite regression, and so on. It is really this evolution of the mind that drives the story forward, and Chiang explores undiscovered territory with his idea of the mind as a self-modifying piece of machinery."
That's a bit short, but it's the general idea. You want commentary interspersed within your writing - exploring connections inside the book.
Write about whatever you want tomorrow. Enjoying Boston?
I would recommend you read thoroughly of what Hans wrote, and if possible, memorize it.
ReplyDeleteFrom my own experience, I find the best way of learning is to start with analyzing the organization of sample articles and structure of sentences, and memorizing them. Once you capture how good writers think, you may follow their thinking path when it comes to your own composition.