Pafko at the wall: The shot heard round the world p. 1-46

Summary: The first half of the book starts out with these young boys not going to school on a day of the World Series between the Giants and the Dodgers. Knowing that they are broke what they do is sneak in or recklessly barrage their way into the stadium to enjoy the game. While watching the game they make a couple of friends and talk to some fans and they were Dodgers fans so they all rooted for them but since they were down they looked for a comeback. A couple of times into the book the narrator which is the main character talks about the Cold Wars going on and how everybody at the Stadium is enjoying themselves and not worrying about whats going o outside the borders at all. Then the Dodger fans get what they wanted and they came back to tie the game.

Quote:"You shout because it makes you brave or you want to announce your recklessness"(DeLillo 11)

Reaction: As I read this quote I actually took the time to think about it and it actually turned out to be true and i found it interesting because its not the most detailed description but it can get you thinking and it shows an excellent use of imagery without a big sentence explaining it.

Chewing Gum: Fortunes of Taste #61-100

Summary: Now Britain wanted to get a share of the Chicle manufacturing business so they came with a compromise to own a part of the forest since Mexico was 24 million dollars in debt. They started doing their own manufacturing, then a Mayan General, General May, got himself involved in the trade by providing protection for the trade and he got a share of the money in it. Then in the U.S the chicle production boosted but then dropped around the great depression. Then more and more cooperations grew in Mexico and after this and during the beginning of world war II the chicle production got another boost. the gum was used for more than just chewing but also for weapon protection and fixing things. 

Being a chiclero was also a hard job for Mexicans and it needed people to handle a machete and climb a tree and sell the chicle sap from the tree. It was also dangerous and people often died because they are deep in the forest and are prone to animal attacks, snake bites, falling from trees, and some others who travel to and from British Honduras often died on the way. Then after they had protection of workers because of the dangers and that started a time where people wrote books on the chicleros and their lives.

Quote:"The forest, like the people who inhabited it, had built defenses against invasion."

Reaction: This is a metaphor used by the Mayans and workers and they believed that the forest acts like regular humans to protect itself. For example how humans have their own defense mechanism, the forest has the same thing only that the forest is more through nature. For example the sap would be poinsonous, and spines that cut on contact.

Chewing Gum: The Fortunes of Taste #25-60

Summary: After Santa Anna and Thomas Adams met and made the Staten Island agreement to produce gum they started making it from the chicozapote tree and they sold chicle which was a type of latex to raise money. Santa Anna then got impatient so he disappeared and left it all to Thomas. Then Thomas saw a girl buy a pack of gum that was made of Paraffin wax. So he took the chicle he made and started selling it to stores and traveled with it to sell also. They also had many different ways of selling gum also; they used sex appeal since the gum goes into the mouth, and they used colors and designs on the wrapper which worked the best. Chewing gum came into society during the time of big migrations and also industrialization meaning that cities are also growing. This fed into every entrepreneurs plan to sell and promote gum since the city was filled with people. Now that gum is a big thing and many people are making it they had to sell it and the wrapper with the best name, tatse, and most importantly best design always was the most popular stick of gum. Then the Mexicans and the Mayans went to war with America again during the Caste war over borders. This time gum was widely used by both sides of the military to chew on during battle and also the latex from the gum were used in weapons(not the gum itself).

Quote: "If people did not chew their food properly, they did not produce saliva, and this watering of the mouth produced the true or earned appetite that helped to keep people healthy" (Redclift, 37)

Reaction: Even though this book is on chewing gum its interesting to see and find out that "chewing properly" is a way of staying healthy. This gives a lot of emphasis on chewing food correctly and chewing gum to help with this.

Chewing Gum: The Fortunes of Taste #1-24

Summary:Chewing gum in Mexico is a lifestyle for most Mexicans as it is their jobs to either make, sell gum, or find the ingredients used to make gum or as they call it chiclet. There would be people that would make a living off of selling gum in downtown Merida with reasonable prices also, they dont want to sell it for real cheap but they dont want to overprice it which is about 2-5 pesos(20-50 cents). Gum comes from a product named henequen and it is made by the agave cactus which is only found in Mexico so it became a big job for some people when gum production rose. The history of chewing gum started at a meeting of Santa Anna and Thomas Adams but there was many events before this that actually led to the event. First was Santa Anna's victory in Alamo Texas. Then Santa Anna was captured and while being stoned on Opium he agreed to a Texan independence and also for his troops to be retreated. Then Santa Anna moved to Staten Island, New York and this is where the history of chewing gum begins to unravel after he meets Thomas Adams.

Quote:"The development of the product that made chewing easy" (Redcliff 17)

Reaction: This quote is something that can be questioned in my eyes because chewing gum doesn't really make chewing easy but makes people want something to chew on. They are two different things because chewing is an everyday action and chewing gum just makes it more fun for people not easier at all.

"Walls turn flexible, gothic windows wink, a wraith morphs into the bedsheets and every face carved into the woodwork stands a chance of coming alive; don't even ask about the gryphon statues lining the humongous grand staircase"(Maslin, Janet)

-The book doesn't mention any parts of the house doing this and the movie does a good job with the graphics and adding a little more spice to the movie. so I agree with the emphasis on the graphics and effects that are in the movie.

"Things really do go bump in the night"(Maslin, Janet)

-This is a really good way to explain the movie because the director really does make it seem that the house is haunted and that things really do happen at night. The biggest scares happen only at night.
"Especially notable is the work of Phil Tippett and Craig Hayes, visual effects supervisors from 'Jurassic Park,'"(Maslin, Janet)

-The directors and the special effects supervisors were a good reason why the movie was a success. They make the movie what it is and made it interesting and i agree that the staff did do a good job in making this movie and were the reason for the success.

Maslin, Janet (http://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/23/movies/film-review-things-that-go-bump-and-worse-in-the-night.html?scp=2&sq=haunting%20of%20hill%20house%20film%20review&st=cse)

The Haunting of Hill House #34-66

Summary: Now Eleanor finally gets the courage to step into Hill House and Mrs. Dudley takes her to her room where she will be staying. The more Eleanor stays and looks and examines the house the more she wants to leave and get out.Then Mrs. Dudley tells Eleanor that she leaves before dusk comes and that she wont be available after that and there would be no one that can help her at night which is kind of sketchy. Eleanor then gets unpacked in a rush and furiously and then she meets Theodora and where they then get tho see the Green Room. Then Theodora and Eleanor walk around the house and wonder what they could do while being there at the house. Then Theodora starts asking Eleanor a bunch of questions and they both come to the conclusion that they were indeed cousins which was unexpected at all. Then while being out in the hills Eleanor and Theodora meet Luke and they later come into the house and meet the Dr. Montague before dinner. Dr. Montague has a map of the house so he brings the people to the dining room but also warns them that the house can be very tricky. The doctor then tells them that the plan or the next day is to explore the house and do whatever they please for the day. Then they go into talking about the Hill House and its heirs and explains that possibly Mrs. Dudley is planning to get rid of Luke to inherit all of the house and its riches.

Quote: "There were blue dimity curtains over the two windows... and a blue figured rug on the floor, and a blue spread on the bed and the bed and a blue quilt at the foot. The walls, dark woodwork to shoulder height, were bluefigured paper above, with a design of tiny blue flowers," (Jackson 40)

Reaction: This is when Eleanor enters what is called the "Blue room" and its is not too descriptive but it says so much about the room that you can picture it. She is stating all of these blue colored accessories and things that make the room Blue. This also justifies the name of why it is called the blue room.

The Haunting of Hill House #1-33

Summary: The beginning of the book talks about Hill House and how it isn't a very delightful place and its been at the hill for 80 years. Then we are introduced to Dr. Montague who is a doctor of philosophy and has a degree in anthropology. he invited some people to Hill House for him to observe everything thats been going on at Hill House through the stories he's heard. The we meet the characters Eleanor Vance who had a hard life from her, her sister and her mother losing their home. Theodora who was a very down to earth and very enthusiastic person who wore soft colors and Dr. Montague was impressed by her so he invited her. And Luke Sanderson whose aunt was the owner of Hill House and he was the next heir to the house itself. Then when Elanor gets to the house she meets the caretaker Mrs. Dudley but then Eleanor is afraid to even step into the house.

Quote: "NO LIVE organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality" (Jackson 3)

Reaction: This is one of those quotes that blows your mind because its the first sentence of the book, it made me stop for a bit and reread it and got me hooked on the book. Because it says that no living thing can live a sane life without having something that they can question to be real or not a.k.a ghosts.

Note: (I understand that these posts are very late, I had gotten the book the day of and i had to catch up on the reading)