Look at the pretty horsies

Well I have to say that this novel gets more interesting every time I read a section. I like the style of it, and that the storyline is easy to follow now. It's a wonder that the boy's do not have more concern for what is happening back home, but I do enjoy reading about their cowboy lifestyle. I have to admit that I laughed when I read the scene when the boys were "funnin" about shooting the Rawlins boy just like the supposed others they shot. I think that Rawlins, even though the boy's seem to want to get away from him, is going to become a more significant character, especially of his awesome skills with his gun. And I cannot complete this post without mentioning that I love reading the occasional Spanish that pops up every now and then in the novel.

Please don't ignore it

Some people say that they don't like to think about the things that are happening in the world because there are so many tragedies and awful things. But I think the greatest tragedy is when someone sees the things that happen in the world and ignores them; no one tries to change anything.

How can you see what goes on in the world and not try to change it?

Example: Human Trafficking- the illegal trade in human beings for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor: a modern-day form of slavery.

-There are around 27 million people in slavery today, and about half of them are children.
-An estimated 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year.
-Human trafficking, especially for sex, is a big problem for the United States. (Not only because it goes on behind closed doors in the US, but because a lot of the sex tourism in places like Thailand is supported by many American tourists, who see nothing wrong with using these people for commercial sex).

But most people seem to ignore this problem, because it causes them discomfort to think about it.
Well, I am one of those people who gets discomfort from ignoring it. Hopefully you are too.

Pretty Horses 1

I prefer not to give my official opinion on a book until I have read more than one quarter of it, because one does not get the true feel for a story until they have read a good portion of it. But so far, All the Pretty Horses seems like it is not difficult to read, and is actually very interesting. There hasn't been a lot of plot development yet, but the story still captures my attention. I am intrigued by the fact that the spoken words of the story are not marked by punctuation, and one has to figure out when the words are being spoken. And there are hardly any description or tone words. But this style gives a unique feel to the story. The reader has to interpret the scene more on their own. For example, in one instance between the boy and his father, when they are at a diner, the father's actions and words are written, but there is little description of how they occur. So the reader is left to interpret the scene. It says that "his father nodded" and then "he smoked," and then they watch "two horsemen" pass by outside. The reader knows what is happening, but there are almost no tone words in the passage. It is left up to interpretation whether the father smoked with a depressed look, or perhaps a contemplating one. And when the horsemen pass by, it does not say if they ride majestically or even clumsily, they just pass by. This lack of description may seem like a loss to some readers, but I think that it is actually an advantage. It allows the imagination to take over and really forces the reader to pay attention to the setting and context to figure out how the scene should be.

My First Post

This is really exciting, because it is my very first post on my new blog. I couldn't decide what to blog about first, so I'm just blogging about blogs. They seem like a cool way to share ideas. Now I have to go think of stuff to make posts about. :-)