"It all comes down to this roll. Roy Munson, a man-child, with a dream to topple bowling giant Ernie McCracken. If he strikes, he's the 1979 Odor-Eaters Champion. He's got one foot in the frying pan and one in the pressure cooker. Believe me, as a bowler, I know that right about now, your bladder feels like an overstuffed vacuum cleaner bag and your butt is kinda like an about-to-explode bratwurst."
The Ember/Sparks books got me thinking about a lot of things: Religion vs. Atheism, Seeking knowledge rather than living in a state if ignorant bliss, communism vs. capitalism, feminism, entitlement/fairness, and war.
I am not sure which of these the author was really to get us to think about. I don't think I am going to try and tackle all of these in one blog because its Valentine's Day and I am getting ready to go out to eat some Pho at Just Pho.
I think I will discuss the most alarming attribute of the characters in the book; their sense of entitlement and fairness as presented in the second book.
The Emberites and people of sparks seem to have this innate sense of entitlement. Actually it really only lies in the Emberites, the people of Sparks are just greedy. When the Emberites came to the city of Sparks they asked for help. I feel like this was a natural thing to do. I would do the same thing if I arrived in a strange new world and had nothing. I would ask the people I met to help me. The people of Sparks did the nice thing and made a plan to help them. What they should have done is incorporated the Emberites into their community. They would have had a larger workforce, and despite the initial scarcity of resources they would have faced everyone would have been OK in the long run.
The Emberites were guilty in making the people of Sparks hate them, besides Tick's stupid antagonism. They never offered to help do anything when they got there. All they did was ask for food and shelter and more of it. I guess that since they were use to the Builders giving them everything they had no sense of work, but it should seems obvious that they should have offered to earn their stay.
This trait of the Emberites made me really mad. I thought they should have been kicked out of the town of Sparks because they were acting like horrible guests.
Luckily Doon and Lina were there to save the day through kindness and goodwill towards others.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed the book and plan on reading the third one as soon as I finish burning my tongue on some super hot pho I do think that the author was too naive in her vision of a post disaster world. She obviously has never The Road or 28 Days Later. In the post apocalyptic world there will be bands of murderers running around raping and pillaging those who have resources. The truth is that people hate to work and if they can stuff without having to do anything they will.
Maybe that is the point of the book. Not that war is bad, or girls rule/boys drool, or that curiosity and innovation are good things but rather that it is better to work for the things you need in your life and not just expect them to be handed to you.
So in addition to the other things I will do as a teacher (in case you forgot they include not using any technology and only allowing students to make a 100% on assignments) I will also devote a portion of every class to instruction on how to survive on your own. Lesson one: how to grow butternut squash.
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