So who is Josh Swensen? Some bold teenager armed with a keyboard and blog to educate and challange the people in his community to change the status quo? Or is he the coward that people depict him as threatening to upset society by instigating civil anarchy? Josh Swensen is of little interest to the world, he has no friends nothing to preoccupy his time and intellect but he does have a lot to say even though he isnt able to stand up and speak. Like many teenagers Josh has a computer and a blog in which he speaks about anti-consumerism a seemingly arbitrary topic to many of us. Josh creates an image through which he disperses his message of indpendence from corporate entanglement. As the topic begins to catch interest and change social order he becomes frightened of the power he has amassed and even abuses it for his own purposes. As admirable as his crusade may be he is too frightened to reveal himself and take down the fascade he created for himself. I truly admire his efforts to 'chane the world' but truth be told I think that his motives arent as genuine as he claims them to be, the point of writing a blog is to spread a message of some sort to as many people as you can. Josh writes as an outlet for his fears, lonliness, bordeom and even depression (for his mother) and claims from the get-go that he never expected nor wanted his blog to become popular. Josh claims to be a loner, he doesnt like it when too many people participate in what he does, he wouldnt be the one to join a school club or go to the mall. When his blog becomes famous he doesnt know how to handle it, he becomes consumed by it and several times he even uses the blog out of his own self interest to impress Beth. The book outlines many of the ambitions that Josh has but in the end we come to understand that his ambitions and efforts were ultimately driven by genuine initiative to make the world a better place. To anyone who thinks about reading this book understand this: I am a person who doesnt like to read, it isnt tedious or trivial but it is something that I rarely do out of pleasure. This book was truly one of the better books I have ever read, it consumes you and overwhelms you in such a manner that you feel that somehow you want Josh to succeed.
I read it, I loved it
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2 comments:
Yaron,
I am really, really glad that you liked this book do well. I also think it is an engaging read. You had some very keen insights here, especially about the contradictory impulses Josh feels.
Anyhow, based on your response to this book, I do hope you'll enjoy the books we will be reading next semester!!!
p.s. - double check your commas once more. In some places, a period or semi-colon is better.
Mrs. B
I agree with what you wrote but I don't think Josh was frightened to reveal himself, I think he just felt he didn't need to, that it wouldn't help people to know who he is because it would just create bias. After things got out of hand with betagold threatening him was when I think he became frightened to reveal himself- as to save his own life.
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