The Three Body Problem

    

    In the vast expanse of space at a system known as Trisolaris, three stars dance around each other in an irregular and unpredictable dance, with a planet drifting through the gravitational influence of the three bodies, subject to both extreme heat and cold. Against all odds, civilization sprouts on this planet, weathering the constant disasters the three suns bring. Before the three suns destroy the planet once and for all, this civilization hopes to voyage to a safer planet. So, this civilization embarks on a four hundred year journey on its way to conquer an eternally mild planet a mere 4 light years away, flourishing with life of its own, known to us humans as 'Earth'.

    This is the world of The Three Body Problem, a novel written by Liu Cixin. The Three Body Problem is a great novel, unlike any which I have read before, thanks to usage of multiple perspectives to add to the main point of view, the usage of history and science in its storytelling process, and the somewhat nuanced nature of the main conflict in the story.

    The Three Body Problem starts at the height of the Cultural Revolution, centering on a young scientist named Ye Wenjie whose father had just been beaten to death, and then sent to work in the wilderness, eventually settling in a secretive radio telescope base known as Red Coast. One of the greatest parts of the novel, especially in this section, is its references to historical events and depiction of the Cultural Revolution. The atmosphere of the Cultural Revolution, and its focus on politics in every part of life, significantly affects how Ye is able to conduct research and live life at Red Coast. Often, she and her colleagues are very sensitive to how their work will create political symbolism, or associate with counter-revolutionaries, or otherwise do politically dangerous actions. Even in transmissions to potential extraterrestrial life, the Cultural Revolution's influence shows in the first few drafts of the transmission. 

    Another great element of The Three Body Problem is how the author switches between different points of view in order to provide the reader a more complete and interesting picture of events. The first section of the story is written in the point of view of Ye Wenjie, the young scientist at Red Coast. However, the story is mostly told through the perspective of Wang Miao, a present day engineer, as he tries to make sense of what is going on around him in regards to Trisolaris and the people associated with Trisolaris. Later, the perspective switches back to Ye, showing what she did after being sent to Red Coast. The story also features the perspective of a mathematician, and how he interacted with a pro-Trisolaris organization. Near the end of the story, when the government receives a hard drive full of transmissions from Trisolaris acquired from the pro-Trisolaris organization, the perspective even switches to the point of view of Trisolaris, at first focusing on the operator of a radio receiver, and then expanding into an omnicscient view of all of Trisolaris.

    After Ye Wenjie saw her father beat to death and was later persecuted due to the Cultural Revolution, she began to harbor misgivings about the people around her, and of humanity as a whole. Eventually, after witnessing firsthand the bad sides of humanity, and reading philosophical material during her time at Red Coast Base, this developed into the conclusion that humanity is generally an evil species. When she discovered the existence of Trisolaris, this led her to seek the help of Trisolaran civilization to reform human society. That premise, repeated and emphasized over and over again throughout the story, helps us ask questions about what we think about Ye's views. For example, what are the flaws in human nature and human society? Do those flaws characterize the nature of humanity as evil? And if so, does the evil of human society warrant an intervention by a foreign power (such as Trisolaris)? These questions often consumed my thoughts as I was reading and rereading the story, and gave me more insight onto why the pro-Trisolaris characters acted the way they did. 
    When the perspective switched to that of Trisolaris, a lone radio receiver operator stood in the position of Ye Wenjie, an isolated individual dissatisfied with their current circumstances. While we do not get any insight onto this receiver's past, we know through his conversations with others that he would much prefer human civilization over Trisolaran civilization, viewing human civilization as culturally rich, free, and prosperous, in comparison to the totalitarian nature of Trisolaran civilization, in which the only punishment for crimes is death. For this reason, he tries to save Earth from Trisolaran invasion, risking the very survival of Trisolaris in the process. These revelations also were very interesting to learn about, and they changed my outlook on the conflicts occuring at Earth in the story. Those who wanted to improve human civilization through foreign intervention have in fact made a grave mistake, inviting a powerful totalitarian regime to conquer Earth. Such a regime would certainly not spare humanity, and even if humanity was spared and merely subjugated, Trisolaran civilization would most definitely be a negative influence on humanity. 

    There are many elements of the story which I decided to omit, and countless small details which would take too much time to cover. However, what sets The Three Body Problem apart from other novels I read are its incorporation of history, several perspectives, and interesting ideas and themes on the nature of humanity. Overall, The Three Body Problem is a complex, interesting novel which I encourage everyone to read.  

Honest and Hilarious Happenings in Hyperbole and a Half

   

The hard-to-believe but true stories of Allie Brosh create the humorous and slightly concerning autobiographical graphic novel Hyperbole and a Half. She invites us into the mind of her dog-obsessed childhood self, tells of her “simple-dog” and “helper dog,” and also shares a candid insight into her struggles with depression. 

Her childhood stories are the parts that made me laugh out loud the most because while she was already a quirky child, the humor that she uses to express those peculiarities makes them even funnier. Normally, adults don’t always remember what they were thinking when they were younger, but it seems that Brosh still has quite a healthy relationship with her child-self. In one of the first stories in the graphic novel, she tells about the time when she found a letter to her future 25-year-old self written by her ten-year-old self. The letter asks multiple questions on the topics of dogs: “Do you still like dogs? What is your favorite dog? Do you have a job training dogs? Is Murphy [her current dog] still alive?"(Brosh 5) It also had an “About me” section where she made sure to state her favorite dog breeds. And at the end, it had the sentence that Brosh describes as “the three most disturbing words in the entire letter: Please write back.” She says, “judging by the thick, purposeful lines in each letter...the sincerity of the request is unmistakable” (6). There are more times like these where Brosh reminisces about her past actions or events with semi-sarcastic yet reflective commentary. But her written memories express the honest thoughts of when you’re a kid and your actions seem perfectly reasonable, which made for a nostalgic read….even though I realize I’m only fifteen. 

       She also shares the times when she had depression as an adult. Even though depression is a serious and sensitive topic, she is able to bring sardonic humor to the bitter moments. She allows us, the readers, to still maintain a connection with her, even during the more uncomfortable and difficult times of her life. She has two sections in her book labeled “Depression Part One” and “Depression Part 2.” She starts off “Depression Part One” by saying, “Some people have a legitimate reason to feel depressed, but not me. I just woke up one day feeling arbitrarily sad and helpless” (99). The way she explains her experience with depression makes it easy for readers to empathize with her and understand exactly what she means. She also gives examples that show what she was like during this period. Like the time she felt invincible at the video store because she “didn’t have any feelings left” and rented six horror movies, bought all of the skittles, and then “swooped out of there like the Batman and biked home in a blaze of defiant glory” (115-119). I think writing about those candid moments is also helpful for a lot of readers experiencing the same thing. I appreciate how she incorporated humor into both her writing and drawings, punctuating her present thoughts and emotions. For me, that’s what I can connect with the most (humor), so it was quite effective.

I feel like since dogs were an important part of Brosh’s life, I should probably mention them. As an adult, she has two dogs: The “simple dog” who is, well, a bit simple but tries her best, and then there is the “helper dog,” who tries to teach the simple-dog how to be bad. She devotes a section to each one. The first one is about how she runs a series of tests on her simple dog until finally accepting that her dog is just simple, and the second one is about getting the helper dog and learning about all of the not-so-fun qualities that she has. However, she loves them both very much. The facial expressions that she gives each dog are funny, and the thought bubbles are great additions too. 

The Simple Dog (left) & Helper Dog (right)

   Reading Hyperbole and a Half is like drinking a refreshing glass of seltzer water: It’s addictive, fun, and when you choke on the bubbles, that’s just because you're laughing so hard. I hope you try it. 

--Grace 

               Allie Brosh (Author)
    

Finding Orion: The story of a not so typical family

Finding Orion is an extremely well-written book with a lot to offer. The book is told from the perspective of a twelve year old boy named after the constellation Orion who feels out of place in the Kwirk family. His dad works in a Jellybean factory, his mother is allergic to almost everything and feels the need to clean tirelessly, his sister is obsessed with fencing, acting, and owns a pet snake, while his youngest sister is a walking dictionary. Because of this Rion feels his family is very different from himself and other "normal" families. Although Rion has always tried to live his own life and be normal, when a clown shows up at his doorstep to deliver the news of his grandfather's death, it ends up uncovering a deep conflict between his father and his grandfather and he discovers a lot more about his family.

One of the most prominent themes talked about and represented in the novel is bizarreness. Bizarreness is shown in many ways throughout the story by the Kwirk family with his family being much different from his friends' families. But perhaps the most bizarre of them all is Papa Kwirk, who only shows up on Christmas every year to bring odd gifts and tell exciting stories. Although the bizarreness is shown by both Rion's grandfather and his family, Rion comes to look up to Papa Kwirk's mysterious and wild lifestyle. While he often feels ashamed of his family who has a more toned-down bizarreness, which is brought on by his need to fit in at his middle school. All in all, the bizarreness of the Kwirks leads them on an adventure that helps Rion learn to appreciate his family for what they are.

The novel's main character, Rion, is a very unique and complex character for many reasons. One being that because he feels he doesn't belong in his family, he ends up talking less than everyone else, which makes him very observant. His ability to read a situation and his frequent intuitive and clever remarks that he mostly keeps to himself explain why he was chosen as the narrator of the story, and show the reader that he is a lot more like his family than he admits. Going onwards, his observant attitude proves to be very a informative and entertaining perspective, as he, more than his mother and siblings, has an interest in the odd life that Papa Kwirk lived as well as the origin of the conflict between his dad and Papa Kwirk. This interest causes him to play a key role in uncovering the mystery of his grandfather and makes him an interesting character to follow.

Although the novel is told from Rion's perspective, I think that the variety of unique attributes in the different characters makes this a story that everyone can relate to some way. Overall, this book is a funny yet moving and heartfelt novel that I would highly recommend, with characters and conflicts that I often found myself relating to.

 

- Kelby Svendsen

Looking for an Enemies to Lovers Story? - The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

 

The Hating Game

 

When I started reading The Hating Game, I was immediately drawn in. The contemporary romance novel by Sally Thorne is about executive assistants to the co-CEOs of a publishing company. Lucy and Joshua are two opposites who deeply hate each other. They spend their days sitting across one another, displaying their feelings through passive aggressive maneuvers. When they are pitted against each other for a promotion, themes of rivalry and romance arise. 

While each character has rather interesting qualities, my favorite is the narrator Lucy. She is witty, bright, and energetic with a colorful personality. Her persona strongly contrasts Joshua’s. Lucy craves adventure and is free-spirited. Her coworkers view her as organized and intelligent. However, readers realize not far into the story that Lucy is rather lonely. Her parents own a strawberry farm in a different state and she got into a disagreement with her only close friend. This character is complex because she gives off a lively persona but on the inside feels alone. 

Lucy is not the only lonely character in The Hating Game. Joshua, although afraid to admit it, feels like he does not live up to his family’s expectations. To others, he seems emotionless and cold. Since they work right across from each other, Lucy notices that he is not as tough as he appears to be. I think their dynamic once realizing their similarities makes the story much more interesting. It gives them a stronger connection besides working together. Once they are aware of their shared experiences, they stop hating each other so much. 

I have not finished the novel yet but am excited to see where the story takes Lucy and Joshua. The plot seems predictable but there are twists and turns every chapter. It gets exciting to see how Lucy and Joshua interact when they cover up their feelings for each other with hate. At the start, I did not have much empathy for them. However, I connected to them after reading about their habits and longings. Based on what I’ve read so far, I recommend The Hating Game to anyone who wants a gripping story full of laughter, love, and well, a bit of hate.

-Noreen