Kage
Professor
English 101
Essay Three
Online
2 June 2013
From My Cold Dead Hand
Addressing the Gun Debate in America
Audience: Those unwilling to reason on gun control issues.
Message: Gun regulation is not gun control.
Purpose: To persuade those on the other side of the debate to lay down their arms, and work towards a solution to ending gun violence.
WWE Network is a Netflix based video streaming service that is all about pro wrestling. If you were like me when you were younger, you might remember found memories of watching World Wrestling Entertainment with your father and Grandfather.
Devin “Jonesy” Jones is a twenty-one year old college student with writing aspirations. In the summer of 1973, he finds himself spending his summer working for an amusement park known as Joyland, hoping to get over his former girlfriend. But Joyland is anything but jovial. It has a dark past filled with murder, mystery and most of all, a ghost.
I found Joyland to be relatively enjoyable read. It’s not an amazing read but enjoyable. King managed to craft a sympathetic character who is funny, likeable and mildly interesting.
The problem is, Joyland is less of a thriller/detective story and more of a coming of age tale. The seedy history of Joyland was really more of a B-plot that occasionally reared its head to remind you that you’re reading a Stephen King book and not some light fluff remincient of a Nicholas Sparks book.
The crux of the story really hinges on life lessons learned during a summer away from college when Devin just happens to fail backwards into solving an old mystery.
So if you bought Joyland hopping for a gritty noir story, you’ll be sorely disappointed. Unlike 11/22/63, King’s previous outing before Joyland, this book just doesn’t satisfy.
It lacks the King hallmark that have brought millions of readers into the fold for years. While being different is ultimately a good thing, it didn’t seem to work here.
One of the many things that define a Stephen King novel is his ability to craft characters with backstory’s so rich, you’d think you would have known them their entire lives. Not so here. We get glimpses into Devin’s past and present throughout the book but never enough to think he truly know the character. He might be likeable but the real mystery is Devin himself.
Another hallmark was King’s ability to bring you into the past. You would think that you were in the time period he writes about as opposed to just being privy to someone’s story. You could almost be walking right alongside his characters as his story was happening and not just passively listening to someone else’s story.
I do appreciate the references to various novels, music and writers. The cover of the book perfect, capturing those dime store novels of the past and the fact it was only released in paperback makes me appreciate it all the more.
Although it’s a short read, I think you’ll find yourself left unsatied by this King effort if you go into it with the wrong mind set. Be forwarned that the book is less a mystery and more a character story. It has its moments and I’m sure you’ll take something away from this as you will any King book. Only time will tell if it will stay with you, though.
Three out of five stars.
Prom is the highlight of any teenager’s high school days, often leading to fond memories during a person’s midlife when they realize life didn’t turn out how they planned. Students spend the entire year, saving and awaiting this one night and at least one girl, plans to make the most of it.
“I’m gonna lose my virginity at prom” says eighteen year old, Chinpoko High Student, Jessica Marsh. “It’s gonna be so much fun. I’ve been planning it since Freshman year.”
Showing off her pink prom dress that she designed and made herself, she mentions how she always pictured the perfect moment that she would lose her virginity. “Every girl always dreams of that perfect moment, that she’ll have her first time and hopes it will be special. I’m no exception.”
When asked if there was one special boy she planned to give this gift to, she said “My dream has always been to lose it to the football team.”
Going into graphic detail that can’t be printed here, she laid out her whole night and how she hopes it will unfold. “Nothing can stop this perfect moment. Not even that stuck up bitch, Brittney Olsen” she said. “it’s gonna be magical. I can’t wait to have all those Cocks.”
“The Cocks” are Chinpoko High’s championship winning team and Jessica is hoping that they will enjoy the extra perks of winning the state championship this year. “I hope this means as much to them as it does to me.” She added, smiling.
The Kage Daily Sun reached out to the Chinpoko High “Cocks” for comment, and all we got where sly grins and everyone high fiving one another.
Asked about her plans for the future, she told me how she can’t wait for college. “I’m majoring in woman’s studies” She said. “It’s not science, but there’s gonna be a lot of experimenting, if you know what I mean.”
Brittney Olsen couldn’t be reached for comment.
Your smell intoxicates my senses in ways that make me glad to have imbibed the nectar of love.
You make my heart flutter like the wings of a dove.
I have shunned these feelings that burn in the deepest recesses of my loins and heart.
From you I cannot bear to part.
Yet, I cannot abate these emotions that tear me apart and fill me with strife. They forebode my heart like the twist of a knife.
Hitherto, I can see the heavens and the revolutionary spheres.
You doth make me quiver and repeal my fears.
I have gazed into the abyss and ye it has gazed unto me.
You are my weakness, my sin, my Aphrodite
For quid, or for naught, I give you a bid. I am the ego and you are the id.
The ninth level of hell, I have been cast.
Missing her love that I yearn to bask.
My chamber feels empty without you nearby.
You make me evolve without it being contrived.
Where others might perish, my will doth thrive.
Yet to my heart, you are always nearby.
The world is a stage and we’re all merely players.
The cosmos are better with your existence here.
Have I said all I can say? Could there be more in store?
It cannot be said, and this I abhor.
It is you, my ambrosia that I’ll love, forever more.
We live in a world that’s entirely disconnected from one another. We use social networking sites ironically. We bond, through bondage. We forge our chains in life and wear them to the grave.
We give thanks at Thanksgiving and celebrate goodwill towards man at Christmas, all ironically. For it is inherit to paylip service to ideals but not truly believe in them.
We all think we are right but couldn’t be more wrong.
We force our views on everyone in a need to control everything.
We judge collectively. We form tribes in everything we do. We are tribes within tribes within tribes within tribes. Sports to racism. It’s all tribalism at its worst.
We are greedy, narcissistic and contradictory.
We don’t have sex. We fuck. EVERYTHING.
All life is sacred. Some are more sacred than others.
We are selflessly selfish.
We are surrounded by others but always alone.
We have emotions but do not truly feel.
Greed and Empathy are lovers. For in order to do for others, we must first ask how I would feel.
We shun living as one but all ready do.
We look alike, talk alike, dress alike and think alike. Will the real humanity please stand up?
We are collectively individuals.
We are logically illogical.
We fear indoctrination but indoctrinate everyday.
We don’t have kids. We have clones.
We don’t live. We just pass time till death.
You are not the problem. Everyone else is.
We grow up yet we don’t. We are the unevolved evolved.
We are everything and we are nothing.
This piece is everything it hates.
I,I,I,I,I
Me,Me,Me,Me,Me
We,We,We,We,We
Us,Us,Us,Us,Us
Them,Them,Them,Them,Them.
We are fine. You are not.
We are insanely sane. Uncomfortably comfortable. Unsymbioticly symbiotic. Patronizingly Patriotic. Condescendingly condescending. Openly Closed. Highly low and lowly high. Perfectly imperfect. We are upside down and inside out. We know nothing about everything and everything about nothing and we are spiritlessly spiritual.
I am he, as you are he, as you are me and we are all together. Everything is in interpretation.
Don’t panic. It’s just a ride.
Everything will be fine.
Best in Your Girl 