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Throughout the book, Nation, by Terry Pratchett, stereotyping others comes up again, and again.  The English stereotype the Islanders as Savages, and the Islanders stereotype the English as "trousermen," as greedy, mean people.

"…Now, can we get on with things before we get eaten, for goodness’ sake?"  Daphne’s grandmother (a trouserwoman) says this when talking about the islanders.  Many English people view the Islanders as all savage cannibals.  Although there are islander tribes that practice cannibalism in the story, this certainly wasn’t one of them.  However, it would be a stereotype to say that all the trousermen view the Islanders like this.  Daphne did at first when she pointed the gun at Mau, but she quickly learns the truth, and shares it with her father, the King.

The Islanders also stereotype the trousermen.  Milo and Pilu were skeptical of Daphne when they first arrived on the island, and they had lots of experience with trousermen from being on a boat with them for a while.  However, when Daphne helps Milo’s wife with giving birth, they gain respect for her.  They no longer think of her as a greedy Hooty Tooty English girl.  The other people who arrive at the island are skeptical of her at first, they all gain respect.  Some trousermen who visit the island are greedy murderers like First Mate Cox, but the Islanders realize that they are different from others.

Although the Islanders and Trousermen have their stereotypes, they usually come around and realize that there are many different types of people from each society.  Even the snobby Trouserman grandmother warms up to the Islanders when she helps the toothless Mrs. Gurgle (as Daphne calls her) with chewing her food.  Throughout the book, stereotyping other does come up, but the truth is usually resolved.

Response to Question # 4 from Nation Discussion Guide.

August 29, 2009

Today we went to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead in DeSmet, Sout Dakota.  She is the author of By The Shores of Silver Lake. 

We learned that Little House on the Prairie and her other books were real books about her life.  We visited her old shanty and dugout.  We also went to Ma’s house.  Then, we took a covered wagon ride to the schoolhouse. 

We learned about how when older boys were naughty, the teacher would draw an X on the blackboard, and make them put their nose to it.  We also learned about Lincoln’s Homestead Act in 1862.  And how homesteaders who were age 21 and up had to farm 10 acres of land for six months of the year, for five years, and then they could keep it.

Laura’s family were homesteaders.

Shane:

This book is about Shane, a gunman who is trying to escape his past.  But, he discovers that you can’t because he shoots a cattle rancher.

The cattle rancher had been trying to run the homesteaders out for a while.  He even got a man to kill one of the homesteaders.

Shane saves the homesteaders.  I think that although he doesn’t think it, Shane does escape his past because although he kills two men, he does it fro a good reason, and he saves many more.

August 28, 2009

Today we went to Mount Rushmore.  My mother and Alex think it’s horrible to carve a mountain.

For god’s sake, it’s just rock.  I don’t thing the rock minds much.  Plus, they turn it into an outstanding piece of art.  They turned it into an American symbol of how we can accomplish things like the great accomplishment of carving a mountain!  I think that it’s a wonderful thing.

They even have a huge document room up there.  So, should anything happen, future generations can read about us.  This was brilliant.

I completely disagree that it’s a bad idea.

August 27, 2009

Today we left Yellowstone National Park.  We went to the Bighorn Medicine Wheel.  It is a religious place for Native Americans.  It’s like a circle of rocks. 

The Native Americans tie things to the rope around the medicine wheel and pray.  It has been here for one thousand years.

Later, we went to Custer’s Last Stand.  It’s the place where General Custer  and the 7th Calvary fought a group of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians.

It was because the European Americans wanted the Indians on reservations, and they did not want to.  As more and more pioneers and settlers moved West, there were more and more conflicts between the Indians and them.

No one is sure about what happened to General Custer and the 7th Calvary because only one horse lived, and no humans.

August 19, 2009

Today we arrived in Yellowstone National Park!  We went to see some mud pots.  I’m not going to try to sound serious or educated when I tell you this.  I’m just going to say it as it is – they sound like farts.

Educated people call the bubbling mud "mud pots."  But, the name "Mud Farts" suits it much better because when they pop, you’re going to laugh.  These mud farts were called the "Artists’ Paint Pots."  At the sound of mud farting, Alex and I became incredibly immature.

We threw dirt, rocks, sticks, gravel, or anything we could find at the mud.  But, we later discovered that it was illegal.  We are very sorry for doing it.  That does not change the fact that it’s hilarious. 

So, if you’re ever in Yellowstone, see the mud farts, and be prepared to laugh.

August 20, 2009

Today we climbed Mount Washburn.  It was very fun.  I was at least two miles ahead of Alex and Mom half the time. 

I ran into many Pronghorn Deer halfway up the mountain.  At the top, I enjoyed looking ate the mountains through the observation deck.  I signed  the guest book with two poems Alex and I wrote.

August 21, 2009

Today we met up with Ann, Clara, Abby, and Granny Lynn.  We went Wolf Watching, although we saw none.  We also went hiking at Slough Creek.  We saw a fox there!!!!  It trotted right down the road.  Only Clara managed to get a picture.

August 22-24, 2009

We went on a three day, two nights backpacking trip.  The first campsite was beautiful, and had a waterfall.  On the second day, it rained …. a lot.

And, it was Alex’s birthday.  We had to backpack and set up our tents in the rain. 

I had to throw a rope over a  twenty feet high pole so could hang our backpack of food away from the bears.  It’s not easy, but I did it.  The next day, we had to walk along a road so mom left Alex and I on the side of the road with the packs while she went to get the car. 

In the meantime, Alex and I played Sweet n’ Sour with the passing cars.  This is where you wave to them, and if they wave back they’re sweet.  In not, they’re sour.  If they honk back, they’re extra sweet.

August 25, 2009

Today we went to a Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center.  The wolved were so cute.  We also saw a cute birdy there.  We went to an Imax Moview also.  It was very fun, and we ate popcorn and Laffy Taffy during the movie.

August 26, 2009

Today we went to see Old Faithful.  We did a Young Scientists program thing.  I had to make a Question, Hypothesis, and Conclusion. 

I wondered if the short bursts of water before eruption had anything to do with constriction.  I hypothesized that it’s because not enough water is constricted, and I concluded that it was just letting a little bit of water out so it could make room for the big explosion.

Islands and Gods are a mutual theme in the book Nation by Terry Pratchett, and the ipod app Pocket God.

Cultures collide, Lifestyles collide, even large ships and islands collide in the captivating novel Nation set way back in the 1870’s. Main character Mau lives on a very old island where customs have been around forever. They worship the Grandfathers, who are like gods to the island dwellers. Mau leaves on a ceremonial venture to become a man that every man on the island has gone through. While on his venture he is caught in a very bad storm and just barely survives being swallowed in a humongous wave. When he returns to his island he discovers that everyone else on the island weren’t so fortunate and were all dead. He also finds a washed up ship which he calls “the big canoe.” The crew of the ship were all dead the only survivor was Daphne, a well brought up British girl. Mau and Daphne get to know each other and form a sort of friendship, despite the fact that the had completely different cultures and don’t even speak the same language. Throughout the book both Mau and Daphne struggle with keeping there own cultures and identities. Mau begins to question the Grandfathers. Other people begin to arrive at the island as well.  I’m not going to say any more about the story because I don’t want to give away too much and spoil the story because it was a very good read.

The Ipod app, Pocket God reminds me a lot of the island on which Mau lives, and Mau himself. In the game, your job is to be the “God” and to rule the little Pygmies.

On Mau’s island he and the other islanders were ruled by gods. They islanders in Nation pretty much did whatever the grandfathers told them to do. If they say to jump off a bridge they islanders would probably listen. In Pocket God the islanders do whatever you make them do as well. You are their ruler.

In the island in Nation the area is very dangerous. Filled with nasty animals and whatnot. The same is true in Pocket God. You have to watch out because you never know when a shark might eat one of you Pygmies (like in Nation) or when there might be ghosts (again like Nation since at first Mau thought Daphne was a ghost.)

All though I don’t know Terry Pratchett personally very well. I don’t know if he has an ipod or not, or if he even like games. However, i would not at all be surprised to find out that he plays the game Pocket God. After all, Pocket God is practically modelled after Nation.

Throughout history photos have been edited for various reasons. Photoshop can be a great and useful tool, but the usage of it just might be getting out of hand.

Although Photoshop hasn’t been around all that long, the editing of pictures has been.

This popular image of Abraham Lincoln printed in the 1860’s wasn’t really of Abe. His head was put on the body of Senator John C. Calhoun. 

This photo of Joseph Stalin, the man with his hand in his coat, was taken in Moscow in 1936. The man on the right, Nikolai Yezhov, was airbrushed out of the photo. They did this because Yezhov had fallen out of political favour and was arrested in 1938. An attempt on Stalin’s part to erase Yezhov from history.

Photo editing can be used for good thing. Maybe you want to edit a zit out of your profile picture on facebook. Maybe you want to soften the wrinkles on a picture of your mother. Maybe you want to brighten a photo so it looks nicer with the other photos in an arrangement.  These are all acceptable things to do to your photos. Heck, you can edit the life out of any of your photos and nobody will care. It is when extreme photo editing enters the media when things are no longer respectable.

This is most certainly not the real 47 year old Demi Moore. Her waist is smaller, her hips are wider, her boobs are higher, her arms are thinner, her face is younger, even her eyes are lighter! Demi is quite attractive without all the photo editing.

Olay has certainty gone too far in their adds for an eye cream. 60 year old Twiggy is definitely not as wrinkle free as the add suggests.  England banned these adds because they gave "negative impact on people’s perceptions of their own body image, " as The Guardian reports. Good job England!

We can be certain that Photoshop has gotten out of hand when movie stars start losing legs. In an add by Burberry Emma Watson, the actress for Hermione Ganger in the Harry Potter movies, loses her leg. It is possible that she posed in such a way that her leg is propped up and is hidden behind her brother Alex. Her odd foot stance could explain why she is hanging on to her brother for dear life. However, the more likely reason is that whomever edited this photo did a bit too much.

Hopefully more people will start to take notice of the false advertising airbrushed adds show. Maybe America will ban the Olay adds like England did. Maybe then things will get better because right now, photo editing is horribly misleading.

Silent Spring is a book about the danger of pesticides and DDT by Rachel Carson.  She talks about a lot of incidents where humans ignorantly tried to control pest with pesticides and just made things worse.

In some cases, humans were even killed or became seriously ill from being in sprayed fields or touching the nozzle of the hose used for spraying. 

In one case the forest service sprayed a forest with DDT to kill off the pest spruce budworm, which were causing harm to the spruce trees.  But, with the spruce budworm controlled, the spider mites no longer had the predator and they multiplied.  They became more of a harm to the forest than the spruce budworm ever were. 

This is only one example of how pesticides are bad for the environment, and how trying to control pests can make things worse.

The book, Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin, is about 16 year old Liz.  Liz dies in a bicycle accident.  Then, she discovers that when you die you go to Elsewhere.  Elsewhere is just like Earth, except instead of getting older you get younger until you are 7 days old and get sent back to Earth to be reborn.

Liz makes several friends, including her Grandma Betley and Boyfriend Owen.  Things get complicated when Own’s wife from Earth dies.

I like this book because it gives an interesting new perspective on the afterlife, and how maybe, it’s not so different from Earth!

This book is about a girl named Camie Morgan, who goes to a spy school.  One of her best friends, Macy, is the daughter of the future Vice President.  When people attack Macy and Camie on a roof top, they realize that maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with the elections!  Maybe it has to do with them being Gallagher Girls.

I like this book because it is my dream.  I think it would be positively the bestest thing ever to go to a spy school like Cammie’s.