Allusion!

Allusion is possibly my favorite aspect of literature.  I didn't learn what allusion was until my senior year of high school, when I took an independent study called Short Story (an independent study is a class that is just you and the teacher, and instead of going to a class period every day, you just touch base once a week to exchange assignments and such).

So what is allusion?  Here's what the internet says: "a passing or casual reference; an incidental mention of something, either directly or by implication: an allusion to Shakespeare" (Dictionary.com).

In Harry Potter, Harry gets a scar on his forehead that imbues him with some special power that protects him from the bad guys.  In The Wizard of Oz, Glinda the good witch kisses Dorothy on the forehead, and Dorothy is actually protected by the kiss (it may be more obvious in the Wizard of Oz books, but whenever people are roughed up by the bad guys, Dorothy gets by pretty unscathed).

So, the allusion is that a mark on the forehead grants protection from evil.

So allusions are basically references to other things, and they tend to be subtle, almost sneaked in there.  That means that in order for an allusion to work, the reader must be familiar with the original work being alluded to.

Once you understand the concept of the "star-crossed lovers" from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, you'll notice the allusion whenever two young people from opposing parties fall in love, such as the film Underworld or the musical West Side Story or the film Titanic.

For me, the less likely one is to understand the allusion, the more exciting it becomes.  Sometimes I catch allusions because I just so happen to know what is being referenced, though it isn't particularly popular at all.  I enjoy allusions because it means that authors also know/enjoy the original work, and that they put thought and effort into their work.

Thoughts on Reading

I got Ayn Rand's Anthem for Christmas!  I fell in love with this book.  I read the whole thing in one night because I couldn't put it down.  The dystopian genre is one of the coolest I know.  It took me a long time, but I read George Orwell's 1984 which is similar because it is also dystopian (I own three copies of this book, and they were all gifts).  

A great short story inspired by 1984 is Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron.  It's even shorter than Anthem, so if you liked Anthem at all, you should definitely try Harrison Bergeron.

Here is a link to the full text, which is really short, so you have no excuse not to read it:Harrison Bergeron

An author once told me that we read for one of two reasons: we either read outward, or we read inward.  

Stories about science fiction or fantasy and whatnot usually make us read outward by bringing our minds to wild, imaginative, complex, and fake places.  These would be stories like Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings.

Other stories have us read inward to contemplate ourselves as moral human beings with feelings, how we interact with other people or with society, or why we exist at all.  Stories like this include Carson McCullers' The Member of the Wedding or James Joyce's The Dead.

To be fair, some stories accomplish both inward and outward reading, such as M.T. Anderson's Feed.  Feed is based in the future where flying cars and space travel are common occurrences, but these exciting innovations are not the focus of the story.  Technology's tightening grasp on humanity and how it affects our lives for better or for worse drive the story.  This book will change your life.

Sometimes I really like to read outward, and sometimes inward.  The great thing about English is that both of these are found in any kind of literature: novel, poem, comic, song, short story, play, and so on.

What am I passionate about?

This is a question I'm still asking myself.  When I was in high school, I had a passion for skateboarding.  If I think about my biggest interests right now, I think of my vinyl record collection, comic books as literature, and English education (which ties into my interest in comics).
I'm not sure how many records I own so far, but they take up about three feet of shelf space.  I alphabetized them all, and I clean them as needed.  I love to visit yard sales, flea markets, and antique shops looking for cool records in good condition.
In my 11th grade English class, I had to do a research project on a subject of my choosing, and then give a presentation to my class, so I chose records and record players (aka turntables).  The science behind how records work is pretty crazy!  The grooves of a record have tiny grooves in them; the needle drags through the grooves and vibrates, sending the vibrations as a digital signal to the speakers which interpret the signal and reproduce the music.  Here's an up-close picture of the grooves in a record:

My next interest is comics.  When I say "comics," you probably think of Batman or Spiderman, but it's important to remember that superheroes are only one type of comic.  Comics are a medium, not a genre.  Like books, comics can be about anything.  Comics are usually called "graphic novels" when they are longer than the typical comic book, and when they're not part of a long series.  There are some truly amazing graphic novels that we can learn from.  Here are some of my favorites:

If you're interested in understanding comics as literature, try reading Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud.

Perhaps reading good literature is my passion right now.  I love to chat with friends about good books we've read, and why we like them.
I'll stop there because that's a lot for now.