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Op-ed, Brave New World

By: Jamie Navas

  I finished this book around June 2 and personally loved how it ended, even though some people would be angry with this type of finish to a story. This book was written by Aldous Huxley and has since been one of my favorites. I don’t know much about the author, but that this book was published and set in London during the 1900s. Weirdly enough, besides the first chapter it is very easy to read, there are some challenging vocabulary that is hard to know, but besides that, the plot is pretty self-revealing. I believe the reason why they made this title is because of how literally it’s suppose to be a new world. This book is set in London and shows the advancements of London throughout this era in the novel.

  It really is just a habit of mine, but I can’t bash on a book. If I really hated a book, I would have stopped reading it, but books like these really catch my interest, and definitely make me want to read more of the same genre. I personally really liked this book, even though I did feel like giving up in the beginning of that first chapter. You are immediately emerged into the plot of the story and you don’t really know what exactly is going on. The plot of this book is about how a man named Bernard feels out of place in a society where having affairs is ok, and taking drugs called soma is allowed. The society is ruled through a caste system where classes called Alphas and Betas are on top, and Epsilons and Gammas are down in the caste system. Bernard happens to be an Alpha and he is conditioned by being told things as he was a baby to be better than the rest. This society does not believe in religion, or a mom and dad. Everyone is born from sperm and egg, and different eggs depending on the class, get duplicated. An example is Epsilons who are the lowest of the caste system, and are budded off multiple times from the egg to make duplicates of the same person compared to Alphas and Betas who are not budded off frequently. Anyway, that’s a bit of background information, but Bernard and Lenina, a woman who he has sex with, go to a Savage reservation to see how Native Americans live and also for a vacation. Along the way, they see the wife and son of the director of this society, and this is a huge issue. Having a wife or son in this state is prohibited and made fun of, so Bernard goes ahead and brings them to London to publicly embarrass the Director for threatening him that he will be moving to Iceland, a lonely place that is separated from all people. Why would the Director send Bernard to Iceland? Well, for not fitting into the society by not having sex as much as “normal men” with different girls, and not taking soma, the famous drug. Bernard’s problem really is that he is afraid to be moved to Iceland. The book at one point also moves to the point of view of John, the son of the director. John’s mother, Lina, has sex with many men in the reservation because she came from the society as well, but the director left her there at the reservation by accident. So, to Lina, having sex with men in the London society is fine, but in the reservation isn’t as they follow what we believe in which is to have only one partner and to possibly be engaged to that one person forever. Once John and Lina get back to London, John falls in love with Lenina. Little does he know that she just wants to have sex with him.

That’s enough for the plot, I don’t want to ruin any more surprises in this book. I believe one of the main themes of this novel is sex. Sex in the world of this book is seen as a passion and a distraction to be used from the rest of the society. Sex is seen as something good in this book and done more publicly compared to this society, who portrays it as something private and something needed to be secluded from the rest of the world. It’s in some way envisioned like soma in the book, and are both helpful to be relieved from the society for a while. I believe the character development in all the characters are really portrayed good. For John, I can really see his story, and how it is brought up again in London when Lenina tries to have sex with him as it corresponds negative thoughts and memories about his mom. As well as Bernard, you can see why he doesn’t exactly fit into society and what people really talk about him shows that he is not an average person living in London.  The description for the  settings is played out nicely. When both Bernard and Lenina go to the Savage reservation, I envision it as a dry region full of small huts and rocky mountains surrounding it. The dialogue is hard to get ahold of. It took me a while and I had to continuously look up words that I didn’t really understanding which was getting very tiring. The pacing and story line is a bit weird in the story. The first three chapters talk about a group of kids and a tour guide showing them around the embryonic factory, and once chapter 4 begins, it immediately starts talking about the life of Bernard and all of his doing in that society. It is in some way besides confusing, beneficial as it helps the reader to understand background information of the book that is referenced multiple times as the story begins to unfold. Without these chapters, I would be at lost trying to figure out what Aldous is talking about. The genre of this particular book is science fiction. I’ve always had a liking for these type of books as it takes place in a setting where a technological advancement has affected a society, which is exactly what Brave New World is.

  For all I know of, this book is a single novel and has no books coming after to continue these events or have been continued by another series in the past. This book is really good and I recommend it for anyone who really wants to challenge themselves in their vocabulary or just loves science fiction like I do. I also would love to hear your opinions on the ending of the book and what you guys thought about it. Like I said before, I really liked how it played out and definitely would want to hear more of the story of Bernard or how he sees the world in where he is living in now at the end of the book. This book in some way connects back to Ender’s game a little bit, the main character encounters these people or creatures who will change their life and make them think about all the decisions they have made. Ender encounters the buggers and realize that he just destroyed a colony of them and in order to bring back vengeance for them will take care of the eggs and repopulate this species. As well as Bernard who encounters John, the Savage, and Lina who will change his life massively. He acts very cocky as he is seen as taming the Savage and looked upon as “heroic”.

 Rest in peace of course, to a talented author with many passions for craft and writing, Aldous Huxley.

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Op-ed, 21 Jump Street

By: Jamie Navas

I know already that I’m very late in reviewing this movie! But, I watched it last week and I had to say something about it. I’ve actually never seen it from beginning to end, but small bits have been watched from my eyes. Now that I see everything and how it unrolls, it all makes sense.

  21 Jump street is directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Essentially, the movie tells of two guys named Schmidt and Jenko who at first had a rivalry in highschool as Schmidt was the nerd, while Jenko was the jock. Both a couple of years later, they train in the police academy to become cops, with the help of each other as Schmidt has the brains and Jenko has the strength. Their first phase of becoming a cop was to patrol a park and make sure no danger came along. They do see a gang smuggling drugs between each other and Schmidt and Jenko both try to solve the problem. The gang ends up running away and they lost their track. Their next mission is to look the part as high schoolers who have to investigate this new drug being passed around the school. Trying to figure out who the supplier is, they soon realize that they slowly start to drift apart as now Schmidt takes on the role of being the jock and Jenko ends up being the nerd. During prom, they work as a team together and find the supplier, shut them down, and get positioned into something new to do later for the next movie, 22 Jump Street.

  The genre of this movie can be seen as a comedy and action. The duration of the movie is an hour and 50 minutes. One of the core themes to this movie is maturity. Throughout this whole course of this movie, you see both main characters doing inappropriate actions and fighting as if they were still in high school. Yet, as you see in the beginning, Jenko was the one bullying Schmidt and ganging up on him for asking out a girl for prom and getting rejected. But, then now you see as the movie progresses, they become best friends and Jenko obviously regrets his decision of ever bullying Schmidt. Jenko matures and sees there really is no need in hurting someone as he did to Schmidt because one day, they can end up having a really close bond with you which was in their case.

This movie is recommended to anyone who doesn’t feel attacked or insulted when a hurtful joke is said or who is old enough to see inappropriate pictures or sayings. I really don’t take any heat when harm is done to my ethnicity because I know there are plenty more things to say back to the person, but I found it very funny and laughed with tears streaming down at specific parts of the movie. An example is when both Schmidt and Jenko eat the drugs that are passed around in the school and they try to puke it back up as one of the consequences of eating it is death. So, they fingered each other’s mouths in order to have a reaction in their gag system. It is pretty disgusting, but definitely squeezed a laugh out of me.

 These characters definitely fit the part for this movie. Channing Tatum is a very good actor and is not afraid to put himself out there in making a fool of himself. I do also liked how they switched up the roles for him in the movie. Without a specific part being played, he can already be seen as very manly and have the attitude of a jock, but he is now hanging out with nerds and reciting poems about chemistry. The same goes for Jonah Hill who isn’t embarrassed to do dumb acts. In the movie, he does stutter a lot, but this helps bring out his character as shy and nerdy. From the movies I heard of or seen about, Channing Tatum is in many movies like Magic Mike and he does extremely well in those movies too and doesn’t break character. I haven’t heard of the directors before, but from what I have seen, they have made awesome movies like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs which is also seen as a fun comedy movie. It seems to me that they try to make movies that are funny or want to make sure they have an affect on people.

This film grossed over $32 million which is amazing and I wouldn’t blame them because it is a good movie. This movie is similar to many like Hangover or Grownups because it has the same qualities and features. These movies are for people to watch when they are in their teenage years or older, and it really has a group of 2 or more characters trying to do something through making foolish acts. They also have men leading the action or story in the movie, not a lot of women are typically seen to do these crazy acts. There is no specific location to where this movie took place in, but it is mainly featured in a high school. I do like how they considered and took in how Schmidt can be the role of Peter Pan in the play he is doing during his time at the school and tie it in with him jumping away in order to get away from Jenko when they are mad at each other. The pace of the movie is really fast, I would have wished the directors spent more of the time in the school instead of the outside areas. Inside of the school is usually where most of the action happens and to me, is the most funniest.

 This movie overall was awesome and had me cracking up in tears from the start. If you need a laugh or just feel not ready for the day, watch this movie! It will definitely put you in a better mood. There are predictable plot turns like how the nerd ends up getting the girl. But, 21 Jump Street is highly recommended from me!

 Rating: 10/10

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Op-ed, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

By: Jamie Navas

  J.K. Rowling is a British novelist who is known for writing the most amazing 7 part fantasy series in the world, Harry Potter. Everyone in the world has heard of the name Harry Potter at least once and has seen at least one movie based on these books. Quidditch is a real sport now based on these movies! It is played around the world by different universities and countries. If a book can leave that type of legacy, it must be awesome! Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is based on a story by J.K. Rowling and is prompted and formatted differently than an ordinary Harry Potter book. It’s written as a script and has different acts and scenes that it references to.

  I’ve read this book earlier this year and have felt so many emotions leaking out. There is good and bad criticism about this book, but overall I loved it! As many journalists have spilled this secret more than once already, Albus is in Slytherin. He can be seen through many perspectives as totally similar from his father as he awaits fates just like him. Harry Potter and Albus both do have an aspect of them that set them apart from many people, and that is friendship. Albus befriends Draco’s son, Scorpius. Scorpius is looked down upon by everyone and is made fun of from this myth of him being “Voldemort’s son”. And as Albus is in close company with Scorpius, he is also looked down upon for being friends with him as well as being put into Slytherin when he should have been in Gryffindor. Albus steals a time turner from his Aunt Hermione and they go through many adventures and events from the past that connect back to Harry. Both Albus and Scorpius’s main goal is to try and save Cedric Diggory from being killed. But, they soon realize that this doesn’t work out as they change many events from their current life when this occurs, one being Albus is put into Gryffindor and his Uncle Ron is no longer married to Hermione. Near the end of the story, Harry manages to save both Albus and Scorpius from this time interception. Harry experiences and sees something he has always wanted to go back to and change, but has to suffer through it as it all plays out. Hopefully, that encourages you to read the book and immerse you into more of the world of Harry Potter. 

This book is similar to the previous series J.K. Rowling has written, thus it’s considered a prequel. Essentially it’s based on Harry Potter’s son, Albus, and his experience with Hogwarts and the wizarding world. Yet, they both coincidentally have the same story and struggles trying to live a normal life when they are seen as legendary through other students and adults. Every great book has lives lost through the book and this occurs in both of these books. In Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, lives are relived for Albus and are lost as he is moving into a different era. As for the Harry Potter series, loved ones die in different books, but are very impacting in the last book: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. These books are classified as fantasy fiction.

A theme that’s shown throughout this whole book, like I said before, is friendship. Harry met his friends on the train to Hogwarts, Hermione and Ron. Though they have different personalities, they fit each other perfectly and are seen as a family who no matter what, are inseparable. The same goes for Albus and Scorpius who also meet on the train to Hogwarts. Harry doesn’t like the idea of Albus being friend with “Voldemort’s son”, but like Harry’s group of 3, Albus and Scorpius can’t be separated. These friendships chose them and help reveal the true quality of what a family is. 

I believe all the characters are well developed, yet I would have wanted to learn more about Scorpius. Past events of his life are hinted at in the beginning of the book, but I would have wished there was more story and emphasis on his part, about his mom or Draco and their relationship. The detail on different settings and the description are very helpful in recognizing where they are. An example of this is when both Albus and Scorpius are outside of the stadium where the contestants are competing against their dragons. They use lots of detail to show where their view is and in what position they are trying to see, like crouching on a field of grass. The pacing of the story goes kind of quick and moments have happened where I’m really intrigued by what’s happening and it ends like that. There are other moments where I’ve been so immersed in a part of the book and I’ve felt so many things. Albus has to relive this part where Snape dies again and it makes me get into a state of sadness that this had to happen again.

  Jack Thorne, John Tiffany, and J.K. Rowling still haven’t made an actual movie for this book. This would definitely allow any Harry Potter fan to experience this adventure again with Harry and his family. It might even gain popularity very quickly and allow these creators to have to make another book in order to appease the audience. By the many setting changes there are in the book as they are traveling back to the past, it’s a little bit of a struggle trying to do everything. There needs to be a lot of props and different backgrounds for display in the movie. But, if anything, they will be able to pull it off. It will definitely impress me if they successfully do it and the movie ends up being really good.

 Rating: 9.5/10 (Just because I LOVE HARRY POTTER)

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Op-ed, Cracking the AP Biology Exam (Textbook)

By: Jamie Navas

This textbook briefly explains every aspect of the AP Biology exam and the content involved in “getting a 5”. It’s written by the Princeton Review, a company that offers test preparation services from various kinds of AP tests. From mitosis to cellular genetics, it will describe the processes happening in our body every second of the day! Not only that, but it also includes 2 practice tests to help anybody get ready and prepped for the real thing.

 As a current student of the AP Biology class (for 12th graders, I’m in 10th grade), I can pretty much flat out say that this class is hard. You are required to remember so many things for this exam and it’s a handful. By “remembering so many things”, I literally mean everything! Formulas, mitosis, meiosis, cellular energetics, ecology, chemistry have all been jammed in my head. I took my exam on May 8th, it tested me on my ability to interpret data and be able to know certain details of a multi-step process all under a time constriction of 1 hour and 30 minutes for section 1 and 2 individually. Section 1 consists of 63 multiple choice questions and 6 grid in questions. Section 2 contains free-response questions, 2 long responses and 6 short responses. Of course, I’m not allowed to talk more further about the questions I approached on the exam, but I can say it was pretty tricky. I personally find the free-response questions a lot more easier than the multiple choice as it gives you easy points just for predicting something about the situation.

 Now, let’s talk about the book and not of my personal life. The book I would say, is very helpful. It talks about each and every step of any of the biological processes you have wanted to know. Not only that, but it gives you practice tests for you to do once you have learned everything you have needed to. Another very helpful thing is it gives a list of key vocabulary words at the end of every chapter that you need to know for the test. The definitions aren’t listed at the end, but as you read through each section, the words are bolded in the text along with what it means. Diagrams are also included, for example: neurotransmitters crossing over the synapse or of each stage in mitosis. From that, you can understand a little bit more about the physical presentation of how it looks like. 

To every book written, there are some drawbacks. One thing you can say about this book is that it doesn’t tell you the things you don’t need to know for the exam. For example: I didn’t know this until later, but you actually don’t have to know the whole process of mitosis or how ATP is made, you just have to know the key steps of this process. This is really helpful when you are taking the exam! Another thing I would have liked them to mention is like a trending pattern between all the AP Biology exams from for example: 2013 until now, and if there is one thing being consistent for all of the exams, the audience would have just assumed it will be in the 2017 AP Exam.

 This textbook is organized in order from the processes you need to know and advancing into further detail of other steps in our body. Some chapters relate back to the previous chapter and help you know more information in just one sitting. These chapters are really broken down and are really useful if you don’t know anything about AP Biology. The first chapters analyze how the actual exam is structured and good times to make your study plan. Then, the following chapters highlight the processes and essentials you need to know for the AP Biology exam.  

Overall, this book is a great book to start getting ready for your AP Biology exam. It list over 8 units for you to review and has a diagram for each chapter for you to see what the structure would actually look like for the biological process. It is detailed and involves all the information you need to know without a doubt. It opens your mind to what molecular biology and biology in total is really like, and maybe gives you insight into a future career you would want to invest in, like a biologist. It definitely opened mine to realizing what I want to do for a living. 

Rating: 7.5/10

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Op-ed, Ender’s Game (movie)

By: Jamie Navas 

This film is based off the novel written by Orson Scott Card. Similar to the book, it’s filled with breath-taking moments that keep the viewer in suspense. The film follows a young boy named Ender who is selected to go into Battle School, a training ground for future leaders and commanders of Earth’s war effort. Earth is ran by the International Fleet, an organization formed to try and  prevent another Bugger War from occurring.

 This movie is just as amazing as the paperback grossing over $28 million. Ender encounters many obstacles in his way of being put into Command School, like a crazy toon leader named Bonzo Madrid who Ender ends up fighting in the bathroom. Little did Ender know, Bonzo from being kicked several times in the head, died. Ender believes this to be his winning strategy, to fight brutally, in turn leading him to win future attacks. This philosophy is reflected back later in the movie as he soon faces a real life simulation of the Bugger Wars.

 The characters though, are beautifully created, especially Bonzo. Throughout the movie, Bonzo and Ender have had bad interactions and I see how intimidating he can really look, despite his height. Bonzo definitely being a lot shorter than anyone else in Battle School, has an attitude just right for being a bully and someone considered to thinking way too much of themselves. Ender also fits being the main character, just right. Asa Butterfield shows different characteristics that helped develop Ender in the movie, like shyness, and the capability to have that intelligent behavior. Strangely enough, when I first saw Mazer Rackham, he confused me. There are tattoos splattered all over his face and body. But, I see how this can fit the way his persona should act, being very quiet and wise in everything he does. Both Mazer and Ender have a mentor-pupil relationship near the end of the movie.

Now, the pacing of the story goes in some ways very quickly. At times when it’s appropriate, like the beginning, where Ender is immediately emerged in this situation whether he should join Battle School or not. This occurs in the first 10-20 minutes of the movie. Director, Gavin Hood, obviously didn’t want to spend most of the movie being caught up in Ender’s personal life. So, he quickly switches into the next scene of Ender arriving into Battle School, and his first impressions of his new “home”. It also seems that Ender quickly goes through many armies during his time at Battle School, as compared to the book, it describes the strength and greatness of each individual army he is put in. Otherwise, the pacing is great and perfectly timed for 1 hour and 54 minutes.

 Orson Scott Card is known for making the best science fiction books out there. I personally haven’t read more than just one of his books, being Ender’s Game, but I do plan on reading this series as the plot unfolds. I do want to say while reading his books that there is a little bit of confusion in almost every chapter as the dialogue immediately starts. I don’t know the intentions of Orson Scott Card as to setting up the structure of his book, but over several times, the beginnings of the next chapters have bewildered me. You don’t know who is talking, and what they are talking about. I’ve had to look it up several times to know the context of the book and how this dialogue connects back to the plot.

 Many protagonist like Ender Wiggins or Harry Potter are involved in a plot who live in a particularly strange world and have had many past experiences that has shaped them up to what they are currently. They act as adults and many people depend on them to be able to end the current problem or situation in the story. These characters all have a similar personality, they think and act strategically just like adults. Reason being why most of them are able to get out of tough situations.

 Just like every movie ever made, there are major differences between the book and the movie. An example shown in Ender’s game is when Ender finally leaves to go see the castle tower he played in the fantasy game at Battle School. He in the movie, is with Petra when this occurs and leaves her side in order to venture more into the tower. Compared to the book, Abra is a member of his colony when they founded a planet to live in. Abra accompanies Ender to this structure, but is instructed by Ender to stay behind just in case anything dangerous appears. I don’t know the reason behind every change they make between the novel and the movie, but the directors do involve every main feature from the book to the movie in Ender’s game.

Rating: 9/10