Giraffes have a neck like whaaaaaat?

"My body was broken - just how badly I wouldn't find out until later - but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed." pg 289

There are quite a few climaxes in this book, but this seems to be the biggun'. Sure there's another after this with the whole "this is the most depressing suicide attempt ever" dealie, but I take it this story is more focused on Amir trying to atone for his utter douchebagginess to Hassan during his childhood. This bizarre catharsis as a result of the hooliwad (word my mom uses) being punched out him was necessary in Amir's eyes to feel healed. I personally think Assef and Amir are insane. To want to feel physical pain to atone for your emotional torment would definitely rack up some extra sessions on the psychology bill. I also found it odd that Amir laughed like Assef when he had his little epiphany in jail. And just for the record, getting a kidney stone kicked out of you is not a sign from AllahGod. In other news, Hosseini made this super cool 'cuz teh cLiMAXX ez pARiDoxIcAL!

*sigh*

Guau, yo soy una abeja gigante.

"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas

Soooo, I guess this is a villanelle. At least that's what the book says in it's description the size of una abeja gigante. But what really stuck out to me were the paradoxes. For example, even in the title our first paradox reveals itself in the form of "good night." This may even be a form of euphemism for death while also being a paradox. Whoooaahh, mindsplode. Not to be mistaken for the humdrum farewell we so often give, this "good night" is used to give death its due poignancy for the various kinds of men (wise, good, wild, and grave) and their ironic deaths their sense of...irony. In addition the speaker seems to suggest that the night isn't good, especially with the phrase "Rage, rage against the dying of the light," the whole "not go[ing] gentle" into it.

Yeah, coming up with a good picture was kind o' hard for this one...so enjoy!

I would be in a band called the Backstreet Hags.

"Much Madness is Divinest Sense" by E.D.

As a wunderbar segue to more societal issues we delve into the paradoxical and satirical poem of the ever lovely E.D. In this one, E.D. gives us a little seeming contradiction with which to enrich ourselves by equating "madness" to "sense." And then stating if one has "sense" then one really has "madness." Yet to be mad, in the speaker's eyes, is to disagree with the majority, to demur. Society will then tell you thatcha craazzzzy if you would ever consider to disagree with them and that the only sensible thing to do is blindly assent. Yet when one does not think for themselves or at all, then one has no brain function and is madder than a hatter. Yet to use one's brain is madness by society's standards, yet logically, to think is to have "divinest sense." YOU WERE WRONG ABOUT THE BARBIES, SOCIETY!! WWWRRROOONNNGGG!!

You are not permitted to touch!

This chapter ("How to Tell a True War Story") was so chocked full of dandy information, I just had to split it into two posts!

Naturally, in a revealing chapter such as this, the author, similar to Mary Poppins, tends to use some literary devices to help the "medicine go down."

"War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead." pg.76

Here is a delightful blend of anaphora and paradox.

"The truths are contradictory. It can be argued, for instance, that war is grotesque. But in truth war is also beauty. For all its horror, you can't help but gape at the awful majesty of combat." pg. 77

Paradox. With a shot of oxymoron (awful majesty).

"To generalize about war is like generalizing about peace." pg. 77

And a simile to round things off (however, his sentence isn't balanced). All of these devices appear in a relatively small distance from each other, practically rapid-fire. Taken individually, they are all ways to express the contradictory and inexplicableness (say that ten times fast) of war. However, taken as a whole, each enhances the ambiguity of the "truth" of war.