Diamond Age.

The ending was kind of rushed, seed technology wasn’t really touched on in detail. On the up side the book becomes more about actual human ties. Nell and Miranda met through the Primer, if it wasn’t for the Primer Nell wouldn’t be the person who she is today. Due to the fact that Miranda is basically the Primer, if it wasn’t for Miranda Nell wouldn’t be who she is. Nell also helped Miranda. She made her feel like she had a reason to do what she was doing, She felt like she had a sense of responsibility with Nell. She was the person who was supposed to teach her and care for her because Nell had no one else in her life to do so. By Miranda becoming Nells mother it kind of says that humanity cant be replaced by technology. The Primer taught Nell to work within a technological environment but still value human relationships at the same time. In the beginning of the book women were put down and looked down upon and at the end its more empowering, Nell ends up running her own little army. She becomes an independent, knowledgeable young girl, thanks to the Primer.

Diamond Age.

When the drummers are introduced, it gets a little weird. One second its this massive orgy and the next the girl explodes into flames What a weird situation to be in! Miranda talks about her relationship with Nell. Miranda goes as far as to change her work schedule because Nell was going to school and started only opening the primer at night. She wanted to find a way to track Nell down because she felt like she was her mother in a sense. She was told it wasn’t possible to find her, that there would have been no trail to connect Nell to the account. Even when she went out with friends she said that she felt like she was a mother without actually having a child. Miranda really cares about Nell and is trying to raise her as if she is her own daughter.
Fiona was given the primer before her father, Hackworth left. She believed that every time she opened the primer it was really her father who was telling her the stories. She felt as if her father never really left her even though he had been gone for some time.

Nell & The Primer.

I love how Nell’s “animal friends” are used as people in the stories of the Primer. Its like the Primer is a mirror of Nell, for example when she is attempting to do a summersault, Belle was making the same exact mistakes Nell was and she was learning from them.
Nell witnessed the incident between the Shanghai police and Tony. There was blood everywhere, she saw Tony attacking himself with a knife where he thought the seven minute special went into this body, it was a huge mess and defiantly nothing a little girl like Nell should have seen. Nell was left to clean up the mess, but of course a little girl has no idea how to clean up a blood soaked kitchen and living room, nor should they have to. The blood ended up smearing around and when her mother got home she blamed Nell for making the mess and not being able to clean it up. Nell was hurt and went and dove into the Primer. Because of this the primer kind of reminds me of a coping mechanism for her. She turned the events of her terrible day into a story that she approved of, in turn she ended up forgetting the real events of what happened.
Nell kicked Kevins ass, he was rude to her and in a way kind of fueled her fire. He continued to antagonize her and say mean things to her and she used what dinosaur taught to her to kick his ass. Even when he admitted that she had won she still proceeded to gouge his eyes out, pull his hair, and kick him between the legs, eventually dropping him to the ground. without the Primer Nell probably wound have never done something like this.
Kevin learned how to bully someone from Burt. What happened to Kevin got back to Burt and Nell and Harv were punished. Miranda was determined to get Nell out of that house for good and this was the perfect opportunity. Miranda had just told Nell how the Cyclops was killed with a pointed stick, Nell decided to take matters into her own hands. Nell knew Burt would hurt her again and she wanted to hurt him, she charged at him with a screwdriver but didn’t stick with it, it just scraped his head. Burt was now on a rampage, Nell and Harv took off running.
Miranda admits that she is basically raising someone elses child for them. Because of everything that had just happened with Burt she was worried about Nell, she didn’t know if she was dead or alive.
The primer teaches Nell about a situation so she knows what to do before it happens. When she encounters the stranger and ends up going with him she feels trapped. When the stranger really does approach Nell she knows that she isn’t going to make the same mistake again and throws sand in his face.
Harv and Nell are on the move and were currently in Shanghai jurisdiction. Harv was forced to leave Nell because of his past. He kissed her and ran away.

Diamond Age.

Nell seems to have it rough when she isn’t living life through the primer. Her mom has little to no patients and snaps on her, she tells her to get out of her fucking hair. What kind of mother says that. Luckily Nell has the primer to act as her parental guidance because she defiantly isn’t getting any at home. When Nell visits the play room she get picked on by the other kids, they go as far as to push her down and play keep away with her book. She gets really upset by this and starts crying. When she finally got the book back she went into the corner and started to read it. She is aware that if she has issues the book will help her out, this seems to be what keeps her coming back for more.
The baby breeding ship is the weirdest thing. Every room is filled with infants. Dr. X invited judge Fang on the ship so he could basically confess and show judge Fang what was going on in the ship. There are fifty thousand kids on just one ship!
Hackworth ends up getting punished, his punishment is less because he agrees to give Dr. X the key for the data so that other children can benefit from it.

Diamond Age

Finally it all starts to make sense, at first I thought the whole intro involving Bud was a nice touch, now I’m slightly irritated that I wasted over an hour of my life reading about him.
On the up side Stephenson finally goes into what the Primer is and damn is that something else. Thanks to Harv, Nell was introduced to the Primer. Harv mugged Hackworth, he took a few things from him but what he brought home for Nell would change her life forever. Even though Harv was punished for mugging Hackworth Judge Fang decides to take it easy on him because its basically just him and Nell. Tequila isn’t much of a mother; she keeps bring home dead beats that treat her children like shit, especially Nell. The primer hears everything around it and as soon as a little girl picks it up it remembers her face and her voice, the primer forms a relationship with the girl. This is why McGraw stresses importance that no other little girl gets her hands on the book until Elizabeth opens it first. Nell beat Elizabeth to the punch. The primer talks back, answers questions, teaches Nell things she never knew, its like her own personal teacher. Little does she know, there is a person actually talking to her. The person inside the primer is a reactor, her name is Miranda. This book sparks emotions, at one point Nell gets scared and starts crying and throws the book across the room. Suddenly the book opens and asks Nell if she wants to hear a story. Nell is learning things the way McGraw wanted Elizabeth to learn things.
Lt. Chang pays Hackworth a visit and questions him about why he didn’t report the mugging and the theft of the book.

The Diamond Age

At first I was unsure about The Diamond Age, its quite different. I'm not a big fan of the way its written, it can be hard to follow at times. Stephenson doesn't talk much about females and when he does its in a very negative way. Hes more descriptive when he talks about men. Bud is described in great detail, everything from his body, the clothes he wears, how he chooses to spend his money, and the technology his body is equip with. Bud is basically described as an asshole, "he got his way just by giving people the evil eye(8)." He is rude and doesn't appear to care for anyone else in the world but himself. When he found out Tequila was having another baby his response was less then impressive. He uses his modded body to harm other people to benefit himself, up until he was forced to take a long walk off a short pier.
The technology Stephenson talks about is crazy. The whole idea of the freedom machine blows my mind, I don't see how anyone would want to send something inside of them to eat their child, its kind of gruesome. On the up side, the credit card that is put right into you is a fabulous idea.

Buffy

I never really watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I was more of an MTV person. I found it extremely hard to watch Buffy due to the fact that all I could think about was Alyson Hannigan in American Pie and Sarah Michelle Gellar in Cruel Intentions. As everyone knows both of those movies are pretty dirty and clips from both of them kept running through my head while watching Buffy. It was slightly weird to see those two women playing the role of teenage girls. Even though Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Graceling don’t have much in common the two main characters do. Katsa and Buffy are both teenage girls who are lacking a “normal” life. Katsa kills or harms people when the king orders her to and Buffy kills vampires. They are both young but very mature in certain ways for their age. In society it is unusual for females to play to role of the protector but both of these girls do it as if it’s their duty to do so. Because of this they escape the stereotypical views of women and that gives the teenage viewers a sense of empowerment. Most importantly both Katsa and Buffy have a massive amount of physical strength and could harm whoever they’d like but they control themselves.

Graceling

Thank god Left Hand of Darkness is over, Graceling is like a breath of fresh air. Being a teenage girl Katsa has some major gender and identity issues. Things are quite different for her because she leads a life that is anything but “normal,” she is a trained killer and works for the king. Imagine being 16 again and dealing with all of the crazy day to day things and to top it off, being forced to carry the bourdon of being a killer.
Its strange, typical teenage girls love to get dolled up and they dream about getting married, having kids, and raising a family. Sadly, she has no real role models in her life to help her face the issues she has to deal with. She was never even taught what is like to be a women, what to expect. Thankfully Helda kind of took Katsa under her wing and is playing the “mother” role in her life. Even though Helda is around to help her with basic things Katsa still has no idea what to do with her emotions and feelings. On the up side she seems to deal with her anger in a healthy way, she doesn’t hurt people, she releases stress through escaping. You can’t escape someone who can read your mind though and when she found out that there was a child graced with mind reading she became upset. Not only did she not want the mind reader to know what she does but she also probably didn’t want her to know what goes on inside of her head, after all she cant even really deal with her emotions.
Everyone she encounters typically fears her but Po isn’t staying away. It seemed as if he was almost flirting with her while she was kicking his ass. He was laughing while they were fighting. Hopefully their relationship will turn into something and Katsa will open up more. He said he trusted her and she seems to have trust issues. Maybe Po will be good for her.