the Kite Runner
I continue to procrastinate doing my taxes, and this time around, I buried myself in books, an endless list of good books.
I mentioned in my previous entries about how I luved Anne Frank's story, yet am struggling to continue with "Prozac nation". Last week, by chance I picked up the audio book of "the Kite Runner".
At first I wasn't too interested, I mean, life in Afghanistan is very far from modern day reality and my own personal social circle. But I really enjoyed the previous few books of heard on audio, including "Lady with the Unicorn" and the "DaVinci Code", so I thought I try it out during my daily commute. What an awesome book it turned out to be. I started listening to it while driving, but then took the disc and played it all night at home, then played it today in the office via my workstation (I had to struggle to find a decent CD player, since workstations are not built for multi-media purposes). O, because of that, I was overjoyed to find my SONY Walkman still works fine, when I thought it was broken a few months back.
I am not going to post a synopsis of the "Kite Runner" here, you can easily find that on Amazon or another site. What I wanted to address was undying loyalty, and the strong friendship between Amier and Hasan. Amier, in my eyes, has inherited all the negative traits due to his rich upbringing. It makes wonder if it's the universal truth that giving your child material wealth is a sure sign to not only spoil them, but to make them weaker in character? is a financially depraved background a necessity to ensure a person's inner strength later on in life? So that they are prepared to brave even tougher storms in the unforseeable future?
What about Hasan? do we praise him for his unwavering loyalty to Amier? or do we condemn him for his "stupidity"? As for Amier, surely his father is of a totally different breed, but does he appreciate the other, more sensitive, poetic, softer side of his son? Surely those are positive admirable qualities if Amier were a daughter.
I like the "Kite Runner" because it's a book that illustrates principles, not that everything is Black and White, but it had strong morale values, which is something that is missing in a lot of the TV shows, movies and books we have encountered nowadays, everything in American society is a different shade of gray. We have been trained to be PC about those gray, not having absolute values of right and wrong, to "respect" everyone's differences, to be "sensitive" towards individuals "preferences"... Books like Anne Frank and the "Kite Runner" got people to think and they stir up certain emotions within them. The purpose of books is to communicate, to share ideas, to teach values, and these books have fulfilled just that.
I mentioned in my previous entries about how I luved Anne Frank's story, yet am struggling to continue with "Prozac nation". Last week, by chance I picked up the audio book of "the Kite Runner".
At first I wasn't too interested, I mean, life in Afghanistan is very far from modern day reality and my own personal social circle. But I really enjoyed the previous few books of heard on audio, including "Lady with the Unicorn" and the "DaVinci Code", so I thought I try it out during my daily commute. What an awesome book it turned out to be. I started listening to it while driving, but then took the disc and played it all night at home, then played it today in the office via my workstation (I had to struggle to find a decent CD player, since workstations are not built for multi-media purposes). O, because of that, I was overjoyed to find my SONY Walkman still works fine, when I thought it was broken a few months back.
I am not going to post a synopsis of the "Kite Runner" here, you can easily find that on Amazon or another site. What I wanted to address was undying loyalty, and the strong friendship between Amier and Hasan. Amier, in my eyes, has inherited all the negative traits due to his rich upbringing. It makes wonder if it's the universal truth that giving your child material wealth is a sure sign to not only spoil them, but to make them weaker in character? is a financially depraved background a necessity to ensure a person's inner strength later on in life? So that they are prepared to brave even tougher storms in the unforseeable future?
What about Hasan? do we praise him for his unwavering loyalty to Amier? or do we condemn him for his "stupidity"? As for Amier, surely his father is of a totally different breed, but does he appreciate the other, more sensitive, poetic, softer side of his son? Surely those are positive admirable qualities if Amier were a daughter.
I like the "Kite Runner" because it's a book that illustrates principles, not that everything is Black and White, but it had strong morale values, which is something that is missing in a lot of the TV shows, movies and books we have encountered nowadays, everything in American society is a different shade of gray. We have been trained to be PC about those gray, not having absolute values of right and wrong, to "respect" everyone's differences, to be "sensitive" towards individuals "preferences"... Books like Anne Frank and the "Kite Runner" got people to think and they stir up certain emotions within them. The purpose of books is to communicate, to share ideas, to teach values, and these books have fulfilled just that.
-- posted by Pooh Bear @
4/13/2006 01:47:00 PM
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