First, lets start off with his opinions about freewill. I completely agree with him. I find it hard to believe that fate exists, and that we all have the choice and freewill to do whatever we please.I can also relate to Cameron when he said "it's a scary thought, not being able to control your own life". It's both scary and depressing. I like thinking that I have the power to make my life whatever I want it to be. I like to think that if I study hard, I can get into a nice University and have a good job, and vice versa. If I slack and disregard school, I'll have a bad job. It's almost a drive in life for me, or a light at the end of the tunnel. But, if there really is such thing as fate, then there I don't really think that there's any reason for trying to be anything better then what you think you're fated to be. For example, say on the day of your birth a person who can see the future tells your parents that you will be a criminal when you grow up, and you will die via execution at the age of 28. If you knew for sure that that was your fate, then there wouldn't be much motivation to try and change it. And even if you did, then it wouldn't make any difference because your end is already cemented in its place. But that's just the thing, isn't it? We don't know for sure that there is fate, and there's no way to know. I think that all we can do is either hope that our fates are good OR we hope that there is such a thing as freewill and all shoot for the stars and try and be the best people we can be.
Second, is Cameron's post on choosing he Vonnegut quote. He chose:
"I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center"I thought his comparison with the cliff and the valley below was very insightful, and I completely agree. Vonnegut is one of those "edgy" writers, who have a famous novel that has very deep messages and lessons for its readers, but also have very offensive or risqué material. In my opinion, Vonnegut gets very close to being overly inappropriate, or very close to the edge, and just stays their. He doesn't go over, and he doesn't go back, and that's what makes his writing so appealing. With Vonnegut, his position is always at the edge, where (like Cam said) "he can see everything below", which is what makes him a unique writer. As an author, he writes about a topic and tells it in a way that might shock people or make them talk about the book and surround it with controversy. And that, for me, is good literature. If a book is generating buzz, then you know people are thinking about it and the ideas you are presenting. I think that Vonnegut was trying to do just that. Create as much buzz as possible, so that whatever he was trying to teach its readers would be heard.
Last, I liked his fourth post, about the banning of books. I completely agree with him on this one as well. People have the right to their own opinion, and are allowed to voice it by whatever means. Isn't freedom of speech a right? So why is it even up for discussion when people try to challenge a book's material and try and get it banned? Ever book we've read so far were controversial because of their content, and people tried to ban them, which they succeeded in doing. It's just not right. In my opinion, no book should be banned or even censored because of "inappropriate material", unless the material is seriously prejudice to a certain culture or something negative like that. I liked Cam's comparison between the banning of a book because of vulgar language to cars. He wrote "banning a book for profane language is like banning cars for being able to reach speeds over the speed limit". This makes a lot of sense. We can all use vulgar language if we want to. I must here it everyday at school. So why can't somebody write about it?
I think Cam's blog is pretty good, and he is really insightful in his ideas. His blog was well written, and I particularly liked it when he used outside comparisons to strengthen his argument. We also more or less agreed on topics like book banning and fate, and shared many of the same opinions.
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