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A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin Book Review

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A STORM OF SWORDS

SUMMARY

ASOS picks up roughly where the previous novel left off. Catelyn Stark, breaking down with grief, watches as her son’s hold in the North begins to slip. Now free from being Robb Stark’s captive, Jaime Lannister is escorted all the way back to Westeros by Brienne of Tarth. After escaping from Harrenhal, Arya finds herself in the company of the brotherhood without banners, a ragtag group of outlaws who protect the smallfolk from the war. Davos remains ever-wary of the red priestess Melisandre, especially as her plans for King Stannis Baratheon grow darker. Sansa continues to plan her escape from King’s Landing—now that her engagement to King Joffrey is broken for Margery Tyrell, she no longer has any protection. Tyrion struggles to get respect in a post-Battle of the Blackwater King’s Landing, especially from his father, Lord Tywin Lannister. Jon keeps his promise to Qhorin Halfhand to be a spy in the wildlings, but it proves to be a daunting task. Sam watches from afar as the Night’s Watch grows more divided by the day. Bran continues on his journey to the land beyond the Wall with Hodor and the Reed siblings. And across the sea, Daenerys begins her first conquest: the slaver cities Yunkai, Mereen, and Astapor, unknowing that a betrayer is among her men.

REVIEW

As I said in my last review, Martin is not scared to pull punches. This book is known among fans as “The One Where Characters Drop Like Flies.” And indeed, they do. Martin has a certain skill in writing a story in which no characters are safe. Although we know that any and all characters could be a death’s door at any minute, Martin makes sure that every death counts. In every scene that a character passes, I never once felt that it came undeserved, whether for heroes or villains. This unlimited fatality risk also means that the story holds great tension that keeps one turning the pages.

What probably makes this book a favorite among the series’ fans is that many, many important things happen in. A criticism of the previous book and the book before, for me, was that although neither book was boring, there were few moments that shocked the readers. Most moments came to the end, such as the Battle of the Blackwater. In essence, more buildup than payoff. ASOS remedies this by having a great event occur every ten chapters at minimum—not just battles, but betrayals, deaths, and revelations.

I also feel that this book improves even more on the characters and their depths. While we have yet to see into the minds of Cersei and Joffrey or other villains, we see different sides of the characters we have known thus far. Catelyn, in particular, gets much more focus and thus becomes more likeable. In the last few book, though I did not hate her, I felt that Catelyn had too much of a “I’m going to do nothing and expect everything” attitude. In this book, not only do we see realistic consequences to her actions, but we see her being point-blank shut down by the people she believed she could control. This is actually a pivotal point in this book: once-whole characters now broken, once-broken characters putting themselves together. Daenerys’s conquests prove to be much harder than that of Qarth’s, where everything fell to her favor. Sansa, despite still being the Lannisters’ chew toy, becomes more appropriately jaded. I thought it particularly interesting that we never see into Robb Stark’s head, just the actions that cause them—a good choice, as it would be tiring to read a character do something noble, then have the next chapter shut it down.

Unfortunately, in the same way I criticized Catelyn and Jon’s chapters (which have grown better), Arya and Bran’s chapters suffer from pacing. Most of their chapters describe their travels and a few sparse conversations. In the least, their chapters are not constant. Ironically, though I found the previous book’s sadder scenes to go on for too long in some aspects, I felt that this book could have slowed down some of its tragedies. In particular, one character (who I shall not name for spoilers) suffers a heavy loss that we do not see them grieve for very much. Because the chapters are not one-after-the-other—that is to say, there could be weeks or days between two characters’ chapters—we do not see their reactions to certain events and are instead told a quick line that simply says that they’re aware of what happened. There is a character in this book, Jeyne, who is used more as a tool than a character. She’s put into a very interesting position, but that’s all she is: a position. The only thing the reader learns of her is that she’s kind—that’s where it ends.

There is a scene in the last chapter (prior to the epilogue) that is very tense, very sad, and delivers a bomb’s level of a revelation. It all comes out a single character’s monologue, where they’re crying and screaming and…saying things that someone who is crying and screaming probably wouldn’t say. It breaks the effect, sadly. Tyrion’s final chapter is also wrapped up very quickly despite its many twists and turns, though I could excuse this more, since the character is likely too damaged and heartbroken to go into such emotion.

In short: with great tension and wonderful characters, A Song of Ice and Fire continues to be an experience of a series, however long it may go on.

This is Not a Love Letter Book Review

This book was a mixture of a love story and a sad story about a boy who had mental health issues. This boy had a way of hiding his mental issues from his girlfriend, who was a bit of a brat to him. She didn’t know what was happening to the boy and took out their issues on him. This may have had a bigger effect on him than what the story told because, in the end, he did decide to take his life.

This story takes place of a mystery, two people trying to find their lost friend. The author of this book is able to portray so many emotions to the reader that the characters are going through. Tim, the best friend of Chris helps the main character but holds a small bit of resistance toward her. While no one really blames the entire thing on her, there are some small difficulties where some of the blame is placed.

The book is in a series of letters addressed as “you”. This is so that Jessie can write to Chris, who no longer exists. She goes to Chris in her mind and in her writing. There are instances where she imagines Chris running alongside her or lying in bed with her. This really shows her love for her boyfriend and her inability to let him go. He is the single most important thing to her in his life.

I love the way that the author brings in the characters in the book. There is no jump between characters, and it always seems to run smooth. Chris and the main character are introduced first with a funny story about how the main character is stripped down almost completely naked in a lake, and Chris pokes her in the back with a stick because he thinks that she is dead. This was ironic and a funny way for the two to meet. Tim gets introduced when he is frantically trying to find Chris. He is frantic and stressed out when he talks to Jessie. Michael gets introduced as Jessie’s gay friend and the one who made Chris run away angry when the two were “dancing.” Tamara was introduced as the mean girl that thought that the entire incident was Jessie’s fault. She called her a fat loser and in all was really mean to Jessie.

This book was in all a book about suicide and depression. The end of the book was a letter and dedication to Al, a friend of the author. The author wrote this book in memory of a true story. While the characters were not real and the storyline was partially made up, there are very real emotions in the book. The author’s friend had gone missing while running alongside a river, just like the main character’s boyfriend had. This was a heart clinching story, and this book sheds a big light on the issue of suicide. I believe that everyone should read this book, and recognize that it is hard to know if someone is thinking about killing themselves or not.

The Necklace

“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant is a wonderful short story that takes place in a time when women were viewed only useful for chores and being a trophy wife. In this story, the main character, Mathilde Loisel is the wife of Monsieur Loisel. She is so hungry to be a part of the rich group and that of the upper class in the economy. Every day, she dreams more and more to go to balls and dance with rich people rather than spend time with her husband. She is a very bitter person, and seems to only care about herself throughout the story. Her husband is a very nice and caring individual. He proves that to us as readers, when he walks back into his home with an invitation that is very difficult to get to a ball with only select upper class. Instead of her reacting in a happy and positive way, she tells him that it’s a pointless invitation because the good dress she wears to the movies isn’t good enough to wear to this party. He gives her the money that he has been saving up for a gun for himself, that will also be beneficial for his family, so she can buy a dress. The main character in this story is very unlikable, but it’s definitely a great way to drive the story forward. It keeps the reader’s emotions open and available throughout the entire story. Even though this character is very disrespectful and annoying, it keeps our attention throughout the story.

After the main character buys an expensive dress, she gets sad and again manipulates her husband. She tells him that she doesn’t have any good jewelry for the ball and so she won’t go. He tells her to go see her rich friend, Madame Forestier for some jewelry to borrow. After she goes, she picks out a nice necklace to borrow. She then goes to the ball and has a great time. She loses the necklace, not being able to find it at all. Her husband and her end up working for around ten years to try to pay off the expensive amount it would have costed. They went from being upper middle-class to poor all because of the main character’s very selfish decision. After they pay everything, we get to see inside of her mind again, and she is still focused on being upper class. After we get that really cool image, she meets her old rich friend, Forestier. It turns out that the necklace that Mathilde lost was just a fake the entire time, they bought Forestier an actual diamond necklace. Loisel never thought to tell the truth, all she did was lie and think about ways to cover up her tracks and opinions about her in the eyes of Forestier.

I think that this story is a really great way to show people that you don’t need to lie to people. Honesty is a good way to just deal with the situation at hand. Lying will just dig you a deeper hole.

“Before the Storm”

“I met her in a cocktail bar, but she wasn’t working as a waitress. She was getting drunk like me at the counter…” (Sheal) This excerpt is a portion of the first few sentences of the piece that caught my attention.

For this month’s good read, I’ve chosen the short fiction piece, “Before the storm” written by Alex Sheal. The story follows the actions of a man getting into what it seems as a “one-night stand” with a woman at a cocktail bar. The story is, in my opinion, very nicely written. I believe a reader will understand the eloquence in Mr. Sheal’s writing especially once the circumstances of the voice of the story is taken into consideration. The story could have very easily been made into a smut piece with poor layout and development; however, the metaphors and very slight and subtle vulgar details gives the piece a great delivery that still has good taste. I must say I love the choices of language Mr. Sheal chose for his main character; my favorite being, “When we burst out the doors, it surprised me to see the hurricane had passed; moreso that not a drop of water lay in the street full of taxi drivers. Then I remembered it was November and a storm hadn’t rampaged through this city in months, years since a proper one” (Sheal). The irony within it is simple, but I admire the connection of leaving the bar and the incoherence of the weather outside without actually stating what is going on. I also admire how the story isn’t necessarily laid out bluntly. The reader catches the gist of the encounter through context clues and strategic detailing. My favorite point of the piece would have to be the very being and the end due to the similarities, and interesting turn of events that begin and end the story.

Although I enjoyed the piece, I do believe there are a few areas that could be altered to make the piece possibly stronger. For one, in my opinion, the author has some areas with excessive wording. The situations in some areas are described repetitively, and it takes away from the unique original description. The piece in my opinion also missed the opportunity to be elongated. The work had the potential to be a much longer piece that could have went into describing emotions or even describing the lack of emotion in the action. The author could have also given more thoughts or events that followed the encounter before he jumped to the twist ending; however, I suppose adding events before the ending would take away from the dramatic effect of it; I digress.

Even with my few thoughts on how the text could possibly be improved, it is nevertheless still a very nice piece to read. I would definitely recommend it as a quick read to anyone looking for a story that is short and full of some great choices in language. If you would like to read this work, click here.

We Do Abortions Here: A Nurse’s Tale

After searching for popular, personal essays online, I came across “We Do Abortions Here: A Nurse’s Tale” by Sally Tisdale. The title immediately grasped my attention, so I decided to read it. The first link I clicked gave me this half page text, and I thought how is this a personal essay. Still, I printed and read it. In the five short paragraphs I read, there were tears forming in my eyes. The text was amazing and very well-written. It seemed like it was the full story, a nice slice of story; however, I accidentally clicked another link and this hideously long full text appeared. The part I read was only an excerpt from the essay though it stood so well on its own. I decided to go through and read the five-page personal essay, and I am glad I did.

“We do abortions here; that’s all we do”; that is the first line of the story. It was slicing, blunt, and gave a sense of opinion in the narrator. It goes on to discuss the clinic she works, the clients, and her fellow nurses and doctors. The essay clearly expresses how she feels about her job. Tisdale describes the ugly and bad side. She even exudes fear because of the ongoing debate of Planned Parenthood; sometimes it gets dangerous.

There are multiple things I enjoyed in this essay. One of them is the captivating metaphors and comparisons the narrator uses when describing the relationship between abortion, the clients, and the danger. “It is a sweet brutality we practice here, a stark and loving dispassion.” This is an example of the devastatingly beautiful language Tisdale uses. Another admirable aspect of this piece is the honesty. As stated before, the essay does explain the narrator’s opinion. However, it is an unclear opinion. The nurse realizes that every woman has their rights, but she also feels sad for the tiny, undeveloped babies that are being discarded of. “Each abortion is a message of our failure to protect, to nourish our own. Each basin I empty is a promise—but a promise broken a long time ago.” Another part of her honesty is the way she describes the patients. She gives different examples of the many women or young girls that come into the clinic every day. There are some she feels sorry for—others she does not. She also speaks of the men and their reactions.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this essay. It was very powerful and moving. The entire time I was imagining myself in the nurse’s place. I saw what she saw and felt what she felt. When a piece can do that, it’s obviously good writing. I don’t know if Sally Tisdale is a writer or if she just wanted to speak her emotions in a creative way, but I admire her and this personal essay.
The only thing I disliked about the essay was the structure of it. Sometimes, new paragraphs were created in weird places.

I recommend this personal essay to everyone, whether you’re for or against abortion. Please note there are some detailed information about the abortion process. If you would like to read it, click here.

Matilda – Roald Dahl

Overview:

Matilda is a fantasy novel by renowned British children’s author Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach) published in 1988. The story follows Matilda, a child prodigy who has received nothing but contempt, neglect, and abusive her all five years of her miserable life. Matilda, unlike the rest of her family, likes to read and educate herself, so as a result, when she goes to school for the first time, her sweet-natured teacher, Miss Honey, is stunned by her ability. And apparently, being competent at reading college level book and rattling off four-hundred times tables is not all Matilda can do; she learns that she has telekinesis. So the entire book seems like a slice of life genre story, with Matilda dealing with her horrid family, her insane headmistress, Miss Trunchbull (oh, yeah, we’ll get to that psychopath in all due time), and Miss Honey, the only adult who seems to care what happens to Matilda.

The Diction:

I should be lenient; this book was probably intended for third-graders and below. Thus, the book is written in a jargon that is easy for that demographic to understand. But as senior on the brink of graduation, who has been exposed to complex works, the diction is not enough to satisfy. Especially considering the fact that I analyze prose for fun. To support my point, I will quote movie critic, Chris Stuckmann.

Even though it’s a kid’s movie, it could still be of a high quality. I know when I was a kid, I watched good movies and I knew when it was a good movie. Kids deserve movies of just as high a quality as adult; they aren’t stupid, they know when they just watched trash.

Now, I am not calling the wording trash, not at all, in fact sometimes the wording is quite pleasant, and even humorous at times. “The boy by now was so full of cake he was like a sackful of wet cement and you couldn’t have hurt him with a sledgehammer.” But I will say that my point is one can write a children’s novel that has both nice wording and is easy for younger readers to comprehend.

An Appealing Factor:

The most appealing factor is Matilda herself. As a five year old child genius, one would expect her to be an arrogant, little, stuck-up thing. But she is quite the opposite. She is humble, so much so that at one point in novel, she says something that suggests might not even be aware of how smart she is. Matilda is also an adventurous girl who plays pranks on the wicked, mainly Trunchbull and her parents.

Speaking of the Bull.

Miss Trunchbull is a villain through and through. She physically, mental, and even psychologically abuses everyone she comes in contact with. She assaults children who make the smallest mistakes, and even forces a boy to almost die from eating a 18-inch diameter chocolate cake. She’s a villain I like to dislike.

A Potential Turn-off:

The plot was very predictable to me, but I have to remember that maybe children would not have been able to predict the plot twist.

My Rating:

I rate Matilda 3 out of 5 stars. Nothing spectacular, but nothing terribly wrong with it either.

The Innocence Treatment by Ari Goelman

This was a sci-fi book about a girl who was used as a test experiment. The girl started off as a really innocent girl who could not tell if someone was lying to her or not. Someone could make a joke about something odd like someone having an arm for a head, and she would believe them fully. She then undergoes some more experiments and ends up being quite the opposite of what she was. While she was still slightly innocent, she was violent. She was able to fight against nearly anyone and win.

This book was quite the page-turner. I enjoyed the way that the book was set up with journal entries. To me, journal entries are the best way to write a book because you get the emotional scoop of a character without having to see it through another character. I feel this was the correct way to set up this book in particular due to the fact that we are able to recall how she is feeling with all the treatments. Her development through the book was great, I saw a completely different side of her within her first few journal entries.

I feel that the development of the psychiatrist character went off as really dull. He didn’t really show much development throughout any of the book. He was more of an observer of the experiment instead of a friend or enemy. This character struck me more as a fill-in character than anything. The development of the plot was used through this character. While I understand why he was used, his personality added nothing. The plot would have thickened if it would have been the doctor herself reading these journal entries and talking to her through a microphone. Like it is, this isn’t well written to me.

I would also like this book to better explain the sister and what happened to her. I love that the sister was able to become a doctor and get away from the district, however, I want to know what happened to her before the fact or what made her decide to become a doctor.

The ending of this book was great and really summed up the entire book for me. The innocence girl is meant to be mysterious and misunderstood. When she is only seen by her sister for split seconds in the story, I find this just as mysterious as her. She is constantly making the district follow her around. when she runs off she makes the joke of “You know me, pissing some pretty important people off”. This little joke made her sister laugh, and when her sister walks off men in uniforms trail off behind her. The sister makes the connection that they are probably after her, but she doesn’t worry much because she figures that her sister has it handled.

In all this book was really emotional for me. I found myself wanting the Innocence girl to be free more than anything. This book worked well as a Sci-fi and I was genuinely impressed.

“Talking to the Sun” PT. I ‘Hymn to the Sun’ By Kenneth Koch and Kate Farrell

“Many of the first poems known to us are magical chants that praise nature and explain things that people didn’t understand about nature—why the sun rises and sets, for example, or why there is thunder. Often these chants were intended to bring good fortune— to make crops grow or to bring sunshine or rain.”

The book begins inside of a history vault dating back thousands of years of tribal chants and praises. This quote kicking off the book explains why and how we have the topic of nature mostly in old poetry and songs.

‘Hymn to the Sun’ is devoted to showing the basis of poetry, and by that i mean poetry by the first people to verbalize their praise and wonderment unto why things happen the way they do. Honestly, when i picked this book up i noticed it for vibrancy of the yellow on the spine. Then i saw the title and immediately thought of Frank O’Hara and Vladimir Mayakovsky— who very famously wrote two conversations with the sun. O’Hara’s conversation even brings up Mayavosky’s conversation with the Sun. So, that was my prethought of the book. Just looking at the cover you can tell the illustration will be beautiful. What i did not expect was the historical value accompanying these beautiful pieces. The poetry is a valuable history lesson because it is not by the famous modernist authors everyone knows the name of. They are by tribes and Egyptians and any old group of people that sang and praised together as a communal event.

The very first poem is called ‘Hymn to the Sun’ by the Fang People, who reside in Africa, and it explains that the sun is a warrior who defeats his enemy every morning, the night. Describing the fight as “The fearful night sinks…Before your lightning eye and the rapid arrows from your fiery quiver…”

The other poems all have a similar touch point of something to do with explaining the sun, praising the sun, or even explaining thunder. They take on many different tones ranging from appreciation to fear.

My personal favorite of the 8 poems in this category is one call ‘Song for the Sun that disappeared behind the Rain clouds.’ by the Hottentot people of Africa.

“The fire darkens, the wood turns black,

The flame extinguishes, misfortune upon us.

God sets out in search of the sun.

The rainbow sparkles in his hand,

the bow of the divine hunter.

He has heard the lamentations of his children.

He walks along the milky way, he collects the stars.

With quick arms he piles them into a basket

Piles them up with quick arms

Like a woman who collects lizards

And piles them into her pot, piles them

Until the pot overflows with lizards

Until the basket overflows with light.”

This is roughly translated, and at first in was thinking ‘wait, the milky way? How did they know about that?!’ and so i did some research and as it turns out, the Greeks named it. They originally named it Via Lactea, which means Road of Milk, and the Romans were the ones who basically started calling it the Milky Way. So, along with beautiful images and wonder it provided me with a lesson on the Milky Way.

I would most definitely recommend this read. Thus far in “Talking to the Sun” i have gotten a lot out of the poems. The book does provide small sidebar explanations, and that is helpful. The read is insightful and does kick up curiosity in a pretty enormous way. So, if you are looking for an educationally exciting read, this book is for you.

A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

SUMMARY

A Clash of Kings, second in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, begins very shortly after the end of Game of Thrones. Westeros is in pieces—the Starks have been split apart, winter is coming, and five kings—Robb Stark, Renly Baratheon, Stannis Baratheon, Joffrey Baratheon, and Balon Greyjoy—are battling for the Iron Throne. Catelyn Stark tries to put her shattered family back together, all while her son grows too fast for her to keep up with. Her daughter, Arya, is still in hiding, and is targeting her enemies. In his brother’s absence, Bran Stark holds Winterfell. Catelyn’s oldest daughter, Sansa, is a hostage in King’s Landing for King Joffrey and Queen Cersei to play with as they please. Also in King’s Landing, Tyrion Lannister puts his foot down and establishes his role in the game. In the North, Jon Snow and the Night’s Watch march beyond the Wall. Trouble brews across the sea, too, as Stannis Baratheon prepares to attack King’s Landing with Melisandre the Red Witch and Davos Seaworth at his side. Theon Grejoy, son of Balon, returns home after many years away. Daenerys Targaryen, last of the Targaryen, now mother of the world’s only dragons, struggles to find war ships for her Dothraki. While a red comet flares in the sky, Westeros is falling apart at the seams.

REVIEW

If you’ve ever seen Game of Thrones, you’re familiar with the grit of A Song of Ice and Fire. George R.R. Martin isn’t afraid to go into fine, gross detail on the screwed-up world of Westeros. It can go overboard at times, but it gets its job done. It’s also a case of “Reality Ensues”—as, to be honest, if we lived in a world where there were no ready police force and the law was only enforced in the enforcers wanted it to be (ie the law enforcers can have bias), there would be chaos everywhere. It’s a nice take on how fantasy worlds are usually depicted as cool and peaceful. Even if the detail isn’t gritty, it’s beautiful. Westeros is a place where everything is larger than life, and Martin depicts it well, from the clothing to the food to the many places travelled.

The plot is not action-packed (except for an important and grandiose battle near the end), for good reason. ASOIAF depicts a world where violence can reign, but it doesn’t drive the story. The story is, as the first book tells, a game. Each chapter is a character’s next move, whether it be manipulation, revenge, war strategy, or simple survival. Even characters not in a permanently-violent position, like Sansa, have gripping storylines. Just because a character is “good”, it does not ensure that they will win—or, if they do, that they will come out in one piece. Some characters do not have their own chapters, like Cersei and Littlefinger, but we still get a look in their heads through their actions and words. But though the story is not one with pedal-to-the-medal pacing, it establishes that it is heading in a certain direction. Stannis is planning to march on King’s Landing, Jon and the Night’s Watch are looking out for Mance Rayder, and Daenerys is looking for war ships and who to trust them with.

When reading and watching Game of Thrones, I always thought that Martin’s strongest skill was writing characters. Each character, good and bad, have their redeeming qualities and their flaws. Stannis has his low moments, but he has reason, too. Sansa is somewhat naïve, but she isn’t stupid. Tyrion is clever and cunning, but he doesn’t know how to hold his tongue. And so on, so forth. Even Joffrey, who has zero redeeming qualities, is so immature and hateful that you kind of love-hate every scene he’s in. The characters we root for screw up sometimes, and villains have motives, reasonable or not.

ACOK has an attention-grabbing story, characters, and details. Yet, for the same things I praise, I dislike in some sense. Details, for example, can drag on. There are scenes when a room full of people describes everyone’s clothing, one-by-one. Something that could be summed up in one paragraph stretches on for three or more to fill up the chapter length. Towards the end of the book, there’s a battle scene that goes into such detail, much of the tension and suspense is lost. I found myself skimming through many dragging parts of the book.

Because of this, Jon Snow’s chapters really slow down the pacing, as most is just travelling in the land beyond the wall. As said before, things could be summed it, but instead stretches on beyond necessity. Catelyn’s chapters are not so tedious, but they do have slow moments, as only one thing of great importance happens in them. Sansa’s, Tyrion’s, and Davos’s piqued the most interest, with Arya’s, Bran’s, and Theon’s following.

One thing that I distract from both this book and its predecessor is that sadder scenes are ruined with lengthy dialogue. There’s a very poignant scene from Catelyn where she mourns how broken her family has become, but she goes into such detail about things that the emotion is ruined. The sad scenes that work well are ones that have little to no dialogue in them, like, ironically, another scene with Catelyn.

ACOK is a long read, tedious at times, but ultimately worth it. If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll be a fan of this, too.

Everything Works out in the End

Anytime I find myself in a state of frustration or continued sadness, I turn to uplifting written pieces or music to cure my rambled thoughts. Lately, life has been a rollercoaster that I’ve fallen off plenty of times. We all tend to find ourselves in a constant cycle of misfortunes or misplacement. We finish one thing and turn around to fifty more. It’s just life and the many mishaps that come along with it. But why are obstacles repetitive in our lives? Can we prevent them? Is it our actions that create a ripple? Apparently, it all comes down to one word, entropy. According to the dictionary definition, entropy is a lack of order or predictability; gradual decline into disorder. When I think of probability, the first thing that comes to mind is word problems and proportions. The saying we use math every day in our lives is absolutely true, even if it’s subconsciously.

I came across an article titled “Entropy: Why Life Always Seems to Get More Complicated”. It immediately caught my attention because of the straightforward and relatable question in the title. So, I decided to give it a read. This article explores the different levels of entropy and questions associated with the terms. It includes several scientific and mathematical references. However, it isn’t a boring read about equations. Instead, it uses the references as brief support to the theory of why things go wrong in our lives. The article’s main scientific reasoning is Murphy’s law “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong”. This quote opens the article then transitions into the question ‘why’. The article almost becomes depressing because I begin to think there’s nothing I can do about this inevitable force, and obstacles will always find their way in my path. However, the writer goes on to say entropy is the reason we exert energy into situations. It’s the reason we keep fighting and trying new things, hoping to prevent new curves. It is in our nature to want some sort of order and stability.

One of my favorite ideas discussed in this article is the requirement of energy and the increasing odds against us. The article says there are countless numbers of ways something can go wrong, but one way it can go right. “There is only one possible state where every piece is in order, but there are a nearly infinite number of states where the pieces are in disorder”. The writer is referring to the completion of a puzzle and its probabilities.

We can’t necessarily stop bad things from happening to us. We can attempt ways to alleviate the impact, but it’s bound to happen. It’s our choice to learn from it and put in the effort to make it better. “You can fight back against the pull of entropy”. The only thing it requires is energy and effort. My favorite quote from the many the author uses is “The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life because everything is pulling you to be more and more complex.”

The road gets bumpy and we graze the sides sometimes, but it’s not the end yet. We still have time to come back and try again. Although it’s a relentless and tiring cycle, at least it’s something. Life is what you make it. Nothing’s perfect. So, close your eyes, breathe in and out. Prepare yourself for tomorrow.

If you would like to give the article a read, click here.