Literary
Circle – “THE BOOK EARTHWORM”
First
Book – Papertowns by John Green
“Did
you know that for pretty much the entire history of the human
species, the average life span was less than thirty years? You
could count on ten years or so of real adulthood, right? There was
no planning for retirement, There was no planning for a career.
There was no planning. No time for plannning. No time for a
future. But then the life spans started getting longer, and people
started having more and more future. And now life has become the
future. Every moment of your life is lived for the future--you go
to high school so you can go to college so you can get a good job
so you can get a nice house so you can afford to send your kids to
college so they can get a good job so they can get a nice house so
they can afford to send their kids to college.”
|
-
Margo Roth Spiegelman, Paper Towns -
|
I,
Ryan Mark Catanio – THE PASSAGE SPEAKER! –
As a
passage picker, my job is to pick a passage or a quote and discussed
it along with my group mates as requirement for our English 80 or
Intensive Reading. And so I choose the quote or passage which, I
think would have more significance.
“What
a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.”
-
Quentin, Paper Towns –
In the
page 278, when Q (Quentin) saw Margo for the first time after she
leave her house, he realized that he didn’t know Margo yet; that
there is something he needs to see; that he was expecting too much to
Margo; that there is a difference between “just Margo” (present
and real) and “Margo Roth Spiegelman” (past and fake). And by
that, Q was pissed to Margo for being vague, but the most
importantly; he was pissed to himself, having the idea of him in-love
with Margo Roth Spiegelman without seeing who the real Margo is. As
Margo walks toward Q, Q taught to himself that it is a treacherous
thing to believe that a person is more than a person. And that is for
him was unfair and inhuman to Margo’s side.
In
my opinion, the quote “What a
treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a
person” signifies that it is a
betrayal to our humanity when we think that we are more human. That
makes sense for me, as if it free us from hanging to pretend to live
up to the impossible expectation which is our society is throwing at
us. Pretending to walk on water is pain.
This
also applies in education, when some teachers is expecting too much
from their students catching up to their unreachable standards of
learning, which will make their students to become a computer than a
being human.
Group
mates Works
Ronald
Surilla (Discussion Director)
As a
Discussion Director Ronald gave us five questions to be discussed and
answered.
1.
What does Paper Town mean in the story?
The term, paper town was used in various ways but we have come up with one definition which is the falseness of a place because of fake people inhabiting it. We refer that place as Orlando, the place where Margo lives. Margo thinks that it’s a Paper Town because she thinks that people around her are fake.
The term, paper town was used in various ways but we have come up with one definition which is the falseness of a place because of fake people inhabiting it. We refer that place as Orlando, the place where Margo lives. Margo thinks that it’s a Paper Town because she thinks that people around her are fake.
Reaction:
At first we all have our own definition of the word Papertowns
because it was defined in the book many times and differently. But we
just all agreed that Papertowne define as the fakeness of the place
because of the fake people inhabiting it. We come up with this kind
of answer because we just focus on the characters of the novel
especially Margo who called herself a Papergirl.
2.Why
do you think Margo picked Q as accomplice on her revenge?
After
different point of views, we finally agreed that Margo picked Q as
accomplice on her revenge because she used to think of Q as a coward
, as she calls him in the novel, “Scary cat”. Before she left for
Agloe, she wanted to “create in Quentin at least an echo of the
kick-ass hero of her little kid story” she had been creating since
she was ten. Therefore picking Q as a accomplice make sense because
she planned it already in her Paper story and hoping someday it might
come true.
Reaction:
We have agreed that Margo picked Q as a accomplice because she used
to think that Q as a coward, but also Margo picked him because he
already knew Q since they were two and they were also chilhood
friends and Margo is comfortable with him.
3.
If you had to choose between Ben and Radar as a bestfriend, who would
you choose and why?
We have decided that we would choose Radar. It’s not that we really wanted to let go of Ben but if there’s a need to choose between the two of them. Radar unlike Ben, would be a better choice because even when Radar has a girlfriend he still involved himself in searching for Margo or whenever Quentin needs help. Q and Radar also have a lot in common. Q may not be as geeky as Radar but he is also wise in finding clues. As for Ben his character as a friend to Q changed when he had Lacey as his girlfriend. It was just a slight changed but enough to make Q rethinks his personality in the story.
We have decided that we would choose Radar. It’s not that we really wanted to let go of Ben but if there’s a need to choose between the two of them. Radar unlike Ben, would be a better choice because even when Radar has a girlfriend he still involved himself in searching for Margo or whenever Quentin needs help. Q and Radar also have a lot in common. Q may not be as geeky as Radar but he is also wise in finding clues. As for Ben his character as a friend to Q changed when he had Lacey as his girlfriend. It was just a slight changed but enough to make Q rethinks his personality in the story.
Reaction:
If I were going tp choose between the two of my friends. I’ll not
choose anyone, because at first the first place they are your friends
and you friended them not because you eant thier help, but because
you understand each other. But in the case of Q, Radar and Ben. Radar
really had a big role in Q’s life and in finding Margo. I’m not
saying that Ben didn’t do something he just prioritized his
girlfriend that’s why he didn’t really focused himself in finding
Margo.
4.
Do you think Margo wants to be found? Do you think Margo wants to be
found by Q?
Deep inside Margo, her ego tells her that she wants to be found by someone and that is Q. Margo purposely left her first clue outside Q’s window and put a another clue inside his room. This was all planned by Margo as in the story she admits in doing something, planning was the best part. Therefore Q finding Margo in Algoe was part of the design in her plans.
Deep inside Margo, her ego tells her that she wants to be found by someone and that is Q. Margo purposely left her first clue outside Q’s window and put a another clue inside his room. This was all planned by Margo as in the story she admits in doing something, planning was the best part. Therefore Q finding Margo in Algoe was part of the design in her plans.
Reaction:
We come up with that answer, because it really stated in the novel
that Margo used to left clues but she never wanted someone to follow
the clues and find her. Actually at the end when Q found her, she got
mad. I think it’s also Q’s willingness to find Margo.
5.If
you’re in the place of Q, will you spend your last weeks in high
school enjoying it, or will you find Margo the rest of the weeks?
If we’re in the shoes of Q, we would do our best to find Margo rather than enjoying our last weeks in high school. For Q, Margo is probably the most important person to him (excluding his parents of course) he admires her and he wants to be with her. How we are going to enjoy our last few weeks in high school, when the girl that gives color to our high school life is nowhere to be found.
If we’re in the shoes of Q, we would do our best to find Margo rather than enjoying our last weeks in high school. For Q, Margo is probably the most important person to him (excluding his parents of course) he admires her and he wants to be with her. How we are going to enjoy our last few weeks in high school, when the girl that gives color to our high school life is nowhere to be found.
| Comment: For Ronald's work, we actually debate and discuss first on what is the real answer to those question and in the end we agreed to end-up with only one answer for each of the question. And we had fun answering those question. - Me, Ryan - |
Jermaine
Dela Cruz (Caharcter Captain)
Quentin
“Q” Jacobsen-
The protagonist and narrator of the story. Has had a crush on his
neighbor Margo since they were kids, however that crush develops and
before long Q realizes he's in love with Margo. Throughout the story
he follows clues he thinks Margo, who has gone missing, left behind
for him to help him find her. He soon becomes obsessed with finding
these clues and recruits his friends to help him find Margo.
Q, a
typical high school student who belongs to the group of teens in
school who are often the subject of bullying and mostly left out, can
be described as milquetoast, inquisitive and faithful.
• Milquetoast is
somebody regarded as timid or submissive, especially a man.
Q
is a milquetoast because when Margo asked him to become her
accomplice in seeking revenge to those she thought to have offended
her, he agreed to do and whatever Margo told him to do, he couldn't
complain and obeyed her instead.
•
Q's inquisitiveness developed
when he discovered that every time Margo disappears, she leaves clues
which no one could decipher. He soon tried to find clues on her
latest vanishing and when he had found one, he pursued it which
followed a series of clues which later on led him to Margo.
•
Q
is faithful to
his friends. It very obvious that among the three of them, Q is the
one closest to normal. Despite the weirdness of his friends, Q
remained loyal to their friendship which eventually helped him in his
pursuit of his one great love.
Margo
Roth Spiegelman-
Margo is a self described Paper Girl who runs away from home only to
be pursued by her childhood friend, Q. Her pet dog, Myrna
Mountweazel, is a reference to Lillian Virginia Mountweazel,[5] a
woman who never existed, but was listed in the 1975 edition of the
New Columbia Encyclopedia.
Margo
can be best describe as mysterious, clever, and ungrateful.
•
Margo
is undeniably mysterious.
Her strangeness is incomparable. In other words, it isn't easy to
understand her.
•
For
me clever is
the best word to describe Margo. She is clever in many ways. There
wouldn't be a story without her shrewdness.
•
Margo
is ungrateful. After
driving from Orlando, Florida to Agloe, New York in twenty-four
hours, Q and his friends found Margo living in an old
dilapidated barn. But instead of being grateful for them finding her,
she reacted negatively. Margo had not intended for them to find her.
Ben
Starling-
He is one of Quentin's best friends. He is in the school band and
also helps Quentin find Margo, and in the process, becomes Lacey's
boyfriend. Towards the beginning of the book, Ben has an obsession
with prom and refers to girls as "honeybunnies". Ben is
pervert, funny and like Q, he is loyal to their friendship.
Marcus
“Radar”-
One of Q’s best friends. In the novel he is constantly editing
pages on a website called Omnictionary (which is very similar to
Wikipedia). He was nicknamed by Quentin and Ben after the character
from M*A*S*H. His parents own the world's largest collection of black
Santas. He is in the school band. He assists Quentin in finding
Margo. Radar is geeky (from the word geek which means somebody who is
a proud or enthusiastic user of computers or other technology,
sometimes to an excessive degree), reliable and loyal to their
friendship.
Comment:
Jermaine is good, analyzing those characters smartly. As a
character captain she must have to read the whole book, in order
for her to completely analyzed the whole characteristics and
attitude of each character in the story. For me, Jermaine did a great job! Well done!. - Me, again!
-
|
John
Demdam (Artistic Adventure)
A
Paper Poem by a Paper boy and a Poetic girl
I
don't mind, living in a world full of paper clips,
Where
paper people with paper houses talk with their paper lips.
Real
may they seem in the eyes of many,
Looking
inside them, they're all half-empty.
I've
known a princess from a paper castle,
A
paper maiden with a paper battle.
To
paper enemies she sought for vengeance,
She
did it all because of grievance.
In
some ways paper people made some mistakes
That
will let themeselves to be fake
But
paper people may also be real people
They
may haughty, arrogant but meek and humble.
It's
time to end this paper poem,
Written
on a paper in a paper home.
Paper
poems are made by paper people,
And
read by the readers either it's bare or ample.
I
would rather call it “My reaction”
rather than “My comment”
for some explainable reason! Hehe
|
My
Reaction: John Salavador Demdam did a
great poem in significance with the whole character and the story.
All I can say to his work is... WOW!!!!! HOLY MOLY BROCOLLY!!!
Upon reading his work, a question came into my mind “HOW did he
really compose this poem?”! I mean... if he did with all his
heart, anyone would be proud of him!(Sorry for wrong grammar XD)
Hehe
-
Me, Myself and I -
|
Elaiza
Tero (Connector Princess :D)
Paper
Roses by Marie Osmond
I
realized the way your eyes deceived me
with tender looks that I mistook for love
So take away the flowers that you gave me
And send the kind that you remind me of
Paper Roses
Paper Roses
Oh how real those roses seem to be
But they're only imitation,
Like you imitation love for me
I thought that you would be a perfect lover
You seemed so full of sweetness at the start
But like a big red rose that's made of paper
There isn't any sweetness in your heart
Paper Roses
Paper Roses
Oh how real those roses seem to be
But they're only imitation like you imitation love for me
with tender looks that I mistook for love
So take away the flowers that you gave me
And send the kind that you remind me of
Paper Roses
Paper Roses
Oh how real those roses seem to be
But they're only imitation,
Like you imitation love for me
I thought that you would be a perfect lover
You seemed so full of sweetness at the start
But like a big red rose that's made of paper
There isn't any sweetness in your heart
Paper Roses
Paper Roses
Oh how real those roses seem to be
But they're only imitation like you imitation love for me
As the
connector, I will use the song entitled “Paper Roses” by Marie
Osmond to connect to the novel Paper Towns by John Green, it don’t
actually connect to the whole story, but specifically to the two main
characters, Margo Roth Spiegelman and Quintin Jacobsen.
Let us
imagine that the Paper Roses and in the song Paper Roses is Margo the
girl who stated on the story that she is a “Paper Girl”. And when
the song will be singing by someone, it would be Quintin, who is
secretly in love with Margo. We all know that Paper Roses are not
real, it’s fake and only an imitation. It’s just an artwork made
to be a decoration. In the story Margo call herself a “Paper Girl”
which can be seen in some ways. One is, she is a Paper Girl because
she is not the real Margo in front of many people. She uses this kind
of trick so no one can ever realize and know who really she is. She
may not be her real self when she was around these people, but the
person they would want to see. Like a Paper Roses, it may not be
real, but to those who appreciate the beauty of it, they still call
it a rose even if it’s not because it was all made by paper.
Another one is, like a Paper Roses, even if it was made with thick or
thin paper sheet, at the end of the day, when it was crumpled and
tore it will never be a Paper Rose, it will never be perfect as it
was newly made. Like Margo, she considered herself as a Paper Girl,
that actually being so Paper thin, frail and easily tearing by other
people which also she called paper people. When this song is to be
sing by Quintin, it only gives a message that even he knew Margo
since they were two, there’s still a part of Margo he doesn’t
know. He thought Margo is Margo when she’s with her friends and
family. Only to know that there were different Margos. Margo in front
of her friend Lacey is different. Margo in front of her parents is
different and Margo in front of him is different. He realized that
Margo is not real, she became a different person depending on who
she’s around or who she’s with.
| Comment: She did the real job, connecting the story to another song is great. Of what I have understand, the paper roses is a song with a meaning of having a "quite" real rose, yet it is still unreal, because it is still a paper rose. Same goes to the story where Margo seems to be real, yet deep inside, for her, she is not, because she is just an another paper girl in a small world of paper town. And as for the connector, nicely done! - Me and Myself, again - |
Hara Vessa Escabarte (Vocabulary Enricher)
Reading
John Green’s “Papertowns”, is fulfilling yet there are also
instances meeting some words that are not familiar to me, so while
reading I marked and jotted some of these words that I find puzzling
or unfamiliar, listed below are the words with their definitions and
relevance in the story.
| Chapter and Paragraph Number | Word | Definition | Importance or Relevance to the Story | |
| Ch. 1, Paragraph 5 | Morosely |
[muh-rohs]
(adv.) very serious, unhappy and quiet |
Describes the way Radar inform Q about he was going on the prom. | |
| Ch. 1, Paragraph 43 | Sluggishness |
[sluhg-ish]
(n.) moving slowly or lazily |
The way that Q describes the clocks, when he gets bored. | |
| Ch. 2, Paragraph 1 | Swiveled |
[swiv-uhl]
(v.) to turn around |
Q’s movement, when he heard the window open and saw Margo. | |
| Ch. 3, Paragraph 10 | Felonies |
[fel-uh-nee]
(n.) a serious crime |
Q’s interpretation on Margo when she enters through the window of Q’s room. | |
| Ch. 3, Paragraph 25 | Honk |
[hongk, hawngk]
(n.) to make a loud sound |
Q’s interpretation in Margo blowing the horn excruciatingly. | |
| Chapters; 2, 3, 26 | Aneurysm |
[an-yuh-riz-uhm]
(n.) an abnormal blood-filled bulge of a blood vessel and
especially an artery resulting from weakening (as from disease) of
the vessel wall. |
A term used by John Green in the book referring to someone’s common characteristic. | |
| Chapter; 2 and 4 | Somersault |
[suhm-er-sawlt]
(n.) a forward or backward movement of your body on the ground
or in the air that is made by bringing your feet over your head. |
Used in the passage as a movement or a motion acted by Q. | |
| Chapters; 4, 18 and 21 | Labyrinth |
[lab-uh-rinth]
(n.) something that is extremely complicated or difficult to
understand; a place that has many confusing paths or passages |
Used to describe an appearance of
the ff:
Place (C. 4)
Book’s arrangement (C. 18)
Shelves (C. 21 “Labyrinthine”) |
|
| Chapters; 4 and 41 | Jugular |
[juhg-yuh-ler, joo-gyuh-]
(adj.) relating to the throat |
Referring to Q’s specific part of the body. | |
| Chapters; 5. 19 | Skunk |
[skuhngk]
(n.) an obnoxious or disliked person |
Used to describe obnoxious something. | |
| Chapter 5, Paragraph 19 | Monstrosity |
[mon-stros-i-tee]
(n.) something (such as a building) that is very large and ugly |
Q’s word for the house structure of Jase. | |
| Chapter 5, Paragraph 30 | Deign |
[deyn]
(v.) to do something that you think you should not have to do
because you are too important. |
Q’s in silent interaction with Margo about what lacey would do to him. | |
| Chapter 5, Paragraph 44 | Jimmy | (v.) to force (something such as a lock, door or window) open with a metal bar or a similartool | The term used by Q describing what Margo did on the front door of Lacey’s car. | |
| Chapters; 6 and 19 | Cul-de-sacs | (n.) a street that is designed to another street only at one end | Used to describes a pathway appearance | |
| Chapter 6, Paragraph 34 | Bum | (n.) a drinking spree | Margo’s term for the paper kids drinking stuff. | |
| Chapters 7 | Wrath | (n.) strong vengeful anger or indignation | A feeling of angriness used by Margo and Q | |
| Chapter 7, Paragraph 8 | Czarist | (n.) Government of Russia, autocratic rule |
Q used to describe Russian
government.
|
|
| Chapter 7, Paragraph 8 | Yodeling | (v.) to sing loudly whole changing your voice back and forth between a natural pitch and higher pitch | ||
| Chapters; 1, and 7 | Faggot | (n.) a male homosexual | Margo’s terminology name for Q regarding his vocabulary. | |
| Chapter 7, Paragraph 22 | Usurped | (v.) to take and keep something, such as power in a forceful or violent way and especially without the right to do so | Margo’s argumentative-conversation-term with Q. | |
| Chapter 7, Hour Four | Torso | (n.) the main part of the human body not including the head, arms and legs | Part of the body. | |
| Chapter 7, Paragraph 37 | Undulation | (n.) a wavy appearance | Q’s terminology for his describing his torso. | |
| Chapter. 8 Paragraph 6 | Chauffeur | (v.) drive (a car or a passenger in a car), typically as part of one's job | Margo’s statement unto Q when they were in argument. | |
| Chapter. 8, Paragraph 7 | Miscreant |
/ˈmiskrēənt/
(adj.) (of a person) behaving badly or in a way that breaks a
law or rule. |
Q’s point of view in his manner dwelling with Margo towards the SeaWorld, he might be called for university. | |
| Chapter. 8, Paragraph 22 | Shamu | Shamu was the first orca to survive more than 13 months in captivity and was the star of a very popular killer whale show at SeaWorld San Diego in the mid–late 1960s. She was the fourth killer whale (orca) ever captured (the second female). | Margo’s citation to Q about the SeaWorld’s most intrigue issue. | |
| Chapter 8, Paragraph 28 | Ditch |
/diCH/
(n.) a narrow channel dug in the ground, typically used for
drainage alongside a road or the edge of a field. |
The drainage that could be found on the third side of the SeaWater. | |
| Chapter 8, Paragraph 40 | Moccasin |
/ˈmäkəsən/
(n.) a venomous American pit viper. |
Q’s prediction when Margo threw in
the moat and was bitten by some creature she doesn’t know.
“What was it? Was it a moccasin?”
said Q.
|
|
| Chapter 9, Paragraph 7 | Helluva |
/’heləvə/
Non standard spelling for *hell of a* |
Q’s statement, describing the
night he had with Margo.
“Well, it was a helluva night”, Q stated. |
|
| Chapter 10, Paragraph 51 | Cacophony |
/kəˈkäfənē/
(n.) a harsh, discordant mixture of sounds. |
Q was resting, when suddenly a cacophony sound was coming from inside. | |
| Chapter 11, Paragraph 1 | Anarchic |
/aˈnärkik/
(adj.) with no controlling rules or principles to give order |
Q’s fantasizing thought about
their high school status.
|
|
| Comment: John Green use some “heavy” words throughout the whole plot of the story. I think, J.G use those words that boxed above to have an additional impact to the readers upon reading the story, And for Hara, I give him an applause for his dedication to find those words and explaining them clearly. CLAP! CLAP! - Me, Myself and I, again- |
Arjun
Dango (Summarizer)
The Book-Earthworm’s Summary of John Green’s Paper Towns
The
story started at a young age of Quentin Jacobson and Margo Roth
Spiegelman. While walking in the park, they found the dead body of
Robert Joyner that he and Margo shared a discovery that will change
their lives forever. Since that night, Margo had a separate way while
good fortune led Q to a better life but with twists and turns and a
lot of travel.
One
night, few weeks before their graduation, Margo asked Q to come with
her for a night till near dawn adventure and full or revenge. Leaving
pranks on her ex-boyfriend’s house, her ex-best friends, and the
school bully; including breaking into Sea World. Q thinks that this
adventure will lead him back to Margo but he was wrong. Later that
morning, Margo disappeared.
Q
together with his friends, Ben and Radar, and Margo’s friend―Lacey,
they searched for clues where Margo can be found just like what she
always does when she leaves. There were
clues that lead him to an abandoned mini mall where he thinks Margo
has spent time recently; they found a map with marks that ends on
Agloe. They did some research and discovered that Agloe was actually
a copyright trap created by Esso. When they search for it on
“Omnictionary”, they discover that someone has posted stating the
population of Agloe “Will actually be One until may 29th at Noon.” raised Q’s red flag that there’s only one person can write
with that kind of capitalization. And because of it, they skipped
their graduation to travel to another country that will take them 21
hours. Technically, the travel took them 24 hours with a near death
experience.
Eventually,
they arrived in Agloe. And discover Margo in yet another abandoned
building. Yet she is not the same person they all thought they knew.
They find her furious that they found her and they’re upset that
she’s not the Margo they knew before she left. In the end, they
realize that they don’t need to be who everyone wants them to be.
The story ends with a kiss but not to our satisfaction. Q’s
relationship with Margo will never be anything more than friends
Reaction:
The summarizer gave the plot of the story correctly, somehow, but his
work will be more comprehensible when he used the plot structure in
sequencing the story.
Comment:
The last but not the least, what Arjun did is to summarize the whole story and he did so, but what he is missing was the event of the night where Margo and Q got their revenge. I think that part have a significance in the story. I hope he just summarize that as well. But all in all, it still a great job, well done.
-
Me, Myself and I, again and again and again -
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