Thursday, May 05, 2005
be more chill by Ned Vizzini
Maybe all teenage boys are obsessed with sex and I was only ever acquainted with aliens disguised as teenaged human males. Maybe but I don't think so.
In be more chill Jeremy Heere is an average high school student. He has a crush on a cute girl and he worries about where he fits in school society. He feels geeky in a normal sort of way though he catalogs the social snubs he recieves on specially designed forms which is more than the journal and mental tallies that most people I know kept. He thinks a lot about sex and the book chronicles his dreams and forays into internet porn and masturbation. Jeremy purchases a Squib, a microchip meant to be ingested. The Squib interacts with the host and instructs the host on how to achieve his/her dreams. In Jeremy's case that would be sex and popularity. The Squib does not care about friendships or morals, those are secondary priorities to Jeremy's stated main desires. The Squib tells Jeremy what to do and what to say. Jeremy sometimes ignores his Squib because he is the hero and the moral will be that you can be cool and get sex by: being chill, understanding and manipulating science and people, and not walking all over everybody (just the people who deserve it). The depiction and treatment of the female characters was disturbing in that they are objects, objects to be manipulated or acquired or used. The male characters in the book are much deeper and fully portrayed.
The dialogues between Jeremy and his Squib are well done and sometimes amusing; they are probably the best part of the book.
I finished be more chill feeling that I needed to wash off the slime and glad that I had only paid $3.99 for the $16.95 listed book.
In be more chill Jeremy Heere is an average high school student. He has a crush on a cute girl and he worries about where he fits in school society. He feels geeky in a normal sort of way though he catalogs the social snubs he recieves on specially designed forms which is more than the journal and mental tallies that most people I know kept. He thinks a lot about sex and the book chronicles his dreams and forays into internet porn and masturbation. Jeremy purchases a Squib, a microchip meant to be ingested. The Squib interacts with the host and instructs the host on how to achieve his/her dreams. In Jeremy's case that would be sex and popularity. The Squib does not care about friendships or morals, those are secondary priorities to Jeremy's stated main desires. The Squib tells Jeremy what to do and what to say. Jeremy sometimes ignores his Squib because he is the hero and the moral will be that you can be cool and get sex by: being chill, understanding and manipulating science and people, and not walking all over everybody (just the people who deserve it). The depiction and treatment of the female characters was disturbing in that they are objects, objects to be manipulated or acquired or used. The male characters in the book are much deeper and fully portrayed.
The dialogues between Jeremy and his Squib are well done and sometimes amusing; they are probably the best part of the book.
I finished be more chill feeling that I needed to wash off the slime and glad that I had only paid $3.99 for the $16.95 listed book.
# posted by JJ @ 7:54 AM 
