{"id":687,"date":"2011-12-16T06:00:49","date_gmt":"2011-12-16T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=687"},"modified":"2011-12-08T15:07:47","modified_gmt":"2011-12-08T23:07:47","slug":"mark-reads-looking-for-alaska-one-hundred-fourteen-days-after-through-the-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/12\/mark-reads-looking-for-alaska-one-hundred-fourteen-days-after-through-the-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘Looking For Alaska’: one hundred fourteen days after through the end"},"content":{"rendered":"

One hundred fourteen days after it happens, Takumi provides a missing key to Alaska, and Miles comes to terms with getting out of the labyrinth of suffering. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to finish Looking For Alaska<\/em>.<\/p>\n

one hundred fourteen days after<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well (part of) that answer was just sitting right in front of me, wasn’t it? If I had just counted the days that John Green had given me in the chapter titles, I would have put two and two together.<\/p>\n

Somewhat. And I think that’s important about this. When Takumi surprises both the Colonel and Miles with his realization that Alaska’s mother’s anniversary of her death was the day before she died, it’s still not the <\/em>answer. It’s an<\/em> answer, a possible explanation of many, though it is admittedly one that makes the most sense: Alaska became upset when the daisy she doodled reminded her of the flowers her mother used to put in her hair, and she realized she’d forgotten about her. It’s a pretty believable idea, sure, but neither option explains Alaska’s car bearing down so swiftly on that cruiser on the highway. And here’s why this book is going to end on a note that satisfies me:<\/p>\n

The Colonel reached into his pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, tapping it upside down against the COFFEE TABLE. “Well,” he said. “That clears things up nicely.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
They’re stopping. It’s the end of the line, and they all realize that this is all they’ll ever know, that there’s nothing left to be discovered that wouldn’t involve reading a dead girl’s mind.<\/p>\n
It’s done.<\/p>\n
one hundred eighteen days after<\/strong><\/p>\n
Which is not to say this situation is simply reduced to nothing; it’s still a messy, complicated affair, and it always will be. Suicide or not, Miles and the Colonel will forever feel complicit in sending Alaska to her death, but they’ve finally taken their guilt and done something productive<\/em> with it, instead of thinking of more ways to blame Alaska for everything. Emotionally, though, Miles and the Colonel have one last act to commit to in order to help them free themselves of their grief.<\/p>\n
They have to drive through Alaska’s crash site.<\/p>\n
This is not a ritualistic action, like the Alaska Young Memorial Prank, or tossing unsmoked cigarettes into the lake. It is a one-time thing. It is passage into a new world where they’ve now seen where their best friend died “instantly.” It is moving beyond the pain and rage and fear and sadness that her death brought them and it is moving on<\/em>.<\/p>\n
It is an act that makes them feel alive<\/em>, and that distinction is all that matters. They are alive.<\/p>\n
one hundred nineteen days after<\/strong><\/p>\n
Goddamn, The Sound and the Fury<\/em> was a difficult read. I do not envy Miles.<\/p>\n
one hundred twenty-two days after<\/strong><\/p>\n
I admire Dr. Hyde, even if there’s not that much we get of him. He’s a layered<\/em> character, one who surprises me with his intellect and his capacity for empathy, so it’s entirely in character for him to make the final exam about<\/em> Alaska Young. It’s a natural path for the man, who so pleasantly spoke about Alaska after she passed a way, to use an experience to hopefully expand the way his students thought about the world. I love that he makes the exam a much more personal experience, too:<\/p>\n
“Your knowledge, or lack thereof, has been established in the quizzes you’ve taken this semester. I am interested in how you are able to fit the uncontestable fact of suffering into your understanding of the world, and how you hope to navigate through life in spite of it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
And isn’t that one of the Big Questions we all have to deal with at some point in our lives? Nearly everyone suffers in this world, some of us more than others. So how do we justify or explain it or rationalize it or cope with it? It’s one of the major themes of Looking For Alaska<\/em> because the Colonel and Miles are looking for this answer. It’s not necessarily the most subtle message in the whole world, but I enjoy that it’s one of a few ways you can read this novel. There’s another subtext of Miles physically and mentally looking<\/em> for Alaska after her death, and even that has a double meaning. On top of that, it’s also a book about the American high school experience. But for me, it’s a book about finding the answer to the labyrinth of suffering, and it’s my favorite theme of the book.<\/p>\n
I was struck by the Colonel’s response to the exam topic:<\/p>\n
“After all this time, it still seems to me like straight and fast is the only way out–but I choose the labyrinth. The labyrinth blows, but I choose it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
At first, I sort of read it like the Colonel was judging Alaska, but now I feel like he’s acknowledging that regardless of the way in which she died, he recognizes that Alaska isn’t suffering anymore. And stating that is a powerful thing to me, because it’s acknowledging she was<\/em> in pain, and that her struggle to find love and acceptance was a real thing that happened. It was part of who she was.<\/p>\n
one hundred thirty-six days after<\/strong><\/p>\n
Oh, Takumi. I honestly didn’t expect this, but it explains why Takumi wasn’t around for so long: he was dealing with a similar sense of guilt that Miles and the Colonel were. In his case, though, he saw her after she got upset that she’d forgotten to put flowers on her mother’s grave. He knew the whole time why<\/em> she was upset, and he also didn’t stop her, despite knowing she was drunk.<\/p>\n
So he had a part in it, too, but he kept it to himself. Miles rushes to say goodbye to him, but he’s gone.<\/p>\n
What I found touching about this is that Miles just wanted to tell Takumi that he forgave him. It’s weird talking about forgiveness because I have a few grudges that I plan on taking to my grave. And while it is my right to decide when I get to forgive someone, I can’t deny that those negative thoughts bring about a whole lot of pain with them. Forgiveness is a very, very personal thing, and I always sort of despised when people told me I had<\/em> to forgive someone. Um, I WILL BE THE JUDGE OF THAT THANK YOU VERY MUCH<\/em>. But holding on to that sort of stuff has certainly made my own suffering much more difficult.<\/p>\n
In a way, Miles’s final exam, which we get to see in full, feels a tad forced, but it’s a fine way to wrap up a lot of the themes and character development over the course of this book in the context of what has happened. It does read like John Green wrote it, not Miles, but it’s still got a lot of closure to it, so I don’t have a problem looking beyond this. The central problem that Miles has been facing since Alaska’s death is finding a way to make sense of it. He couldn’t ever rectify to absurd notions that came with it, and, even worse, he tried to blame her for the problems of death. That’s not fair to Alaska.<\/p>\n
What Miles eventually comes up with ties in neatly with the idea that all energy is never created or destroyed: it simply is<\/em>. And perhaps this is how he can deal with the loss of his best friend, by imagining that her energy will continue on to wherever or become something else. This manifests itself in the closing remarks of Miles’s exam and the last part of Looking For Alaska<\/em>: if this is true about matter, then perhaps we really are as invincible as we say we are.<\/p>\n
I think that Looking For Alaska<\/em> is a flawed novel, especially in the characterization of Alaska Young. Framing her whole person as a growth experience for Miles isn’t my favorite thing in the world, but thankfully, there’s a whole lot to like about this book and the story of searching out for Alaska. Even that framing has its merits, and I think the last quarter of the novel is its strongest part of the whole. This book, though, is both a celebration and a study of youth, of what it’s like to grow up in the middle of the United States, and about the realities of adulthood crashing into the bright visions of our teenage years. I know that this book is being taught in schools now, and that makes me happy. There’s so much here that I wish<\/em> I had talked about in my classrooms.<\/p>\n
So while I relate to a lot of what happens in Looking For Alaska<\/em>, I didn’t get the experience of talking about sex, death, friendships, or the quest for existential happiness in an absurd world. (Aside from the month we spent on The Stranger<\/em> in AP English, which genuinely changed the path of my whole life.) This is a sad book, for sure, but I was surprised how much joy <\/em>there was to be found in the pages, especially the final prank that these characters pulled off.<\/p>\n
I think it’s crucial to engage with the criticism of this book, especially since I don’t think it’s unfounded, but I ultimately enjoyed this book quite a bit. You know, it was nice to talk about high school without every story being about how I thought I was going to die; it’s allowed me to remember that I did have silly and fun days, that I had problems that weren’t as traumatic and painful as the ones I’ve written about in the past. I’m just glad that someone<\/em> is writing books that deal with these sort of things; personally, I always felt that novels prepared me for the “real world” more than anything else in high school. I would rather have read Looking For Alaska<\/em> than taken calculus any day of the week.<\/p>\n
Okay, that’s not a fair comparison, but you get the point. This is a solid book, one I had a good time reading, and had an even better time discussion. And with that, I end Mark Reads Looking For Alaska<\/em>. That means on Monday morning, Mark Reads Lord of the Rings<\/em> begins.<\/p>\n
oh lord what have I gotten myself into.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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