1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,520 This is MJ, I'm an author, I'm an artist, I'm an analyzer. 2 00:00:03,520 --> 00:00:05,480 Find all my work at MJMunoz.com 3 00:00:05,480 --> 00:00:09,840 Prepare yourself for some off the cuff book talk as I tackle another middle grade book 4 00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:11,840 chapter by chapter. 5 00:00:11,840 --> 00:00:28,200 I was talking with somebody about stuff lately and I told him yesterday, if this book doesn't 6 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:32,000 have me by chapter 5, I'm just going to drop it because I'm not wasting my time and I'm 7 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:37,520 not going to spend 45 days, 9 weeks worth of time as far as release schedule is concerned 8 00:00:37,520 --> 00:00:40,720 on this book if I don't like it, if it's not good enough quality for me. 9 00:00:40,720 --> 00:00:44,840 So I was going to drop it but then I listened a little bit more, I listened to this chapter 10 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:49,640 this morning and I thought, you know what, there's something here. 11 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:54,080 There's something here and I do like something that's going on and that something isn't 12 00:00:54,080 --> 00:01:01,600 Amanda Beale but it is personified by Amanda Beale I could say and that is that there's 13 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:03,720 an actual story going on now. 14 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:10,160 There's actual conflict, there's actual character and I always go back to this and I always 15 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:15,840 say it like that but I believe in the old adage that character reveals conflict and 16 00:01:15,840 --> 00:01:23,000 I have to agree that that's absolutely true, that character does reveal conflict and or 17 00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:28,000 rather it's conflict reveals character, that's what I meant to say and the thing is that 18 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:33,880 we haven't had Maniac McGee interacting with anybody other than yelling talk talk talk 19 00:01:33,880 --> 00:01:45,880 to his aunt and uncle in chapter 1 I think, yeah because this is chapter 2 right? 20 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:52,320 Now this is chapter 3 because it's Maniac McGee chapter 3 which is setting me free and giving 21 00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:55,680 me a new perspective on it. 22 00:01:55,680 --> 00:02:00,560 So anyway, yeah you had an introduction, you had one chapter, you had a second chapter 23 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:05,660 and in those three chapters there was no real conflict and there was no real opportunity 24 00:02:05,660 --> 00:02:09,040 for Jeffrey's character to be established. 25 00:02:09,040 --> 00:02:14,040 By the way I also now know it's Jerry Spinelli and Jeffrey Lionel McGee. 26 00:02:14,040 --> 00:02:18,560 I've got that all straightened out now I think. 27 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:24,280 Anyway so yeah now there's a conflict, now there's something going on, Jeffrey is interacting 28 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:28,200 with somebody and before, again other than talk talk talk why weren't you talking and 29 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:34,560 running, there was no interaction that he had with anybody so while I like the performance 30 00:02:34,560 --> 00:02:42,480 by Merckison, I gotta look that up, anyway well I like the performance, it can only do 31 00:02:42,480 --> 00:02:47,680 so much with what's there and I believe it did elevate the content so far of the book 32 00:02:47,680 --> 00:02:56,320 but here we're really getting something and what we're getting is this conflict between 33 00:02:56,320 --> 00:03:06,160 Jeffrey and Amanda and the conflict that they're getting, it's kind of multi-layered and I'll 34 00:03:06,160 --> 00:03:09,680 cite like one thing from the chapter specifically or one part of the interaction that happened 35 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:13,920 with them specifically and I'll expound on that because I don't want to go through the 36 00:03:13,920 --> 00:03:18,680 whole chapter, I can leave that kind of stuff for later and it's probably the most significant 37 00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:20,520 part. 38 00:03:20,520 --> 00:03:24,800 He sees her suitcase, he stops running or stops jogging through the town when he sees 39 00:03:24,800 --> 00:03:30,080 her lugging a suitcase with her, he doesn't know where she's going, she's going to school, 40 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:34,320 he doesn't know that so he stops and says hi to her and she says hi back because she's 41 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:40,600 polite she's nice and he asks her oh are you running away too and she laughs and she says 42 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:45,320 like she laughs because it's absurd to her that she would be running away which to me 43 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:50,000 says a couple things, it means she has a good home life, it means she's happy with things 44 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:58,320 as they are and if she has a good home life she's happy with things as they are even though 45 00:03:58,320 --> 00:04:04,000 she's living in a town divided by racism because she's in this interaction it's mentioned or 46 00:04:04,000 --> 00:04:10,320 it's brought up, it's presented to the audience in her thoughts or whatever that he's probably 47 00:04:10,320 --> 00:04:14,720 from West End where the whites are and he doesn't belong in East End she says to him 48 00:04:14,720 --> 00:04:22,040 which is where the blacks are and she doesn't understand what he's doing there and she's 49 00:04:22,040 --> 00:04:26,560 kind of suspicious of this but that's what she's used to and she's okay with living like 50 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:33,640 that so that actually does some really interesting very clever things, it shows that Jeffrey 51 00:04:33,640 --> 00:04:38,400 ran away or it reinforces the fact that Jeffrey ran away from his terrible home life and then 52 00:04:38,400 --> 00:04:42,600 you have here a girl who's similar to him in some ways like the connection, the book 53 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:45,840 thing seems like a connection which I'll get to that too because I want to talk about that, 54 00:04:45,840 --> 00:04:54,320 the go damn bad of it but the idea that he ran away from home because it was so terrible 55 00:04:54,320 --> 00:04:58,800 and he lived in a divided home in a town that wasn't divided let's say is interesting because 56 00:04:58,800 --> 00:05:03,760 that's a direct foil or contrast to Amanda Beale who lives in a whole home I'm assuming 57 00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:08,160 from here the fact that she hasn't run away I'm just like I'm partly assuming and partly 58 00:05:08,160 --> 00:05:13,880 projecting from what I know from reading books how things could go so the fact that she hasn't 59 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:18,160 run away means she's either not fed up enough with things because he stayed for eight years 60 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:27,520 in this horrible house of two toasters and yet his town wasn't divided as far as we know 61 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:30,640 yet her town is divided into East End and West End, two mills are divided into East 62 00:05:30,640 --> 00:05:34,600 End and West End but her home is probably whole and that's why she's happy in the home 63 00:05:34,600 --> 00:05:37,960 and that's why she's happy to keep going to school either that or she hasn't reached 64 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:41,680 her breaking point yet but I think in order to set up the contrast we've got a homeless 65 00:05:41,680 --> 00:05:48,820 wanderer who runs from his home his broken home and then he finds himself lodged in a 66 00:05:48,820 --> 00:05:54,120 whole home within a divided town and that'll be something that creates more of the conflict 67 00:05:54,120 --> 00:05:57,280 and helps set up the story and I wouldn't be shocked if he goes over to West End and 68 00:05:57,280 --> 00:06:03,240 befriends some white kids over there a white family and then that's another thing where 69 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:08,480 he's seeing another whole home in a broken city in a broken town that would be really 70 00:06:08,480 --> 00:06:16,000 interesting but yeah so her carrying the stuff looking like a homeless wanderer like him 71 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:19,320 made a connection and it was a cross-racial connection he didn't see her as someone who's 72 00:06:19,320 --> 00:06:23,720 black therefore he can't be similar to her he saw her as somebody who's on the run from 73 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:28,680 his family and from his home like he is so there's a connection right there there's that 74 00:06:28,680 --> 00:06:32,600 like brotherhood sisterhood type thing going on there's just there's that connection there 75 00:06:32,600 --> 00:06:36,200 and that connection is what enables him like he's an open person who's open to connection 76 00:06:36,200 --> 00:06:41,920 probably because he has seen modeled for him disconnection and disharmony and discord in 77 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:46,280 family and you know supposedly loving the most loving relationship there should be husband 78 00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:57,080 and wife and you know he's lost his mother and father too and I still disagree with the 79 00:06:57,080 --> 00:07:02,760 way the first two or three chapters like the intro of the two chapters were put forth however 80 00:07:02,760 --> 00:07:08,520 they do supply a lot of the necessary background to understand all of this stuff but they didn't 81 00:07:08,520 --> 00:07:13,200 have to do it in that way and I feel confident I feel comfortable saying I disagree with 82 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:19,640 how it was presented but also at the same time saying on the other hand I do like what's 83 00:07:19,640 --> 00:07:22,700 being put forward because you can see these connections so he connects with her over this 84 00:07:22,700 --> 00:07:29,400 thing she opens up the books he's loud she's loud she ends up after waffling back and forth 85 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:35,040 I decided to go and give him a book and he tells her her address she tells him her address 86 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:39,040 and says but you can't go there to deliver the book back to me which I predict he's going 87 00:07:39,040 --> 00:07:41,960 to go do that and I predict him the reason he can't do that is because he's white not 88 00:07:41,960 --> 00:07:47,600 black and that'll cause tension and cause issues because the black folk and white folk 89 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:54,520 don't mix in twin mills so that's what it seems like anyway so I think it's a really 90 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:59,040 interesting stuff it's really compelling seeing the way that they react to each other is interesting 91 00:07:59,040 --> 00:08:02,040 she says something about like his family or his mom and dad or whatever and like starts 92 00:08:02,040 --> 00:08:07,280 walking off and he falls back because he's like so shocked like he can't say my my parents 93 00:08:07,280 --> 00:08:13,120 are dead is a meme I'm gonna insert it right here okay he can't say that he can't say 94 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:19,800 that right now he can't acknowledge that hurtful truth and it's a it's a touching moment it's 95 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:23,720 a touching moment we get to see him confronting the fact that his parents are dead that he 96 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:31,640 is an orphan not just a runaway but also an orphan and his hesitation that the fact that 97 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:36,600 his hesitation slows him down when he's like said to be this boy who never stops running 98 00:08:36,600 --> 00:08:41,280 basically is really interesting and it really textures his character and it makes me more 99 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:46,120 interested it shows me a weakness or a flaw or a chink in his arm or whatever that like 100 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:51,080 oh this guy is affected by things and that makes me like him more and Amanda like laughing 101 00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:55,440 at the fact that he thinks she's a runaway says a lot about her like that's a preposterous 102 00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:59,480 idea and then the fact that like she was never late to school except for that one day when 103 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:02,840 she's there to give him that book like that also like says a lot about who she is and 104 00:09:02,840 --> 00:09:07,680 like either she loves school or she is very disciplined at home and there's a lot of 105 00:09:07,680 --> 00:09:11,340 rigidity and structure that says like you will go to school and you will succeed which 106 00:09:11,340 --> 00:09:14,540 coming from like I don't know if she's poor or not but coming from like a black family 107 00:09:14,540 --> 00:09:21,040 in the South ish area I could see like a want and a desire to like be proud and like look 108 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:26,360 we're you know like we're a proud family not the proud family we're a proud family and 109 00:09:26,360 --> 00:09:32,760 we're going to live as such and like act with decorum and self-respect and like respect 110 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:37,320 for the society in which we exist and we're going to you know do our best because we can 111 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:41,000 and we are capable of doing our best so we will do our best and be above reproach be 112 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:49,000 above you know derision and scorn and anybody who gives that to us is a weak person who 113 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:52,680 is doing it because of their families and their insecurities and it says nothing negative 114 00:09:52,680 --> 00:09:56,000 about us it only says negative things about them so like I can totally see that being 115 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:03,960 the case reminds me of the Logan family from the thrill of thunder you might cry that was 116 00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:13,280 a good book that was a really good book so anyway yeah speaking of books when McGee 117 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:16,880 was like shocked by these books and again I can't quite tell when this was what is this 118 00:10:16,880 --> 00:10:22,160 the 60s is it the 50s is it the 70s is it the 80s is it the 90s I don't know it's very 119 00:10:22,160 --> 00:10:34,160 unclear so far when it's set and the level of media saturation that there would have 120 00:10:34,160 --> 00:10:41,360 been at the time would make it believable that books a suitcase full of books and would 121 00:10:41,360 --> 00:10:48,440 delight Lionel or not Lionel Jeffrey and the fact that he tells her any book give me any 122 00:10:48,440 --> 00:10:55,240 book I want any book also speaks to the like low level of media saturation there were only 123 00:10:55,240 --> 00:11:01,360 a few TV channels not everybody had a TV that kind of thing you know media was an event 124 00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:06,680 and a book like still represented like an escape into another world makes me think that 125 00:11:06,680 --> 00:11:10,640 it makes me think that's interesting at first I kind of groaned and I thought another book 126 00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:15,960 where books change the world or I was even contemplating I'll let you in a little secret 127 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:21,080 so you know I'm an author right so I'm working on a book series right now that was going 128 00:11:21,080 --> 00:11:26,120 to be a kid gets sucked into a video game it's been done too much you know it hasn't 129 00:11:26,120 --> 00:11:31,520 okay there's millions of thriller books millions of crime books probably literally it's not 130 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:36,120 just tens of thousands there could be millions anyway but at least there's hundreds of books 131 00:11:36,120 --> 00:11:39,320 in any one genre that tell like a certain type of story but like what I'm going to bring 132 00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:43,320 to it is unique and what I'm going to bring it is so to you what I'm going to bring to 133 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:50,720 it is so unique that this was a possibility somebody suggested to me my my secret counselor 134 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:56,400 my benefactor benefactors was I used to anyway she advised me don't make this a book about 135 00:11:56,400 --> 00:12:01,560 video games to make it a timeless book or book series and make it about books this kid 136 00:12:01,560 --> 00:12:06,560 is in a his family owns a bookstore or they own a library or whatever and that's how he 137 00:12:06,560 --> 00:12:11,440 gets sucked into this other world and I thought that's actually doable the way I was going 138 00:12:11,440 --> 00:12:18,720 to do these video games is there's different worlds within this one location and the kid 139 00:12:18,720 --> 00:12:24,800 goes from one to one to one and has adventures inside of each one and whatever happens happens 140 00:12:24,800 --> 00:12:30,320 and I thought you know the way I'm structuring his family structure and like his internal 141 00:12:30,320 --> 00:12:35,480 journey and this like the other worldliness of this other world I'm not doing like a lit 142 00:12:35,480 --> 00:12:42,360 RPG I'm doing like he's in another world with his game skills he can transfer those skills 143 00:12:42,360 --> 00:12:45,120 from thing to thing I was thinking he could also just transfer that because it's like 144 00:12:45,120 --> 00:12:50,400 he's actually inhabiting the character the hero character of that game that narrative 145 00:12:50,400 --> 00:12:55,520 though right that's my point it's like video games can have a very powerful narrative even 146 00:12:55,520 --> 00:13:00,240 if it's like subtle even like the legend of Zelda can have a very powerful narrative with 147 00:13:00,240 --> 00:13:04,120 it such as a silent protagonist even Mario to some extent can have a you know pretty 148 00:13:04,120 --> 00:13:07,160 powerful narrative like they've made movies out of both of those things where it's not 149 00:13:07,160 --> 00:13:15,520 oh it's a video game in this world I keep getting phone calls while I'm recording stuff 150 00:13:15,520 --> 00:13:23,680 anyway so the way I have it set up I could have it either be he's going from video game 151 00:13:23,680 --> 00:13:28,160 to video game or book to book and the internal journey is the same because it's not lit RPG 152 00:13:28,160 --> 00:13:31,320 where there's you know game rules and stuff and stuff flashing up on the screen in front 153 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:34,880 of the character I haven't read any lit RPG so I wouldn't be interested in that watching 154 00:13:34,880 --> 00:13:44,160 anime that was lit RPG that was really cool log horizon by the way and so I was thinking 155 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:49,160 part of me wanted to not do the books even though my advisor told me to do the books 156 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:53,680 because I thought I'm like I'm already a good way into developing these this video game 157 00:13:53,680 --> 00:13:57,400 world and like how the fantasy works and I because it's a fancy world I could just transfer 158 00:13:57,400 --> 00:14:02,040 it and say it's a book instead but something felt unauthentic to me about doing the book 159 00:14:02,040 --> 00:14:05,840 switching to books because like I've played video games and I've enjoyed them and I think 160 00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:10,200 that there's a healthy balance that you can have with you know using those for entertainment 161 00:14:10,200 --> 00:14:15,180 and escape and catharsis and I've also read books and you know watch movies and things 162 00:14:15,180 --> 00:14:20,840 like that for the same purpose basically but they're video games do feel like more of a 163 00:14:20,840 --> 00:14:25,840 time suck and they feel a little bit more like a waste of time than reading a book because 164 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:29,280 despite the fact that the narrative is there there's also the mechanics of the game that 165 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:34,160 you're playing and like those mechanics can draw you in especially if it's like an RPG 166 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:38,120 like I like to play where like you're grinding and you're spending a lot of time doing stuff 167 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:41,760 and it's like if you're actually doing anything where if you're reading a book and you're 168 00:14:41,760 --> 00:14:45,600 going through the narrative like the narrative parts of the games are great I think and even 169 00:14:45,600 --> 00:14:48,120 if you could like turn that into a visual novel or if you could do something else with 170 00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:53,520 it like I just think video games are like a there's more danger to playing video games 171 00:14:53,520 --> 00:14:56,480 than they're like playing a lot of video games like playing a hundred hours worth of video 172 00:14:56,480 --> 00:15:04,240 games is less good for you it's it's less beneficial I'll say it that way then reading 173 00:15:04,240 --> 00:15:10,880 a hundred hours worth of books because again I'll share a lot my favorite video game franchise 174 00:15:10,880 --> 00:15:14,280 is probably the persona series which there's good things and bad things about it but like 175 00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:18,280 as an adult I felt comfortable very comfortable playing that I wouldn't advise it to a kid 176 00:15:18,280 --> 00:15:22,120 although I did play the first one in like my last year in high school I played my first 177 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:26,960 person I am not the first one I played persona 3 and persona for that year and I easily put 178 00:15:26,960 --> 00:15:33,120 a hundred hours into persona 4 and that was to complete the game and all its stuff and 179 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:37,600 there's a lot of characters that you interact with and a lot of character stories that you 180 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:41,280 get to learn through these gameplay mechanics and everything but like had I read a hundred 181 00:15:41,280 --> 00:15:47,920 hours with the books instead I think I could have benefited from that had there been a 182 00:15:47,920 --> 00:15:52,920 persona for book series that took a hundred hours to read through I think that would have 183 00:15:52,920 --> 00:15:56,560 been even better than the video game in a lot of ways as far as like what it did for 184 00:15:56,560 --> 00:16:02,000 me as a person because the like side story stuff told in the persona games is really 185 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:07,200 interesting it's really like deep and impactful and very humane and humanitarian and I don't 186 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:10,040 know it sounds weird and then you're going around slashing around you know slashing 187 00:16:10,040 --> 00:16:13,080 shadow monsters and stuff and blasting with you know various forms of magic and things 188 00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:18,880 like that so like I just I really do like while I can appreciate a video game I do think 189 00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:21,720 like it's something you should be more cautious with than you should be cautious with books 190 00:16:21,720 --> 00:16:25,520 I also think a movie or television series a hundred hours worth of that is probably 191 00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:30,520 doing less for a person than reading like a hundred hours worth of books so with that 192 00:16:30,520 --> 00:16:36,600 being said or even though I'm saying that I still feel like for my story the video games 193 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:39,720 make sense for the context of the character and I still kind of cringe at the idea of 194 00:16:39,720 --> 00:16:46,160 I mean I have this kid who's you know part of a book family even though like we're there's 195 00:16:46,160 --> 00:16:54,400 like three of us in the house who are pretty avid readers I would say but anyway of like 196 00:16:54,400 --> 00:16:58,840 having a books save the world or having this guy go through a journey through these books 197 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:02,800 and that you know changes him as a person like that makes more sense but it's like less 198 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:07,720 fun and it feels like I'm an author so I'm gonna write about books that's kind of not 199 00:17:07,720 --> 00:17:11,640 so great I tried reading a comic book series where the guy wanted to be a writer and part 200 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:14,880 of it it was supposed to be a superhero thing and then part of it the first like good chunk 201 00:17:14,880 --> 00:17:19,880 of it which is why I dropped the series among other things that came up later was that like 202 00:17:19,880 --> 00:17:25,700 the guy wanted to be a writer and he'd spent a couple years in LA not pursuing his career 203 00:17:25,700 --> 00:17:29,000 of being a writer even though he wanted to be a writer so he goes back home and shamed 204 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:33,360 to the Midwest or whatever and he keeps trying to write there and just like what is this 205 00:17:33,360 --> 00:17:37,800 like why why is it so important this guy's a writer and then stuff happens he switched 206 00:17:37,800 --> 00:17:42,520 he stopped being the main character yada yada yada and it's I don't know it's like it it 207 00:17:42,520 --> 00:17:47,320 feels pretentious to have a writer writing about writing and I don't like that and it 208 00:17:47,320 --> 00:17:52,060 also feels pretentious to have a writer writing about books so that's my real core problem 209 00:17:52,060 --> 00:17:55,760 with this so this felt like it was gonna be pretentious and I've grown at it at first 210 00:17:55,760 --> 00:18:02,720 but honestly Jerry Spinelli did a good job with it and I think in the context of the 211 00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:07,560 time and place books would be a big deal to these kids and it would make sense I mean 212 00:18:07,560 --> 00:18:09,640 it could have been comic books it could have been regular books it could I mean there were 213 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:12,680 all sorts of books in there she could have comic books in there I don't know but like 214 00:18:12,680 --> 00:18:18,160 you know any form of escape like you know if it's Treasure Island if it's Robin Hood 215 00:18:18,160 --> 00:18:23,680 if it's you know whatever like those things can transport a kid away from things and I 216 00:18:23,680 --> 00:18:27,800 would think being homeless and just running we don't know what he did in that year where 217 00:18:27,800 --> 00:18:33,920 he was away like he would have had a lot of opportunity for boredom and downtime and loneliness 218 00:18:33,920 --> 00:18:37,360 and I could see books filling the gap for him filling the gap not feeling it filling 219 00:18:37,360 --> 00:18:44,680 it and helping him to cope with that and I think it's rather interesting I think it's 220 00:18:44,680 --> 00:18:50,680 rather interesting so anyway I like this chapter please excuse my asides but look at chapter 221 00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:56,480 zero or the introduction chapter one chapter two how brief my talks on that were and how 222 00:18:56,480 --> 00:19:01,120 like low energy I was talking about those because they weren't exciting they weren't 223 00:19:01,120 --> 00:19:05,320 interesting this chapter is exciting this chapter is interesting there's something neat 224 00:19:05,320 --> 00:19:07,760 going on here there's something I can sink my teeth into and there's something I can 225 00:19:07,760 --> 00:19:13,680 say about this book and unless it turns out to stink in a couple chapters I'll keep going 226 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:17,520 and I'm probably the other episodes won't be this long with me talking about it but 227 00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:22,640 he's like I had to get a lot off my chest I had to share a lot because this book's put 228 00:19:22,640 --> 00:19:28,160 me in kind of a weird place and it's been like you know reading it and discussing it 229 00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:35,200 has been kind of weighing on me and it's like giving me a lot to think about and I typically 230 00:19:35,200 --> 00:19:41,480 there's an adorable squirrel outside my window right now running around with a bunch of sparrows 231 00:19:41,480 --> 00:19:48,640 it's so cute he popped up on his two legs and I was like and then he ran off anyway 232 00:19:48,640 --> 00:19:53,880 he was smiling that's why I gestured and I didn't say what I was saying what I was doing 233 00:19:53,880 --> 00:19:58,440 so anyway um yeah I I hope that the rest of these won't be this long because I feel like 234 00:19:58,440 --> 00:20:02,920 this has gone on like really really long um not that the book isn't turning out to be 235 00:20:02,920 --> 00:20:08,880 worthy of it but it's just it's a long thing for a single book discussion for a single 236 00:20:08,880 --> 00:20:13,880 chapter discussion of a book so anyway I'm finding it interesting now that Jeffrey is 237 00:20:13,880 --> 00:20:17,440 in conflict or in contact with characters and we're seeing some conflict and it's revealing 238 00:20:17,440 --> 00:20:21,200 some of his character and it's helping me to understand the world better I like it a 239 00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:27,440 lot more so maybe having the character exist and be talked about in a vacuum with no context 240 00:20:27,440 --> 00:20:35,160 with context being given in the strange you know slam poetry style isn't for me but an 241 00:20:35,160 --> 00:20:39,520 author who can do that if he puts the characters in interaction with other characters I can 242 00:20:39,520 --> 00:20:42,400 really like what they're doing I can really like what they're saying I can really hear 243 00:20:42,400 --> 00:20:47,360 the message I can hear what he's trying to say I can see what he's trying to put out 244 00:20:47,360 --> 00:20:52,200 and get across to me in his words in his slick style and everything when he abandons the 245 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:56,320 style and goes for substance and that I can sink into and that I can think about and that 246 00:20:56,320 --> 00:20:59,720 I can integrate into the way I'm perceiving my own world and the way I'm thinking about 247 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:06,440 his book as well I think is what I'm saying. 248 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:12,400 I hope you enjoyed that please remember to like share subscribe I invite you to comment 249 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:16,160 ask questions and share your thoughts with me it's always more fun when you're part of 250 00:21:16,160 --> 00:21:22,360 the conversation until next time keep reading be well and do good things visit MJMunoz.com 251 00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:49,600 for more of my work and help me build up the Fortress fiction.