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Welcome everybody to another Wednesday Night Book Club.

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I'm your host Andy Rice of Pride Rice Podcast, so let's get Pride, which I've already started

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to do.

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This is a fun, weed-based book review club that meets every Wednesday night.

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You can help me choose the book by going to our website, friedricepodcast.com, and submitting

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a book review there.

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Or, if you are feeling spicy and you want to leave a voicemail for the podcast, or for

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me, or for the book club itself, you can call 702-829-0117.

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Again, that's 702-829-0117.

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That is our number.

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It doesn't ring, so don't worry, I'm not going to answer.

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It's just a voicemail.

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Let me know what book you want me to read and review, and I will, because right now

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I'm just kind of choosing at will.

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So far, it's been hit or miss.

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I think as far as...

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Well, I mean, I've liked them all, but as far as...

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I don't want it to just be books that I read as a kid that I enjoyed reading, or sci-fi,

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or Stephen King books the whole time.

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I would like some variety.

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Recently, and I haven't done a review on it, but I read House on the Cerulean Sea, and

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that was definitely an interesting pick, about an adoption agent guy who's in charge of making

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sure that children are safe in a world where every now and then children are born with

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supernatural abilities, and he is sent to an island where they keep the most precious

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cases, and he is sent there to determine whether or not they are...

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What the whole deal of the island is, because there's a bit of a secrecy shrouding the place.

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And I don't want to give away anything, because it's definitely worth a read.

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It's definitely sweet.

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It's like one of those kind of give you some tears in your eyes, but like the sweet kind,

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you know, not a...

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It's not too dark.

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It's not violent or anything.

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It's just a story about...

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What does it mean?

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That's not the book I'm reviewing.

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Well, let's go read House on the Cerulean Sea.

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Today we are talking about two books.

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It's going to be The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier and Beyond the Chocolate War, also

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by Robert Cormier.

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The first one was written in 1974, and Beyond was written in 1985, so an 11-year gap.

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And shortly after the second book was written, so a couple of years later, they made a movie

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directed by Keith Gordon, and it's 1988, The Chocolate War.

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And I had never watched this movie.

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I had not seen it before.

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And this is one of my favorite books from when I was younger, and I've read it a couple

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of times over the years.

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Before I didn't know it had a sequel, and I read it like maybe a couple of times.

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And then found out there was a sequel and lost my mind because I was like, holy shit.

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And now I've read...

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I won't read one without the other because it's...

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As we'll find out, it's very much...

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You can't.

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So let's see.

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For the first time of doing this Wednesday Night Book Club, we have...

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Am I too loud?

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I might be a little bit too loud.

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Let me turn myself down just a little bit.

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We have...

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Sorry, guys.

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I'm still learning my new soundboard and mic, but I actually think I figured it out.

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I think this is going to sound a lot better than the last one did.

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So bear with me.

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I'm figuring it out.

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I'm going on forums.

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I'm trying to...

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I don't know anything about audio engineering.

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It's my first soundboard I've ever owned.

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I'm looking at all these knobs.

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I still don't know what most of them do.

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I just know that if I go online and I look at what other people are saying, I can kind

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of figure out at least where the knobs should be-ish.

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But anyway, it doesn't matter.

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That's not the point.

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All right.

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So for the first time since this podcast has started or since the book club, I have a book

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that has a movie.

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And so I decided to watch it this time.

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And I'm glad that I did because there are some noticeable differences.

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So if you're a fan of the book and you haven't seen the movie or vice versa, you're about

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to learn some shocking differences from both formats.

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So let's get into what is The Chocolate War.

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So The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier.

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I hope I'm saying that right.

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Or Cormier.

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I think it's Cormier.

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Cormier is a controversial young adult novel written in 1974 that has been on so many banned

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book lists over the years.

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In fact, one of the notes that I took was that a 1987 report by the People for the American

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Way, The Chocolate War was the most challenged book ahead of Catcher in the Rye and of Mice

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and Men.

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So this was at one point more controversial than Catcher in the Rye.

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And that is saying something because that's always been even South Park made fun of the

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fact that it's like been this classic banned book that people have an issue with.

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And sure, The Chocolate War does cover some pretty intense themes.

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You know, you have one character who is probably dealing with like a budding homosexuality.

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He doesn't really cover that much.

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But you know, this kid gets excited when he bullies other boys and when they roughhouse,

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he like finds himself getting erections, that kind of deal.

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And he doesn't really go into that too much.

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But I think that's definitely something that's addressed.

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You have bullying in the most savage, you know, way.

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I mean, it's bad in this book.

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And it addresses sort of the futility of fighting.

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I mean, there's so many.

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You have a lot of bad language, if language is something that you're a stickler on.

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And it does talk about sex.

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But you know, from being a teenage boy, from that perspective, I did read a review on it

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that they said that the author has this uncanny ability to remember what it's like being a

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teenager.

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And he does.

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As you're listening to this, it covers these kind of emotions that I feel like other writers

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who write for young people's perspectives miss.

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Like when you're reading Harry Potter, for instance, he's not ever going and I understand

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that's not the point of the book, but he's never like has those puberty moments of shame

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or guilt or like confusion or anything like this.

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It's more that he like they gloss over all that so you can just enjoy a wizard book.

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But Choclore doesn't shy away from that kind of stuff.

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And it really goes into like what when especially when you're in a microcosm, like a little

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like a little mini ecosystem of because this is an all Catholics boy school and are an

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all boys Catholic school.

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And in this school, I'll tell you this.

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So this was the plot.

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So it's the Choclore is it's an all boys Catholic school called Trinity High School.

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And in Trinity High School, there's a secret.

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It's ran by brothers like priests or not quite priests, the middle ground between like a

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nun, I guess.

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But you know, I guess that would be what a brother is.

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I'm not really on the whole Catholic religion.

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I don't know much.

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When I grew up, the flavor of Christian was, I think, loosely Lutheran.

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But with, I guess, just modern Christian values, it didn't really go too much into like we

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had communion and you had to be baptized.

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But it wasn't like we didn't we did a mass.

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There wasn't any 5am bullshit.

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So I was OK with that at the time.

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And then I grew out of it.

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But that's just me.

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And so this covers so they the brothers run the school and the headmaster is out sick.

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So Brother Leon, who think of him like the closest thing I can think of is like a Snape

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from Harry Potter.

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I know it's making so many references to Harry Potter right now.

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That's it's I mean, I guess it's another book that takes place at a school.

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But in this so Brother Leon takes it upon himself for this year's chocolate sale to

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he finds a great deal on these Mother's Day chocolates that he buys for a dollar a box.

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But he had to buy twenty thousand of them, which is twice the amount of chocolates that

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kids had to sell the year before.

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And he's selling them for twice the amount of money.

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So it's not over two dollars a box as opposed to last year.

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I think it was a dollar.

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So it's harder.

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And he enlists so in this in this Catholic school, you have a secret group of boys called

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the Vigils.

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Think of them like the skulls if you ever watched that movie.

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But like they're a group that meets up whenever the finger is what they refer to as their

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this they flip a little thing over upside down on the bulletin board to let members

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know that there's a meeting.

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You find that in the second book.

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I don't think that's in the first book, but they meet up.

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And as far as like what makes this interesting is you never really know what they do.

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There's no point of the Vigils.

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And I think that might be the point because they feel like they're a fixture of the school.

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They're necessary to be there.

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Otherwise, the school is chaos and they hold it together.

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They're like the thin student line that, you know, keeps it all in place, like doesn't

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let the kids root, you know, whatever.

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But they they don't do anything in this to show that they are effective in any capacity

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like that.

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So basically all they do from my point of view, and I've read this book several times,

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watched the movie and read the sequel from my point of view, all the Vigils are there

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for is to occasionally prank other students and make them do embarrassing things.

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Now on one level, if they pretty much get to every student, I don't know if they do.

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There's 400 students.

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I don't know if they have time for that, but I would imagine that over the course of your

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four years of high school that the Vigils might get to you eventually.

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So it might be a bonding kind of thing where it's like no one talks about the Vigils.

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You don't mention the Vigils, but you're going to get a Vigil assignment at one point, right?

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And I guess once you've gone through your Vigil assignment, you're then part of Trinity.

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So I guess if you want the that fake sense of belonging to a school that you're going

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to be out of in a few years anyway, then yeah, I guess there's some merit to doing these

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assignments.

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But other than that, these are just cruel things that mean bullies all started a club,

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I guess.

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It's undetermined amount of time as to how long it's been around.

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Like either the Vigils have been around since the beginning of this.

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The school is made and maybe that's a hundred years old school, who knows?

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Or maybe this is just the first iteration of it and they're going to try to pass it

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on to the next kids, like the next group, because in the sequel they do talk about because

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one of the the guy I'm going to talk about in just a moment is a senior and he's about

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to leave.

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So he has to pass it down to the next person.

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So in this group, you have, I'm going to say three people of note.

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You have Carter, Carter, who is the president, but he's basically just a figurehead.

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He's got a gavel, he's a big jock, but sports seasons are over except for football.

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But in the sequel, which is the second semester of the school year, all the seasons fended.

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So he's kind of like listless.

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But in the first one, at least he still has football.

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He's sort of a minor character in the first book.

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He's there as the head, you know, the threat of violence if something goes awry, you know,

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to that degree.

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Then you have Obie.

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Well, I guess then you have Archie, who is, in my opinion, the main character of the series.

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We're going to call it a series, the two books.

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He's the main character.

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He's the assigner of the vigils.

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And what his job is, is to come up with these creative, psychological sort of manipulating

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assignments to give to these kids.

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And the way with the help of Obie.

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And Obie is this nerdy henchman of the vigils of Archie specifically.

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He kind of hates Archie.

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I mean, he absolutely hates Archie because Archie is a cruel, manipulative son of a bitch.

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But he also admires Archie because Archie is a genius with what he does.

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If Archie pointed his genius towards good, towards like turning that creativity into

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like some sort of civil planning or finding a way to organize people to get charity done

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or whatever, right?

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Like, I don't know what, anything.

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He could be a force for good, but instead he leans way into his just serial killer mentality,

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almost like leave me alone.

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Don't touch me.

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I know that sounds a lot like me if you're a fan of the podcast, but I'm not a serial

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killer.

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Despite everyone saying that I have a room full of bodies in my apartment.

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It's just one body and it's a puppet and it's part of a comedy thing I do.

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So let's not even get into that.

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But he, so Obie hates Archie, admires Archie, looks up to Archie, wants nothing to do with

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Archie.

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It's a complicated sort of relationship.

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And it gets, there's, I'm going to tell you about one of the adaptations that they made.

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So I mean, I guess I can talk about it.

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Well, once you, sorry, I'm a little bit disorganized.

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I took a lot of notes for this one because I wanted to be prepared and I wanted you guys

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to learn something that I learned because this was just an interesting journey.

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So Archie is in charge of doing the assignments.

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And he, when we, the first assignment we see get done is actually kind of crazy because

234
00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:14,200
he gets a kid called Goober and Goober is Jerry's best friend.

235
00:16:14,200 --> 00:16:18,320
And Jerry, I guess would be technically the main character of the first book because he's

236
00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:20,920
the one that you follow most.

237
00:16:20,920 --> 00:16:22,940
But you do follow Archie quite a bit.

238
00:16:22,940 --> 00:16:26,000
So Jerry's a new kid to the school.

239
00:16:26,000 --> 00:16:27,000
He's a freshman.

240
00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:29,600
So I think he starts middle of the semester.

241
00:16:29,600 --> 00:16:32,480
I think he's like starts a little bit late.

242
00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:38,220
So, Mom died earlier in the year or last year.

243
00:16:38,220 --> 00:16:39,840
So he's still reeling from that.

244
00:16:39,840 --> 00:16:41,240
He's pretty depressed.

245
00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:46,120
And Archie writes his name down along with Goober for assignments.

246
00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:47,120
And Goober goes up first.

247
00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:54,560
And Goober is told that he needs to go into a classroom and unscrew every screw on all

248
00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:56,080
of the desks and chairs.

249
00:16:56,080 --> 00:17:00,920
And so that way, when the class starts the next day, all of the desks and chairs break

250
00:17:00,920 --> 00:17:01,920
apart.

251
00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:02,920
So, simple.

252
00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:05,720
I mean, I don't think it was that brutal of a prank.

253
00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:13,480
But the brother, the teacher, the brother, he like reacts so poorly to this that he leaves

254
00:17:13,480 --> 00:17:14,720
the school.

255
00:17:14,720 --> 00:17:19,400
And then in the sequel, you find out that he dies from heart complications.

256
00:17:19,400 --> 00:17:22,160
But it's a little bit vague.

257
00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:24,360
Like he might have killed himself.

258
00:17:24,360 --> 00:17:27,080
So this might have been more drastic.

259
00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:33,760
Like he's a sensitive man and they kind of really fucked him up by doing that.

260
00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:34,760
And it was mean.

261
00:17:34,760 --> 00:17:40,000
And so Goober, who was responsible for that, even though he had help from Vigils that night

262
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:46,560
because he wasn't going to be able to do it alone, he feels awful.

263
00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:51,840
And so he sort of just from that moment on is like, I'm just going to stay out of all

264
00:17:51,840 --> 00:17:52,840
this shit.

265
00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:55,840
Like I don't want to get involved again with Vigils or anything.

266
00:17:55,840 --> 00:17:58,640
He feels real bad and I feel bad for Goober.

267
00:17:58,640 --> 00:18:01,440
But the chocolate sale happens.

268
00:18:01,440 --> 00:18:04,680
20,000 boxes of chocolates.

269
00:18:04,680 --> 00:18:06,480
Twice the money.

270
00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:08,560
Kids aren't going to want to sell this shit.

271
00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:15,640
So brother Leon, the professor's name of the story, he goes and asks Archie privately,

272
00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:21,080
hey, I need the Vigils help, actually names them.

273
00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:25,400
And Archie says that he'll do it.

274
00:18:25,400 --> 00:18:29,600
Sort of feels pressured, but he says, yeah, all right, the Vigils will help you.

275
00:18:29,600 --> 00:18:36,960
And so as sort of a fuck you to Leon, the next assignment that he gives is for Jerry

276
00:18:36,960 --> 00:18:43,240
and he tells Jerry, don't accept the chocolates and don't sell them for 10 days.

277
00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:46,240
But we don't know that it's 10 days right at the start, but he says, don't sell the

278
00:18:46,240 --> 00:18:47,240
chocolates.

279
00:18:47,240 --> 00:18:50,680
And so Jerry, it cuts to the next day and brother Leon's homeroom class, which Jerry

280
00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:55,120
has and brother Leon's going down the names of all the kids like, all right, say you're

281
00:18:55,120 --> 00:18:57,260
here and that you're going to accept your chocolates.

282
00:18:57,260 --> 00:18:58,260
And everyone does.

283
00:18:58,260 --> 00:19:01,240
And when it gets to Jerry, he says no.

284
00:19:01,240 --> 00:19:04,600
And brother Leon's like, I don't think you understand saying no means you're not going

285
00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:05,680
to take the chocolates.

286
00:19:05,680 --> 00:19:07,600
He goes, no.

287
00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:10,160
And brother Leon's like, of course we can't force you.

288
00:19:10,160 --> 00:19:11,400
This is voluntary.

289
00:19:11,400 --> 00:19:15,800
This is, you know, but are you sure you don't want to take the chocolate?

290
00:19:15,800 --> 00:19:16,800
He's like getting mad.

291
00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:17,880
And Jerry says no.

292
00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:23,240
And this starts the chocolate war where Jerry says no.

293
00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:25,720
Brother Leon wants him to sell the chocolate.

294
00:19:25,720 --> 00:19:30,360
And then you see all of the inner workings of the vigils.

295
00:19:30,360 --> 00:19:32,360
What's going on with Archie?

296
00:19:32,360 --> 00:19:36,920
And you meet the, I guess the last sort of main character, which would be Emil Janza.

297
00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:39,720
And Emil Janza is basically the thug.

298
00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:43,760
He's one of my favorite characters in the book because of how just savage he is.

299
00:19:43,760 --> 00:19:48,360
You meet him and he's just out in the parking lot and he's just siphoning gas from another

300
00:19:48,360 --> 00:19:49,520
student.

301
00:19:49,520 --> 00:19:55,040
And when he gets caught by Archie, Archie's like, you're an animal, Emil.

302
00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:56,280
What if he comes out here?

303
00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:58,600
And Emil's like, what if he does?

304
00:19:58,600 --> 00:19:59,600
You know?

305
00:19:59,600 --> 00:20:04,920
And Emil found out when he was a younger kid that everybody wants to avoid conflict.

306
00:20:04,920 --> 00:20:05,920
Most people.

307
00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:10,400
So if you just do what you want, you can get away with almost anything.

308
00:20:10,400 --> 00:20:16,040
And that's one of the most real fucking things I've ever read in a book.

309
00:20:16,040 --> 00:20:20,560
When I read that for the first time, it reminded me of so many fucking assholes that I went

310
00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:25,000
to school with or that I've just known over the years.

311
00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:30,900
And I think what makes you an asshole is understanding that you really can just get away with anything

312
00:20:30,900 --> 00:20:32,640
you want.

313
00:20:32,640 --> 00:20:39,640
So I work at a restaurant and when people, it's a pizza place.

314
00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:43,920
And when we, like, here's the trick, I guess.

315
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:49,480
When you order food from a place and they deliver it to you, if you just call them back

316
00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:55,600
and say the food wasn't good, even if it was, they will, depending on how busy it is, they'll

317
00:20:55,600 --> 00:21:00,560
either ask if they can credit you for next time or they'll remake you food and send it

318
00:21:00,560 --> 00:21:02,000
your way, right?

319
00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:07,880
And you can end up getting free pizza every time you order because these big chains, they

320
00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:08,880
don't care.

321
00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:15,760
They just, they'd rather just give people free food and forget about it than to, you

322
00:21:15,760 --> 00:21:21,560
know, try to help the managers out and give them ban lists or blacklists to be like, no,

323
00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:25,520
we're not going to deliver these people who always call back and always complain and always

324
00:21:25,520 --> 00:21:26,520
get free food.

325
00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:28,980
Sorry, I had a long shift last night.

326
00:21:28,980 --> 00:21:30,680
Maybe that has nothing to do with the book.

327
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:32,160
I even forgot where I was at.

328
00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:36,160
Oh, so Emil finds out, yeah, that he's basically just one of these people that can just get

329
00:21:36,160 --> 00:21:39,720
away with just doing whatever the fuck they want all the time.

330
00:21:39,720 --> 00:21:41,300
And he's a jerk.

331
00:21:41,300 --> 00:21:44,600
He's also like, he's the main antagonist of this book.

332
00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:51,960
Well, or Archie is, if you really want to, or just the Vigils or Brother Leon could all

333
00:21:51,960 --> 00:21:55,220
be considered antagonists in this.

334
00:21:55,220 --> 00:22:06,120
So you have Emil who sort of is in Archie's, under his thumb, because Archie took a picture

335
00:22:06,120 --> 00:22:13,200
of him jerking off in the school bathroom and he's, you know, doesn't want to get out.

336
00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:16,040
So he is kind of cool with Archie.

337
00:22:16,040 --> 00:22:20,000
Otherwise he probably just beat up Archie maybe because that's just the kind of guy

338
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:22,480
he is.

339
00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:32,560
So Jerry's 10 days ends and he still refuses to sell the chocolate and Brother Leon at

340
00:22:32,560 --> 00:22:38,280
this point, oh, that's another huge plot point, but Brother Leon in order to get the information,

341
00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:45,080
he gets this nerdy kid named David, not Carradine, I know that's an actor, but as far as like

342
00:22:45,080 --> 00:22:49,360
Caruso maybe, David Caruso, I feel like that's another actor.

343
00:22:49,360 --> 00:22:55,920
But David something, David C. And he is a straight A student and Brother Leon calls

344
00:22:55,920 --> 00:23:00,920
him into the office and he goes, hey, so let's talk about this F that I gave you.

345
00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:04,920
And the guy's like, I know what, like, what, what is that all about?

346
00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:06,120
I'm a straight A student.

347
00:23:06,120 --> 00:23:09,960
And Brother Leon's like, all right, cool, just tell me what's going on with Jerry.

348
00:23:09,960 --> 00:23:11,360
And this, you know, we make mistakes.

349
00:23:11,360 --> 00:23:12,360
Have you ever heard of that?

350
00:23:12,360 --> 00:23:14,340
A teacher making a mistake?

351
00:23:14,340 --> 00:23:15,340
That's crazy, right?

352
00:23:15,340 --> 00:23:18,440
Like, but yeah, this could totally be looked at later on.

353
00:23:18,440 --> 00:23:24,360
And so David's like, okay, yeah, well, the vigils gave Jerry an assignment.

354
00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:27,360
So you know, that's what he's doing.

355
00:23:27,360 --> 00:23:28,800
It's for 10 days.

356
00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:31,400
And he's like, oh, that's up tomorrow.

357
00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:32,400
Great.

358
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:36,800
And so when the next day happens, Jerry says, no, Brother Leon loses it.

359
00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:41,480
And then he talks to Archie gets mad at him saying, you're fucking me over.

360
00:23:41,480 --> 00:23:46,720
I found this, you know, other students are not selling chocolates now because they are

361
00:23:46,720 --> 00:23:49,660
following this Jerry example.

362
00:23:49,660 --> 00:23:57,720
And so then you would think the book could take two paths here.

363
00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:01,200
And it doesn't take the path that you would think it would take.

364
00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:06,720
So I think that the path that like you would get today if it was written for the feel good

365
00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:11,160
ending would be Jerry starts a revolution.

366
00:24:11,160 --> 00:24:18,320
The revolution overthrows the vigils, the corrupt, everything about the corrupt nature

367
00:24:18,320 --> 00:24:20,340
of Brother Leon gets exposed.

368
00:24:20,340 --> 00:24:22,100
The headmaster comes back.

369
00:24:22,100 --> 00:24:29,880
Brother Leon gets shipped away to some other school or or or nunnery.

370
00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:34,800
The brothers go there, you know, wherever you send bad brothers.

371
00:24:34,800 --> 00:24:40,160
So that would be one way to go.

372
00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:48,080
Instead what this book does is shows the futility of rebellion in some cases, because Archie

373
00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:51,240
gets he goes, all right, well, this is what we're going to do.

374
00:24:51,240 --> 00:24:53,440
We're going to get everybody to sell chocolates at the school.

375
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:58,360
We're going to, you know, get every popular kid to make it the coolest fucking thing on

376
00:24:58,360 --> 00:24:59,720
earth is to sell chocolates.

377
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:03,760
We're going to do this and we're going to make this the biggest chocolate sale of all

378
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:04,760
time.

379
00:25:04,760 --> 00:25:05,760
We're going to really push.

380
00:25:05,760 --> 00:25:06,760
We're going to sell all these chocolates.

381
00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:15,160
So he gets that done and they sell nineteen thousand nine hundred and ninety or fifty

382
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:20,860
boxes, just fifty boxes shy of the twenty thousand.

383
00:25:20,860 --> 00:25:22,200
The brother Leon's a static.

384
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,400
He got what he what he came here for, which is to sell all the money.

385
00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:27,720
He's fifty, fifty boxes short.

386
00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:29,460
Doesn't matter.

387
00:25:29,460 --> 00:25:34,700
But Archie has an idea to sell those last fifty boxes.

388
00:25:34,700 --> 00:25:36,360
And this is one of those.

389
00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:38,440
Oh, in between this.

390
00:25:38,440 --> 00:25:39,440
Sorry, I forgot.

391
00:25:39,440 --> 00:25:45,180
But Emil on sort of orders from Archie, but he does it in a shitty way.

392
00:25:45,180 --> 00:25:49,320
He gets a bunch of school, like a bunch of kids around the neighborhood, like bad kids,

393
00:25:49,320 --> 00:25:53,320
younger kids, but bad kids nonetheless to jump Jerry and beat the shit out of him.

394
00:25:53,320 --> 00:25:55,120
So Jerry just got his ass kicked.

395
00:25:55,120 --> 00:25:58,720
And now everybody's calling him and taunting him and like torturing him and like hanging

396
00:25:58,720 --> 00:26:03,760
up on him, like laughing when he answers the phone and like yelling out from the street.

397
00:26:03,760 --> 00:26:06,780
They're like psychological warfare, physical.

398
00:26:06,780 --> 00:26:08,720
You know, people are cold shouldering with school.

399
00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:09,720
It's just awful.

400
00:26:09,720 --> 00:26:13,480
And Jerry just is sticking to his like whatever.

401
00:26:13,480 --> 00:26:14,480
And that's the thing.

402
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:16,080
He never really knows why.

403
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:21,840
He like it's just this unspoken, like this un.

404
00:26:21,840 --> 00:26:26,080
This feeling that he gets that just never is put into words more than just this need

405
00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:32,520
to rebel because everyone, you know, like it just he stuck to his to his need to rebel

406
00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:35,240
to like his morals, his convictions.

407
00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:37,880
And it's admirable.

408
00:26:37,880 --> 00:26:45,960
But it's also like pointless because he everyone, everyone sells it.

409
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:47,720
He gets beat up.

410
00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:53,840
And then Archie calls him and he says, and he tells him this plan that he has to sell

411
00:26:53,840 --> 00:26:55,280
these chocolates.

412
00:26:55,280 --> 00:27:01,280
And Jerry, who's just had enough of all this, like just torture from everybody, he agrees

413
00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:03,280
because he just wants to get this over with.

414
00:27:03,280 --> 00:27:07,920
And this might give him an opportunity to get the upper hand, even just a little bit.

415
00:27:07,920 --> 00:27:13,440
And so here's the big reveal, the big plan, which is the finale.

416
00:27:13,440 --> 00:27:17,200
And that is they're going to do a boxing match, just students.

417
00:27:17,200 --> 00:27:18,200
Brothers aren't allowed.

418
00:27:18,200 --> 00:27:21,480
This is it's going to be a student affair.

419
00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:25,720
And they do a boxing match between Jerry and Emil.

420
00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:31,000
And the thing is, it's not it's with boxing gloves, but it's not a standard boxing match.

421
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:32,160
It's a lottery.

422
00:27:32,160 --> 00:27:37,480
So they sold the 50 boxes of chocolates, whatever they charging for tickets.

423
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:42,440
And each kid writes down who they want to punch the other one and where.

424
00:27:42,440 --> 00:27:44,840
And then they pull out these slips throughout the night.

425
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:49,880
And it starts with a meal punching Jerry up, you know, uppercut left hook.

426
00:27:49,880 --> 00:27:51,700
Jerry gets a punch off.

427
00:27:51,700 --> 00:27:58,600
But then they accidentally read off a meal low blow to Jerry before Jerry could react.

428
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:04,120
Emil punches him in the dick, and that's when Jerry fights back and that's what Emil just

429
00:28:04,120 --> 00:28:12,680
beats him to like beats the living shit out of him, beats him to a bloody pulp.

430
00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:14,100
Fucks him up.

431
00:28:14,100 --> 00:28:19,480
And that's and you see Brother Leon in the distance watching and Archie wins.

432
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:21,520
Nothing bad happens.

433
00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:29,280
There is a in the in the book for every punishment, you the for every assignment, Archie has to

434
00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:32,880
reach into a box that has five white marbles and one black marble.

435
00:28:32,880 --> 00:28:34,400
And he pulls out the black marble.

436
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:37,700
He has to do the punishment, the assignment instead.

437
00:28:37,700 --> 00:28:42,320
So that way, the signer doesn't get too out of control.

438
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:46,160
Like the power doesn't get to his head because there's always the possibility he himself

439
00:28:46,160 --> 00:28:47,640
might have to do it.

440
00:28:47,640 --> 00:28:55,280
And he skips like in the whole book, he doesn't have to do any of the punishments.

441
00:28:55,280 --> 00:29:02,680
So because he keeps pulling up white marbles and at the end, he just basically wins.

442
00:29:02,680 --> 00:29:06,480
It's just him and Obi again sitting on the bleachers or whatever.

443
00:29:06,480 --> 00:29:10,020
They're just talking and that's it.

444
00:29:10,020 --> 00:29:11,080
That's the end.

445
00:29:11,080 --> 00:29:13,200
That's the it's it's Jerry loses.

446
00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:15,200
The Goobers still depressed.

447
00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:18,520
Emil Janza kind of wins Archie kind of wins.

448
00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:19,920
The Vigils get away with it.

449
00:29:19,920 --> 00:29:22,600
Brother Leon successfully makes his money.

450
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:24,440
What a sad, depressing ending.

451
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:26,000
Holy shit.

452
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:28,760
That's the end of the chocolate war on its own.

453
00:29:28,760 --> 00:29:34,000
If I were to rate it, I'd give it probably a four out of five crunch bars.

454
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:35,000
Right.

455
00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:38,480
Because I'm even going to go a little bit lower standard of chocolate, even though I

456
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:40,520
like punch bars.

457
00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:42,160
That's probably what you were getting inside.

458
00:29:42,160 --> 00:29:46,680
That's probably the level you were getting inside those Mother's Day chocolate boxes.

459
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:52,240
But I feel like you can't have one without the other when it comes to the chocolate war

460
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:53,720
and beyond the chocolate war.

461
00:29:53,720 --> 00:30:00,080
Not only does beyond the chocolate war take place the following semester of the same school

462
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:05,080
year following all the same kids directly after the events of the chocolate war and

463
00:30:05,080 --> 00:30:10,280
Brother Leon and the ramifications of everything that happened from that.

464
00:30:10,280 --> 00:30:15,760
It also deals with the if you're going to go with the karma aspect, you can go with

465
00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:20,040
everyone kind of gets their come up and their bad karmas do.

466
00:30:20,040 --> 00:30:21,040
Right.

467
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:25,340
But it it doesn't feel complete.

468
00:30:25,340 --> 00:30:26,340
Just the first book.

469
00:30:26,340 --> 00:30:27,520
And it's also very short.

470
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:30,560
I read that in a day audiobook.

471
00:30:30,560 --> 00:30:32,160
So sorry, I listened to that.

472
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:38,680
And again, I'm so tired of going to the comments and reading that it's like it's not real reading

473
00:30:38,680 --> 00:30:40,080
that I'm listening to audiobooks.

474
00:30:40,080 --> 00:30:42,960
Obviously, I'm comprehending everything that I'm listening to.

475
00:30:42,960 --> 00:30:49,480
So just keep your snobest, you know, your eyes moving left and right, whereas my ears

476
00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:53,640
absorbing information for some reason is a big stickler for you.

477
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:55,840
Like, OK, I know how to read.

478
00:30:55,840 --> 00:30:56,840
I know.

479
00:30:56,840 --> 00:30:57,840
I know.

480
00:30:57,840 --> 00:31:00,080
Like I'm reading Wikipedia right now.

481
00:31:00,080 --> 00:31:03,280
So anyway, fuck off.

482
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:04,280
I listen to this in a day.

483
00:31:04,280 --> 00:31:05,940
It's a very quick.

484
00:31:05,940 --> 00:31:10,200
I also listen to one point eight speed, so maybe not a day wouldn't be typical.

485
00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:13,400
And I was driving around delivering pizzas the whole night.

486
00:31:13,400 --> 00:31:18,360
So it's not a typical one day read, but it is quite a short book.

487
00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:20,840
And I enjoy it.

488
00:31:20,840 --> 00:31:23,000
I loved it as a kid.

489
00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:30,580
But now we're getting into Beyond the Chocolate War and Beyond the Chocolate War is.

490
00:31:30,580 --> 00:31:33,520
I think better in a lot of ways.

491
00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:41,160
So first off, this is this is 10 years later, 11 years later that he wrote this book.

492
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:45,920
And so his writing style is a lot better.

493
00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:50,780
He the way he describes the feelings of the characters, the way that he describes even

494
00:31:50,780 --> 00:31:58,220
just like the physical locations, the set dressings, the world building.

495
00:31:58,220 --> 00:31:59,220
It's all a lot better.

496
00:31:59,220 --> 00:32:03,160
You get a better understanding of who the visuals are, what the power dynamic is.

497
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:07,960
You get a better understanding of who Archie is, who Obie is, who Carter is, who that David

498
00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:08,960
guy is.

499
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:09,960
Oh, Cornaccio.

500
00:32:09,960 --> 00:32:10,960
No, no, that's not.

501
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:11,960
Sorry.

502
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:18,880
They don't even mention David in the Wikipedia for Beyond the Chocolate War.

503
00:32:18,880 --> 00:32:19,880
But such important part.

504
00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:22,880
I did have some notes.

505
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:23,880
Oh, OK.

506
00:32:23,880 --> 00:32:28,040
Well, actually, before I get into Beyond the Chocolate War, let me talk a little bit about

507
00:32:28,040 --> 00:32:32,760
the movie and some of the differences real quick so that way I can just get into it.

508
00:32:32,760 --> 00:32:39,520
So there's just a few changes.

509
00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:47,960
So at the end of the movie, Archie pulls a black.

510
00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:51,240
So he pulls a white marble for the boxing match.

511
00:32:51,240 --> 00:32:56,720
But then Carter says, you got to try again because there's two fighters.

512
00:32:56,720 --> 00:32:59,800
So you have to do it for a meal now.

513
00:32:59,800 --> 00:33:06,320
And so he reaches in, he pulls a black marble and he has to stand in place for a meal instead

514
00:33:06,320 --> 00:33:11,160
of a meal, obviously.

515
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:13,780
So now it's Archie versus Jerry.

516
00:33:13,780 --> 00:33:20,440
And when they kind of when it just goes into full blown brawl, Jerry beats the shit out

517
00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:21,440
of Archie.

518
00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:28,160
And so Archie, having his ass handed to him, Jerry standing up on the stage, he's feeling

519
00:33:28,160 --> 00:33:29,160
victorious.

520
00:33:29,160 --> 00:33:34,000
He looks out and he sees Goober looking like, man, you really kind of just played into their

521
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:35,600
hand, didn't you, Jerry?

522
00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:36,960
And so he sort of fucks off.

523
00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:41,300
And then Jerry looks out and he sees his mom, like, well, at least a ghostly apparition

524
00:33:41,300 --> 00:33:42,480
of her in the crowd.

525
00:33:42,480 --> 00:33:45,580
And she like it almost looks like on the brink of tears.

526
00:33:45,580 --> 00:33:47,360
And she's like disappointed in him.

527
00:33:47,360 --> 00:33:49,220
So his victory feels like flat.

528
00:33:49,220 --> 00:33:52,240
And so he's sort of, you know, just standing there.

529
00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:56,500
And he talks to Goober a little bit and they leave.

530
00:33:56,500 --> 00:33:59,720
And then it cuts to Archie and Obie.

531
00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:02,820
And Obie now is the new assigner.

532
00:34:02,820 --> 00:34:06,800
And he says to Archie, you're lucky they're even keeping you in the visuals.

533
00:34:06,800 --> 00:34:10,480
And now he's laughing and he's coming up with these like, we're going to make one guy eat

534
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:15,600
a snot in front of everybody and we'll make one dude get us pictures of his little sister

535
00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:16,600
naked.

536
00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:18,700
Or and then he's like, no, better get his mom.

537
00:34:18,700 --> 00:34:24,000
So he's coming up with these lewd, gross, not well crafted at all assignments.

538
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:28,680
And Archie just has to sit there and take notes holding his bruised face, you know,

539
00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:30,720
and even more bruised ego.

540
00:34:30,720 --> 00:34:36,280
And so that is sort of the ending that I wanted.

541
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:40,760
Like, well, not I wanted, but the ending that you would like the happier ending.

542
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:47,240
So the guy who directed the movie, who, like I said before, his name is Keith Gordon.

543
00:34:47,240 --> 00:34:51,480
And you're thinking, Keith Gordon, that sounds vaguely familiar.

544
00:34:51,480 --> 00:34:52,480
It doesn't.

545
00:34:52,480 --> 00:34:59,000
I don't know who that is, but I will say you know him from he acted in Christine.

546
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:03,800
So he's the kid, Arnie, that buys the car.

547
00:35:03,800 --> 00:35:07,960
So in the 1983 movie, Christine, he's the guy.

548
00:35:07,960 --> 00:35:09,640
He's basically Christine.

549
00:35:09,640 --> 00:35:13,320
He's a handful of other movies, minor bits here and there.

550
00:35:13,320 --> 00:35:17,200
He's directed a few things, including the Chocolate War and a movie called A Midnight

551
00:35:17,200 --> 00:35:19,480
Clear, which I'm going to watch.

552
00:35:19,480 --> 00:35:23,400
And it looks like it stars Johnny Drama from Entourage and it's a war movie.

553
00:35:23,400 --> 00:35:26,880
So I don't know what that's going to be about.

554
00:35:26,880 --> 00:35:32,960
But yeah, so Keith Gordon and then it stars as Brother Leon.

555
00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:37,360
You have John Glover, who I absolutely love as Brother Leon.

556
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:39,000
He's so good at it.

557
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:43,120
And I love him in his other role that I'm familiar with him in the two roles I know

558
00:35:43,120 --> 00:35:48,380
from, which is he plays Lionel Luther in Smallville, Lex Luther's dad.

559
00:35:48,380 --> 00:35:51,760
So I'm sure a lot of you would recognize him with that.

560
00:35:51,760 --> 00:35:55,080
And then also the movie Scrooged with Bill Murray.

561
00:35:55,080 --> 00:36:04,280
He plays the producer guy on set, sort of like a douchey guy, like a I don't know if

562
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:08,120
he's an antagonist for Bill Murray or not.

563
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:09,840
But anyway, he's the guy.

564
00:36:09,840 --> 00:36:12,480
He's like the slick executive guy.

565
00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:21,240
And then it stars as Jerry Ian Mitchell Smith, who's from Weird Science.

566
00:36:21,240 --> 00:36:23,080
He's one of the two dudes from that.

567
00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:25,000
And then a few other people that I just don't recognize.

568
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:27,800
Oh, and then of course, sorry.

569
00:36:27,800 --> 00:36:34,240
Carter is played by Adam Baldwin, who is the big dude in Firefly Jane.

570
00:36:34,240 --> 00:36:37,880
And he's also in Full Metal Jacket and Independence Day and The Patriot.

571
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:41,360
So yeah, that was a good casting choice.

572
00:36:41,360 --> 00:36:47,320
He's young too, sort of feels a little bit like the opposite of the outsiders, because

573
00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:50,920
that one starred a bunch of people who went on to become super famous.

574
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:58,680
This stars like one guy that went on or two guys that went on to be somewhat famous.

575
00:36:58,680 --> 00:36:59,680
So that's a big change.

576
00:36:59,680 --> 00:37:02,320
And then also a huge change made into the book.

577
00:37:02,320 --> 00:37:08,720
This is the last one I really wrote down was Brother Leon makes a point to tell David's

578
00:37:08,720 --> 00:37:15,680
character, the one who he pressures into giving information about what's happening to Jerry

579
00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:22,360
and flexes the whole I'll give you a failing grade if you don't kind of thing.

580
00:37:22,360 --> 00:37:28,740
At the end of the movie or near the end, he says, hey, thanks for fixing my grade, Professor

581
00:37:28,740 --> 00:37:33,320
and our brother Leon and Brother Leon's like, of course, you know, these, you know, blah,

582
00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:34,320
blah, blah.

583
00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:36,780
Like, that's what I said I would do.

584
00:37:36,780 --> 00:37:41,720
So that's such a and I know that sounds like such a minor change that doesn't mean anything,

585
00:37:41,720 --> 00:37:47,440
but it's so important if you've read the sequel to know that that couldn't have happened.

586
00:37:47,440 --> 00:37:57,240
So oh, and then I just wrote as a oh, wait, there's a couple things.

587
00:37:57,240 --> 00:38:00,960
At one point at the end, after Jerry wins the fight, everyone, the whole crowd starts

588
00:38:00,960 --> 00:38:03,360
yelling Jerry, Jerry, Jerry.

589
00:38:03,360 --> 00:38:06,440
I thought that was pretty funny.

590
00:38:06,440 --> 00:38:09,400
Oby takes over crude assignments.

591
00:38:09,400 --> 00:38:18,400
There's a a adaptation of this movie called The Assignment from 2012.

592
00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:22,040
It's a student film, could not find it anywhere, can't find it to watch.

593
00:38:22,040 --> 00:38:25,400
But the it makes some interesting choices.

594
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:30,280
For one, it makes Oby or it takes the school out of an all boys school and puts it in a

595
00:38:30,280 --> 00:38:37,300
coed school and it makes Oby a female Archie's assistant and makes her fall in love with

596
00:38:37,300 --> 00:38:38,880
Jerry.

597
00:38:38,880 --> 00:38:46,200
So I would love to have watched that adaptation because that sounds like an interesting twist

598
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:49,920
on what I would typically anticipate.

599
00:38:49,920 --> 00:38:59,200
Also, lastly, for the movie, but I was watching I went on YouTube and I there's a guy named

600
00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:08,500
Canto1408 that's C-A-N-T-O-1408 who just reviewed Chocolate War and Beyond the Chocolate War

601
00:39:08,500 --> 00:39:10,400
about three weeks ago.

602
00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:15,120
And he's reviewing my next and he just reviewed the next movie that I'm going to review, which

603
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:16,840
is We All Fall Down.

604
00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:20,640
Spoiler, just like two weeks ago, whatever.

605
00:39:20,640 --> 00:39:25,080
So I'm following this random guy's career and I didn't even I didn't even notice.

606
00:39:25,080 --> 00:39:31,480
So I'm so sorry, Canto1408, if you find this online and you think that I'm copying you,

607
00:39:31,480 --> 00:39:35,360
not intentional, just another big fan of the series.

608
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:42,120
So lastly, I keep saying lastly, I'm just going to keep talking.

609
00:39:42,120 --> 00:39:50,400
Pete Cormier, who is Robert's son, was tasked with selling chocolates as a freshman and

610
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:53,160
his dad gave him permission to not.

611
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:59,480
And so he felt sort of like a little bit of an outcast at school, but it also inspired

612
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:00,480
the book.

613
00:40:00,480 --> 00:40:01,480
So that's why the book got written.

614
00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:10,200
And it was Robert Cormier's first sort of dip into young adult fiction.

615
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:13,560
In fact, when he wrote it, he didn't write it as a young adult book.

616
00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:15,000
He just wrote it as a novel.

617
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:21,560
And then it ended up being I think I don't know if he edited it all, edited it, but he

618
00:40:21,560 --> 00:40:28,160
ended up becoming one of the most successful of the of young adults books.

619
00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:32,000
So it was so controversial back in the day.

620
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:33,440
I was reading up on this.

621
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:41,040
There was a Moat middle school in the 80s, 86 after this came out, and they were savage

622
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:43,280
on trying to get this book out of here.

623
00:40:43,280 --> 00:40:47,920
And there was a petition to get it banned.

624
00:40:47,920 --> 00:40:55,880
And a local reporter on the news read that some of the signatures were invalid on the

625
00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:57,840
petition.

626
00:40:57,840 --> 00:41:03,360
Just that just like some of the which were they probably were probably some invalid signatures

627
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:04,360
on the petition.

628
00:41:04,360 --> 00:41:05,560
She was just reporting on it.

629
00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:11,120
She woke up the next day to smoke and a flammable liquid underneath her apartment door.

630
00:41:11,120 --> 00:41:16,360
They were trying to murder her over this, which is absolutely insane.

631
00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:22,840
It's not even that fucking savage of a book, although pretty depressing the lending there.

632
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:32,920
So Beyond the Chocolate War, Jerry has had his spirit broken, his body broken.

633
00:41:32,920 --> 00:41:41,440
He's now he went to Canada for I know like a few weeks or maybe a couple months to recuperate.

634
00:41:41,440 --> 00:41:43,320
He finds this church out there.

635
00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:48,800
It's not super religious, but he finds that when he runs out to the church, the wind makes

636
00:41:48,800 --> 00:41:53,000
the church sound like it's talking to him, you know, like just the noise of it all.

637
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:54,400
And so he finds comfort there.

638
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:57,040
It's like this little abandoned church or whatever.

639
00:41:57,040 --> 00:42:06,400
And he finds somewhat of a peace, but he also learns to not cause waves.

640
00:42:06,400 --> 00:42:13,080
The sad part was in his poster starting this, I mean, obviously intentional, but the audience

641
00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:19,520
in his in his post in his locker, he had a poster that says, I think, dare to disturb

642
00:42:19,520 --> 00:42:20,520
the universe.

643
00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:26,640
And it's like a guy like walking out into the universe or whatever, a picture of it.

644
00:42:26,640 --> 00:42:27,760
And that's like really cool.

645
00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:32,240
But now his entire persona is the opposite of that.

646
00:42:32,240 --> 00:42:37,120
It's don't cause waves, don't cause ripples, don't do anything.

647
00:42:37,120 --> 00:42:38,120
Just keep your head down.

648
00:42:38,120 --> 00:42:44,600
And so he comes back and he's not going to go back to Trinity High School and Goober

649
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:47,760
is also like not doing sports or anything.

650
00:42:47,760 --> 00:42:51,760
He doesn't want to go back to Trinity after he finishes up this school year.

651
00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:57,040
And he is still reeling about what he did to that one teacher, especially finding out

652
00:42:57,040 --> 00:42:59,480
that that teacher just died.

653
00:42:59,480 --> 00:43:05,480
And Goober tries reaching out to Jerry because Jerry's dad calls Goober and says, hey, please

654
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:07,120
come over and hang out with my son.

655
00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:08,400
He needs you.

656
00:43:08,400 --> 00:43:10,000
And that's an awkward sort of thing.

657
00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:12,840
And so like everything is just uncomfortable.

658
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:21,680
Archie is still doing assignments and there's this new kid in school that's starting a new

659
00:43:21,680 --> 00:43:29,680
transfer student, Ray Bannister, and he's interested in magic.

660
00:43:29,680 --> 00:43:33,840
So he's also building a guillotine for a magic trick.

661
00:43:33,840 --> 00:43:39,200
And him and Obie become friends after Obie goes to give him an assignment.

662
00:43:39,200 --> 00:43:46,200
He ends up not having to do the assignment because of some, like the bishop cancels his

663
00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:50,320
visit and so there's no reason to do the assignment that was going to involve the bishop.

664
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:56,080
So Obie instead becomes interested in learning, you know, like how he does his magic tricks

665
00:43:56,080 --> 00:44:00,760
and they, they don't know, they become friends.

666
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:09,280
Obie also has a girlfriend, Laurie Gunderson, and she is the love of his life and everything's

667
00:44:09,280 --> 00:44:10,940
going great there.

668
00:44:10,940 --> 00:44:17,300
You have a new character called Bunting that's Archie's replacement.

669
00:44:17,300 --> 00:44:20,240
So he's sort of also taking the place of Obie.

670
00:44:20,240 --> 00:44:22,280
Obie's kind of getting edged out.

671
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:24,280
He's spending more time with his girlfriend.

672
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:29,280
Bunting is coming in, but he's a little bit too eager, a little bit too sadistic, a little

673
00:44:29,280 --> 00:44:32,560
bit too willing to commit violence.

674
00:44:32,560 --> 00:44:37,620
So Archie's trying to tame him a little bit, but at the same time he's using him to get

675
00:44:37,620 --> 00:44:41,580
shit done because he doesn't like Obie and Laurie's new relationship.

676
00:44:41,580 --> 00:44:47,200
So he kind of gives Bunting the go ahead to do what he needs to do to stop that from happening

677
00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:48,880
anymore.

678
00:44:48,880 --> 00:44:57,760
So Bunting along with his two buddies, they go one night while Archie, while Obie is making

679
00:44:57,760 --> 00:45:03,760
out with Laurie in their car, sort of at like a makeout point, they open the doors, they

680
00:45:03,760 --> 00:45:09,460
push Obie to the ground, hold him down, they take her, pull her sweater up over her head

681
00:45:09,460 --> 00:45:17,360
so she doesn't see anything, exposing her breast in a bra, and Bunting reaches out and

682
00:45:17,360 --> 00:45:19,480
cups a handful.

683
00:45:19,480 --> 00:45:24,240
And then they, I don't know, they sort of run away or whatever.

684
00:45:24,240 --> 00:45:30,840
So sexual assault for sure, Laurie is traumatized, she breaks up with Obie, doesn't want to have

685
00:45:30,840 --> 00:45:34,600
anything to do with him, especially because he's part of that stupid Vigils and that she

686
00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:36,120
hates that.

687
00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:43,180
One moment.

688
00:45:43,180 --> 00:46:00,480
So Obie, having seen one of the shoes being scuffed, one moment, edit this up.

689
00:46:00,480 --> 00:46:10,200
So Obie, having seen one of the guy's shoes and it has like cut up sort of scuffed buckle

690
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:14,880
and ripped in-seat, or like the sole of the shoe, like he can recognize it.

691
00:46:14,880 --> 00:46:20,040
And so he searches, like that's just part of his new thing, is he's now just like looking

692
00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:23,840
at shoes all the time, he's like looking for who it could be.

693
00:46:23,840 --> 00:46:34,840
Archie, on the other hand, is, you know, he's trying to, he's sort of losing control of

694
00:46:34,840 --> 00:46:43,280
the Vigils, but he's gone a little bit too far and Carter, the president, he gives a

695
00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:50,480
letter to Leon telling him like what Archie's planning because he didn't want to embarrass

696
00:46:50,480 --> 00:46:52,520
the bishop because he is a religious guy.

697
00:46:52,520 --> 00:46:54,880
He thinks that that's a little bit just too far.

698
00:46:54,880 --> 00:47:02,800
And so now there's a rift between Obie, Archie, and Carter.

699
00:47:02,800 --> 00:47:20,760
And so they, okay, so you have Brother Leon is pressing Archie because he now is the new

700
00:47:20,760 --> 00:47:21,760
headmaster.

701
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:25,120
The headmaster didn't make it or he got too ill, you know, had to quit.

702
00:47:25,120 --> 00:47:32,280
And so now Brother Leon in control of the school is pressing Archie on, you know, the

703
00:47:32,280 --> 00:47:33,280
whole Vigils business.

704
00:47:33,280 --> 00:47:37,120
He's like, I want this, the end of the school year to be, you know, it's perfect.

705
00:47:37,120 --> 00:47:38,680
Like don't fuck this up.

706
00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:42,240
And Archie doesn't like being told what to do.

707
00:47:42,240 --> 00:47:45,900
So he wants to do, you know, he wants to do something.

708
00:47:45,900 --> 00:47:53,100
But Obie ends up finding out through Cornaccio or Harley, one of the two guys that he was

709
00:47:53,100 --> 00:48:01,360
one of the two other, besides bunting his buddies, finds him and he gets a meal, the

710
00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:06,880
bully to come with him on the promise of, you know, maybe getting into the Vigils next

711
00:48:06,880 --> 00:48:07,880
year.

712
00:48:07,880 --> 00:48:15,160
And he takes them with them to go confront this guy with, you know, some muscle and they

713
00:48:15,160 --> 00:48:19,300
end up, the guy confesses what they did.

714
00:48:19,300 --> 00:48:25,320
He didn't know about the getting a handful of breasts, but he did know that like they,

715
00:48:25,320 --> 00:48:27,120
you know, assaulted him or whatever.

716
00:48:27,120 --> 00:48:35,240
And so now Obie knows that it was bunting that did it and that Archie gave the go at.

717
00:48:35,240 --> 00:48:37,360
And so Obie starts planning his revenge.

718
00:48:37,360 --> 00:48:44,520
A heartbroken nerdy Obie, Archie's assistant is now on, is trying to get revenge.

719
00:48:44,520 --> 00:48:46,760
And this is where Ray Bannister comes into play.

720
00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:53,800
Because Ray Bannister shows Obie sleight of hand and close up magic.

721
00:48:53,800 --> 00:48:59,680
And Obie thinks to him, like has one of those eureka moments where he realizes that Archie

722
00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:06,560
has been possibly using sleight of hand this entire time to get out of doing assignments.

723
00:49:06,560 --> 00:49:12,480
So he uses that to his advantage later.

724
00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:15,440
And so here comes fair day.

725
00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:21,200
Oh, on the side, you have sort of Jerry's redemption art where him and Obie, him and

726
00:49:21,200 --> 00:49:28,800
Goober, sorry, they go, Emil is still torturing Jerry, like sees that he's back in town.

727
00:49:28,800 --> 00:49:30,600
He starts pacing in front of the dude's house.

728
00:49:30,600 --> 00:49:37,760
It's like it's fucked up and mean, but they follow Goober and Jerry follow Emil and Emil

729
00:49:37,760 --> 00:49:41,800
turns around and he kicks Goober in the nuts.

730
00:49:41,800 --> 00:49:48,200
And then Jerry follows him in this alley and he just puts his arms down and lets Emil punch

731
00:49:48,200 --> 00:49:53,440
him until Emil starts feeling like, what are you doing?

732
00:49:53,440 --> 00:49:54,440
Fight back.

733
00:49:54,440 --> 00:49:56,880
And Jerry's like, no, I'm not going to fight.

734
00:49:56,880 --> 00:50:01,520
And so Emil punches him, beats him up a little bit, but then he's like, you know what, just

735
00:50:01,520 --> 00:50:02,800
stay out of my fucking way.

736
00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:03,940
And he leaves.

737
00:50:03,940 --> 00:50:10,920
So Jerry does kind of win in a way, like at least Emil's not going to pick on him anymore.

738
00:50:10,920 --> 00:50:19,120
But and Goober did stand by his friend, so he kind of redeemed that aspect a little bit

739
00:50:19,120 --> 00:50:24,840
because he did feel like he let Jerry down last the last semester.

740
00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:28,980
So that's sort of that's their whole thing, I guess.

741
00:50:28,980 --> 00:50:30,520
But let's get back to Archie, right?

742
00:50:30,520 --> 00:50:33,560
Like he so now we've got Fair Day.

743
00:50:33,560 --> 00:50:38,920
Oh, I forgot about the sidebar, the whole David thing, the whole David.

744
00:50:38,920 --> 00:50:44,460
So in the book, not the movie, the movie Brother Leon fixes David's grade.

745
00:50:44,460 --> 00:50:51,080
In the book, he forgets to or at least the author forgot to address that plot point,

746
00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:52,120
I feel.

747
00:50:52,120 --> 00:50:57,480
And so I think he I don't think that was intentional because in the next book, it feels like he

748
00:50:57,480 --> 00:51:02,380
just took a dropped plot point and made it into a major plot point, which I like.

749
00:51:02,380 --> 00:51:08,840
So you get David who is a it cuts to he has like entire like little chapters.

750
00:51:08,840 --> 00:51:10,520
Where it's just his point of view.

751
00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:16,840
And he's just thinking to himself that like he tries to first kill himself and doesn't

752
00:51:16,840 --> 00:51:22,240
do it at the last minute because he thinks it's not fair that he kills himself and Brother

753
00:51:22,240 --> 00:51:24,320
Leon gets to live.

754
00:51:24,320 --> 00:51:26,560
So he gets a butcher knife.

755
00:51:26,560 --> 00:51:31,160
And then on Fair Day or Fool Day is what they call it.

756
00:51:31,160 --> 00:51:36,320
He confronts Brother Leon in his office, puts a butcher like butcher's knife to Brother

757
00:51:36,320 --> 00:51:37,920
Leon's throat.

758
00:51:37,920 --> 00:51:44,800
Brother Leon tricks him, like gets his diversion, like diverts his attention just enough to

759
00:51:44,800 --> 00:51:46,640
get away to fight him off.

760
00:51:46,640 --> 00:51:49,480
Another brother comes in and then David runs off.

761
00:51:49,480 --> 00:51:58,560
He ends up running to some high overpass thing and jumps to his death on some railroad tracks.

762
00:51:58,560 --> 00:52:06,480
But the way he dies and that last suicidal thought is haunting because the moment he

763
00:52:06,480 --> 00:52:11,640
is in the air, he regrets everything instantly.

764
00:52:11,640 --> 00:52:13,720
He's just like, no, no, what am I doing?

765
00:52:13,720 --> 00:52:18,280
And he thinks about his mom and his sister and his brother and all of his friends.

766
00:52:18,280 --> 00:52:23,320
And he just he like he starts screaming and then he dies.

767
00:52:23,320 --> 00:52:27,680
So like what a fucking tragic way for that character to die.

768
00:52:27,680 --> 00:52:34,920
And the reason he the reason he did that is because Brother Leon forgot to put his grade

769
00:52:34,920 --> 00:52:35,920
back.

770
00:52:35,920 --> 00:52:44,840
He went from valedictorian to not and a matter of just Brother Leon's whim to try to get

771
00:52:44,840 --> 00:52:47,320
information and it fucked him.

772
00:52:47,320 --> 00:52:49,080
And it just it's tragic.

773
00:52:49,080 --> 00:52:53,240
It's like and when he tells this Brother Leon, you know, he's just trying to live.

774
00:52:53,240 --> 00:52:54,920
So he's like, we could fix this.

775
00:52:54,920 --> 00:52:55,920
We could fix this.

776
00:52:55,920 --> 00:52:56,920
But no, there's no fixing it.

777
00:52:56,920 --> 00:52:58,120
It's done.

778
00:52:58,120 --> 00:53:01,320
And his life's already ruined putting a butcher knife this dude's head.

779
00:53:01,320 --> 00:53:07,720
So God, when I first read that as a younger, younger person, I was like, fuck, dude, that

780
00:53:07,720 --> 00:53:10,080
was brutal.

781
00:53:10,080 --> 00:53:16,840
But anyway, that that's one aspect of what's happening on Fool Day.

782
00:53:16,840 --> 00:53:25,220
But then it cuts back to Obie having convinced Ray Banister to do a magic act for the talent

783
00:53:25,220 --> 00:53:27,200
show portion of Fool Day.

784
00:53:27,200 --> 00:53:31,680
And the reason they call it Fool Day is because there's always a fool who has like a kick

785
00:53:31,680 --> 00:53:33,480
me sign on.

786
00:53:33,480 --> 00:53:38,400
And in the Vigil's meeting, it was going to be, you know, one student.

787
00:53:38,400 --> 00:53:44,440
But at the last minute, Obie, using slight a hand that he's been practicing, switches

788
00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:48,640
out all of the marbles with just black marbles.

789
00:53:48,640 --> 00:53:53,720
And so when Archie reaches in, he pulls out a black marble.

790
00:53:53,720 --> 00:53:59,280
And later you find out that he could have done slight a hand and pulled out a white

791
00:53:59,280 --> 00:54:00,280
one.

792
00:54:00,280 --> 00:54:02,600
But he had seen Obie do his thing.

793
00:54:02,600 --> 00:54:04,920
And he's just like, I want to see where this goes.

794
00:54:04,920 --> 00:54:07,400
And so it's kind of a cool move on Archie's part.

795
00:54:07,400 --> 00:54:10,240
He just goes with it and he becomes the fool.

796
00:54:10,240 --> 00:54:11,720
And so he has a kick me sign on.

797
00:54:11,720 --> 00:54:14,200
But no one at school dares kick Archie.

798
00:54:14,200 --> 00:54:15,200
It's kind of cool.

799
00:54:15,200 --> 00:54:21,280
He goes on the dunk tank and he's sitting there and nobody dares throws balls at it,

800
00:54:21,280 --> 00:54:22,280
which is cool.

801
00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:25,720
The kid does and he keeps missing the mark on purpose.

802
00:54:25,720 --> 00:54:29,040
And the guy who runs the dunk tank, he's like, you know what?

803
00:54:29,040 --> 00:54:30,040
Get out of here, kid.

804
00:54:30,040 --> 00:54:34,080
I don't know who you are, but I'm not going to make a dollar with you here.

805
00:54:34,080 --> 00:54:36,420
So he leaves.

806
00:54:36,420 --> 00:54:43,520
But then the last thing is Archie being used as the head for the guillotine magic trick.

807
00:54:43,520 --> 00:54:52,160
So earlier in the book, when Ray Bannister shows the trick to Obie, he smashes a cantaloupe

808
00:54:52,160 --> 00:54:55,580
or a cabbage with the blade.

809
00:54:55,580 --> 00:54:57,480
And then he gets his head underneath.

810
00:54:57,480 --> 00:55:01,440
And when the blade falls, it doesn't do any damage to us.

811
00:55:01,440 --> 00:55:03,600
Classic trick.

812
00:55:03,600 --> 00:55:04,600
Blows Obie's mind.

813
00:55:04,600 --> 00:55:05,840
He's like, we have to do this on stage.

814
00:55:05,840 --> 00:55:11,000
And then he gets the idea to use Archie, maybe scare Archie a little bit.

815
00:55:11,000 --> 00:55:13,420
And so he watches Ray.

816
00:55:13,420 --> 00:55:16,940
He's been practicing over and over and over with him on what to do.

817
00:55:16,940 --> 00:55:19,520
He's like his assistant, Obie the obedient.

818
00:55:19,520 --> 00:55:23,160
And Ray does his trick and Ray reaches up on the top bannister.

819
00:55:23,160 --> 00:55:25,640
After Archie's there and he hits the safety.

820
00:55:25,640 --> 00:55:31,480
After cutting a cantaloupe or a cabbage, I don't know why I think cantaloupe, but a cabbage

821
00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:33,000
clean in half.

822
00:55:33,000 --> 00:55:34,000
Perfectly this time.

823
00:55:34,000 --> 00:55:35,000
Like he perfected it.

824
00:55:35,000 --> 00:55:36,360
Like you could tell he's been working on it.

825
00:55:36,360 --> 00:55:40,960
He then puts Archie's head underneath, reaches up top and hits the safety button, the safety

826
00:55:40,960 --> 00:55:45,800
switch to make it so that it's now in, you know, you're not going to die mode.

827
00:55:45,800 --> 00:56:00,800
So Obie, he gets Carter to distract Ray just a little bit on stage so that Obie can reach

828
00:56:00,800 --> 00:56:06,920
up and switch it back off of safety mode, which he does.

829
00:56:06,920 --> 00:56:11,620
And so as the reader, as the listener, you're just sitting there going, oh my God, what's

830
00:56:11,620 --> 00:56:13,280
about to fucking happen?

831
00:56:13,280 --> 00:56:16,120
And the button gets pressed.

832
00:56:16,120 --> 00:56:23,120
The blade comes down and Archie's fine.

833
00:56:23,120 --> 00:56:25,080
And Obie doesn't know what's going on.

834
00:56:25,080 --> 00:56:29,760
And Ray looks at Obie with like a questioning look, but then finishes up the show.

835
00:56:29,760 --> 00:56:31,000
Huge applause.

836
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:32,240
Everyone loves it.

837
00:56:32,240 --> 00:56:34,920
Ray backstage turns to Obie.

838
00:56:34,920 --> 00:56:39,120
He goes like, man, I don't know what you were doing, but thank God we had that safety, that

839
00:56:39,120 --> 00:56:42,320
second safety, you know, that's on there.

840
00:56:42,320 --> 00:56:45,160
It's like, if we didn't, who knows what could have happened?

841
00:56:45,160 --> 00:56:49,440
You almost messed up there, Obie, you know, like maybe kind of laps it off and walks away

842
00:56:49,440 --> 00:56:52,240
thinking it wasn't like it was a mistake.

843
00:56:52,240 --> 00:56:53,240
Right.

844
00:56:53,240 --> 00:57:00,040
But Archie on the way out talking to Obie, Obie's like, Archie's like, huh, that was

845
00:57:00,040 --> 00:57:02,040
a little bit crazy, whatever.

846
00:57:02,040 --> 00:57:04,960
Like I can't believe he thought that, you know, whatever.

847
00:57:04,960 --> 00:57:09,080
I think he says like, um, you wouldn't have killed me.

848
00:57:09,080 --> 00:57:10,440
And Obie's like, I tried.

849
00:57:10,440 --> 00:57:12,040
No, you're wrong.

850
00:57:12,040 --> 00:57:13,040
I did.

851
00:57:13,040 --> 00:57:14,040
I hit the safety switch.

852
00:57:14,040 --> 00:57:15,640
I had no idea there was a second safety.

853
00:57:15,640 --> 00:57:16,640
I wanted you dead.

854
00:57:16,640 --> 00:57:18,640
And Archie's like, holy shit.

855
00:57:18,640 --> 00:57:19,640
I, okay.

856
00:57:19,640 --> 00:57:23,200
I kind of respect you for that, Obie.

857
00:57:23,200 --> 00:57:29,400
And, uh, that's how that sorta ends with them.

858
00:57:29,400 --> 00:57:38,480
And I think it's a better, it's, it's a depressing ending because the one kid kills himself.

859
00:57:38,480 --> 00:57:41,440
Archie almost actually dies.

860
00:57:41,440 --> 00:57:44,200
So he kind of gets his comeuppance.

861
00:57:44,200 --> 00:57:49,400
Uh, I don't know.

862
00:57:49,400 --> 00:57:58,680
I think this one had more, uh, suspense, more consequences, more personal victories and

863
00:57:58,680 --> 00:57:59,680
defeats.

864
00:57:59,680 --> 00:58:02,520
So I'm a big fan of Beyond the Chocolate War.

865
00:58:02,520 --> 00:58:06,720
The themes, I don't think it says like, I don't think this has been on very many controversial

866
00:58:06,720 --> 00:58:07,720
book lists.

867
00:58:07,720 --> 00:58:11,800
I think he made it tamer because he didn't want to have to deal with, um, having to fight

868
00:58:11,800 --> 00:58:17,320
this all the time because he was a, uh, Robert Cormier was a big, uh, fighter for not banning

869
00:58:17,320 --> 00:58:18,320
books.

870
00:58:18,320 --> 00:58:24,740
And he would like frequently write teachers and school boards or whatever, tried to defend

871
00:58:24,740 --> 00:58:27,680
his book being included.

872
00:58:27,680 --> 00:58:30,520
So one moment.

873
00:58:30,520 --> 00:58:34,480
Well, Evil Wins.

874
00:58:34,480 --> 00:58:35,480
That's the end of these books.

875
00:58:35,480 --> 00:58:40,240
Um, sorry, there's a bit of a pause there.

876
00:58:40,240 --> 00:58:41,240
I had to, someone's calling.

877
00:58:41,240 --> 00:58:45,240
Uh, so let's see Beyond the Chocolate War.

878
00:58:45,240 --> 00:58:52,040
I'm going to give, I'm going to give a four, uh, I have a rating system for this.

879
00:58:52,040 --> 00:59:01,040
I'm going to give this four Hamidah Jandubi out of five Hamidah Jandubis.

880
00:59:01,040 --> 00:59:07,200
And that is if you're, if you're curious, the last person to be sentenced to death by

881
00:59:07,200 --> 00:59:14,840
guillotine in Western Europe and be executed by it, which was 1977.

882
00:59:14,840 --> 00:59:17,040
It's not that long ago.

883
00:59:17,040 --> 00:59:23,560
So, um, he was the pimp killer and he viciously murdered someone.

884
00:59:23,560 --> 00:59:27,880
So they executed him by guillotine in the late seventies.

885
00:59:27,880 --> 00:59:34,240
Uh, so anyway, that was the last French, uh, execution if you were worried.

886
00:59:34,240 --> 00:59:39,200
Uh, so yeah, overall, if we're going to go Chocolate War and Beyond the Chocolate War,

887
00:59:39,200 --> 00:59:42,200
uh, young or old, doesn't matter your age.

888
00:59:42,200 --> 00:59:43,200
They're interesting.

889
00:59:43,200 --> 00:59:44,280
They're engaging.

890
00:59:44,280 --> 00:59:47,520
It's a nice slice of life for the time.

891
00:59:47,520 --> 01:00:00,040
There's a few like goofy, um, language, slang terminology components that are fun in hindsight

892
01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:05,280
because this was again made in the eighties and uh, seventies.

893
01:00:05,280 --> 01:00:11,280
So there's a lot of, uh, just, it just sounds, but it's, there's some things like we all

894
01:00:11,280 --> 01:00:14,240
say cool still, which I like.

895
01:00:14,240 --> 01:00:17,320
Uh, but yeah, there's some things.

896
01:00:17,320 --> 01:00:20,160
It's nice reading a book where without cell phones in it.

897
01:00:20,160 --> 01:00:22,440
I always liked that.

898
01:00:22,440 --> 01:00:29,480
Just there's something about pre cell phone era movies and books that are pre internet

899
01:00:29,480 --> 01:00:35,160
maybe is going to be, I think the distinction of classic and modern move.

900
01:00:35,160 --> 01:00:39,600
Like at some point people are going to be like, what's a classic cinema?

901
01:00:39,600 --> 01:00:45,480
And it's going to be anything pre internet where people are not using cell phones or

902
01:00:45,480 --> 01:00:47,480
computers to solve their problems.

903
01:00:47,480 --> 01:00:52,800
And I think more modern would be everything after that.

904
01:00:52,800 --> 01:00:54,400
That's just a, I just thought of that right now.

905
01:00:54,400 --> 01:00:59,640
So I don't know if that's a fully fledged, you know, philosophy, but whatever anyway.

906
01:00:59,640 --> 01:01:04,320
So overall, yeah, four chocolates out of five chocolates is what the whole chocolate war

907
01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:05,320
gets.

908
01:01:05,320 --> 01:01:10,000
And I recommend it to anybody.

909
01:01:10,000 --> 01:01:15,040
So and the movie, if you're a fan, if you haven't watched the movie, I saw it on Pluto

910
01:01:15,040 --> 01:01:18,560
I'm usually a fan of to be didn't to be didn't have it.

911
01:01:18,560 --> 01:01:21,400
Pluto has way too many fucking commercials.

912
01:01:21,400 --> 01:01:26,480
So but if you're willing to sponsor us Pluto, you know, not that many commercials.

913
01:01:26,480 --> 01:01:27,480
It was a lot.

914
01:01:27,480 --> 01:01:32,360
It was a lot of commercials and they were very long, but you were the only one that

915
01:01:32,360 --> 01:01:34,720
had it for free ish.

916
01:01:34,720 --> 01:01:39,120
Although I feel like the amount of time I spent watching ads, I don't know if it was

917
01:01:39,120 --> 01:01:43,520
worth the amount of time I saved or the amount of money I saved by watching it for free.

918
01:01:43,520 --> 01:01:46,960
And I'm using air quotes here.

919
01:01:46,960 --> 01:01:48,720
But again, great service, I guess.

920
01:01:48,720 --> 01:01:50,320
It's the first time I've used you.

921
01:01:50,320 --> 01:01:56,920
But please sponsor us maybe unless to be unless you're listening, you know, you know how we

922
01:01:56,920 --> 01:01:57,920
do.

923
01:01:57,920 --> 01:01:58,920
Fuck Pluto.

924
01:01:58,920 --> 01:02:01,920
Pluto, if you're listening, yeah, just do better, I guess.

925
01:02:01,920 --> 01:02:04,360
Less ads, probably.

926
01:02:04,360 --> 01:02:12,060
Anyway, next week's next that next week's book is another Robert Formier book.

927
01:02:12,060 --> 01:02:14,960
This one I had no idea existed.

928
01:02:14,960 --> 01:02:24,160
It's called We All Fall Down and it's about a kid Batman and not not a it's not a DC.

929
01:02:24,160 --> 01:02:28,820
There's no actual Batman in it, but it's about a kid who takes the law into his own hand

930
01:02:28,820 --> 01:02:34,560
after after viewing a traumatic event and becoming a vigilante.

931
01:02:34,560 --> 01:02:36,760
They call him the Avenger in the book.

932
01:02:36,760 --> 01:02:40,560
And it is so far about halfway through.

933
01:02:40,560 --> 01:02:41,900
Awesome.

934
01:02:41,900 --> 01:02:42,900
I love it.

935
01:02:42,900 --> 01:02:46,680
Maybe that's even why I sort of forgot what happened at the end of Beyond the Chocolor

936
01:02:46,680 --> 01:02:47,680
there for a second.

937
01:02:47,680 --> 01:02:53,760
But also, maybe I wanted there to be a happier ending because the first one had such a Evil

938
01:02:53,760 --> 01:02:55,280
Wind vibe.

939
01:02:55,280 --> 01:02:58,560
And then the second one has an Evil Evil Wind vibe.

940
01:02:58,560 --> 01:03:05,600
I mean, I know that there is Jerry decides to stay at he decides to go back to Trinity

941
01:03:05,600 --> 01:03:13,480
High and he decides to end his friendship with Uber and he decides to go but like that's

942
01:03:13,480 --> 01:03:15,280
like another form of rebellion.

943
01:03:15,280 --> 01:03:20,680
And since Robert Cormier died in 2000, you know, we're not going to get another chocolate

944
01:03:20,680 --> 01:03:28,080
war unless his family is a huge podcast listener.

945
01:03:28,080 --> 01:03:31,320
They scour the Internet for reviews of these books and they're listening to this right

946
01:03:31,320 --> 01:03:36,320
now and they're like, hey, you know what, we'll let you make a third one.

947
01:03:36,320 --> 01:03:39,920
Like I'll call it Chocolate War Summer School or something.

948
01:03:39,920 --> 01:03:48,520
And or or, you know, we just do the next year with Brother Leon and and a meal in the in

949
01:03:48,520 --> 01:03:52,880
the vigils and we follow Jerry's return.

950
01:03:52,880 --> 01:03:59,380
And maybe Laura Laura Laurie Gunderson comes in, you know, because I don't know.

951
01:03:59,380 --> 01:04:01,720
Or we make it modern day.

952
01:04:01,720 --> 01:04:02,720
What's Trinity High School?

953
01:04:02,720 --> 01:04:05,560
We can even make that into a TV series.

954
01:04:05,560 --> 01:04:06,720
We're being honest.

955
01:04:06,720 --> 01:04:09,320
What is Trinity High School doing today?

956
01:04:09,320 --> 01:04:10,800
What are the vigils up to today?

957
01:04:10,800 --> 01:04:13,280
And you make it just like a Pretty Little Liars or something.

958
01:04:13,280 --> 01:04:14,880
You know, it's a lot of hot young people.

959
01:04:14,880 --> 01:04:22,000
There's a bunch of steamy makeout scenes and then you get into the like the like the nitty

960
01:04:22,000 --> 01:04:29,200
gritty assignments and each episode could be a new assignment or just the ramification.

961
01:04:29,200 --> 01:04:30,200
I mean, this is so good.

962
01:04:30,200 --> 01:04:33,000
What am I just giving this out for free?

963
01:04:33,000 --> 01:04:36,280
Hit me up to be sorry, Pluto, whoever.

964
01:04:36,280 --> 01:04:37,280
Yes.

965
01:04:37,280 --> 01:04:38,800
Less less ads.

966
01:04:38,800 --> 01:04:39,800
We all fall down.

967
01:04:39,800 --> 01:04:44,000
Robert Cormier forgot the year.

968
01:04:44,000 --> 01:04:46,240
Sorry to look that up.

969
01:04:46,240 --> 01:04:50,000
But it's so far super good.

970
01:04:50,000 --> 01:04:52,440
I'm really digging it.

971
01:04:52,440 --> 01:04:53,600
And that's going to be next week.

972
01:04:53,600 --> 01:04:55,400
I will see you all then.

973
01:04:55,400 --> 01:04:58,320
I hope the audio has been.

974
01:04:58,320 --> 01:05:01,400
It's 1991 is when that came out.

975
01:05:01,400 --> 01:05:03,280
I hope the audio has been a little bit better.

976
01:05:03,280 --> 01:05:04,280
I'm sorry.

977
01:05:04,280 --> 01:05:09,040
We're still learning here at the podcast and, you know, adding music in post.

978
01:05:09,040 --> 01:05:10,400
I hope it's already playing.

979
01:05:10,400 --> 01:05:13,800
If it isn't, I'm not doing my job right.

980
01:05:13,800 --> 01:05:16,280
And hopefully I'll try to add this up a little bit.

981
01:05:16,280 --> 01:05:18,040
But thanks for listening, guys.

982
01:05:18,040 --> 01:05:19,040
And I'll see you next week.

983
01:05:19,040 --> 01:05:21,040
And don't forget to bring your copy of the book.

984
01:05:21,040 --> 01:05:22,040
All right.

985
01:05:22,040 --> 01:05:29,040
Have a good night.