February 2019

-Luigi’s Mansion, obviously. Particularly this quote from the man himself:

“I really should work out more. Maybe I ought to throw a few quick jabs while I’m here…”

In the future, I’d like to start a series of posts on this blog, all of which are related in some way to video games. Since that’s one of the major themes on this blog, I’d like to explore something like that. I think it could really help me become a more consistent writer.

 

-Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Quite a humorous quote for such a serious book:

“Sometimes I even forget you’re a fireman. Now, may I
make you angry again?”
“Go ahead.”

This quote was found when Clarisse, the person who starts to change Montag, questions him about his life very thoroughly. This represents how sometimes there are people or experiences that make us completely question our entire life and maybe make some changes. I’d like to explore that in my writing and get some dystopian work done.

 

March 2019

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway (War Novel)

“I loved you when I saw you today and I loved you always but I never saw you before.”

This is a quote said by the beautiful Maria to the American, Robert Jordan. It describes how she felt that she was loving him before she knew him, as though she knew she was incomplete before him. The lack of punctuation in this sentence makes it flow better like more dialogue, making Maria’s words seem more genuine and similar to her carefree and quick personality.

With this line, I’d like to maybe explore war novels and war writing some more. This really shows how that even in times of war, the human tendencies of love and can prevail.

 

The Dark Knight – Christopher Nolan (Drama/Thriller Film)

The District Attorney of Gotham City, Harvey Dent, was elected to crack down on crime, before having half his face burned off and turning evil to avenge his girlfriend’s death, although he himself was saved by Batman.

This quote tells about how heroes show power and bravery, something that Dent showed along with his ally, Batman. However, those who deal with evil and pain can be hit hardest by these things, similar to how war heroes can become scarred and changed after their experiences. The following is a quote that immediately came to mind:

“He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

– Friedrich Nietzsche

As time goes by, and one’s life progresses, they become better acquainted with the dark side of this world, and especially those who seek it out are more likely to fall in. This quote says that if anyone, even a hero, lives long enough, they will eventually become a monster, fuelled by exactly what they sought to destroy. These motives of destruction become more apparent in one’s life as time goes by.

In regards to writing on this, I’d like to capture that progression of good to evil through a first-person perspective, similar to a coming of age story.

 

April 2019

I watched Avengers: Endgame the night after it came out. It was great. Don’t worry, in case you haven’t seen it yet, there are no spoilers in this text.

Avengers: Endgame – Steve Rogers “Captain America” (Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Superhero)

“I keep telling everybody they should move on and grow. Some do. But not us.”

I think it’s okay for me to talk about Avengers: Infinity War since it came out like last year (and everyone who wanted to watch it already did). In that movie, Thanos successfully killed half of the universe. This quote is from Captain America in Avengers: Endgame talking about how although people have died, it is best if the general population moves forward. Of course, The Avengers are not part of the general population.

This quote tells me that no matter what happens, we need to move forward. This line says that in two ways. It says that “everybody” needs to move on and grow and stop dwelling on the past, as it will only hurt them. In this way, they are advancing themselves. However, The Avengers are also advancing themselves by going backward and not moving on. This really shows the importance of moving forward and hoping for the future whilst also recognizing the benefit in looking into the past. I fear I can’t talk more about the movie without giving away major spoilers. In regards to writing, I think this can help me become a more poetic writer to think about the human condition in this way.

 

I was browsing the public library and a certain book in the self-help section caught my eye. It was baby blue and titled The Antidote, but what really caught my eye was the tagline on the cover. “Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking.” This immediately spoke to me, so I picked up my first ever self-help book. The following quote was found on page 7 of the book.

The Antidote – Oliver Burkeman

“And that it is our constant efforts to eliminate the negative – insecurity, uncertainty, failure, or sadness – that is what causes us to feel so insecure, anxious, uncertain, or unhappy.”

This quote attracts me because it confirms the ugly truth that I have had in the back of my mind for quite a while. If you try to focus on what you feel you are obligated to have, you will find that your own life pales in comparison. This quote really inspires me and now I would like to work on some non-fiction philosophical or contemplative work.

 

May/ June 2019

I encountered a Reddit post that put me in a little bit of an existential crisis. I can’t find the actual post, but this is basically what it said.

If you’ve thrown a rock into the water, it’s probably going to be the last time that a human will touch that rock.

This immediately brought to mind the river writing poetry assignment that we did, especially considering I wrote about stone skipping. This really reminded me of how we are outnumbered and outclassed by nature in every possible way.  There are probably billions of small stones all across the world. How can we possibly think that we control nature? We can try to protect ourselves from it, but in the end, it will always knock us down. I feel inspired to write something about nature now, something poetic hopefully.

 

The following quote is from the movie “Les Miserables” that we watched in English class. The police inspector Javert is explaining where he came from.

“You know nothing of Javert!
I was born inside a jail.
I was born with scum like you.
I am from the gutter too.”

Javert is the antagonist who acts upon a black-and-white belief of justice. By providing us with a bit of his backstory, we are able to assume that his rise from the slums to such a high position must have had some influence from his past.  This makes me want to write a very specific type of story in which we are lead to believe that one individual is wholly evil, but in reality we actually don’t understand their situation and so they are actually a really nice person.

 

September 2019

My grade 10 year was a huge breakthrough for me in terms of my writing skill and comfort. This year, I’d like to push my boundaries to the point where I no longer feel comfortable at any given moment, and this begins with finding inspiration.

The first bit of inspiration was a quote I heard on NASA TV, coming from the great astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson:

“According to the song, Rudolph’s nose is shiny, which means it reflects rather than emits light. Useless for navigating fog.”

This quote really exemplifies the nature of science: questioning everything that seems to be known and accepted. We never stop to think about what we have always been told, and this is one of the reasons that many people are against science. It removes some of the comfort and certainty that we enjoy so much in our lives.

With this quote, I was thinking that I could create a series on my blog in which I question the fundamentals of society and what we believe to be true. As a naturally argumentative person, I think this should be a great long-term project for me.

 

The next quote is a line about writing that I originally saw when I opened up my NoRedInk account:

“In writing, punctuation plays the role of body language. It helps readers hear the way you want to be heard.”

-Russel Baker

Some literature, like plays, are meant to be seen and heard in the way intended by the writer. But novels can be much more confusing because analysis of the text lies more so on the reader and how they interpret the text. For this reason, using punctuation is extremely important to convey the way a story is meant to be told since you can’t actually see what the author saw when he was writing the book.

Currently, my grammar is pretty bad, so I’d like to use this quote to remind me of the importance of correct punctuation. This is true for essays, poetry, and fiction work.

 

October 2019

In October, I discovered a song titled “Chanel” by Frank Ocean. This song is really inspiring because it deals with symbols of money, happiness, and living a stressful life. It gives some insight into the lives of stars and how maybe they don’t actually live as different from us as we think.

I’d like to focus on this in my writing: the universality of human life and how technically we all still have the same needs.

 

Something else that inspired me in October was a book that I was reading at the time: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. My favourite quote from this novel was:

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

This quote is when Nick is reflecting about Gatsby’s pursuit of Daisy. Sometimes, people are so caught up in a dream that they are actually moving backwards because of it, so it is important to recognize when that’s happening.

November 2019

This month’s inspirations were actually pretty cool, and the first one comes from a novel I read: The Book of Negroes.

“I had chosen freedom, with all its insecurities, and nothing in the world would make me turn away from it.”

Freedom is interesting because sometimes the pursuit of it can put someone at greater risks. Here, the character, Aminata, is stating how she understands that there are greater risks when she chooses to live more freely; however, she doesn’t care as freedom is her one true goal.

I am interested in watching MMA and maybe even getting into it in the future. The current Lightweight division champion in the UFC is a Russian man named Khabib Nurmagomedov. He spoke the following lines about fighting in the UFC and how he has never once lost a fight.

“You have to punch hard for knockouts, and to beat me, you have to knock me out.”

Khabib has never been knocked out, and he also hasn’t ever been beaten, so he must be correct. However, within this quote, he also implies that he can’t be beaten until he has lost consciousness. Khabib wins most of his fights from getting his opponent to quit the match after he repeatedly either tries to choke or submit them, but Khabib is saying how this will never happen to him. If he loses, he never gave up – he was physically unable to keep on fighting.

I want this to be true in my own life as well: if I’m going to lose, I can’t give up. I need to keep on fighting until I am physically unable to continue to do so.

December / January 2019/20

This month was pretty uneventful for me overall. I spent winter break sulking over my sickness, and most of January just feeling stressed out because of exams. However, I did manage to find *one* quote that inspired me this month:

“Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.”

This is a saying that the United States Special Forces goes by. In dire situations, the team of four operatives needs to move slow enough so that they have time to assess the situation and take cover if necessary, but fast enough so that they don’t get flanked.

This is what I want to do in terms of writing. Often, I write very quickly and lose interest soon after, which doesn’t allow me to write longer pieces. So, I want to focus on writing slowly and more consistently, but not too slow so that I forget what I’m doing and lose flow.