Boundaries & Expectations or "I'm Chuck Bass"

This week’s readings were on complete and total opposite ends of the spectrum. Hotlanta is fluff and No Choirboy is beyond serious and real.

Susan Kuklin’s No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row is the most somber and depressing book we’ve read this semester. I didn’t want to continue reading it after the first chapter. It’s an interesting read though. I think teens are particularly interested in and passionate about moral issues and justice and fairness. This book has all that. You get to see these men as human beings with deep and complex feelings and I think that’s very important to teens. I think that they like to be understanding of things especially when society as a whole does not want to understand these men on death row.
The men in this book are surrounded by boundaries and rules and yet they've broken society's ultimate rule by killing. In prison they have live to their lives by very specific rules or they could die. It also seems that they’ve lost all expectations of anything good happening. They only expect anger, violence, and sadness.

Hotlanta is bananas! I think the authors really nailed how viciously siblings can fight and the kind of crazy hyperemotional states teens can get into. The book is like a soap opera—almost completely implausible—which is part of its appeal. I think teens (and a lot of adults) like that super over-the-top, crazy drama and this book definitely has that. These girls don’t really seem to have any boundaries either. They act without thinking of any possible consequences. However, they do seem to have a lot of expectations of themselves. Sydney in very driven in her academic and extra-curricular activities. She wants to get into the best colleges. Lauren is driven as a dancer and is hard on her dance team. She wants to be the best dancer.
Their mother kind of reminds me of Delonda, Namon's mother, on The Wire. In some ways, I guess she is driven too. She wanted out of her former life and wanted one of extreme riches.

Sadly, this book does not compare to the sheer awesomeness that is Gossip Girl. OMG, I love this series (both the books & the show). I especially love Chuck Bass in all his depraved, smarmy glory. It’s like Chuck has a vague idea of how people are supposed to act but most of the time he doesn’t really understand it. (I also kind of wish they’d give TV Chuck a monkey like his monkey, Sweetie, in the books.) Anyway, it’s that same over-the-top, crazy drama that is so appealing. Also, everything is beautiful and glamorous on the outside in the GG world but behind that glossy façade lie some seriously dark secrets. I don’t think fans of GG are necessarily sitting around dreaming of being filthy rich. I mean part of it is that completely different life: shopping at the 3 B's (Barney's, Bergdorf's, and Bendel's), fabulous parties all the time, amazing vacations, running around the city going to all the hottest clubs and restaurants. But it’s also the totally ridiculous drama that brings them in. They know life isn’t really like this but the characters act on their every emotion all the time and being a teen is a highly-emotional time. It's like the viewers can be like "OMFG! I can't believe Blair did that. That's so f'ed up."

XOXO