Blog Presentation Replies!

(I've posted these comments on the individual blog posts that each group used, but I'm re-posting them here for convenience).

Group #1: ~ Jonathan, Ashley *sorry, I can't remember who else!*:

Yay! I just did a 500-word blog post about this! My answer to your question is yes, I do think that technology is a positive thing in the reading world because when you consider for example cinematography, which lets people know about different kinds of books in existance by turning them into movies, or websites that let you order online and therefore increase the accessibility of books, technology really does seem to be helping today's reading culture. (I elaborate more on this in my blog post if anyone's curious...).

Group #2 ~ Team Awesome (us)

Group #3 ~ Betty, Cindy, Erin, Sydney:

Each member of this group gave their own opinion of what the theme in Hey Nostradamus! is. Personally, I think one of the most dominant themes in the novel is forgiveness. When you think about it, all throughout the novel you've got people asking to be forgiven, examples being Jeremy (one of the gunmen), Cheryl's parents in their letters to Jason, and Reg at the end of the novel. What I find interesting is that Coupland doesn't really say whether of not these people are forgiven. I guess he leaves it up to interpretation: it's up to us to decide where the line is drawn between when you can still be forgiven and when your sins are so deep that forgiveness is no longer possible.

Group #4 ~ Brazil, Nathan, Fahad, and Francesca:

Nathan mentioned the importance of the prayers that appear in Cheryl's portion of the novel. I just wanted to add to that in how I thought it was interesting that Professor Ogden didn't mention them in lecture, considering how they strongly support the Belief/Doubt parallel that he brings up so often. The prayers are, well, prayers, so obviously praying to God is an act of believing in Him. Yet like Nathan said, most if not all of the prayers mention something along the lines of losing faith, or doubting, the existance of God. For example:
"Dear Lord, [...] Cheryl [...] wrote [...] "God is nowhere". Maybe she was right." (25)
So there you go! To believe (pray) is to doubt (lose faith). I think that would have been really strong proof for Ogden's argument!

Cheers!