Amazing Grace: From A Cartoon to Reality

It was a normal day, except I was watching Case Closed: Full Score of Fear. (名探偵コナン 戰慄の樂譜) I am not going to tell you the entire plot, probably some, but definitely I am going to tell you the inspiration it gives me. This movie basically describes a consecutive murder on musician, and a bombing attack during an orchestra by “Amazing Grace”. (Please look up if you are interested in how this all works.)The plot has almost nothing to do with what I am talking about, which just gives you an understanding of what I am discussing next…

“Amazing Grace,” a wild-known music that praises things, or could also be defined as purity, but what if purity is mixed with guilt(the bombing)? It might be an interesting question.

The world is full of perfection and imperfection, so in other words, that means grace with disgrace. For example, a person might be tripped by water when he goes to the ball park, which the person will usually complain. Frankly, it is definitely acceptable to complain about the unfairness of life, but rarely of us praise the little luckiness in his life, such as going to the ball park on time after being tripped. Just like the families of victims in Full Score of Fear, what they care is just victims’ lack of luck, while they do not understand is that they are popular musicians that have reputation and plenty of money…. That hatred might lead to another murder…

Thus, bad things continue, but good things rarely increases due to the huge desire of humanity, that some people consider good things should always happen on them. The world itself still creates a lot of perfection, but greedy humanity kills the majority of it… Going back to the original question, purity is the world, and that deadly guilt is not human beings, but their minds, which is going to swallow the world someday… As Conan has said in another episode, “Detectives do not decrease the crime rate, nor stabilise, because we are not that grateful to change our, human, minds, nor ourselves.”

Knowing that humanity is so dark and hopeless; however, there is a way to change this corrupted society- Being amazing and graceful. Because of amazement, unfortunate pasts will be replaced; because of grace, hatred will be forgotten!

That’s everything I gain spiritually from a single cartoon!!

Book Review: The Scorch Trials

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The remaining subjects were sent to a scorch, where they were supposed to cross through 100 miles in two weeks to get the “cure” of the Flare, because the WICKED planted the virus in their brain. Teresa was in another group of subjects, all girls.

During the second trial, candidates met a lot of random but calculated situations, such as silver metal that ate human head, and meeting the heavily infected community, or Cranks. They also met two leaders in that shelter, Brenda and Jorge, who helped them get through the area. Cranks would attack or kill every living creature they have seen, so that was the reason to have a new alliance. After that, Thomas was kidnapped by Teresa’s group, which Teresa said that it was just an act to save everyone. Although it turned out to be true, Thomas never trusted Teresa anymore, instead he trusted Brenda.

Finally, some candidates reached the final destination, but there was no cure but another monster. A lot of them sacrificed, and a WICKED berg came to save all the remaining candidates. WICKED told them that this was another trial, and they have almost every data collected. Now, it’s time for them to find the cure themselves….

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This book remains interesting, but the introduction of WICKED seems to be so short that does not even bring awareness to the readers. I like the part that people were murdered by the head-eating silver ball because it was kind of bloody… The new members, Jorge, Brenda, Harriet, Aris, Rachel, and Rat-man(Janson, my personal favourite, increase the complexity of the Scorch Trials.

Another climax is the betrayal of Teresa, which is probably the most interesting part in this book; and this plot also connects with The Maze Runner- Thomas and Teresa were really close in the maze, but this book reveals the hate Thomas has on Teresa due to her act. This shows a contradicting situation, to save a person or to “act” betrayal to a person, which might be a questionable problem.

This was a continuation of The Maze Runner, but there are several points that frustrate me, including its, again, repetition of words, minor explanation on WICKED, and more importantly, no implication of how the blueprint works. Basically, I think that the author puts too much emphasis on the Scorch but ignores the main of this whole trilogy, the Flare.

 

Book Review: The Maze Runner

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I’ve read a lot of books before, but not this best-selling trilogy!!

 

Thomas was thrown into a place, whose memories have all been deleted by a group called WICKED. A lot of people with no memories about their pasts have been living there for a while. They lived in a maze that was basically impossible to be deciphered, a place where the Grievers stayed, and those who were stung would go through “The Changing.” A woman called Teresa was sent here one day after Thomas’s transfer, but she was unconscious. During this time, Thomas went into the maze at night in an attempt to save Alby, the first Glader, and Minho, the runner. Instead of being killed by the Grievers, he killed them. Several disputes have occurred among the leaders regarding Thomas, but they decided to let him be the leader of Runner. He and Minho discovered some facts about the Grievers. And then Teresa was awake….

Thomas found out that he and Teresa are telepathic, and a lot of strange things happened after Teresa’s regaining consciousness. The Grievers took one Glader per day, and Teresa kept telling him about that the maze was just a code. As time passed, they have found out more and more things about the maze- the code of shutting the maze has been discovered, and all they needed was to go to the hole of Grievers to have a final battle. According to what Thomas has discovered, the place for entering the code was in a small hole of a huge sky. Thomas, Teresa, and Chuck, Thomas’s best friend in the Glade, ran together to that final destination. They did and killed the maze; however with heavy casualties.

They walked to the center of WICKED, a scientific organisation that explored the brain interaction during intense activities, which would include sacrifice. WICKED told them a tiny part of everything, that they were here to find a cure of Flare, a widespread disease that killed almost everyone on the planet. WICKED manipulated Gally, a person Thomas hated the most due to his opposition toward him, to throw a knife at him, but Chuck sacrificed for him instead…….

All the survivors went to another place for a new trial…

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I think that The Maze Runner is the best one in this trilogy due to its unique writing style and creative idea with various combinations of topics. The author has perfectly used a fantasy, the maze, to support or build upon a reality, the Flare. Certainly there are a lot of interesting facts that are used in The Maze Runner, such as Thomas and Teresa’s telepathy, Gally’s opposition, Thomas’s  friendship with Chuck, Newt supporting Thomas, Alby’s sacrifice due to his fear of the flare, Minho’s use of Glader words, the Grievers, and more importantly, the conspiracy, probably, behind WICKED.

The book is really surprising at the end- the fact that the maze was built for a scientific experimentation for a cure of the Flare, and everything has been expected by WICKED’s scientists. It is unbelievable  that the author is able to write a book with such complexity, but remains coherent and interesting. In addition, I could make deduction of the maze as those characters explored more clue. Thus, it is actually interesting from the beginning; the twisting ending is a huge bonus.

However, the repetition of certain words irritated me, such as “contemplative,” “breathe,” and “serum.” I really hope that the author could use a variety of vocabularies so that the book itself will not be dull speaking of literature. Another advice is that characters should have more personalities because that helps readers remember the properties of each character, so it will not be abrupt when somebody does something.

Overall, The Maze Runner is a good book, but “The Scorch Trials” and “The Death Cure” are not as good as I thought!

Where Am I

It felt like as if I were the only person in this ugly world, or scientifically, a chaotic destruction of astronomy or geography has dominated this beautiful planet, and me, as an isolated and hated individual, had been thrown into an unexplored ruin. Where Am I?

I was in a huge house, haunted probably, but certainly it was a mansion. Piles of books were on a rectangular table, so possibly I was and remains erudite. I had studied and studied for who knows how long that the effect of dehydration started, and suddenly I recalled my body hasn’t absorbed a single drip of hydro since mourning, it was midnight already, I was desperate to get a glass of water; thus I moved slowly to the faucet, but unexpectedly an object tripped me. Succumbing to the gravity, I fell down to the horizon; simultaneously, an agonising pain was made by the disliking floor, followed by crimson liquid…. which overwhelmed myself.

Fortunately, I was alive with lacerations cured, which might be a miracle when no medical treatment had been applied. I stood up and walked toward the faucet to clean up myself and the floor, then I went to bed to alleviate exhaustion. Still wondering where I am.

It was an endless night for me- my brain was not able to take consideration of a single fact, nor a simple mathematic. Fresh air was all around my huge body, but somehow it malfunctioned my cardio, making me suffocated. In spite of inability of thinking, mountains of pasts stroke my tiny and currently useless brain, thus I remembered nothing; I tried to end my consciousness by staring at the darkness, and after several attempts, I did….

But that annoying question comes again- where am I? The Earth might not be an option. Then where could I be?

I felt the breeze of a lovely place- undoubtedly, a natural, undeveloped, unexplored, and “unimperfect” community, or kingdom. Again I was thrown into a place without a trace of humanity with fruits everywhere, endless mountains everywhere, spectacular waterfalls everywhere, blue skies everywhere, and white clouds everywhere. The world was smiling to me! And it was really clear that the question will not bother me anymore because I could live here for eternity. I COULD LIVE HERE FOR ETERNITY.

Nonetheless, it will, and is more painful in most people’s opinions.

It has approximately been three days that I stayed in the “paradise,” where I have been fed up by abundant resources that I was not even capable of moving. I almost forgot the problem I have been inquiring, enchanted by everything here. The night was bright due to the shininess of Sirius, as well as other constellations, so I closed my eyes and ended the brightness…

It was a nightmare for me, again in a suffocated place. It was similar to my mansion, except I have seen mechanics on my every single part of body. My room was white, not giving me a sense of energy or cleanliness however, hearing a unfamiliar sound outside of this room, apparently talking about me….

WHAT ABOUT ME?

A rat-like man touched my blanket-covered stomach, and then he said the most astonishing news I have ever heard…. “this is your last 150 seconds of life, you will spend 130 seconds to “read” everything that we have done to you, and twenty seconds to have your last will said…..” Although I pretended to be unsurprised, disbelief has shown on my face….

“No matter how shocking the story was, please be silent until your finality, when your are allowed to indicate your words,” he said.

He gave me two letters and asked me to open the red one. The letter contained a plethora of words…

By: Carlin Innesta

To: Ian Huang

7/23/15 11:20

Your Astonishing Adventure

As you’ve known right now, you have only ten minutes left, thus I am not gonna hide anything. You’re a highly intelligent human being, a man who explores interaction of cerebral nerves, a man who desperately wants to find a way to create delusions autonomously for a purpose, which would be a scientific breakthrough if it would happen. However, sarcastically, when you were exploring that, you suffered from amnesia, a disease that you know more than anyone else; a disease of your profession. Knowing that memories would be losing everyday, you used yourself as a guinea pig, which was extraordinarily dauntless. I, as a most threatening competitor of yours, really admired your sacrifice to science; the spirit of your abnegation toward experimentation would definitely be recognised by history and followed by future humanity. 

You, Ian, had used some chemical reactions in order for you to achieve your ultimate purpose. You first dreamed of a day that you were almost finished with the thesis on autonomous delusions and prepared to present tomorrow; that haunted mansion was your home, that you worked on it for 15 hours without moving. However, you fell down and lost the majority of your memories after medical treatments. For the paradise in your dream, it was just a three-day trip to New Zealand, which had been the most interesting activity you’ve had in your whole life. You had basically done nothing other than science, so that’s unique in your life. 

This whole experiment was done by me, Carlin Innesta, due to your trust of my ability and my admiration toward you; therefore, you gave me all the papers regarding this subject prior to the execution, and I, fortunately, achieved your final hope, your most important purpose, in your life…. 

You had told me that you never cared about the past, but for this time, you do or did.     So Ian, you could probably guess it by now, your purpose of this delusion was—– TO LET YOU REMEMBER THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS IN YOUR LIFE, AND TO DIE AFTER THAT…. which is a side effect of conducting autonomous illusions. 

We have calculated you reading speed, so mathematically, you still have 35 seconds of life. After reading following sentences, you will have 23 seconds of it. 

— History will recognise your ultimate sacrifice to science, and to our nation, and               Your achievements will be perfectly manipulated for further explorations, and real-life application. 

Best Regards

Carlin Innesta

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I put this letter on the table next to me, and opened the other blank letter to write my last words, which exactly took me three seconds.. I was fearless now.

I wrote “Sometimes, It’s Better To Die With Glory Than To Survive With Dull. More importantly, A GRATEFUL MAN HAS NO FEAR TO DIE FOR A PURPOSE; A SUCCESSFUL SCIENTIST HAS NO FEAR TO DIE FOR AN EXPLORATION.

I took my last breath, deep, and said “I..’ve..achi…eved…bo…th…..of……’em…no regrets…. I…’m fu….lfill…ed…no…t…..su…b…mer….ge….d……”

Finally, I smiled as I went to the real Paradise…. 

Apparently, it was not a problem of “where am I,” but a matter of accomplished life or goalless one. Sometimes, we are so fear of  death that we forget the ultimate purpose in our life. In majority’s opinions, death is more painful than a useless life; however, frankly speaking, useless life is just wasting your time in the “real Paradise”!!!