Book Review : The Autobiography of a Super Tramp

Book Review : The Autobiography of a Super Tramp


Summary :

This book is the autobiography of W. H. Davies, from his childhood to the beginning of its career as a writer.

After the death of his parents when he was very young, W. H. Davies was adopted by his grandparents. Though being a good student and showing an intelligence that made the adults expecting great things of him in the future (notably due to his orator’s talent), he organizes a robber band with some of his comrades. But one day, a member of the band is caught red handed. That ended the band and his school days, as his grandparents didn’t allow him to go out anymore after that incident. Then he follows an apprenticeship that bores him, and a few months after ending it, he decides to go to the United States.

At first fascinated  by the atmosphere and the kindness of the people, he finds himself without any resources after a few weeks. Fortunately, he meets Brum, a tramp, who teaches him the art of tramping :  he shows him where and how to beg, how to sleep and how to travel from city to city. After this meeting, he meets other beggars with who he lives, alternating between begging, working and false promises of coming back, while still dreaming of a normal life in a little house. But after five years of a life as a beggar, he is fed up with his actual life and manages to go back to England. There, he receives the inheritance of one of his aunt deceased during his travel across the United States. At first promising himself to go live a normal life, he finally gives up to the temptation of going to the Canadian Klondyke after seeing that an article in a newspaper talking about the gold that can be collected over there.

Unfortunately, he cuts his own feet when trying to jump on a train driving.  Due to this accident, he is compelled to undergo an chirurgical operation that led to the amputation of its leg. Then he returns in England.

After his failures with the tramp life he tries to start a career of writer. He goes to London to do so. After a few failures and some come-backs to the tramp life, he manages to publish a novel thanks to the help of the proprietary of the lodge house where he lives and the unexpected help of some critics.


Opinion :

I chose this book because it reminds me of the surname that Christopher MacCandless chose when making a new ID document on the Mexican border. The way Davies travels through the United States also makes me think that the idea of travelling by train that Christopher MacCandless has is owing to him having read this book.

As far as my opinion on this book is concerned, I think that the book in itself, though being quite unstructured as the author tells the reader his own personnal story, is quite interesting, as it is a testimony of his time.
We can see how the beggars lived at his time in the United States, what kind of strategies they used to earn money : the simple begging in the streets, begging from door to door, selling things like laces for much more than their real price, singing in the streets before the houses  so that the inhabitants would throw some shillings. We also see what were the dangers of travelling by train for the tramps. We also see the life in the lodge houses.

Another interesting thing is the vision that the author has of the beggars : he asserts that the more the beggar was rich in his former life, the less likely he will be clean in his life as a beggar.


I also learnt that it was quite easy to find a job at this time, as few qualifications were required.

We can also see that explicit racism was allowed in the texts, as the author, though not being direct, is obviously racist : during the chapter where he talks about black people, he only talks about the injustices he saw commited by black people.

Finally, The author also denounces the corruption of some systems. In the United States, both of the judge and the marshall gets a reward for each person arresteed and condemned to prison. As a consequence, quite a strange system was set up : beggars that want to sleep in a warm place during winter tells the marshall tha they want to do so, they decide of the fault for which they are condemned and the time they stay in prison and even gets some money from the marshall as both this last and the judge will get some from the state for the imprisonment of the beggar. Also, he never managed to get the help of the Charity Organisation, whereas he knew someone that lived in the same lodge house and that managed to get their financial help thanks to a fiction he invented when he had to talk about his life, and that wasted all the money that he was given by the organisation to drunk himself.



Vocabulary :

to be caught red handed : être pris  la main dans le sac

a tramp : un vagabond

a bumper : un pare-choc

a wrinkle : une ride

to scull : faire avancer à la rame

to reckon : estimer

elapse : s’écouler

abstemiously : frugalement

to covet : convoiter

The Prophet by Gibran Khalil Gibran

The Prophet (1923) most known book by Gibran, written in English and translated into more than fifty languages, which is considered the greatest noval.  It has social meditative and philosophical content, which contains a summary of views of love, marriage, children, houses, buying and selling, freedom and compassion and punishment, religion and morality, life and death, pleasure and beauty, generosity and laws …, that have been received on the tongue of a prophet named "Mustafa", mystic believer pantheistic, who has a message that spirits thirst to return to their source, and that love is the essence of life. In the book The Prophet Gibran expresses his views in life through the treatment of human relationships that bind human to human beings.

Mustafa pronounce poetry mixed with wisdom dived in human depths to admire human beings and nature, love and life. He pours light that enlighten the good in life, believing in human, goodness, clarity and purity of evils. He whispered to the great self inherent in all human beings, which remove the material pictures to meet a united peacekeeping in the world of the sky.

Mustafa remained twelve years in Orphalese awaiting his ship to come back to the island, where he was born. He climbed the hill to see the ship coming. He flew of joy and clenched his eyes repeating prayers, remembering parting the city, so he fell in deep sadness saying: “How shall I go in peace and without sorrow? Nay, not without a wound in the spirit shall I leave this city. Long were the days of pain I have spent within its walls, and long were the nights of aloneness; and who can depart from his pain and his aloneness without regret?”

While he was on his way past, both men and women have left their fields and vineyards with haste towards the gates of the city shouting in his name and asking him to stay, saying: “You have walked amoung us a spirit and your shadow has been a light upon our faces. Much have we loved you. But speechless was our love, and with veils has it been veiled. Yet now it cries aloud unto you, and would stand revealed before you. And ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation.”

In the large square, in front of the temple, people asked him to speak to them and reveals to them about the mysteries and brief them including what he has of knowledge.

So they started wondering in everything that excites them and take things from Mustafa telling them the world of wisdom and knowledge.

He talked about the world of love: where Love is not given but itself, and does not take but from itself. Love does not have, nor owned by one, Love is Love.

And marriage he has told them: Love each other and don’t make love a constraint, but make it a flowing sea between the shores of your souls.

And for the Children: From you they go out to life but they are not yours. You may give them love but not your thoughts they have their ideas, and in your power to seek to be like them but do not force them to be like you.

For tender he says: You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.

He spoke of many subjects and left the city of Orphalese leaving its citizens with melancholy and eagerness.

Book review - Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince

This book tells about the sixth year of Harry Potter in Hogwarts. The war between the wizards and Voldemort was getting more and more fierce.

In this book, Lord Voldemort’s most important secrets which helped him believe to live forever were finally discovered. With this clue, Harry and his friends had a clear path to beat Voldemort. Voldemort had learned from Professor Slughorn about how to split a human’s soul and hide it in different things, which are called Horcruxes. This invention was so evil that each Horcrux had been made when killing someone. At the end of this book, Harry and Dumbledore searched for a Horcrux together in a cave. In order to retrieve this Horcrux, Dumbledore managed to drink all the harmful potion under which the Horcrux was hidden.

Unfortunately, this was not the real Horcrux and Dumbledore was severely weakened by the potion, which led to his death caused directly by the killing curse of Snape. After Dumbledore’s death, Harry had decided to continue looking for all the other Horcruxes in the next school year so that Voldemort could be thoroughly destroyed. His friends Ron and Hermione would also like to join him to finish this glorious mission.

There are some very interesting details in this book. I am especially interested in the “Felix Felicis” (or lucky potion). Harry won a bottle of this potion from his lessons thanks to a used textbook of “The Half-blood Prince” and a number of useful tips and spells in it. This wonderful potion also helped him a lot with finding out the secret of the Horcruxes from the memories of Slughorn. If I had Felix Felicis during my exams or interviews, that would be excellent!

I was also moved by a paragraph at the end of the 23^rd chapter:

But he understood at last what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore know – and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents – that there was all the difference in the world.

Some expressions:

Exasperated

Indiscriminately

Inconsequentially

Unceremoniously

Unrecognizable

Flailing hand

Tactics

Feedback about Duke university

Hello,

I did an exchange with two students from Duke University. They were both Americans and from different states. One from San Francisco, and did all her way long to North Carolina to finish her studies. And the other from New York. They were both happy to be at Duke University.

It took us a long time to fix the date. At first it was so difficult to find a convenient time for the three of us because we were in exam’s period. Therefore we agreed to chat Friday April 24^th in the evening, which was the beginning of the third period holidays. We used skype as a mean of communication.

We red some articles in French and English, they were very interesting but we decided not to stick to them. We spoke of freedom of speech from our point of view and how it developed during the past few years. Then, we interested in the terrorist attacks in general and how the world is going crazy. We also highlighted the hypocrisy of the media that yells the death of one occidental man and forgets about thousands of million people who die every day in Middle East and Africa because of terrorism. All along our discussion we compared the regimes and laws among USA, France and of course my beloved country Morocco. I was surprised that the first amendment in the United States constitution protects the right of freedom of expression and allows everybody to express himself freely without government interference. I spent a wonderful time with them, and I learned a lot about Americans.  

In order to practice English and French we switched between the both each fifteen minutes. One of the two girls had a brilliant level in French. She explained that she started learning it at a young age and did a six months exchange program in France last year. Here is my experience I hope you’ll enjoy reading it.

Magic Whiteboard Dragons Den on Tour - The Original & Best - YouTube

Magic Whiteboard Dragons Den on Tour - The Original & Best - YouTube:

the follow-up on the previous pitch.



 "Theo Paphitis visits Magic Whiteboard (the portable whiteboard on a roll that sticks to walls, doors, and windows using static) on Dragons' Den on Tour to see how entrepreneurs Neil and Laura Westwood and growing the Magic Whiteboard Business. See the new exciting Magic Blackboard, Magic Blackout Blind (the quick & easy way to blackout windows - helps parents and children sleep) and Magic Photo Paper (a new self adhesive inkjet photo paper that sticks without leaving any residue or glue - create your own signs, posters and vehicle graphics - it's waterproof). Look out for their new baby boy. www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk"



'via Blog this'

Magic Whiteboard - Dragons Den Winners - The Original & Best - YouTube

Magic Whiteboard - Dragons Den Winners - The Original & Best - YouTube: "Uploaded on Sep 14,  Magic Whiteboard - See Neil and Laura Westwood's successful pitch for £100,000. Visit www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk"





interesting introduction of the Dragons...

'via Blog this'

Arthur Benjamin: A performance of "Mathemagic" | TED Talk | TED.com

Arthur Benjamin: A performance of "Mathemagic" | TED Talk | TED.com:



— for the mathematicians among you!

looking forward to your book critiques...



"In a lively show, mathemagician Arthur Benjamin races a team of calculators to figure out 3-digit squares, solves another massive mental equation and guesses a few birthdays. How does he do it? He’ll tell you."



'via Blog this'

Freakonomics

Freakonomics:



this website is interesting!



'via Blog this'

Funniest Dragons den pitch ever - YouTube

Funniest Dragons Den pitch ever - YouTube:



"Uploaded on Aug 8, 2011
http://www.uvbodysculpture.com/ .The best pitch ever. Glen Harden with UV bodysculpture charms the Dragons and makes sure Duncan's silly question gets the answer it deserves. This guy is funny. His tweets are hilarious."



'via Blog this'

IT Crowd - Dragons Den - YouTube

IT Crowd - Dragons Den - YouTube: "When Moss invents a product he goes on Dragons Den to try and sell it."



the Dragon's Den



'via Blog this'

Book review - The art of racing in the rain - Yushan

I’ve always felt almost human. I’ve always known that there’s something about me that’s different than other dogs. Sure, I’m stuffed into a dog’s body, but that’s just the shell. It’s what’s inside that’s important. The soul. And my soul is very human. – from The Art of Racing in the Rain, page 3

I love this dog very much, as he says that he feels like a human, and in my opinion, he is almost a philosopher, he looks how the world going on, and maybe knows how it would be, but can't do anything. Sometimes he is a prophet, but can't say anything about the tragedy which is going on. He is also a fighter, he fights for the family, for his host, and also for himself. He is a racer, he is crazy for racing, althought he can't do it.
There are many cool sentences in the book which impressed me a lot, sometimes after reading these sentences, I can't go on reading because I have to take time to taste these sentences. Here I quote some sentences:

“There is no dishonor in losing the race. There is only dishonor in not racing because you are afraid to lose.”
“He died that day because his body had served its purpose. His soul had done what it came to do, learned what it came to learn, and then was free to leave.”
“That which we manifest is before us; we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.”
“The true hero is flawed. The true test of a champion is not whether he can triumph, but whether he can overcome obstacles - preferably of his own making - in order to triumph.”
“The car goes where the eyes go.”
“People are always worried about what's happening next. They often find it difficult to stand still, to occupy the now without worrying about the future. People are generally not satisfied with what they have; they are very concerned with what they are going to have.”

There are some many wonderful sentences which are philosophic, after reading this book I find myself love the dogs and the racing more! I hope that you can have a try, I promise that you will not be regreted because you can't even stop reading after you start!