The Ticket That Exploded Finished...plus some

Well I "finished reading" the ticket that exploded, i put it in quotes because I'm confident that i did not comprehend anything throughout the entire book. It wasn't because it was a hard read, it was just something that you weren't able to get into. Once you start understanding a sentence or two, the author will completely switch what he was talking about and go off on a random tangent.


I don't feel like this book meant anything. Was there a common theme? or a plot he was following? or is that the point of this book, for him to mean that literature and words don't make any sense and don't mean anything. Its the interpretation yourself makes, and the meaning you get out of it. This book 'The Ticket That Exploded' may have had a huge insightful meaning to someone, who learned a ton of life lessons through it, and then someone like me will pick it up, read it, and get nothing from it except disturbed images. I am so happy this isn't one of the classes where the professor makes you interpret everything you read, and then if your interpretation doesn't match what the professor thinks, its automatically wrong. What is with that? Take for instance you read a poem, and you see images and your interpretation from it is what your getting from the poem, you go up in front of the class to share, and the teacher completely shuts you down. ?? I don't even know how to respond to that. What makes the teacher so right. How can the teacher possibly know what someone like Aristotle or Plato was

thinking.





On page 209 of ticket that exploded, when the idea of the tape recorders"What you saw or more often did not see" This is going along with the saying "hindsight is 20/20" you don't realize what was in front of your face until it is too late for it to matter. If when you died, you would sit down and watch a recording of your life, you would realize all the things you should have done differently. Studied harder during school, gotten into a better school, made more money, been happier in life. That is a weird concept to think of. You think that your life is the best it could be. You have made the best possible decisions, and "everything happens for a reason." its something you don't want to think about. like oh what if this decision actually turned out for the worst. No one wants to have regret. that is one of the worst feelings in the world. You only live once and everyone thinks they are living up to their full potential at the time. Which isn't true. People get into habits and don't even realize the life passing them by. I sure don't. I have no idea where all my high school and hte first half of this college year went. I didn't do anything outstanding at all. When i look back all i see is old memories of friends, working a lot, and doing a lot of homework. I have Western to show for it but not much else. these Golden Years are passing by without me even realizing it.









A point that was brought up in class was if conversation means anything. Much like the context of this book. Was the author aware of what he was writing? or was it something where he was having a conversation with his wife, while writing this book, and the book is a result of the random thoughts that would be going through his head while he was listening to his wife complain about work, or about how he leaves hairs in the bar of soap. Maybe its not meant to mean anything, except for the author to take the reader out of their own comfort level, and actually make them realize what they are reading. Reading novels is much like talking or having a conversation. Sometimes you cant even remember what you read. I read the book "pillars of the earth" by ken follett (GREAT BOOK!!!) but if someone now were to ask me what it was about i would say essentially what the back of the book said. a short summary, about building a cathedral and great controversy, and it was a love story. Just like I couldn't tell you what my last conversation with my mom was about. It was something that just happened not out of the ordinary. What the author of the ticket that exploded I'm sure is trying to do is trying to get you to REMEMBER his book. He wants it to stand out, not just so you remember what you read, but so you realize your ACTUALLY READING.