It's Not a Funny Story..

To me, it's kind of a funny story has two worlds. The world where Craig's best friend Aaron is and his crush, Nia is and all the stress and depression is. And then there is the world where Craig is accepted and where he feels accomplished at the hospital. To me, the psychiatric hospital world is fake. I would love to be able to escape the pressures of life for a couple of days but I don't think I would have new profound enjoyment for life, if I was in Craig's position. I feel like at the hospital everyone knows you have a lot of problems so the nurses treat you nicely and the patients there can relate to you because they've been there. But, just as life seems perfect, you get back to the real world. Where Nia, the girl Craig likes is dating his best friend. Where everyone doesn't care if you want to kill yourself because it's not there problem like it was the nurses. If I was in Craig's shoes, I think it would be extremely easy to fall back into the cycle of being depressed. His solution was to switch schools but what happens when no one wants to buy your art and you feel low again? What happens when you don't want to be friends with pothead Aaron and self centered Nia? After you are so used to people who have just as many problems as you do and are willing to listen and care and relate to you. In my opinion, it would be difficult to bring these two worlds together like it seemed they would at the end of the book. Does anyone disagree and think that it is possible? Maybe if I went through everything Craig did I would feel the same way but looking in from the outside, it seems like it would be difficult. I'm not trying to say there is not hope either, the lack of school pressure will definitely help him but, do you think Craig could ever fully recover and feel okay all the time? It is kind of like what Craig thinks about when he is "talking" to the man in his head, " I wanted the comfort of preschool, not the ambiance. You gotta take the good with the bad." Suggesting that Craig wants simple and fun like going to art school and being an artist but not being treated like the way the nurses treat him with careful words like he is a child. Which makes sense, that Craig doesn't mind the bad just not too much of it, to the point where he would rather be dead. On the bright side, I found this book to be very enjoyable and insightful. Sometimes I feel depression and suicide can be a touchy subject. I found it refreshing to have a story told about something that is usually avoided. It opened up my eyes to what a lot of people go through and how they deal with it. If I had to rate this book I think I would rate it a 8 out of 10. I loved being able to learn about how Craig got to this point in his life and why. It was really beautifully crafted how everything tied together with the brain maps, which I also thought was a really cool art idea. However, I would really like to know the ending to Craig and Noelle. Throughout the 5 days they were together they always talked about hanging out  and dating when they left the hospital but, the book never elaborated. I would like to know how a lot of the patients turned out. At the end of the book, when Craig is drawing brain maps, he asks for peoples numbers to stay in touch. Throughout the book you start to feel sympathy for most of the characters and I'd really like to know any of their futures too. Most of them claimed that they would screw up again or like wait Jimmy and Bobby when Craig asked for their numbers, " ... when you try to call me or Johnny up and find out that we've OD'ed, or been shot, or come back here even worse, or just disappeared..You just remember us okay?" I just would have been really interested in learning everyone's ending. I know that Ned Vizzini, the author, did spend time in a hospital like this. I don't know if all the people and stories are true however, he did suffer with depression an unfortunately committed suicide at the age of 32. If I were to give It's Kind of a Funny Story an award, it would be and insight award. Ned wrote several books that provides a deeper and personal level to the subject of depression. His books have probably helped many that deal with stuff just like Craig. If you had to give an award to your book, what award would you give and why?

I chose this picture to represent this blog because if you are familiar with the movie Fat Albert they step out of the cartoon world and live in the real world for a while. Fat Albert and his friends love the real world and don't want to go back to being cartoons. To me, this represents what Craig was feeling when he was emitted into the hospital. Craig hated his life and was at the point of committing suicide. However, once emitted into the hospital, he realized how much he missed the real world and how many simple takes he could do daily. For Fat Albert and his friends, it is the opposite, they love it in the real world but they are fading away because that's not were the belong. So, they are forced to go back to their real lives. Just like Craig realizes that being in the hospital may be nice but he can't waste his life fading away in it when he should be living his life the right way, in the real world. Just like he says on page 444, " So now live for real, Craig. Live. Live. Live.Live. Live."

Brain Maps...

In the book I chose, "It's kind of a funny story" Craig Gilner is a teenager who is facing depression. Throughout the book he tells stories of his depression, anxiety, and stress. Craig talks about a memory of himself when he was younger. Craig was trying to retrace a picture of Manhattan, where he lives. He became extremely frustrated when he couldn't do it. After many attempts and still not succeeding his Mom noticed his aggravation. She made him realize that without special equipment it is almost impossible to do well. On page 26, Craig's Mom says, " Craig, I have an idea, instead of spending your time trying to trace maps of Manhattan, why don't you make your own maps of imaginary places?" Craig says that that moment was the closest he ever came to an epiphany. Then on page 27, Craig says " I made cities. That made me happy. That was my anchor... that was what I wanted to be when I grew up: a mapmaker." I think the city has a huge impact on Craig, especially in this moment. He was able to figure out something about his future, which is extremely hard for him to do now. After he started to get serious abut school he didn't really do maps anymore, or anything fun to him. Until the age of 15 when he emitted himself into the hospital because he was going to kill himself. He was sentenced to 5 days in the hospital to get better. During those 5 days he made many memorable friends like Jimmy, Ebony, President Armelio, Humble, Jennifer/Charles, his room mate Muqtada, Johnny, Bobby, and his lover Noelle. During one of their mandatory activities, everyone had to draw anything they wanted. However, Craig had an "artists block" and couldn't think of anything to draw. Then Noelle, his almost girlfriend, suggested something from his childhood and Craig instantly began to draw. It came pouring out onto the paper, his maps. When Craig was almost finished drawing, his art drew a crowd. People were complementing him and Ebony asked if they were pictures of brains and Craig responded yes. Before Craig left the hospital, he made anyone who wanted one a brain map. He was told over and over again that he should consider selling his art and become an artist. It made sense for his future. It was a simple task that he enjoyed. And it made him realize he wanted to switch to an art school instead of staying under the pressure of Executive Pre-Professional High School. After his 5 days spent in the hospital Craig looked at the world in a new way. On page 443 Craig says " Jeez, why was I trying to kill myself?" If Craig didn't experience the city at such a young age, he wouldn't have never fell in love with making maps. Which would have never led to his new way of seeing life. In my opinion, if the city never affected Craig in such a strong way, he probably would've gotten sucked back into the real world stress of Executive Pre-Professional High School and probably would've killed himself. Do you guys think that this affected Craig greatly? Does anyone agree that he might have ended up committing suicide if he never found out his true passion, art, in life?

                                                   ( The picture Craig drew for Noelle.)

How it Started..

 In " It's Kind of a Funny Story" Craig Gilner is a teenager who lives in Manhattan, New York. Often Craig goes to a therapist for his depression. During one session, it is brought up that he started feeling depressed after middle school, going into high school. It all started because he was stressed to get a good job so he could have money and succeed at life. However, getting a good job meant getting accepted into a great college. Which would only happen if he got into a good high school. In my opinion, it is really easy to understand what Craig is going through. At the age I am at the future is always on my mind. At school it's always do this, it will look good when you apply for college, and then you will be successful. Every family gathering it's the same question over and over again. What do you want to be? What college do you want to go to? Basically, I find Craig's stress relatable. Craig was going through all of this but fortunately, he got accepted into Manhattan's Executive Pre-Professional High School. Passing with a perfect score, 800 out of 800. However, upon studying to pass the entry test, he stopped hanging out with his friends. The only 2 friends he had to begin with, stopped hanging out with Craig because he started carrying flash cards around. This was only the beginning of his stress. Craig can't eat and starts stress vomiting because of the pressure and work piled on him. Going to each class made him realize that a 800 out of 800 wasn't extraordinary. The majority of the kids got a perfect score. On top of this, the great high school Craig got accepted in to makes him feel inadequate. On page 96, Craig says " I wasn't gifted. Mom was wrong. I was just smart and I worked hard.  I had fooled myself into thinking that was something important to the rest of the world. Other people were complicit in this ruse. Nobody has told me I was common. That's not to say I did terrible in high school-I got 93's. That looked good to my parents. Problem is in the real world, 93 is the crap grade; colleges know what it means- you do just well enough to stay in the 90's. You're average. There are a lot of you. You aren't going over the top; if you're not doing any extracurricular you're done... with 93's your freshman year you're going to have a lot of dead weight." Another example is on page 98, in Craig's Wall Street Class some guy from Bear Stearns visited them. The guy asked the class how many of them were taking computer science. Everyone but Craig and another girl who didn't speak English raised their hands. The guy from Bear Stearns replied, " Great excellent, you other people are out of a job!" Craigs situation reminds me of a song by Muse called Psycho.

                                          EXPLICIT CONTENT

           

The lyrics to this song directly apply to what Craig is going through. In the video a man is yelling at another man like they would in the army. The man is being yelled at to obey the orders. Which is very similar to what Craig experiences in this book. Throughout the story, he often refers to the man in his head or stomach giving him orders to do stuff like eat. In this video, the man is screaming stuff like " Your ass belongs to me now! Are you a human drone? Are you a killing machine? I'm in control motherf**ker, do you understand?" Replying with "Aye Sir!" every time. Suggesting that he is succumbing to the hierarchy and lets it engulf him. Just like how the stress and depression engulfs Craig's daily activities. Noticing that Craig has all this stress and pressure in his life it makes it easier to relate to his problems. Is it easy for you to relate to what Craig is going through? Do you think there is a solution to help Craig?