Thursday, July 10, 2008

Uglies

Joe and I are now finishing Uglies by Scott Westerfeld. It is a young adult book that we started on our camping trip. We decided that we really like young adult novels for two reason: 1) They are full of out of control ideas and 2) we don't have to worry, (as much), about inappropriate material. Here is the synopsis of the book:

Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. Not for her license -- for turning pretty. In Tall's world, your sixteenth birthday brings an operation that turns you from a repellent ugly into a stunningly attractive pretty and catapults you into a high-tech paradise where your only job is to have a really great time. In just a few weeks Tally will be there.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to be pretty. She'd rather risk life on the outside. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world -- and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally the worst choice she can imagine: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. The choice Tally makes changes her world forever.

I am really enjoying the book and will start on the next soon. Joe and I have had a lot of conversations about what people do to get "pretty" and how society treats them. If you think about it -- our world revolves around looks ... and a lof of the choices that people make are based on how something or someone looks on the outside.

In the beginning of the novel Tally and Shay are making images of themselves on the computer so that they can give the surgeons some ideas of what they want to look like after the operation. They believe that everything symmetrical is beautiful and start with flipping both sides of their faces to see if they want to start the transformation from the left side or the right side. I decided that it might be kindof fun to try it myself. It is hard to do because you have to look for a photo that is pretty straight on -- so that when you crop it you don't have two noses. I have included two of the "transformations" of myself ... and thought that I would try it on Joe too! hehe.

So what do you think ... do you like our left or our right side better?

2 comments:

Jen said...

Loved it! How did you do the pictures? They were funny. Hey, you should join us and other sisters from the ward on Goodreads.com and add us as your friends!

brandi said...

You are too funny. These pics are just weird. I know mine would be horrible. I have a very assymetrical face. And I like it. I'm gonna try out these books. I am a YA fan myself. They are always just better!