English Journal: Paranormalcy #3

Let's not mention last week. It was a bad week.

As always, beware of spoilers, read good books, and happy holidays.


Evie works for IPCA, an international organization which attempts, with mixed success, to control various paranormal creatures and keep them away from humans. They are just a little anal about this. When Evie leaves IPCA later in the book, 'organization does not equal justice' becomes something of a theme. She joins what might be considered an anarchist faction, if the book had been more political. Though it's run by a normal man, the principle is for the paranormals to keep each other in check, rather than having Big Brother constantly peeking over their shoulder. There's understandable animosity in the faction toward IPCA, made more reasonable when you discover some of their less lucrative tactics. Still, the tension between the "anarchists" and Evie is practically palpable for a while, until she comes to terms with her friends being her enemies, and vice versa.

Evie tried to explore other species' positions a little, earlier on, but she's quickly distracted by her own duties and opinions. Joining the faction wakes her up a bit. I was glad she didn't flip-flop - "They're good, I like them, oh wait, they're bad, I hate them." She does become something I'm constantly working toward: objective. She reconciles with the fact that even the people she loves are at fault, and even those at fault can be loved.



That's it for the Paranormalcy journals. The next two, if I keep going in order, will be on the incomparable Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott.

English Journal: Paranormalcy #2

It's Wednesday. I'm getting a little less dismal at this. *I wish*

So, neglecting speeches and schoolwork and a few Christian-themed blogs I promised to do for a friend, I'm here to post another journal from my English class on the incomparable Paranormalcy. I'll try to keep the Christian themes to a minimum when posting here, since this isn't that kind of blog, but bear with me - this journal didn't come to a very good end without it. Until next time.


There was a theme running through the book - subtle enough that I didn't notice at first, but I'm sure it's intentional - about judgment and worldview. It's kind of a common theme in fantasy recently. Actually, it's borderline cliche: don't judge a vampire by his fangs, and whatnot. I think White went a little deeper into it. Because Evie works for the government, the idea of allies and enemies seems more true than in some books (title redacted) because there's actual authority and duty and power play going on, not just an angsty teenager thinking the world's against her.

Anyway, White really isn't dealing with the nature of evil here - well, she is if you count the multiple reestablishings of the heroine's "personal evil", thereby defining what pure evil is not. Eh. I hope that makes sense.

Evie even mentions once that fairies, minor to major reoccurring baddies of the book, are not so much evil or amoral as they are other moralled. What's important to humans, not so much with the Fae. There are even two clans of fairies which are differing levels of nasty, and they seem to consider each other evil.

I think it's an important point, especially for Christians: it's not reasonable to expect people to conform to our standards if they don't believe in them. Like the organization Evie works for, depending on other moralled people to do what we want them to do isn't very wise, or very fair. And it's not very good for our reputation, either.