The day of lottery

I would name the story 'The day of the lottery', because it is the day of the lottery when this place took place. I first thought about putting words like grim, bloody, death. However, I soon realised, those words would expose the ending, the part that creates the void. So, giving up on the attraction of people's eyes, I chose this title.

All the way through the story, I kept thinking that something bad was going to the 'winner'. I thought he (or she) was going to be killed. Some of my classmates thought that the winner was going to be sent away, but I thought, for the author to make the ending more memorable and make the readers pity the victim, the victim will have to die.

Another reason why I thought this was because of the response to what happened then Mrs. Hutchinson drew out the paper with a black spot. She was in despair and others of the village were very happy. Added on to that, the black spot. "There could have been other marks, but why this?" I asked this question to myself and soon came to a thought. It has to do with the black spot in 'Pirates of the Caribbean 2'. In the movie, the black spot was a sign of death, and something bad is going to happen to this person, who got the black spot... this led me to thinking of this person's death.

Even after having this... exiting thought, I didn't feel bad or anything when I found out that the ending was not there. I just thought it was another one of those "Power of the Void" thing Mr. Housego talked about over two classes. Also, I didn't care about the story.

When I received the folded and stapled paper saying "Do not open until 5p.m. and follow the instructions", the part saying "follow the instructions" threw me in to despair. The part made me think it was the second blog entry. Also, I started thinking the ending of the story might be written on the paper. I did not know why, but I just did. Although strong force of curiosity was inside my mind, my forgetfulness was stronger. The paper was left in my locker for the rest of the school day.

I almost forgot to bring it home, but thanks to someone who was reading it in the hallway (at 2:50 p.m.) , I remembered to bring it home. I slept on the bus from tiredness of the school day, forgot about the paper until 7 p.m, when I was trying to remember my homework. Because of my forgetfulness, I was able to follow the instructions. (the name of the person who was reading her paper in the hallway had a name which contains four letters. First two letters of the person is 'Ro', the last two 'sa'.)

When I read about the black box, I thought it was something bad, because most of the things shown as dark or black is thought of as something bad (does not apply for people), for example, a shadowy street, black mark that shows a substance is poison, etc. As I stated above, the black spot made me connect this story to 'Pirates of the Caribbean'. It made me think the person will be killed, and the story is more interesting then I thought.

When I read the ending of the story, I felt good and proud that my prediction was correct, but felt nothing else, because I was expecting it. I think if I thought more carefully about the piles of stones, I would even have predicted how the victim was going to die.

I think the voids created by the author drew attention, created tension and question from the reader, and made them want to read on the book.

Some of the Voids left by the author was no title, no information about the author, no ending, clues and foreshadowing, mystery paper and the delayed ending.

No title would make people wonder about the story, since they can usually get an Idea of the story from it. No author information will make people wonder if the story is worth reading, since they do not know if it was written by the greatest authors of all time, or just a kid. No ending will make people think and wonder deeper about what is to happen to the 'winner'. The clues and foreshadowing created tension inside the readers, letting them know something bad was going to happen, but without any other details. The mystery paper will make people wonder what is inside and make them feel anxious to find out. The delayed ending will give people enough time to go crazy wondering about it, or just make a few predictions.

Power of theVOID!

PART 1
The International School of Kuala Lumpur provides (silence) an exceptional education that challenges each student to (silence) develop the attitudes, skills, knowledge and understanding to become (silence) a highly successful, spirited, socially responsible global citizen.

I think by putting these silences during a speech, one can make the listeners wonder for the reasons, and there for, attract more attentions. I tried to place these silences (Voids) so that they create most tension and questions for the listener. All of my pauses are located after a word that gives a clue of the existence of an impotent information. Since the people know that the information is right after the VOID, they will be asking questions and be being tensed, instead of ignoring it.

PART 2
I think a composer could create tension in their music by suddenly taking away elements of the music, or even creating a sudden silence, after a great crescendo, or in the middle of a fortissimo. When those kinds of things happen, people will think that something is wrong with the artists. They will start questioning. Questioning about "What is wrong?", "What is happening?", and sometimes, "Do I want to listen to this music?" Through their questions, people will be pulled in to the music, thinking about it. After all attention of the people are pulled in, the composer could release the tension, by putting back the elements he took out, or vanishing the silence with music.