The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Pages 51-137

Summary:

As Miss Jean Brodie tells the girls of her prime, she talks to them about the lovers that she had during the time as well. She talks about one of the girls in her set betraying her and telling her secret. The headmistress Ms. Mackay gets the girls and divides them in order for them not to be influenced by each other. She starts to question them about Miss Brodie but to my surprise none of the girls tell her anything that would help her take Miss Brodie out of the school.

After Miss Brodie decides to confide in one of the girls that she teaches in her sect. Out of all the girls she chooses Sandy. For some odd confusing reason, Miss Brodie wants one of her students (Rose) to become lovers with Mr. Lloyd and Sandy to become the person who delivers information on the affair. In the end, Sandy ends us having a sexual relationship with Mr. Lloyd and Rose becomes the informant.

Aside of all this sexual stuff, the students of Miss Brodie’s girls are now all grown up and 17 years of age. They were now able to view her as more than just a teacher but also observe and admire her womanly side.  A new girl, Joyce also starts to admire Miss Brodie just as all the other girls do, but with more intense acknowledgement. She took Miss Jean Brodie’s ideas and views on politics very seriously and disappears from school and ends up dying in an accident in Spain.

            As Miss Brodie still had a great impact on these girls, one of the main things that Miss Brodie was basically overseeing was the relationship between Sandy, Rose and Mr. Lloyd. Since Sandy was the one that was having sexual relationships with Mr. Lloyd, when Miss Brodie says that Rose and Mr. Lloyd will soon be lovers, it really angers Sandy. Instead of being brainwashed by Miss Brodie’s ideas, she begins to think that Miss Brodie was instead trying to act like God and control her and her actions. Mr. Lloyd was in fact in love with Miss Brodie himself, he would draw canvasses of her student Sandy but each time they would resemble Miss Brodie. Years later when Ms. Mackay and Sandy meet they start talking about Miss Brodie. Ms. Mackay says that she is afraid that Miss Brodie put to many ideas into their young head. Sandy say’s that there were many ideas that Miss Brodie influenced them with. Since Miss Brodie has a new sect now Ms. Mackay would need ideas that she would use set to set each year. Those ideas were politics, since Miss Brodie had the same ideas since she was “born”.

            In that same summer Miss Jean Brodie was forced to retire because she was teaching Fascism. She then wrote a letter to Sandy telling her what had occurred. She says that Sandy out of all her sets is the one who would never betray her. But in fact, it was Sandy who betrayed Miss Jean Brodie.           

Quote:

“‘It’s only possible to betray where loyalty is due,’ said Sandy” (Spark 136).

Reflection:

When Monica told Sandy that Miss Brodie thought it was her that betrayed Miss Brodie, Sandy said that she didn’t betray her because you cannot betray someone when there is no loyalty that you are trying to show someone. When Miss Brodie was in her prime all of her students were loyal to her because that was when she was their teacher. After years past, the loyalty disappeared with it which was why Sandy believes she didn’t betray Miss Brodie, although in my opinion she did. When someone trusts you and you go behind their back and say things that you’re not supposed to your betraying that person and that was exactly what Sandy did.

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Pages 1-50

This book The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark begins with boys on bikes that are talking to school girls which they distinguish by the way they wear their hats. These girls are called the Brodie set which was a group formed when they were in Miss Brodie elementary class. This school, taking place in the 1930s whose teacher Miss Brodie is known for her unconventional teaching ways. She taught her student about rennisance painters and foreign words such as “menarche”. Since many of these students of Miss Brodie are considered outcasts, they themselves have a unique bond they share with themselves and their former teacher, which many consider suspicious. Members in the group are ostracized as well as are given names that explain them in a general matter.

            Miss Brodie invites the sets to dinner to tell them all about a new plot to cause her to resign. The students, unlike many have her interest at heart while many others feel as though she should teach at a different more modern school. She disagrees and insists in staying at the school because she is the only one that can make a difference. She is said to be only removed  my assassination.

            Afterward, Miss Brodie tells the students about the information that one of the students in the set Mary Macgregor who they call “ the nobody that everybody can blame”. After the start of World War II, Mary joins the Wrens. She continues to be blamed, and is even left by her new boyfriend. Miss Jean Brodie who is in her prime is looked upon as a crucial member in their society.  The people in the book look to things such as sexual intercourse as a weird thing, which cannot be talked about, further demonstrating that the time period has a great effect on the way characters act in the book.

 Quote:

“ They had no team spirit and very little in common with each other outside their continuing friendship with Jean Brodie” (Spark 2).

Reaction:

Miss Jean Brodie is a very large impact on the lives of these students. She taught them things about the world that no one else would teach them. Other teachers in the school did not appreciate the close bond she had with her students and they felt as though they should make Miss Brodie resign. By Miss Brodie leaving, it would leave all these children in the dark. She is the one that brings all these diverse individuals together.

Aol.com Pages: 235-318

Summary:

With the continuing problems that AOL was facing, hope in the company seemed to diminish. The pornography case went all the way to the Supreme Court and had advocated from both sides fighting furiously for each of their beliefs. Most of those advocated were people from different organizations who fought for children’s rights. Their main goal was to fight for children and protect them from things that might be harmful to their well beings. These advocated were trying to make it part of the law for these pornographic materials to be removed from the internet. AOL the largest internet provider was facing these serious charges and although they specifically weren’t being targeted as distributing these materials, simply because they weren’t, the images, files were still part of AOL’s internet database causing great embarrassment to the company.

After the debate between congress and the advocates for children’s rights it was voted that the “indecent” material would be kept out of the internet, it was passed down to the Supreme court due to the fact that it was against the first amendment(freedom of speech). This all went public and times even created a magazine that displayed AOL on the front cover. It was an embarrassment to the company, but they were able to get over it due to the sales they were still receiving. It was just a bump on the long road that AOL was on.

            Months later, AOL went back into action and went back into the competitive scene with Microsoft. They assimilated with a company called CompuServe, once their biggest rival. This made AOL the largest online internet server once again and it basically crushed all of its competition. It was amazing how this company was one pronounced “dead” and all of a sudden only a few years later they were the top internet providing company that defeated most of its competition.  Competition that was once impossible for them to compete in. Steve Case must have been very proud of his company and the milestones him and his company keep setting.

            So by the end of 1997, AOL was able to add millions of more customers, and create a large boost in the company’s profit. Even then Steve Case was not able to rest. He still couldn’t relax at the thought that things could take a turn for the worst at a time in this success streak the company was going through. Maybe he just needed a little faith?

Quote:

“Just six months before, AOL had been the laughingstock of the online world. Now it was the conqueror” (Swisher 304).

Reaction:

The AOL company went through a lot in the many years it’ been in the business. They went through many situations, both good and bad but that didn’t stop any of the employee’s. Every single day they came back to work and fought to make their company the best company. With their hard work and dedication, they made their company what they always dreamed it would be. Going from a laughingstock to the conqueror of the entire internet world is a wonderful accomplishment; one that I believe should be admired by all tech lovers.

Aol.com Pages: 170 - 235

Summary:

AOL’s good luck streak was quickly ending, especially when they found out that their company was not coming up with the money that they needed in order to keep them running efficiently. They noticed that each day, copious amounts of their customers were cancelling their accounts and leaving AOL. The big question was where all of these costumers were going and what was causing them to leave. This was the question that the executives of AOL had to figure out and fast.

            They came up with the supposed answer. Users did not want to pay for their internet service by the hour. They were not happy with the pricing, which is why many of them were leaving the service. Investors had to come up with ideas to both make money and keep AOL from losing its valued customers. So they developed a scheme where the subscribers would pay a flat rate for certain amount of hours and after they used all of those hours, they would have to continue paying the hourly fees. Many subscribers were unhappy with these problems and other growing problems and some even took it to the next level by filing lawsuits against the company. These problems were just another beginning for AOL.

            One day while one of the executives of AOL was on a vacation in Italy, he went to a nearby café and got a newspaper and on the front cover it read “AOL É Morte” and he didn’t have to be Italian to understand that it meant AOL is dead. What in the world did that mean?

At the same time, Steve Case the president of AOL was at his house also having difficulties connecting to the internet. He went to the nearby facility and saw that the whole system was down, and no one could figure out why. They fixed the problem eventually, but it didn’t stop the names and the mocking. List after list the names just grew, “America Outtaline”, to name one and surprisingly most of this came from 14-15 year old high school students who had a good grasp of internet programing.  

            The problems continued for AOL especially with more lawsuits coming their way. One of the most horrible was one that was brought up about child pornography surfacing throughout the internet. Since it was illegal, pictures of these sexually explicit acts should not have been floating throughout the internet, but they were.

More and more people were starting to disprove of AOL and the things that was running through their internet services. The problem escalated and it became a Supreme Court case. Steve Case, president of the company was becoming more and more overwhelmed at the problems his company seemed to be racking up. He was tired of it and so were many of the other employees of AOL. Unfortunately, they had to face problems because they all knew it was not going to stop anytime soon.

Quote:

‘“At least for them, when the shuttle comes down, the mission is over and they can relax. We never can.”’ (Swisher 179).

Reaction:

When AOL’s online service crashed, they knew they had a huge problem. Millions of their customers depended on them daily, and this would be an enormous setback to all of them.  Matt Korn, an AOL employee compared his job to working on a space shuttle mission, but unlike astronauts their missions never ended. They would always have to monitor everything precisely and make sure that everything is running well at all times. Being an employee at AOL meant you always have to be patient and be willing to understand that you’re always going to have to be prepared for the worst and also be prepared to deal with it.

Aol.com Pages: 105 - 170

Summary:

            As Bill Gates was now in the war with AOL he partnered with an online service called Marvel.  It was going to be designed as an “AOL killer” in taking over much of the popularity AOL got with its new programs within its system. Ted Leonsis, a partner with Steve Case in running AOL made all of the employees interested in their new mission of not letting Microsoft dominate their territory. They started off my expanding their company and buying other small companies that would be to their benefit right under Microsoft’s noses by offering to pay more money. They wanted their company to be very well know, just as how Coca-Cola bottles are everywhere you go, they wanted AOL to have the same effect on costumers.  While they are planning this Microsoft is on to some very cool developments.

            Microsoft wanted to create a system where the costumers would be able to use an online service with the purchase of Windows 95 computer. Since Microsoft had many users, AOL was overwhelmed by the fact that they would be getting a lot of costumers throughout the unveiling of this product. This new system would be called The Microsoft Network also known as “MSN” and was said to being able to attract millions of new subscribers when it is launched.

AOL was seriously trying to compete with this determined company, and they did their best to try to make their system as efficient as possible. When “MSN” was finally released, AOL employees waited in anticipation to see what the outcome would be. Instead of the projected “millions of subscribers”, Microsoft raked in 100,000 new users in the first week and it turned into 190,000 by the end of the first week. After that great start, growth started to become very slow due to the lack of advertising on Microsoft’s part. In celebration they rented a blimp over festivities highlighting that AOL would always be “hovering over them”.

To make matters even more “weird” AOL, after a while made a partnership with Microsoft because it seemed that they each had what the other wanted. After the partnership was announced, AOL’s stocks rose even more. Things were looking really good for AOL. They were expanding their company and at the same time they were developing more skills to make their company one of the best, and on May 30 1996 they announced that they broke the six-million-member mark, making them the largest online provider on the entire globe.

Quote:

‘“I underestimated us and overestimated the competition”’ (Swisher 128).

Reaction:

Whether it’s a about a company or yourself, underestimating yourself is never a good thing. You should never believe that you are unable to do something, especially if you haven’t tried it yourself. When AOL believed that just because Microsoft was owned by one of the richest men in the world, they thought that it would mean that he would have the better services automatically. But that wasn’t true, in fact in the end AOL was the company that came up with the better ideas and was also successful. This proves the well-known saying, “never doubt yourself” and in this case, the company.

Aol.com Pages: 51- 105

Summary:
            Bill Von Meister did not let many of his failures bring him down. If he did he would have never reached any success. One of his earlier projects that he spent a lot of time with was his work with the company CVC (Control Video Cooperation). Before Bill was very interested in creating a way to get data from companies and send it off to their consumers in their homes. He noticed that a lot of money would have to be put in, in order for these companies to first send of the materials, and then the data. So he collaborated with CVC a video game company, since the video game industry was booming. He wanted to be able to allow consumers to download games from the consoles themselves and then pay for them via credit card. It would save them the hassle of going out and buying games at the stores instead, they would be able to do that at home.
            Bill, having many connections sought out the partnership with many investors. By having investors pour money into their project it would have a higher success rate. Although the project with CVC was going so well, the gains of the project had a turn for the worst and they started to lose money. They noticed that the video game industry was crashing, and video games were no longer being purchased at the rate they used to be purchased. Mr. Von Meister did not seem to think that it was such a big deal, like always he was already on to the next project, unlike those at CVC who were worried about getting their company back on their feet. To make matters even worse, Bill who about to lose much of his support at CVC was bought a brand new Mercedes sedan. He was off spending his money, while the company was thinking about ways to get money. That was the end at CVC for Bill Von Meiser.

            Unlike CVC, things for AOL were taking a turn for the better. They started to receive more investment deals from very rich people, such as Paul Allen, former vice president of THE Microsoft Company. He wanted to make an investment in this growing company, but to his surprise those at AOL declined his very nice offer. They didn’t want one person to own so much of their still small but growing company. They were also afraid that Paul might be a secret spy sent out to get information about the AOL Company in order for Bill Gates himself, to create an online internet based company like theirs. So either way, they did not want to work with either Paul Allen or Bill gates.

            The biggest surprise was in July on 1993, Jan Brandt and employee at AOL called her boss with an interesting advertising suggestion. She wanted to mass produce 250 million disks that had the AOL software and then make them assemble to the consumers by placing them in cereal boxes, letters etc. By the almost end of 1994, AOL had gained close to 1 million users from it’s before close to 7-10 thousand. In that short amount of time, they were able to gain so much achievement and it opened up a new competition between AOL and Bill Gates.

Quote:

“‘I can buy 20 percent of you or I can buy all of you. Or I can go into this business myself and bury you’” (Swisher 77).

Reaction:

This threat from the world richest man, Bill Gates was what opened the company AOL’s eyes into understanding that their company means a lot to them and they were not going to let some rich man buy them and all of their achievements. Although what Gates supposedly meant was that he really wanted to work with this very rapidly increasing company, AOL did not take advantage of his offer because they wanted to continue with their own personal achievement and keep their successes inside the company instead of handing it over to the guy who they are now having competition with. Which leads back to the point of having confidence and self-trust, if this company did not believe that they were going to get somewhere, they would have not have all of the success that they received.

Aol.com Pages: 1- 51

Summary:

Internet is one of the most popular things in the world. Whether it’s about connecting online to use chat rooms or to connect with old friend’s internet is the way to get to all these things. The book I am reading “Aol.com: How Steve Case beat Bill Gates, Nailed the Netheads, and Made Millions in the War for the Web” by Kara Swisher is about how the internet got started.

            The book starts off with the founder of AOL also known as America Online on his way to Bill Gates house for a meeting with CEO’s of different companies. As he is on a boat on his way to Bill Gates house, he reminisces of how his company even got to a point where they made a lot of money. Being in the house of one of the world’s richest men, it surprised him that he would be in such a category with all these influential people, considering all the ups and downs his company went through.

            The AOL Company, although founded by Steve Case was the seed idea of a man named Bill Von Meister. Being born 1942, even when he was young he was coming up with inventions that no one would have ever thought about.

They called him very creative and smart, considering that even at his young age he came up with a red signal that would indicate when his father was on his way home in order for them to be able to make tea for him as the important figure of the house. But that was only the beginning. Von Meister spent his whole life going from invention to invention, and making thousands off of each. Although none of his inventions lasted long and he ended up dying with tons of debts, his only legacy was thought to be inspiring the creation of AOL which is ironic because no one knew that except for the founder. The author of this book jokes around by saying that if Bill’s name was to be mentioned in the picnic that AOL employees were having, none would ever be able to point out his collaboration with this company.

Quote:

“‘I’m going to make a mark,” said Billy Von Meister. “Just you watch’” (Swisher 12).

Reaction:

Bill Von Meister was a very confident man. He spent most of his time trying to create an innovation that would bring both success and fortune towards him. He never let any of his failures bring him down, which is what led to most of his success. By being a person who never listens to others, and works hard in trying to achieve personal goals, you will achieve most of your goals. You just have to have confidence and respect for yourself and those who are working with you.