We are delighted to present the second issue of Ink’s ninth print volume! Included are four poems and two nonfiction articles, each unique in theme and form. It was a pleasure to read the writing for this edition and we would like to thank Ink’s contributors for their inspiring work. In addition, we are grateful for our advertisers and the MAC Boosters, without whom this issue would not have been possible. Finally, we would like to thank our adviser, Mr. Kandell, for his guidance and continued support of Ink.
Submit to Ink’s next issue at www.inkliterarymag.org/submit!
Sarina Grewal and Salem Coyle editors-in-chief
TABLE OF CONTENTS
an astronomy crash course seasons corned beef wild oat waxing pages or screens? hungering for more
“dirty laundry” — david tomz
ON THE FRONT COVER ON THE INSIDE COVER
“ethereal” — teresa wang
peter wolfgramm mina baba misha beggs alice sheffer lucianna peralta cailey quita william xue
david tomz
teresa wang salem coyle ivy lee vivian tang doreen hou
Issues of Ink are printed by aPrintis in Pleasanton, CA. Funding for printing comes primarily from advertisements and grants. Copies are distributed in classrooms, in the Media Arts Center, and elsewhere.
Artificial intelligence and the rise of ChatGPT has brought on discussions of the originality of student writing and art. Ink Magazine prides itself on its community of unique student writers and has established policies regarding AI-generated works. The originality of the writing and art in this edition has been confirmed by both writers and artists.
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Ink is a literary magazine dedicated to student expression. Our central mission is to create a space for emerging student writers and artists at Paly to share their work with others. We believe reading and sharing writing is an essential part of the writerly experience. As such, Ink is committed to providing an open platform for diverse voices and perspectives.
Seasons
Winter — a pure white moonlight I follow the snow pathway melancholy night
Summer — dreamy sun-kissed love fading like a summer break stolen nameless heart
Spring — vivid confetti some are pink, and some are green falling from the tree
Fall a brisk breeze blowing have to hold my hat so tight, then a ghost steals it
An Astr onomy
Crashcourse
I can’t help but look for your footprints on the floor, look for you in the mirror. Are you real?
How did we happen? How did we get drawn in like moths, drinking in the radiance we each provide? Even if we can’t sustain importance without one another, I swear I’ll think of you always.
I want to give you, give us a name for what love has us do—
I want it named like the sunrise, for how we feel.
I want a word that doesn’t exist in this language, but I can’t seem to find one in which it does. You are the star in the sky that gives life to others, and I am the shadowed side of the rock that hides from everything in its sight. I just reflect you and pretend it’s my light I’m radiating.
I’ll push and pull, and we’ll sway in this song of tug and touch. When I feel your face, I hate the heat.
Until there’s nobody left, we’ll dance the same dance every day and tumble into each other’s arms. Oh, I’ll miss you when we’re stars in the sky.
art by ivy lee
text by alice sheffer
text by mina baba
Wild Oat Waxing
Wild oat waxing on The styx, metamorphosis
Etched into sunk hills.
text by misha beggs
Corned Beef
text by peter wolfgramm
I am from corned beef, From tinfoil trays and silicone food containers. I am from the hole behind the radiator where the mouse resides.
I am from the smell of burnt yams when my grandpa forgets to turn off the stove.
I am from the disheveled plants in my mother’s yard, when she suddenly thought of herself as a gardener, whose long-gone limbs I remember as if they were my own.
I’m from the tradition of receiving Beyblades for Christmas and the art of living separate lives while living under the same roof and not talk about it.
From Mom and Dad, who still love each other but are now on opposite ends of the world.
I’m from going to church every Sunday of the year with my mom, from watching soccer games at the local Irish pub with my dad, from working on physics problems by myself.
I’m from “dream big!” and “the sky’s the limit” and Train’s Hey, Soul Sister playing on the radio during a nighttime drive in Auckland.
I’m from the long line of hugs and tears when we arrive at the airport and when we depart from it.
I’m from Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Stanford and the island of Tonga and KFC with my extended family in New Zealand.
I’m from the picture of me and my siblings posing as teapots in the snow during our first and last White Christmas.
God knows where that picture is.
Pages or Screens?
The decline of student summer reading and the rise of movie consumption over break text by cailey quita and william xue art by doreen hou
Throughout the summer, it’s common to see students without any plans for the day. Whether it’s hanging out with their friends, cozying up in their bedrooms reading a new book during vacation, or watching a movie on a couch, all of these activities share a common thread of relaxation and enjoyment.
When asked whether she’d rather read a book or watch a movie over the summer, sophomore Chloe Chan completely favored the latter.
“Fully trying to understand and follow along with a book requires attention and energy,” Chan said. “I can just play a movie and sit back and relax.”
Chan isn’t the only high school student who prefers to watch a movie rather than read over the summer. According to Scholastic, a children’s book provider, “kids ages 6–8 read an average of 19 books; that number drops to nine among 9–11s, six among 12–14s, and two among 15–17s.”
As we mature, reading becomes assigned work in school, and the workload increases with every year in school. This may be why students see it as a task rather than something they’d want to do by choice.
“Students are re-
quired to read a lot during the school year so during the summer, students may like to take a break from reading and do activities they don’t have time to do during the school year,” Chan said.
Summer break is also a window where high school students are busy with other activities. This leaves less free time for students like Chan to read.
“Over the summer, I will be prepping for standardized tests, preparing for my upcoming classes in the fall, and traveling,” Chan said. “Since I will be spending most of my time studying for the ACT, I will have less time and motivation to read.”
Palo Alto High School English teacher Kari Snell gave us better insight on this issue. Whenever her children see her reading, they instinctively reach for a book, mirroring her actions.
“I think having conversations and modeling it can be a great way to encourage reading,” Snell said.
Sophomore Talia Boneh has always loved reading, but also spent some time watching movies over the summer and during the school year.
“Watching movies can make me feel a little bit sluggish, but reading books makes me
feel like a scholar and keeps my brain active over the summer,” Boneh said.
One local program for teenagers to participate in is the Everyone’s a Reader yearly challenge from the Palo Alto City Library. Participants are given a set goal of books to finish, depending on their age, to complete each tier, with three total possible tiers. After each completion, they’re awarded digital badges and extra raffle tickets for the end-of-year raffle, which holds the grand prize.
If going through an entire reading list over the summer seems like too big of a task, students can also set small individual goals for themselves.
“I wish I had more time to read because I like reading a lot,” Boneh said. “I try my best to make time for reading two books every month.”
Although high school students tend to get busy during summer vacation, it is still important to allow free time for relaxing.
“Even though it is difficult to make time and read over the summer, I think reading regularly is still important for high schoolers like us to be doing,” Chan said.
Hungering For More Hunger
Games prequel ‘The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ is a prime example of book adaptations gone right
My first glimpse of the new Hunger Games movie came from a random ad on my phone, which led me to do a quick Google search for the movie’s trailer. What I didn’t know at the time was that this would send me down a rabbit hole of videos — from behind the scenes from previous movies to interviews featuring the new cast.
Delving into the early life of President Coriolanus Snow, “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” is a 2023 film adapted from Suzanne Collins’ prequel novel for “The Hun-
tors. But with any good “Hunger Games” movie comes the pivotal — and gruesome — plot that unravels as the Games go on.
As someone who finished the book in two days, I appreciate the similarity between the movie and the book and have since then added it to my Notes app list of favorite movies.
Featuring many iconic quotes and the unaltered song lyrics from the book, the film version of the Hunger Games prequel works hard to reflect the book.
Most people would enjoy this movie quite a lot. But readers in particular, usually so critical of book-to-movie adaptations, might enjoy it even more. A similar plot to the book truly makes or breaks these million dollar adaptations. The timeline is almost identical to that of the book.
A similar plot to the book truly makes or breaks these million dollar adaptations.
a decision that would so drastically change the course of their life and others. So, in May of 2023, I took the liberty of reading the original book, which had been in my to-beread list since its release in 2020. Although I read it to have a better understanding of the movie, it was also because, deep down, I knew there was a chance that the movie would swindle me with an alternative plot far from the author’s crafted story.
Once November rolled around, I was prepared for a product wholly unfulfilling to the eyes of a book-
Instead, I was thoroughly impressed.
Featuring a view into Panem from its years of rebuilding after the war, viewers can appreciate the modern aesthetics of this dystopia. With a glimpse at the inner lives of characters, deepening historical oppression from geographical and hierarchical fac-
In the 157-minute movie, there were only two missing aspects to the overall plot structure, which we can suspect were viewed by movie directors as unimportant.
In a short scene at the beginning of the movie, Coriolanus (Tom Blyth) tells his Grandma’am (Fiunnula Flanagan) that her singing was good but “a little pitchy.”
This seemingly-innocent comment plays into Coriolanus’ strategy to win popularity for Lucy Gray’s success in the games. However, this plot point is not further elaborated upon in the film. Despite a missing scene, the impact of him singing the national anthem at the opening ceremony would have been overshadowed by Lucy Gray Baird’s own singing, therefore not necessary to the plot.
the movie. Displaying signs of suffering from a mysterious illness and trying to hide rainbow scales on her skin would’ve add ed more intrigue as to the technology and genetic manipulation that is so key to the Hunger Games dystopia.
All in all, I appreciate this film for the effort that was put in by directors, producers and actors combined. Choosing to maintain the voice and original story of any book makes a dif ference in the response of viewers and its popularity.
Writers spend so much time crafting a story for reader engagement that it re ally is a shame when adaptations strug gle to accurately portray them, squan dering readers’ trust with upcoming films.
Book adaptations such as “Where The Crawdads Sing” and “Twilight” have had great success because of their consistent resemblance to their original stories. Any director or cinematographer should approach moviemak ing with the goal of making readers and movie watchers happy at the same time.
My hope to those working
Deep down, I knew there was a chance that the movie would swindle me.
these well structured and well loved plots that many readers actively enjoy.
As Coriolanus and Clemensia “Clemmy” (Ashley Liao) look down at a vat of genetically mutated rainbow scaled serpents, Clemmy is bitten and dragged away. In the movie, we never see her character again and viewers are expected to come to the conclusion that she has died.
But to readers watching, there was a sliver of hope for her return.
In the book, Clemmy appears twice more, and her subplot would have been an interesting addition to the aesthetic of
Because a book cannot be reflected onto the big screen, but a film definitely can.
