Franken;Steiner

Frankenstein. Stein. Steins;Gate. To be fair, these two topics have absolutely nothing to do with each other besides the usage of the phrase "Stein", which means "stone" in German. "Franken" means "genetically engineered", which relates to how Frankenstein's monster is the product of human design of "stone", the hard, cold portions scavenged from graves by Victor Frankenstein.

What about Steins;Gate? What does Steins;Gate mean? If if you take it to mean "Stone Gate", well, that still doesn't make any sense because the concept of a significant "stone" exists neither figurtively nor literally in Steins;Gate. A quote from the main character, Rintarou Okabe, perfectly sums up the meaning of the title "Steins;Gate":

"It doesn't really mean anything."

Steins;Gate is a science fiction about a self-proclaimed mad scientist.

...Well that can't be right. For a science fiction narrative whose protagonist consistently advocates that the series of events that play out is the "choice of Steins;Gate", there must be some sort of meaning to the phrase, especially since it is the ultimate goal of the protagonist. Looking at it linguistically, Steins;Gate could be akin to some sort of "Stones;Gate". Perhaps a gate of stone? Then what are the stones? Two possible interpretations arise: the concept of World Lines as being vehicles of time and time travel is a river that carries the "stones", our characters, through to them; or the goal of reaching Steins;Gate is difficult because it is "made out of stone".

Neither of those interpretations are coherent with regards to the plot, the former unrelated to the struggles the protagonist undergoes and the latter unrelated to what the former is related to. The perhaps, since Steins;Gate was once a visual novel, the phrase "everything is the choice of Steins;Gate" refers to the fact that the plot is partially directed by the player character. While this is an interesting idea, it is also dismissed on the basis that such an interpretation is essentially a pun that adds no literary meaning to the story while also maintaining the basis that the title, in fact, doesn't really mean anything.

Just as I feel that Frankenstein is aptly named to capture its contents, so too is Steins;Gate. The whole basis of titling the novel Steins;Gate is on the basis that Steins;Gate doesn't really mean anything- if there is value in there being a meaning in the title, then the delibrate use of one that does not have a meaning can have an equal value. The point of Steins;Gate not having a particular meaning relates to Steins;Gate's ending.

"No one knows what the future holds. That's precisely why, just as this reunion demonstrates, the possibilities are infinite."

The value in the lack of meaning stems from the meanings that Steins;Gate takes otherwise. The phrase can mean several things to several characters, but its meaning is never set in "stone". Steins;Gate teaches that time can never be truly overcome, merely decieved, and the character's abilities to continue forth is the "gate" towards an unknown future. 

Freedom Writers

Freedom Writers reminds me of Great Teacher Onizuka, a manga about a thug who suddenly makes the decision to become a teacher as a result of a misguided impression that teachers get the ladies.

Great Teacher Onizuka is about a punk who becomes a teacher.

Onizuka soon learns to error of his ways however, when he sees that the students he is assigned to teach are as troubled and misguided as he is. Though he lacks knowledge, what Onizuka does have is life experience. He sets out to help each misfit in his class solve their problems through his own, strange methods.

Freedom Writers follows Erin Gruwell and her attempts to reform a class of misfits, much like Onizuka. She goes to extreme lengthes to educate the children and change their attitudes, empowering them to find the courage to overcome their own problems. Onizuka takes a similar attitude. Like Erin, he dislikes the condescending approach the school systems takes towards children and resolves himself to become the greatest teacher who ever lived, starting by breaking through to each of his students one by one. However, unlike Erin, his approaches are occasionally illegal and dangerous or otherwise completely illogical. He enlists his students in beauty contests and accepts challenges he cannot hope to succeed in, and yet is able to inspire his students regardless, teaching them life lessons they learn themselves instead of being taught directly.

Onizuka focuses on life lessons. He teaches children to be confident in themselves and to enjoy life. Erin teaches compassion and morals to the children. The both look out for the kids, though their methods are radically different Onizuka shows his kids how to have fun in life instead of being destructive while Erin gives her children history lessons and teaches them to forgive others.

Why don't we all just play more visual novels?

Visual Novels are extremely similar to regular novels in that they are primarily story driven, in addition to having other attributes including animated sprites, voice acting, and being able to choose your own adventure. 

So why is this artistic medium relatively unknown to the western world? Probably because of this:

This is a Visual Novel. Yeah...

The first stigma against visual novels is that the majority of them appeal to a niche audience enthralled with 2D girls. This results in a large majority of visual novels that are targeted towards that audience. In turn, the overall opinion of the general public towards this genre lowers, despite the potential for a powerful narrative.

The second stigma is correlated with the first. There is an inherrant lack of deep storylines and more emphasis on visuals novels that are targeted toward the audience described in the first stigma. In a positive feedback mechanism, these visual novels are less inspired from original concepts and its writers are less populated with those interested in literary fiction. Because, unfortunately, literary fiction doesn't sell as well, and, compounded by the fact that visuals become a primary production expense, literary fiction isn't as popular as topics as visual novels. The topics that are are generally twisted, like Saya no Uta, a story about a man who becomes a cannibal with an incomprehensible flesh monster:

Do not let this caption fool you. This is about an insane man who sees the world as a mass of flesh- imagine what normal looks like.

The final stigma is that several people who would appreciate these novels do not want to read in general. Reading is a time investment and the presence of dynamically updating sprites and a branching storyline is not enough to convince these people to read them. In fact, these aspects may in fact discourage them from reading them at all- since visual novels are relatively unknown in the western world, most of them are difficult to acquire legally and require torrenting. Most people are unwilling to learn how to or take the time to torret, much less read instructions for installing Daemon Tools and patching the game to install to their computer. And then comes actually reading the novel itself, which will take even longer since you are fed only one line of text at a time.

Maybe we will all play more visual novels in the future when books do not require high production costs to generate visual novels from literary novels.