Now to sit down and dissect something like a mad scientist. Well let me cut into the skin of “we” and reveal its clockwork organs and dig until I find that sensitive spot that is just beyond the green wall. I am talking about the “animals” that hide in the grass and that are so much bellow the “superior” race of beings that live in the glass world. At first I had seen them as under developed monkeys that show how amazing and how advanced the dystopian society was but on closer examination I saw it showed exactly the opposite.
These beasts were more human than the logical and mechanical things that thought of themselves as people. The “beasts” felt and had emotion. They didn’t examine everything logically but as humans should. They were clouded by primitive and illogical emotion. I found it funny that I could relate to these creatures more so than to the soulless automatons that inhabited the glass city. It left me somewhat unnerved. I had to contemplate whether the direction in which our own society was headed was the correct direction. With our growing technology and heightening sense of justice and logic I had to question whether or not we are become more like these beautiful and simple monsters or the calculated and cold things that called themselves people.
I also had to wonder which is truly better. Is it better to be logical and calculated and neglect the humanity and ethics of every situation for the mere fact that it makes the most “sense”? Or should we let emotion and sentiment completely clog our view of what is logical? I feel at this point in time we have managed to find an odd balance. We have advanced past the monkeys of the green wall but not lost all sense of primitive emotion and love. When that is lost we are no better than those people living in glass and parading in their false sense of illogical happiness.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Mastering Love...
Quotes have never ever been my forte. I like my own words so much better and I feel like I am stealing but there was one that I could not get out of my mind no matter how hard I mentally scraped. When d-503 admitted to I-330 that he was afraid of fog she in her amazingly cryptic and human way she has told him “That means you love it. You are afraid of it because you it’s stronger than you, you hate it because you’re afraid of it, you love it because you can’t master it. You can only love something that refuses to be mastered.”( 71) This statement, made with the utmost of confidence, really made me stop and think. In a novel barren of even the most basic human emotion I was surprised and confused to find this beacon of human wisdom.
The very basis of mastery is as what humans seek. The human being always wants to get better and better at something so they seek to master it and destroy what they do not know. But it some how makes perfect sense that one can only love what one can not master. The human soul has been repeatedly shown to be completely incapable of being mastered and so it adds sense behind falling in love. Well at least as much sense as love can ever make.
I also found it ironic that in this society it seems that almost every human has been mastered. There is absolutely no room for love by i-330’s definition. The only one who seems to have not been conquered is herself. She has surreptitiously planted the seed in d-503’s head that he is in love with her. When I really sat down and thought about it she is honestly one of the most conniving characters I have ever read about. She takes complete advantage of d-503’s under developed sense of emotion. She uses it to her advantage much like how an adult might manipulate a teenager in a similar situation. It’s horrible but the only on who has any knowledge of love is the one who abuses it. It almost made me lose hope even in the flame of humanity in the dystopian horror that had been created.
The very basis of mastery is as what humans seek. The human being always wants to get better and better at something so they seek to master it and destroy what they do not know. But it some how makes perfect sense that one can only love what one can not master. The human soul has been repeatedly shown to be completely incapable of being mastered and so it adds sense behind falling in love. Well at least as much sense as love can ever make.
I also found it ironic that in this society it seems that almost every human has been mastered. There is absolutely no room for love by i-330’s definition. The only one who seems to have not been conquered is herself. She has surreptitiously planted the seed in d-503’s head that he is in love with her. When I really sat down and thought about it she is honestly one of the most conniving characters I have ever read about. She takes complete advantage of d-503’s under developed sense of emotion. She uses it to her advantage much like how an adult might manipulate a teenager in a similar situation. It’s horrible but the only on who has any knowledge of love is the one who abuses it. It almost made me lose hope even in the flame of humanity in the dystopian horror that had been created.
If Only It Ended Differently...
“We” “We” “We” “We” “We”… well this is what I thought of “We”. Through out the novel I found it to be decently engaging. The whole tension brought on by d-503’s plight into the terrifying world of imagination kept me rooting for him and hoping he will come out on the other side with thoughts of unicorns and rainbows and illogical things like that. Instead I get slammed with my hero getting a lobotomy and acting like the computer I am typing this blog on.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not one for sappy illogical endings where the long lost something or other comes out of the woodwork and saves them all, but come on, I wanted some stones to be thrown. D-503 had come far in his rebellious nature and in my opinion his terrible condition of having a soul had gotten bad enough that he might have shattered a few glass walls before rolling over.
Looking beyond the disappointing ending the book as a whole was decent. I enjoyed the brightly human bursts of emotion that i-330 brought to the rather bland and uninteresting conditions of the novel. I don’t know if it was because we had already read a couple of dystopian novels but I felt myself tripping over familiar surroundings. Turns out when creating perfect societies authors have pretty similar basic ideas. Assigning of jobs and dictating as much free time as possible has been done before and I couldn’t help but yearn for something a bit more creative. But then again how can you have creativity in a stifling society of glass and numbers.
So as a whole I would give “We” three stars out of five. It kept me guessing on and off and managed to get me to care about the heartless robot d-503 although the end left me wanting more than just closure but a wild rebellion of feeling versus logic.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not one for sappy illogical endings where the long lost something or other comes out of the woodwork and saves them all, but come on, I wanted some stones to be thrown. D-503 had come far in his rebellious nature and in my opinion his terrible condition of having a soul had gotten bad enough that he might have shattered a few glass walls before rolling over.
Looking beyond the disappointing ending the book as a whole was decent. I enjoyed the brightly human bursts of emotion that i-330 brought to the rather bland and uninteresting conditions of the novel. I don’t know if it was because we had already read a couple of dystopian novels but I felt myself tripping over familiar surroundings. Turns out when creating perfect societies authors have pretty similar basic ideas. Assigning of jobs and dictating as much free time as possible has been done before and I couldn’t help but yearn for something a bit more creative. But then again how can you have creativity in a stifling society of glass and numbers.
So as a whole I would give “We” three stars out of five. It kept me guessing on and off and managed to get me to care about the heartless robot d-503 although the end left me wanting more than just closure but a wild rebellion of feeling versus logic.
So Many Ways To Die...
with all the ways in the world to perish i found it almost laughable that Atwoods society thought that their downfall was choice. "we were a scoeity dying, said Aunt Lydia, of too much choice" ( 25). i find it amazing that even for a split second choice could be conscidered a bad thing. i never have liked being forced to do anything but this society argues that choices complicate things and makes people unhappy. they claim that choices cause discord and are the downfall of man and religion... but where is the beauty of religion without choice?
to have faith is the very center of all religion. to beleive by CHOICE, not by force. but somewhere between the bombs going off and the naziesque burning of books, all in the name of good faith and religion of course, i feel the message was lost. there are many things a person or society can die from but i am sure choice is not one of them. infact its very easy to die from lack of choice, as shown by countless ponderings by offred where she contemplates suicide. because they have taken every choice away from her she scrounges about for her only choice left.
its astounding that an entire society can suddenly and effectively become so terrified of freedom. its a hard concept for me as a young american where we literally forget how free we really are. even by writing this blog i am taking advantage of a careless freedom i have often overlooked. but i honestly think if all my freedoms were to be torn away i would die, if not physically then definitly emotionally. so it really causes me to marvel at the fact that such a rampant fear of freedom can cause an entire revelution. its almost ironic since so often revelutions are started to gain more freedom.
i see the cause behind this fear is a greed like no other. people desire to keep what they have and those on top will do almost anything to stay on top. these greedy few have found a way to manipulate people into thinking this basic violation of human rights is good for them. this happened with hitlers nazi regime. as long as everyone hated onething they were united and happy... as long as they were not the hatred. and step by step more and more became the hated until finally everything " undesirable" was banished. in atwoods case the undesirable thing was freedom.
to have faith is the very center of all religion. to beleive by CHOICE, not by force. but somewhere between the bombs going off and the naziesque burning of books, all in the name of good faith and religion of course, i feel the message was lost. there are many things a person or society can die from but i am sure choice is not one of them. infact its very easy to die from lack of choice, as shown by countless ponderings by offred where she contemplates suicide. because they have taken every choice away from her she scrounges about for her only choice left.
its astounding that an entire society can suddenly and effectively become so terrified of freedom. its a hard concept for me as a young american where we literally forget how free we really are. even by writing this blog i am taking advantage of a careless freedom i have often overlooked. but i honestly think if all my freedoms were to be torn away i would die, if not physically then definitly emotionally. so it really causes me to marvel at the fact that such a rampant fear of freedom can cause an entire revelution. its almost ironic since so often revelutions are started to gain more freedom.
i see the cause behind this fear is a greed like no other. people desire to keep what they have and those on top will do almost anything to stay on top. these greedy few have found a way to manipulate people into thinking this basic violation of human rights is good for them. this happened with hitlers nazi regime. as long as everyone hated onething they were united and happy... as long as they were not the hatred. and step by step more and more became the hated until finally everything " undesirable" was banished. in atwoods case the undesirable thing was freedom.
I Am No Fashion Designer...
They say not to judge a book by its cover but glancing at how something appears can tell you a lot about something. In "The Handmaid's Tale" women were, for the most part, defined by what they wore. The clothes that the women wore defined them and their purpose that was given to them.
Take for instance the handmaiden herself. She was garbed in all red and blinded by white. Red can stir a lot of things inside a person on sight, ranging from passion desire and hunger to repulsion and sin. All of these things define the handmaids because through their occupation have become objects of desire but also sin. Through the use of such topical and blatant symbols Atwood has made a statement at how superficial the entire society is. When someone can glance at you and know you as much as they need to know you there is a problem.
This can also bring up the sensitive subject of self expression. people want to be able to portray who they are and how they feel and clothing is a very viable means of doing so. When human beings are stripped of that they lose not only their freedom but their identity. they become what the clothing defines them as. In the case of the Martha's they become hands for cooking and cleaning, and the handmaids become a womb. Its degrading to be broken up into parts and looked at only for what your body can do. Atwood takes something generally used to express personality and even emotion and turns it on its head making it represent the most superficial bodily functions. I found this switch to be fascinating and thought it was extremely clever on Atwood's part.
Take for instance the handmaiden herself. She was garbed in all red and blinded by white. Red can stir a lot of things inside a person on sight, ranging from passion desire and hunger to repulsion and sin. All of these things define the handmaids because through their occupation have become objects of desire but also sin. Through the use of such topical and blatant symbols Atwood has made a statement at how superficial the entire society is. When someone can glance at you and know you as much as they need to know you there is a problem.
This can also bring up the sensitive subject of self expression. people want to be able to portray who they are and how they feel and clothing is a very viable means of doing so. When human beings are stripped of that they lose not only their freedom but their identity. they become what the clothing defines them as. In the case of the Martha's they become hands for cooking and cleaning, and the handmaids become a womb. Its degrading to be broken up into parts and looked at only for what your body can do. Atwood takes something generally used to express personality and even emotion and turns it on its head making it represent the most superficial bodily functions. I found this switch to be fascinating and thought it was extremely clever on Atwood's part.
Utopian Done Right...
So I had never been exactly thrilled with the whole feminist overlord idea where men are pigs and can't do anything right. I see it as a stupid double standard society has placed on men and neglects to see. Men have value and can be oppressed and stereotyped just as easily as women. I felt that the "Handmaid's Tale" showed feminism properly. Feminism is not necessarily the empowerment of women but finding equality amongst the genders. By showing that in a society where women are overly "respected" and limited by that respect both the men and women are repressed. for example the commander was completely starved of the human intimacy that he required. If it was purely physical the commander would be frolicking in this promiscuous wasteland, instead he is begging a woman to play scrabble with him and to kiss him like she meant it.
The dysfunction in this society is evident and the good intentions the people had when creating it are understandable, but contrary to the good intentions the actions were carried out to their fullest and caused chaos. This is how Utopian should be written. it engages the reader and instills fear without trying to come off as too futuristic. When you have stories like "We" and "Anthem" they can sometimes feel a bit hokey and overdone, as if the author had exhausted themselves trying to make us believe. I found the handmaids tale to be foreboding and powerful with out the forced sense of realism. I can only compare it to the fairy tales one hears as a child, the kind that when upon first encounter the listener smiles until they realize its about the plague or horrible injustices in society. I think the "Handmaid's Tale" has earned itself a solid four out of five. It kept me guessing and its poetic language was a pleasing relief from the sharp and often staccato feel of the futuristic Utopian novel.
The dysfunction in this society is evident and the good intentions the people had when creating it are understandable, but contrary to the good intentions the actions were carried out to their fullest and caused chaos. This is how Utopian should be written. it engages the reader and instills fear without trying to come off as too futuristic. When you have stories like "We" and "Anthem" they can sometimes feel a bit hokey and overdone, as if the author had exhausted themselves trying to make us believe. I found the handmaids tale to be foreboding and powerful with out the forced sense of realism. I can only compare it to the fairy tales one hears as a child, the kind that when upon first encounter the listener smiles until they realize its about the plague or horrible injustices in society. I think the "Handmaid's Tale" has earned itself a solid four out of five. It kept me guessing and its poetic language was a pleasing relief from the sharp and often staccato feel of the futuristic Utopian novel.
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