After the discussion and many times of re-reading this document the main question comes down to what are humans? What are animals? Where did it all start? How powerful can technology become? This document opens the doors to many new various ideas that I have never thought about before. My teacher mentioned a very interesting fact about how babies are covered in hair when they are in the womb and eat it all up before they are born. This links to two things, a) when D-503 describes his hands to be “hairy and ape like” and b) how humans are descended from chimpanzees. I will go into depth about these two points later on.
Have you ever thought that perhaps technology could become more powerful than nature itself? I had in fact thought so before this discussion. In a scene in a movie called “Click” featuring Adam Sandler they show how much their world is controlled and run by technology because technology has allowed the impossible to become possible. The One State in the novel called “We” is an excellent example of this! D-503 describes the world he lives in to be of a glass one and readers are lead to imagine the humanized machines living in a glass dome. Nature is considered to be monstrous and feared and is therefore separated from their world. Furthermore, the Integral is a space rocket being built to send off to other countries and colonize them. How does this relate to the two points I mentioned earlier about chimpanzees and D-503’s ape-like hands? Firstly “We” is an example of the future and D-503 describes his hands to be ape-like and hairy. Secondly, humans are believed to be descended from chimpanzees that are generally hairy creatures.
Does this not lead to the conclusion that our world is a cycle?
In this document it mentions “how often a protagonist wandering through a forest experiences a terrifying or enchanting loss of temporal boundaries.” (pg 8) Would you agree or disagree with this? I strongly disagree because a forest is part of nature and something God has created therefore why would he create this to be a terrifying place? Many fairytales do portray the forest to be a horrifying place and why? Again this goes back to the point of where did this all begin without looking at the Christian aspect. “Alice in Wonderland” is a great example of the forest being a frightening place yet she does meet people/animals in the forest who make her journey more fascinating and less scary. Again this raises the question of whether these people she meets in the forest are people or animals. What are they? Could it possibly be the same ‘they’ mentioned in the novel “We”.
So ask yourself, what are really people? What are really animals? And what can the future be?
Monique, You ask a lot of questions regarding the cyclical nature of man. How does this tie with the theme of We? You also discuss the vilification of forests in fairy tales and folktales. You suggest that Christianity is to blame for this shift. Why do you suppose that it? It might be interesting to research the historical conflict between the emerging Christian faith and what is now known as paganism.
ReplyDeleteHi! One of the themes in We is religion. Religion does tie into the cyclical nature of man because some cultures do believe in reincarnations and such. We raises the question of the cycle of nature through his physical description of himself (his hairy hands) - relating to the past as humans are believed to be descended from chimpanzees.
ReplyDeleteI think that is a very captivating thought. I will look into HOW Christianity can be blamed for the shift. Also thank you I think it would be very interesting to research about the historical conflict.
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