Response to First the Forests

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?

Response to Questions of Conquest & Chapter VII Freedom and Democracy

The Question of Conquest written by Mario Vargas Llosa addresses a key issue; are modern cultures able to overcome the effect of previous battles that they have encountered while keeping the basis of their religion stable? Indigenos people are suppressed to carry out their goals and visions. Freedom and Democracy addresses a similar issue where they are also suppressed from having freedom of thought, emotions and actions at a young age. Both documents focus on two main elements: freedom and authority.

One striking event that supports this is the battle between Inca and the Indians against the Spaniards. Inca is the leader and has all the authority and when he is captured the Indians think the best thing to do is to let themselves be killed. This is due to the fact that a) they do not have the ability to make decisions and b) there was a loss of leadership hence leading to confusion and will to fight.

In Freedom and Democracy, it mentions that we the people are powerless in our thoughts and are unable to think for ourselves. We let ourselves make decisions on consensus of the society. By not being different and giving up spontenity we are letting ourselves to be controlled by the expectations of others. This relates to the novel "We" written by Yevgeny Zamyatin because readers are able to see through the eyes of D-503 that having an imagination and having the ability to think is considered an illness.

On Language Response

The “On Language” packet discusses Zanyatin’s knowledge and keen interest about literature. His focus revolves around poetry, prose, folk language and much more. I like how he begins his discussion with a question. It makes readers interested and eager to read more. Throughout this passage, Zanyatin expresses his beliefs very clearly and gives definitions of many new terms like “lyrical works”, “epic writers”, “folk language” and “neologisms”.


An idea that fascinated me in the first few pages was how he mentioned that the author must be entirely invisible. Now that I begin to think about this, in many of the books I have read the authors opinion is completely wiped out. Various novels that I have read are either in third person or written in perspective of the main character and therefore “all the authors comments, all the descriptions of the surroundings, the characters, the landscapes must be couched in the language of the milieu portrayed.” (178)

One of the main areas he focused on was folk language. He defined it as the “language of dialogue” and its prime source comes from the people. He used the examples and works of many old writers as well as sources like Church Slavonic sources and the published texts of the Old believers and provincialisms. I noticed that many of his observations or beliefs about literature were backed with many primary sources.

Towards the end of the discussion, he said something so simply and it struck me so powerfully. “The fewer words you use, the more you say with them, the greater the effect.” (185) I believe that this is completely true. There is a saying that the eyes are the windows to your soul, which also emphasizes the fact that you can understand and learn everything about someone without many words at all. Overall, the packet was very appealing in his conversational yet formal tone. I learnt many new terms and also thought more about things I had not thought before.