[ SECRET POST #1981 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1981 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 68 secrets from Secret Submission Post #283.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

10. http://i.imgur.com/1FZ2Z.png

[b_dangerous]

I remember reading this in high school.


I was totally convinced that the bodies were sent off to the food processing plant. And this was long before I had ever heard of Soylent Green.

[(Anonymous)]

High school? This book was required reading in my 5th grade TAG program. O_o

[(Anonymous)]

appropriate icon is appropriate

[(Anonymous)]

You...would want to live in a world where they kill you if you're a twin? What if your job was a birther? Or what if it was your job to kill the unwanted babies?

I hate the giver, a lot. The ending where they die (I don't believe they made it) always ruined the story for me. It's too sad.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for pointing out that women's bodies are a commodity in that universe. That's a disgusting thing to wish for.

[maverickz3r0]

There are sequels wherein Jonas and Gabe appear, briefly and subtly though. It's canon to the series that they made it. When you know that, it's much less sad and more hopeful.

[(Anonymous)]

They don't die. They appear in a later book, Messenger.

[carma-bee.livejournal.com]

maybe the OP would be ok with it because he/she would be oblivious of all that stuff? everyone but The Givers either doesn't know what release actually is or just goes along with it because that's how things are. though that doesn't really make it much better, it's still creepy that way because they're so unaware of what things really mean.

[maiira]

GUUHHHHH yes. The birther thing always sounded horrible to me, even (ESPECIALLY) in sixth grade.

(Could you elect to apply for Release if you didn't like the job you were given? I can't remember. I remember Jonas not being allowed to, but maybe everyone else was?)

[(Anonymous)]

They don't die. There are sequel novels. They are alive in them.

[(Anonymous)]

You're not alone, anon. This is one of my favourite books, and yes, I get the point. But it was so much easier to see the monstrousness of it as a small child and so much easier to see the seductiveness of it as an adult. After three years of periodic unemployment and the threat of homelessness, of knowing real hunger and experiencing discrimination, of desperately wanting to work and not being able to find a way to support myself, I can understand why the founders of that society did what the did, and that just makes Jonas's story even more compelling.

[cure_light]

No, I don't think that's unreasonable. I always figured we were kind of supposed to feel that way. I mean, there's a reason they gave all those memories to one person and then just kind of ignore them. They're painful and sometimes it's much easier to just forget and do what you're told.

[unicornherds]

I always figured we were kind of supposed to feel that way.

Same. I thought it was written purposely so it seemed like a great place to live, a place everyone would think was perfect, and then you slowly learn the truth about the world.

[(Anonymous)]

Complete Digression:

I read this book when I was too young (nine, I believe) and it traumatized me so much that could never pick it up again. Which is kinda sad because I bet it's AMAZING from an adult's perspective.

[maverickz3r0]

I love this book. The two sequels weren't bad, either.

I think that's kind of the point? Probably most people would like to live like that. Sure, there's nasty, unpleasant things going on--but no one knows they're nasty and unpleasant, and not many people know about them anyway. I wouldn't want to live there myself, but I can see the appeal.

[velvet_mace]

Funny, all I could remember is thinking how much the society wouldn't work and all the practical flaws. I mean they retired their breeding women after only 3 children. Which means that 2/3rds of all female characters would have to be breeders just to keep the population even. Which since the breeders never raised the children means that there wouldn't be enough female parents to raise the children, unless the parents raise more than 2 children each, which didn't seem to be the case. And this didn't take in account loss from accident and euthanasia or just the random chance that the gender ratio of newborns turns out to be less than 50/50. Realistically this society would dwindle to nothing in a few generations, even if the society never had to cope with things like flood or famine which their brainwashed, unimaginative minds were not conditioned to cope with.

And yeah. Just couldn't buy into it other than it being a kind of a philosophical sermon that doesn't take in account for a lot of reality.

[(Anonymous)]

No, I totally agree. So many great series have some sort of scheme whereby you get assigned/Sorted/Impressed, which determines where you belong in life. The Giver's world is an especially calm utopia without the messiness of sexual desire, where even the lowest job is vital to the community. There's no war, little strife, and death is almost always peaceful. It's all very socialist.

[intrigueing.livejournal.com]

I thought that kind of WAS the point? It seems deceptively comforting and ideal and even though as a reader you know it's supposed to be wrong you almost want to say "you know...maybe they have a point..." and then the whole things slides into nightmare-land.

[wldcatsprstr_14]

I don't think it's a horrible world to live in if you elect to live in it. If that's your choice, to give up all that agency. My issue as an adult is that it's such a secret about the outside world. That they don't tell people about it and let them choose.

It must have been a choice in the beginning of that utopia. It would be hard to deal with raising kids in that world without indoctrinating them too heavily. The only way I could see it working would be having people grow up in the outside world and then, once they reach a certain age, make a choice about where they want to spend the rest of their lives. The only issue I think people could see with that is that once they give up the agency, they can't make the choice to go back. But that's their freedom. It's like any other permanent decision (e.g committing suicide); once you do it, you can't go back nor will you even be conscious of wanting to go back. Doesn't mean it's the wrong choice though and the freedom to make it is important.

That book broke my heart. I read it in middle school and it was so sad. But I really enjoyed it too, ethical issues and all. I think that's what makes it great. If the 'utopia' were truly a utopia in every way, it would be a boring book. I think the main point of utopias is that they only work if everyone has the same goals and sees the same things as good/bad. If even one person doesn't, it ceases to really be a utopia, which is what makes these kinds of stories cool.

[lyndis]

The book broke my heart, but for different reasons. I actually learned a lot from it. It was one of the first books I *had* to read in school, and I read it to my six-year-old sister and asked her all of my schoolwork questions I had done, too, just to get her opinions and to explain what things like foreshadowing were. (She's an awesome writer/reader now because of all that knowledge! Hah!)

Either way, certain things about the book brought up a lot of discussion in my family, because most of my siblings had to read that book, too, as they got into Jr. High. Like the bit about war-- to this day, I can't forget that scene, or the scene after where he sees his friends playing "war"--or the, "You are not starving, you will never BE starving!" line, because I never really thought about how much impact a word we use flippantly like "starving" can mean. I mean, people actually do starve...but we use it to say we're hungry. -_-

Great book, but it's still really depressing on so many levels and I think a part of its purpose was to show you this world that SEEMED perfect (but wasn't), to prove that a utopia is impossible (this is true), and that, at the end of the day, our imperfect world is better than a fake perfect one.

[tabaqui]

Am i the only person in f!s who has no clue whatsoever what this book is?

[(Anonymous)]

That was an awesome book, and I could totally understand where you are coming from. Sometimes I talk about how frustrating my life is and how I'd rather go to prison than deal with the mediocrity of everyday stuff. It's hard feeling like you're living in an age of opportunity and then realizing you'll never be the superhero or movie star or whatever it is you thought you'd be. So...having a life planned out and not having any qualms about it? Hell yes it sounds appealing.

[(Anonymous)]

Can I ask what book this actually is? The other comments make it sound intriguing!

[maiira]

So I chose this book for a weekly book report assignment that we had to do in sixth grade. (Pick a book every week, write brief report filling one page of notebook paper, profit!)

I didn't finish it.

I still got 100/100.

Still don't know how I managed to pull that one off.

(I went back and read it later and was like HOFUCK, so.)

/cool story bro