{"id":555,"date":"2009-10-10T23:56:38","date_gmt":"2009-10-11T03:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/?p=555"},"modified":"2009-10-10T23:56:38","modified_gmt":"2009-10-11T03:56:38","slug":"the-consequences-of-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/archives\/555","title":{"rendered":"The Consequences of Truth"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first chapter of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower<\/em> is short yet fraught with emotion and conflicting ideas.\u00a0 It begans by suggesting that the main character is to be married or used in some other ritual the day after her birthday, then immediately tells us the ritual is a lie.\u00a0 Her recurring dream of herself learning to fly and flying towards a door but hitting a wall of fire instead seems to be a fairly obvious metaphor.\u00a0 As if in aiming for the truth she is inevitably destined to miss her intended mark, as if by fate, and suffer drastic and painful consequences.<\/p>\n

If we aim for truth in our lives we often risk hurting people we care about or even hurting ourselves.\u00a0 Truly, how often are people honest with themselves about their appearance, or that of their spouse\/boyfriend\/girlfriend?\u00a0 Do people ever say, “Do I really need those shoes?”, or “I don’t know how to drive to Niagra Falls but I don’t need directions!”\u00a0 Do we not all burn ourselves many times throughout our lives?\u00a0 And after the burns heal and we have grafted metaphorical “new skin” onto our wounds in the form of learning and memory, do we not often forget the pain of those mistakes and repeat them?\u00a0 Pain is the only real thing.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 If you remember pain, which is not outweighed by some other factor such as saving your own life, or bringing into existence another, most people will avoid the pain.<\/p>\n

I am reminded in this book of Ayn Rand’s book Anthem<\/em>.\u00a0 Anthem<\/em> was not a long book, or a book of complicated plot and numerous and multifaceted characters.\u00a0 It was a book about two people, told from the perspective of one in a future time when there is no future.\u00a0 For Equality 7-2521, the protagonist, the past is far more mysterious and fascinating than the monotonous monochromatic future.\u00a0 Like the girl in Parable<\/em>, Equality 7-2521 aims for the truth and his world comes crashing down around him.\u00a0 His “utopian” society is more aptly described as “dystopian”.\u00a0 These themes seem to spring to the forefront in the girl’s dream-as-exposition, and it makes me eager to see what other similarities between these two tales of suffering might arise.<\/p>\n

Often through human history, sowing the seeds of hope in a time when that word has been forgotten can lead to the most magnificent transformations in the human condition and psyche.\u00a0 They even give out Nobel Peace Prizes for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first chapter of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower is short yet fraught with emotion and conflicting ideas.\u00a0 It begans by suggesting that the main character is to be married or used in some other ritual the day after her birthday, then immediately tells us the ritual is a lie.\u00a0 Her recurring dream of… Continue reading The Consequences of Truth<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[60,59,61],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":556,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555\/revisions\/556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}