One of the binary oppositions that was listed in class was civilization or culture vs. nature. A classmate brought up in discussion that to them, civilization seems more cyclical than nature and nature is more unpredictable. I take issue with this assessment in both the novel and actual life. In his article, \u201cThe Archetypes of Literature,\u201d Northrop Frye asserts that, \u201cin human life a ritual seems to be something of a voluntary effort…to recapture a lost rapport with the natural cycle\u201d (103). Therefore the cycles or repetitive aspects of our lives and our culture stem from nature itself and our desire to perhaps be closer to, or emulate it.<\/p>\n
In Lucifer’s Hammer, nature (the comet) wreaks havoc over civilization and seems to be a random and catastrophic occurrence. This natural, catastrophic event does bring the survivors closer to nature (I would assume, I haven’t actually read that far yet). The comet was a natural disaster that forced humans to exist more like primal beings, like animals. It is also true that in the novel, many characters seem to wish for the comet to strike. Fred Lauren believes the comet will strike so that he can grant himself permission to commit murder. Less outwardly, Harvey Randall wishes for this disaster so that his financial and domestic life will be erased.<\/p>\n
By desiring this disaster that is basically the destruction of their civilization, it is possible that these characters are unconsciously hoping to start fresh. This fresh start will be closer to nature and they will be able to begin new cycles more closely connected to nature. Their new lives will exist without all of the extraneous elements that civilization and culture bring along with them like marriage, debt and law. The cycles of nature and civilization are connected and become increasingly intertwined like most of the oppositions found in the early part of this novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the binary oppositions that was listed in class was civilization or culture vs. nature. A classmate brought up in discussion that to them, civilization seems more cyclical than nature and nature is more unpredictable. I take issue with this assessment in both the novel and actual life. In his article, \u201cThe Archetypes of… Continue reading Nature and Civilization<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95"}],"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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.samplereality.com\/gmu\/fall2009\/459\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}