Friday, January 25, 2008

The Gods Must Be Crazy

While I was reading the first 20 entries of the book I sometimes thought of the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy” which is a movie that chronicles the disruption a simple soda bottle has on a tribal society. Everyone in the tribal society was “happy” or maybe a better word content with their lives until the soda bottle falls from the sky. All of a sudden there is something new in the society and there is only one so it can’t be shared like everything else was before the bottle appeared. The bottle introduces to the society the forbidden word of We “mine.”

The novel shows that for a future society to be successful all notion of ownership must be erased. One of the greatest conflicts that surfaces amongst the characters is related to this forbidden word. The insanity of D-503 is partially blind jealousy at R and S and any other man who has been with I and his love for her ruins what he has with dear O. The ancient idea of the form of possession one human being had over another seemed to D-503 to have been stamped out with the regulated sexual meetings, the little pink coupons. In this way everything was fair or so he thought. I is like the soda bottle from the gods. The soda bottle disrupts the tribal community and I will do the same in the triangle between O, R and D-503. Like the movie too when the bottle is caste from “end of the world” to stop the fighting I foresee an ominous future for I.

2 comments:

Brian M said...

I hadn't made the connection between the bottle from "The Gods Must Be Crazy" and I-330 but I do agree that the both have the same effect on their respective societies. Like the bottle, I-330 has a way of stirring up previously unthinkable emotions in those she comes in contact with.

I also agree that the forbidden "mine" is one of D-503's greatest struggles. Feelings of jealousy and ownership, both of which suggest he has a soul, arise and cause him divert from his usual subservient and obedient self.

As for the future of I-330, I am still rather perplexed as for what is in store for her. I feel, though, that D-503 and I-330 will have similar fates, good or bad.

Haseeby said...

I liked that you had made a connection between the novel, We, and a movie, The Gods Must Be Crazy. As I read your post, I thought about situations in real life that would be similar to lives of the One State. This would include curfews during war times(when people are out of control and there is no law and order), martial law (when there is a coup and a danger for the government to collapse).