What Can I Give You?
In my class, Forbidden Books, the unit of study has been about dogma. The overall study has been on what dogma is and how it is portrayed. Before going any further, I should probably give a definition; Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that are set out by a person or nation, seen to be true and factual. We have seen the applications of dogma in our field experiences: First, we were able to visit a Mosque to look at it from a religious standpoint, hearing the teachings of the Koran and how they affect the Muslim people. The second field experience we had was a visit to the “Women and Children's First” feminist library to hear about how dogma can be regulated, in the form of censorship. Now getting to the topic at hand, I was asked to make a podcast interview with a chosen character from my book and show their dogma and the dogma of the time period. The book had only one requirement: It has to have been banned at some point. I chose “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, as you can expect there are difficulties in picking that kind of book but I hope you can appreciate what I’ve put together.
CDH:
“In a dystopian future, presumably between the time of 2060 and 2100, the only ‘living’ part of the world has become completely controlled by this rule of ‘sameness’. These people have completely lost their sense of humanity. What I mean by humanity is on the level of comprehension, they can't see color, play music, feel real emotions or make their own, willful, choices. The main reason for this would be that with only one person to feel everything, the rest will live peacefully but I believe there is a difference between peace and nothingness.”
“Joining us today to shed some light on this is the former Receiver, Jonas. Tell us about where we are, and your experience here.”
JONAS:
“Thank you for having me. We are currently on one of the bike roads inside the community.
I used to travel through here all the time for my community service time. It was a simple life: wake up, follow routine, do my hours, come home, follow routine, sleep, repeat. I often used my hours with my friends Asher and Fiona in the house of greys, usually helping bathe the elderly. It was against the rules for children or adults to look at another’s nakedness; but the rule did not apply to newchildren or the Old. That's how it was until the Ceremony of Twelve when I was selected to be the new Receiver of Memories, that's when I asked questions.”
CDH:
“I take it the look on your face means that those questions lead to bad answers? Or do you just have bad memories of trying to ask?”
JONAS:
“We have to protect people from wrong choices, that's what I was taught. As I asked questions I only had more questions but most of the time it came to an unsavory end. The three heaviest but important would be finding out about the death of four-year-old Caleb, the giver explaining how the community sees his daughter as a disgrace, and when I finally found out what being “released” really meant in seeing my own father euthanize the newchild. It all felt horrible that things like this could go so unseen as if nothing had happened.”
CDH:
“I know that there seem to be many painful memories for you here and I don't want to diminish any of those or make up for them in my next question but, how have you been led to the beauties of the world or received memories?”
JONAS:
“It's completely alright but the first thing that comes to mind is when I had run away with the baby Gabe. We had finally reached a destination, it alerted me because I heard people singing it felt like it was across vast distances of space and time, from the place I had left. Some other received memories include sledding, animals like the elephant, and Christmas. Not all my memories are filled with pain otherwise I would have gone crazy a long time ago.”
CDH:
“Well that's all the time we have for today but I hope you enjoyed the show and please thank Jonas for making the trip to come talk to us.”
JONAS:
“Thanks for having me, good night everybody.”
Transcript of the podcast: (Bold means it is a direct quote. Underline means it is an important event)
“In a dystopian future, presumably between the time of 2060 and 2100, the only ‘living’ part of the world has become completely controlled by this rule of ‘sameness’. These people have completely lost their sense of humanity. What I mean by humanity is on the level of comprehension, they can't see color, play music, feel real emotions or make their own, willful, choices. The main reason for this would be that with only one person to feel everything, the rest will live peacefully but I believe there is a difference between peace and nothingness.”
“Joining us today to shed some light on this is the former Receiver, Jonas. Tell us about where we are, and your experience here.”
JONAS:
“Thank you for having me. We are currently on one of the bike roads inside the community.
I used to travel through here all the time for my community service time. It was a simple life: wake up, follow routine, do my hours, come home, follow routine, sleep, repeat. I often used my hours with my friends Asher and Fiona in the house of greys, usually helping bathe the elderly. It was against the rules for children or adults to look at another’s nakedness; but the rule did not apply to newchildren or the Old. That's how it was until the Ceremony of Twelve when I was selected to be the new Receiver of Memories, that's when I asked questions.”
CDH:
“I take it the look on your face means that those questions lead to bad answers? Or do you just have bad memories of trying to ask?”
JONAS:
“We have to protect people from wrong choices, that's what I was taught. As I asked questions I only had more questions but most of the time it came to an unsavory end. The three heaviest but important would be finding out about the death of four-year-old Caleb, the giver explaining how the community sees his daughter as a disgrace, and when I finally found out what being “released” really meant in seeing my own father euthanize the newchild. It all felt horrible that things like this could go so unseen as if nothing had happened.”
CDH:
“I know that there seem to be many painful memories for you here and I don't want to diminish any of those or make up for them in my next question but, how have you been led to the beauties of the world or received memories?”
JONAS:
“It's completely alright but the first thing that comes to mind is when I had run away with the baby Gabe. We had finally reached a destination, it alerted me because I heard people singing it felt like it was across vast distances of space and time, from the place I had left. Some other received memories include sledding, animals like the elephant, and Christmas. Not all my memories are filled with pain otherwise I would have gone crazy a long time ago.”
CDH:
“Well that's all the time we have for today but I hope you enjoyed the show and please thank Jonas for making the trip to come talk to us.”
JONAS:
“Thanks for having me, good night everybody.”
NEEDTOBREATHE."Difference Maker."Rivers In The Wasteland, Atlantic Records,2014.
Lowry, Lois. The Giver. Houghton Mifflin, 1993.
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