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is resistance futile or desired?
Nov. 23rd, 2004 04:56 pmPicked up courtesy of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yhlee: fannishly has fascinating and articulate thoughts on Anne Rice and Asimov's "The Last Question," among other things.
Granted I'm not up on my Asimov or on my Bible, but I have read Rice and one of the biggest themes of her novels are the individual. Lestat in all of his petty, flawed, school boy glory is a perfect example of the individual. The way that he ignores the rules and builds his own path. It is not a perfect way to exist, it is often, as evidenced by Lestat, a tragic and isolating way to live but it is also intrinsically human. It is what makes the human species special, especially as contrasted to Rice's version of the heavenly host. Eradicating the 'I' in all of its isolated complexity is rather frightening to me. It is incredibly limiting in that it reduces everything to a single mindset/idea/belief and although that definitely makes for a certain simplicity of existence it also washes out much of what makes life worth living. Life in all of it's terrible, tragic, multi-hued glory. The finest shadings of pain, joy, want and loss are located deeply in what makes us individual. It is located in that place that allows us to look at the same things and still view them differently. You can look and see red but I may see crimson.
Although, I do agree that there is are areas where a group consciousness wouldn't hurt -- politics, the environment, war, poverty, disease, destruction, etc. -- to assume that would enrich the world I think is flawed. Yes, it is a reduction. Yes, reduction can be a good thing, but it also leads to the loss of that which makes the world, and life, dynamic.
I really want to read this short story now because I'm interested in knowing exactly how this end plays itself out. Is it good, bad, ambiguous? Are there many voices (read POV's) considering one question or is it one counciousness (as in everyone reduced to one personality) considering one question.
As freeing as it may seem, I never really dug the Borg hivemind. To quote my mother, I was born to contradict.
ETA updated thread link
yhlee: fannishly has fascinating and articulate thoughts on Anne Rice and Asimov's "The Last Question," among other things.Granted I'm not up on my Asimov or on my Bible, but I have read Rice and one of the biggest themes of her novels are the individual. Lestat in all of his petty, flawed, school boy glory is a perfect example of the individual. The way that he ignores the rules and builds his own path. It is not a perfect way to exist, it is often, as evidenced by Lestat, a tragic and isolating way to live but it is also intrinsically human. It is what makes the human species special, especially as contrasted to Rice's version of the heavenly host. Eradicating the 'I' in all of its isolated complexity is rather frightening to me. It is incredibly limiting in that it reduces everything to a single mindset/idea/belief and although that definitely makes for a certain simplicity of existence it also washes out much of what makes life worth living. Life in all of it's terrible, tragic, multi-hued glory. The finest shadings of pain, joy, want and loss are located deeply in what makes us individual. It is located in that place that allows us to look at the same things and still view them differently. You can look and see red but I may see crimson.
Although, I do agree that there is are areas where a group consciousness wouldn't hurt -- politics, the environment, war, poverty, disease, destruction, etc. -- to assume that would enrich the world I think is flawed. Yes, it is a reduction. Yes, reduction can be a good thing, but it also leads to the loss of that which makes the world, and life, dynamic.
I really want to read this short story now because I'm interested in knowing exactly how this end plays itself out. Is it good, bad, ambiguous? Are there many voices (read POV's) considering one question or is it one counciousness (as in everyone reduced to one personality) considering one question.
As freeing as it may seem, I never really dug the Borg hivemind. To quote my mother, I was born to contradict.
ETA updated thread link
