Giving in on The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry (1993) was the last book I bought in 2010. It was standing among the makeshift bookshelves in one of UP's Christmas Bazaar kiosks when I chanced upon it. Even way back, I have been intrigued or rather it curiosified (if there's such a word)."Intrigue" is a burdensome word that awaits justification, the book reminds me of language precision anyway, and so I'm trying.

I recall reading the blurb first, for that's my usual way of pre-judging a book, and feeling that sense of curiosity. My internal disposition then was that of being ready to give myself away, to I-don't-know-what. I just felt that for the entire year, I have been hesitant to open myself up with anything, to anyone. And hence the decision.

It was only not until yesterday that I began reading it.

The book shattered me. No, it disappointed me but in a good way.

It's one of those Utopia readings I enjoyed reading. It talks about a certain community where everything is in order, all matters in black and white. It presents to its readers a world where there are no options to worry about because each tiny detail of everyday life is being taken care of by certain groups of people. It's a smoothly controlled community, with its people bounded by rules and of course, consequences, which are not only respected but honored.

It is a world where sorrow, pain and death are euphemized. Where feelings are dealt with matter-of-factly.

In that world, people manage to not feel love fearing that it might lead them to chaos. They select a person to bear the memories of extreme emotions brought about by starvation, war, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and yes, love, as they live their own systematic lives, not worrying about such feelings.The chosen person then receives all the memories relating to such feelings from his generation to the previous generation and "back and back and back".

With the memories, both joyful and remorseful, come wisdom. And so the selected person comes to a realization that things should not be as they are in his world. And Elsewhere he goes.

The Giver left me, like the main child character, Jonas, gently sliding down on that snowy hill with mounds of ice stuck on my sled...