Alejandro A.
Rotation 2
Historical Context
Reflection on parts #1-4
Why was this book controversial? Which
themes or ideas were challenging to society?
I think this book was so controversial because of the whole theme of "I," that individualism is seen so great (even though Rand makes being an individual bad in the book, but she makes us think that it's incredibly good) that we have no need for society and everyone should do whatever they want. I presume it makes certain people afraid that It'll make some people think that communities are holding them back and break free to do what they want. I myself cannot see that happening in large scenarios, but some more wary, conservative communities might see it as a threat and therefore ban the novel, and maybe spread on the idea that it's horrible and shouldn't be read/distributed. In fact, though, I think Rand is just trying to say that we should meet at a happy medium, instead of one big group of people without identities or complete chaos in a destroyed world with small pockets of individualist parties. Even though she might use complete, extreme points of view and situations, I think that people misinterpreted what she wanted to communicate and thought of it as she wanted to destroy the thoughts of communities and the thought of "we." This book might also be controversial because of the things expected by women by the community, the whole thing with the "Time of Mating." That the women chosen for the men are supposed to be okay with being with the man instead of chosing their own partner, and not even allowed to choose when and where it would happen. Apart from those two points, I can't really see anything else that people would protest/make a big problem out of.
Hi Alejandro,
ReplyDeleteI really like how you gave details to support your reasons! To begin with, my opinion on the historical question you chose is similar to what I think. In my opinion, I think that this book might have been banned in some places because it challenges how society works nowadays. This book suppresses the idea of individualism, and how terrible it can be to the world. The people who banned this book might have thought that it might make a revolution, since the way the book's society works seems so perfect, until now. What do you thing?
Thanks,
Lucas T.
Hey Ale, I agree with you on your points, but also remember this book was probably held for much controversy due to the fact that Russia at the time was communist (similar to this book) and any hate towards communism would anger society because society felt strongly on communism since it had largely improved the Russian economy and government I think my reason is not as global as your reasoning because it can apply to any community, and the future, mine is based more on communist countries. What can be something positive about communism and totalitarianism that can be good for a society?
ReplyDeleteAle, I agree almost with most of your blog post, but you should remember that russia also had a strong economy due to the communism even though it was bad for the people, and bad for the whole world. I really like how you interested the reader until the end of the blog and how you didn't just extend your ideas you made us want to read more and more, your connections were very deep and made me reflect more about the book and nt just read the blog post.
ReplyDelete