Saturday 13 April 2019

Fear nothing of the forest. There is no danger in solitude.

Everything which comes from the many is good. Everything which comes from one is evil. Thus we have been taught with our first breath.
We have broken the law, but we have never doubted it.
Yet now, as we walk the forest, we are learning to doubt.
In keeping with today’s theme of ‘forests and the pastoral in literature,’ I was quite reminded of the wonderful role that pastorals and forests play in literatures from across the world! Right from Kalidasa’s and Shakespeare’s works, forests have always been represented as places of solitude, freedom and peace, and as transformative and therapeutic locales!

Ayn Rand’s gripping novella titled Anthem is one such delightful case in point.

The novella is a dystopian story, taking place in some remote time in the future, in a place where freedom and individual rights have been stifled and completely dispensed with. Collectivism has replaced individualism! [Collectivism, again, is the political philosophy that prioritizes the society and state over the individual, and that the individual exists only to serve the state, and not the other way round!]

Hence, the 21-year old protagonist who goes by the peculiar name, Equality 7-2521, uses only plural pronouns ("we", "our", "they") to refer to himself and to others.

Like all the other children in this collectivist society, Equality 7-2521 was also brought up, away from his parents, in collective homes.

Equality feels that he has a ‘curse’ on him, that makes him very receptive to any subject that’s being taught, and as a result so many questions pop up in his ‘scholarly’ bent of mind! Since he is also proficient in the Science of Things, he dreams that one day he would become a Scholar of high merit! But sadly, the Council of Vocations assigns him the job of being a Street Sweeper all through his life.

Equality, in a resigned tone, sadly accepts his street sweeping assignment, but at the same time, never ceases to work secretly all the time, on his hide-out tunnel, which he uses as a lab for all his scientific experiments. He also has his first tryst with love as a sweeper, while cleaning the roads. He meets Liberty 5-3000, a 17-year-old girl, with dark eyes and golden hair. He names her "The Golden One".

Soon, Equality gets his ‘eureka’ moment, when he finds to his delight that, a glass box with wires gives off light when he passes electricity through it! At long last now, he is so happy that he has rediscovered electricity.

Overjoyed, he resolves to take his rare discovery to the World Council of Scholars, expecting them to crown him a Scholar, by acknowledging his invaluable discovery. But sadly, as ill luck would have it, his absence from the Home of the Street Sweepers is suddenly noticed, and he is mercilessly flogged and detained in the Palace of Corrective Detention.

And just into the previous night when the World Council of Scholars is all set to convene, Equality manages to escape from his detention centre, and at last manages to present his discovery to the World Council of Scholars.

Ironically, again, the World Council of ‘Scholars’ are shocked beyond measure to know that he has done ‘unauthorized research,’ and they condemn him promptly as a "gutter cleaner" and recommend strong punishment for him! [Well, if any inventor/s of today comes to your mind, it’s gotta be purely a coincidence, I swear!!!]

The World Council of Scholars plot together to destroy his rare discovery of sorts so that, it will not harm the plans of the Department of Candles. Equality, then, in a fit of rage, curses the World Council of Scholars, and makes good his escape, fleeing into the forest that lies outside of the City.
In the forest, Equality for the first time, enjoys and celebrates his new-found freedom. He is rest assured that he will not be tracked by anyone into this forest, as it was considered a lonely and hence a forbidden place. His only sob and sigh was that, he missed out badly on his heartthrob, whom he calls the Golden One. Much to his delightful surprise, just into his second day in the forest, the Golden One appears; she had followed him into the forest. And well, is it all’s well that ends well? That part, you’ve gotta read it for yourself, ladies and gentlemen of the readies’ garden!

Equality now develops a new sense of identity, on entering the forest. He realizes, much to his happiness, that he need not wake up every morning along with others to sweep through the streets. His forest life gives him a new sense of identity, a liberated identity, that connects him with the world in a better way, in the beautiful thickets and woods of the sylvan forestscape!

Some of the most blessed lines from the book for y’all –

Wait Please!

Before you read some lovely lines from the text given below, please take time to notice the fact that Equality still does not know how to use the personal pronoun! He continues to use only plural pronouns ("we", "our", "they") to refer to himself and to others.


Now let’s hear Equality speak – (this, after his heartthrob, the Golden One joins him in the forest)!

We stood together for a long time. And we were frightened that we had lived for twenty-one years and had never known what joy is possible to men.

Our dearest one. Fear nothing of the forest. There is no danger in solitude.

And that night we knew that to hold the body of a woman in our arms is neither ugly nor shameful, but the one ecstasy granted to the race of men.

We have walked for many days. The forest has no end, and we seek no end.

We go on and we bless the earth under our feet. But questions come to us again, as we walk in silence. If that which we have found is the corruption of solitude, then what can men wish for save corruption? If this is the great evil of being alone, then what is good and what is evil?

Everything which comes from the many is good. Everything which comes from one is evil. Thus we have been taught with our first breath.

We have broken the law, but we have never doubted it. Yet now, as we walk the forest, we are learning to doubt.

What better way to end this delightful Anthem?

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