"Jonas has been selected to be our next Receiver of Memory."

Lois Lowry | The Giver

“Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul,” says Rosamond Smith or Lauren Kelly or Joyce Carol Oates, as we popularly know her!

Indeed, that’s the exact feel one gets when one reads through Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland ain’t it? Right from off the opening lines where Alice is shown so subtly graduating from real land into la la land aka wonderland!

This ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ is indeed such a thrill and a joy to us, passionate readers of these ‘wonderland-type’ stories of all hues, ain’t it?

And on an added high was this special thrill we all had experienced, back then, during our childhood days, when we used to literally parse our way through every line, every paragraph and every page of this ‘Carroll classic,’ Alice in Wonderland with such wide-eyed curiosity writ large all over us!

Ooooh boyyy! This transition from the real to the magical was so deft, so subtle and so suave that there always was the highest of possibilities for us in failing to notice which was which!

Sample this from Alice in the very opening page – (and tell me sometime later, how you found the transition going for you!)

ALICE was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?'

So she was considering, in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" (when she thought it over afterwards it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but, when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the world she was to get out again.

The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.

And this is exactly the magical power and the mystical charm that Joyce Carol Oates [who’s – on sweet coincidence – counted on such high renown for her famed Wonderland quartet] tells us when she talks about the power of reading! She says, [I repeat] -

Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.

And that’s yet another reason why John Milton famously speaks to the evocative power of a good book in such eulogizing terms, when he says that,

A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life!

In fact, that is one of the supra-dynamic powers contained, by default, within any masterly literary piece, to gently make us slip, involuntarily, into another’s skin, another’s world, another’s voice or even another’s soul! And of such is the power of literature to endow us with alternative realities, hypothetical factualities, or still better, helps us imagine alternative possibilities to our realities, wherein our thoughts and our imaginations can go much beyond facts to encompass other possibilities.

Fiction that springs up on the utopian and dystopian mode, belongs to this breed of the ‘speculative’ that gives the reader the ‘what might have beens’ to another parallel reality altogether!

One such dystopian fiction is Lois Lowry’s The Giver that bespeaks to a futuristic society in which science and technology play a subtle yet vital role!

In this futuristic society, the people of the community practice ‘sameness’ in all aspects to life and living! Hence, as a fall out of this ‘conformity’, the community’s people have long lost their finer instincts that were so unique to each of them, like for example, the ability to listen to music, the ability to feel love, their ability to see colour, etc. In fact, there’s no choice, whatsoever, for them to choose from! Everything is dictated in their lives, according to a strict set of ‘rules,’ that condition their lives!

Jonas, the protagonist of the novel, is an adolescent boy who’s waiting his adult occupation to be assigned or proffered on him by the community’s Elders. 

Jonas is shocked beyond words when the Chief Elder of the community proffers on him a very special assignment! He would be the Receiver of Memory of the entire community from thence on!

The Receiver of Memory is considered a person of repute in this society, as he would be the one who takes upon himself the most difficult task of bearing the burden of the memories from all of his culture, his society and his history, and hence, he has the unique privilege of being allowed access to books, which none else could possibly do!

Snippets from the read, for y’all -

Reassuringly she placed her arm across his tense shoulders.

"Jonas has not been assigned," she informed the crowd, and his heart sank.

Then she went on. "Jonas has been selected."

He blinked. What did that mean? He felt a collective, questioning stir from the audience.

They, too, were puzzled.

In a firm, commanding voice she announced, "Jonas has been selected to be our next Receiver of Memory."

Then he heard the gasp - the sudden intake of breath, drawn sharply in astonishment, by each of the seated citizens. He saw their faces; the eyes widened in awe.

And still he did not understand.

"Such a selection is very, very rare," the Chief Elder told the audience. "Our community has only one Receiver. It is he who trains his successor.

"We have had our current Receiver for a very long time," she went on. Jonas followed her eyes and saw that she was looking at one of the Elders. The Committee of Elders was sitting together in a group; and the Chief Elder's eyes were now on one who sat in the midst but seemed oddly separate from them.

"We failed in our last selection," the Chief Elder said solemnly. "It was ten years ago, when Jonas was just a toddler. I will not dwell on the experience because it causes us all terrible discomfort."

He is to be alone, apart, while he is prepared by the current Receiver for the job which is the most honored in our community."

Alone? Apart? Jonas listened with increasing unease.

"Therefore the selection must be sound. It must be a unanimous choice of the Committee. They can have no doubts, however fleeting. If, during the process, an Elder reports a dream of uncertainty, that dream has the power to set a candidate aside instantly.

"Jonas was identified as a possible Receiver many years ago. We have observed him meticulously. There were no dreams of uncertainty.

"He has shown all of the qualities that a Receiver must have."

With her hand still firmly on his shoulder, the Chief Elder listed the qualities.

"Intelligence." she said. "We are all aware that Jonas has been a top student throughout his school days.

"Integrity" she said next. "Jonas has, like all of us, committed minor transgressions." She smiled at him. "We expect that. We hoped, also, that he would present himself promptly for chastisement, and he has always done so.

"Courage," she went on. "Only one of us here today has ever undergone the rigorous training required of a Receiver. He, of course, is the most important member of the Committee: the current Receiver. It was he who reminded us, again and again, of the courage required.

Now, for the first time in his twelve years of life, Jonas felt separate, different. He remembered what the Chief Elder had said: that his training would be alone and apart.

But his training had not yet begun and already, upon leaving the Auditorium, he felt the apartness. Holding the folder she had given him, he made his way through the throng, looking for his family unit and for Asher. People moved aside for him. They watched him. He thought he could hear whispers.

No spoilers though!

But yes! With the intense training that Jonas receives, as the newy Receiver, he is able to see beyond the ‘conformity’ or ‘sameness’! Sadly, the blessing of a good memory had been removed from all the members of the community, for reasons of security, conformity, and sameness!

So once Jonas gets to receive his training as the new Receiver, by the Giver of memories, (his trainer) from then on, he begins to look beyond this monotonous 'Sameness.' Now, he is able to see and appreciate the various colours (which his community cannot!) and he is also able to feel love, pain, hunger and starvation! (which his community members cannot!)

Hence, after this initiation into the world of memory, Jonas feels shocked that memories have been deprived from his community. So he resolves, in quiet collusion with the Giver, that it’s high time the memories of the community be restored and returned unto them, as the community seems to have completely lost its way down the ages, as he is of the convinced opinion that sameness and conformity could make a person's life utterly meaningless!

What happens next, is for y’all to read! ;-)

Well, then, a host of interesting parallels abound in the entire gamut of literature, that so sync with the story line of this absorbing dystopian read! I’d like to make a passing mention of just three of ‘em over here!

Something akin to this storyline, happens in Ayn Rand’s gripping dystopian novella titled Anthem!

The novella Anthem, 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!

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!

More on 'Equality' HERE, in our past post on Ayn Rand! ;-)

The next one, for passing reference would be on Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

Written way way back in 1953, the book is a brilliant yet shocking critique of a dystopian world in which ‘independent thinking’ and ‘enlightened questioning’ are considered taboo and anathema to society’s ‘interests’! Also, because books and the ideas contained within them enable a person to exercise independent, sane and rational judgments, they were conveniently considered ‘detrimental’ to the interests of the State and its agenda!

But to Bradbury, books are the most sacred of objects, as they are transmitters of stories! Hence, by burning books, the ruling dispensation in this dystopian American society, has curtailed the freedom of expression and thereby stifled the human spirit itself! More on Fahrenheit, on our past post HERE.

The third book for a passing mention would be, Milan Kundera’s Ignorance, in which he deals with themes pertaining to memory and forgetting. Milan beautifully brings out the bitter truth that, ‘selective memories’ here act as mere antecedents to ignorance. In other words, ‘ignorance’ here could either be a deliberate, willing action that people take part in, by avoiding or walking out of unpleasant topics in a conversation, or it could also be pretending or feigning ignorance of the past rather than facing reality or the truth! The book would sure provide such a profound platform for both discussion and dissection, particularly in the fields of Memory Studies and Exilic Literature!

To be continued…

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