2015年5月6日 星期三

Reading Challenge/The Giver

A book that came out the year you were born
The Giver 1993


With the chant, Jonas knew, the community was accepting him and his new role, giving him life, the way they had given it to the new child Caleb. His heart swelled with gratitude and pride.
But at the same time he was filled with fear. He did not know what his selection meant. He did not know what he was to become.
Or what would become of him.



On this rainy and gloomy day I went to Taipei city to have a afternoon tea date with Paula. At the bus station for a moment I felt that there’s so many people struggling for life. Life could really be as tough as it should be. And I thought of The Giver, wondering how it really feels like in a community without all the choices. Maybe I’ll live just fine. Maybe everyone will.

The book is really the one that keeps me pondering about it all the time. It’s simply beautifully tragic. Or not. As the ending could be totally different versions on its own.






“It was sunburn,” the old man told him.
“It hurts a lot,” Jonas said,” but I’m glad you gave it to me. It was interesting. And now I understand better, what it meant, that there would be pain.”
The old man didn’t respond. He sat silently for a second. Finally he said,“ Get up, now. It’s time for you to go home.”

This was what Jonas learned in his first lesson. They told him there would be lots of pain in his training. Later I’d learn that the pain was being able to feel while no one else can. And learning that life was perfect and wasn’t perfect. Hunger and death and people hurting each other. But at that time he had no idea what it was. That’s when the giver gave him the memory of sunburn. Which was really sad, the fact that sunburn is nothing beyond pain in our lives. I felt deep sorrow and I wished sunburn was the only pain. Life there was so orderly, so predictable – so painless. Sometimes I don’t feel any bad about that. The difference of each and every human being makes so many disputes, so many hates, and so much pain. Of course I still love all the colors, all the happy feelings, all the art and music, all the love and all that. It would be really plain and boring without seasons and cultures. It’s just that I start to understand why a utopian society leaves so many discussions. It’s a choice that we make as well, we choose to live with all the difference which leads to all the business and free trading and different countries, just as the community of the book chose the life they lived. We just have to face what we’ve chosen.



The life where nothing was over unexpected. Or inconvenient. Or unusual. The life without color, pain, or past.

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Germany/國王湖

第四天我們到了德國的國王湖,是個很悠哉放鬆的一天。