There is no such thing as a perfect world; however the person perceives the world is the way it should be categorized. Lauren in Parable of the Sower has its own vision of how their world should be; they wanted to turn their world from dystopia into a utopia. Lauren decided to believe that only change would make the world utopia. For Jorge Borges, he believed that in an ordered world they need chaos to survive. Most of the stories in fictions have topics in change. Change was the main topic in Parable of the Sower, in Lauren’s diary the verses was mainly about Lauren’s God, which was change. In Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius a millionaire Ezra Buckley believed that mortals could conceive and shape a world, which is the same philosophy Lauren believed in (Hurley p. 79). In the Tlön encyclopedias they praise an action but later contradict themselves at the story continued.
The main focus of the people, can tell the reader about the people’s intentions. Borges wrote a few stories about the Gnostics and their belief systems. Gnostics believed in changing the history of Orthodox Christians and making it their own. The same happened in Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius the people would follow heresiarchs, who believed that mankind continuing to populate was abominable (Hurley p. 68). The people questioned everything and created their own history (Hurley p. 71). In this world everyone was stuck between history and reality (Hurley p. 75). For Lauren in the Parable of the Sower, that wasn’t the case she was more focused on changing the reality that they lived in. The two shared a mutual feeling that their traditions would stick and all others would fail because their way is the best way to go (Hurley p. 81)
Lauren tried to convert everyone around her by trying to change their views and outlooks on life. A normal way to change others views by showing them that everything would change if they would change themselves. I think the way the people in Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius operate could have made Lauren upset because they had a tendency to question everyone’s actions. Lauren was the type of person that doesn’t like to tell people what to change but rather show them ways to change. When Lauren helped Allie and Jill, she didn’t have to but her doing so showed others that it’s not hard to change. Lauren wrote verses to persuade people into changing their ways; she wanted others to be able to read in the future, similar to the Tlön society writing encyclopedias. In the first verse in Chapter One of the Parable of the Sower, there are a few lines that discuss moments that occurred in the book. In Lauren’s journey for change she did things that most people in her world wouldn’t have done. She was a believer that you can change someone’s life by just touching them which describes “All that you touch…You Change” (Butler p. 3). I think that if Lauren followed the Tlön religion than she wouldn’t have accomplished everything she did.
The people of Tlön believed that the world does not consist of objects in space but it’s a series of independent acts (Hurley p. 73). In the Parable of the Sower, individual acts were the only factor Lauren was banking on. She knew that she couldn’t change the world in one day by doing only one act. Lauren realized it’s a process that requires change to be allowed to take its time. No one can change overnight it takes time for a person to realize the wrongs of their ways. Borges believed that without chaos, there would be no success. Some individuals say “how do you know up, if you never been down. Lauren’s world had been in turmoil for so long I think the only way that they can survive is by moving forward. If change is their way of moving forward than it is most likely the best way for their success.
Your first paragraph is an awkward comparison of some elements of the two works. The main source of awkwardness is the apparent lack of direction; I'm not sure where you're heading, so it's unclear why you're focusing on the particular details which you use.
ReplyDeleteThe second paragraph troubles me because you are, I think, picking almost random details from the *diverse* systems of belief which belong to the world of Tlon, and attributing all of them to all the people of Tlon. Comparing their beliefs to those of Lauren breaks down in this paragraph because you aren't seeking out beliefs which define Tlon as a whole, but which are highly specific, I believe, to certain parts of Tlon. Or maybe the problem is that you don't distinguish between the beliefs of the (fictional) people of Tlon, and the beliefs of the people who are creating them.
Similarly, in the 3rd paragraph you write as if the people of Tlon (who don't exist at all - they are the creation of the people writing the encyclopedia) have a set of ideas about the world - but it's their creators who do, not them. Why does this matter? Because the people of Tlon are more like characters in a story Lauren is writing than they are like Lauren themselves. The authors of the encyclopedia seem to be making some kind of argument with those characters, just like Lauren is making an argument through her parables.
I actually think your 4th paragraph discussion of objects vs. acts has great potential in thinking about both Borges and Lauren - but it's unclear to me where you're going with it. It would have been a fine place to start out an essay, with the intention of writing about it at length - but it seems out of place here.
I spent a lot of time nitpicking with what you're doing with Tlon. That's not really my main point, though. My main point is that you don't have a clear overall focus - hence, since I don't understand, really, what you're doing with Tlon in the first place, I'm left with nothing else to do other than nitpicking at the details, since I don't really understand the whole.