Friday, October 9, 2009

From "Dispossessed" by Ursula K. Le Guin

Do me a favor. Read this passage from the anarchist sci-fi book "Dispossessed" and think of the description as a type of archetype, then answer the question at the end. It's not hard but I am curious.
"Since he was very young he had known that in certain ways he was unlike anyone else he knew. For a child the consciousness of such a difference is very painful, since, having done nothing yet and being incapable of doing anything, he cannot justify it. The reliable and affectionate presence of adults who are also, in their own way, different, is the only reassurance they can have; and Shevek had not had it. His father had indeed been utterly reliable and affectionate. Whatever Shevek was and whatever he did, Palat approved and was loyal. But Palat had not had this curse of difference. He was like the others, like all the others to whom community came so easy. He loved Shevek, but could not show him what freedom is, that recognition of each person's solitude which alone transcends it."

In so far as you can recognize the archetype of the "stranger in a strange land," inncoent alien loner do you identify with the character, wish to know the character or dislike the character?

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