Images of Paradise: comparisons - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Shelob · 03-20-2005, 08:43 PM

Like mark12_30 I want to see this continued but have little to add now...I would make these few, quick, points though...

A) Though I can't recall all of The Neverending Story right now elements of it most certainly relate somehow to the idea of 'paradise'...Once I have more time I'll relook at that book though...

B) littlemanpoet, you suggested that distance has something to do with desire which has something to do with 'paradise'...the only other possibility that I can think of right now would be that distance is representative of 'the unknown' and that the innate human (or what-have-you) desire to find and understand 'the unknown' (the most famous example would be that of Eve in the garden of Eden) The only problem I can see with this idea is that in every example I can think of (the one of Eve and two others from Greek Mythology) the person who gets 'the unknown' loses something...Eve lost Eden... Orpheus lost his love Eurydice...actually, upon thinking on it, I believe the character in The Neverending Story lost all sense of who he was, for a while at least, while after some seemingly unattainable goal...

C) This may not be the best fitting but has anyone read Yevgeny Zamyatin's book We? I mention it only because littlemanpoet said "The stories...are extrapolations on our own experience of life" which made me think of dystopia novels, which made me consider this one. Out of all the Dystopia novels I considered this one because I was just thinking of H.G. Wells book The First Men in the Moon on the basis that there the moon's surface was like a pardisical garden reborn every morning and dying each night. This book (We) flows from that idea because in it the regimental civilization (that which lends it it's place amonst dystopia novels) is contrasted to the 'green wall' (Free Nature). As a dystopia novel this story is a (somewhat negative) extrapolation of real life which holds an element of 'paradise', beyond the green wall the people lived free and happy (and, as above, it was seemingly unattainable)...unfortunately this being a dystopia novel the narator has his imagination wiped and becomes completely, heart and soul, irreversibly and forever a member of the regimental civilization.

Well, that is definitely more than I intended to write...and definitly only almost fitting, sorry about that...hope it helps (for some definition of 'helps')

03-20-2005, 08:43 PM	#6
Shelob Shade of Carn Dûm Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: At the abysmal Abyss Mall. Posts: 276	Like mark12_30 I want to see this continued but have little to add now...I would make these few, quick, points though... A) Though I can't recall all of The Neverending Story right now elements of it most certainly relate somehow to the idea of 'paradise'...Once I have more time I'll relook at that book though... B) littlemanpoet, you suggested that distance has something to do with desire which has something to do with 'paradise'...the only other possibility that I can think of right now would be that distance is representative of 'the unknown' and that the innate human (or what-have-you) desire to find and understand 'the unknown' (the most famous example would be that of Eve in the garden of Eden) The only problem I can see with this idea is that in every example I can think of (the one of Eve and two others from Greek Mythology) the person who gets 'the unknown' loses something...Eve lost Eden... Orpheus lost his love Eurydice...actually, upon thinking on it, I believe the character in The Neverending Story lost all sense of who he was, for a while at least, while after some seemingly unattainable goal... C) This may not be the best fitting but has anyone read Yevgeny Zamyatin's book We? I mention it only because littlemanpoet said "The stories...are extrapolations on our own experience of life" which made me think of dystopia novels, which made me consider this one. Out of all the Dystopia novels I considered this one because I was just thinking of H.G. Wells book The First Men in the Moon on the basis that there the moon's surface was like a pardisical garden reborn every morning and dying each night. This book (We) flows from that idea because in it the regimental civilization (that which lends it it's place amonst dystopia novels) is contrasted to the 'green wall' (Free Nature). As a dystopia novel this story is a (somewhat negative) extrapolation of real life which holds an element of 'paradise', beyond the green wall the people lived free and happy (and, as above, it was seemingly unattainable)...unfortunately this being a dystopia novel the narator has his imagination wiped and becomes completely, heart and soul, irreversibly and forever a member of the regimental civilization. Well, that is definitely more than I intended to write...and definitly only almost fitting, sorry about that...hope it helps (for some definition of 'helps') __________________ A signature always reveals a man's character - and sometimes even his name ~Evan Esar. Pan for Everyone!