After class today I started to think about what today's society would be like if we were grouped by phyles. Such as in the book The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer that we are reading in class. When I did my reading, I looked at phyles more as different tribes. They are grouped by shared values, ethnic heritage, common religion, or just simply common interests. So far in the book, it seems rather confusing why there is such a system like this. If it existed today, I feel like our society would be even more so racist. Also, if this were going on, there would be segregation and separate schools/banks/neighborhoods/etc. It may go as far as living with that group of phyles in a designated location. It makes me wonder a lot about what the future will be like after we are gone. I remember back in elementary school when everyone thought in the 2000's we'd have flying cars and what not. I don't think a lot of people think about the possible negatives that could go on in the future.
Anyways, before I get on a long rant, the other things I asked myself was about Nell's character. In class, we determined that she will be the main character of the book (by 2 points). I feel she will be a central character for what happens next with the book/primer she receives. Right now, she does not know the power of that book but I think it'll be able to do some powerful things. My guess is that Nell will become very educated and overcome something that will happen soon. Since Nell is looked at as uneducated at the moment and she lives in a lower standard of living, no one will suspect her to be knowledgeable about whatever is coming next.
Let me know what you think!
I thought it was interesting in the book how Phyles were being used. I agree that when I was reading I also looked at Phyles as different tribes, but I compared it more to gangs (especially when Bud was describing the protection part). But in a way I think it was a description like this that has shown how far people have come where we look at groups like Phyles and talk about how they are TOO separated. I also thought that the Phyles weren't just separated by race, they were very largely also separated by religion, which is what I thought that he talked about for a little while. And I thought that it was interesting how he was saying that all the different religions we so different, because that really is true. If you think about it, after all this time I think that religion has separated people much more (as of late) than the color of people's skin has. People just seem to have a hard time accepting other people's beliefs when it comes to religion which I think is one of the things that makes the phyles so interesting. Because it is brought up in a way that kind of makes it sound really silly, because they are SO separated.
ReplyDeleteI was super excited in class when she said that Nell will be the main character in the book because that is the part of the book that is somewhat more easy to understand... =)
I found the idea of Phyles very interesting as well. When I was reading it was hard for me to decide how the landscape would look whith all the divisions. At first I thought that they all had their own area of land and it was marked off somehow, maybe with walls and gates. Then I thought about it being more like a community in a large city where ethnic groups tend to congregate with each other purely because that is what they know and are comfortable with.
ReplyDeleteIt is also interesting for me to try and think about today's world with exagerated segregations like this. Of course everyone fits into different groups in our world, but each group having their own laws (that have much more control that what traditions we see today do) would be kind of scary.
I found myself thinking about how "ignorance of the law is no excuse in the court of law". How would this apply in this strange world of phyles (if at all)? It is a stretch to think that everyone should know all of the little differences about laws in each phyle. But if the people of this world don't know the differences from phyle to phyle, then what is the point of having the 'mini-governments' instead of one overlording government? This could easily go into a rant because the thought process is messing with my head, but it was just something to think about.
Interesting thread! The phyles are bit unnerving. I think they're meant to show us a potential future of our current cultural tendency to segregate on a number of bases. Think about immigrant communities in major cities or even ethnic cleansings/holocausts. It seems to me that we always seem to find something to use to separate our group from others -- and these groups often have their own social rules.
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