I loved the Giver.

[conuly]

Well, I did when I read it first. Eventually, I saw some serious logical problems with it - for example, it's implied that only one person can take a certain job every year. If that's the case, there can only be one Birthmother every year - and there's no way, if each Birthmother has three children, that they can have 50 children yearly. But really, I digress.

If you're going to complain about a book, do so logically. It does no good to complain that a book promotes euthanasia when, in fact, the main character decides to leave the safety of the village in order to protect somebody from this fate. And it certainly makes no sense to call it especially anti-male when women are shown in no special positions of authority.

Comments

[sporks5000.livejournal.com]

1) Talk about paranoia! I though the whole point of this book was that it was supposed to be a negative-utopia (dystopia?) for children. It was supposed to fit in with all the great classics such as 1984 and Brave New World which send the glaring message "DEAR GOD! WHAT EVER HAPPENS DO NOT LET OUR SOCIETY BECOME LIKE THIS!!!!!!!!!![this space intentionally left blank] !!!!!!!!" It follows all the classic plot points of such:

a. Main character is part of a society
b. main character has an awakening where he/she realizes that he/she does not want to be part of this society any longer.
c. Main character attempts to leave the society and fails in a way that is at best unsatisfying and at worst devastating.
d. The society continues to thrive.

2) And feministic? Where do get even the most remote idea that the society is feministic in any way? I read this book earlier this year and have no recollection of any females in any positions of power what so ever, and yet this person goes on about the society being totally feministic. As if there's anything particularly wrong with that in the first place!

3) I recall children talking about reading it when I was younger and I remember them discussing how the society in the book was bad and wrong. Clearly children who read the book are far better equipped to understand the point that the author was trying to make than the person who wrote this review.

As a side note, I'd bet that this person is one of the people who insist that Harry Potter is specifically anti-Christian despite it's complete lack of mentioning Christians what so ever with the exception of Christmas which is usually portrayed as rather pleasant.