lmao that's like when my 4th. grade teacher gave me The Giver to read and I was like "Wow this sounds based if we just don't do the eugenics part. Organizing the economy? Community events? Sign me up!"

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The Giver is about communism? I thought it was just teen dystopian dreck with no political relevance like Divergent or Maze Runner or whatever. Granted, I have read none of the three.

[–] Belly_Beanis@hexbear.net 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Giver is supposed to be an Animal Farm/1984 anti-communist book for kids, yeah. Everyone is assigned families, jobs, and homes by the government, made to conform with everyone else, and is given drugs to suppress their sexuality, along with being made colorblind.

The main character is a boy (Jonas) who is born with a partial ability to see color and he gets assigned to the career "receiver of memory" and he will be trained by a "giver of memory." A giver is someone who carries memories of the past and can magically transfer those memories to someone else as long as they have the genetics. The current giver is getting old and needs a replacement, so Jonas is given this task. The memories are everything from color to snow sleds to what it's like to break bones to battlefields of dying soldiers.

Another thing in the book is people are "released." This is never explained to any of the characters what this actually means, so they think it means being sent to another community or exiled into the wilderness. Jonas finds out it means being executed. People who break rules, babies that don't have proper genetics or are excess population, etc. are all "released."

[–] purpleworm@hexbear.net 11 points 1 day ago

Jonas finds out it means being executed. People who break rules, babies that don't have proper genetics or are excess population, etc. are all "released."

I'm so happy we don't have anything like that in capitalist society.