I'm going to go one step further and say that Ardent and Gavia have likely been manipulated their entire lives to reach this moment. Their education and the entertainment which they were able to access would have been finely judged to ensure that, when that door opened, they would jump through without a second thought. Naturally, they wouldn't realise that it was a trap until the door closed behind them and they couldn't even find a seam in the resulting perfect wall.
Why would the Praeses do this? I can think of two obvious reasons:
- Everyone in the Preserve is descended from people lured in from Outside and marooned there. Of course, Ardent and Gavia do not want to spend the rest of their lives as 'Primitives' in the Preserve but their desires are not relevant to this equation; what matters is to regularly inculcate fresh blood into the population in the Preserve;
- The Praeses are concerned at the increasing technological dependence of those Outside. It has been decided that select individuals will be temporarily relocated to the Preserve to learn lost social skills and crafts identified as important to improve the health of the general population Outside. Ardent and Gavia don't know it but they have been selected to be two of the Prophets of the Good Ol' Days. Whether or not they wanted to learn how to live as primitives and pass this knowledge onto those Outside is, once again, not relevant to this equation.
For two kids (and I do think that they're kids) from a technological utopia where everything is available on demand and, sometimes, even before they are
consciously aware they want it, living in the Town and its environs is going to be a terrific culture shock. They are going to have to learn social skills, come to live in line with social conventions and develop bonds that have long since ceased to exist Outside. They are going to learn to co-operate and be part of a community. This is, of course, entirely in line with the Praeses purposes.
Some predictions:
- Gavia x Jack - A love story with all the expected elements of the trope of 'Rich, sophisticated but naive city girl meets simple but strong, wise and noble country boy' but with a real sci-fi tinge. For example, even though I doubt Gavia is older than fifteen, it is quite possible that she has had sexual partners but only in the 'scratch the itch' terms (because sex has lost all of its social and possibly even its reproductive significance Outside). Consequently, she has never really cared about someone before. That will be a frightening, terrible but wonderful experience; of course, her learning this lesson is one of the Praeses' purposes for her;
- Ardent working on the farm - Ardent is going to have to learn the value of things; he's going to need to make the painful mental transition to understanding that you need to earn the food on your table, the clothes on your back and the roof over your head. I have no doubt that he has the physical ability to work but it will be quite a psychological leap for him to come to understand the necessity; of course, him learning this lesson is one of the Praeses' purposes for him;
- Living in a Community - I suspect that Outside does not has much of a broader society or community. Ardent and Gavia are going to have to learn that their actions and inactions have an effect far wider than their individual selves. They are going to have to learn to lend a hand, be a part of the broader community and also develop and maintain social bonds if they want to achieve anything; of course, them learning this lesson is one of the Praeses' purposes for them;
- Auntie Alice - There is no getting around the fact that Ardent and Gavia are now alone in a very strange world where the people have few if any common frames of reference with them. One of the few people who understands them is their fellow immigrant from Outside, Alice. Alice, although she isn't necessarily a good person, seems to have a moral conscience; she won't be able to leave them to sink or swim. The simplest way to handle the matter is to introduce the Vicissitudes as moderately-distant kin from out-of-state (cousins, maybe) whose parents have placed them in her care for an indeterminate period. It should be interesting, as time goes by, whether or not she and they become used to living as a family, developing those emotional and social bonds and looking out for each other instead of their own narrow interests; of course, learning this lesson is one of the Praeses' purposes for them;
Ultimately, of course, the time will come for them to return to the Outside. Maybe years will have passed, maybe
many years. Will they be willing to leave their friends, their community...?
Their home...? Maybe even their spouses and children?
Of course, learning this lesson is also one of the Praeses' purposes for them.
I suspect that, in the end, at the
very end, Alice will meet with The Old Man and finally get the answers she seeks.
ALICE: "Who... are you?"
VOICE FROM CLOUD: "I... am the Creator... of a popular sci-fi vid-show that has brought happiness, entertainment and hope to millions."
ALICE: "And who am I?"
VOICE FROM CLOUD: "You... are its star!"((Yes, lifted from The Truman Show; I love that film!))
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Topic: Alice Grove MCDT - January 2015 (Read 119034 times)