After our returning discussion about last week’s class exercise of walking around campus, I remembered my first reactions to it. Though I had considered possible spots for shelter (looking for both shelter from bad weather and from watching people), I mostly noticed how it made me generally feel. Because I was looking for shelter, I was looking up more than I normally do, and I realized I tend to look down when I walk around campus. Rather than the campus, I saw the people around me differently. I felt like I stood out. I felt exposed and yet unseen. It seemed as though I was suddenly separated from my own school and fellow students. Maybe my imagination got a little carried away, but I thought it was an eye-opening experience. I’ve considered what it might be like to have no home, but this was the first time I actually felt that disconnectedness. I kept expecting people to look at me and wonder why I was wandering aimlessly and inspecting the campus. Of course, they never did. I felt a kind of distance from them, right behind them and out of reach.
Though not entirely connected, I wanted to point out one other thing. (I can’t remember if we discussed this in class or not.) I just found the structure of Parable of the Sower interesting. It’s written in a future time period, but reading it feels like I’ve dug up someone’s old journal and am following their story rather than being a part of it. With most of the books I read, my act of turning the first page seems to set its world in motion, like I triggered it. I can leave and jump back in any time and the story will wait for me. However, this one feels like its somewhere, past or future, just out of my reach.
I guess I was wondering if any of you saw this structure as an important element of the book. How does it play a role in its story?