Hosts

The Host by Stephenie Meyer creates a society in which aliens in the shape of small, shining, gel-like creatures are taking over the world. These aliens can live for millions of years, as long as they have bodies to carry them around. See, the aliens by themselves are incredibly weak creatures, brilliantly smart, but physically weak. In order to survive, they are inserted into a human’s body through a small cut in the back of the neck. Once inside the body, they take control of the brain and ultimately live as themselves with a puppet that helps them survive. In the book humans are survival machines for the aliens, much like we are in real life for the genes.

“When we have served our purpose we are cast aside.” (pg. 35) This belief is depressing on many levels. Firstly it takes out all meaning in our silly lives, which aren’t really that grand to start with. In just one phrase Dawkins manages to turn a human being into an object, which can be easily cast off at the first sign of trouble. Secondly, it steals all hope for a better existence, seeing as our purpose is nothing more than full housing service for millions of genes. Thirdly: if this is true of our lives, if it really is as Shakespeare put it “a tale told by an idiot…signifying nothing,” (Macbeth, Act V, scene v), then why is it that we consider ourselves so important?

That is the main weakness of humanity: we like to fool ourselves into believing we are more important than we actually are.  We love to think that the world will change, that something will be altered when we die. The truth is we aren’t that special. In our lives, we may be capable of making a few people smile, hopefully we will have the chance to help some people or to leave a mark on them, but in the end we all walk towards the same door. “In a few generations the most you can hope for is a large number of descendants, each of whom bares only a tiny portion of you- a few genes- even if a few do bear your surname as well.” (pg. 35)

This idea brings me back to The Host, mainly because the meaning of life is also questioned in the book. The way the humans in the book see it, there’s no reason to live if you aren’t controlling yourself, if you mean nothing. The rebellious humans that still remain hidden on earth have various strategies to kill themselves before becoming a host, or as Dawkins would put it: a survival machine.

If we really are merely survival machines for our genes, what do we mean? Do we mean anything at all? Should we still have hope for a better society if The Selfish Gene is managing us? What if we are no more than hosts?

“We should have been wiser; we should have died yesterday” (Stephenie Meyer, The Host) 

The Beauty of Choice

“They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence. They have come a long way those replicators. Now they go by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines. ” Pg.20

Philosophers exist on earth to answer two main questions: Why are we living? What is our purpose on earth? Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene manages to answer both those questions in just one chapter. Obviously it must be acknowledged that the answers to these questions may vary depending on the way they are studied. In this book’s particular case, they are examined from a scientific point of view, which is exponentially easier to figure out. According to Dawkins we are here solely because the replicators, commonly known as genes, need survival machines. Our purpose is to carry said genes through our life time and pass them on before dying, in order for them to continue living.

This point of view on the meaning of existence seems unsatisfying, especially when philosophers have tried to find a deeper meaning since ancient Greek times. Many will argue that this cannot be the meaning of life, that humans are not guided only by their genes. I counter those thoughts with the knowledge that everything comes from our genes. Even the feeling many say is achieved through anything but biology: love.

Genes cause the first step towards love, the carnal attraction that comes with the animal inside every human being. Without this burst of attraction, love would be impossible because there would be no need to satisfy. Humans and animals alike thrive on survival. Dawkins explains this through the idea of competition. The earth’s size is finite, and thus every species must fight for their piece of land, this is, after all, what we are designed to do. Genes are meant to survive, that is the reason life has appeared on earth, the genes’ need to maintain itself alive is the drive of every species.  Humans or any animal for that matter, don´t do anything without a need to quench.

Why are humans different to animals then? Simple: we have more needs, and through time we have learned to exploit them. Curiosity is the main need that affects our separation from other animal species.

How does this prove the previous point on love? Genes spur the need humans have for love in the form of physical attraction, having this need is the first step towards a relationship and thus appears love. So it is safe to say that genes actually do create love. They create everything inside us.

The idea of the “Selfish Gene” is interesting and most likely correct, if it wasn’t so the human race would be extinct. The proof of this gene is clearly traced through years of human’s taking over the world without blinking. The only thing that is exempt from our genes in our train of thought, which in turn gives us the single most important ability a man has: the ability to choose. 

Hypocritical

"I am the best-tempered man there ever was, yet I have already killed three men..."

Sure Candide, you really are one of the best-tempered men I've ever heard of. 

Not only did the irony of this whole chapter make my stomach ache with laughter, it also made me realize how many false expectations we have of ourselves every day. We would all like to believe the best things about us, as Candide obviously does. Sadly, sometimes we fail to see how wrong we are about ourselves. 

I am strong.

I am not prejudiced.

I am always in a good mood. 

I most certainly do not have my mother's temper.

Oh, how naive I have been sometimes.

How sad that we never really know ourselves, let alone each other. Why is it that Voltaire seems to point out so many bitter truths? Why is it that everything he says in the book, contains a double meaning which I believe we can all relate to?

Throughout the years I have found that most of the statements I use to describe myself are merely an image of what I want to be, not what I really am. Voltaire strongly agrees with what I am saying because he clearly ridicules that aspect of humans with Candide's claims to be "the best-tempered man there ever was." As I read I realized how pathetic humans (yes, I include myself in the generalization) really are. 

The author points out the hypocrisy that lives in all of us, as we claim to be better people than we are, yet hate the ones who do exactly the same thing. We live by our views on people, and the images we have in our head. Images about the way life should be, images which portray how everything should work, images which make us believe to be something we have never been.

Whatever happened to no hypocrites?

Please, the day there is no hypocrisy on this planet is the day humans become extinct.

We are a species which is completely hypocritical in every aspect for our lives: we pray for common good yet expect to have the very best for ourselves,  we say that prejudices are wrong but deep inside we know that we have prejudiced at least once, we claim to be the smartest animals on the planet… But I don’t see the other animals slowly killing it all, do you?

This hypocrisy is obviously what Voltaire is targeting with Candide’s words, and as a part of the hypocritical human population I want it to stop. But is there a way to stop it anymore?

Try, for just an hour to act with everything you’ve ever said. Try to stand by all your comments without being a complete hypocrite about one of them.

Hard isn’t it???   

Hakuna Matata

Why do we all choose to live? Why is it that the people with the worst lives keep fighting for an existence so awful, that they wouldn't miss anything if they were dead? "... is there anything more stupid that to be eager to go on carrying a burden which one would gladly throw away...?"(pg. 57)

Voltaire questions all these ideas in Candide and I found myself analyzing everything he said. Sometimes, things happen to us and there is nothing we can do to change it or make it better, yet we still hang on to the last strings of hope, even though we know it is no use. This is clearly pathetic in Voltaire's point of view, and thus he writes the whole passage of the old woman's tales with a strongly ironic voice, obviously claiming that she should just go ahead and kill herself. 

Past relationships, fights, losses, disagreements...

We hang on to them all as if they were needed in our lives, we hang on to every little miserable detail in the world and that is what Voltaire is protesting. It is also what I find makes life beautiful.

What would we be without our past to make us who we are? What would we have if those grudges, crushed dreams, doomed relationships, and losses weren't by our side?

We would have nothing, we would be no one. 

This part of the book, not only got me thinking about the way we hold on to life, but the way we hold on to the past. It reminded me (as weird as this may sound) of The Lion King and two of my all-time favorite characters: Timon and Pumba. 

"Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase!

Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze!

It means no worries, for the rest of our days...

It's our problem free, philosophy..." (Timon and Pumba- The Lion King)

I have to admit it, that song still makes me happy every time I have a problem with my family or friends. I find this "philosophy" very interesting, but I also find that it should not be taken literally. As I mentioned before, we would be nothing without our past and therefore we should never forget it completely, we should however, stop living in it. 

Somehow we all have to move on, and that's why I disagree with Voltaire's view on the miseries of life. That’s why I so strongly disagree with suicide. I find it a cowardly act, an act in which a person just can’t own up to his past and thus decides to run away from it all. The past can make us smile, or cry, or even shake our fists in anger at the unfairness of it all. The past can be sad and it can be happy. The past can be many things but if there is something I truly believe in: it’s that we should never bail on life because of it.

"Oh yes, the past can hurt. But the way I see it: you can either run from it... or learn from it..." (Rafiki- The Lion King)

All is Fair in Love, War and Ignorance

In Ancient Rome, the Emperor and the Patricians watched as gladiators fought for their lives in the ring, not only against each other, animals were sometimes involved for the mere entertainment of the people in the higher classes. After the Roman Empire collapsed, this injustice could still be seen in the inquisition, which killed thousands of people over suspicions and religious prejudices.

As is usual in every aspect of the human society, the people who were not suffering were indifferent to the suffering of the people being burned at the stake. As a species, we tend to want equality but still hope the best is given to us, we enjoy as other people suffer as long as this doesn’t affect the way we live. In Candide, this aspect of humanity is clearly illustrated when Lady Cunégonde is telling her story and she says: “I had an excellent seat, and delicious refreshments were served to the ladies between Mass and the execution.” (pg. 42)

As the man she loves is being whipped, this lady is offered various drinks and nourishment that keep her happy, and all this because she holds the affection of two of the most important man in town, which she ironically despises.

Furthermore, in these chapters of the book, Voltaire also targets the ignorance of humanity, and the length to which people will go to solve problems that have no solution.

“…the sight of a few people ceremoniously burned alive before a slow fire was an infallible prescription for preventing earthquakes; so when the earthquake had subsided after destroying three-quarters of Lisbon, the authorities of that country could find no surer means of avoiding total ruin than by giving the people a magnificent auto-da-fé.” (pg. 36)

This quote attacks human kind as much as it attacks the inquisition. Not only does it ridicule the idea that burning people solves any problems, it also ridicules any human who has ever done something irrational to solve a problem. Any type of ritual sacrifice is ironically murdered in this phrase, as is the thought of Inquisition, irrational beliefs and in a way, religion. 

The Bitter Truth

Lady Cunégonde wanted to learn “a lesson in experimental physics” (pg.20) with the very noble and extremely willing Candide when the Baron just happened to walk by the expensive tapestry that hid them, and by pure coincidence noticed the lesson taking place, which caused him to drive Candide away from the mansion with “…powerful kicks on the backside.” (pg. 21)

“Thus consternation reigned in the most beautiful and delightful of all possible mansions.” (pg.21)

The first chapters of Candide pretty much drip with irony. Not only are many of the situations absurd, but the voice used to write the book is so bitterly sarcastic that it makes the normal situations sound insane, even if they are entirely plausible.

 The first chapter illustrates what everyone would imagine to be a perfect house with perfect people, but one slowly begins to notice that this mansion is anything but perfect. In fact, it is probably one of the worst places I’ve ever heard of.

At first, the amount of irony used to describe this house makes it seem, as I said before, a bit insane, and even though it is targeting a society that is long gone, I found that it can be applied to our very lives. People today have come to accept as an absolute reality that money is the path to happiness. This thought is a form of epistemological violence: it has been guaranteed by the media so long, that it is no longer seen as the lie it is. However, as shown in Candide, the people with the most money are not always the happiest or the most fortunate, as a matter of fact, they normally aren’t the best of people either.

Money has come to rule our society, and that, is exactly what Voltaire protests in the first chapter of his book.

 

Money doesn’t imply education or morals. Money doesn’t mean knowledge. Above all, money doesn’t give you happily ever after. 

Who is Billy Pilgrim?

In the end of chapter five I truly began to question exactly who Billy Pilgrim is.

The only idea I’ve had so far is that Billy Pilgrim is a human representation for Vonnegut’s trauma of the war. This theory is supported the following statement in the book: “It would make a good epitaph for Billy Pilgrim- and for me too.”

This statement is made in the book whilst Billy is in one of his voyages through time. If the author were not, in some way Billy, then he would have no way to know what he was thinking.

When I read that statement I felt my theory was correct, this however, was proved wrong just a couple of pages afterwards.

“”An American near Billy wailed that he had excreted everything but his brains. Moments later he said, “There they go, there they go.” He meant his brains.
That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book”

Here my whole theory was proved wrong because the author explicitly separates himself from Billy. There is no way Billy can be a representation of Vonnegut’s trauma because he is completely different, on the other hand there is still the previous moment in which Vonnegut knows exactly what Billy thinks.

Putting it all together, I would have to admit that I still haven’t got a clue who Billy Pilgrim is. I find him an intriguing character nonetheless, and I really can’t wait to find out where he comes form, and if he’s real.