Interview with The Giver about Jonas:
Interviewer: Hello the Giver! Nice to meet you and that you found some time to talk with me, I’m very delighted about this.
The Giver: Yes, nice to meet you, too. I’m interested in this conversation and I hope I won’t get too tired.
Interviewer: Oh, that’s a good introduction for what I want to talk about with you. You said now, you’re tired. I guess that’s because you’re very old now, isn’t it?
The Giver: Yeah, that’s in some point right, too. But that’s not the only and main reason for it. I did my work such a long time and it made me weary. When Jonas and I personally met the first time, I told him, too, that I look as if I should be scheduled for release very soon. But there’s enough time left to live.
Interviewer: That sounds well. So… you already mentioned your student, your successor in your talk, Jonas. All members in the community including me, of course, respect Jonas very much since now. But please tell me, how does it work, the training with him?
The Giver: So, you know that I can’t tell you exactly something about what we do and how my work with him is going on, that would be against the rules. But so far, I can say that he’s doing very well, until now. We had a good start and although we had only two trainings, he became more self-confident about the thing with the pain.
Interviewer: Seems like a good characteristic for a new Receiver, whatever this really means, but I guess Jonas does already know this. I can’t imagine quite well, whether this conferment (Übertragung) has an effect to you for example or the other members. Could you please tell me something about this?
The Giver: Yes, I can say that there won’t be a change for the community-members. Everything will remain the same as now. It will only be different for Jonas and me: He’ll learn new things and I will lose these. I guess that this sounds strange to you but I can't go into more detail.
Interviewer: I know, it’s forbidden. So I still have another question: There is a difference between this selection of Jonas and the other “normal” assignments, isn’t it?
The Giver: Of course, there’s a difference! Whether it is a big one difference, or it isn’t, is another question. But you can say that every assignment is important. Every assignment has to be supported in every year so we always need students for the assignments. In this case of Jonas assignment there’s the difference because when we work together, he takes step by step a little weight of my loaded shoulders. When someone else of the community is assigned, he or she gets the new information in an appointed space of time. But this time with Jonas, I don’t know how long time it will take me to teach him. We will see and so far how we already get, I’m content with our work.
Interviewer: So I see that you’re getting tired and I guess I asked all my questions. Thank you very much for this interview. I’m very delighted that you made it possible because I know how strict the rules in our community are. Thank you very much.
Caroline,
ReplyDeleteThanks a million for this lovely interview you made from the last chapters you read! I think you mailed it when the Giver continued saying that yhe could not talk about everything because the rules in the community were very strict! The things he told, I could imagine to be published in a newspaper like this... although we need to think about Sameness and selection at this point as well. Once again, it becomes more obvious that a community cannot just work as non-individual as it is wished for by the Elders... an interview with such a special person as the Giver is just another proof for this feeling. Well done!
PS: some things on language:
-interested In
-to DO (not make!) some work
-the work => it
-it sounds strange TO you
-I can't go into more detail