Saturday, March 5, 2011

In chapter 14 of The Chrysalids, why do Sealanders feel sorry for people without telepathy?

If you look carefully at Chapter 14 you will see how the lady from Sealand describes those without telepathy. Note how she paints them as "ingenious half-humans, little better than savages". She also says, "They could, at their best, be near-sublime animals, but not more." She clearly concludes that they (we) are an "inadequate species". Therefore it appears that the Sealanders seem to suffer from an amazing cultural arrogance - a feeling that is shared by David, for after this diatribe he thinks:



It occurred to me again that these Sealanders had no little opinion of themselves.



However, it is clear that the telepathy brings huge benefits to humans as a species, and we have only to look at the description of humans before to see how:



...all living shut off from one another, with only clumsy words to link them. Often they were shut off still more by different languages, and different beliefs. Some of them could think individually, but they had to remain individuals. Emotions they could sometimes share, but they could not think collectively.



The comparison with the new form of humanity does appear much better, with co-operative consensus easily achieved.

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