I was looking at the New York Times this weekend when I came across an article that talked about the history of the progress bar, that loading bar which features on a lot of games and when you are trying to move a lot of large files around your computer. The article featured a couple studies where people preferred to watch a loading bar that moved independently of any work that was actually done over no loading bar. That is to say they preferred to intentionally lie to themselves than to know what the actual loading bar showed. The author of the article postulated that maybe people would like to see an idealized version of a situation rather than to seeing the reality, which is what Barton was doing her whole time on the island. I believe that she was alone on the island, but was not in any hardship at all. But when she was rescued, she couldn't just state that she was marooned on an island and enjoyed life for a few years, so she built this story around herself, which she is trying to accept and sell as the truth.
That's a very interesting study, and of course very pertinent to this class! Especially in relation to Cat's Cradle and Bokononism, regarding how religion blinds the San Lorenzans from their conditions of poverty. Obviously this is not as extreme of an example as Bokononism but it still shows how we as humans lie to ourselves in everyday life.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a really great connection you made to the novels we have been reading! I also thought it was fascinating how you said you think Susan was enjoying her time on the island but had to create a story of hardship in order to make hers a story worth listening to. I have never thought about it that way. I thought, perhaps, that Susan always wants what she doesn't have. She would rather live dreaming of where she isn't than actually face what her life is in the present. She wants to get off the island desperately when she is on it, and then when she returns to civilization, she wants nothing more than to be back on the island. She can't ever seem to accept her true self and her true, present story.
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