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立 政 治 大 學
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differences and perceptions. Although Rose is irritated by the Doctor’s inability to save Jacob’s wife, Lene, who is going to “terminate” soon, she realizes that it is better to accept the unavoidable (Only Human 179 & 219). When Rose first meets Quilley who refuses to use a control pack, she finds his stares irritating and impolite.
Gradually, Rose feels rather relaxed because he is the only one who has a natural reaction in Osterberg. “Normally she would have found the stare off-putting, but in this place the naturalness of the reaction was a relief” (Only Human 65). Through examining these records and narrations, we can have a better understanding of different people’s perceptions toward the world. The diversity of these narrations are presented “visually” like TV channels when readers flip through pages.
Diverse Tribes
As mentioned in the previous chapter, human beings can gain access to
information within seconds and travel to anywhere within days. Time and space are so compressed that we have to face vast information which can result in information overload. In an interview, Caroline Webb discusses information overload and says:
“[I]t’s the imbalance between the information that people feel they should absorb versus what they can absorb. And of course human progress has been marked by advances in technology that make information more available that give people a sense that they should be absorbing more of that information, which leads to the sense of overload” (Webb). The flowing information may cause changes in our lives and it alters our perceptions when we participate in the world. “We experience the world through our senses, act within the world through our voices and movements”
(Herzfeld 119). Much of what we see and feel might be the factors which shape our perceptions. Gareth Roberts uses the image of flipping through TV channels and viewing monitors to show the flow of information and the diversity of human
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activities. In Das’s first journal, when he flicks through the TV channels, he is stunned by the variety of different “tribes” which show on the television (Only Human 73). He does not expect to see so many unfamiliar activities outside hunting and
spear-making. “There are tribes that sing and chant, tribes that play games with many different kinds of ball and tribes that fight” (Only Human 74). He thinks that
“[t]elevision is a machine that shows pictures of what all the different human tribes are doing” (Only Human 73).
Apart from gaining access to information in a short time, transportation makes our world more convenient and makes human activities more effortless. Cars and planes draw Das’s attention when he first arrives in modern Bromley. He calls vehicles “fast walking-things” (Only Human 39). After Das finds out that there are more places outside Bromley, he asks Jack if he can fly in an airplane. Therefore, Jack takes Das to New York and shows him forests and lands which appear outside the plane window. Das uses his experience from watching TVs to examine the places he has visited. To his surprises, there are so many differences that exist in this world. For example, the Americans have cars, money and restaurants that differ from those in Bromley. On his journey, Das enjoys the abundant diversity that he never had the chance to experience before (Only Human 95-97).
Similar representations of co-existing channels are also shown in the control center in Osterberg. The engineers install hidden cameras on the ground in order to observe both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens without disturbing them. In the control center, the observers are gathered in front of “a bank of black-and-white television screens” to collect information (Only Human 82). Their screens present every detailed activity simultaneously of Neanderthals in the forest and Homo sapiens around the cave. After visiting both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens tribes, Rose finds out that the life styles and activities in both tribes seem similar. However, the Homo sapiens
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form a larger group and they are more socially active and efficient at making things than the Neanderthals (Only Human 109 & 130). The seeming differences are minimized when there are interventions and interactions between various tribes. For example, Rose is regarded as a trader from the other tribe when she is “rescued” by the human tribe. The wise woman of the tribe explains: “River People, you only come down here when you’ve got something to trade for our flint” (Only Human 131). In order to gain their trust, Rose decides to help them to manicure their nails and instructs them to form a queue (Only Human 131).
At the end of the story, these people from different times and spaces are forced to form a new tribe because they have to start a new life after Chantal commits genocide toward humans. The survivors of Osterbergers, Neanderthals, Homo sapiens, and even the last Hy-Bractor gather together by a fire and they finally have mutual
understanding despite the differences (different appearances, perceptions, cultures and body functions). Joining the new world, Das gets married in modern Bromley and is given a full name—Das Dimitru (Only Human 220-222). Das learns and progresses by absorbing information from his surroundings. Intervention or interaction are inevitable because few people can exclude themselves from the group or the society forever. During the interaction, the diversities found in humans are actually flowing from one person to another. In other words, information and knowledge can never be fixed when there is an exchanging process around us.
The technique of shifting narration, voice, time and place is like flipping through different channels which show the abundant variety of human activities. By
introducing TVs to Das, Jack hopes that Das can gain knowledge about this world and be more socialized (Only Human 76). Gareth Roberts presents a world that is full of voices and perspectives. Every encounter can result in various changes that keep affecting others in different ways. Through constant interaction, our perceptions and
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立 政 治 大 學
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knowledge can blend with each other. In the next section, we will discuss the blending process of different cultures and how identities flow in the story. Different identities can shape who we are and what we value as human beings, that is, human nature.