Posted by Ritch on January 5, 2003, at 14:03:58
In reply to Re: Mrs. Frisby, posted by Dinah on January 4, 2003, at 19:06:06
> Oh, and education too. It wasn't until the rats learned to read that they decided to do better than their former rat existence of living off of others. Then they decided to form a rat utopia of hard work and communal living.
>
> And then the few rats who decided not to renounce their old way of life were turned into an object lesson of sorts.
>
> Were there any sequels? Did rat utopia work out as well as expected? If so, then I suppose our brains aren't as similar to rats as the scientists of NIMH had supposed.
Dinah, I finished the book a couple of hours ago. The most interesting philosphical idea in the book had to do with the concept of "stealing". They didn't want to live off others like parasites anymore. There was also ideas of environmentalism alluded to (why waste stuff when it isn't really making us any happier?). Another interesting idea was life becoming "too easy" and "pointless". The rats started to have a similar existential crisis that modern humans go through! They also started going through all the problems associated with concepts of "property", "power", and dealing with threats. They started becoming *political*. --Mitch
poster:Ritch
thread:783
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20020616/msgs/798.html