December 13, 2016 - 15:37
Communication: Vaster than balance, and more complicated
Communication is vital for the survival of all life, whether it be humans communicating with each other or other life forms communicating with their natural environment. It is more than just a tool facilitated by a concept of society; it is a vital facet of life which reflects the intricacy of life itself. It is a notion that triumphs even the universally accepted idea of balance. LeGuin approaches the idea of communication in an unorthodox method in “Vaster than Empires, and More Slow.” Through her characters, LeGuin introduces the idea of communication as a representation of the complexities associated with the relationship between the human capability to understand others and the human aptitude at accepting the unknown.
With regards to the complexity of communication, it is evident that communication can override even the universally accepted solution of balance. A balance maintains stability: this idea is one that is propagated throughout the world and is, mistakenly, accepted as the ultimate truth. The notion that a balance is the collective solution to every challenge in life degrades the complexity of life itself. By looking at complex concepts, such as communication, one can see how balance can fail to be a perfect solution. LeGuin’s story explores two subsections of communication: understanding and acceptance, and demonstrates that finding a supposed ‘balance’ between the extremes of either subset leads to an imbalance in the other. LeGuin does this through three similar, yet drastically different characters: Eskwana, Osden, and World 4470. Through these characters LeGuin demonstrates how the complexities of human communication extend beyond the simple solution of a balance.
The character of Eskwana demonstrates the complexity that lies in the human ability to accept something foreign so long as it is within a realm of understanding. Eskwana is a character that is described to be on the spectrum of autism. In the story’s reality, this is explained by his low-level empath abilities and his resulting sensitivity to the actions of others. However, despite this handicap, Eskwana is still able to interact and communicate with the others. This is due to multiple factors, including how Eskwana’s condition is understandable to the others as shown by when Tomiko described him as having “vulnerability” (LeGuin 157). This allows the others to properly adjust the way they interact with Eskwana in order to be able to properly communicate with him. In addition, Eskwana’s defensive mechanisms include becoming submissive and falling asleep in order to isolate himself from the negative emotions. This non-intrusive defense allows the others to accept this mechanism as necessary and at very least ignorable. In all, Eskwana’s character introduces a form of communication in which the characters’ could understand, and because they could alter their interactions to co-exist with Eskwana they could also accept the differences between his form communication and their own.
In contrast to the very humanoid and relatable character of Eskwana, World 4470 exists as a sentient life-force that functions in a way that human and humanoid species can never even begin to understand. This foreignness surprisingly gains a level of acceptableness in the minds of the characters. This is seemingly strange due to the human nature to shy away and shun what they cannot understand. However, the completely alien existence of World 4470 is so beyond the other characters’ capability to understand that it makes it impossible for the characters to actually interact with the planet. The planet’s action of absorbing the foreign entity of emotion for the first time and propagating it through the characters was its attempt at what humans may consider communication. However, this idea of communication was so vastly different from the characters’ understanding of what communication was that it caused them to flee as a result. The characters’ understood that the planet’s means of communication was outside of their capabilities to comprehend, accepted this as a fact, and then left. Therefore, while the method of communication that the planet used was entirely beyond the characters’ capabilities to understand they were still able to accept this incomprehensible form of communication because of just how foreign it was.
These two characters demonstrate two extreme sides associated with the subsets of communication: understanding and acceptance. They are especially attributed with the understanding aspect of communication as Eskwana represents the kind of communication that others can understand while World 4470 represents the kind of communication that others can never begin to understand. Despite the contrasting natures of these two characters in terms of the ability for others to understand their forms of communication, it is clear that both characters represent a form of communication that can be accepted by others. However, when the notion of balance is introduced to these two characters, the stability of communication is actually compromised. This is demonstrated by Osden, the character that represents the supposed ‘balance’ between Eskwana and World 4470’s types of communication. Osden’s character finds the ‘balance’ between understandability and incomprehensibility, which is to say, is not ‘balanced’ at all. Osden is an empath, who despite being “cured” (LeGuin 150) of his autism still retains defensive measures that interfere with his interactions with others. His empathy can be understood by the other characters because they were both informed of it before the mission and because there is a quasi-science behind it. However the extent in which Osden’s empathy traverses their own beliefs of communication causes them to deny its complexity and its existence. In addition, Osden’s form of communication includes his odd defense mechanism that reflects negative emotions of others, resulting in a positive feedback loop of negativity. This accumulates to form a denial of things that can be conceptually understood, but not easily dealt with in reality. Therefore, Osden represents an odd midpoint between Eskwana and World 4470’s representations of communication for he represents the type of communication which can be understood conceptually but can not be accepted in reality.
Communication is a concept so vast that it essentially becomes an entity in itself; an entity that juggles complexities so multifaceted that it cannot be subjugated to the same rules as other singular concepts. Balance, the universally accepted ‘perfect solution’ is such a concept that is overwhelmed by communication. LeGuin clearly describes this divergence through Osden, Eskwana and World 4470. Osden’s communication is undoubtedly a balance between the two extremes of Eskwana and World 4470’s communications, especially in terms of the aspect of understanding. However, it is clear that Osden’s communication is the least functional of the three forms of communications. Communication is already a complicated harmonization of multiple different facets, including the complex philosophies understanding and acceptance. In this reality, there is no room to idealize singular concepts such as balance as the overarching solution to a find a ‘perfect form of communication.’ This is a concept that LeGuin seems to pursue in her representations of her characters. It is due to this that LeGuin’s story demonstrates the complexity of human communication, especially in the subsets of human understanding and human acceptance, and the need for humans to transcend the rudimentary elements of conceptual analysis to truly begin to understand the enigma that is human behavior and interaction.